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RECRUITING CORNER
The college football recruiting process has drastically changed since I was a high school football recruit back in 1990. The most dramatic change is how early the entire process begins for a recruit. Top prospects are now offered scholarships in their junior year and many get verbal offers as sophomores! I was a pretty highly-recruited football prospect playing high school football in New Jersey and I was offered just one scholarship before my senior year, which was very rare back at the time. I am so proud of it, I’ve hung on to the letter to this day. Nowadays, some college programs receive verbal commitments from as many as 15-20 prospects before their senior years even begin.
We can debate whether the changes are good or bad, but like it or not, this is the new reality of college football recruiting. Most importantly, a prospect and his parents need to be aware of the process and prepare for it as best they can. Today’s process includes high school football combines (another thing that didn't exist years ago...nor did the Internet...okay, I’m dating myself) and summer camps. Today, prospects go to as many as 5 different camps in order to gain exposure, improve and test their skills and network with other players and coaches. Back in my day, I went to one camp, which was at the local college 20 minutes away. Camps just weren’t that big of a deal back then. You got to see a big college campus, nice facilities and bang out a few reps in a huge weight room. You performed pretty much the same drills you did in high school, learned a few new techniques to work on at home, talked some trash to players from competing high schools and found out that other football players make lousy roommates and often snore heavily.
However, in today’s recruiting environment, a prospect needs to accept the realities of the process, prepare and get organized early. When deciding on which camps to attend, an athlete should consider his motivation for attending the camp. This will help guide his behavior throughout the camp experience. For example, does the prospect want to impress the coaches there and try and land a scholarship? Is that even possible or realistic? Does the prospect just want to learn new techniques and hone some skills? Is the college hosting the camp one that is actively recruiting the prospect or even expressed a mild interest with maybe a few form letters or a camp brochure?
Successfully navigating the recruiting process is about maximizing one's time and effort to obtain optimal results and finding the right program. Despite advancements in technology and a growing level of sophistication around the process, college football recruiting remains an inexact science. Coaches and scouts are subjective. Judgments may be wrong and promising players might fall through the cracks for many different reasons (geography, playing for a small or losing team, the coach has never had a Division 1 prospect on the team or is not up to speed on the drastic changes in the recruiting process). I learned this through my own personal experience as a recruit and college football player and, more recently, in assisting college prospects through the process. One player I helped last year provides a good example of how inefficient the recruiting process can be.
This prospect wasn't on anyone's recruiting radar; not on any internet recruiting sites. In addition, he was an undersized Defensive End as a junior whose true position was Inside Linebacker. He just completed a great senior season, playing Inside Linebacker. His father reached out to me very late in the recruiting process. It was January to be exact with signing day only a month away. This prospect had received a few 1-AA scholarship offers, but wanted a shot at 1-A. After meeting him and reviewing a lot of his game tapes, I was convinced that he deserved that shot. Getting him in front of coaches this late in the game was an uphill battle, but in the end, and I mean the very end, as in signing day itself, this unknown prospect without a single 1-A scholarship offer as of January his senior year, ultimately received several Division 1-A scholarships from good programs and ended up signing with a top 1-A college football program. The school thinks so highly of him, they are already considering playing him as a true freshman.
Beyond just being a good outcome for this prospect, the entire experience highlighted to me how imperfect and inefficient the college football recruiting process can be. Along the way to 1-A scholarship at a top program, many 1-AA schools actually passed on this prospect. Bluntly put, he was not what they were looking for or maybe they thought other recruits were better. Now, the team that this prospect is going to potentially start for in a year or so will probably beat the teams that turned him down by a score of 75-0 if a game ever played. The recruiting process is as much about faith, opinion and perception as it is about raw talent and skill. Every school views a player differently.
Although this prospect was not up to speed on the process of college football recruiting, fortunately, it worked out in the end. Had he been more aware of the process and been better prepared, I have no doubt that he would have had 20 different 1-A offers by the close of his senior season. While reaching out to schools for him, I had conversations with many coaches from top programs who said things like, "We really like him and he’s a baller. We would have offered him, but it’s too late. We already have 3 LB's committed" or "Wish we knew about him earlier. He’s welcome to walk on." Clearly, it pays to do your homework about the recruiting process, speak to people who are knowledgeable about it and start early. It's definitely worth it.
Mike Fenske
mjf-collegefootballrecruiting.com
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“Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points.” - Knute Rockne
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