NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Coach Taylor, my son opted to take an academic scholarship rather than an athletic scholarship at a DI school and is a walk-on on the Basketball team. If he were offered an athletic scholarship at another DI school, could he transfer in the fall and be eligible to play right away in 2011-2012?

Great question! The answer is, if you transfer within Division I, you have to sit out a year, regardless of scholarship. The scholarship, however, can still be used to pay for that year! So the scholarship will begin, but eligibility is lost. Also, transferring within conferences can be prohibited with some, and you should check at www.ncaa.org for specific conference transfer rules/exceptions. Good luck to you and your son!

Send your recruiting questions to askcoachtaylor@ncsasports.org

You can also get your questions answered directly by contacting an NCSA Recruiting Coordinator at 866-579-6272.

Coach Taylor, when is it a good time to fill out recruiting questionnaires? I read somewhere junior year of high school is a good time, but I feel currently that my experience would be lower if I were to do it next year.

Easy answer: NOW. Recruiting starts FRESHMAN year of high school, and for some, even 8th grade! If you get a recruiting questionnaire in the mail/email however, nothing should hold you back from filling it out right then and there and sending it back in, unless you are waiting for a video to be edited. And even then, you could send it back in with a cover letter stating how you will be sending a copy of your highlight tape as soon as it is finished.

If you can submit your information to these interested coaches immediately, it will get you on their radar. Think about it this way, think of EVERY other recruit in the nation, your age and younger, who are filling them out and turning them in. It doesn’t make sense to wait. And if your stats improve drastically, you can email them with a big milestone or other things like that. Build relationships with these coaches now, and keep them going throughout your recruiting process.

Good luck!

Send your recruiting questions to askcoachtaylor@ncsasports.org

You can also get your questions answered directly by contacting an NCSA Recruiting Coordinator at 866-579-6272.

Besides speaking on the College Athletics Recruiting process, I work with many of our Recruiting Experts at NCSA in helping them fine tune the powerful “College Recruiting Simplified” presentations they deliver at High Schools, Camps, Showcases, Combines and other events and locations. These men and women are dedicated to changing lives by inspiring and educating families on what it takes to connect with scholarships and college athletics opportunities. Director of Speakers Izell Reese brings in men and women of character and integrity with remarkable backgrounds in recruiting. I love hearing their stories and seeing them go out and impact audiences.

NCSA Recruiting Expert Jimmy Gonzalez

Jimmy Gonzalez was in the NCSA offices in early 2011 to join our team of Recruiting Experts. He now speaks at High Schools all over Texas, and beyond. To bring him in to your School, contact Amanda Rawson at arawson@ncsasports.org  Gonzalez used to be Director of Football Operations for Oklahoma State. His career saw him also work as Director of Player Development at Notre Dame and serve on staffs at Texas and Oklahoma in administrative capacities. Prior to that he coached for almost 15 years at Duke, Northwestern, Wisconsin and Tulsa. He is steeped in credibility when it comes to speaking on recruiting.

Gonzalez shared some things with me that you can benefit from regardless of your sport. For example, if you want to be a college athlete, it is imperative you play hard all the time in High School and other athletic events. When Gonzalez evaluated video for College football recruiting, he looked for effort.

“If a play goes away from a football player,” Gonzalez told me, “I would look to see if the player just stood there or busted his tail to get over to that side of the field to see if he could do something. It’s like in basketball. If a fast break develops, do you trail, or just stand back? College coaches watch those things.”

His comment reminded me of a time I picked up a newspaper in California while speaking there and read of a new College football coach rebuilding a program. He said when looking at video if a receiver did not block hard even if the play was away from him, that Coach stopped the video and moved to the next prospect’s video.

People ask a lot about whether their child should specialize in a sport to help their odds of getting a College scholarship or play multiple sports.

“When I looked at football players I liked to see if they did other sports like track and field,” said Gonzalez. “We were always looking for verified information and if a kid claims he can run a 4.4 40 in football that would mean he should run about a 10.5 100 meters. That’s where Track can help him. If a player can really throw the shot or discus that would tell us he has a lot of explosiveness in his body.”

As I write this, a lot is being made that Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers didn’t get much D1 interest out of High School for various reasons. He started out in Junior College. Gonzalez told me of when he was on the staff at Tulsa. Barry Sanders, who would go on to possibly be the most exciting running back in football history, went under the radar as far as recruiting. Only Tulsa, Wichita State (which doesn’t have football anymore) and Kansas State (they were really bad back then) recruited him.

“Oklahoma State didn’t get in on him until a few days before Signing Day,” said Gonzalez. “Their top two tailbacks on their recruiting board went somewhere else. Otherwise they wouldn’t have gone after him.”

If Barry “quicker than a butterfly with hiccups” Sanders had trouble being recruited what does that tell you about being proactive? Jerry Rice and Walter Payton went under the major D1 radar in their day.

Gonzales is from football mad Texas and will be speaking at High Schools around the state to educate families on the College Athletics Recruiting process. He will encourage them to follow their dream of D1 if they have the God given ability and the commitment to play at that level, but to also be open to all levels. Gonzalez grew up adoring the University of Texas and would get goosebumps driving by the Longhorns Stadium. His dream was to play there but he had a few things going against him. He wasn’t good enough, strong enough, big enough or fast enough to play major D1. He played at Texas Lutheran, a NAIA school, where he earned his degree in Political Science.

“It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” said Gonzalez. “I got to continue to be involved in athletics and around the game of football. I am still close to my college teammates.”

When reflecting on his days of helping to evaluate College football prospects, Gonzalez shared these insights.

* “Whenever I was told of a possible prospect the first thing out of my mouth would always be ‘how are the grades?’”

* “I have always felt young people should find a school based on academics first. I would always say if you got hurt the first day of practice make sure it is at a school you like for reasons other than your sport”

* “A lot of people get form letters and think they are being recruited. When I coordinated recruiting we would send out 1000 letters. It became a process of elimination down to about 25. In football you can find out real fast where you stand with D1′s in April of your junior year. From April 15 to May 31 College coaches can call a prospect once. If you don’t get a call April 15 maybe you’re still okay. April 16…? April 17th? I would question whether you are being recruited by those schools. I would know the ten guys I was going to call on April 15th.”

Jimmy Gonzalez is dedicated to helping educate families around Texas and all over about the ‘5 Things they Must Know and the 5 Things they MUST Do’ to have a successful recruiting experience. It is critical that Recruiting Education be made available to families. NCSA has over 30 Recruiting Experts that can inform parents, athletes and coaches on recruiting as it is today.

To bring a NCSA Recruiting Expert to your High School, Club or Special Event

If you have any questions about bringing in an Expert or about the Recruiting Process: cadams@ncsasports.org

NCSA Recruiting Expert Charlie Adams meets with families

Every year, thousands of high school athletes ask the question:

“Can I attend a junior college then be able to transfer to a D-1 school?” 

The answer is yes.  It is very possible to attend a Junior College and transfer to a D-1 program, there are tons of athletes doing it every year in multiple sports.  It is simply a question of the student-athletes dedication and determination, both in the recruiting process and the sport.  What better example of Junior College success is there than of Super Bowl XLV MVP Aaron Rodgers?

Rodgers spent his freshman year of college at Butte Community College in Oroville, California.  Despite receiving a walk-on offer from Illinois out of high school, the main concern with Aaron was his size (5′ 10, 165 lbs).  Despite what critics thought, Rodgers knew that he had the ability to achieve much greater heights.  After phenomenal success in his first year, throwing for 28 TD’s and leading Butte to a #2 National Ranking, Rodgers accepted an offer to play for the California-Berkley Golden Bears, and the rest is history.

It is rarely too late to find a Junior College program to compete in, and it may be a great move for many high school student-athletes with dreams of athletic success.  Complete listings Junior Colleges can be found at www.njcaa.org, except California Junior Colleges, which can be found at www.coasports.org.  There are hundreds of junior college football players currently in the NFL.  College sports recruiting is complicated business that provides many possible answers for high school students, and junior college may be the right answer for you.

Emil Clayton is a college basketball player who was profiled last year on ESPN.com, as a talented prospect with no scholarship offers.  He landed at Kishwakee Junior College and is now working with NCSA to transfer to a 4 year institution.

What’s up,

Yet another week in my recruiting and season, and I’m back for this week’s journal entry. This week I played two games against Highland and Sauk Valley. We beat Sauk Valley and lost to Highland. At the Highland game, there were four Division I schools. The schools were Bradley, SIUe, Tennessee-Martin, and Eastern Illinois. I started my week out by emailing a few coaches about their programs and recruiting efforts. Nearing close to the end of conference and the beginning of post-season, I will be looking to contact more coaches.

Until next time,

Emil Clayton

Florida State Coach Jimbo Fischer had some huge recruiting boots to fill taking over for the legendary Bobby Bowden.  He more than filled them yesterday hauling in what most analysts are calling the number one recruiting class in the country.  After the ink was dry on the National Letters of Intent he spoke with reports on how FSU’s class came together.  His remarks should be very telling to recruits.

“People ask if it matters if you get the No. 1 class, and to me it really doesn’t,” Fisher said. “I don’t mean that in a negative way, because it’s the guys we wanted. We started taking guys before they had stars out. I don’t care. We can identify and we recruit our own guys.”

“We’re just doing it earlier,” Fisher said. “Florida State was always famous for closing. Times have changed. Because the ability to communicate is at such a different level now, kids know more about where they’re wanting to go and what they want to do. It’s much more important to do things early.”

He specifically pointed to the fact that they don’t put stock in ratings or stars on a website.  They perform their own evaluations of players very early in the process.    Recruits need to understand this fundamental fact of recruiting:  You need to get your recruiting information to college coaches as early as possible.

For all you football fans out there, be sure to tune into Coach Taylor’s live “Signing Day Special” Thursday, February 3rd at 7 pm CST. He will break down the top recruiting classes and signing day “winners” and “losers.” Coach will also be doing Q&A,s o be sure to sign in to the chat below!

Free live streaming by Ustream

Emil Clayton is a college basketball player who was profiled last year on ESPN.com, as a talented prospect with no scholarship offers.  He landed at Kishwakee Junior College and is now working with NCSA to transfer to a 4 year institution.

Hey what’s up,

I’m back giving you guys another journal entry this week. This is my second entry, and my second week of bein back wit the team at NCSA. I started this week by searching Through the college search map and adding several NCAA Division I & II schools of my interest. I went about doing this by looking for schools who were in need of a PG or SG, or schools that I wouldnt mind playing for. After that process, I went through my recruiting board and created a Top 25 list and schools I am interested in attending. Besides that I have been busy with my current season and haven’t been able to breakdown my film. But, film will be added soon to my profile.

Until next time, Emil Clayton

Coach Taylor, what should I do if I have sent an online questionnaire to a school and they haven’t answered me back? Does it mean they just aren’t interested?

Great question, that I’m sure worries a lot of student athletes out there.  No, this does not mean that they are not interested.  Coaches get hundreds of recruiting questionnaires from all over the country every week, so you can imagine what that must be like for a few coaches to sift through to find the good recruits.  What I would suggest you doing, is email the coach(es) with a cover letter that you have drafted up with some stats on it and a link to your recruiting highlight video.  Then add in there somewhere, I recently submitted an online recruiting questionnaire.  This way, they will see your video, be interested, and then go back and find your online submitted questionnaire for further consideration.

Good luck with recruiting!

You can always send your recruiting questions to askcoachtaylor@ncsasports.org

You can also get your questions answered directly by contacting an NCSA Recruiting Coordinator at 866-579-6272

Coach Taylor, Should a kid and/or his Parents feel guilty about de-committing?

When you think about the decision of where to go to college, it’s pretty much a 40-year decision.  This decision you make, will affect your life for most likely the next 40 years.  So if a student athlete verbally commits and then realizes they made the wrong choice, felt pressured, a better school caught their attention, or all of the above, can you blame them for de-committing? No.  Verbal commitments can be broken, so a coach just has to wait until signing day to get it set in stone from an athlete.  High school kids are young and it is understandable if they feel compelled to de-commit.  Do not feel guilty.  The coach may seem very disappointed and make you feel guilty, but this is their job, they will get over it and find a replacement for your de-commit.

You can always send your recruiting questions to askcoachtaylor@ncsasports.org

You can also get your questions answered directly by contacting an NCSA Recruiting Coordinator at 866-579-6272