Suncoast ’17 WR Leonard Woods Is Crafty and Constantly in the End Zone

Chad Wilson
Suncoast’s Leonard Woods Had 88 receptions as a junior.

BY: Chad Wilson – Editor in Chief – GridironStuds Blog
Twitter: @GridironStuds

Travel the state of Florida looking for talent on the high school gridiron and you will soon become overwhelmed.  With that being the case,  it is very easy to overlook talent that would smack you in the face in many other cities and states.

In Riviera Beach Florida lies Suncoast High School,  a school that has produced talent over the years,  the most notable being the NFL’s all time kick returner Devin Hester.  Of late,  the Chargers have been seeking a return to their glory days and in 2015 they did make the playoffs.  A big part of their success last season literally lied in the hands of their talented class of 2017 WR Leonard Woods.  Take a look at Woods tape and you will find a young man constantly find his way behind the defense.  I discovered Woods when he downloaded the new GridironStuds Recruiting App and added his highlight video.  It was a joy watching Woods dupe defenses left and right.  His niftiness doesn’t just manifest itself in route running but also after the catch where he can slip tackles, shake defenders and get the ball across the goal line.

While not especially tall at 5’9″,  Woods shows an exceptional ability to go up high and come down with passes that one could consider 50 /50.   His 88 receptions has to be high on the state list in 2015 and he fell only 37 yards short of a 1,000 yard season.  No doubt that if Suncoast is to return to the playoffs in 2016,  Woods will have to be a big part of the plan.  Check out Woods at GridironStuds.com.  If you are a high school football player and have not yet downloaded the GridironStuds Recruiting App for iOS,  I encourage you to do that now.  Click here to download.

So You Didn’t Sign On National Signing Day. Is It Over for You?

Chad Wilson

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

While National Signing Day is a cause for celebration and joy for 1000’s of high school athletes across the country every year,  for many more the thought of that first Wednesday in February brings a ton of anxiety, angst and misery.  Many athletes,  football in particular, think that if they don’t find a school to sign with on National Signing Day (NSD) their football career is over.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

The truth of the matter is that National Signing Day represents the first day that a high school athlete can signing a letter of intent to a college institution, not the last.  As a result of the thought and mindset that one must sign on NSD or all is lost,  many athletes and their families make critical mistakes.  Sure,  it is great to be a part of all of the festivities in the gym or school auditorium.  The feeling is that you are being recognized and rewarded for all of the hard work and dedication you have given to your sport not only during your high school years but often times before that.  While I can certainly feel you there,  the urge to be a part of that ceremony should not supersede what is in your best long term interest.  Many marriages culminate with a huge ceremony that costs $1,000’s but unfortunately the stats show that quite a few of those end up in a courtroom before a judge.  Likewise,  many marriages still going strong after several decades began with a simple courtroom procedure and ended up with a lifetime of ceremonial moments.  The point is that a bad decision celebrated is still a bad decision.

Many high school football players will grab any offer that comes their way just so that they can say the signed on signing day.  That sounds like a marriage that is headed to the courtroom.  Signing with a school, sight unseen or when you really don’t feel like it’s the place for you,  will not allow you to have happy thoughts when you reflect back on signing day.  Using my wedding example,  some couples spend money they don’t have to throw a huge ceremony and spend the rest of their marriage fighting about it.  It’s an awful feeling enrolling at a school and going through the rigors of football when you are at a place you really don’t want to be.  Being a student athlete is hard enough as it is when you love the school,  think about the toll on your sanity when you are at a school where you don’t like the town, the weather, the coaches, the people or anything else having to with the university you chose.

The smart thing for a student-athlete to do is bet on yourself.  Don’t become overwhelmed by the pressure of signing day and jump on an offer from a school you are likely going to want to leave in six months.  In my article You Thought You Loved Football then They Gave You a Scholarship,  I detail the true life of the common college football player.  It was not an article to downgrade the college football experience.  It was a plea to the many athletes that mistakingly think football is for them when it is not.  Ask yourself if you are really serious about football.  If you are,  ask yourself if the school you are hustling to sign with on signing day provides you with the football experience you can live with.  If it doesn’t,  ask yourself if the education you will receive is enough to override the football experience you know you won’t enjoy.  If your answer to both of those questions is no,  then continue your search and don’t be afraid to both create and pursue other options.

Some athletes may really need to go to a junior college first.  Are you really talented and suffered some misfortune?  Perhaps you were injured during a crucial time of your recruitment.  You undoubtedly were one of the top guys in your region before you had the setback.  If that’s the case,  you may want to go to a junior college,  get more film and improve your college football options in one or two years.  Division I college football is full of junior college transfers.  Perhaps you didn’t really take off until your senior season and thus were left off the list of many top universities.  This happens to many prospects and as a result,  the colleges just didn’t have enough time to feel comfortable with you as a recruit.  In that case,  waiting a bit after signing day may open up an opportunity for you at a FCS or Division II school as opposed to a very expensive lower tiered school that will require you to take out loans to attend.

This advice may run counter to what many think which is “you better jump on that scholarship money”.  That thought is all well and good but too many student-athletes wind up coming back home after a semester or two,  disgusted and not wanting anything to do with college.  For some,  had they waited and given their decision a little more care outside of wanting to be on the NSD stage like their friends,  they could have put themselves in a better position.

As with any important life decision,  there are risks and this one is no different.  Saying no to a scholarship offer could result in another one not being offered.  I have learned in life that important life decisions require two things.  First and most important,  an adequate assessment of one’s self and abilities.  Be honest with yourself about both your athletic and academic abilities.  Also,  be honest about your love and dedication to your sport.  Second,  important life decisions typically require putting pen to paper.  Write down the pros and cons.  Write down your goals.  Put on paper the options that exist and look at it frequently before pulling the trigger.  At the end of the day,  your college decision is as important as any other decision you will make for the duration of your life.  It should not be something done to follow a friend, feed an ego or be part of a crowd.  You can make a very courageous, important and joyful decision about your future after the first Wednesday in February.  There’s no rule against that.

Why The Order of Your Clips in Your Highlight Video Matter

Chad Wilson

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

Running a recruiting website I have seen my fair share of highlight videos over the years.  I can conservatively say that I have seen some 10,000 highlight videos in my time.  As with anything,  there are good highlight videos and there are bad ones.  Many of the times,  the bad videos stem not from the player being bad but from the video being poorly put together.

Many high school prospects want to take the lazy route when it comes to putting together their highlights on Hudl.  By lazy,  I mean they just want to tag the plays from each game in the order in which the games were played and then submit the video.  So if your biggest play of the year didn’t happen until week 7,  viewers of your video are going to have to wait quite some time to get to the best of you.  I am not making an understatement here when I say that’s a poor strategy.

As they saying goes,  first impressions last a long time,  so what’s the first impression you want to make on the viewer of your highlight video?  If it’s a college coach, you better make sure you punch him in the face with your talent immediately.  The construction of your highlight video is not some cinematic production that includes a plot that you need to keep a viewer engaged until the end of the movie.  That thought process is great if you are writing an episode of Law and Order or Scooby Doo but it’s a no go in the highlight video world.

Many prospects feel that when they send a letter or their highlight video off to a coach,  that’s the only letter or highlight video he receives.  Some mistakingly believe that the coach has all day to watch your highlight video.  Newsflash, there are 1,000’s of you interested in that school and that’s from your state alone.  A college football coach does not have 5 minutes to wait to see if you did anything spectacular in your highlight video.  If your highlight video is not popping in those first 30 seconds then that back button or x button on the browser is getting clicked.

Your first play is your best play.  Your second play is your second best play and so on.  Think of it as a reverse SportsCenter Top 10.  Within that first minute,  the college coach has probably decided if you can play for their program or not.  If he gets to the 4 minute mark in your highlight video,  it’s because the first 3;59 was just so damned good not because he really wants to see who murdered the lady in Apartment 2B.

Don’t be lazy,  pay attention to how you put that highlight video together.  It may be the difference between getting put on the recruiting board or in the trash.

For more help on recruiting matters,  email us at GridironStuds Recruiting  cwilson@gridironstuds.com

In This Climate, A Coach Needs to Graduate With His Heisman QB

Chad Wilson

By: Chad Wilson – Editor GridironStuds Blog
Follow Me On Twitter: @GridironStuds

When he stepped away from the game following the 201o season,  former University of Florida football coach Urban Meyer was widely criticized by the Gator faithful for making up a reason to leave.  Feelings aside,  there’s no denying that Urban Meyer is a very successful football coach and you don’t get to this point without knowing a little something.

2010 was also Tim Tebow’s final one in Gainesville.  Tebow did everything you could do in college football including win a Heisman and a national championship.  In fact,  Tebow garnered two rings and multiple trips to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony.  For anyone who was paying attention,  it was quite clear that there was only one Tim Tebow and not likely that there would be another one any time soon.  As much as recruiting talent and developing it,  knowing when to walk away from a job and find the next place to go has as much to do with your success as the previous two attributes mentioned.  Now one must take Meyer at face value when he says he was experiencing health issues and needed to go but whether intentional or coincidental,  Meyer’s move out of Gainesville with Tebow is a shrewd move other coaches would do well to follow.

Gone are the days where you are allowed to coach 20 years at the same program.  Fan bases and athletic directors don’t let you reach the mountain top and slide back down.  Once a coach reaches nirvana,  he better be staying there or his time to walk the plank will come rather quickly.  Just ask Les Miles.  To avoid the pink slip,  coaches must adequately assess the reasons for their success and be honest about who they are.

Over the last 10 years it has seemed to me that when a coach is blessed to have recruited and developed a very special talent at quarterback and reaches the pinnacle of success,  he better start penning his exit strategy.  No one is denying that it takes a strong ego to succeed as a college football coach.  However,  that ego has to be put on pause when examining this situation.  Ego will tell you that if you developed one Heisman Trophy winner then you can develop another.  I’m not saying it’s impossible but I am saying it’s highly unlikely.  When your QB takes you on the wild ride to the Downtown Athletic Club and then the confetti parade in January,  it’s best to exit the stage with him when his eligibility is up ala Urban Meyer.

Let’s take a trip through recent history shall we?  I use the last 10 years because that’s the period of time in which I think the coaching situation in college football has made the most changes.  Over the last decade,  coaches have become more mobile either by their choice or by the choice of those who employed them.

Vince Went Down But Mack Stuck Around

Anyone watching Vince Young run around the Rose Bowl turf vs. USC like he was in the backyard with his baby cousins,  had to know that he was a one of a kind talent.  Many would argue that Young should have been the Heisman winner for the 2005 season but nevertheless,  if there was any doubt,  Vincent showed it vs. USC in the title game and brought Texas their first national title in 35 years.  Obviously comfortable where he was,  Mack Brown remained as Texas’ coach beyond Young and did enjoy some subsequent success.  Brown even led the Longhorns to another BCS title game vs. Alabama in 2009 but came up short vs. Nick Saban.  Four double digit win season would follow but Mack was constantly compared to the 2005 season.  The narrative was constantly “he can’t do it without Vince Young”.  Suddenly the double digit wins gave way to a rash of mediocrity and an eventual exit from Austin for Brown.  I can’t help but wonder what Brown would have done had he left Texas for another program with the smell of success on his breath in 2006.

Cam & Gene Were Really Mean

Talk about that one moment in time.  Before Cam Newton stepped on the Auburn University campus,  Gene Chizik’s Tigers were an 8-5 football team.  However,  for the one magical 2010 season with Newton at the controls,  Auburn was the toast of college football.  Much like Vince Young,  Newton combined a dazzling combo of precision passing with undeniable QB runs to befuddle defensive coordinators and madden opposing fan bases.  Newton was and continues to be sub-human as he is built like a DE and moves like a DB.  Even the most novice football fan could clearly see that Newton was the straw that stirred the drink for the Tigers.  Auburn rode the Cam train for the rare double of Heisman Trophy and national championship.  I am not sure what job offers came Gene Chizik’s way during or after that 2010 season but he would have been well served to take one of them.  Cam was one of a kind and getting past Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide and the assortment of other college football heavyweights without your AK-47 at QB was a monumental task.  As Cam left,  so did Auburn’s prominence.  Ironically,  the year after Cam left,  Auburn went right back to 8-5 and then turned on their head to 3-9 two years later before Chizik was tossed out like expired potato salad.

No Johnny No Football

We all took the magical ride with Johnny Manziel in 2012 didn’t we?  Captured by his risky playing style and equally carless lifestyle,  Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin and the Aggies rocketed to college consciousness.  With Manziel at the controls,  Texas A&M did things their fans never thought they would be able to do.  One of those things was beat the mighty Alabama Crimson Tide as they did in Manziel’s first season as the starter.  Manziel was so good that he caused Saban to try to get the hurry up offense outlawed and when he couldn’t, he started implementing elements of the offense into his program.  Manziel would win the Heisman Trophy in 2012 and return in 2013 for his junior season.  A&M,  once again,  was a pain in people’s rear end but not as good as the year before.  Nevertheless,  Manziel led the Aggies to a dazzling comeback in the bowl game vs. Duke to win 52-48.  Anyone watching had to see that the reason the Aggies won,  was Johnny football.  Sumlin was a hot prospect for open coaching jobs after 2013 season but turned down the offers.  I could see him thinking that it was more about his system since he had great success in Houston but had he taken a closer look he would have realized that Manziel was a one of a kind at a program that would always be behind the 8-ball.  In his second year post Manziel,  Sumlin is on the hot seat and needs to win next year or could get pink slipped.  Boy was that fast.

Of course there are outliers.  Bob Stoops has managed to stay in double digit win territory after Sam Bradford won the Heisman in 2008 and Oklahoma played for the title vs. LSU.  Art Briles has kept Baylor relevant since Robert Griffin III climbed the stairs in Superman socks to hoist the Heisman in 2011.  Bradford is not what I would describe as a one of a kind of QB.  Don’t get me wrong,  as a Sooner he was outstanding but you don’t look at Bradford and put him in the Young, Newton, Manziel category.  RGIII would fall closer to that type of a one of a kind QB and Briles deserves credit for continuing to move forward his offensive system and program.

What should be interesting to us all is what’s going on in Tallahassee and what will happen at Clemson after this 2015 season.  In more ways than one,  Jameis Winston was a very unique, special and talented quarterback.  The likelihood of another Jameis Winston entering college football and falling into the hands of the Florida St. Seminoles once again would be low.  Florida St. reached the mountain top in Winston’s 2nd season as he won the Heisman and the Noles won the title. One season later, with Winston still at the controls,  Florida St. was beaten soundly in the inaugural college football playoffs first round by Oregon.  Two years later, the Seminoles suffered two regular season losses and ended the 2015 season with a loss to the Houston Cougars from the AAC.  Jimbo Fisher’s Seminoles were a 2-3 loss team prior to Winston’s arrival.  One year after Winston’s departure,  the Noles dropped three games.  While three losses may have been ok prior to 2013,  now that FSU fans have seen the view from the top,  losing two to three games will stir up the faithful.  Perhaps Jimbo knows this as he flirted with bolting for Baton Rogue during the season but withdrew his interest and got Les Miles unstrapped from the electric chair.  One is only left to wonder if like Brown, Chizik and Sumlin before him, not walking off the stage with his one of a kind Heisman winner will hurt Jimbo Fisher’s career.

Chip Kelly had more reasons than just his QB leaving to exit Oregon (research his NCAA sanctions) but I am of the opinion that Kelly would have departed from Oregon without NCAA pressure when his three year starter and Heisman Trophy winning QB, Marcus Mariota made his way out of town.  Though he failed in Philadelphia,  Kelly would be highly sought after in the college ranks if he wanted to make that move simply because he did not hang on in Oregon to experience the decline that comes when your special guy behind center is no longer there.

So who’s up next?  We’ve watched Dabo Swiney dance and quote his way through the 2015 season.  You can’t deny his infectious nature and ability to coach.  However,  before DeShaun Watson’s arrival at QB,  Clemson was that team that would win just enough to end up in a big game and then get taken behind the woodshed.  With Watson,  Clemson has avoided the very term named after them “Clemsoning”.  Now,  all seasons after Watson will be compared to the time he was dressed in Orange.  It will no longer be acceptable to lose 51-14 at home to Florida St. in a big ACC game or fall 70-33 in the Orange Bowl to West Virginia.  While I don’t expect Clemson to fall back to those levels,  I am saying that just losing those games will be enough for the fans to get riled up,  the administration to get active and for Swiney to get axed as the Tigers’ head coach.  Stay tuned y’all.

What’s In Ranking A Youth Athlete? The Loss of Self, That’s What.

Chad Wilson

By: Chad Wilson – Editor GridironStuds Blog
Follow Me on Twitter: @GridironStuds

I have three children and anyone who knows me knows I love them with all my heart.  When they were young and all at home,  I wonder if ranking them on a daily or monthly basis would have helped get more things done, earn better grades or achieve more in their chosen sports.  Could you imagine?  One big grease board in the kitchen with the current rankings of the Top 3 kids as of so and so date.

I think we all know how that would’ve gone.  Surely there would have been arguments with the wife over who should be ranked where and what married couple is striving for more arguments?  I can also imagine the back stabbing and sabotage that may have gone on to grab that #1 spot.  We may have well raised three full on Donnie Brasco’s if that grease board would have been the play in our household.  This is not even to mention the destruction of psyche,  future adulthood problems and social ineptitude that would have developed from such a system imposed on impressionable minors.  You can also forget about the whole family / team dynamic being built,  that’s out the window.  Yea, the top ranked kids idea would not have been an idea that benefitted from escape out of the deep corners of the mind.

While ranking your offspring does not appear to be a good idea,  at some point,  ranking youth football players appeared to be an interesting thing to do.  Seems like fun right?  The high schools do it. The colleges do it.  The pros do it so why not do it with the youth players?  Why not recognize those who are really getting it done on the field?  See the first two paragraphs of this story.  Not everything done at the adolescent and adult levels need to be passed down to the youngsters.  They may look like titans and little men in their uniforms running around impersonating their favorite Sunday afternoon stars but the truth of the matter is they are soft pieces of Play Doh still being formed into their eventual shapes.   Have you ever seen what happens to Play Doh when it ends up in the wrong hands?  The Good Lord knows I have.

Young football players may know where the 4 hole is, they may understand what it is to buzz to the flats or even kick out on the end man on the line of scrimmage.  However,  the real nuts and bolt of the game of football are not adequately installed in youth football players nor are they properly uploaded to the servers of many high schoolers.  Rankings distort the team dynamic,  which in my opinion,  is the single best lesson football teaches our youngsters.  This game is about playing for the guy next to you,  sacrificing for the greater good and working towards a common goal.  Once individual awards become the focus,  those principals begin their rapid decline.  For the young individual achieving them,  the burden is now placed upon them.  What happens when you are ranked first this year but fourth next year because you had less carries?  When does junior or rather dad flip out on the coach?

I am never one to stop the enterprise of an entrepreneur.  It seems ranking youth football players is a worthy financial endeavor.  So the preverbal toothpaste is out of the tube.  Whit that being the case,  what do the parents and adults in the lives of youth football players need to do to avoid mental disaster for our new generation of gridiron studs?  Business will be business and ideas move at the speed of light.  As parents you must now adjust at the speed of light.  You can’t be that parent telling your child you don’t want him looking at dirty magazines in the store when Porn Hub has a cookie stored on millions of teen phones worldwide.

Parents must keep their kids grounded.  Your #1 ranked class of 2022 running back must still take out the trash, do his homework and get to practice on time.  He still should dress like his teammates, warm up with his teammates and not seek special treatment.  Your top 100 class of 2042 defensive end needs to double down on his studies and face harsher penalties for any retreat in his academic status.  If you are doing this right,  your child achieving that ranking should impose greater pressures but not on the field,  off the field.  If you want this ranking to be a positive mental tool,  then use it to ask junior to achieve more away from the gridiron.  Along with improving academically,  be at church every Sunday and if that is given,  be on time more often and be harsher on him than before for being late.  Use his new ranking status as reason for him to do more community service.  The message should be well,  you are ranked now so more eyes are on you.  Build yourself up into the little man you need to be and that has nothing to do with making a run stuffing tackle on 4th and 1.  Ultimately,  the ranked young man’s identity can not be wrapped up in his football status.  This sounds obvious but it can easily happen.

There’s a swell of pride in parents when their child is recognized for being exceptional.  Kids hear their parents speaking to others about them.  If being highly ranked becomes the lone topic for discussion when parents are around friends and family members then youngsters start to equate their entire worth around their football abilities.   As much as parents don’t want to realize this,  the superior football abilities of a youth football player can quickly erode as they travel into adolescence.  If all the top ranked youngster has been was a recognized football star then what’s his mental state when he’s not the #1 ranked high school player or dominant prep player?  As parents and adults we must guard against this with our entire being because the repercussions can be tragic.

Young minds are still forming and we’ve all seen what has happened to the youth and teenaged Hollywood stars.  Before youngsters have figured out how life works and how they operate they are being told they are the best at something and everyone else is beneath them.  That’s a lot of pressure for an adult,  let alone an individual missing a pair of front teeth.  Rankings aren’t going away so the parents of Top 10 kids better display #1 type management skills.  Can I get a Amen?

Why Virginia Tech Can Quickly Bounce Back

Chad Wilson

GridironStuds Blog – Guest Post

For the past 23 seasons, Virginia Tech has made a bowl game—the second longest streak in the nation (behind Florida State’s 33), but also one that is in constant jeopardy.

While the Hokies remain a prominent program, the reality is that the past four years the team has not been very good, or at least as good as it once was. While Frank Beamer was beloved in Blacksburg for all he did to build the program, the modern college football game passed him by. And this year, Virginia Tech will play Tulsa, not exactly a member of college football’s elite, in the Independence Bowl. Even worse than that, perhaps, is the fact that the linemakers at Betfair have Virginia Tech as even money to just win the game. That’s definitely not good news for Hokie fans.

As more college teams adopted spread offenses, or at least advanced pro styles, Virginia kept an outdated playbook focused on straightforward power runs with little creativity or imagination. That hurt the Hokies in recruiting as the state’s top skill position players left the area for programs that provided them a better opportunity to shine for pro scouts.

Beamer, of course, announced his retirement at the end of this, which comes at a perfect time. He leaves with his bowl streak intact and maintains a level of dignity that a number of other aging college coaches were not afforded. Virginia Tech got to hire Memphis head coach Justin Fuente, one of college football’s top offensive minds as reported by Roanoke.com. He could return the school to powerhouse status, especially in a mediocre ACC.

Here are some reasons Virginia Tech can quickly bounce back:

It starts with offense. Virginia Tech faired poorly in conference play with the ball, finishing 11th out of 14 teams in total offense (ahead of just Syracuse, Wake Forest and Boston College). While the Hokies did score 25.4 points per game, they scored only 22 touchdowns in eight league games and many drives ended with a field goal. In the high-scoring world of college football, that will not cut it. Compare that to Memphis, which led the American Athletic Conference with 42.7 points per game. Yes, the AAC is not quite as good as the ACC top to bottom, but it’s still a solid league with quality teams. Plus, Memphis did beat Ole Miss earlier this year while scoring 37 points in the process. That alone legitimizes the Tigers’ system.

Help in recruiting. Virginia is not Florida or Texas when it comes to high school talent, but the state is solidly in the next tier. With large programs in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, Richmond and Norfolk, the state has turned out a number of high-profile players like Russell Wilson, Chris Long, Jerod Mayo and Percy Harvin. Even some recent major recruits, like Da’Shawn Hand, who was the nation’s top-rated recruit in 2014, left the state (Hand is from Woodbridge, Va., but went to Alabama to play in college). As you may notice, none of these players went to Virginia Tech. The Hokies, of course, had their best success when Michael Vick was at quarterback and Vick grew up in Newport News, Va. Getting the state’s top players to commit to the Hokies will be huge (and you can read more about it on SportsWar).

The ACC. The Atlantic Coast Conference is home to two of the top programs in college football right now: Florida State and Clemson. Luckily for Virginia Tech, though, the two are in the conference’s Atlantic Division while the Hokies play in the Coastal Division. What that means is that the Hokies do not play Florida State or Clemson every year and must only beat out North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Miami, Duke, Virginia and Georgia Tech for a spot in the conference’s championship game. While some of those schools are occasionally good (like North Carolina this year), it’s not exactly Murderers’ Row.

With a fun offense luring new recruits to a weak division, fans in Blacksburg may be cheering for one of college football’s best teams sooner than you think.