Three people from the SRE team took over this week's Stack Overflow Podcast. You can hear myself, Mark Henderson and Jason Harvey rant about important topics such as how we got our start, USB Condoms, and my opinionated interpretation of the "First Day Database Destruction" discussion on Reddit.
The podcast episode is announced here: (link)
You can skip all that and go directly to SoundCloud here: (link)
Enjoy!
In the land of football recruiting, there is little doubt that college coaches at the Division I level are looking for the prototypical sizes out of players at each position. They know what height they are looking for at quarterback, offensive tackle, defensive back, and every other non special teams positions (I have to admit that it does not matter much with kickers and punters).
But the truth is that there are many undersized athletes out there that can play. Go to any state and just about any conference. There may be a 6-foot-1 offensive tackle who just dominates the opposition. Or there may also be a 5-foot-10 quarterback who is unstoppable throwing and running the ball. But will Division I college coaches look over these athletes?
Let me start by being completely honest and schools like Ohio State, USC, Florida, and many others will likely overlook athletes because of their height. The two positions where there may be room for smaller athletes is cornerback and running back. LSU recently had players listed at 5-foot-4, 5-foot-5, 5-foot-6, and 5-foot-8 but each one is a skill player. What sets these athletes apart is their athleticism and skills. Few athletes throughout the entire country have the athleticism that these shorter players have.
But what about quarterback? The good news is that there recently have been some standout quarterbacks who have excelled despite being 6-foot or under. The prime example of this is a Division I quarterback who proved doubters wrong. Despite throwing for 3,343 yards and 41 touchdowns in a ten game season, college coaches looked elsewhere. The obvious knock was that he was only 5-foot-11.
In the end, he proved his doubters wrong by excelling for the at the major Division I level. But being from Texas, he heard very little from the multitude of Division I schools in his State. The good news is that his accomplishments should help open the door for successful quarterbacks under 6-foot in the future.
In the end, it really just depends on position. For example, it is very hard for a Division I school to take a chance on an undersized offensive linemen. They want these big boys as large as possible and the taller the better. If the coaches think you can play but are a bit undersized, they will likely move you to center where height is not as important as tackle or guard.
Division I college coaches are also looking for size along the defensive line. Once again, the taller the better. The reason is that the taller linemen have a better chance to bat down passes. One ACC program used all 6-foot-8 of an athlete at defensive end and he ended up as a first round pick in the NFL draft.
In the end, height does matter in the eyes of college coaches. They may overlook a prospect if he doesn’t fit the perfect size that they are looking for but in the end, if a player can play, it doesn’t matter how tall he is. You may end up at the Division I-AA or II level because you are three inches taller than the prototypical player at your position but that hasn’t stopped these players from succeeding.
The post Will a Division I college football coach overlook me because of my height? appeared first on Recruiting-101.
It seems as if the majority of articles that I write about come from talking to either a parent or an athlete. This will continue today because that is where I got the idea for this article. I know I have talked about different ways to cut costs during the athletic recruiting process but felt that there are more things to talk about.
Anyways, I spoke with a father about the football recruiting process and what can be done for his son. The dad said he didn’t want to be a “cheap ass” but also didn’t want to be throwing money around aimlessly either. So for those non-cheap asses out there, here are some things to do in the recruiting process that will help save some money but not look completely terrible in the process doing it.
Don’t take multiple visits to the same school
They may be giving free tickets to an event but is five visits to a school that hasn’t offered really worth it?
Attend one day camps/elite camps
Making it to only one day of camp will save money and give the coaches a perfectly good chance to evaluate your skills.
Handle the recruiting process yourself
If you have the time, handling the recruiting process yourself can be a huge money saver.
Record the recruiting attention either through a computer spreadsheet or file folders (use Open Office for a free program)
Both of these need to be done and won’t be expensive if you use the right things.
Handle your recruiting profile and the information sent to college coaches yourself (along with the highlight video)
Keep the professionalism high here but you can save some cash by handling all the marketing that is sent along with your highlight video.
Post highlights readily available online on a free website
Big time and money saver is to just email college coaches links to your video footage online. Or just use hudl if your school has it available.
Carpool to visits
Find another family in your area that is being recruited and carpool to college visits.
Try to find an AAU team that is sponsored
For those basketball players out there, finding an AAU team that is sponsored likely means that everything will be paid for in terms of travel. This would save some major money.
Use the free information on this site
Why spend hundreds of dollars for recruiting help when you can get the majority of the information for free or at a low cost with an e-book? I think that was me trying to hint at you buying an e-book from Recruiting-101.
Be realistic
This is the hardest one to talk about so I must go in-depth. The specific case that I am thinking about involves two small school athletes. They decided to make the ten hour trip to a school that was hosting a Junior Day. Once they got there, they realized that they were one of nearly 200 kids. Both athletes ended up with scholarship offers from Division I-AA (FCS) schools but the Junior Visit was to a Division I-A (BCS) school in a major conference. Should they have realized that they were small school players who probably weren’t good enough to play there? The answer is yes. While you can dream of playing at a Notre Dame or a Florida, getting an invite to their Junior Day doesn’t mean they are all that serious about you. I would personally wait until after the spring evaluation period to make any visits that require a flight/five plus hour drive to get there. The reason is that you cannot tell how serious they are about you as a recruit.
The post Where can I save money at during the athletic recruiting process appeared first on Recruiting-101.
The BBC and The Guardian report that The Grand Tour’s Richard Hammond was involved in another horrific crash, this time in a Rimac Concept One. The 47-year-old host was in the middle of filming for a new season of Amazon Prime’s show in the hills of Switzerland.
Details are sparse and an investigation is currently on the way. As of this post, nobody currently knows the cause of the crash.
According to the reports, Hammond “climbed out o the car himself before the vehicle burst into flames.” Paramedics then airlifted him to the nearest hospital.
It was the biggest crash I’ve ever seen and the most frightening but incredibly, and thankfully, Richard seems to be mostly OK.
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) June 10, 2017
Co-host Jeremy Clarkson posted a tweet, describing the incident as “the most frightening” accident he had ever seen. We’re certain sarcasm was withheld as Hammond reported suffered a fractured knee, but for the better part, “mostly OK.”
This isn’t the first time Richard Hammond was involved in a terrible accident. Around 11 years ago, he lost control of a land-speed record drag car on the original Top Gear track while filming an episode. It was by far his scariest accident since he suffered brain injuries from crashing at 288 mph. It was found that an exploding tire caused Hammond to lose control of the dragster.
This latest accident raises the bar.
More as it develops…
– By: Chris Chin
Source: BBC, The Guardian, Facebook, Twitter
The post BREAKING: Richard Hammond airlifted to hospital after horrific crash while filming appeared first on egmCarTech.
Recently I talked about an athlete who did an excellent job marketing himself to college coaches. This football recruit had put the time in to send out recruiting profiles that included links to his online highlights. As I have said over and over again, this is a great way to get on the recruiting database for these college coaches.
This athlete was invited to a number of Junior Days across the country and he basically attended all of them. If anything, I thought he was taking too much time and money to attend these Junior Days. While it may look good in the eyes of the college coaches, attending every Junior Day near and far that you can get to is a mistake. So I ended up speaking with this recruit late in the spring evaluation period. Despite all that he had done, the athlete had zero phone calls from college coaches. Was he over marketing himself in the first place?
I do have to admit that it surprised me when he said that he hadn’t received any calls. He has a solid highlight video and a well put together presentation. But in the end, I honestly feel that his lack of calls is due to him over marketing himself.
What I mean by over marketing yourself is taking step three in The Five Steps to a Scholarship Offer and basically going overboard. As I have said in that article from day one, you want to tailor your college search around the programs that will fit you athletically, academically, and socially. You definitely do not want to basically email your recruiting profile to every Division I coach in the country.
While I don’t know for sure, that is what it appears to look like happened. This recruit marketed himself to any school in the country that would listen. Doing this honestly can get you some letters, invites to Junior Days, and things that don’t matter a whole lot in the recruiting process. But when the visits came, the coaches at the college must have seen something that they weren’t thrilled with. Could it have been his height or his weight? Did he overrate his testing skills?
If a college coach invites you to a Junior Day, it is a good thing because you are at least on their radar in the athletic recruiting process. But for football recruits, if they don’t parlay that into a call during the spring evaluation period, then you are likely not on their scholarship radar. I have said that at least 95% of football recruits out there receive phone calls from the schools that offer them scholarships during the spring evaluation. And in my opinion, that is a low estimate.
This is why I have stressed that Junior Days are great if you can get to them easily and see the school. I have told this story before but two small school athletes traveled twelve hours to a Junior Day visit last year in hopes of impressing the coaches. When they go to the Junior Day, there were 150 other kids there and they spoke with the coaches for five minutes. How mad would you be if you spent that time and money for an experience like that?
Getting back to the original topic, you really can over market yourself to college coaches. And if you leave the spring evaluation period with zero phone calls from college coaches, you better start another marketing process that is tailored to schools that you like at a small level. This is the best thing to do if you really hope to eventually get a scholarship offer.
The post Can you over market yourself to college coaches in the athletic recruiting process? appeared first on Recruiting-101.
