Recruiting Tips

The Real Price of Becoming a Recruited College Football Prospect?

Chad Wilson

I was in my senior season at the University of Miami.  As luck would have it,  the Super Bowl was in Miami that year.  The San Diego Chargers were taking on the San Francisco 49ers.  Even more luck was upon me as the 49ers were using our facilities to prepare for the big game.  What I learned from that experience stayed with me for a lifetime.

We weren’t allowed to see the 49ers practice as those things,  for the most part,  were top secret.  However,  on one day,  a couple of us players stepped into our head coach’s office where we could see the practice field.  Already legendary for his work ethic,  I expected to see Jerry Rice working up a sweat.  I did not expect to see a maniac.  Rice sprinted to the end zone on every pass he caught and as you could imagine,  he was thrown many of them.  He would then turn around and run back down to catch his next rep.  When the first team came out,  guys grabbed Gatorade.  Rice grabbed a trainer who threw him balls continuously until the first team was back in again.  It was insane to watch.  Rice was in his 11th year as a pro and nowhere close to getting cut but was behaving like he was told he was on the chopping block.

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How to Get Recruited During the Coronavirus

Chad Wilson

You were finally coming around.  Things were starting to fall in place.  You had a plan for your spring semester as well as summer trips planned to the colleges.  The only thing that could mess this up would be a virus that affects the entire World and causes our entire country to shut down putting the football season in jeopardy.   There’s no chance that could happen.  Oh well guess what?

With the college football season being an uncertainty and the 2020 high school football season in many states being on life support,  the 2021 class is getting one heck of a raw deal as it pertains to college football recruiting.  Those highly ranked and with solid offers in place are not feeling the pinch. However,  prospects who are on the bubble and still waiting for their first committable offer have their hands nervously hovering over the panic button.

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Recruiting Law: Teach Them How to Be Loyal

Chad Wilson

Finding a good program to play football can be tough.  I am not just talking about a college football program.  I am talking about a high school football program.  Not only am I talking about a college football program and a high school football program but I am also talking about a youth football program.  However,  making the right choices concerning the latter two will certainly make the choice on the first one easier.  When the choice is made,  it is then about teaching the prospect to be loyal.

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Recruiting Law: Develop Decision Making Skills

Chad Wilson

In the next part of my recruiting law series,  I move onto one that is the essence of the recruiting process and that is decision making.  Everything in recruiting is about decisions.  When to workout,  what high school to go to,  what camps to go to,  etc.  Every level of the process and every aspect of the process involves making decisions so it only stands to reason that being good at making decisions should be a key emphasis as you go through this process.

Start Early

This article is as much for parents as it is for prospects.  The reason I say this is that the earlier a prospect can develop decision making skills the better.  As much as I may think I am good at writing,  I know a kid playing youth football is not likely to read this article.  So to the parent or mentor that is reading this,  make making decisions a key part of a child’s development.  Don’t make all the decisions for them.  Give them options and observe their choices.  Review with them the results and give praise when a good decision was made with positive results.  Likewise,  point out the negative results when a poor decision is made.  However,  do not forget to point out when a poor decision was made and through fortune (aka luck) a good result was achieved.  This is very important!  Explain to your young titan how he “got away with one” and how he may not be so fortunate next time.  Believe me,  the opportunity will come where you can show him how he attempted to make the same type of decision and it didn’t work out for him.  Bottom line though,  like anything else you want your kid to be good at,  making decisions needs practice.

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