3 Biggest changes in recruiting happening right now

Over the past few years, there's been significant changes in recruiting from the high school level and the college level. And so I want to talk about three major things that I'm seeing that are big shifts that you need to know if you're trying to get recruited to play college football. So if you don't know who I am, I'm trembling. I'm a former college quarterback, I run your first scholarship, but we help families get their first scholarship and more. And so the three things I see, and two of them kind of tied together are number one, timelines, recruiting timelines, and how they've shift over the past couple years. Number two is just the skill gap between levels and then number three is timing. And that kind of ties into number one. And I'll talk about why separate the two. So the first one is timelines because I think getting an idea of getting clear recruiting timelines first off eliminates a lot of stress because I see families stress out because they feel like they're behind, when in reality they actually may even be ahead or just on time. They just don't really know that because, you know, this is their first time riding the train. They don't know. They know that they were supposed to get on, they don't know when they're supposed to get off. There's no clear ticket there. And so really what I see is that we're getting the timelines that are a little bit lengthier in that there's not really like as clear window as there was in the past because now with the transfer portal and now with the roster spot reductions, it has changed a little bit as well. But especially with the transfer portal, you're essentially seeing this like almost semi continuous recruiting cycle where there are somewhat clear timelines. Like most, for example, most Power 4 schools, most Group of 5 schools will try to get their high school boards solidified before the fall season going into your senior year. Why? Because at that point they have a pretty good idea of who they want to recruit, who they want to focus on. But then you still see some shift in that because the transport opens back up and that shifts what their needs are. And so they have a rough draft of their boards, but then all these spots open up and then you get a random shift in needs and adjustments there. And so I've had guys that we worked with last cycle where they got recruited by FCS school. Next thing you know, in May, things have changed and a group of five school end up reaching out and recruiting the kid and got getting them there that late. In the cycle just because of how things change and how things shift with those timelines because of the transfer portal. And again, I think with the roster spot reduction we'll see more, more of that solidification of like an earlier board. But then you'll still see things shift with the transit portal with things being able to move around and being a little bit more fluid with roster spots just because you have to think of recruiting kind of as this shift of musical chairs. And the music kind of never quite stops until the season finally starts. And now with the transfer portal, there's times where the music kind of settling starts again randomly with those windows. And so it opens up some more seats for people. Now, number two is the closer skill gap. So again with the transfer portal, I wrote a tweet probably about December, January last year because a lot of people were talking about D2 is the new D1, etc. Now ultimately there are three. Three levels or there's multiple levels for a reason. D1 is D1. But I do, I will say that the skill gap between divisions, between schools, conferences is closing 100%. I think you see that a lot, especially the D1 FPS level. You see a lot of solid group of five teams competing amongst each other because you have this. Again, there's a lot of fluidity where, you know, Alabama can recruit the best players in high school, but ultimately they have a problem of retaining those players because if they don't play, they're going to go somewhere else. And if they go somewhere else that is lesser than Alabama, that team gets better and Alabama gets a little worse just on an overall roster breakdown. And so you kind of have this thing where these schools are getting closer together and everybody's able to compete now because you have kids that were highly recruited at a high school that didn't play for the first two years, that are transferring now to group of five schools that are either able to pay the nil or just give them the opportunity that they want they to be able to showcase their skills. And then again, this happens at the group of five level. The guys that are good enough to play the group of five level but just aren't playing at the school they are, are now able to transfer down to fcs, so on, so forth. So you have this kind of shifting that's allowing people to rise to the top and find the right seats for them ultimately. And so this also is a thing to note because D2 is, it never has been bad, but now more than ever there's a lot of talent at the Division 2 level there's a lot of talent. At the D3 level, there's a lot of talent at NA level, junior college, so on and so forth. And so really I feel like now more than ever you should never look down upon a level because ultimately all you need again, especially with the transportal, I'm never big a proponent of like or going to a school to transfer later. But if you are really that worried that you're going to be stuck at that level, that is not the case. If you are really that good, you can go to a school, ball out and be able to transfer up. It's a possibility now more now than ever and will continue to be so and so. It really is now. College football is not about, you know, hey, if you want to play in the NFL, your only shot is Division one, it is now, hey, you just have to find a school. At that point you can develop, continue to play and you might be able to go up higher after that and give yourself a better shot later on. And so that closer skill gap, the transfer portal, has been a big reason for that and I think it's ultimately for the better of the sport. There's definitely some issues with the transfer portal and I'm sure they'll continue to figure it out, but that is a really good thing for recruiting stuff. And so if you're listening to this saying that you don't have good enough offers, etc. It really doesn't matter. You can continue to hunt for those better offers. It's all good and well, because obviously if you start at a higher school, that's awesome. But at the end of the day, it almost matters less now than ever. Then the third thing is timing. And again, this is going back to those timelines. Like I said, you have these musical chairs and they're now almost continuously going on. So timing of recruiting kind of like matters less and more. In a way, it matters less on when you're doing a recruiting stuff because you almost continuously need to be doing recruiting things because like I talked about, things can shift in a moment. They could be full in the receiver room and then the next day four of the receivers enter the transfer portal. So what does this mean? You need to be continuously appearing to coaches and be ready for any opportunity because you never know when that's gonna happen. And so timing is like anything. The most important thing. If you get the timing right, it all works out. If you don't, then you can miss out on a lot of opportunities. And so it all becomes about you know, being as present as possible. So that way you're always appearing. And that way, when the time comes right, when someone needs you, they see you, they notice you, and they take their chance on you. And then you get that opportunity because you were there and presented at the right time. So that's the three biggest things I'm seeing. 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