One Day Football Camps vs. Three Day Football Camps

With football camps going on throughout the country, many athletes are hoping that they can finally get a chance to showcase their skills in front of college coaches and receive a scholarship offer.  And while few get a chance to actually live that dream, many are at least spending some time at these camps.  The question is how long should they be there?

In all honesty, the answer to that question really depends on a lot of things.  The biggest factor is if you are there strictly to get recruited.  If that is the case and the coaches are serious about you as a recruit, they will do whatever they can to accommodate your schedule so that they can see you in action.  The coaches should be able to see you in action for a full day and figure out what the next step is in recruiting.  It may be to offer, continue recruiting, or move on to another prospect.  But at the very least, they will figure out one of of those three options. 

If you are attending the camp to get better as a player and have heard great things about the coaching there, my advice would be to stay for the week.  The majority of this type of camp is either at a smaller school or a camp that is not even affiliated with a school.  That means instead of worrying about recruiting, they are able to actually coach the players and help them become better.  The evaluation process for recruiting is hard to do when you are trying to coach other players as well. 

Going back to the one day camps, the big advantage of these is the money factor.  If a camp costs $300 for three days, I would assume one day would cost $100.  That saves you a big chunk of money right there.  If you have a busy summer of football camps, that $200 will quickly add up.  If your plans are to go to five camps, that is $1,000 right there.

In my opinion, the majority of college coaches will have a pretty good idea of your skill level after watching and evaluating you for one day.  The only time I have ever heard a recruit get asked to stay the second day was for a prospect who eventually got an offer.  But the coaching staff was fired before he signed so that may be a sign of their coaching. 

These coaches may want to rewatch your highlight video and see how you progress during the senior season but they will at least have a better idea of your ability.  While the coaches may be truthful, expect a generic answer related to your senior season and your progress if you did not wow them right away.  Kids that really stand out at camps more often than not get an offer with twenty four hours. 

Again, I am a huge believer in only going to one day of camp.  It saves your body from getting beat up over long camp stretches and should be more than enough for the coaches to evaluate you.  If anything, save the money here and invest it in a high quality highlight tape after the first few games of your senior season.  If the school is still interested in you, they will be requesting that early in the fall to evaluate you further. 

Every situation of athletes are unique and some may want to spend more time around coaches and the program.  It may be the school that they grew up routing for and they just want to be as close to the program as possible.  But if that is not the case, then don’t feel going to camp should last three days.  It really is up to you as an athlete as well as depending on your summer schedule. 

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When do Division I-AA schools start the football recruiting process?

When starting the recruiting process, some may think that all schools start at the same time when sending prospective athletes mail. That however could not be further from the truth. Some schools like to get in early on younger players and try to show their interest in them early on. Others wait until they are older and see what kind of player that they have become as a senior.

One of the more interesting levels to follow in regards to recruiting is schools at the FCS/Division I-AA level. These programs are at a disadvantage over BCS/Division I-A schools because they do not have the resources that their rivals have. For example, a BCS school has to offer every player a full ride while the FCS school normally extends scholarships that are partials (There are exceptions at times).

Because of this, the Division I-AA schools are normally more hesitant to offer a prospect early in the recruiting process. I don’t follow I-AA schools all that closely but I have not seen them extend an official scholarship to anyone before the summer before their senior season. The reason that they wait is because even if you are the top Division I-AA program in the country, if word gets out that you have extended an offer to a player, the Division I-A coaches that hear are going to start taking a much longer look at this athlete.

While I am not trying to knock Division I-AA schools, it really is tough for them to compete against smaller Division I-A programs. There are always going to be exceptions and there have been some that I have talked about in past years. But for Division I-AA schools, they are always at a major disadvantage when it comes to recruiting.

Right now, I suspect that many Division I-AA programs have been doing what they can to bring prospective athletes on campus. Like the major schools across the country, they are also trying to have these standouts in for Junior Days and other events. In regards to college recruiting, getting a prospect on campus is half the battle and that is why they do these.

But again, as mentioned above, it would be down right shocking to see any of these schools offer a junior currently a scholarship (There are two exceptions here. If the athlete has a relative who played sports at the school or if the school is positioning themselves in case the top prospect eventually transfer from a major school and then doesn’t want to sit out a year because of the transfer). I have actually seen both of the cases I mentioned happen to a prospect recently but it is pretty obvious that the prospect is not considering either program at this time.

These schools will send mail, call, visit schools, and do the normal recruiting process evaluations. Like any other school, they will also be trying to bring the prospect on campus so that they can see them in action. Schools at the I-AA level have started to be more aggressive when offering scholarships to players at their camps. Some schools have been known to extend things that early, but again, they want as few people to know about the scholarship as possible. The more other schools know that a program has offered a player, the more those other schools will focus on the positives of this player and what he can do.

During the fall, these Division I-AA programs will have athletes take visits during the season. In the majority of cases, these will be unofficial visits just to see the campus and to see their team in action.

The time that recruiting at this level really heats up is in December. Their seasons are normally finished and the coaches now fully switch their attention over to the recruiting process. This is when they will start extending scholarships and bringing in athletes on official visits. Another reason that they wait this long to bring the athletes in is because they will know by now if Division I-A schools have offered the prospects. They know that if that is the case, it will be an uphill battle to land the prospect. And while these I-A schools could still offer late, now is the best time to tell the athletes how much the school wants on campus and how important they are to their recruiting class.

The I-A schools at the time will be telling the recruits to be patient and that they are waiting to see what other prospects will say in regards to a scholarship. I can promise you that the I-AA schools will really push that angle. December and January are major months for them in the recruiting process.

From what I have seen at one major I-AA school, they bring in their top prospects early in December for an official visit. The later that you get an official visit in January, the less they want to land you. And if they already have received commitments from players at your position, expect them to call off the official.

Like all levels, the D I-AA level is not easy to figure out in recruiting. But this is a time where you have to be extremely patient and realize that they really do take longer than other schools. They don’t want to show their cards too early because they are worried that other I-A programs will snatch up their recruits.

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My dream school hasn’t called yet during the football recruiting evaluation period. What should I do?

I received an email with a question that was somewhat similar to this.  The family wanted to know what to do because they had received calls from other schools but their dream school had not contacted them over the phone as of yet.  The athlete was already starting to get mad about it and was going to take steps to avoid them in the future. 

That is a huge problem.  The evaluation period is forty five days.  There are a lot of opportunities for coaches to call you.  And if they don’t, then they obviously do not have you high on their radar.  It may be your dream school right now in your mind but it doesn’t mean it will be in February when you need to sign your Letter of Intent. 

If your dream school has not called, the first thing that you must not do is get worked up about it.  What good is it going to do to get mad about the situation?  There is nothing good that will come out of you getting upset.  You do also have to realize that there are still weeks left of the football recruiting spring evaluation period.  I am not trying to get your hopes up but there is still plenty of time to field calls from college coaches. 

You may want to send an email or call the coaches yourself just to check in.  That is your call and something that you may want to do if you are getting anxious.  But if you do that, will they call you back later in the month?  Since they already spoke with you, is that something they are going to do?  An email may be the best option because a call may make it fuzzy in trying to gauge the interest that you have from that particular program. 

What happens if the month of May flies by and your dream school has not called you?  Unfortunately, this happens to a lot of athletes.  State University recruits across the country but apparently doesn’t think highly enough of you to give you a call?  What this signals is that they are not serious about you and that you need to seriously consider other recruiting options.  State University may be a great place but that doesn’t mean it is the best place for you overall. 

I hate to say that you need to cross out your dream school if they don’t call but I would guess that 95% (or more) of the Division I-A (BCS) offers come from schools that call the athletes during the evaluation period.  There are certain exceptions (an athlete being an amazing diamond in the rough, a coaching change, or a player just adding offer after offer) but that number is a reality. 

In all of my articles, I have never once said that you should pin all your hopes on your dream school.  It doesn’t matter if you have been going to their games since you were five.  The recruiting process can be a cold business and even if you love a school, that doesn’t mean you will end up getting a scholarship or even an opportunity to walk-on there.  That is why focusing on your dream school and their hopeful call is a mistake. 

The focus now should be learning about the schools that are calling, logging the calls, and asking specific questions about what their program has to offer.  If you are lucky enough to get any calls from college coaches (and I don’t care what Division), you should feel extremely lucky.  So take advantage of what attention you are getting and don’t harp on the fact that State University has not called. 

And if you are not happy with your recruiting attention, go back through The Five Steps to a Scholarship and market yourself to some new programs.  This would be broadening your horizons and possibly looking into new schools that you had not heard from prior to this. 

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Should I cross Division I schools off my list if I didn’t get any calls or high school visits during the spring evaluation period?

If you have been a faithful reader of this site, you may be getting sick of me talking about the importance of the spring evaluation period for football recruits.  It finally gives those junior athletes a chance to get a real feel for the amount of recruiting attention you are getting.  And unless you had scholarship offers before the spring, it is a difficult challenge to really tell. 

So with this period about to end, coaches won’t be able to call prospective athletes again until September.  If you are a football player who received two calls from your top five schools, what exactly should you be thinking about these other three schools?  Is it worth still pursuing them and going to their camps?  Before making any final decisions, let me stress that you should wait until the complete end of the month to make 100% sure these programs won’t be calling. 

I have broken down previously the levels of interest from college coaches and mentioned that the phone calls ranks right below official visit, verbal offer, and written scholarship.  Right before that, there is Junior Day invite, hand written letters, school visits, emails, form letters, questionnaires, and the dreaded camp invite.  In looking at that list, there is a huge jump from the first areas that I talked about to the second areas. 

College coaches can easily go through the motions with 500 recruits who they write hand written letters to (that is what GAs are for), invite to Junior Days, and quickly respond to emails.  It is spending the ten to fifteen minutes on a phone call that show they are truly interested in you as a player and a prospect. 

Going back to the original question, no, just because you didn’t get a call doesn’t mean there is a 100% chance that this school will not offering you a scholarship.  But if you are on their radar where they have sent letters and invited you to Junior Days, that is when you should worry.  It shows that you are not a high enough priority on their recruiting database to call.  That is when it may be time for you to start thinking that the ship has sailed for this certain program. 

Obviously you could walk-on to that school or attend a Junior College for two years, improve, and eventually earn a scholarship.  If you have sent your highlight film and done a good job marketing yourself to them, then I would honestly move on.  I don’t care if it is your dream school.  The recruiting process is a business and State University is not in the business of taking players on scholarship that are not good enough.  And unfortunately, as hard as it is to swallow, you may not be good enough. 

So on June 1st or whenever you get time shortly thereafter, take an opportunity to reevaluate your recruiting logs of what schools have been showing you attention (you have been tracking it, right?).  Figure out which ones have called, stopped by the high school, and are showing you a great deal of interest.  Could some of these eventually offer?  Were the calls something that you got a good feeling about?  If you are happy with the schools recruiting you at this point, then continue preparing for the upcoming camps and your senior year.  It would be nice to get your ducks in a row for your senior highlight video so keep that in mind as well. 

If you are disappointed by the lack of calls and visits to the high school, you need to take control of the process and open things up a little bit.  Go back through The Five Steps to a Scholarship Offer.  First off, update your recruiting profile both in the file and anywhere online.  Then have a few people take a look at it and critique it.  This should help you so don’t get mad about feedback. 

Your next step is the most important.  You need to widen your school search.  If you were only focused on I-A (BCS) schools, then widen it to I-AA and II schools.  Look in areas that may be a bit further away from home.  There is no surefire way to find the perfect school.  That is why you need to put more time and effort in, especially right now, to figure out some programs that could be good fits. 

I can imagine it sucks not getting calls from the schools that you wanted to hear from.  When I was in high school, I received very little calls and had no idea what the spring evaluation period was.  But all is not lost.  Your dream school may not be a realistic option for a scholarship so widen your recruiting base and start marketing yourself again.  There is no reason to get down because you still have EIGHT months until Signing day.  Things could be much worse. 

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How to finish the evaluation period strong and decide on camps during the football recruiting process

The May evaluation period has flown by and once June hits, that means college football coaches will not be able to contact you with phone calls and visits until the fall.  You will still be able to call them, attend their camps, receive letters, and email with them but the evaluation period will be closed until September 1st. 

So with that in mind, it is important that you do everything you can to finish the spring evaluation period strong.  So what can I do to accomplish that?  Here are a few things to think in regards to this and the upcoming football recruiting camp circuit. 

In all of these situations that I will be speaking about, I am going to hypothetically say that you received calls from multiple college coaches and had many assistant coaches stop by your high school as well.  If you received zero calls (the most important indicator of serious recruiting interest at this point outside of a scholarship offer), I hate to say this but you need to start over at square one.  Go back to The Five Steps to a Scholarship Offer and start the marketing process once again.  Chances are very, very, very, very slim (this needs to be stressed) that you will get an offer if a school doesn’t call.  While I may be saying there is a chance, the ship has likely sailed for that program. 

Now going back to more a more positive spin, if you had been logging the interest from college coaches, you should have a great feel as to which college coaches stopped by the high school as well as which ones called.  While some coaches do wait until the end of the month to call, you need to think seriously about if their interest is genuine in you or not.  If a college coach called and came to the school, then they mean business and really want to see you at their camp.  If they stopped by the high school and made sure to give you a camp invite (which is worth as much in the recruiting process as the paper it has been printed on), then don’t waste your time.  They are trying to boast camp numbers rather than seriously look at your abilities. 

If you really want to put your best foot forward overall, what you can do is log the coaches that visit the high school/call you.  After finish speaking with them, look up their contact information on their athletic website and send them a thank you email.  If you have not already sent your profile and a video link, you definitely should do so.  Thank them for stopping by the school and taking the time to evaluate you.  While it may not be a sure fire way to a scholarship, the number of athletes who do this have to be miniscule (my guess is that they may think it is the parents doing it). 

I have talked about how the recruiting process should be compared to a job interview.  Many recommend that you send a thank you letter following interviews.  While this may not be as serious as a full fledged job interview, there is no doubt that a coach will likely remember the small amount of athletes who send a thank you email/card following the visit. 

Hopefully by now you have made a recruiting highlight video.  If not, this is something you honestly need to take care of as soon as possible.  The reason is simple.  College coaches do not have the time and patience to be watching a full football game.  They usually either want a prospect to have a scholarship offer from another school or they want to be wowed on the highlight video before watching the full game.  And if your team uses hudl, the process is even simpler. 

If you have a recruiting highlight video, do what you can to find a way to make a profile online and upload your video.  Being able to send a link to a college coach, regardless of what it is at, is something that is a huge time saver.  If they think you can’t play from the online highlights, it at least saves you time and money involved with sending it. 

Try to speak with your high school coach about where you stand with the schools that visited.  Hopefully you have developed a solid relationship with your own coach at this time.  It should allow you to speak with him openly about the college coaches and what they think about your ability.  Your coach should have some great insight overall. 

Outside of that and finalizing your summer camps, the key is to continue working hard and prepping yourself mentally and physical for an exhausting few weeks.  The camp circuit is not easy so preparation and finding time to rest is key.  Hopefully you will do well enough at those camps that the football recruiting process will take care of itself. 

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Q&A with a parent who used Recruiting-101 to own the recruiting process

Navigating the recruiting process for the first time is a difficult process but thousands of families have done it using Recruiting-101.com.  We caught up with a parent who shared their story about how they did it without using an overpriced recruiting service.  

Overall, how would you describe the recruiting process that you went through? 
Only one that I’ve been through, but I’d say it was about what was expected from reading your website and doing other research. It was informative, eye-opening, entertaining at times. 

What was your background with athletics/recruiting prior to when this started? 
None, other than what I saw occasionally on ESPN and all-star bowls for high school and college. 

How did you use Recruiting-101 to aid you during the process? 
Read the website every day; read past posts that were grouped by subject; reread important posts that may have had insight to what we should look for during a visit or conducting a conversation. 

When looking back, how do you feel it went? 
I thought it went great.

What was the most exciting part of the recruiting process? 
The actual visits; listening to the coaches while touring campuses and getting a feel for what it might be like my son to attend school and be a part of the athletic program.

As a parent, how much impact do you feel you had in the decision of your child? 
Some; most direct impact occurred in the 18 years prior to getting to this point. A lot of indirect impact as we were visiting, I was asking lots of questions, he was asking some. Before we set foot on any campus, I explained that as he was walking around, listening to the various coaches and academic personnel, that he needed to envision himself there at 6:00am when the alarm went off, go to training room, go get breakfast, hustle to class, deal with professors asking him questions he may not know the answer to, grab lunch, another class or lab, practice at 3:30, then to dinner, then study group, work on research paper, and then get to bed by 12:00 midnight and get ready to get up at 6:00 the next morning ready to do it again. Was he comfortable with the facilities; was he comfortable with the position coaches; their approach to practicing and games; the dorm rooms; was he going to be comfortable in the library at the mandatory study sessions, etc.. 

Did they listen to your input? 
I believe so. Again, knowing your own child, you know how much or little emphasis to put on issues to effectively communicate what the important things are and how he should be wrapping his mind around things while he’s figuring out where he wants to go and what he wants to do. 

How big of a role did academics really play in their final decision? 
Huge. Of the 3 schools that showed interest, 1 was effectively eliminated after the visit because of the academics. The other 2 that showed interest (and 1 we pursued and they were interested after he was admitted) all had excellent academics. 

Did your child know what areas interested them for a major and was research done in regards to academics offered at each school? 
My son has no idea what he wants to do; the schools we were choosing from actually like that answer. He thinks he might know about 1 area he is interested in, but it’s only a guess and he’ll find out more. We did investigate the academics at each school and know what the strengths and weaknesses of each institution are. 

Did you put a highlight video together for your children? 
No. He put together the film with the assistance of the head coach after the season was over after schools showed up indicating interest. 

Did you use a recruiting service for your children? Why or why not? 
No, no recruiting service. Quite frankly, until the season was over and coaches started showing up, he and we had no idea that we should even think about shopping him around as a player. 

Did you child attend camps to help their recruiting? If so, did it work? 
No camps. No mailers and no interest from any place. We’re in a rural area, so I think the opportunities are limited. There is a Div. 1 school here in town, and they do a summer camp, but it’s generally available for kids who want to pursue skill development, not a private invite where you pay to play. 

How truthful were the coaches during the process? 
Very. I was quite impressed with the athletic and academic presentations and what to expect and what was expected. It was refreshing. 

How many offers/options were they seriously considering? 
Three. 

What were the best things that you did to help your child during the process? 
Put together a box with file folders to keep the paperwork from each school organized. Ask him daily if he received any texts and phone calls from any coaches and their staff. Discuss the questions and statements that were made by the coaches and staff. Go with him to the visits; take a very hands off approach when it came to talking to coaches and staff during those visits so they could focus on him. Then reminding him during the visits about what he should be looking at as far as placing himself on that campus on that day and being a potential student. Ultimately, reminding him that it’s his life, and that we support him whatever choice he makes (we just make sure to explain the pros and cons of any decision). 

If you could hit the reset button and do everything over again, what would you change? 
Probably be better prepared after his junior year, get the highlight film ready sooner. 

Any other tips of interest? 
Know your own child the best you can; that definitely helps ensure the best fit possible at a college and makes sure you focus on the ones that are likely candidates which will lead to a satisfying education and athletic career. As they say, it’s not just a 4 year decision, it’s a 40 year decision.

A special thanks to this parent for their help.

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Ten things to do to not get recruited by college coaches

I recently read an article about ten things you can do to not get rich during your life. Because of how interesting the article was, I thought I would put together a piece that talks about the ten things you should do to not get recruited. This applies to all sports so keep this in mind no matter what sport you play. There are in reverse order to build up the suspense:

10.) Do poorly in school There is little doubt that doing poorly in school will scare many schools away. Not putting much time into your school work and struggling early on usually creates a hole that is very hard to get out of.

9.) Talking back to officials/refs/umpires College coaches want to find athletes who just play and not have an ongoing sideshow with an athlete. The more you focus on succeeding in the game, the better of you will be.

8.) Get in trouble off of the field/court/diamond With the amount of publicity that athletes get for off the field problems, the last thing you want to do in high school is get in trouble. When there is less supervision, watch out because more trouble can be had.

7.) Treat your teammates bad Why would a college coach want to recruit an 18-year who thinks that they are better than their teammates? I can promise you that coaches will watch your demeanor in all phases of the game if they are considering you.

6.) Disrespect your parents I read an article a while back about a coach who had an in home visit with an athlete and he moved on as soon as he heard the athlete talk to his parents. Treating your parents poorly is a huge sign of disrespect towards those around you.

5.) Skip workouts/practice/team meetings College coaches do not want to have to deal with players who are headaches off the court. Skipping this type of thing means you don’t care all that much.

4.) Have bad sportsmanship If you are someone who feels that it is necessary to taunt your opponent every time you can, that is just bad sportsmanship. You are not going to help your case.

3.) Lying about recruiting attention Aka the Kevin Hart factor, athletes want to make themselves feel important to Rivals, Scout, and other recruiting sites. But don’t lie about who has been recruiting you and don’t assume schools will offer you.

2.) Have a poor relationship with your coaches When college coaches call about an athlete, they won’t initially be talking to you or your parent. They will call your coach. And if you have treated your coach badly and that has resulted in a poor relationship, good luck getting recruited.

1.) Dismiss any recruiting attention because of the level This one just kills me when it happens. You may have Division I eyes but don’t ever think you are better than a school. With how hard the recruiting process is to figure out, you just never know what can happen in your life.

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