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High school recruiting has taken a life of its own lately, much like the NFL draft. Draft day and signing day for high school recruits now draw as much attention as playoff games and bowl games.
There is a fundamental difference between the NFL draft and signing day. NFL teams get to pick the players they want while high school players enjoy much more power, they get to pick the team.
With that in mind I thought I would put together a primer for high school kids to help them know how to act. Be forewarned, this primer is for five star players and a few select four star players(prima donnas). These tips may not work if you are not highly sought after and may result in you having to play for a junior college, military type, division 8b prep school. These tips only work for players that schools are willing to make fools of themselves to get.
1. First and foremost, do not commit early. That is, of course, unless you plan to decommit in November and do the drama queen thing. Remember that once you commit, the buzz is over.
2. If you feel like you must commit, be a soft verbal only. Never be a firm verbal, the buzz is over then. If you feel you absolutely must make a bigger commitment, go medium firm, never firm firm.
3. Always list your best in state team as a favorite and then show lots of interest in their most hated rival. If you are a top player in Ohio, be sure to list Michigan as a favorite. This will put some forty year old buckeye fan in blind panic causing him to check your updates and my space page daily. All top Lousiana recruits need to at least pretend they are considering Alabama, and vice versa for Alabama kids(who should also list Auburn).
4. Keep them guessing with your my space page. Wear different team colors week to week. Pretend like you have a girlfriend in Los Angeles if you live in Mississippi and are considering USC. If you have computer skills, use them. Remember when you could play a Beatle album backwards and it would say "Paul is dead"? Try putting clues in you tube things like that. If you are considering LSU and Florida, see if you can find a discovery channel video of a tiger eating an alligator and float it on your site. Then tune into their respective rivals site message boards and watch the fun.
5. Give lots of interviews to recruiting site people and give conflicting information. If Miami and Tennessee are both recruiting you, see if you can get conflicting stories up on both of their rivals sites on the same day listing that school as your favorite on their site and the other school as your favorite on their site.
6. Bring four baseball hats of the four schools you are considering everywhere you go and line them up in front of you whenever you sit down. Lets say you are having lunch at Chili's in Gainesville. Line your four hats up and pretend to put the Florida hat on but at the last second put the Georgia hat on. Do this everywhere you go.
7. Get your parents involved. Have your Dad leak it out that he wants you to go to LSU and your Mom saying she wants Ole Miss. For even more fun, have dad start wearing LSU jerseys and Mom wearing Ole Miss clors. Then one day put them both in Ole Miss jerseys, pop some popcorn, and log on to the LSU rivals site recruiting board, the tiger den, to watch the fun. Get a subscription to the Ole Miss board as well. You can watch grown men celebrate on one and meltdown on the other. Then the next day announce its really Alabama you are interested in and soft commit to them.
8. Call a press conference at your school to announce where you are going and see how many cameras and reporters you can get there. Once its all set up, announce that you will announce later at an all star game. Wear the colors of one of the schools you are considering to the conference but dont say anthing about them, instead mention another school you are considering. You may call and cancel three conferences, never more(unless you are the number one rated recruit nationally).
9. Confide in all your high school classmates where you will commit, but tell each of them different places. Get them to promise they will not tell their parents, friends, yardmen or hairdressers. This will create an enormous rumor mill as they tell their parents, friends, yardmen and hairdressers. you want the buzz. The bigger the buzz, the better.
10. Commit the day before signing day, but on signing day do not, I repeat, DO NOT, fax in your signed letter. You can grow the buzz exponentially at this point. Wait five days and send it end. During those five days wear as many different colors of teasm you are considering as possible. Dont give interviews, but continue to confide in friends with conflicting information.
One final warning. If you do decide you want the buzz and you play the game to the hilt, you better pick your in state team. The out of state fans will forget you, your local ones will not. If you are going out of state, commit early and do not play the buzz game, its way too dangerous. It always helps to remember that grown men who sit in front of their computers all year long fretting and debating where eighteen year old kids are going to school are for the most part idiots. I can speak with some authority on that having done it for so many years.
I hope this primer is helpful and that the last hat you put on, whoever you are, is the purple and gold one. My happiness in life is generally dependent on these recruiting rankings.
There is a fundamental difference between the NFL draft and signing day. NFL teams get to pick the players they want while high school players enjoy much more power, they get to pick the team.
With that in mind I thought I would put together a primer for high school kids to help them know how to act. Be forewarned, this primer is for five star players and a few select four star players(prima donnas). These tips may not work if you are not highly sought after and may result in you having to play for a junior college, military type, division 8b prep school. These tips only work for players that schools are willing to make fools of themselves to get.
1. First and foremost, do not commit early. That is, of course, unless you plan to decommit in November and do the drama queen thing. Remember that once you commit, the buzz is over.
2. If you feel like you must commit, be a soft verbal only. Never be a firm verbal, the buzz is over then. If you feel you absolutely must make a bigger commitment, go medium firm, never firm firm.
3. Always list your best in state team as a favorite and then show lots of interest in their most hated rival. If you are a top player in Ohio, be sure to list Michigan as a favorite. This will put some forty year old buckeye fan in blind panic causing him to check your updates and my space page daily. All top Lousiana recruits need to at least pretend they are considering Alabama, and vice versa for Alabama kids(who should also list Auburn).
4. Keep them guessing with your my space page. Wear different team colors week to week. Pretend like you have a girlfriend in Los Angeles if you live in Mississippi and are considering USC. If you have computer skills, use them. Remember when you could play a Beatle album backwards and it would say "Paul is dead"? Try putting clues in you tube things like that. If you are considering LSU and Florida, see if you can find a discovery channel video of a tiger eating an alligator and float it on your site. Then tune into their respective rivals site message boards and watch the fun.
5. Give lots of interviews to recruiting site people and give conflicting information. If Miami and Tennessee are both recruiting you, see if you can get conflicting stories up on both of their rivals sites on the same day listing that school as your favorite on their site and the other school as your favorite on their site.
6. Bring four baseball hats of the four schools you are considering everywhere you go and line them up in front of you whenever you sit down. Lets say you are having lunch at Chili's in Gainesville. Line your four hats up and pretend to put the Florida hat on but at the last second put the Georgia hat on. Do this everywhere you go.
7. Get your parents involved. Have your Dad leak it out that he wants you to go to LSU and your Mom saying she wants Ole Miss. For even more fun, have dad start wearing LSU jerseys and Mom wearing Ole Miss clors. Then one day put them both in Ole Miss jerseys, pop some popcorn, and log on to the LSU rivals site recruiting board, the tiger den, to watch the fun. Get a subscription to the Ole Miss board as well. You can watch grown men celebrate on one and meltdown on the other. Then the next day announce its really Alabama you are interested in and soft commit to them.
8. Call a press conference at your school to announce where you are going and see how many cameras and reporters you can get there. Once its all set up, announce that you will announce later at an all star game. Wear the colors of one of the schools you are considering to the conference but dont say anthing about them, instead mention another school you are considering. You may call and cancel three conferences, never more(unless you are the number one rated recruit nationally).
9. Confide in all your high school classmates where you will commit, but tell each of them different places. Get them to promise they will not tell their parents, friends, yardmen or hairdressers. This will create an enormous rumor mill as they tell their parents, friends, yardmen and hairdressers. you want the buzz. The bigger the buzz, the better.
10. Commit the day before signing day, but on signing day do not, I repeat, DO NOT, fax in your signed letter. You can grow the buzz exponentially at this point. Wait five days and send it end. During those five days wear as many different colors of teasm you are considering as possible. Dont give interviews, but continue to confide in friends with conflicting information.
One final warning. If you do decide you want the buzz and you play the game to the hilt, you better pick your in state team. The out of state fans will forget you, your local ones will not. If you are going out of state, commit early and do not play the buzz game, its way too dangerous. It always helps to remember that grown men who sit in front of their computers all year long fretting and debating where eighteen year old kids are going to school are for the most part idiots. I can speak with some authority on that having done it for so many years.
I hope this primer is helpful and that the last hat you put on, whoever you are, is the purple and gold one. My happiness in life is generally dependent on these recruiting rankings.
Really this recruiting stuff is some great comedic relief, especially when it comes down to the high profile guys in the last couple weeks. I just go to these boards and read all of this stuff and get my kicks.
