I’m a junior football recruit who has college interest but no scholarship offers. What should I do in February?
With Signing Day 2010 now behind us, the football recruits currently in the junior class need to be on top of the ball with the recruiting process. As I have always talked about, the sooner that you can get started, the better it will be for your overall football recruiting journey. That doesn’t mean if you can’t play but you start marketing today that there will be multiple scholarship offers to turn down. What it means is that the earlier you get your abilities in front of coaches, the easier it is to get an evaluation from the staff.
There are thousands of junior recruits (Class of 2011) who are in this boat that I am talking about. They want to play football at the college level and have received some interest from coaches. This may include questionnaires, camp invites, and things along those lines. But there are no offers and the recruiting attention has not yet been overwhelming. What should I do?
The importance of focusing on yourself (or your child) throughout the athletic recruiting process
While there may be a 1-on-1 aspect of just about every sport out there, the best 1-on-1 players are not necessarily the ones that will end up with scholarship offers from college programs. And for a lot of families (especially parents), it is difficult for them realize that there is more to the athletic recruiting process than just that. Many parents and sometimes coaches feel that because their son or daughter had a good game against an athlete with college scholarship offers, these scholarships will be coming to them as well.
Again, it just doesn’t work that way. There is so much involved in the college recruiting process that simply having one good game against a top tier athlete is not going to put you on par with the schools that are recruiting him or her. You may be an excellent high school player who has already peaked out. At the next level, potential is vital so that comes into play as well.
I’m a senior who didn’t sign a Letter of Intent on Signing Day. What should I do?
This situation happens more often than many people throughout the country think. While a number of athletes are having press conferences to finalize their future college, other senior football players have not yet made a college decision. And in the majority of situations, these are the athletes who have not been offered by the Division I-A (BCS), Division I-AA (FCS), and Division II schools.
There are certain exceptions to what I just said but 95% or more of the senior football players who have not made a decision likely do not boast any scholarship offers at this time. An athlete like Bryce Brown, the #1 football player in the country, did not sign because he wants more information about Miami and their new offensive coordinator. But for those without offers, the question is, what should you be doing now if you want to continue your career at the college level?
Recruiting-101’s Favorite Articles from January
So before diving into our favorite articles from last month, I just wanted to give a state of the union regarding this site. I am happy to report that the month of January brought the most readers to this site. So with that in mind, thank you! We appreciate everyone coming to the site and learning more about how to handle the athletic recruiting process. Please continue spreading the word about this site and let your friends and family know that this site can help you for free during their recruiting process journey. So anyways, here are our top ten articles from January:
1.) Would you seriously consider a school who came in with a last minute scholarship offer during the athletic recruiting process?
2.) Things you should be aware of before walking on at a Division I college football program
3.) The ten biggest factors in a college decision for athletic recruiting
4.) The garbage that college coaches can pull late in the athletic recruiting process and what you can to do to combat them
5.) Parents need to take a large step back and relax during the athletic recruiting process
6.) Countdown to Football Signing Day 2010: The better academic school vs. lower tuition costs
7.) I played out of position on the football field and have little footage for a highlight tape. What should I do for recruiting purposes?
8.) What should you do if you didn’t play much during your junior year of football?
9.) Now is not a good time to be open with the football recruiting process
10.) Countdown to Football Signing Day 2010: Having the major I love vs. majors that I could end up liking
What happens on official recruiting visits stays on official recruiting visits. Well, maybe not.
I know there are parents out there who should skip reading this article because they won’t want to know what happens during official recruiting visits for all sports. And I hate to say it but chances are that there will be partying and that includes drinking, girls, and the usual trouble that college athletes can get in on weekends. In 99.9% of the cases, your son will not be calling you from jail but an official visit is a chance to for athletes to see up close what really happens on campus at the schools they are looking into.
And while I just assumed that it never really went much further than going to parties and bars, I obviously am wrong. In the age of Facebook, Twitter, and social media, posting about the places you are going/have been may not exactly be a good thing if you are going to a strip club. And considering “adult entertainment” is forbidding on an official visit by NCAA rules, things are getting interesting at Mississippi State.
So was the football recruiting process stressful in the eyes of athletes?
Over the past few years, senior football recruits throughout the country have spent a great deal of time trying to figure out where they would be playing at the college level. And with today being Signing Day 2010 and all, we thought we would quote a number of those players who have been through the visits, the offers, the talks with coaches, and everything to eventually sign with a program.
The question to these recruits was did they think the recruiting process was stressful? Before getting to these answers, it seems as if the athletes that had a lot of attention and offers felt it was more stressful. Those that had limited interested seemed to enjoy things overall. So find out what these athletes thought now!
Football Signing Day 2010 Checklist
Time may have flown by quicker than anyone expected but Signing Day 2010 is finally here for football recruits across the country. I firmly believe that if you followed the advice we brought every single day on this site over the last year and have some talent on the gridiron, then you should be signing your National Letter of Intent today.
So what should I be doing today? If you are signing, it really depends on the school. Some programs have multiple signees each year while others may have a scholarship football recruit once every decade. Regardless of what your school is doing, we have put together a checklist for Signing Day 2010.
The importance of backup schools in athletic recruiting, even after you made your college decision
If you are like most athletes who read this site, I hope that you have been able to use what we have talked about everyday over the past few years to get evaluated by college coaches. And although the athletic recruiting process has its ups and downs, athletes who follow our advice and have some talent can get their college education paid for.
One of things that I always discuss is having backup options in the recruiting process. By that I feel it is important to look at schools at a variety of different levels to see what these programs have to offer. If time is not a huge factor, then it would definitely be worth taking as many visits to see as many different schools. But seeing these programs up close and personal can help you down the road.
The days leading up to Signing Day for football recruits can be stressful
Because football recruiting is a game and college coaches have to have backup options, if you are an undecided prospects, things will really heat up right before Signing Day. There could be so much going on that you could get multiple calls from a variety of different schools. These schools may have never sent mail letter but may be mentioning the possibility of a scholarship over the phone.
The reason things get so crazy at that time is because college coaches have to have backup options. If a school has seen their top three players at one position commit to other programs, they will be scrambling to find anyone with the ability to play at their level. They will make as many calls as need be to make sure that options A, B, and C are replenished this late in the football recruiting process.
The ten biggest factors in a college decision for athletic recruiting
With Signing Day 2010 almost here, high school athletes will be signing their Letters of Intent and in the process finalizing a college decision. If anyone questioned that their verbal commitments meant much, it will be signing this National Letter of Intent that makes things completely official.
We have decided to put together the top ten different factors that likely play major factors in any college decision, especially those for athletics (obviously if you are not playing sports, your role on the team doesn’t matter much). These ten are in no particular order but each should be something to think about strongly before you sign away a year of your life with the National Letter of Intent.