How to Get Recruited During the Coronavirus

Chad Wilson

You were finally coming around.  Things were starting to fall in place.  You had a plan for your spring semester as well as summer trips planned to the colleges.  The only thing that could mess this up would be a virus that affects the entire World and causes our entire country to shut down putting the football season in jeopardy.   There’s no chance that could happen.  Oh well guess what?

With the college football season being an uncertainty and the 2020 high school football season in many states being on life support,  the 2021 class is getting one heck of a raw deal as it pertains to college football recruiting.  Those highly ranked and with solid offers in place are not feeling the pinch. However,  prospects who are on the bubble and still waiting for their first committable offer have their hands nervously hovering over the panic button.

We are in unchartered waters but if there is anything that we have learned in this society during this Covid-19 epidemic its that having a plan is the key to life.  For under-recruited and non-offered ’21 prospects,  disaster has struck.  You do not have the ability to be evaluated during Spring football and you do not have the ability to be evaluated on campus at college summer camps.  This means getting that offer is going to be difficult.  What it does not mean though is curl up into the fetal position and die.

Here are three things you need to do to help yourself in recruiting during this pandemic

(1)  Make Sure Your Hudl Video is Well Put Together

Now more than ever,  your Hudl highlight video is important.  Without any of the other ways available for a coach to really evaluate you,  the eye in the sky is going to be your biggest friend.  You must have a highlight video already put together right now.  In fact,  if you don’t,  you are basically telling the colleges that you aren’t really serious about football.  There’s just no way around that.

No serious football player entering into their senior year does not have their highlight video put together.  If that’s you then I am telling you that you aren’t serious about ball.  Just having a highlight video is not enough though.  The highlight video must be done right.  Follow the simple rules.  Put your best plays first.  Show all that you can do in the first minute of the video.  Edit the clips if they show too much before and after the play.  Highlight yourself before the snap, etc.  I have written multiple articles on how to make a highlight video that sells you. Type “highlight video” in the search bar of this blog and read away.

(2) Film Workout Videos

It worked for the the prospects in the 2020 NFL draft,  it’s bound to work for you.  Perhaps you were injured your junior year or you,  for whatever reason,  do not have much in terms of highlights.  Again,  don’t curl up and die.  If you are a good athlete,  film your workouts.  Are you fast,  show yourself sprinting.  Are you agile,  film yourself doing your position drills.  If you are strong in the weightroom, film yourself moving some weight.  Yes,  I know it’s hard to find a gym or park space right now but where there is a will there is a way.  Show something you are strong at doing.  Do not film,  with the intent of distributing,  video of yourself doing something that you are not very good at doing.  Play up your strengths.

Once you have captured video of yourself doing those things that you are exceptional at doing,  start posting them on social media and getting them out via email or DM to college coaches.

(3)  Send Messages to Coaches

This leads to the third,  final and most important thing you need to do.  Develop a serious list of schools that you wish to target.  Then compile a list of coaches from those schools you need to get in touch with.  For the most part,  you should get contact info for three coaches at the school you are interested in.  First the recruiting coordinator.  Second the position coach.  Third the coordinator for the side of the ball you are on.  You can throw in the head coach if nothing else works but he’s like the big boss at the end of a challenging action video game.  You have to get through all of the other guys first.

Limit your enthusiasm in this list making.  With precious little time and evaluation,  be smart about your list.  Sure go after some dream schools but include a healthy amount of schools you think you have a good shot at and those you know you have a shot at getting offers from.  None of us know how these next six months will go.  A bird in the hand is worth a dozen in the bush right now.  Secure a scholarship offer.

Send those coaches a nice but short note detailing your intentions.  Flat out ask them to watch your video(s) and evaluate you.  Be bold,  ask for what you want.  Send them your well put together Hudl video.  Supplement that with your workout videos showing what you can bring to the table as a player in their program.  Certainly detail your high points including high academic achievement.  This is no time to be shy.  The same way people were getting punched in the face for toilet paper two months ago,  is the same way the frenzy over the remaining scholarships will take place over the Summer and Fall.  You better have your guard up and know how to throw a right hook.

Recruiting Law: Teach Them How to Be Loyal

Chad Wilson

Finding a good program to play football can be tough.  I am not just talking about a college football program.  I am talking about a high school football program.  Not only am I talking about a college football program and a high school football program but I am also talking about a youth football program.  However,  making the right choices concerning the latter two will certainly make the choice on the first one easier.  When the choice is made,  it is then about teaching the prospect to be loyal.

Though it may not seem that way,  loyalty matters in the game of college football and so this article is more for parents than it is for prospects but really is for both.  You may have heard recently Nick Saban quote on high school transfers “when you transfer high schools,  I really don’t want to recruit you because I know you lack perseverance and grit.”  That quote was heavily scrutinized on Twitter as folks broke their necks bringing up all the players Saban recruited that transferred high schools,  like ex-Tide current NFL’er Calvin Ridley who did so multiple times.  Many people missed Saban’s point and ultimately miss the overall point on recruiting in general.

Whatever quote you hear from a coach with regards to who they will and won’t recruit typically won’t apply to the elite of the elite.  Of course coaches would rather not recruit players who transfer high schools or are questionable in their social media interactions.  However,  when a player is mega talented,  a coach is more willing to accept these shortcomings.  Those shortcomings should never be your goal and if you aren’t elite,  you can expect them to upend your recruiting process.  Is it fair? No but what are you going to do,  cry about it?

Truth of the matter is this and if you get nothing else out of this article,  get this.  Shortcomings in personality and character will ultimately catch up with the player.  Some coaches are willing to put up with it in hopes that they can get what they can from the player before passing him onto someone else.  It’s like a grenade that has had it’s pin pulled and is being passed around from person to person.  Eventually it blows up in someone’s hands.

This particular character flaw is lack of loyalty.  I can hear the other argument too.  Well the coaches aren’t loyal why should the players be.  See my point above about shortcomings.  I will also point out that the coaches are adults with families making career decisions.  They have also moved through the same college football player process that kids they coach have.  In some respects,  they have earned the right to make the career decisions.

Enough on proving whether loyalty is a good thing.  I should not have to prove to the reader that it is but such are the times that we live in. So how do we build loyalty in the prospect so that we don’t dirty up their profile when potential schools come looking?

This starts very early in their football playing career. I live in South Florida where park hopping and school transferring has become a hobby. The average rising high school senior played for 3.5 parks growing up and 2.5 high schools.  Parents get upset with coaches and programs for a myriad of reasons.  They use these reasons to hop to the next park and suit their son up in new colors.  Many times,  the problems pop up at the new park and it’s on the road again when the season is over.  Rinse and repeat.  Many parents fail to realize a couple of things.  First,  is that no park is perfect and that they all have problems.  Second,  is that they themselves are part of the problem.  All the while,  as the helmet colors change season after season,  the child is learning a very important lesson and it can have some major consequences.  That important lesson is that their loyalty is for sale.

You want a solid prospect by the time they are ready to graduate high school?  Spend your time researching the various little league parks. Determine what is important to you in the development of your young athlete.  Seek counsel on what those things should be if you have to.  When you have determined what those things are,  find the park that has “most” of those qualities.  Notice how I did not say “all”.  Determine what you are ok with doing without.  I am going to tell you this right now,  winning little league super bowls should not be at the top of this list.  Of course you want to teach your child a winning attitude but a lot important things can get sacrificed for a coach to win the big trophy every year.

When you find a park that fits your mold,  go there and make every effort to stay there.  Try to see the future when you land at the park.  Does the coach,  commissioner and the powers that be have a vision and possess managerial skills?  If so,  the park is likely to hold together at least long enough for your youngster to make it through the ranks.  Should any of the important elements that you hold dear start to fall off,  see if you can offer some help in keeping that factor in tact.

If your child is one of the better players on his team,  you can expect rival coaches to make their attempts to pull him from his current park.  Resist those urges.  They often come with a tremendous amount of flattery,  bribery and lies.  When you make that move,  you put a dent in your kid’s thought process.  Once you make that first move,  it becomes easy to make a second and a third and a fourth.  The moment he runs into trouble in high school,   guess what he will expect the move to be.  You already know what he’s thinking if his name is 3rd on the depth chart in college (if he makes it to college).

Sure,  there will be reasons to move your child from one park to another.  A complete regime change.  A coach you are connected with moving to another park,  etc.  These things are outside of your control.  They should also be one time things.  If the coach you are connected with is himself a park hopper,  you may want to reconsider why you are so connected with him.  If parks you go to keep having regime changes,  you may want to reconsider your park scouting abilities.

Human beings have become more and more petty in the social media era.  We often times let it spill over into our real lives.  We think that moving from park to park will really stick it to the coach and commissioner.  Who we really are sticking it to is ourselves whether that is the parent or the athlete.  At some point,  one’s inability to settle in,  build some loyalty and develop within a program will catch up with them. When it does,  there will be few people to blame other than yourself.  On the flip side,  building loyalty teaches the athlete something about problem solving,  perseverance and unity.  An amazing thing also happens when a person is taught loyalty.  They become stronger decision makers.  When forced to deal with a situation,  a person becomes skilled at making decisions to deal with problems.  If the answer to the problem is leaving then that will always be the answer and stability becomes an issue.  Football and life is a game of decisions.  The one that is best at making those decisions are the ones that put the ball in the end zone.

Recruiting Law: Develop Decision Making Skills

Chad Wilson

In the next part of my recruiting law series,  I move onto one that is the essence of the recruiting process and that is decision making.  Everything in recruiting is about decisions.  When to workout,  what high school to go to,  what camps to go to,  etc.  Every level of the process and every aspect of the process involves making decisions so it only stands to reason that being good at making decisions should be a key emphasis as you go through this process.

Start Early

This article is as much for parents as it is for prospects.  The reason I say this is that the earlier a prospect can develop decision making skills the better.  As much as I may think I am good at writing,  I know a kid playing youth football is not likely to read this article.  So to the parent or mentor that is reading this,  make making decisions a key part of a child’s development.  Don’t make all the decisions for them.  Give them options and observe their choices.  Review with them the results and give praise when a good decision was made with positive results.  Likewise,  point out the negative results when a poor decision is made.  However,  do not forget to point out when a poor decision was made and through fortune (aka luck) a good result was achieved.  This is very important!  Explain to your young titan how he “got away with one” and how he may not be so fortunate next time.  Believe me,  the opportunity will come where you can show him how he attempted to make the same type of decision and it didn’t work out for him.  Bottom line though,  like anything else you want your kid to be good at,  making decisions needs practice.

Relate decision making to athletic performance

Whether athlete or parent of athlete,  you need to realize that the game is nothing but a series of decisions.  Take the marquee position of quarterback.  During the course of the game they are making a plethora of decisions like making audibles, choosing who to throw to,  when to call a time out,  when to take a sack,  when to run with the ball, etc.  Their ability to make wise decisions from moment to moment has as much to do with the outcome of the game as does anything else happening on the field.  I personally find decision making to be the #1 element in evaluating the worth of a quarterback.  As a player,  take time after a game to review the decisions that you made.  Evaluate how you did with your decisions and how you can improve.  Match the decision making in one game vs. that of another.  Every position involves a decision on every snap.  How good are you at making them?  The game is what the prospect loves.  Using it to show how decisions cause you to win and lose is a fun way to learn the effects of decisions on outcomes.

Evaluate your offseason decisions

Decisions are not just for practice and games in the Fall.  Who you are during the season is a direct result of who you were during the Spring and Summer.  Take a hard account of the decisions you make during that time of year and evaluate the results.  Party vs. studying.  Film watching vs. video games.  Facetime with the girlfriend vs. learning your plays.  Hanging with people with no future vs. people who are grinding for the same goals you have set for yourself.  What you achieve in the offseason will be a direct result of which one of those options you choose and many other scenarios just like it.  Of course,  you want to have fun but you also want to stay on track.  Take constant stock of the decisions you are making in the offseason and the results they are producing.

Self awareness and good decisions are brothers

I’ve never met a good decision maker who did not have a good sense of who they are.  Take time to really evaluate your strengths and your weaknesses.  Take time to honestly evaluate where you stack up vs. the competition when it comes to recruiting.  I have to admit that this is a very difficult part in the process.  This is why I say that the earlier you start at becoming a decision maker the better.  If you are good at decision making by the time you become a prospect,  the easier this hard part gets.  Choosing the right camps to go to will involve you knowing who you are.  Skipping a camp where you are most likely to get an offer to instead go to a camp where you have no shot can be detrimental.  Transferring from one high school to another because you thought you were better than you were could really tank your chances at getting a scholarship.  Choosing to play for a college that is not suited for the way you play the game because you don’t know who you are could result in your college football experience being a bad one.  Making good decisions in the recruiting process first requires you knowing who you are.

Strong decision makers tend to be a lot more happy in life than those who are not.  This is definitely true when it comes to the game of recruiting.  The transfer portal is packed tight with guys that made some poor decisions in the recruiting process.  Not every decision to transfer is as a result of a bad move by the player but it is my experience that most of them are.  Recruiting,  like life,  is all about decisions.  Become a 5 star decision maker and you’ll score a touchdown in recruiting.

Your High School Football Coach Hates All Star 7on7. Here’s What it’s Really About

Chad Wilson

It’s the annual struggle.  Kids leave the “real” high school football season in December and immediately turn their attention to the all important 7on7 season.  Some do this against the best wishes of their high school football coach.  Others are forbidden from participating in it because their coach is 100% not in favor of it.  Your high school coach hates All Star 7on7 and here’s why.

There are a ton of fast food restaurants out there that started off serving just one item.  There are even more that just served dinner or just breakfast.  Many of them now serve multiple items streaming across a wide pallet of tastes and are open 24 hours delivering breakfast, lunch, dinner and all the snacks in between.  Why do you think that happened?  It happened because they just couldn’t stand to see you go to another place to have your needs fulfilled.  Those restaurants wanted total control of your dining experience every time you wanted to eat.

Most of your high school football coaches,  want total control of your football experience.  They want control of your in season play as well as your offseason activities.  If it’s about football,  they want to be the say so in it.  The athlete going elsewhere to learn or engage in football type activities is frightening.  Your coach has no idea what you will learn in the offseason from someone else that they might have to undo once you come back to them full time,  if you come back to them.

Notice how your coach may not have that much of a problem with you running track,  wrestling,  playing basketball or hitting the baseball diamond.  Those things aren’t football, football is their thing.  It’s fine if you want to do another sport,  they may even encourage it but when it comes to All Star 7on7,  that’s football,  that’s supposed to be their thing.

For some coaches,  it’s just as simple as,  they have their way of doing things,  they believe in it and they don’t need you picking up any bad habits.  Many coaches have a disdain for the unreal aspects of 7on7.   Some of those things are too much time to throw the football,  unreal releases off of the line of scrimmage by wide receivers and the amount of holding you may get away with as a defender.  Your high school coach doesn’t want to have to deprogram you once you are done with your all star 7on7 season.  Your high school coach is probably also on social media and only really gets to see the viral clips of all star 7on7.  This often involves disrespectful celebrations, blatant penalties, fights and unprofessional behavior by 7on7 coaches.  It would be really easy based on these mini-clips to come to the conclusion that this is all that all start 7on7 is about.  Social media has a way of distorting reality.

Another segment of coaches run a highly organized offseason program.  For some,  it’s tradition.  From the weightlifting, to speed training and conditioning to leadership classes,  participating 100% in the program gives you a leg up on the guys you are competing against for a starting job.  It also gives the better players on the team to display their leadership.  All star 7on7 is not part of those programs. Often times those programs feel that it requires 12 months out of the year to get and keep you in the right frame of mind to be a champion.

Then there is that other segment.  There is that segment of coaches that are scared to death that you will go play all star 7on7 and then transfer out of their program.  These coaches think that you will be unduly influenced by all star coaches who often coach at other high schools to switch to their program.  These high school coaches are worried that another coach will build a strong relationship with you,  teach you things,  seize your mind and send you into the guidance counselor to ask for your transcripts.  To these coaches,  letting you play all star 7on7 is like letting your girlfriend go out on dates during the spring and then ask her to be your full time lady in the Fall.  Your high school coach does not trust all star coaches more than they can throw them.  Sometimes it’s because your high school coach either knows he’s not providing you with what you need and has a complex.  Other times it’s because your coach has had a few bad past experiences with theft as it pertains to all star 7on7 coaches.

I am not here to say your coach is right or wrong.  It would be wrong of me to do that.  However,  I am giving you this information so that you can understand where your coach may be coming from.  The best way to combat this situation is to have an open line of communication with your coach.  In the back of his mind,  one or more of these factors exist in his head whether he is allowing you to participate in all star 7on7 or not.  Take the first step in being a man and communicate with your coach with regards to the all star 7on7.  Assure him that you realize every part of 7on7 is not real and that you are being mindful of your technique and habits while you are out there.  Let your coach know that one of the coaches may be trying to induce you to switch to their school.  Assure your coach that you are listening to that.  What coaches really hate is when a player and their parents do things secretly.  Be as open as you can.

For coaches that may be reading this,  realize that all star 7on7 provides a few crucial things to your athlete.  First,  is that it creates exposure opportunities.  We can debate all day about whether or not a kid can actually get offers directly from 7on7.  Let’s not waste our time on that.  One thing that is not debatable is that your athlete gets more exposure by performing well at 7on7 events.  These events are widely covered by recruiting media who will provide video, write ups and shine for your athlete.  Your athlete shining brings a spotlight to your program.

The other thing it provides for your athlete is a certain amount of freedom.  A football season can be stressful.  There are also a ton of rules both on the team and on game day in real football.  7on7 gives the player a chance to let his hair down and have some fun.  For us older coaches it’s similar to when we were allowed to just go to the park and play ball as youngsters without coaches around.  Remember how liberating that was?  Often times a player can do a little experimenting and learn something new.  That new thing might be a breakthrough for his development.

Finally,  your player is in highly competitive situations in all star 7on7.  The mental training that this provides in immeasurable.  There is a certain mental toughness that is developed by constantly being put in these situations.  It’s the kind of mental training that can’t necessarily be duplicated by you setting up a tug of war in your offseason program.  I have personally watched athletes grow up during an all star 7on7 season.  The chance to also be around other players from other schools allows them to build relationships,  learn about some other positive things that they may bring back to your program.  It’s not all negative.

Ultimately,  the decision is up to your high school football coach with regards to participation in 7on7.  I personally believe that if you are going to allow your players to participate then you should probably go easy on criticizing it.  Just my two cents.  I hope this article has been helpful for both the player and the coach in understanding where both are coming from on the matter of high school all star 7on7.  I know the debate will continue to rage on.

Recruiting Law: Don’t Be Late to the Party

Chad Wilson

Ever showed up to a party later than you wanted only to see people filing out of the house or hall or club?  Remember the sinking feeling you had as people walked by smiling and laughing.  Perhaps the dagger really got stuck in your heart when you saw someone you know and they say “man you missed it,  where were you?”.

Perhaps you missed the party for the ages by moving too slowly for whatever reason.  In time,  you’ll get over it.  Being late to the recruiting party can be a pain that lasts a lifetime.

Every January and February,  I am contacted by prospects and their parents in a panic.  A young man is weeks away from signing day and there are no offers on the table.  A lifetime journey towards a goal may be coming to a bitter end.  One of the first thoughts and sometimes questions I ask is “where were you for the last 3.5 years?”  Some of these individuals I am meeting for the very first time.  Others I have known for quite some time.  If you fall into the latter category,  I really have to wonder “where have you been,  man you missed it”.

A truly successful journey through the recruiting process is just that,  a journey.  This means that there was careful planning,  milestones set and reached along with specific steps taken.  Skipping those steps,  trying to take shortcuts or make up for an entire journey overnight will hardly ever yield the desired results.

Human nature for most of us is to put out the fires that are hottest.  Those that engage in this life theory often find that the stream of fires never stop and seem to only increase in frequency and intensity.  For some,  the recruiting fire is not hot enough to throw water on until a prospect’s senior season.  I can tell you that it’s going to take a lot of water when it reaches that point.  The hose is going to have to be strong.

There is one trend that has consistently shown itself to be true over the last decade in college football recruiting and that is that prospects are being evaluated earlier and earlier.  Maybe we can blame Lane Kiffin since he was one of the first to reach national headlines for offering a 7th grade quarterback a scholarship when he was coaching at USC.  Whomever is to blame,  the trend is moving in that direction.  This means a prospect must get on their P’s and Q’s at an early date.

The fact that offers are being handed out to 8th and 9th graders does not mean that you need to have one at that time or you’re in trouble.  However,  it simply means that the evaluation process has shifted and you must be executing a proper plan early.  Really in-tuned parents have been executing a plan for their youngster since the day they first laced up their cleats.  Some go crazy in a child’s pre-adolescence but some others take a realistic approach and gradually build towards their goal.  Without question,  those are the happiest group on either of the signing dates in December and February of each year.

Of course,  there are a small few that didn’t have much of a plan and got big results anyway.  Those are the prospects that won the genetic lottery.  Through genetics and God’s helping hand,  the prospect was blessed with abnormal height, speed, skill and or strength.  If your plan is to have your child hit the genetic lottery well then that’s no real plan at all now is it?  The best I can say to that is good luck.  Chances are real high that I will be receiving your highly panicked email, text or DM when he’s 17 turning 18.

On the flip side,  if you are the parent of a child entering high school or younger,  don’t ignore the articles that I have written and are plastered all over this blog.  Don’t scroll past the videos you see me post on YouTube that are shared to my Twitter and Facebook accounts.  Don’t ignore the links I post to my Instagram account or the podcasts I upload to my SoundCloud.  Take it from someone who has gone through the recruiting process countless times,  the fire in the recruiting kitchen is hotter than you think a whole lot earlier than you think. Please grab the buckets of water I am sharing with you on all of these lovely social media and internet platforms.   There’s a party going on right here.   Let’s get dressed,  get going and show up.  I promise you,  it’s one you don’t want to miss.

RECRUITING LAW: Intelligence is Underrated

Chad Wilson

Stop me if you’ve heard me say this before,  the world of college football recruiting is very competitive.  Being on point in all aspects of your recruiting profile is in your best interest.  Unfortunately,  one of the aspects of the profile that gets overlooked the most is intelligence.  This article is here to tell you that this is a mistake.

When it comes to the upper-echelon of college football recruiting meaning the Power 5  and Top 25 teams,  thoughts on the academics tends to stray towards get a “good enough” GPA and get the score you need to pass the test (SAT, ACT).  On the face of it,  sure,  you need the proper GPA and score to even be offered a scholarship.  However,  if that is the extent or prevailing opinion that you have regarding your academics,  you may be setting yourself up for failure.

What many of us see on game day when we are watching games are amazing feats of athleticism.  On display are guys running fast,  looking strong and hitting hard.  It is easy for us to come to the conclusion that the guys on the field are there solely because of their athletic prowess.  What is not on display is the sidelines where there are quite a few tremendous athletes smelling of the cleanest soap because they can’t get on the field.  I am here to tell you that a good portion of those talented athletes are there because learning is not “their thing”.

When you are in high school,  not everyone on the team is making football a career.  There are far more that are new to the game of football. The coaches, in a lot of cases,  are also not that advanced in their understanding of the schemes of football.  With that being the case,  high school football schemes are less complicated and intricate than what is available at the college level.  A high school coach will run what he needs to run to be successful and many times that is a watered down version of what you will see at the college football level.  So while the formations and plays may look the same on TV as what you ran the night before on your high school football team,  I’m here to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth.

Many a high school football stud has had their college football dreams buried by a playbook.  When the offensive plays are no longer one word concepts with simple routes and the defensive calls aren’t all man to man,  some athletes’ brain circuitry short wires.  That attitude of just pass the class or just get the score comes back to bite them.

One of the major gripes students have about school is that they are learning about subjects they don’t care about or they think they’ll never need.  However,  the major purpose of your elementary – high school years of education is teaching you how to learn.  Math, english, science, history all develop your brain’s ability to process information and recall it later.  They develop your brain the same way squats develop your leg drive, power cleans develop your explosion and wind sprints develop your endurance.  You develop those things so that when the time comes for you use them in a game,  you have them available.  The same is true for your brain and ability to learn.

When the tight end goes in motion and the defenses checks the stunts and coverages,  guess what part of your body is now needed to respond? Is your brain developed?  If it’s not,  you can’t help your football team and your coach doesn’t want you out there.  Your speed, strength and endurance is worthless if your brain doesn’t know what to tell your body to do.

Your early education teaches your brain how to process information like playbook terminology and apply it into action.  It gives your brain the power to react quickly to what your opponent is doing and turn all your athletic training into a playmaking asset.  Ignoring your education is similar to ignoring the weight room,  doing drills and your conditioning.

Some of you may know guys who were terrible students who ended up being world class football players.  Let me clue you in on a couple of things.  Terrible student does not always mean a poor learner.  Sometimes a guy is not awesome at school but he’ll read when no one is looking. Reading is fundamental and it’s the single best thing you can do to develop your brain.  By reading,  I don’t mean the 240 characters on Twitter.  I mean consuming an entire book or reading informative articles.  You may have also known a player who was dumber than a box of rocks who ended up being a good college football player.  Chances are great that he was a superior athletic freak that coaches dumbed down the system for to allow his athletic superiority to be realized.  Those type of athletes are few and far in between.  Truth be told,  a coach with an equal or better option will take it before he dumbs down his scheme,  trust me!

Take your education seriously.  Notice I did not say take your GPA and test score seriously.  Exercise your brain by forcing yourself to acquire the information being given out in your classes.  Practice recalling that information to answer questions correctly on tests.  Strain to do this the way you strain to bench 315 lbs.  The results of being successful in this could carry your football career to heights that may surprise you.