What College Coaches Tell Recruits!
November 6th, 2009College Coaches may tell you things that aren’t true
My college coaches told me I would play Defensive End, but I ended up being a 2 time 2nd team All Atlantic 10 player and All New England Player as an offensive lineman. Did this hurt me? Not particularly, the reason being because I was told our Offensive line played like defensive lineman on the offensive side of the ball. However, this was true
and I later found that out.
Me as a true Freshman
I was an offensive lineman weighin a measly 230lbs. I was on scout team tearing up our defensive lineman some of who
were NFL prospects (meaning NFL scouts often came to watch and talk to them in practice). I know what your thinking at 230lbs. Yep that was me I loved being the underdog. But anyhow it came to a point that I was on 2nd team during the spring football season
right before my redshirt freshman year. Not to get cocky but I started in a spring scrimage as a center because the center wasn’t in practice and I kicked ass. So I had an epiphany and I spoke to the defensive line coach and said if I can’t get any playing time on offense I want to know that you would let me come over to D. He looked me square in the face and said I support you just get the ok from your coach. I talked to Coach Ashley Ingram who is now the
offensive line coach at Navy and he said no. The words that followed came as what I would use as my mindset. “Shamel do whatever you need to do this summer to come back her in the fall ready to play, you have to be on the field.”
And I took it and started every single game after that, even beating out the Senior who was the starting right tackle.
Coaches Changing Positions
Its funny but I appreciate this saying more as a coach than a player now. You have to do what helps the team… In high school I was a fullback weighin 230lbs. Then I was moved to tale back. By my junior year I was moved to defensive end and offensive guard. Hell yea I was pissed but I still earned a scholarship so I say thanks coach C all the time. We had a freshman on our team this season who coach moved to offensive tackle, I’ll admit this kid wasn’t big at all. His dad called whining and crying that we don’t have his best interest in mind and he’s too small for tackle bla bla bla. I said if that was my dad I wouldn’t have ever made it to college, never played Division 1 College Football and never even thought about rmcfe.com. So thank you Coach C, and thank you mom and dad. But anyhow as a player you have to understand that you have to do what helps the team. And in return it may help you. Alot of people feel that I would have played pro if I played D end in College but Offensive Line is what helped the team. And if I played pro I couldn’t help you. And I did have a chance to play pro tell you in the next paragraph.
College Football and Pro football are businesses
It’s no longer a sport when you leave high school. And some of you big football loving towns of the south, midwest and west coast already get a sense of this at the high school level. But there are jobs and positions at stake every day. This is why some coaches make these decisions to recruit a fast running back and never give them a carry in college but instead turn them into defensive backs. We had a player
Michael Bland who was the fastest man in New England he was about 5′8 180lbs and they made him a defensive end. I guess they needed a quick D end to pressure QB’s from their blind side. Some people do anything to save their jobs so understand that from a coaching stand point. On another note there have been players who have committed to schools
and transferred upon having their position changed. But then there have been pro players like Tabucky Jones who went to syracuse as a running back and got switched to defensive back but also had a great pro career. And now coaches at a rival school, New Britain high school in CT.
In closing the bottom line is be prepared for coaches to change your position or tell you things that aren’t necessarily true.
You ever hear the expression “I tell them what they want to hear, so I can get what I want” With that in mind be smart and try to be loyal to the schools that are recruiting you because they are really interested in you. With that being said understand that you have to approach playing college football as a job. A job without sick days, but opportunities.
Train Hard
Coach Lewis