Youth/Incoming Freshman

Preparing for Your Athletic Scholarship Future

At this stage of the game only college football coaches at the top level programs are looking to evaluate elite level athletes. You will see perennial Top 10 programs on occasion offer players in the 7th and 8th grade, although the trend continues to accelerate every year. These are the rare “physical freaks of nature”. Very few D1 programs outside of that elite class will actually be offering scholarships to players in this age group. However if you aspire to play for a top program like an Alabama, or LSU, etc., you need to take early action.

If you aren’t playing varsity football at a K-12 school prior to the 9th grade and believe you are a high level prospect, you have a lot of work to do if you want to be evaluated by those types of programs. Your best bet at this point is to film some workout footage; running a 40, pro shuttle, 1-on-1s or for QBs throwing 7-on-7. Specialists (Punters, Kickers and Snappers) can always submit skill video - do not feel as though you must submit game footage. Once you’ve captured this football submit it to the programs of your choice via a viewership-enabled video submission platform. Again, only elite level athletes who don’t yet have varsity footage should take this route. If you have varsity footage you should be getting that in front of college coaches along with a profile as soon as possible.

For more information on how to film skill videos by position click here.

Football Highlight Videos

Even if you get some initial mail, all advanced players should have either varsity highlight video or workout footage and send it to as many high level programs as possible to open up more options. Remember, you may dream of playing at LSU, and you may be good enough, but if they don’t find out about you in time it could be too late. Elite youth players can really create options for themselves by getting in front of a lot of recruiting coordinators and college coaches early on.

Viewership-Enabled Recruiting Video

The most common recruiting mistake football recruits make early on the process is that they don’t use video at all. Even if they do use video, many times they use the wrong video, or they send unsolicited links or DVDs and have no idea if it’s been watched by coaches. Or worst of all they start going to a lot of camps without having sent viewership-enabled video in advance.

Don’t waste your time or money walking into college camps as an unknown commodity.

Once you have your video complete, the key is to submit your profile along with a viewership-enabled copy to college coaches. Viewership-enabled simply means that you’ll be notified once a college coach actually views your video. Sending any video or information to a college coach without being able to verify viewership is ultimately a waste of your time. To start utilizing viewership-enabled video click here. Don’t be a name and a number out of hundreds that just show up cold to a camp hoping to get stand out. Attending as many camps as possible and just hoping you get noticed in a drill is not a strategy. Get your viewership-enabled video and profile in front of coaches eyes before you set foot on their campus. You need to know once that video has been seen so you can follow up. If coaches know who you are and have seen you before on video prior to their camp your odds of getting their attention go way up.

Here are tips for getting the most out of your video:

• Get viewership-enabled video out to coaches as a first step.
• Use these viewership-enabled highlight or workout footage videos to help determine which camps you attend.
• Communicate with coaches prior to their camp once you know they’ve watched it.
• Make sure coaches know you and that you’re interested prior to attending.
• Once you film your video you can add it to your profile for free here.
• Once you’ve built your profile and added your video, simply start selecting schools and sending out your information.