{"id":4391,"date":"2022-04-26T16:30:43","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T21:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gridironstuds.com\/blog\/?p=4391"},"modified":"2022-04-26T16:30:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T21:30:43","slug":"5-ways-freshmen-can-help-themselves-get-recruited-to-play-college-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/5-ways-freshmen-can-help-themselves-get-recruited-to-play-college-football\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Ways Freshmen Can Help Themselves Get Recruited to Play College Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Chad Wilson<\/strong>
\nTwitter: @GridironStuds<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

We are in the midst of wild times when it comes to college football recruiting.\u00a0 <\/span>Over the last 5-6 years we have witnessed more changes than perhaps all the years that existed before it.\u00a0 <\/span>With the rapid onset of more freedom for college football players,\u00a0 <\/span>the unintended and probably unforeseen victims have been high school football players.\u00a0 <\/span>If you want to put yourself in the proper position to secure a scholarship when you are senior,\u00a0 <\/span>it\u2019s best to make the right moves as a freshman.\u00a0 <\/span>In this article, I discuss the five important moves you need to make.<\/p>\n

Along with the changes in college football,\u00a0 <\/span>prospects are facing increasing pressure to be noticed sooner in the recruiting process.\u00a0 <\/span>The early signing period has ramped up the need for colleges to identify potential signees earlier in their high school career so that the relationship building can start.\u00a0 <\/span>I have received more questions lately about how to get recruited as a freshman than I have ever before.\u00a0 <\/span>Getting offers as a freshman are not always something that you can control but I can tell you how to put yourself in the best position possible to get offers when they count.\u00a0 <\/span>Let\u2019s look at the 5 best ways to help yourself when you are in your first year of high school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Run Track<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes,\u00a0 <\/span>you read it right.\u00a0 <\/span>You secret to becoming the prospect that schools focus their eyes on is by getting on that 400m oval and learning how to run.\u00a0 <\/span>Guess what you do in football from the moment that ball is snapped until the time that whistle blows?\u00a0 <\/span>Run.\u00a0 <\/span>If you can\u2019t run,\u00a0 <\/span>you can\u2019t play.\u00a0 <\/span>I recommend that all players at all positions run track as freshman.\u00a0 <\/span>Yes,\u00a0 <\/span>that includes you offensive linemen too.\u00a0 <\/span>Start your athletic base off with a solid foundation on running.\u00a0 <\/span>If you are an offensive lineman,\u00a0 <\/span>you may not be able to run track when you hit your junior and senior year but you can benefit from getting it in at least in your freshman year.\u00a0 <\/span>Athletic linemen are recruited linemen.<\/p>\n

If you are playing the other positions,\u00a0 <\/span>you want to stay on that track for as long as you can.\u00a0 <\/span>If you are really good in another sport that conflicts with track then I understand but if there isn\u2019t another sport then do yourself a favor,\u00a0 <\/span>put the track spikes on.\u00a0 <\/span>Colleges recruit speed almost as much as they recruit height.\u00a0 <\/span>One of those things you control and that is speed.\u00a0 <\/span>You can find it training and competing in track.\u00a0 <\/span>For those of you who say,\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019ll just go to a speed trainer my answer is no unless your school has no track program or it\u2019s really deficient.\u00a0 <\/span>The weekly track meets will stir up the competitor in you.\u00a0 <\/span>It will push you beyond on your limits and make you faster than the best trainer will.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Get Serious About the Weight Room<\/strong><\/p>\n

Along with being fast in football,\u00a0 <\/span>you will need to be strong.\u00a0 <\/span>Don\u2019t wait till your junior and senior year to start lifting seriously.\u00a0 <\/span>Whether you like it or not,\u00a0 <\/span>colleges recruit body types.\u00a0 <\/span>If you don\u2019t look the part,\u00a0 <\/span>it\u2019s really difficult for them to make an investment in you.\u00a0 <\/span>Many prospects will careless approach the weight room as 9th graders.\u00a0 <\/span>They give up an entire year of development physically only to wish they had an extra year at the end.\u00a0 <\/span>Don\u2019t let that be you.\u00a0 <\/span>Start learning how lift weights the right way.\u00a0 <\/span>Start consistently building up your strength and your frame.\u00a0 <\/span>Who knows,\u00a0 <\/span>if you throw on size fast,\u00a0 <\/span>you may get a school to throw an early offer your way.\u00a0 <\/span>You\u2019ll have to continue to develop to keep the offer but it\u2019s good to have that early interest.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Buckle Down on Your Technique<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speed is good,\u00a0 <\/span>size and strength is great but technique wins most of the time in this game.\u00a0 <\/span>Learn the ins and outs of your position.\u00a0 <\/span>Determine the techniques that it takes for you to defeat your opponent and dedicate yourself to mastering them.\u00a0 <\/span>I am not big on having a trainer prior to turning 13 unless you are a quarterback but once you hit high school you should be soaking up all the knowledge you can from your coaches.\u00a0 <\/span>If additional training is needed to hone your skills then by all means,\u00a0 <\/span>go get it.\u00a0 <\/span>There\u2019s nothing more delighting to a coaching watching film of a prospect or observing him at camp than when he demonstrates the proper way to block, tackle, run routes, etc.\u00a0 <\/span>Be a master of technique.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Guard Your GPA Like Your Life<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ask any senior what it\u2019s like trying to raise his GPA and he will tell you it\u2019s like trying to live on the Sun.\u00a0 <\/span>The real trick to graduating with the GPA you need is by kicking off your high school career the right way in the classroom. Once you have started accumulating semesters,\u00a0 <\/span>it is difficult to change the score as you go down the road.\u00a0 <\/span>So starting off with a high GPA is to your advantage.\u00a0 <\/span>Besides,\u00a0 <\/span>the distractions will be plenty if you start accomplishing all of these other goals and begin to get recruited. You will have coaches calling you,\u00a0 <\/span>trips to take and you will suddenly become more attractive to your female classmates.\u00a0 <\/span>Try improving a GPA once that starts!\u00a0 <\/span>So while you are a little nobody,\u00a0 <\/span>build the GPA of a king.\u00a0 <\/span>Rank out those A\u2019s with a passion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Collect the Email Addresses of Coaches & Join the GridironStuds App<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the best pieces of advice you will get out of this article is this one.\u00a0 <\/span>As a freshman,\u00a0 <\/span>build a spreadsheet and in it,\u00a0 <\/span>you start adding coaches.\u00a0 <\/span>Next to their names add their meal address, Twitter handle and phone numbers.\u00a0 <\/span>You will continue to add onto this document every year but start it now.\u00a0 <\/span>That list will be as powerful as anything else you could have if you want to be a recruited high school football player.\u00a0 <\/span>On that list you will want to have the head coach,\u00a0 <\/span>the coach for your position and the recruiting coordinator.\u00a0 <\/span>Use that list to follow them on Twitter.\u00a0 <\/span>Once you get on the field and start making plays you will be able to contact them with info about you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition,\u00a0 <\/span>every high school football player should be using the GridironStuds App<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span>Building a profile as a freshman allows you to show your progress through the years. So when a coach begins recruiting you he can see your history of development and get a better idea of who you are.\u00a0 <\/span>It makes it easier to recruit you.\u00a0 <\/span>The later you pop up on the app,\u00a0 <\/span>the more competition you are going to have trying to grab a coach\u2019s attention.\u00a0 <\/span>Download it and build your profile today.\u00a0 <\/span>Click here to download<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So there you are.\u00a0 <\/span>As you can see there is quite the investment you need to make if you want to have a chance at getting college football scholarship offers. It\u2019s why only a handful of the 1 million plus high school football players each year are able to sign on the dotted line.\u00a0 <\/span>If you start early and take these steps you give yourself the head start that makes you a winner on national signing day your senior year.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s tough to look into the future when you are 14 years old but the smartest freshman know that the future depends on what you do now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Chad Wilson Twitter: @GridironStuds We are in the midst of wild times when it comes to college<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":4392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[995],"tags":[112,1060,1164,1166,979,1105,1165],"class_list":["post-4391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recruiting-tips","tag-college-football-recruiting","tag-college-scouts","tag-freshman","tag-gpa","tag-how-to-get-recruited","tag-track","tag-weight-room"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}