How To Make Decisions In Recruiting [Step-By-Step]

So the other day I got a question from recruit asking me based on his situation, what I would do or what he should do. And the way I answered the question was it depends on your goals. And I feel bad for kind of putting it on him like that. But that's the truth is I can't take someone's situation and say exactly what they should do because it's depending on them. I can definitely get some context and give them a recommendation, but ultimately it's up to them. And so today I want to talk about how to define your goals in recruiting, why it's so important so that way you can make the best decision for you. So that way you don't have those times where you're confused and feel like you need an answer from someone to make a decision. So if you don't know who I am, I'm Trent Lohr, I'm a former college quarterback. Not help families with your first scholarship. So let's dive in. So first off, let's talk about goals and why they're important. So you have to realize that this is whether you're a parent or your son, I know. Feel or a kid going through the recruiting process. I know it feels hard right now because you're going through the recruiting process. You feel like it's all led up to this, that this time from 18 to 22, 23 is all you've really prepared for for the past 18, 17 years. And so it feels like such a big deal. But what most people forget is that this is a small part of your life. Like it's four or five years. It is a big deal. For sure. It can set you up for success. It set me up for success and I definitely don't want to outweigh that. But you have to understand that you have other goals. I imagine, I imagine you have other goals, whether it's to play in the NFL or to be a doctor, to be a lawyer, to be a businessman, whatever it is, you want to do something else. And so you have to make sure that your decisions align with those future goals. And so that is why it's so important. Because most people forget this. They go into it with short term goals of I want to be a starter as a freshman, starter as a sophomore. I want to be, I want to have a really fun college experience, which is fine. Those things were very similar in mind, but I had these longer term goals that were more important to me. And so you just have to set like, what are these important goals to me that I want to accomplish during my time or during my life and what decision will help me get there. So that's why it's important. And now how you define these goals and how you make decisions based on them is you just look at the situations and see which one is most likely to help that happen. I'll give some examples because it's much easier that way. But for example, anybody that says they're NFL like their number one goal is to go into the NFL, then the whole goal of like going to the highest school you can possible makes the most sense because everybody knows power. Four programs produce the most NFL kids. Group of five programs produce the second most NFL kids. Like I know everybody says D2 has ballers. Kids from D2 get drafted like four or five or whatever the amount is. Maybe it's 10 or 20, but your chances of going to the NFL dramatically drop. And the same with the nia, I mean like two or three get signed a year. And so you have to recognize that you can't go. If your goal is to play in the NFL, you only have NA offers, then what you should do instead is you go juco, repeat the process and try and go to a higher school. Otherwise you're just going to be fighting an uphill battle. And so that's one example. Of course it's not everybody's path. If your goal is hey, I want to go to a really good school and get a great degree in business, then you find the best business school that is the fit for you. Maybe it's an Ivy League and that's totally fine with you that you want to because Ivy Leagues don't offer actually actual scholarships. So that's only fine for you that you pay for school. But you, you want that degree. Or maybe for you it's hey, I want the, the best scholarship amount, I want to make sure I don't have to pay for school. Cool. Find the best program, the best fit program that's going to allow you to, to get a close to or free education. Again, you want to make sure that you're clear on this because most people, what they do is they just want a combination of all of them. But that's never going to happen unless you're going to a Stanford or something like that where you can get a great academic education. You get your school paid for and you're going to a pretty solid program that's probably going to give you a good chance of going to the NFL. And that's extremely rare and hopefully you're talented enough to do that. But you want to make sure that you have those goals clearly defined and prioritized. So that way, when you come to that decision, it's just easy. And you can ask questions to make sure that you're going to the right school that will fit you for that. So that is extremely big. Now, kind of giving some context in the situation that this person laid out to me was like, they asked me, you know, I'm getting recruited by D3 schools, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to go because of my grades. I have a D2 offer from this one school, but I don't know if it's. It's a good option. You know, what should I do? And it's like I just said, hey, depends on your goals, man. But ultimately, I mean, the grades issue is probably the number one thing. But again, like, if the kid's goal was to go to a really good academic school, the D3 schools make sense. But if his goal is to go to the NFL, I would say go to the D2 or continue waiting to see if he gets a higher school or juco or if it's, hey, get school paid for, then if the D2 offers, you get a scholarship, take that. And so it just depends, because I can't say, oh, hey, take the D2 is the best school. No, that's just not true. Because again, what if he doesn't want to go to that D2? I'm not going to force someone to do something against their will just because I think it's best for me. And that's the same thing with a lot of families I work with, is when we get to that time of decision making, we hop on calls. And the calls are usually just conversation to help give clarity to what they want. Most of the time, they kind of know they're leaning one way and there's another option. And they just want to make sure that, hey, the way that they're leaning is the right one. And so I just usually ask questions and make sure that they're thinking about it the right way, that they thought about all the possible outcomes and that they're actually going to be wanting to go to the school. And usually they do. They go there and it ends up fine. And so that is the ultimate goal, is just having that clarity around, okay, why am I going to this school? Is it the right decision for me? Not the right decision overall, but just for me? And am I gonna actually like being there? And is it gonna actually help me accomplish my goals? So if you're able to answer all those questions, it's really hard to mess up that decision. And I just think most of the time people don't ask them theirselves that question. They get too caught up in the emotional side of things or the they think, best case scenario I'm going to be, you know, whatever. Whatever gets played up in people's heads, which again, I'm not blaming anyone. It's definitely happened to me as well. So just make sure you're using the logical side as well and also using your gut. Usually you can tell which one's the right, right decision deep down in your heart. I know that's kind of what helps me, is just the feel. You actually use some feel in the process and that that ends up helping you make a really great decision. So make sure to ask yourself some questions, dive deeper into it, don't rush into it. And ultimately, as long as you make sure that that school is aligned with what you want out of a school with what you want to do, then that decision should be fine. So hopefully this helped. If you got something from this, be sure to like and subscribe. I'll see you in the next one. Peace.