Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Just Some Recruiting Tidbits

Received a nice phone call from Andy Helms, head football coach at Dayton C-J. Reported that big Andy Jomantas(6'8-250) has received a verbal offer from Kansas. His first BCS offer, but has some offers from some MAC schools. Evidence that if you play hard and work hard your senior year there are scholarships still out there. Somewhat discouraging is this stuff with early offers. Players, parents, and even coaches sometimes get discouraged if no offers come in the summer.

To some extent, I see their point. However, I have been doing this long enough to realize that an early offer is good, but by no means is it the end, if a prospect does not receive one. I firmly believe if you are good enough someone is going to see you. Along with that, I watched the University of Findlay two weeks ago, and by no means is playing D2 football a big drop down. Many Oilers could be playing on D1 programs.

Coach Tressel is a good friend of mine, as is the OSU staff, so this is not a knock at the Buckeyes. Two years ago there were 11 players with Ohio high school backgrounds taken in the first six rounds of the NFL draft. One played at OSU. Last year, something like fourteen players were taken. Four from Ohio State. Even if you are not a Buckeye, you will still get noticed.

Finally, I read in the Lima paper a nice article about Ada HS wide receiver, Heath Jackson. In the article, both his coach Mike Fell and he talked about his offer from Bowling Green, but said that if the Buckeyes offered he would go. Maybe think it, but do not put it in print. On the flip side, one BCS program told me that they have offered 5 more prospects than they have scholarships for. A common practice.

No matter what I tell recruits and parents, they all nod their heads like I have no clue what I am talking about. Of course, many of them nod their heads in a different manner when recruiting is finished.

A poster on my office wall. "Integrity: If you have to think about whether something is right or wrong...it is wrong."

No comments: