Subscribe to the NCSA BlogCoaches Need to Dig Deep in Player Assesments
June 23rd, 2009 - byA 19-19 record over three years and no players selected players in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft represents a major disappointment for the University of Miami football program. Coach Larry Coker was dismissed two seasons ago despite winning a National Championship and one of the main reasons was a drop in recruiting. Hurricane’s Recruiting Coordinator Clint Hurtt told the Sun Sentinel that one of the main reasons for the drop-off was a lack in depth evaluation and an over reliance on Internet sites.
“The big difference is we’re evaluating game film now. A lot of times it was highlight tapes, highlight tapes,
Jeremy Shockey and Andre Johnson celebrate a National Championship
highlight tapes. That could just be a big teaser.”
“We spent way too much time recruiting off lists and finding these top guys instead of truly evaluating. You can’t just go off hearsay or just becuase Florida, FSU, or Alabama is recruiting him. That doesn’t mean a thing.”
ESPN recruiting analyst Tom Luginbill said the Hurricanes were often caught up in the hype machine that occurs in the world of online recruiting. Many websites claim to rank the best players, but Luginbill said the moment coaches start paying attention to the “star system” is when “a program starts walking a cliff.”
“In my opinion, you’ve got to stay true to your own evaluation, your own blueprint,” Luginbill said. “Don’t worry about what everybody else is saying, but that’s a very difficult thing to do. … What happens is there is so much information out there about guys. Most of it can be untrue. A lot of it is perpetuated by people who are claiming to be recruiting analysts, but don’t know if a football is pumped or stuffed.”
It’s vital that recruits take a couple of lessons from these quotes. One, don’t worry about what the Internet rankings say about you. they are most often driven by who is recruiting you rather than real evaluation. Two, make sure that you don’t just market yourself to coaches using a highlight tape. Highlights are great for initial evaluation, but coaches need full game tape to make accurate scholarship decisions.
NCSA strives to give coaches the tools to make honest in depth evaluations. Our Scouting Reports allow athletes to upload highlights and full game videos. Our recruiting coaches evaluate prospects, but the true evaluations are always left up to the college coach. The formula has made NCSA the most trusted third party for Verified Prospects.
July 1st, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Okay im tired of people complaing of how bad a player is im 5′6 132lbs going to be a junior in bellevue,ne @ bellevue west h.s. this year will be my first year on varsity and i will start on special teams. i got heart thats what alot of good players now a days dont have i bench my 1 rep max is 190 my hang clean is 155 my squat is 235 and my incline is 135+ so… i just wanted to let everyone know i will play football for the boise state broncos one day
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:02 am
Just left a notre dame camp. this is clearly what they are doing and the programs success is showing it to be a flawed strategy. charlie might ask nebraska’s last coach how well it does not work.
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:30 pm
My son was recruited this year and when he gave a verbal all of the sudden he was ranked with a 2 star evaluation. The thing is nobody evaluated him. He was ranked by the support writer by the team that recruited him early. It was to there adavantage to rate him low and keep the others away. Well as it turned out he was recruited at the end of the year and changed his mind. The rating stayed with him and all others jumped on the band wagon, scout, espn, rivals all had him at a 2 star. He still was not evaluated by anybody. Max Preps had him as the #1 passing rated QB in the nation. finished with 51 TD’s overall. The coaches that did their home work got him. The ones that passed based on his rating is missing out. Not sure who started the star rating but I can tell you he was never evaluated by anyone who knows football. More like marketing and writing skills were applied.