The Recruiting Game - Alex Johnson - Being at Power 5 School, JUCO, Recruiting Lessons

Hey, I'm Trent Lawyer. Welcome to the Recruiting Game podcast. I'm here with my guest Alex Johnson, quarterback over at University of Washington, who I played some juco ball with over at Santa Barbara City College. Super excited to have you on the podcast. How you doing, Alex?

I'm doing good, man. Thanks for having me. How about yourself?

Good man. Good man. Could have Big Al on the pod. So. So, yeah, I mean, we'll kind of dive in a little bit about, like, how we met, how we kind of got started. So I kind of talked about, like, Santa Barbara. I guess that's where we. We kind of first met. I don't know if you got too much on that.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, just we were in the same room in Santa Barbara when I first got there. I mean, that's the introduction, you know, And, I mean, just being in the quarterback room, it's like the most competitive room. And on a football team, I mean, in my opinion. I mean. I mean, you know how it is.

Yeah. I think that's the funny thing is, like, when you're in a quarterback room, at first you immediately, like. You're always, like, checking out the other guys. You're all like, oh, yeah, this guy, this guy. And so, like, at first it's like. It's awkward, but then eventually you. I don't know. Just eventually you get. You're around each other so long, you're like, all right, I guess I'll have to make friends with these guys or whatever.

Yeah, exactly. It's pretty much how it rolled then. We got here close. It's kind of. Yeah. I mean, it worked out well, I'd say. And, I mean, we. Yeah. Made a really good friend. A couple friends. Our guy Sean's gonna go tear it up this year, so. Yeah, we'll see what happens.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Cool, man. Well, I mean, now you're at uw, Obviously, we. We both transferred out of juco, which is crazy to think about because it felt like we were there forever, but. So why don't you tell me or tell everybody, I guess.

Why?

Like, what. What kind of led you to Santa Barbara? And then you can talk about Santa Barbara a little bit, and then you can kind of go into how you ended up at uw.

Yeah. So, I mean, when I first got high school, I ended up going to a D3, because I just wasn't really recruited. Wasn't recruited that heavily. I mean, I took visits and all sorts of stuff, like those FCS schools in the Northwest. I mean, other than that, no one really pulled the trigger on a scholarship offer. And then like that was kind of it. Elmhurst, the school I ended up going to, they really, really wanted me. They, their coach made it known. So I figured just kind of go where I'm really wanted. I was there like number one guy on the board. So I mean that's kind of. I thought that that was important and so that's why I went D3 out of high school. Then when I got there, just wasn't. Wasn't what I wanted it to be. Kind of showed up and was just. I feel like people there cared a lot more about their plans on Friday night than what they're gonna do on Saturday afternoons playing football. So that's kind of, that kind of turned me off to the whole D3 thing and I just kind of wanted, wanted more out of my football experience. And I knew I was already like I was gonna be a four year starter there and I just wanted to be challenged a lot more than that. Then like coming in as a freshman and like being a starter right off the bat. Um, and so I kind of was just like talked to my mentor, Drew Brown, who he's playing up in the CFL right now, and Winnipeg, and he, he kind of, he went juco. He went to csm and so I kind of talked to him and I was just like, yeah, I just was like, he was very pro juco. I was like, do you think there's something where I could like go juco then make it out to like a big time school? And that was kind of, that was kind of the plan then obviously ending up in Santa Barbara. So originally I was actually talking to coach Dula, Coach Tulo at San Mateo, and he pretty much said that they had a couple guys debating whether to leave or not and the guys ended up coming back. So I would have came back and would have had to sit at CSM because their starter came back and they had a full room. They already had like six guys in their quarterback room. So they coaches like, yeah, that's just not fair to you. It's not fair to the guys in our room. It's like, all right, that's cool. So then I had remembered Coach Aiden. We had talked a little bit in high school about sbcc and I was not interested in junior college out of high school, but now I was. So I reached back out to him. I talked to him a few times, set up a visit. All that good stuff that was back in Covid. So it was like the zoom stuff. And then I was just like, let's go. Let's make it work. I mean, they, they had everything I wanted. They had like, they ran. I. I mean, we, we ran our program like a D1. We ran our program. I mean, it was, it was like when I talked to Coach Murat is when I really was sold because he was like, it's a QB driven offense. We put all. A lot of like, he's like, I played quarterback. We center our offense around the quarterback. We asked you guys to do a lot at the line of scrimmage. I was like, all right, I'm sold. Very like, like, I'm gonna do it. And so I decided to go, go to Santa Barbara. Then obviously I had to get my AA because I was at a four year first. I was a 424 transfer. And so, yeah, I ended up getting my AA out. And so I ended up getting my AA, which took two years, I guess a year and a half in Santa Barbara. So I played two seasons. Didn't start right away. You actually, you started a game before me. And then also Ben, the local guy, started like, what, four games for us?

Yeah, I think so. I think, I think so, because I started the fifth game and so then you started the sixth game, I think, or something or seventh game.

Yeah. So I mean, obviously, like first getting to Santa Barbara, like started off as a third string, then it wasn't going. Wasn't going as I wanted it to go. But then I just kind of decided, like, I had a long talk with my dad. I was just like, all right, I'm just gonna stay the course. Just keep. Just keep doing what I'm doing. And then if I get my opportunity, try and make the most of it. That's just kind of the mindset I had my whole year. And then I kind of. Coach Murat gives me the call or gives me like, he puts me in when we're not doing well against Pierce, and all of a sudden we, yeah, we score like four touchdowns in a row. And then, which, I mean, we should have been doing that no matter who was playing at quarterback, but Ben was not getting it done. And so, yeah, I started the rest of the season after that. And then I think in total, I ended up starting like 1112 games over two years. I don't know, something like that. Yeah. Then made some, like last year had a really good year, especially like second half of the year. And then that kind of led me to the opportunity I'm at today. Yeah, I mean, without kind of the numbers, like, I didn't put up crazy Crazy numbers. But I mean, what Coach Grubb, our OC U Dub, said, he's like, you're really efficient with the football. You didn't really turn it over much, like, except the first game, which I turned it over that game. And he just said, yeah, you really didn't turn it over much after that. You played efficient football, you guys, I mean, led the state in like all sorts of scoring stats, scoring stats, offensive statistics. I mean, just in our system, we both know how big of a role we play in that. Just as far as like how we run our offense. I mean, we're making checks every single play at the line of scrimmage. Like, like every single play, no matter if it's a run pass, our pass protections, all that stuff, which, I mean, credit to Coach Marop. Without him, there's no way I'd be like as good as I am at football.

Yeah, there's no reason, trust us to do all that. We do. For some reason he really did.

He put his. He put the program in our hands.

Let a couple tall guys call, call run plays for some reason, to the right direction.

I don't know why you really did. Changing the run schemes and all that, changing up the protections. No, but seriously, that's like high level stuff. I mean, like, that knowledge has really allowed me to kind of thrive at UW and be able to pick up an offense like that fairly quickly. And I mean, ever since playing for Morop, you can like look at a defensive picture and know what's going on. Like that. Like that's just been. I mean, that. That was just the hardest part about his offense. Honestly at first was like learning all that stuff and learning the why things work against certain fronts, certain coverages, all that stuff. But once you've got it, I mean, the game slows down tremendously. The game really slows down and you can start like playing ball back there, which is. Yeah. Then kind of was presented an opportunity at UW because they had a quarterback who transferred out. And so Coach Grub said, yeah, we got like our third. We don't have a third quarterback right now. Like, the competition for that is wide open. We want to bring you in to compete for it. He said that they had reps in the spring for me to try and earn that spot. So I was like, all right, that's all I need. Opportunity with reps and chance to get number three quarterback. And then obviously in the spring, I had a pretty good spring, thought I picked the offense up fairly well. Obviously we're still in the early stages of that. So I'm still learning the offense every day to this day. But yeah, I mean, I thought I made the most of the reps I did get in the spring, which the coaches have said. And so I'm in a pretty good spot right now headed into fall camp. And then that's kind of. Yeah, that's kind of where I'm at.

Awesome. Yeah. I mean, how. I'm sure some people want to know, like, how's U dub? How do you like into there? Because, I mean, that's, you know, Power 5 football. And I mean, I guess you kind of left this out too. But you're from Seattle originally. I think you mentioned that.

So. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah.

In the play for your hometown team.

Yeah, so I'm from up here originally. So, I mean, kind of getting to play here is honestly like a dream come true. It's where I've always wanted to play. I've grown up watching the Huskies, like all the great quarterbacks like Jake Browning, Keith Price, I mean, even back to Jake Locker. I mean, just watching all these guys wanting to be. Wanting to be them now kind of getting the opportunity to pursue that at like such a big time place is like. Like once, once, once UW called, it was over for any other school, to be honest. And so that was honestly, like, it couldn't have worked out any better. Like, I couldn't have written a better script myself. Like going, going D3, then going juco, just to try and make it to any Power 5 school, which was obviously the goal. And then out of all the Power 5 schools, the one I would have chosen if I could have chosen any. So, I mean, getting to go back. Back home has been just a big blessing. I get to be around family more to get to. Get to be home for those Sunday dinners. That's really, really fun. Seeing my little sister too. Yeah, that's been. That's been one of the best parts about coming up here. But I mean, just the difference between like juco and up here, like power five football is just like night and day. Like, the. The extent of resources we have at Washington goes very far. There's nothing as a football player that you would need that you do not have at Washington. I mean, you got a nice weight room, you got a freaking reaction board in the weight room, like to work on your reflexes. You got, you got a stadium you can use anytime, a practice field, an indoor facility if it's raining. You got, you got a nice locker room, you got meeting rooms that you can use whenever you want to. You got. You got a pantry, like a food area you can use. We get food every day. We get. I mean, all the gear you need to, like, work out, play football, do whatever you need to do. I mean, just the resources you have. I mean, we even have, like, a VR headset that you can use for, like, I don't even know. I've never used it, but people. People use it. I mean, our strength and condition coaches are top notch. I mean, in the weight room, we have this system called perch where it measures the speed on your bar, your bar speed. So you're in. It counts your reps so there's literally no skipping reps. And they don't only know how. How many reps you did, but how well and how fast you move the bar on all those reps. And every rep has to be within a certain zone. It's like, if you're above the zone, you add weight, you're below the zone, you drop weight, and just the goal. And it's just like, to optimize your peak, like your peak performance, essentially, which is. I mean, it's just next level. I mean, in Juco, we had to set up our own weight room. I mean, in little things, like, we walk into the weight room, and it's all set up for a workout. Like, all the, like, accessories. Like, if we need kettlebells at our rack for that day, there'll be kettlebells there. Like, it's just little stuff like that that just make. I mean, and then when. When we're done with our workout, we have shakes waiting for us, which, I mean, like, we didn't get. We didn't get anything like that.

We wouldn't even be able to eat between workout and practice. We didn't even get enough.

No, we had to pack our PB and J's. Man, we packed a lot of PB and JS in Santa Barbara. Yeah, just the resources we have at Washington is just, like, next level. Honestly, that's. That's been the biggest adjust. Not even adjustment, just the, like, the biggest luxury, I'd say. I mean, I don't take it for granted coming from Juco and I. I'm trying to take advantage of all the resources we got. I mean, even, like, our training room. Like, in Juco, our training room was like, you don't. You don't really go in the training room unless you're, like, injured and you, like, need it. But like, here, if you have, like, a little tweak or, like, need to fix A little something. You can just go in there and they'll have, like, treatments and therapy and whatever you need to do ready for you that, like, they'll get a printout for you that day if you need it and if you want it. I mean, that's open every day. It's even open this week on our off week. If you want to go in there. You got, like, cold tub, hot tub, sauna. I mean, underwater treadmill if you need for recovery. I mean, you have. When I say you have every resource you need, you have every resource you need at a school like this, which, I mean, just trying to take advantage of it.

Yeah, that's a big difference. The training room. Yeah. Like spring ball, it's like, oh, yeah. You can't even step inside the training room unless you're like, you didn't even.

Get a locker room in spring ball.

Yeah, we didn't get. Yeah. Good times. I imagine they. They must have walkers now because they're getting pads, but who knows? Who knows? Who knows what's going on over there?

Because I saw them with their travel bags.

Oh, that's rough. Yeah, that's. I mean. Yeah, it's almost like you just get so much resources. It's, like, impossible to not be, like, fully prepared. It's just like, it's on you at that point. Like, in juco, I guess you have, like, excuses of like, oh, yeah, well, I'm not able to get this, that or that. But like, you're at a program like that, it's like, yeah, you. You have everything. It's. Yeah, it's pretty nice.

Yeah, it's. You got everything here. Like, if you're not prepared, it's on you. Yeah, it's on you. If you're not. Yeah, they. It's not because you don't have the resources.

Cool. Well, I mean, we kind of touched on, like, juco a little bit about how it's different from obviously, D1. I know we obviously both played juco football, which is interesting. World of itself, though. Santa Barbara is like. I always tell people, like, Santa Barbara, juco it. Like, it's a little different than other jucos because it's.

It's just.

It's a different spot when you got right there and the stadiums walk away from the beach.

Yeah.

I mean, I kind of want to touch on that a little bit because I know some guys, at least that will probably listen to this, are either considering juco or thinking about or are currently out of juco. Like, what do you think? I guess we can Kind of talk about, like, differences between juco football and.

Yeah.

High school football or like, making that transition and just like things maybe people would not expect and stuff like that. So I don't know if you have anything that comes to mind.

Yeah, I mean, I think the first thing that comes to mind is I think you really got to respect the game at juco. Like, you come there, don't expect it to be easy. Every single player at juco was the best player at their high school.

That's the number one thing I was gonna say. I was exactly the same thing.

I think it's easy to forget that everyone in juco and especially like, I mean, obviously you get some guys probably shouldn't be playing college football at juco that try and make a run at it. But I mean, the guys that play and. Or at least in the rotation were the best players at their high school. I mean, I think it's easy to forget that. And like, if you go juco, I want to just walk in there expecting to play right away. I mean, I, like, I'm a prime. Like, I'm a prime example of that. I ended up going to freaking power five school and I did not start right away, you know, so you just. You might not start right away. You might not like it. But I mean, I mean, juco in my opinion, is just like a big bet on yourself because you gotta want it. And if you don't want it in juco, you will not make it out. And that's. Yeah, that's just a fact of life.

Yeah. And go back to that point of like, everybody that was there was the best player at the high school team. Like, we literally had guys who were like third string on the dev chart and we'd talk to them and they'd be like, oh, yeah, I had this stat, the stat, the stat at my school. It's like, dang, that's crazy. Like, I can. You can see like, you, like, you hear that and you're like, I could definitely see that. But I just totally forgot because now I'm just looking at the starters here and they're just, you know, way, way better than, you know. It's just like a perception change. But yeah, it's definitely just a crazy thing to think about because everybody thinks like, oh, juco football, that's like bottom of the barrel. But it's not really. Definitely not a talent wise, like, talent is there.

You get a lot. I mean, we played with and against a lot of D1 talent. Yeah, a lot of it. So I mean, now juco. Juco ball is not. It's nothing to bat an eye at, that's for sure. Yeah, nothing about an eye at. I mean. Yeah, no, it's the real deal. And you get. Yeah. If you're looking to go juco, just know it won't be easy. There might be times you want to. He might want to walk away, you might want to quit, but it's when you keep working with your head down and just keep believing in yourself, man. Because without that belief and without that desire, you're not gonna make it out. Like I said, you gotta really want it and you gotta be willing to grind for it. And even when other people don't believe in you, you gotta keep believing in yourself. I mean, that's a good one.

I think it definitely tests like, the way I think of it is it tests like your love of the game because I think so many guys like you play in high school and. Because from a, from like a hype perspective and like, I guess I'll say like social status perspective, like high school football is way, way greater than like juco football because, like, no one cares you're on a juco football team. No, no one cares outside of the guys that play, play on the field and your parents. Like, that's about it. Yeah. So like, like you're not gonna, you're not getting any extra rewards outside of like, you want to go play another spot. Like, you're just developing, like you really have to like, love the game and want to go play at the next level. Otherwise you're just like, you're not gonna, you're not gonna get the results you want. And it's just gonna test you every single day because it's not fun and it sucks a lot of times. And I mean, there's some fun spots, but most of the time it's like, yeah, I gotta go run some cut 120s and I really don't want to, but it is what it is.

Shout out Coach Aiden, man.

Shout out Coach Aiden.

Those homeless hills, those cut 120s, man, those made it. Hey, those will separate the faint of heart, that's for sure.

There's definitely some kids that quit right after those.

Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. No juco ball. No, I love juco ball, though. Part of that is honestly fun that no one cares. It's like you can just go out there and be like, you can just be free almost. I mean, you kind of, it kind of gives you perspective too. Like that. Yeah, football, like, there's More to life than just, like, the game of football too. Like, you're not like, yeah, football is obviously important in both our lives. Crazy important. But, like, like, we both have other interests outside of football, and, like, that's okay. Like, you just gotta get the football, like, football the respect it deserves and, like, give it. Like, to be successful in the game, it takes a lot of time. Takes a lot of, like, work. Takes a lot of focus. But it doesn't have to be like, you're 24 7. Like, this is all I do every day. Like, all day. You know what I mean? Like, what some people think, like, it's okay to, like, go watch a movie or. Or go out and spend some time with friends or family or, like, you know. Yeah, I don't know.

Honestly, the guy. Honestly, the guys that, like, did it 247 those. Or did it for, like, a short time, Those are the guys who get, like, burnt out or hurt or something like that. Like, the guys that know when to chill and relax and rest. Like, they usually last for the long run.

Yeah. Yeah. There's no, like, obviously, like, it is about do it getting, like, 1% better every day. It's a marathon, not a sprint. You're not trying to do, like, 330 things every single day. Have your schedule packed from like 6am to 10pm every day. No one's able to sustain that. Like, I mean, no one's able to sustain that. And I think, like, where I kind of learned that was honestly Drew, my mentor. He was just like, you gotta know when to take your breaks and you gotta know when to, like. Yeah, you gotta know when to take your breaks and you gotta know when to, like, dial in. And it's just like, that finding that balance with what works for you is what's important. Yeah. I think getting into the routine, I mean, I think we both probably. I think we both developed really good routines in juco.

100%.

I mean, we kind of know what works and how to win and what's successful and how to allocate the proper amount of time to football.

Yeah, I think we got super. I'm just thinking back to, like, those times in Santa Barbara, and it's like, we got super fortunate with having coaches who gave us proper rest, like, and taught us how to do that. Because I feel like most jucos, they don't teach the stuff that they were teaching, like nutrition recovery. Like, we would literally on Fridays before meetings and before.

Every Friday.

Yeah, every Friday. Every Friday at. Usually was 12 or 12:30.

Yeah, like 12. 12.

30.

Yeah.

We'd go out and we'd go do yoga for, like, full recovery routine. Foam roll, stretch.

Yeah.

And, like, what was it? We do some stuff with bands, too, on top of that, and recovery. Yeah, a bunch of flexibility stuff. And then we finish off with, like, a big yoga stretch for, like, 15, 20 minutes. And, like, that put in, like, helped so much. And on top of that, we did, like, this. Yeah, like, it was crazy. I mean. Yeah, we do yoga stretch before our games, like, in pats, too, to warm up. It was. It was super helpful that, like, our coaches were able to instill that into us and, like, teach that to us, how important that is and. Because I think not enough people really focus on that.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, and also, like, you touched on the nutrition part a lot. I feel like Coach Aiden did a really good job with, like, nutrition getting us right. Giving you every, like, to his ability given you. I mean, he's not like, a nutritionist or anything like that, but he's done, like, he's done a lot of research. He knows what he's talking about.

He.

And he, like, he's done the best, like, a damn good job at giving us meal plans, shopping lists, where to shop, like, where things are cheapest to shop at. Like, like, just doing all that for us. He'll literally go shopping with you, too, to, like, help you meal prep on the right nutrition. So, I mean, like, taking advantage of that, too. I mean, all that stuff plays a role. I felt we had. Like, obviously you still gotta go out and do it yourself, but it's like, there's a good roadmap in Santa Barbara on how to, like, on how to make it, essentially.

Yeah, 100%. Yeah. That made things a lot. A lot easier. So I kind of want to segue a little bit to, like, recruiting and kind of talk about that, because obviously this is the. The Recruiting Game podcast. I mean, what do you, like. I mean, obviously you've gone through the recruiting process about as long as I have. Like, I say that I went through the recruiting process for, like, five years, and we were both pretty. I'm. We were both pretty active throughout that recruiting process. So I don't know, what do you think are some, like, lessons you've learned along the way? I guess just pretty general stuff that, like, you feel it would be helpful.

Yeah. I say, number one, make sure your film is elite. Like, because none of the other stuff you do in recruiting will matter if your film sucks. You got to have good film, and you got to have film Another thing, like, look at, like, say you want to go. I don't know. Say you want to go to, like, Texas A M. That's. That. That's, like, your dream school, right? Look at other guys that play your position on Texas A and M. Look at their roster. All right, Are they my size? Are they my height? Like, are they my weight? Do they, like, run my. And then watch their film from, like, high school or juco, whatever they went. Watch their film and then watch your film and see. Okay. Does it measure up? If the answer is yes, okay, that might be a good school for you. The answer is no. All right? You might want to keep looking. So it's important to, like, look and make sure you fit. Because some schools just have straight size requirements for their positions. They won't recruit you if you're below a certain size, you know? So I think first, it's important to kind of establish that and go after schools that recruit your type of play, the type of player you are, and, like, the size of player you are. Then secondly, with recruiting, I think it's important to keep in mind. It's important to keep in mind that you got to be persistent, because if you kind of just, like, text the coach once and, like, don't develop that relationship with him, they're never gonna want to recruit you to be on their team. If you only talk to him once or have one phone call or whatnot. Like, you gotta be persistent. You gotta, like, if. And if it's a school you really want to, like, like, make sure you let them know, like, hey, I'm serious about this school. This is where I want to go. Because it's almost like. I hate this analogy, but it's almost like dating and a way, like. Like, okay, you're talk like these co. Like, and it's. It's both sides, too, right? Like, the coaches are talking to different players or casting nets. All right? Who's interested, who's not. Like, they have their board, and then, like, you obviously should have your board, too. With the schools, like top school, second, third, fourth, fifth, etc, it's almost like dating because each. Each school is talking to, like, different players for each position. Each. Each player is talking to different schools. It's just about finding that, like, match. And each, like, each side's got a. There's gotta be, like, a mutual desire. And you have to obviously, like, I think it's important to let a school know, like, hey, you're at the top of my list. Like, if you pull the trigger, you'll Get a commitment out of me. Like, that means. That means a lot more to a coach than, like, hey, I'm kind of interested. I'd like to know more. Kind of the generic thing, you know, I think you're just kind of doing everything you can to get your name out there, whether that's sending tweets, DMs, emails, I mean, shoot phone calls. Even if it's just straight up, like, going to camps, I think can be. Can be a good one, because when they. Yeah, I think all that stuff. Camps. I don't know.

I don't know if you. If you ever did it, but I know we were kind of talking about, like, yeah, I wonder if you just showed up. Like, if you just showed up to their football facilities, what they would do? Like, I mean, that would some serious interest. But we were kind of discussing that idea before.

If you're serious about that school, I mean, I'm sure you could walk in there and talk your way into something, at least, like. At least a pwo. Yeah, I think you could. If you're just. If you're like, determined enough mentally, you can talk your way into anywhere, at least like a shot. I mean, I. That. I think so. So, yeah, I mean, you could. You could definitely try it. It'd be worth a try. I mean, what. The worst they're gonna. The worst thing they're gonna say is no. Like, literally, like, that's the worst thing that could happen. Then it's all right. At least I tried, you know?

Yeah.

I mean, you might get like 20 no's before you get that one yes. But, like, getting that one yes is what's important. I mean, even for me, like, I got, like, before Washington, I had a few schools say, no, we don't want to, like, give you the scholarship. Like, probably like five or six. But I'm glad they didn't, because now I'm at Washington, which is the school I wanted to go to in the first place. So, I mean, just gotta just keep the faith, stay the course. I mean, things usually work out. Things. Things will. Things will work out how they're supposed to. I believe that.

Yeah. I call. I call. I'm sure you. You'd agree with this, but I call. The first law of recruiting. Things don't work out the way that you think they will. Like, the.

The.

The whole, like, the whole idea is like the. The last thing. Like. Cause, like, you get it. You get a text from a coach or something happens and you're like, oh, yeah, like, definitely. That's Going to turn into offer or something like that. Most likely, it probably won't. Like it's gonna go. It's gonna go the way you don't think it's gonna happen.

That's true. That's very true. It. Yeah. Recruiting never goes how you think it'll go, but that's okay sometimes.

Yeah, exactly like you said. I mean, you're glad the way things went for you because.

Yeah.

You want to be.

Yeah. I didn't expect that it'd go this way at all. You know, I'm talking. I talked to Washington, like, in Jane, like, literally less than one week after my first, like, conversation with them. I was. I already had a visit and committed like, within a week. So. It can happen like that, too. Especially Juco. Especially Juco. It can happen like that. I mean, same thing with Marcus. One of our old teammates with utep, they called him money. Happened like that, too. Especially Juco. Especially Juco. It can happen like that. I mean, same thing with Marcus, one of our old teammates with utep, they called him Monday. He was on a visit that week and committed. Committed by, like, Friday, you know, like, it. It can happen like that. And you just never know when that Right. School will call and when you'll get that shot. I know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You really. You really never know what's going to happen. Yeah. Especially with Juco, as we both know.

Yeah, especially with Juco. Yeah.

Cool. Well, anything. I mean, anything else. I'm trying to think about that. What you said about recruiting is like, those first two things were like, gold. Like, that's. That's going to get clipped. I'm. I'm definitely clipping that. Yeah. Whereas, like, film, because. Yeah, film is what really gets coaches into you. Because if you don't have, like, if you don't have elite film, then. Yeah. You're just not like, no matter how good you think you are, how, like, even size wise, like, if you're a good size, if you just don't have the film to prove to someone like that you at least. Because films like your highlights, so it's. You're like ceiling. So, like, if you don't even have, like, the ability to do something and put it on your film, and it's just like, okay, well, you don't really have that ability then.

Yeah, I mean, it's like, also, I was with. Kind of just going to say something about that. So, like, the film, like, especially. So one of the receivers here at Washington, Jalen McMillan, he. He's from. He's from where you're from Fresno. So we, we watched like, we were. We were hanging out and we watched each other's like, he watched my JUCO film and I watched his high school film. And like, if you're a receiver out there and think you should be able to play here at like Washington or a school that we compete with, like sc, even like Oregon, one of those schools in the pack, or like, I don't know, other schools nationally, anywhere. Go watch Jalen's film, J. Mac's film from high school, and then watch your film. And I guarantee you it's probably not even close to as good as his film. His film. And his film, like his freshman film is probably better than your film, your senior film. He is. It's pretty. It's ridiculous. I mean, he's a top five receiver in the country now. I just. That, like, go, go watch it and tell yourself if you're that good. And if you are, shoot, I might have to send our coach text about you. But the chances are you're probably not. So I think it's just like being kind of that brutally honest with yourself. Like, even if it's like not Washington or like usc, okay, maybe it's like a Colorado State, you know, or like a Mountain west school or an SCS school, like Montana, Montana State, Idaho State. I mean, there's hundreds of schools out there. I mean, it's just about, like, seriously, go watch players film from every single school and see if you stack up against it or at least all the schools you're interested in. See where you stack up. Then go after those schools because that's where you'll have the best chance of getting in.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Jalen's. Jalen's film is crazy. I just remember, like, because he was my same grade him. And we had a Jeremiah Hunter who went to California, and we had Jalen Cropper who had like PAC 12 offers, but then he went to Fresno State. So they were all crazy, crazy athletes. But yeah, yeah, I mean, that's good. Like, just comparing yourself to people that you know are doing what you want to do is like, at least that's the best way to get some feedback and be realistic with yourself.

Yeah, I think it's just being honest with yourself. Look at it objectively. Like, look at the two players and say, who's better? You know, that's. You just gotta be honest with yourself. You just gotta be honest. And I think that's. That's important. And then also, like, with offers, how offers go, you're not gonna get that Washington or USC or Oregon or Stanford or Texas or Alabama, Georgia, you're not going to get those big time offers first. Like you're going to get those smaller schools first like a Boise State or like Nevada or Idaho or like one of those schools, you're going to get a smaller school first before you get those bigger schools. So I mean, I also think it's important to keep that in mind. Like you're probably going to get a lot more no's before you get a yes. Then when you get that first yes, it'll probably be like some group of five school or even in FCS school before you get those big offers.

So yeah, I think the good thing is that's starting to become like common knowledge that coaches are kind of scared to be the first one to pull the trigger. And so a lot of people know like, yeah, once you get that first offer, the other ones kind of start coming in. But just so it feels so hard to get that first one that people are, get frustrated and whatnot.

That's true. And you never know when it'll come. But it is true. It is hard to get that first offer. At the end of the day, you can only go to one school. Like you can only go to one school. So there's no, like, I, I also feel like there's no reason to accumulate like 30 offers. Like pick a couple schools that you're interested in, areas you want to live in, the schools that have good programs that you want to study, go after those schools and then like choose from there because you're not gonna, like, you go to one school. It doesn't matter if you have one offer or 30. Each one's going to like, each person's going to one school. So I think it's important to. I'd rather know a lot about a few schools than know like this much about 50 schools.

Yeah, no, that's true. That's a good point.

And it's also like when you talk about being persistent, I mean, being persistent, like calling every day, emails every day, DMs every day. Like it's easy to be persistent to a few schools than it is to be persistent to 50. So I mean, that's just kind of my, my thought on it.

Yeah, no, that's some good stuff, man. I think that'll, that'll help a lot of people. Well, I think we're kind of through all I wanted to talk about, I guess just to kind of wrap it up, like kind of gave you some recruiting advice, but what you have Anything you want to leave the. The rest of the viewers with at all?

Yeah, I just say enjoy the process. I mean, not just the recruiting process, but just like the football process. Enjoy. Enjoy those. Those, like, dog days of summer when you're lifting in the weight room with your bros. Like, I'm telling you, when it's. It goes by like that and when it's done, it's done. Like, you're not going to get those days back. You're not going to get, like, that team camaraderie anywhere else. It's kind of really unique to athletics and especially football. I think it's just important to enjoy it while you have it because it'll go by like that and just enjoy the process. Enjoy what you do. If you enjoy it, I think it's. You'll be way more likely to be successful at it.

That's awesome. Good. So, yeah, that's. That's pretty much it, man. Just want to thank you for coming on, Alex. I'm sure I'll have you back on again. Talk about maybe we'll. Maybe we'll do something where we talk about our juco stories. I know we have.

Oh, yeah.

But no, I appreciate you coming on, man. Taking the time. I know you got your week off and you're probably just hanging out there and enjoying it, so appreciate coming on, man. And definitely have to have you on again.

Yes, sir. Appreciate it, Trent.

Cool. Well, this is the recruiting game podcast. If you want more content like this, we'll have plenty more guests on. And yeah, I got some exciting guests coming on soon, so subscribe to wherever you're watching, whether this is on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts. Be sure to follow for more. But yeah, thanks for watching and see you again soon. Peace.