Mike Anderson agreed to a new extended contract at Missouri, keeping him a Tiger for the next seven years and ending rumors that he would jump ship to coach Memphis.

And signing that contract may have been the best decision Anderson has made all year (and this from a coach who took his team to the elite and an impressive win over that same Memphis team).

In his time with Missouri, Anderson has transformed the Tigers from a mid level contender in the Big 12 to conference front-runner, with a flashy style and up pace game plan that he perfected at UAB. With all that going for him, why would he even consider Memphis?

Continue reading "College Coaches Staying Put Was The Right Call"

"What we look for is consistency. In game film, we want to see consistency. The big thing is a kid coming to our camp. We can have a (recruit) at our place under our format. We can have our own watch and properly evaluate a recruit. This has become a premium which is why our camps are so important."

Continue reading "RECRUITING HAS BECOME CRAZY part 2"

But this post isn't about Sleepaway Camp. It's about prep football camps and the cottage industry of combines and competitions that has spun off from them.

We addressed this in Friday's post. Today, we have insights from someone who can speak from authority. PJ Fleck is the recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach at Northern Illinois. He is in his 2nd season as a coach at Northern. Fleck is responsible for the Huskies' recruiting efforts.

How much stock do you put in these things? 

"All these combines, we get the results, but it's someone else's watch, someone else's ruler, someone else's scale. We used to attend these, but now we can't (the NCAA prohibits Division 1 coaches from evaluating student-athletes at independently held combines). We'll get information from a big one, like a Nike camp, but stay away from the little ones." 

Continue reading "RECRUITING HAS BECOME CRAZY"

If you are a prep football player, a phone call will not be your 1st contact from a college, but it's an essential step on the process. Sort of like when you ask someone out. If you don't at least ask, you'll never get a yes. Of course, there's always the chance you'll get rejected, but I digress (not that I would know anything about rejection...I have friends that have had this experience).

9 days into this "contact" period, if you haven't gotten a phone call from a coach, that doesn't mean coaches aren't interested. It just might mean they aren't interested- yet. Here are a handful of ways to know if you are on a college coaches' My 3 list (OK, I know it's My 5, but this is a blog, and short and sweet wins the day):

Continue reading "Think youre being recruited 3 ways to know for sure"

If you are a recruited high school student athlete, a college coach can offer you a scholarship at the start of your junior year. Football is the only sport where that commitment is verbal for 18 months! The rules say you can't sign with a school until February of your senior year. Why is this creating problems? Like you would expect from 16 and 17-year-old teenagers, many are changing their minds, verbally committing to a school their junior year, only to sign with another when it is time to put pen to paper.

You can imagine this is not sitting well with college coaches.

A recent poll in the the Daily Oklahoman said most Division 1 college football coaches favor moving the early prep football signing period up, to sometime during a prospects senior year.

Continue reading "Winds of Change"

"They like height," said Emerick.

Since no pill or creme could help Emerick shake his "Little Mike" nickname and help him grow taller, he knew that in order to get to the collegiate level, he would have to outwork everyone else.

Which he did, working with strength and speed trainers in prepartation for a collegiate career. When Mike arrived at  Lindenwood University  in the fall of 2006, he may have been the team's best athlete.

But after his freshman year, a year where he saw little playing time, all of that hard work and training had yet to gain the notice of his coaches.

Continue reading "College Athletics Reality Check 101 Part 3"

Or is it?

"The truth is, less than 1 percent of kids in this country get athletic scholarships," said Jack Renkens, a former college basketball coach and president and founder of Recruiting Realities.

Renkens travels the country speaking on issues surrounding the collegiate recruiting process. It is a murky subject, where the lines are blurred between fact and fiction.

Continue reading "College Athletics Reality Check 101 Part 2"

"Most NCAA student-athletes will graduate in something other that sports"

If you are a high school student-athlete with dreams of playing your sport in college, here's a bit of advice. You may want to inject a few facts into your ambition, even if it may permanently ground it.

A recent  NY Times article cited the gowing divide between the culture of reality in college athletics and the expectations of those who want to participate. An analysis of  NCAA data reveals the average college athletic scholarship is just north of $8,700. With the average cost of a public education in Illinois close to $20,000 per year, private upwards of $30,000, those who play and their parents need to get real.

Continue reading "College Athletics Reality Check 101"