Trey Laura, owner of Year For Scholarship, explains why high school athletes must contact college football coaches repeatedly. He introduces the rule of seven: coaches need to see a recruit at least seven times across emails, DMs, social media, and camps before remembering them. Staying visible through multiple channels is how you get on their board when spots open.
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What most people don't realize about college coaches is how short their attention span is when it comes to recruiting. Unless you're a four star or five star recruit, they're not going to remember your name, your film, what your school was, what your GPA was. They're probably going to forget all about that the minute you stop talking to them or the minute they close out of your email. And so you have to realize that most coaches do not need just one time in front of getting you in front of them. They need to be reminded multiple times. And so if you don't know who I am, I'm Trey Laura. I'm a former college quarterback. I now run year for scholarship where we help families get their first scholarship and more. And so college coaches need to be reminded as many times as possible. And the best way I can explain this is because the way recruiting works is it's a cycle. And so they go through it and they're focused on certain position groups and certain things. And really they have their top guys, they have their guys at the 1, 2 and 3 spots on the board and they're recruiting them heavily and they offer them scholarships and they're trying to get them to commit and, and things happen and they don't get them to commit. And so eventually months later down the line that spot opens up or they need someone at a certain position and they're going to go to the next guy on the board. And so your goal as a recruit is to be always available, to always be in the front of their mind. So that way you do not get forgotten because that's what happens most of the time is recruits just get lost, they get forgotten. And so I hear too many times, oh well, you shouldn't send JV film because it's going to, you know, college coach is going to get a bad reputation of you or should we be doing X, Y and Z? But because what if we rub a coach the wrong way most of the time? Unless you're overly disrespectful and they clearly remember in the back of mind this guy was disrespectful to me. Either they're going to remember you and like you or they're just going to forget. And so you almost have unlimited chances with a college coach to get their attention and get them to like you. So why wouldn't you do it as many times as possible? Why wouldn't you constantly remind them? Exactly. You should. And so the thing is you need to just be in front of coaches as much as possible. There's a lot of what I talk about and I will keep on repeating it till I get sick and tired of it or if someone proves that it doesn't work, because it does. That's why things like Twitter posts work, Twitter, DMs, emails, camps, all that. Because you're getting in front of those coaches consistently. You're talking to these coaches consistently. I mean, you're going to talk to a coach multiple times throughout the process. Very seldom do you talk to them one time and you get an offer right there. And so the key is you want to get in front of them multiple times. They say that there's a rule of seven in advertising. This is a business thing. But that takes, on average a person seven times to see something, to realize what it means or to be, to understand the core message or whatever it is. And so the same thing goes in recruiting is it's going to take a coach seven times of seeing you, whether that's in person, online, an email, whatever it is, to finally, like, realize who you are or see your highlights or remember who you are in the first place. So that means you have to do that seven times. One time is not enough. Two times is not enough. Three times is not enough. Four times, five times, six times, not enough. Shoot, seven times might not even be enough. And so that is something that you have to take it to the next level. And that's why most families do not get scholarships, because they send 10 to 15 emails, they send 10 to 15 DMs, they post two to three times their whole high school career. And then they get to their senior year and they're like, shoot, why do I have no offer? Somebody's sleeping on me. No, no one is sleeping on you. You are sleeping on yourself by not actually going out and reaching out to coaches because you think that they should somehow randomly figure out who you are. And so you have to make yourself known. These college coaches are not going to make them known to you unless you're an absolutely talented guy that runs a 4, 3, which again, if you're watching this video, you're probably not. And that's totally fine. You can still get recruited just like everybody else. You just have to do things differently. You have to do more, and you have to do things better than anybody else is willing to do. And so you may be like, wow, Trenton, you're telling me. Like you're telling me I have to reach up to the college coach, like, seven different times and seven in. In different ways. It's a lot of work. That's a lot of time. Yeah. College football is going to take a lot of work and a lot of time. And if you really want to do this, then you're willing to put in that work and effort. And so at the end of the day, you have to realize that college coaches have a job. Their job is to win football games. And the number one way that they can win football games is by putting time into their team. And so recruiting is a second tier thing. Obviously there's people that do that recruiting job for them, especially at the higher levels, and they know they have to take care of this. But you are not at the forefront of their mind, especially if you're not one of their top five to 10 guys that they're recruiting, just period. And so the only way that you can stay in the forefront of their mind is be the guy that continues to reach out to them. Not annoying them, but just reaching out to them, reminding them that you're there, just showing them highlights, showing them things that they care about. So that way they constantly are like, wow, this is cool. Like, I really like John because he sends me highlights on a weekly basis, he keeps me up to date, he makes my job really easy. And then when they get around to a recruiting meeting towards the end of the season, they're like, we really need a receiver. Like, we're short on the receiving recruiting board. Like, we only got one commit. We need a solid receiver. He's immediately go, oh, John, what? Hey, you know what? I've been in touch with this receiver, John. He's from Pensacola, Florida. He's pretty solid. He seems like a great kid. Like, I think he'd be a great fit for a program. We should definitely recruit him further. Why don't we have him out on a visit, maybe have him up for a workout and we can kind of see from there. And I'd be like, cool, sounds good. And boom, you just got yourself into the door. But what happens most time is nobody reaches out. And then instead they just go to this blank board of guys and they're just like, okay, cool. Well, like, I think this guy's better. But instead you want someone who's going to be an advocate for you. And so that's why you want to reach out. These coaches build those relationships, constantly remind them, and even though you may not get a response, if you do that, trust me, they're going to notice that you're going to get talked about and it's going to lead you to hopefully more opportunities. And it will, because I've seen it happen. So remind coaches that you're there. Don't be afraid to do it. It's worth your time and it will get you more scholarships. And if that's your goal, then you should be doing it. So hopefully you got something from this. If you did, be sure to like and subscribe. I'll see you in the next one. Peace.
