How Much Have Recruiting Decommits Risen In Recent Years?

Chad Wilson

By: Chad Wilson – Editor GridironStuds Blog
Twitter: @gridironstuds

Maybe you saw it coming or maybe you didn’t but when you saw an up tick in offers to 10th, 9th and 8th graders in college football recruiting,  you had to know there would be some consequences.  What affect has the early offers to the youngsters had on recruiting? The answers to that question are numerous but for the sake of this article we will focus on it’s affect on the word really only known in the world of college athletics and that is decommits.

Type the word decommit on the Apple device of your choice and you are quickly treated to an auto-correct.  It’s not a word recognized by common folk but in the World of college football recruiting,  it might as well be the first word in the dictionary.  Years ago,  it was taboo to extend an offer to a middle schooler and rear to see one being given to a freshman.  In 2010, then USC coach Lane Kiffin made headlines by offering a 7th grade quarterback named David Sills.  There was no doubt that at the time,  Sills was ahead of his age group in talent. However, with five more years of grade school left to go,  a virtually eternity of things would happen before Sills’ 2014 signing date.  I don’t know if that was the first offer made to a junior high football player but at the time,  it was the most publicized.  Kiffin had essentially knocked down a barrier and brought some press to USC’s football program.

Unsure of the moral backlash of such a move,  college football programs remained hesitant to follow in Kiffin’s footsteps but where temptation did not exist before,  there now appeared to be.  Could college coaches continue to ignore young abnormal specimen that showed up to their summer camps?  Two years later, the LSU Tigers also made headlines when they offered junior high phenom Dylan Moses in the summer before he entered 8th grade.  Two years since Kiffin’s offering,  LSU almost got twice the press because social media had become a real everyday thing in people’s lives.  Where Kiffin’s offer to Sills caused hesitancy, Les Miles’ offer to Moses had colleges questioning if they were missing out.  What we saw next were programs toeing the line and ratcheting up offers to freshmen and sophomores.  I guess the thinking was that they could avoid the negative press by offering kids in high school while also avoiding missing a chance at a youngster by being too late to the party.

By 2015 the competitive spirit of college football recruiting had taken over and what was once taboo had now become something you wouldn’t bat an eye at.  Offers to junior high athletes have become not so uncommon while offers to high school freshman and sophomores have become a must if they’re physical gifted.  This trek into new recruiting territory while seeming like a shrewd move has essentially made life tougher for college football recruiters.  If you have spent any time at all around teenagers,  you realize that their minds can change like the hands on a clock.  What they think today may not be what they think tomorrow.  With that in mind,  try throwing three of four years in between thoughts.

Early offers are intriguing to a young athlete looking to reach their dreams.  With greater frequency now,  those early offers are turning into early commits.  Young prospects are making their pledge to schools early in their junior and sophomore seasons.  Keeping a teen focused on anything for longer than 15 minutes is a chore, go ask their geometry teacher.  Trying to keep a prospect focused on a school they have committed to for 15-24 months may damn well be the hardest job on the planet.  The other problem is that a prospect that was dominant in 9th grade may have been so because he either experienced puberty sooner or he is a year or two older than his classmates.  Either of those occurrences can result in a prospect who peaked early and goes from being elite in 9th grade to pedestrian in 11th / 12th grade.  Sometimes,  colleges will slow the contact with a prospect that has not continued to progress.  This typically results in hurt feelings and decommits.

What kind of effect has early offers and early commitments had on decommits?  Let’s take a look.  According to 247sports.  Here are the total number of decommits over the last few recruiting cycles.

Decommits Over the Last 5 CFB Recruiting Cycles

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* number at the time of press 1/24/17,  eight days shy of signing day

As you can see there has been an explosion in the number of decommits over the last two cycles.  This would coincide with the rise of offers to young prospects in the 8th and 9th grade.  It’s no coincidence that this year’s number is the highest and it coincides with the graduation year of Moses who was offered in 2012 by LSU.  What should not also be lost on anyone reading this article is that Sills eventually decommited from USC and signed with West Virginia and Moses who committed to LSU in 2013 has since flipped his commitment to Alabama.   Expect the number of decommits to grow over the coming years unless somehow,  colleges return to the practice of extending offers primarily to high school juniors.  Yeah, fat chance on that one!

GridironStuds App Connecting Players, Fans and Coaches

Chad Wilson

By: Chad Wilson
Editor GridironStuds Blog
Twitter: @gridironstuds

The Internet is a very wide place with a ton of users, interests and data.  Now more than ever,  companies are out to give users a way to take compact all the data, space and information into a confined area using genres or alike interests.

The GridironStuds App was created with this goal in mind.  Take time out to watch the video below explaining the basics of the GridironStuds App created by Chad Wilson owner of CEW Communications Inc.

These 3 Things Are Guaranteed to Make a DB a 5-Star

Chad Wilson

By: Chad Wilson – Editor GridironStuds Blog
Twitter: @GridironStuds

We live in a world of rankings, ratings and lists.  Nowhere is that more evident than in the World of college football recruiting.  The entire industry is dominated by a star ranking system that coaches scorn, players desire and fans hold dear.  Recently I asked my social media audience an interesting question.

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The responses to this question ranged from the methodical to the comical to the downright sarcastic.  I’ve spent a lot of time in my life playing, coaching and scouting defensive backs.  Without a doubt the following three things,  when combined, have overwhelming resulted in a defensive back being crowned a 5-star by the recruiting websites.

1.  Stand 6’0″ or taller

Recruiting and scouting is all about potential these days and nothing say potential at defensive back like being 6’1″ or 6’2″.  If you can show up at the off-season media recruiting camp standing 6’0″ or taller and not fall over yourself while doing drills,  you have a good chance at being considered a top talent.  If you aren’t deathly slow at that height while covering fleet footed wide receivers then a post camp interview could be coming your way.  Your technique may be slightly off or at times completely missing and the giddiness of your height could effectively throw sand in the eye of the “talent evaluators” in attendance.  Of course, having good speed, technique and know how can sky-rocket you to the top but this should be the case for all those playing the position provided you are not a Keebler Elf.

2. Play Early

Nothing says you da man more than getting playing time or starting as a freshman.  Fans and media are always in search of the next great thing.  Folks tend to get really excited about young bucks that can compete on the field with the likes of those who can drive themselves to school.  Sometimes,  the evaluators forget to check or even ignore the birth year of these early protégées.  Sometimes their driver’s license is getting pretty close to renewal but hey what’s a repeated grade or two amongst friends?  Sometimes, a youngster,  in the proper grade just has it and is doing his thing on the gridiron with the big boys.  Being good at anything at an early age will certainly draw attention to you.  At times, a youngster has reached puberty sooner than others or gets a little too drunk off the early press and experiences a hangover in their junior and senior years.  Nevertheless,  playing early and often in high school football will get the 5-star train rolling through your station.

3.  Also Play Offense

This one is the dash of Adobo on the recipe.  Recruiting outfits love to turn guys who play both ways into stars.  Perhaps it attracts more clicks and subscriptions or it’s just plain fun to watch.  For them it must be like that time the chocolate bar accidentally fell into the jar of peanut butter.  You can be a limited wildcat QB on offense but if you also line up at DB and you’re not terrible,  please come to the stage for your 5 star medal.  This is where I have seen the most mistakes made in scouting.  Time and again,  I have watch mediocre cornerbacks get highly ranked simply because their team also elected to have them play offense.  Sometimes, the player is a better offensive talent than defensive talent but there he is on the list of DBs ranked as a 5-star or a 4-star.  Recruiting outfits over the years have gone from ranking players in high school to downright trying to tell everyone what a kid should play at the college level.  With that all in mind,  if you are really into stars and not so much into team,  have mom and dad storm into coach’s office and demand you at least run a jet sweep or two on Friday Nights.  Nothing says 5 star DB like playing wide receiver.

There you have it folks.  Now keep in mind,  I am not saying that having just one of these elements or two out of the three elements make you a guaranteed 5 star.  What I am saying is that when you combine all three of these elements in a high school defensive back,  there is a Maury Povich show chance,  meaning 99.9999999% chance that…….    YOU ARE THE 5-star!

Internet / Mentors Are the Reasons Talent Leaving Florida

Chad Wilson

By: Chad Wilson – Editor GridironStuds Blog
Twitter: @GridironStuds

As the flag landed on the turf of Sun Devil Stadium on January 3, 2003 symbolizing the end of the scariest mini era in college football history,  an entire nation of college football fans and programs rejoiced.  A Hurricane win vs. Ohio St. and the reign of terror may have grown stronger like an uncontrolled forest fire.  In the wake of this unfathomable loss,  college football programs began their forensic like study of the Miami Hurricanes program.  In so doing, plans were made to cut into the huge slice of pie that not only was Miami eating from heartily but the other two major college football programs in the state were enjoying as well.

From 1992-2002,  Miami, Florida and Florida St. combined to have 11 undefeated or one loss seasons.  Since that Fiesta Bowl loss by the Canes in 2002,  the three schools have combined for five with Miami accounting for all of zero.  All of college football was forced to do something after Miami’s dominating 2001 season that produced a legion of NFL talent and ran roughshod through opponents.  Out of state programs observed the construction of the rosters of the big three and realized that some of the biggest performers were some lesser known talents tucked away in the corners and bushes of the state of Florida.

Scouting Florida High School football was not something new for college programs across the nation but the need to do so increased rapidly at the turn of the millennium as it seemed Miami, Florida and Florida St. were going to juggle the Sears trophy between them for the foreseeable future.  Programs already scouting the state, doubled down on those efforts.  Programs who had not done so as much scurried up the budget to embark on the endeavor.  Right around the time that out of state teams came to this reality,  the powers and capabilities of the World Wide Web began their exponential growth.  Search engines like Yahoo and Google starting expanding their ability to find information from anywhere on the globe,  blogs started to become a thing and YouTube (2005) came on the scene to forever changed how coaches received highlight videos.

With the plan set,  the tools to execute the job were getting sharpened.  Now, college coaches did not need to book flights to find players,  they could have their info delivered to their desktop or laptop with a couple of keystrokes.  Now,  expeditions into Florida’s fertile recruiting ground could be more efficient as coaches could follow the route to the schools they already found to have the talent during their computer research.  As time wore on,  companies capitalized on the digital revolution to provide opportunities for under served recruits crawling all over the Florida landscape.  Companies like GridironStuds, Rivals, Scout.com, Hudl and others would be the conduit for coaches to discover talent.

As time wore on,  coaches learned that the Internet was great for finding the talent within the Florida borders but more was going to be needed to actually rip that talent away from the Big Three.  Miami, Florida and Florida St. had established a strong history of performance and deliverance of talent to NFL riches.  Getting a Florida native to leave their backyard was going to need something more than just a coach knowing the talent existed.  Enter the mentor.  It’s a long standing fact that Florida HS coaches get paid a mere pittance for their toils on the prep gridiron.  Salaries often falling in under $5000 annually for “volunteers” who will spend an entire year developing talent is enough to make Nike factory workers in the Far East look at coaches with scorn.  Financial incentives to morally and economically challenged ball coaches became the key to victory in Florida recruiting wars.  Padding income with the deliverance of local talent became a way to profit from the one thing the lovers of the game loved to do the most.  Eventually,  some would realize that it wasn’t even necessary to coach at a school to fold presidential paper.  In fact, not becoming attached to one school meant that the professional mentors could ride around collecting talent like a lover boy plucking daffodils to give to the apple of his eye.  Delivering the talent to the doorstep of programs conducting camps became an industry of it’s own.

Simultaneously,  lower tiered college football programs, not in the mentor business, became very successful sneaking away under recognized talent while the big programs duked it out over the 5 stars.  The major message being preached was why sit on the bench for three years when you can come be the man as a freshman for us.  The increased competition for the big time players combined with the scorned 3 stars getting showered with love from the out of state programs slowly weakened the rosters of Florida’s big three.  Miami was hit the hardest during this era of nationwide empowerment.  One of the biggest reasons for this has been that South Florida has the most talent and was thus hit the hardest by raiding out of state programs.

The change in times made it almost impossible for the Frank Gores of the world to see it fit to sit behind Clinton Portis and Willis McGahee waiting for his chance to shine.  In 2017,  Frank Gore goes to LSU, Michigan, Pitt or any other program with a roster opening and a strong opportunity.  The likes of a Frank Gore would be taken to and shown the campus by the mentor who is eager to satisfy those programs for a multitude of reasons.

There are two ways to look at this.  Fans of college football and kids can see it to be a blessing that athletes in the state of Florida are getting increased opportunities to be successful.  Prior to this age of Florida intrusion,  kids could sit on rosters and “possibly” get a chance while others made their way to junior colleges in hopes of discovery in a land far away.  The other way this can be viewed is as an affront to the state from which you come from.  Fans of the Florida schools certainly see it as the latter.  However,  fans have a singular focus.  Fans want players and could care very little about the cost to the athlete in the quest for fans to be happy each and every Saturday.  It’s the good ole catch-22.

At the end of the day,  what happened is what always happens in sports.  All dynasties are studied by their opposers and will eventually be attacked.  Miami, Florida and Florida State’s dominance was scary in much the same fashion that Alabama’s march on college football has a Halloween shine to it.  The question is what will be the attack on Tuscaloosa? We will all have to sit back and see what history presents us.

Players Skipping Bowls Moves College Football Fans Closer to What They Want

Chad Wilson

By: Chad Wilson – Editor GridironStuds Blog
Twitter: @gridironstuds

First it was Fournette, then it was McCaffery now it’s Shock Linwood.  Those are the names of college football players that have decided to forgo their team’s bowl game in 2016 to prepare for the NFL draft.  The moves by these student-athletes have sparked much debate but in my opinion it may be just what the doctor ordered for college football fans.

The year was 1994 and it was my senior season at the University of Miami.  As was the norm in those days,  the Hurricanes were very much in the national title picture and playing in one of the major bowl games of the season,  the Orange Bowl.  Certainly when your game has national title implications the thought of skipping the bowl game is no where close to being a thought of any of the multiple major NFL draft prospects that we had on our team.  It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that everyone on our team was focused on trying to beat Nebraska and have a chance at claiming another national title for our storied program.  At the time, there were only 19 bowl games and no one participating in any of the bowl games were faced with the decision of whether or not to play in their respective games. It was a time when if you were asked on a game show to name all of the college football bowl games you may have had a chance.  It was a time when playing a bowl game was a reward for having a very solid season.  It was a time when people grumbled about 7-5 football teams being allowed to go to bowl games.

Fast forward to 2016.  Everything in our society has become inflated, watered down and saturated.  Few things embody this move in our culture like college bowl games.  This bowl season,  Americans will be stuffed with turkey, over spending and a gluttony of college bowl games.  To be exact,  college football fans will be hit over the head with 41 of these bowl things.  That move from 19 to 41 represents an increase of 115% in bowl games.  We can all agree that oil is one of the Earth’s most precious resources right?  The price for a barrel of the good stuff increased by less than the increase of bowl games over that same time period.  Not only can no person not named Rainman name every bowl game by heart but we have bowl games now sponsored by companies we have never heard of.  Who’s the big wig at Nova Home Loans that landed the Arizona Bowl? You mean to tell me that Dollar General and Motel 6 get to be title sponsors of bowl games?  What’s coming next, Lucky Strike Bowl? A&B Liquor Bowl? Springfield Cream Soda Bowl?

This trend of adding bowl games on a yearly basis started in 1997 when the number jumped from 18 bowl games to 20 bowl games.  From that year forward, we were off.  Some “smart” individual in the NCAA offices realized how much money you can pocket on bowl games between sponsorships and television revenue.  At that point,  there was no stopping the cash printing machine bum rush.  Now college football programs, administration and corporations have turned the monetary wheel bucket and have churned out cash for those at the top.  In the interim, they have distracted the participants (also known as the players) with goodie bags that include gift cards, sweat shirts and baseball caps.  These things are a mere pittance to the actual amount of Ben Franks hugging and kissing in the wallets of the bowl creators and organizers.  So when a the participants, or shall we say combatants say “nah, I’ll pass” as they prepare for the opportunity to have a meeting of Ben Franks in their own wallets,  we should pause to consider their savvy in the way we would applaud the savvy of a tech engineer that forgoes grad school to take a high position in Silicon Valley.

My thoughts as to whether a player should or should not join his team in that final game of the season are better left for another article.  What it is at stake in this piece is the argument that this bowl bonanza stands in the way of college football fans getting what it is they truly want and that is a legitimate playoff.  America is the most developed country in the World.  It is also the only country in the World that allows a major team sport like college football to be decided primarily by people in a suit in a boardroom.  Somewhere in the corner of Papua New Guinea, the cricket playoffs are coming down to the last two teams in the bracket but somehow the NCAA can’t figure how to give us a playoff.

The reason,  boys and girls,  that we can’t get a legitimate playoff is because bowl games are profitable for those who create them, sponsor them and sanction them.  That Jimmy’s Car Wash Southwest Armadillo Bowl that you will be watching in 2024 can draw in a television audience on a Holiday Season Tuesday.  It can also bring tourists to the city and drum up other funds for the big wigs.  A legitimate playoff season is a threat to the bowl game windfall and thus keeps the real playoff talk off the table for the NCAA.  Perhaps if more and more college football athletes with star power start backing out of these bowl games because a $150 Best Buy Gift Card is not really gonna be a able to go toe to toe with a 4 year $27.4 million dollar contract,  enough pressure will be placed on the NCAA to take a look at this ever increasing bowl game thing.  That talk could then start us in the direction of talks that lead to these crazy things called divisions, conferences and brackets.  I don’t what they call that here in the United States but in Papua New Guinea they use names like playoffs and championships.

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3 Things You Need to Know When Making A Quarterback Highlight Video

Chad Wilson

By Chad Wilson – Editor – GridironStuds Blog
Twitter: @GridironStuds

The time of year has come.  The majority of high school football seasons are over as the playoffs have started across the country.  This means if you got on the field this season,  you want to compile your highlights and start to get them out in the public and in front of college football scouts.  One of the most important positions on the football field is the quarterback and the competition for scholarships is fierce. Your highlight tape as a QB is everything so here are three things you must know when putting your quarterback highlight video together.

Show All Of You In Your First Ten Plays

Many quarterbacks are orderly individuals that like to put things in categories all nice and neat.  This is great for you to lead your team through the adversity of a football season.  However,  it may not be the best thing when putting together a highlight video.  I often see quarterbacks organize their highlight video in this fashion;  First 10 plays are all fade patterns.  Next 8 plays are all slants.  The next 8 plays are all QB runs.  This is not the way to go.  College coaches are pressed for time, especially during the Fall when they are in season.  Your first 1o plays on your highlight video need to show everything you can do.  Within those first 10 plays, highlight everything you think you do well.  So your first 10 may look like this:

Play #1:  Great fade pattern for a touchdown
Play #2:  A nice comeback route with some zip on it
Play #3:  A nice run off of a zone read
Play #4: A well executed bootleg play fake and pass
Play #5: A really solid seam throw
Play #6: A touch pass dropped in between a couple of defenders
Play #7: A play where you went through your progressions and hit the 2nd or third option
Play #8: A play where you ran out of options, pulled it down and scrambled for good yardage
Play #9: A well executed play fake with a deep throw (if you have a good arm)
Play #10:  A throw into a zone that you zipped in between two defenders

Within those 10 plays you have shown yourself to have many dimensions to your game and have also appealed to many different schools as all colleges don’t run the same type of offense.  Putting the same type of throw or play back to back to back on your film will suggest to the coach that you are a one trick pony.  Use the first 10 plays as a preview of all of your skills

Don’t Make Your Video A Feature Length Film

We get it quarterbacks,  you were really good and you want us to see every play you made this season.  A college coach is not going to watch your 15 minute long highlight video.  I like those quarterback highlight videos to be no longer than 9 minutes.  I often tell quarterbacks to make two highlight videos.  You can make one video for scouting purposes and another as a keepsake for you and the family.  I understand that there are some plays during the season that are your favorites but they may be meaningless to a college scout.  Put the sentimental plays on your keepsake film,  you know the one you will breakout when you are 43 years old for the kids who are going to laugh at the weird facemask you had on your helmet.

You Don’t Always Have to Show The Entire Play

This may come off as selfish but this is your highlight video and you are highlighting you.  What’s most important is the throw you made.  So, on many of your clips you can go ahead and cut the clip after the throw has been made and completed.  Quite frankly,  after that ball is caught,  your job was done. Cutting the clip, after the completion allows you to get more plays onto your highlight video in a shorter period of time.  Now, if you have a favorite receiver that you feel is under-recruited and you want to get him some help then you can including some full clips where he looked really good.  However, for the most part, cutting that clip after the pass was completed is the way to go.  You can put the full clip on your keepsake video.

As always,  I highly recommend that you put your Hudl highlight video on YouTube and also order the DVD of your highlight video.  Your Hudl video belongs to the school you play for and they can restrict your access to it whenever they want.  Happy film editing and go hard for that ticket to the next level.

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Chad Wilson is the owner and operator of GridironStuds.com a college football recruiting site and creator of the GridironStuds App,  the most popular recruiting app for high school football players in the country.  iPhone users download the GridironStuds App now and create a profile so college coaches can find you.  Click here to download.   Android users can download a modified version click here.