How to handle athletic recruiting visits from college coaches in order to be prepared
If you are a sought after recruit, one thing that you must get used to is the fact that you will be getting visits from college coaches very often. These coaches will mostly be coming to your high school but they may also see you in action at one of your games or come to your house for an in home visit.
While a coach will not offer you based on how polite you are, if the staff feels that you are not the type of person they want in their program, they really will move on. Who is going to offer an athlete that is disrespectful of their parents? Chances are high that this athlete will do the same thing to their coaches down the road.
Now is is an absolute terrible time to be open with the football recruiting process before Signing Day 2012
With less than a month to go before Signing Day 2012 hits, one thing that I heard more than I expected during late December and early January is about how senior football recruits are still open and don’t have any favorites. This happens for two reasons. The first is the athlete doesn’t really want to announce which schools he is favoring at this point. The second is the athlete is receiving very little interest so if any college coaches get word of this and the fact that he is open, they may start recruiting him.
When an athlete tells me that they are currently open this late in the football recruiting process, it seems that they have not done their homework. They likely haven’t out together a recruiting profile, haven’t marketed themselves, haven’t researched the schools, and haven’t put together a highlight video. And if you try doing that and getting a scholarship, unless you are a Reggie Bush type athlete, good luck.
What a coaching change can do during the athletic recruiting process and how to use that to your advantage
It doesn’t matter what sport it is but a change in coaching will have an overall impact on the recruiting process at that given school. And unless they have already named a coach-in-waiting (which Florida State and Texas have done), then that impact will be something that is negative to the current crop of recruits at the school.
But for recruits who may be borderline athletes at that level, a coaching change may end up being the best thing that can happen to them. A new staff will also give recruits another look to see if they are good enough to play at their program. This is something that can be a huge benefit in the long run for these athletes because the coaches may be willing to take more chances.
I’m a senior football recruit and my scholarship has been pulled. What do I do this late in the recruiting process? Am I screwed?
I hate to bring up an article like this because it may force parents to have nightmares when sleeping but this is something that does unfortunately happen to recruits at all levels. For example, as I mentioned a few weeks back, a linebacker who had committed to South Carolina had his scholarship offered pulled when his position coach changed schools. If you were in his shoes, what would you do other than being extremely mad at the world?
Last recruiting season, a lineman took an official visit to the school he had been committed to for six months. Going into the visit, this recruit assumed that the school would tell him about how they are looking forward to getting him on campus. Instead, they told him there was no scholarship available right away and he would have to grayshirt. How what would you do in either of those situations?
10 things to do if you are a senior in the football recruiting process and have an athletic scholarship offer
If you are a senior in the football recruiting process or other sports for that matter, my hope for you is that you are holding at least one scholarship offer. Obviously this will not be the case for everyone in their final year of high school but having that offer on the table definitely will be a stress reliever knowing that at least part of your college education paid for.
But what should I be doing with that offer? Should I be quietly reading over the paper work again and again as I hope more will come? We have put together a list of ten different things that you should be doing if you are a senior holding a scholarship offer at this point in the athletic recruiting process.
Should I take all five of my athletic official visits? What are the advantages/disadvantages of doing it/not doing it?
One of the toughest questions to answer in the recruiting process is should I take all of my official visits. With the football dead period about to end and with less than a month left until Signing Day 2012, recruited athletes will need to make a decision if they want to end the recruiting process early or take all five of their visits before that decision comes.
What makes the question so unique to every situation is that it really just depends on the recruit. For example, if you are a player that is very sought after and has schools all over the country wanting to sign you, then chances are good that you can decide on Signing Day and they would still take you in a heart beat. The problem with that scenario is that few athletes have that option to wait that long into the process.
The athletic recruiting process is never over you sign your Letter of Intent on Signing Day
There was an excellent story going around over the last a few years back regarding a recruit by the name of Jonathan Davis. What has happened in his recruitment is the perfect example of how quickly things can change in the football recruiting process. Davis had thought he ended the recruiting process early when he committed to Steve Spurrier and South Carolina. While there is little doubt that he is talented, being a 5-foot-9 linebacker is not something that all coaches are seeking during their recruiting.
The scholarship was offered by South Carolina assistant coaches Shane Beamer and Ron Cooper. Cooper was the one extremely high on Davis but he ended up being hired away by LSU recently. Few other coaches on staff felt Davis had the ability to play at the school so they decided to pull the offer. What this meant is that they were creating some terrible publicity for their school.
How luck could really factor into the the football recruiting process as Signing Day 2012 nears
I have stressed the importance of taking The Five Steps to a Scholarship every month that I have been running this site. I assume most readers of the site have checked them out before but they are the keys to getting yourself evaluated by college coaches. But with the small amount of college scholarships at the college level, you may end up needing some luck in the football recruiting process as well.
Previously I mentioned a story regarding a top flight offensive lineman being committed to the main in-state school. He changed his mind over the summer and that left a void for a lineman at State University. In steps another in-state athlete who worked hard and was looking for his chance to play at the Division I-A level. That is a great story and all but one of the craziest recruiting journeys has unfolded right in front of my eyes over the last few months. And it is something any recruit hopes will happen to them.
Q&A with a Family Part 2: What happens during the football recruiting process when a coaching change occurs?
When an athlete accepts a Division I scholarship offer for any sport, they feel strongly that this is the school that they want to spend the next four or five years of their life at. And while some may decommit and eventually pick another program, the majority of athletes stay strong to their word when they originally commit.
But what happens to a recruit after committing when the head coach at the school leaves the program in a flash only a short time before Signing Day? We had a chance to do a question and answer with a family who had the chance to go through this exact situation. Find out what they thought about the whole process and what they did to help their son get football recruiting attention in the first place. This is part two of a two part article. Click here for the previous article.
Should you wait on your high school coach to put together your recruiting highlight tape?
When requesting recruiting highlight videos from athletes, one thing I often hear from them is that they are waiting until their coaches get done putting it together. For families where money is an issue, this is probably a smart thing to do. But for those who have college programs requesting tape, it may be smart to have it made by a professional.
In order to have a highlight video professionally made, your family will either have to have the computer skills and knowledge to do it yourself (Unfortunately, most families don’t have this ability and they waste a lot of time and money trying) or the finances to pay for it to be done. If either one of those is the case, I would strongly recommend going that route.