Fresh off a national championship season at Indiana, Director of Player Personnel Mike Ferrara joins the show for his first-ever podcast interview.

Mike's path is the blueprint for breaking into personnel: from selling hats at Tennessee sporting events to working junior days, through Texas A&M and LSU, to helping build a title-winning roster in Bloomington under Coach Curt Cignetti. We go deep on how he did it — and how his department actually runs.

Topics include:

• The "relentless pursuit of innovation" mindset that separates good staffers from great ones
• Why empowering student interns builds championship departments
• What it's like evaluating alongside Cignetti and his production-over-projection philosophy
• How Indiana splits high school and portal responsibilities across a lean staff
• Weekly stock reports, and setting coaches up to win on the road.

Timestamps:

• (0:00) — Welcome + a championship two-year run at Indiana
• (1:34) — Mike's journey: selling hats at Tennessee → junior days with Bob Wilton → breaking into the office → A&M → LSU → Indiana
• (15:00) — The "relentless pursuit of innovation": self-taught Excel/tech skills, finding where you add value, why great students make great departments
• (29:30) — Paying it forward: developing interns who carry the process to new buildings
• (31:00) — Working under Coach Cignetti: production over projection, the Saban recruiting-coordinator roots, learning how a head coach watches tape
• (44:15) — Inside Indiana's personnel structure: HS vs. portal split, stock reports, advance work before the portal opens, and setting up coaches to recruit at full speed
• (55:00) — The NFL-college gap in roster management
• (56:00) — The most important question: where do you take the scouting staff for margaritas? 🌮

Up Close in Personnel is the definitive front office playbook for college football. Send mailbag questions to UpCloseInPersonnelPodcast@gmail.com & thanks for listening to the show!