Scouts Scour Country In Search Of Hidden Stars
By Jerry DiPaola

Bob Lane tours the country, but he's not a bad-boy rock star or a politician.

In fact, his demeanor is exceptionally low key and professional, unlike the former. Plus, he is forthright and willing to sweat the details, unlike the latter.

Lane is a Steelers' scout, whose territory includes the region west of the Mississippi River. He lives in Bend, OR, when he's not staying at the Hilton during his time in Pittsburgh.

If you're short some frequent flier miles, call Bob. He has plenty. He's on college campuses as much as some students. He estimates he visits 55 schools a year.

In previous years, before the construction of Heinz Field and its firehose-like revenue streams, Steelers scouts drove to many of their destinations. Now, director of football operations Kevin Colbert has his scouts flying to many more places.

"I'd take off in August and my car wouldn't return until November," Lane said of previous scouting trips. "We drove our own territory. It was hard for me in the west because there is a long range between schools."

Now, scouts fly into one major city, rent a car and visit several schools in the area before returning to the airport for the next trip.

"It's so much more efficient," Lane said. "We get so many more guys covered now, as far as I'm concerned. I don't know how much the cost has risen, but I think we do a much better job of coverage."

NFL and NCAA rules and regulations make it difficult enough. Lane remembers working out several players at the University of Colorado three years ago, but he wasn't permitted to fit in players from neighboring schools. So, after the workout, several scouts piled into their cars and drove to Northern Colorado University, a Division II school about 30 minutes from Boulder, to work out an obscure defensive end.

It was worth the investment of time and gasoline. The player turned out to be Aaron Smith, a fourth-round pick that year and now the Steelers' starting left defensive end. Credit those eight sacks recorded by Smith last season to Lane's persistence and former director of football operations Tom Donahoe's willingness to peek under every rock for a prospect.

Preparing for the draft is a long process that begins the previous May when the Blesto scouting service, to which the Steelers belong, gathers its scouts for a meeting to identify the top players for the upcoming football season.

After that, scouts take vacation when they can, but they report to Steelers training camp at St. Vincent College in Latrobe in July to begin evaluating players on the team. After a month of meetings and video viewings, the scouts hit the road for college campuses, watching practices and games, speaking to coaches and writing reports on their laptop computers for the rest of the calendar year.

Lane isn't home much during the season (although the air travel makes it easier to return to the West Coast), but he schedules many of his trips around his wife Dawn's commitments to the U.S. Army reserves. That way, he's gone when she's gone.

After the football season, scouts attend the college all-star games, even the ones that feature Division II players, before coming into Pittsburgh for three weeks before the scouting combine in Indianapolis. (This year, it was held between Feb. 28 and March 4 at the RCA Dome.)

"We do a lot of catch-up stuff," Lane said. "Maybe some guys we haven't seen more than (once) and (players) from a lot of schools where we didn't have double coverage.

"We're just making sure somebody put a grade on him and we want to give him a comparison grade so we can make sure we got everybody covered by more than just one scout. If you have one scout look at a guy, he may or may not hit the guy right. It's so much better if you can have more than one opinion on a guy."

Much of the pre-combine work involves juniors who declared for the draft after the season. Scouts normally don't have time to watch them in games.

"You may hear rumors (about a player coming out)," Lane said, "and if you have time you might take a look at a guy, but you are pretty tight on the schedule so it's tough to do it."

After the combine, Colbert and his staff, including college scouting coordinator Bill Baker, pro scouting coordinator Doug Whaley and their seven scouts, return to Pittsburgh to compare notes.

In the weeks prior to the draft, coaches and scouts visit college campuses to work out those players who chose not to participate in drills at the combine. Meanwhile, mock drafts, sometimes reaching into the third round, are done on a regular, informal basis.

By the middle of April, they're ready to shape the team's future.