NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Connor Kelley has started off the season with a bang.  Passing for 456 years, and running for 210 in only 2 ½ games.  The 6’2” 205lb All Conference QB, who runs a 4.59 (hand held) 40 already has an offer from Colgate.  Connor matches his dedication on the field in the classroom.  With a perfect 4.0 GPA, and 1400 (2 Part) SAT he has garnered lots of IVY League and Patriot League interest.

This interest has been a product of Connor’s ability on the field and in the classroom, but also from his own initiative towards recruiting.  Connor has had 9 coaching sessions with recruiting Coach Rick McDole, who has guided Connor every step of the way.  To top that off Connor has put up 3 videos on his scouting report, been matched with qualifying schools 6 times, and been in 6 group huddles.

We know Connor will keep it up in the classroom, on the field, and in the recruiting process!

ESPN is continuing their Recruiting 101 series this week and I highly encourage our readers to take a look at this Bruce Feldman piece. However there are two highlights in the article that every recruit needs to understand!

The first is the importance coaches place on character these days.

For as much attention as the wooing and chasing part of the recruiting business gets — and it gets a ton these days — coaches say it’s more vital than ever to spend as much time as possible in the evaluation process because of the increasing number of distractions both inside and outside of their programs.

“It’s not only the talent part of it but now the ‘intangibles’ are becoming tangibles,” said Cristobal, a guy who had been considering a career as a Secret Service agent before going into coaching. “Work ethic and character are now rated as part of ‘talent’ in the way we approach it. And I think it’s paid dividends, especially when you’re trying to build a program because if you don’t have those guys with the builder type, no-excuse mentalities, you’re going to struggle.”

Recruits need to pay more attention to their actions in today’s internet age to make sure no red flags are raised on their recruiting profile.

The other must know fact, has long been whispered about in recruiting circles but rarely put in print.

There is another side of the recruiting game that has become very relevant in today’s world of college football: The perception that if you’re bringing in good recruiting classes, your staff might get more leeway in the eyes of its administration. Tyrone Willingham was fired after three seasons at Notre Dame with a record of 21-15. The man who has followed him, Charlie Weis, was 22-15 after three years and coming off the worst season in the school’s proud history. The perception at Notre Dame, though, was that Weis had been saddled with Willingham’s suspect recruiting efforts, whereas the former New England Patriots assistant had been reeling in top-10 recruiting classes.

While recruiting rankings are subjective, it certainly hasn’t hurt Weis.

Rick Neuheisel, UCLA’s second-year coach, went 4-8 in his debut season leading his alma mater, but because his staff landed a host of highly regarded recruits — and beat archrival USC to a bunch of them — optimism is surging around Westwood.

Perhaps an even stronger pull in the perceived recruiting power of a school is that if other blue-chippers see that some upstart program is starting to snag prized prospects, it tends to create an avalanche effect. Most kids want to be part of a big turnaround.

For these reasons, some schools now give their coaches bonuses based on their recruiting rankings. And because of that it’s no surprise that some coaches privately lobby some online recruiting services who generate the star-system, defining how each recruit is graded.

Recruits have long worried about rankings on recruiting websites.  Here is just one more reason why they should worry about impressing coaches, not websites.

2009 graduate Erik Mozzo from Beufort, South Carolina was just named SSC Defensive Player of the week. Erik is the starting goal keeper for the Saint Leo Lions. Mozzo had a spectacular week in net for the Lions, recording a 2-0 record and 0.00 GAA. He totaled eight saves and posted a pair of shutouts while facing a total of eight shots on goal for the week.

Mozzo registered the first win of his Saint Leo career in a 7-0 shutout victory over the Clearwater Christian Cougars. During the match, the freshman recorded one save on one shot faced in 75 minutes worth of action.

He was particularly impressive in the Lions’ second game of the season, helping lead Saint Leo to 3-0 in-region victory over the North Georgia College Saints. He played all 90 minutes. Mozzo stopped seven shots on goal to preserve the Lions’ victory. Five of those saves came in the second half.

Mozzo is the first Saint Leo student-athlete to be awarded the honor for the 2009-2010 athletic year.

** Thanks to Saint Leo University (saintleolions.com) for the content.**

ESPN’s Tom Lunginbill put together his top 3 biggest changes in Recruiting and I wholeheartedly agree with all of his points.

1)  The Internet has completely changed the way coaches recruit.

2) Camps and combines are now essential to the recruiting process.

3) Unofficial visits are absolutely crucial to building relationships with coaches early on in the process.

However, its important to realize that all of these points are a bit of a Catch 22.  Yes, all of these points are true, but simply doing all three wont make a recruit any more likely to receive a scholarship.  Recruits need to go about accomplishing all three tasks the RIGHT WAY.

Recruits can’t just have a profile on a website.  Coaches aren’t able to find a needle in a haystack on the internet any more than they were able in the old days.  What the internet does do is allow coaches an efficient way to quickly evaluate the recruits they have heard about from a trusted 3rd party.  NCSA’s Recruit-Match database accomplishes both task of verifying every athlete as legitimate and allowing coaches to quickly evaluate their athletic and academic qualifications.

Yes, camps and combines are essential to the recruiting process.  However, choosing the right camp can be just as important.  Are you padding a coaches salary or being evaluated?  Recruits need to know AHEAD of time.

Finally, visits are key to establishing relationships.  However, setting up a beneficial visit requires first getting a coaches attention, and then executing the visit properly.  Doing both requires work and execution.

If you need help with any of the three tasks mentioned above I suggest contacting NCSA’s Scouting Center.

NCSA conducted an exhaustive survey of our 2010 committed athletes to identify their best advice to give a new student-athlete just entering high school with dreams of playing college sports.  The following graph breaks down their responses.

The clear winner of the study was to advise students to start the process as early as possible, but its important to realize that all of these points are extremely useful for any recruit hoping to play in college.  My advice to anyone starting out is to check out NCSA’s 5 Things You Need to Know and 5 Things You Must Do to Get Recruited.  The reality is that successful recruits use all of the advice above!  Once you understand why these points are so crucial its time to get started now by talking to an NCSA Recruiting Coordinator.

I speak to student-athletes on a daily basis who are serious students and are unclear on what demands are placed on athletes when they arrive on campus.  Even in each division of the NCAA, demands vary greatly from one institution to the next.  So it’s important that the student-athlete is empowered with the skill set to determine what school will be best for them.  After all, a student-athlete’s college decision will impact them for the next 50-60 years!

With that in mind, here’s a blog post from an NCSA student-athlete who found the perfect fit.  How many NCAA D1 athletic teams would allow a student-athlete to study abroad during their senior year?  Read her blog and let me know if her college choice was the best for her:

She writes:  

Hi all! My name is Melissa and I am a senior in London on Colgate’s Economics Study Group. I am not the blogging type, but I am super excited to be able to take you all on my journey with me. I hope I do not bore you and, in advance, please forgive my many typos. I hope you can make it until December because I promise it will be worth it!

I arrived at my flat in central London about 10 days ago. It was an interesting adventure getting here (about 7 hours on a plane, an hour on a train, half an hour on a bus and half an hour walking aimlessly) but I made it and I love it! London is absolutely beautiful! Words cannot explain it.

I am already into my second week of classes. For the Economics Program, we are required to take The British Economy, The EU, International Economics, and a theatre course. I know the course titles are not creative or intriguing, but I assure you the classes have already far exceeded my expectations. To give you an example, yesterday all of the Colgate London groups attended “As You Like It” in Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, which is an exact replica of the original minus, of course, the electrics. I had no idea how I was going to enjoy a play standing for three hours and exposed to the elements (it was supposed to rain, thankfully it didn’t). Turns out I ended up dancing, laughing, and meeting new people. I have been to plays before, but never have I enjoyed myself so much. It was a great experience. If you are ever in London go the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

By the way, this SA was a captain and hit .418 for her softball team last season.   She found the right fit, athletically, academically, the right balance between those 2 and an affordable financial aid package for her parents.  Find out how you can do the same here.

The NCAA is bringing up a discussion about changes to Bylaw 17, which will affect multiple sports that compete at the Division II level, but for basketball, if passed, this is what it will mean, possible fewer games and mandatory rest over Christmas break.

•Reduce contests in men’s and women’s basketball (from 27 to 26)…

•Establish a seven-day “dead period” from December 20-26…

Click here to read more about this discussion and let us know what you think.

I wanted to share some college athletics statistics that were recently calculated by the Primary Research Group.

• Just a few of the many findings of the report are:

• 8.4% of the students in the sample participate in a college sports team.

• Nearly four times as many private than public college students played college sports.

• An astounding 26.92% of students at colleges with fewer than 2,000 full time equivalent students play college sports while only 2.2% of students at colleges with more than 25,000 students do so.

What do these statistics mean?  There are a lot of schools out there!  If you are serious about playing college sports, you need to realize that most of your opportunities will exist at smaller schools that you may not have heard of.  You need to widen your horizon and look at schools of all types across America.

My wife Nancy and I went to hear Superman Bo Jackson speak at the Key Bank College Football Hall of Fame Gridiron Legends Luncheon series this past week in South Bend. Bo is the only athlete ever to make All Star in the NFL and the Major Leagues.

Bo was the eighth of ten kids growing up in Alabama. “When you are eighth,” he said, “you are own your own. If you are late for dinner, you don’t eat!”

An outstanding athlete as a kid he told his mother he would go to College or fly jets in the military. His mother said, ‘I don’t know how you are going to College. I can’t pay for it.’ Bo said that Sports was his way to having College paid for.

Regarding recruiting, he was a major high school football and baseball recruit growing up in Alabama. He said the first recruiting letter he ever got was from Indiana University Football. “Where’s Indiana?” he asked his mother. Bo said he still has that bright red recruiting letter. There’s something very special about that first letter.

Jackson said he chose college football over signing with the NY Yankees because he wanted to be the first in his family to go to a four-year school. One thing he liked about Auburn is that he asked the Coach if he would allow him as much time to study for exams as practice football. The Coach gave him his word. He eventually earned his degree in family and child development from Auburn.

Bo said that people come up to him telling him how sorry they are that his pro careers basically ended when he hurt his hip in 1991 with the Raiders.

“Don’t be sorry for me, “he said.”It was a blessing in disguise. We as humans have to realize that God puts speed bumps in our road of life. My speed bump was me injuring myself. I’ve gotten over that. I’ve moved on from being an employee to being an employer.”

Bo is now part owner of a Bank & Trust and he owns a Sports Complex near Chicago. His wife is an expert on Traumatic Head Injuries and Brain Assessment. All of their kids have been or will be in College. “They got their brains from their mother,” Bo said. One son is studying engineering at Auburn.

Former Heisman winner Eddie George is the next speaker (Sept 22) in the Luncheon Series. Jerry Rice, arguably the greatest football player ever, will speak in October. For those that live near the College Football Hall of Fame in downtown South Bend, ticket information is at 574-235-5717.

NCSA was proud to see one of our top prospects in the 2010 recruiting class commit today to the University of Southern California.

“It came down to my family and my coach [Famous Hulbert],” Prater said. “I’m looking forward to going to USC and hopefully I’ll succeed in college and in my dream to go to the NFL. That’s why I picked USC. It that gives me the best opportunity to do that.”

“He’s still early in his development making his upside terrific. He’ll get bigger, stronger and faster. He’s got more shake than most players his size and isn’t much of a long strider,” said NCSA Recruiting Analyst Randy Taylor.