5 Of The Biggest Mistakes You Can Make While Being Recruited

Today's piece is going to be a bit different than your traditional piece, but it's because I'm asked questions all the time and feel like a piece like this could help down the road.   Mistake #1: Hiding Information On Social Media   The first thing anyone notices about you on social media is your profile picture and your bio, at least on Twitter. The best thing to do is to have your bio properly filled. This includes your Height, Weight, Position, GPA, high school, a HUDL/film link, and either your DMs open or your cell phone number listed. You want to let schools know who you are, where you're from, and what you can do. If any of these are missing like height or GPA, it sends up red flags. Is he short and just not confident? Is he a bad student? You want to eliminate as many questions as possible. Questions create doubt. Doubt gets you skipped.   Mistake #2: Generic / No Effort DMs to coaches   Messaging coaches, scouts, and personnel directors is the right thing to do. However, if you're sending a message like "Hey coach, I'm Jimmy Jimmers from Indiana and I'd love to play for your program." Then coaches know you're going through and spamming. That's fine, but not making an effort to switch names or address the coach directly, is obvious. Most often, that is your first impression to a school or coach. If it's no effort and laziness, that tells some coaches enough right there. Be unique. Be you. Spend time and make an effort. Coaches read their DMs. Whether they reply or not is determined by your message, info, and ability. Having a good message and then a nice bio at least gets them to your film, which is a step farther than most get.   Mistake #3: Waiting To Be Found Rather Than Making Yourself Seen   There's quite a difference in my eyes between a guy who is waiting to be found and a guy who is making himself seen. What I mean by that is the sheer effort and determination to play at the next level. A great example I want to use is [player_tooltip player_id='541922' first='Braxton' last='Strong'] of Peru. To get the attention he deserved, he was spamming social media with clips, tagging coaches, and going above and beyond. He made it a point to show that not only was he determined, but no excuses would hold him back. That's the type of recruit coaches want. I joke with him in person about it, but at one point he was sprinting hurdles in the hallway of his school this past winter and posting them online, just to show he was still working when others would have made the weather excuse.   The same goes for Social Media in general. It's great to have your HUDL posted in your bio and your pinned tweet, but post rolling videos as well. Clips automatically play when scrolling on Twitter. That way, when you're tagging coaches they can see a glimpse of what you can do. It all plays a role, as you just need the right coach to see you.   Going to a camp and not making the most of that opportunity. About half of a camp is about what you do on the field, how you perform, and the testing results. The other half is outright having the confidence to go up and say hi to any and every college coach. D3, NAIA, D2, FCS, D1. Every single coach there has what you want. An opportunity to play at the next level. That D3 coach you might blow off could very well be the personnel director at a D1 program in 6 months. Every person you meet is a contact and potential door to get you to where you want to go. Have you ever wondered why the same group of kids are talking to coaches after a camp? Then how they get some sort of offer shortly after? It's that face-to-face interaction where you get to meet a coach, which oftentimes means more than any play on the field that day.   Mistake #4: Not Paying Attention To What You're Doing On Social Media   Look, the odds are that if you're reading this, you have some sort of Social Media. That being said, this applies to every recruit in every sport across the world. Pay attention to what you're doing. Who you follow, what you like, what you say, and all of that. Whether it be on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc, if a coach comes to your profile and sees a bunch of.... less than professional stuff, it's going to turn them away. When you sign to a football program, you represent them everywhere you go, including online which is why you should be mindful of that.   Mistake #5: Not Being Honest With Yourself and Not Thinking Longterm   The hardest thing to do as a person is to step back, evaluate a situation, and make the best decision for YOURSELF and only yourself. I tell people all the time, to be real with yourself. When you're at a school and if it doesn't feel like home, don't force it. If you think a coach is lying to you, he probably is so don't do it to yourself. THE WORST thing you can do is put yourself in a situation where in 6 months you're looking to hit the transfer portal. When you're getting recruited, you get 1 opportunity to do it right. At this rate, the transfer portal is an ocean where the minute you enter it, you're lost. It's so big, it has so many recruits, and it is getting bigger by the day. This is why I say make the decision for YOU and your LONGTERM future. If football doesn't work out, does this university get you to where you want to go? Choosing a college is one of the biggest decisions of your life, so don't rush it and be thorough with your process.

Today's piece is going to be a bit different than your traditional piece, but it's because I'm asked questions all the time and feel like a piece like this could help down the road.