Posts Tagged football recruit
Football Recruiting Updates – Staying in Contact With College Coaches
If you are trying to get recruited to play college football, you need to stay in contact with college coaches. Once initial contact has been made, you need to send football recruiting updates to the coaches who have shown some interest in having you join their program.
Once coaches start communicating with you, you need to keep the communication lines open by sending them football recruiting updates. When they write or call you, they will usually ask you to take some type of action. They may ask you for game footage, for you to fill out a questionnaire and return it, or they may ask you for photos, etc. I hate to sound too obvious here, but whatever they ask you to do, do it right away!
Once you go through this initial contact, you may not hear from them for a while, especially if you are a freshman, sophomore, or junior. To make sure you stay on their radar screen and they don’t forget about you, make sure you send them updates every so often.
When To Send Updates And What To Send
I suggest sending your football recruiting updates before the season begins, mid-season, and at the end of your high school season. You can also give them an update on your summer team status after the summer season ends. Just make sure you stay in contact.
On these updates, you want to send them key statistics, your outstanding accomplishments, or any newspaper articles written about you. Remember, you have to be your own marketer and promote, unless you are blessed with a coach who takes care of this process for you.
Keep Your Updates Brief
Keep your football recruiting updates to one page. Just like with your cover letter and athletic resume, you want to keep it short and to the point. If your updates get too long and detailed, they will most likely end up sitting on the desk of the coach and never being read. The payoff for sending these updates is tremendous. In fact, it just may put you in a position to earn an athletic scholarship!
Tags: athletic scholarship, coaches, college, college coaches, college football, football, football recruit, football recruiting, high school, play college football, recruited, recruiting, scholarshipRelated posts
College Football Recruiting – Look Out SEC – Alabama Rates No 1 As Saban Prepares to Go to War
If you think football in the Southeastern Conference is just a game that generates a ton of money for the schools and the NCAA that regulates it in a highly publicized environment, you do not understand what success is about in the SEC.
SEC games are not battles between teams, they are outright warfare with a fight to the last man standing won by heavy artillery (talent). That is why Wednesday’s (2-6-08) first day of signing letters of intent by high school seniors was so significant. According to several analysts, Nick Saban and Alabama ranked No. 1 with the nation’s best class of talent.
Among Rivals.com Top 50 prospects, Alabama picked up No. 4 Julio Jones, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound wide receiver from Foley (AL); No. 28 B. J. Scott, a 6-foot, 195-pound wide receiver-super athlete from Vigor (AL); No. 30 Tyler Love, a 6-foot-7, 290-pound offensive lineman from Mountain Brook (AL); No. 34 Jerrell Harris, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound linebacker from Gadsden (AL); and No. 35 Alonzo Lawrence, a 6-foot-1, 190 pound defensive back from George County (MS).
Add to that distinguished list No. 55 Mark Barron, a 6-foot-2, 202-pound athlete from Mobile (AL) and No. 60 Barrett Jones, a 6-foot-5, 271-pound offensive lineman from Memphis (TN), and no school in America had 7 of the Top 60 Rival.com prospects except Alabama.
Southern Cal had 6 in the Top 60, Ohio State had 5 and Notre Dame had 5. Notre Dame’s recuiting class was rated No. 2 by Rivals.com, Ohio State’s No. 8 and Southern California’s No. 10.
Nick Saban, the highest paid college coach at about $4 million a year, earned his pay. Saban was able to sign 7 of the top 11 prospects in Alabama. Auburn did not have a single recruit among Rivals.com Top 100 prospects; the Tigers came up sucking pond water.
Look for Saban and the Crimson Tide to start a concerted march to a higher place as a current Division 1A powerhouse and national title contender. Should the Top 60 picks stay injury free and reach their potential on the college turf, they will most certainly be playing in the NFL on Sundays.
If you are not stoked about Alabama football you need to live in another state.
Three other schools catch my personal attention because I have ties to Washington, Arizona State and Michigan State.
Ty Willingham’s Washington Huskies had the highest Rivals.com pick among these 3 teams with No. 57 Kavario Middleton, a 6-foot-6, 250-pound tight end from Lakewood (WA). Middleton was joined by his teammate, Jermaine Kearse, a 6-foot-2, 175 pound wide receiver.
Washington also signed Everrette Thompson, a 6-foot-6, 255-pound defensive end from Burien (WA); Alameda Ta’amu, a 6-foot-4, 330-pound (yes, 330 pounds!) offensive guard from Seattle; Allen Carroll, a 6-foot-3, 290-pound offensive guard from Oakland (CA); Chris Polk, a 5-foot-11, 195-pound running back with 4.5 speed from Redlands (CA); and Jordan Polk, 5-foot-10, 170-pound wide receiver with 4.46 speed from Portland (OR).
Washington’s catch is being called the best recruiting class since Reggie Williams and Charles Frederick in 2001.
The Huskies also picked up some speed with linebacker Kurt Mangum (4.59), cornerbacks Adam Long (4.45), Anthony Gobern (4.4) and Justin Glenn (4.5), safety Johri Fogerson (4.55), and running backs Demitrius Bronson (4.5) and David Freeman (4.4). Let me be the first to dub Kurt Magnum as Magnum P.I. (Personal Intimidator) and Demitrius Bronson as Death Wish Bronson.
All of this comes as a surprise as Ty Willingham, unlike Nick Saban, does not have a rep as a recruiter. The fact that redstart freshman quarterback Jake Locker started last year and impressed almost everyone with his agility, speed and savvy probably did not hurt a lick.
Scout.com rated Washington’s recruiting class as the 14th best among the NCAA’s 119 Division 1A schools. Look for the Huskies to finally win more games than they lose next year. If they do not, Willingham may be looking for another job.
Scout.com rated Dennis Erickson and his Arizona State Sun Devils class as the 17th best nationally. Among Erickson’s top prospects was Jack Elway, none other than the son of NFL Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway.
Jack Elway has his father’s arm but apparently not his speed. Nonetheless, he comes from an excellent gene pool. In addition to his dad, his mother Janet was an outstanding college athlete as a swimmer for Stanford University.
Here are two facts you may not know about John Elway. 1) He may have played football at Stanford University but he was born and raised in Port Angeles (WA). 2) He had 47 career game-winning or game-tying drives in the 4th quarter, an NFL record.
Mark Dantonio and his Michigan State Spartans (my alma mater, Class of 1966) did not fare as well as Washington or Arizona State. Other than any local coverage in Michigan and a little among Big Ten teams, the Spartans received zero national attention.
That tells me they ended up with the short end of stick, and that is indeed bad news.
Dantonio knows that Jim Tressel and his Ohio State Buckeyes are only going to get better; Dantonio was the defensive coordinator for Ohio State’s undefeated (14-0) national championship team in 2002. Tressel also won 4 Division 1AA national championships at Youngstown State, and his won-loss record as head coach at Ohio State is a stunning 83% (73-15).
If Ohio State is not enough competition for Michigan State, Michigan will cause the Spartans headaches as well since Rich Rodriguez left West Virginia to coach the Wolverines next year.
Michigan has won more games than any other team in college football history, and now along comes Rodriguez, who spent 7 seasons at West Virginia compiling a 60-26 record (69%) with 4 Big East titles.
Rodriguez, 1 of only 2 Hispanic head coaches in Division IA football, went 32-5 (86%) his last 3 years at West Virginia. Rodriguez is great for Michigan; for Michigan State he is two legs and bad news. The Spartans may get the snot kicked out of them by Michigan for the next 5 years.
I am praying that Dantonio can find a couple of nuggets among the scrap heap of players that are left over after all of the good programs have used up their scholarship allotments. The Spartans need talent and speed immediately, they do not have nearly enough at the moment.
The justified enthusiasm among Crimson Tide fans at Alabama does need to be tempered by the knowledge that recruiting is not an exact science. While we know that the sun will come up tomorrow, we do not know how these recruits will play out.
What we do know is that coaching can make average players better; Rich Rodriguez is an example. His recent West Virginia recruiting classes were rated mid-30s to mid-50s yet he led the Mountaineers to 2 BCS bowl wins in the last 3 seasons, and he came within 1 win of playing for last year’s national title.
We also know that a position player like a quarterback, who touches the ball on every play, can make a team much better. An example this year was Todd Reesing of Kansas who led the Jayhawks to a 12-1 record and an Orange Bowl victory. Reesing was rated a 2-star to 3-star player by the rating services (5 stars is best) yet he became a 5-star player when given the opportunity to do so.
Since many of these kids will become redshirts (meaning they will not play their freshman year) and become redshirt freshman (like Jake Locker of Washington) when they start playing their sophomore year. It may take all of 5 years to determine who among the many players just signed will become tomorrow’s stars and NFL draftees.
In the meantime, I will be praying for Mark Dantonio and my Michigan State Spartans. I view myself as an important intercessor as the Spartans have continued to disappoint in recent years. Wherever they have been I do not want to go.
Tags: bcs bowl, coaches, college, college football, college football history, college football recruit, college football recruiting, football, football history, football recruit, football recruiting, high school, quarterback, recruiting, recruits, rivals, scholarship, universityRelated posts
College Football Scholarships and How to Receive One
Most high school athletes dream of being offered college football scholarships.
The truth of the matter is that most will not, but don’t let that stop you from doing your share when trying to receive one. College football scholarships are not just for the best high school players. It’s just too few of those players out there and available to go around.
During college football recruiting, college scouts are also looking for players that are good, but has the potential to be great, once in their system. My brother and I were Blue Chip Athletes coming out of high school so we know what it takes to go through the college football recruiting process, and receive football scholarships. Believe me, it is a process.
Do you have what it takes to play college football? Consider the following…
- Passion. Do you eat, drink and live for football? You better, if you want to survive at a Division I school.
- Ability. If your ability level is pretty high, talent and skill drills will be force feed to you. You must have the ability to quickly learn offensive or defensive (depending on your position) schemes and more importantly, have the will to perform every day.
- Mindset. College for a student athlete is a grind, but your mindset will become your greatest competitive advantage if it’s well trained. You must be able to balance your social life, team mates, living arrangements, intense football schedule and your work. Thinking of work;
- Grades. Be sure you know the NCAA Eligibility requirements for freshman student athlete for the school you are looking to attend. You will be required to attend classes’ everyday and maintain at least a good enough GPA too remain eligible for the year, every year. Many schools have discipline rules in place just in case your grades become an issue.
- Exposure. When college football recruiting starts, will you be ready to market yourself? With thousands of high school seniors seeking college football scholarships, it’s not too rare that some athletes that have the ability to play Division I end up not receiving any Division I football scholarships.
Each college has a limited amount of football scholarships available and a limited amount of time to give them out. They can not possibly know about or recruit every athlete in the country.
Therefore, sometimes, you must make first contact. We tell high school football players all the time that, college coaches must know who you are before they can recruit you. We were fortunate enough coming out of high school to not have too worry about exposure. We played in a big time conference and against some of the best players in the state of Missouri.
But what really mattered was our commitment towards achieving our goals. How committed are you to playing college football on a full-ride football scholarship? These are just a few tips you need to consider but the most important thing is to set a goal and to do everything in your power to achieve it.
During college football recruiting, don’t expect scouts to come and knock on your door; (unless you are ‘blue chip’) be prepared to take some action. When talking with college scouts, be sure you have a list of questions that you would like to have answered.
Don’t allow the scout to ask all the questions. Remember, you want to be sure the schools you are seriously considering is a good fit for you.
Some questions you might consider asking are;
- How often during the week is tutoring available and is it mandatory for all student athletes?
- What is the graduation rate of your athletes?
- When is an athlete allowed to live off campus?
- How do I fit into your plans for the up coming season?
- How many players at my position are you currently recruiting?
- How many verbal commitments have you received from players at my positions?
- Are you planning to be the head coach for the next four years?
- How many college football scholarships do you have left to offer?
Questions like these give you great insight to the expectations on student athletes off the field, rules and regulations and the coaches’ plan. College football scholarships are easier to receive if you dominate on every single play.
Tags: coaches, college, college coaches, college football, college football recruit, college football recruiting, college football scholarship, college football scholarships, college scout, football, football player, football players, football recruit, football recruiting, football schedule, football scholarship, football scholarships, high school, high school football, high school football players, play college football, recruiting, scholarship, scholarshipsRelated posts