On initial recruiting letters …

   “Just because you are getting a lot of recruiting letters doesn’t mean you are getting recruited,” notes recruiting consultant and former college coach Randy Rodgers. It merely means that you are on a school’s mailing list, and that you are being evaluated – nothing more.

   “Kids get letters from [high-profile Division I football programs] holding them in glue,” says Western Kentucky’s Director of Football Operations Nick Uhlenhopp. “Those kids think they are being recruited by those schools, but many of them will have to look elsewhere later.”

On high school coaches …

   Few others, and perhaps no one else, have more of the right kind of knowledge about you to give you a better opinion than your high school coach. Your coach has watched and seen you develop and play football over several years. He also is in a good position to know what college coaches at each level are looking for in players. And he probably knows quite a bit about you and your personality, and which programs might be the best fit for you in that way, too.

   College coaches don’t depend only on your own coaches for information about possible recruits. They also ask other coaches – those who coach opposing teams – about potential recruits on the teams they play. So it’s important for high school players to play well in every game, not only because that’s what they owe themselves, their teammates, their coaches, and their fans, but so that they can impress coaches on the opposing teams.

On parents’ expectations …

   “I have three kids of my own,” says Texas A&M recruiting coordinator Tim Cassidy, “so I know about parents’ hopes and expectations” for their kids. … In particular, parents often begin to dream of a Division I FBS scholarship that would pay all of their son’s college costs, or at least a partial scholarship to a lower-division school that would pay some of those costs. And just like many players, they often equate great football success and recognition in high school as an indicator of the type of success that can be expected for their son at the next level.

On communicating with college coaches …

   “My world counts, yours doesn’t,” say recruiting consultant and former coach Randy Rodgers, explaining that many of the coaches who make recruiting decisions live in a different, older-generation world.

   “Most coaches live in an email world; most kids live in a texting world,” he adds, noting that “Kids don’t check email because their girlfriend always texts.”

On highlight videos …

   “We never offer [a scholarship to] a kid off of a highlight film,” says Arkansas’ Director of High School Relations Dean Campbell. “We want to see the game film too.” Think of it this way – if your highlight tape has 25 of your best plays, that suggests that you played really well in only about two or three plays per game. So sooner or later, college coaches will want a game tape, which is video of an entire game in which you played.


And other sources:  Other sources include Josephine “Jo” Potuto, a University of Nebraska law professor who has served on several NCAA committees and is an expert on NCAA enforcement and infractions processes; Kendal Briles, an assistant coach at Baylor University; Bert Hill, an assistant coach at SMU; Todd Ivicic, an assistant coach at the University of the Incarnate Word; Chris Sailer, kicking/punting coach and former UCLA player; and Joey Biasatti, former TCU player.