How does recruiting work in college football

Unofficial visits are taking place. Coaches are going out on Fridays trying to see kids in live action. Phone calls are being made. Kids have their weekends booked solid as their phones ring off the hook with coaches trying to make contacts. It is a crazy time, all while football season is going on at both the high school and collegiate levels. And that brings us to the home stretch: the post-bowl period where players, committed or undecided, are seeing coaches put on the full-court press to get them in the boat for National Signing Day.

This is where closers come into play. When the kid is on campus, that means full attention from the head man. Seats side-by-side at the basketball game. A personalized tour and office meeting to talk about how the athlete fits with the program. Coaches know how to pour it on from an attention standpoint, and during the visit, they make you feel like you are their No.

When the coaches make their in-home visits, the rhetoric is similar. Except this time, that coach is looking to prove to the athlete and their family, coaches and friends that he can do more for the player than anyone else. For some kids, that is about getting to the NFL.

For others, it is about getting out of the situation they are in and moving into a better position. Some kids and their families need to hear about education. Others want to hear about playing time. Much like sales, recruiting is about hot buttons. Coaches work those hot buttons, find the decision-makers and lean on them until the choice is made.

You win some; you lose some. The goal is to win more of those than you lose. Coaches who win most of them are the guys we label good recruiters. Kids can break things up by taking the wrong visit, trying to play both sides against the middle or not showing enough interest.

Coaches can lose kids by saying the wrong thing to a mom or simply not telling the kid what he needs to hear. It goes unmentioned, but current players can lose potential student-athletes because of official visits. Poor pairings result in a bad experience for all the parties involved, and while the goal is to get talent, no one wants to play with kids they do not like during the visit.

Coaches must understand who the recruit truly is and who on his roster would fit with that youngster's personality. Just as the methods for assigning star ratings differ, what they signify will be slightly different from platform-to-platform, as well.

These star ratings are meant to signify how a recruit is expected to impact a D1 football team. The star ratings have a few specific purposes: They provide the general public with an easy way to see who the top recruits are so they can track their recruiting journeys. The ratings also help college coaches find athletes who are the right caliber for their program. Plenty of three-star, two-star and no-star athletes have had successful college—and professional—careers. If you get a ranking, use it as a baseline to help you target the right programs.

The new rule, which goes into effect starting with the football season, means players will no longer lose their redshirt status for taking as little as one snap during a game. Since over half of D1 football players redshirt their freshman year, this rule change means college coaches will adapt their recruiting tactics by seeking to attract recruits with the promise of meaningful playing time and development during the first year of their college career. As you begin to communicate with college coaches, ask about playing opportunities for redshirt freshmen.

The football recruiting process starts with the recruit, their family and the current coach. Athletes and parents should sit down and go through the following questions, answering as honestly as possible:. One of the best football recruiting tips that we can give: do your research and cast a wide net when looking at schools! Football recruiting tip : Always include a mix of division levels in your target list. You might be surprised which division level is right for you, and it maximizes your opportunity to get a college football scholarship.

Check out this list of questions to ask yourself to help you find your best college match. Not only do the high school and college seasons overlap, but high school players only compete in one game a week, providing a very small window for college coaches to see them play in person.

Here are a few general tips to get started:. The highlight video is a great way for athletes to get their foot in the door with a coach.

If the coach is interested after viewing the highlight video, they will either arrange a time to watch the athlete play in person, or they will request full game footage.

Learn what skills recruits need to show off in their recruiting video for their position. Athletes should keep their high school coaches in the loop throughout their recruiting process! High school football coaches can facilitate an introduction between their athletes and college coaches. In fact, many high school coaches already have relationships with college football coaches.

If Elder were a relationship therapist, he would recommend more relationships. Those are the prospects, Elder says, who get cold feet — though there are exceptions.

Legacies and local players who grew up Volunteer fans are always welcome. It varies case-by-case; when Tennessee makes the decision whether to accept an underclassman commitment, they properly vet the committing party beforehand.

For as much as Nebraska has to offer, with its tradition and unrivaled state support, there are recruiting stigmas the Cornhuskers must face. The recruiting pool in the state is shallow at best. Once prospects set foot on campus officially, the program sells itself. But, for Nebraska, the official visit tends to be more of a culmination of the recruiting process. And what precedes it. With the explosion of combines, camps and websites like HUDL, which allow prospects to upload their own highlights, college coaches agree: As it concerns top prospects, the senior season is obsolete.

Recruiting works at hyper-speed in Coaches race to get to a prospect first simply to call dibs. The prevalence of unofficial visits and online scouting websites has sped up the cycle. As always, there are exceptions. We try to slow down just a little bit. By definition, the dead period in college football recruiting keeps a coach from making any evaluations or basic in-person contact with a prospect. Telephone calls are allowed. The next dead period in the calendar, for example, goes from June 30 to July When asked about the existence of a dead period, however, more than one college coach laughed.

You follow the rules, of course, but make no mistake: For a good recruiter, dead period does not mean days off. On Christmas Day, there are Merry Christmas texts to be sent.

This is why every Saturday, when you turn on the TV or radio, you hear game announcers talking about some walk-on player who clawed his way up to a starting position. Or why you hear about the 4 or 5-star recruit who has washed out and left campus or was kicked off the team. There is not a lot an athlete can do about his physical body measurements like height or hand size except to hope that he grows.

But he can always improve his agility, speed and explosiveness. That's a throwback concept from yesteryear. Today's game of high octane spread offenses and highly proficient aerial attacks demands speed, quickness and explosiveness at every position! Non-college affiliated national camps : NIKE holds several camps throughout the year where high school athletes can get timed and measured in all of the above events.

Some of the Nike camps are open to everyone while others are by invitation only. Attending one is a good way to start promoting your abilities on the national stage. But do not attend if you are not prepared to perform at your highest level.

College Camps : I highly recommended that every athlete attend at least one college camp, where they also measure your skill sets and introduce you to some of their offense and defense philosophies. Just know that t hey will be checking out everything you do from the way you walk to the way you interact with the staff and other competitors.

And like the non-college affiliate camps, do not attend if you are not prepared to perform at your highest level. Recruiting services like Rivals, MaxPreps and others start ranking high school prospects the moment they step onto the field in a varsity game.

In fact, most all of the 4-star and 5-star players in a given class have already been identified by the end of their sophomore football season in high school.