Recruiting: Interest Versus Offer

The Fake Lonnie Finch · December 9, 2008

There are many here that confuse interest with offer when it comes to college scholarships.

If any of you have been through the process, you know that if you are a decent athlete, you begin to get letters your junior year and into your senior year. You may also get media guides or other information, depending on the school's budget or how much need they have in your talent.

As the signing period approaches, schools will either continue to contact you or end contact. Much of it depends on what you have actually done during the season.

At this point, a school may invite you to campus for an official visit. This visit is not for express purpose of offering you a scholarship. It's true that you may be offered a scholarship during the visit. But you may not.

What the coaches and staff are doing is sizing you up physically and emotionally. They want to see the real person off the field. They've already seen your highlight clips - and they know that those are just the highlights. Anyone can throw those together.

Since every coach is trying to get their players signed, they fudge height, weight, 40 numbers, accomplishments. Getting a player on campus allows a coaching staff to really see how you appear physically and how you handle yourself.

So, when a player has a list of interested school it doesn't mean they have offered him a scholarship. It means that somewhere along the line, they've contacted and evaluated him.

Every year you'll have a story or two about a kid who didn't get an offer and is confused about it because there was "interest" in him. There is a huge difference. There is no offer until the coaching staff expressly extends it. Interest is simply part of the evaluating process.

That's why it's always ridiculous to put any stock in the phrase "was recruited by such and such a school." Yes, they may have "recruited" him. But, that doesn't necessarily mean they offered him a scholarship.

I know many people that have kept their recruiting letters from back in the day. They're fun to look at. But, in the end, only the scholarship offers ended up mattering. The rest is just paper and ink.

Edited December 9, 2008 by The Fake Lonnie Finch

FirefightnRick · December 9, 2008

Since every coach is trying to get their players singed, they fudge height, wieght, 40 numbers, accomplishments. Getting a player on campus allows a coaching staff to really see how you appear physically and how you handle yourself.
So, when a player has a list of interested school it doesn't mean they have offered him a scholarship. It means that somewhere along the line, they've contacted an evaluated him.
Every year you'll have a story or two about a kid who didn't get an offer and is confused about it because there was "interest" in him. There is a huge difference. There is no offer until the coaching staff expressly extends it. Interest is simply part of the evaluating process.

Yep.

Now that DD and his staff are no longer here I can share one interesting story I learned about a while back without feeling like I compromised the source. Four or five years ago DD was recruiting a lineman from Evangel Christian Academy out of Louisiana. Many of us knew about it because Harry had reported that he was in town for his visit, but nothing came of it and the information about his visit and all just vanished as if he never showed up or something that weekend? I just remembering it being a bit strange with that? Later on one of DD's assistants told us exactly why at the video show that next February, and that the player had a horrible visit and that DD passed on him. Apparantly he and his mother came on his recruiting trip together and one of the assistants was giving them and some other recruits and parents a tour on campus. The players mother was somehow familiar with our campus, don't remember if she was an alumn or what, but during the tour she tried to point out to her son something specific that she knew about our campus in front of the tour group and her son turned around and told her to "Shut Up!" in front of everyone and wasn't one bit sorry, ashamed or embarrassed for doing so. This got back to DD, who was furious about it and later that day brought it up during an interview with the player and called him out about being so disrespectfull to his own mother. DD obviously didn't like the kid's attitude when discussing the matter and never extended an offer.

So yeah, when a recruit gets here, he's basically doing a job interview with the coaching staff as TFLF points out, and attitude and how they handle themself is definately a couple of the contributing factors.

Thinking back on this, and simply because I played for him for a very short time then came to know him while at NT, can you think what would have happened to you had you acted this way in front of Corky Nelson assistant Chuck Mills? Oh Lord???!!!!

Rick

Edited December 9, 2008 by FirefightnRick

MeanGreenZen · December 9, 2008

Another thing to add: There are also different kinds of scholarship offers: You have a standing offer or a take-it-or-leave-it offer. A standing offer allows a recruit to take a few days or weeks or months and think about it. These are for top targets, the kind of recruits a coach just has to have.

Other times, a coach will see 100 running backs at his camp, decide three of them are decent D1 prospects, but only has one scholarship available for a running back. The coach will invite the best of the three recruits in to his office and offer him a scholarship, if the recruit takes it, the coach is finished recruiting that position and the other recruits never get an offer. But if the top running back recruit declines, the coach will withdraw the offer and make it to the next-rated RB recruit and so on. So is it really that impressive if one of our recruits had a take-it-or-leave-it offer from a Big 12 school that expired the moment he asked the coach if he could think about it?

Also, just because a recruit had offers from big-name schools does not mean we necessarily beat that big-name school in recruiting that player. For example, one of our players got a take-it-or-leave it offer from, say, Virginia Tech, when he was a junior in high school, but the player declined thinking maybe Texas A&M or Texas or someone better would offer him his senior year. The player then gets hurt or has a disappointing senior season and ends up taking a scholarship from UNT. Both Virginia Tech and UNT offered the kid a scholarship and the kid signed with UNT, but did we really beat Virginia Tech in recruiting that player? No, Virginia Tech's scholarship offer had been revoked way before the kid settled on UNT. But all the newspapers will report that he had an offer from Virginia Tech and he signed with UNT.

And another thing, coaches cannot comment on who they have offered scholarships to before signing day, and rarely comment on who they offered scholarships to after signing day. So kids can claim to have had scholarship offers from whoever they want to and nobody will ever try to prove them wrong. And many times a small-town reporter will ask a kid who is recruiting him and the kid will tell the reporter every school that has sent him a letter and the reporter, being an idiot, will report that all of those schools offered the kid a scholarship while in reality they only sent him a letter.

Trying to follow recruiting is a very inexact science.

Edited December 9, 2008 by MG Insurance Pro