Highlight and Game Film
As the football season winds down, the recruiting season will start to heat up. College coaches will start to hone in on the players that they want to recruit and will start making request for tape. It is the time of year when many parents will ask me about the importantance of game film and highlight film in the recruiting process? The answer is...very important. Coaches need to see a player on tape in order to evaluate a player’s ability and determine if they will continue to recruit him. 

What should be on my son's highlight tape? How long should it be? The highlight film should be 20- 25 plays long. The beginning of your tape should have your biggest impact plays. I suggest you use a freeze frame with a spot shadow or arrow to identify you.

Who can help with my highlight film? There are a few ways to put this tape together. One is to hire a professional service that specializes in making highlight tape. A company like Oak Hammock can do a good job for a fair price. You can find their information here on FNF. Some schools have the tools to put together a highlight film either in the coaches' office or audio visual department. You may have the time and capability to do it with your home video equipment. Whichever way you choose to do it, make sure you put a full game on the back half of the tape, coaches want to see a full game. We will talk more about this in next week's tip.

Highlight tapes will differ from position to position. This week I will cover Offensive Line and Defensive Line.
Offensive line: Insert pancake blocks and drive blocks where you move your man 4-5 yards downfield. Show blocks where you get to your man on the second level, technique blocks, traps and pulls. Show plays where you can show your speed. Add blocking plays where your block springs the back for a touchdown.

Defensive line: Show big hits, sacks, plays where you beat the double team, slobberknocker hits where you cause a fumble, fumbles recovered. Use plays that show your speed, plays where you get knocked down, then get up and make the tackle, hustle plays. Again start with the plays with the biggest “wow” factor and work back from there.

Don't Stress Over Statistics
This week I want to talk about statistics and the role they play in college recruiting. They are far less important than people think. I often hear from parents of high school players who will say that the stats on their son are incorrect, or the coach pulls the first string out in the third quarter. My son’s stats would be better if he played the whole game. To this I say relax about the statistics. They are very misleading at times.

First off lets look at teams with strong defenses. If the defense holds a team to a 3 and out, how many chances are there to make a tackle? If your team gives up a 13 play scoring drive how many chances are there to make a tackle?  The first team now has the ball on offense, the second team is down 7-0. Which team has the better defense? Teams that have strong offenses and spread the ball around to multiple threats generally will not have statistical leaders on their team. Instead these teams have players that make the most of their opportunities and are winning games. They will get noticed by college coaches. The coach has a responsibility to win games. If he wants to build a solid program, he plays the underclassmen when there is a big lead. He must get those players ready in case a starter goes down, the replacement has some game experience. It doesn’t hurt a starter's chance for getting a scholarship, it just builds a winning program. College coaches know this and therefore don’t put a lot of stock in statistics. If the safety is leading the area in tackles, does that mean he is the best defensive player in the area? Or, does it mean that the linebackers and D-line on that team are not doing the job? What are coaches looking for?

Do you go hard every play? Not every other play. Not every fourth play, but every play. Do you get up when you get knocked down? These are things that coaches look for. This is why they want a full game tape and not just a highlight tape. (I could look good on a highlight reel if I only made three plays a game.) So go hard every play and don’t worry about your statistics they will take care of themselves. Good Luck!

Do a Little Research
Last week I talked about the benefits of being proactive in the recruiting process. I talked about making a list of what you are looking for in a college. Degree desired, area of the country, playing time, coaching staff, all should be part of this list.

One of the questions I ask athletes on an evaluation visit is where they want to go to college. I am often surprised at those that say, “I don’t care as long as I can play football.” I like the eagerness that he is willing to go play anywhere, but there needs to be a better plan. After all, you will be living there for four or more years and maybe starting your career there. You might want to do a little research. Doing this research will also help set you apart from the competition of earning an athletic scholarship. Go online and learn a little about the schools recruiting you or the ones you would hope to play for (remember realistic goals). Learn the school's nickname, conference that they play in, head coach's name, how long the coach been at the school, what kind of record they have, what kind of offense and defense do they run, who their rival schools are, and what kind of a season they currently having. 

Being more informed when you talk to coaches will show the coach that you are willing to do a little homework, that you have an interest in their program and that you care about your education. This just may give you a recruiting edge. Remember that after the recruiting coach calls you he will be calling the next 15 guys on his list. Your knowledge of their program can only help your cause. If you are looking for a web-site to search college football programs go to www.csaprepstar.com then on the left side of home page click campus visit. It will pull up a map of the USA and click on the state of the schools you are interested in. Good Luck.

He Who Snoozes, Loses
I have been getting many questions from players and parents on what can they do to improve their chances of getting an athletic scholarship. So over the next few weeks my recruiting tips will address that topic. Last week’s tip was about setting realistic expectations. This week is about understanding where you are in the recruiting process and taking a proactive approach. The biggest mistake I see many athletes make is to think “I am the star of my team and if the colleges want me they will have to woo me.”  If you are a ‘blue chip’ athlete then maybe you can take that approach. But most players are going to have to impress the school recruiting them, not the other way around. So you need to be proactive, get your athletic information into the hands of college coaches where you can play. You can do this by going on line looking into college programs around the country, send out ‘resumes’ with your achievements, or you can use an exposure service or recruiting service that can make these contacts to the coaches and help you through the process. Bottom line is, don’t wait for it to come to you. If you were a linebacker you wouldn’t wait for the blocker to come to block you, you would come down hill and meet him in the hole.  If you really want to play in college then you need to go after it. Contact schools, visit campuses when you can, put together a list of what you are looking for in a college:  degrees offered, area of the country, playing time (understand that most freshman are back-ups), coaching staff, etc... Use this list as a guide to help you in your search. One more piece on understanding where you are in the recruiting process:  don’t be mesmerized by a mailbox full of letters from Division I schools. It is the end of September.  If you are a senior and you are not getting phone calls from these D I colleges, then you are probably not a Division I recruit.  There are still lots of places to play. I will talk more about that next week. Till then, keep playing hard.

Set Realistic Expectations
This week I want to talk about the importance of setting realistic expectations in your recruiting process. I can’t tell how many players have said to me, “ I want to play for the Gators, or FSU or the University of Miami.” Well, I want to date Terry Hatcher, but if you’ve seen my picture on this column you know it aint gonna happen. I need to set a more realistic expectation.

It is the same thing with recruiting, you need to understand your abilities and limitations and find a school where those abilities can best be used. Sometimes your limitations are beyond your control. If you are an offensive lineman and stand 6’0” and 250 pounds, you’re probably not a Division I recruit. It has nothing to do with your technique or blocking abilities. You are what I call vertically challenged. Division I programs want their O-Lineman to be at least 6’3”. This doesn’t mean you can’t get a football scholarship, it just means you may be playing for a Division II or III program. 

Don’t get hung up on the number that comes after the word Division. Of the over 800 four year schools that play college football, only 119 are Division I. I am not trying to squash anyone's dream, just keeping it real. There are great opportunities to get your education paid for, play football and grow if you are willing to open up to opportunities at the Division IAA, Division II, Division III and NAIA schools. So keep an open mind through the recruiting process and set realistic expectations.

Be a Team Player
Football is a team game. It is the best team game there is. Eleven players work as one, for one common goal, to win the game. Understand that all eleven players have a role to play and an assignment to follow. The coach has put you in that position in order to help the team. I am often confronted by parents who will say to me. “The coach is hurting my son’s chances of getting a scholarship because he plays this position and should be at another position.” At which point I try to explain a couple of truths as I know them.
 
I have yet to meet a coach who puts players at positions with the intention of hurting their chance of being recruited.
Every coach I know prepares each week with the intention of going out and winning Friday night. So, if you are asked to play another position because someone got injured or your talents are needed elsewhere, step up for your team. Be a team player.

I am often asked what it is that college coaches are looking for when they are recruiting a player. One common theme I can share is that coaches are looking for players that have a great attitude and are coachable. They search for players who will do what is asked of them, play where they are needed to help the team win and do it to the best of their ability. College coaches are looking for players who have winning attitudes not whining attitudes.

GPA and SAT are more important than YPC (yards per carry)
Schools are recruiting STUDENTathletes. The NCAA has been putting more and more emphasis on graduation rates and will pull scholarships from colleges that don’t meet graduation percentage rates. This means the colleges must recruit an athlete that is strong in the classroom and can meet tougher entrance requirements. (All student athletes entering College after August 1st 2008 must meet the 16 core-course rule.) Bottom line is this: the higher your grade point average and SAT/ACT score, the more scholarship opportunities you will have.

Along these same lines don’t wait to take the ACT/SAT test. As the chairman for the Central Florida All Star game I see dozens of football players come to play in the game in December that haven’t taken the test yet or don’t have a qualifying score. Most schools will not even bring these players up for an official visit because they don’t spend the money on a player that they can’t get into school. If you are a senior and you haven’t taken the test yet, take it this fall. If you are a junior make sure you register to take it a couple of times in the spring of your junior year. This way you should have the third year of math under your belt before you take the test.