What are recruiters really looking for? Character, grades and ‘Are mom and dad nuts?’
.JPG "The Oak Ridge Trojans head out to arm up before the game as the Oak Ridge Trojans football team host the Folsom Bulldogs on Friday, Nov. 3, 2017.")
College football coaches from across the land stopped by area high school campuses last week.
It was open season for recruiting, to fill any last-moment needs for Wednesday’s letter-of-intent signing period, but especially to get a jump on the 2020 season. The coaches arrived decked out in school colors, be it from Oregon, Cal, USC, Michigan, Arizona State, Ohio State, Sacramento State or UC Davis.
They came to rub elbows, to network, to kick tires and to observe. Recruiting never ends, and neither do the tireless efforts of prep coaches trying to help their student-athlete play at the four-year level, preferably on a full scholarship ride. It boils down to this: the math. It never adds up favorably. There are hundreds of scholarship offers across the country as college football programs generally offer between 15 and 26 full rides, and there are tens of thousands of prospects in full scramble mode.
Studies show that 2 percent of prep athletes — any sport — land full athletic scholarships.The rest are on the outside looking for anything.
“There’s a ton of players out there, but too many kids and parents are convinced that being a good player alone will get them a scholly, or that if they go to a certain high school they’ll get that scholly,” Pleasant Grove coach Matt Costa said. “There’s a lot more to it. There’s this misconception that if you’re a good player, you’re automatically a scholarship guy. Not true. You have to have really good grades, for one thing.”
And this: College coaches do not care about statistics, winning streaks, strength of schedule or how high the team is ranked.
Costa added, “The first three questions I get from college coaches don’t even include the player’s playing ability. It’s how is he as a person? How are his grades? What’s the family like? If mom or dad are nuts, the kid won’t sign. I get that question more than anything, and fortunately, we don’t have grade issues or parent issues here.”
Costa will beam Wednesday afternoon in the Pleasant Grove school library when his two-way lineman, Jack O’Connor, will commit to Idaho State of the Big Sky Conference in a signing ceremony. Big Jack checks out on all the boxes: a good kid, a great student with a 3.8 grade-point average, supportive parents who understand their place and a tremendous athletic upside at 6-foot-7 and 250 pounds.
O’Connor is a humble young man with humor. His Twitter feed includes the commitment to the Bengals of Pocatello — and a selfie of proudly retiring his mullet. He handled Twitter the right way, without boast or complaint of being “slept on” by colleges.
Said Costa, “Social media makes recruiting different. Some try to sell their kids when they’re 10 years old. That’s not how it works.”
Defensive lineman/tight end DeShawn Lynch of Folsom will also commit Wednesday, the start of the second signing period. Placer fullback/defensive end Hans Grassman will sign with UC Davis. The first national signing period was in December, when 15 area players signed.
What about the heavies?
Oak Ridge was the best team in the Sac-Joaquin Section at the end of the 2019 season and it nearly advanced to the CIF State finals. The Trojans have players, but none are signing Wednesday. Some could sign later in the spring, and some very well may end up at smaller colleges.
This is also true for Division II section champion Elk Grove, and for Monterey Trail, which dethroned Folsom in the D-I section semifinals and lost a thriller to Oak Ridge in the D-I finals. And this theme rings true for Capital Christian, and Center, and Del Oro and scores of other top-flight programs.
It’s not that these programs don’t know how to play the game. They do. None of these programs having a player sign a Division I package this winter is reflective of how difficult it is to land rides. Next season could be a different story. Monterey Trail will have one of the state’s most sought-after recruits next season in speedy runner/receiver Prophet Brown, whose offers already include Oregon, USC and Notre Dame.
“Very competitive numbers now for football,” Monterey Trail coach T.J. Ewing said in comprehending the numbers game. “A lot of D-I football programs folded in California the past 40 years, five or six schools that offered 85 rides each. That’s 450-plus scholarships that are not there any more.
“Not any college coach is at fault, just a pure numbers game. That’s the reason why most parents should take a deep breath and enjoy their child’s journey rather than chasing Willie Wonka’s golden ticket.”
A ‘frustrating’ experience
Oak Ridge coach Eric Cavaliere described the college recruiting game as “frustrating!” His top player is quarterback Justin Lamson, a junior who has skills, size and grades and was The Bee’s Player of the Year who also made Cal-Hi’s All-State team. He has two FCS offers. No FBS power schools have called — yet.
“Strange business,” Cavaliere said. “I do feel that colleges get too caught up in measurables — height, weight, 40-yard dash time. Instead of evaluating a player and saying he is an inch short, 15 pounds light or a tenth too slow, how about take a look at how well they play football, and talking to their coach about what kind of teammate and student they are?”
Coaches also remind players of the smaller-college route, including community colleges. Go where it fits and to heck with image or any notion that smaller isn’t better. Coaches especially remind their players that recruiting is a cutthroat deal.
“It’s extremely difficult to land a scholarship,” Elk Grove assistant coach James Pale said. “Our message is that you can only control what you can: Your effort, your grades, your performance on the field. So many variables. Who is recruiting? What are the needs? What does their recruiting board really look like? Which coaches are on the hot seat? So many things go into the college machine.
“I tell our kids that college is a business and dudes lose jobs when their signees don’t pan out. We tell our kids there is somewhere for everyone to play. Whether that is as a scholarship kid or not is really not up to them, unfortunately. But there are some great JCs out there, great NAIA and Division II or III programs. It is sobering to look at the numbers. But if we are to teach our kids to go for their dreams, we should encourage them to do that. Just temper it with reality.”
Walking on
Some have gladly accepted a preferred walk-on opportunity to a big school, meaning a roster spot but no scholarship. It still affords a student-athlete a chance to live out dreams.
Jesuit tight end Cooper Shults has committed as a walk-on to Oregon after taking visits to UCLA and being offered a scholarship to Cal Poly of the Big Sky. He is headed to a place where it feels right. Even walk-ons endure a stressful whirlwind. The season ends but the competition does not.
Said father Bob Shults, “It was a crazy ride the last four weeks. Cooper was under the radar because he was injured the majority of his junior year and the first half of his senior season. He worked really hard to get healthy and noticed. The recruiting process seems to really be momentum based. Once the offers and interest start coming, it gets intense really fast. We are really excited for him and now we start dealing with the reality that our boy is leaving us in a few months.”
This story was originally published February 4, 2020 at 1:10 PM.