College Football Recruiting Made Simple

Welcome back…Yes I have been missing in action but lately through networking and just speaking with the general public the issue of playing time and discipline has been a hot topic atleast in regards to high school football players. I have spoken with police sargents other coaches and tons of parents. Wouldn’t you want to know what I said???

A Good Coach

A good coach teaches players lessons on and off the field. Thats what Coach C is. Every job that I have been apart of outside of RMCFE.com Coach C has been apart of…Well should I say that: Without Coach C I wouldn’t have ever played football…And RMCFE.com wouldn’t exist. Anyhow the point being he and his coaching staff has helped me on and off the field, and it has shaped to become the person I am today.

The reason I reference my experiences with Coach C is because when I was younger and a player under him I misunderstood many concepts. Like the “help the team concept” this is because at first I was selfish and you Cant be selfish on the football field. I mean look at the NFL selfish players are dying out, they are getting released from contracts and into trouble etc. etc… Anyhow I also misunderstood the playing time concept: Why in some cases the best players don’t play a lot. The irony here is in College Football; The best player plays point blank. Now this creates controversy because in high school coach c feels that if you don’t attend summer weight lifting you won’t play. See if I choose to have a selfish mindset, I would disagree 100% and I don’t. I absolutely support coach C and his madness lol. Anyhow the reason being is because if you don’t teach these young high school players how to be responsible and attend weight lifting they won’t have a chance on the next level and to baby them and let them play just because they are good would be doing them a dis-service or more hurt than help.

College Football - Playing Time

I have been a victim of the following since “the best player plays.” My true freshman year I sat out and redshirted. Now the following summer I went home and workout to the best of my ability not saying I turned into arnold swarzhowever you spell it or something but I did attempt to workout. However when I reported to camp I earned a starting spot the day before our first game. There were guys who had gained weight and worked out all summer with the team. Me I gained a few pounds by working out and increasing my calorie intake=ice cream baby. But I was the better player so I started. Now whatever you do after reading this blog don’t misinturpret anything. This doesn’t mean that you don’t need to work hard. You definitely need to work harder for 2 reasons: Your competition for your position and your competition that you will be matched up against for 11 games this upcoming season.

In Closing

My goal with this entry was to bring some light and address any questions or concerns that parents and fans have about playing time. Now as it was mentioned to me in a barbershop yesterday, “some parents think their kid is working out with the team” well its sad that their kid can lie to them and also the parents can contact the coaches. A good coach always makes himself available. Something recently happened Coach C said I should have called him even if it was midnight. And thats the problem too many parents and spectators pass judgement on coaches before they sit and speak with them. All it is to parents is winning and losing…But think for one minute about “discipline being a factor in losing.” I will close on that note. Until next time…

I wont go into a whole lot of detail because you can look at my past blog entries that discuss nutrition in great detail. However it has come to my attention today during my workout with my high school football team that breakfast is an issue. Some guys are over sleeping, too lazy to cook or wake up earlier or just flat out skipping breakfast. One player told me that it is impossible to eat before you lift. I personally eat every 2 hours, and I train 4 times a week you do the math???? Exactly I don’t care if I just ate I get my workout done with proper fuel - energy for my workouts.

Breakfast

First meal of the day, obvious enough right…WRONG…Many people wake up and think they can do weight training on e…when you do this you are essentially starving yourself and you will usually feel weaker than usual and constantly naucious and ready to quit or tap out of your workout. The only time you shouldn’t eat breakfast 1st thing in the morning is during a morning cardio session…You need the calories to fuel your weight training though, trust me. Your body will thank you for it.

Another issue I have been noticing is water or lack of it. Some players aren’t used to drinking a lot of water so it makes it hard to drink water and go back to a workout. Truthfully with time your body will get used to it. Just be patient because I am definitely not telling you to go start drinking 2 gallons of water a day…It is gradual you have to build up too it. Don’t rush because there is a such thing as water intoxication or drinking to much water. But you guys probably won’t run into that problem with all the sweat and water you will lose during your summer workouts.

Coaching

The last thing I want to say is make sure you are pushing yourself. I have seen guys that have a workout that says do as many as you can until failure and they bang out 8 and before they attempt to fail they stop their set because they are satisfied. I can’t say it in my weight room but this is my blog and that is flat out BullShit…I ask these players constantly “do you want to be good or do you want to be great?” That is a question that they need to ask themselves when they are quiting on a workout because their legs burn or they got a blister from the bar. Grow up…This is Football not hackey sack!!!!!! As you can see my level of anger and trust me you didn’t want to be in their with me today. And granted this isn’t even my workout which is 50x s harder…”The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”

First I want to tell all of you that you have to be very committed to your football team if you are going to be successful. You will be allowed time to study and limited free time but you have to make sacrifices. Football is a very unselfish sport you can’t have 1 Kobey Bryant and expect to win every game because there are 11 players on the field and you need all 11. Think football, think sacrifice.

This weekend I went to the Connecticut vs. Rhode Island Governors Cup – All Star Game. It was at Rentchsler Field in East Hartford, CT. I went with some family friends to support their son. When they were introducing the players I was proud to know that one of them was from my high school. He had a nice catch during that game. But the person who inspired this blog is Lorenzo Hemingway of Capital Prep. He is a wide receiver and he wore #81 I believe because the wide out from my school Tristan Roberts wore #83

Football = Big Hits

Like I said this is an entry that is inspired by Lorenzo Hemingway. I watched him run routes repeatedly without getting a pass thrown his way. As frustrating as this tends to get for wide outs especially in a big game like this, he kept playing. Then it happened the hit that made the whole stadium Yell “Oh”. He hit this kid so hard it had to be the biggest hit I have ever seen a high school player deliver. And he is only a wide out…Defensive backs look out. Here is how it unfolded. He ran a route and the qb chose to scramble for whatever reason. (This is the part I like) Instead of being selfish and saying I didn’t get the ball, Lorenzo stayed involved with the play and came out towards the qb as he picked up a few yards and right when the defensive back thought he had the tackle BAM he got rocked…The whole stadium went crazy. I went crazy as I sat with his parents it felt so good to see that. When you support someone you always want to see every hit, every play you don’t want to miss anything.

Football No I in Team

No matter how you look at it, there really is not the word I in the word Team. I spoke to a lot of coaches at the game. With one coach in particular that I spoke with prior to attending the game, we spoke about how parents and players don’t understand about helping the team. They look at their son like he is a fullback but when the coach moves him they go into shock…Like the coach doesn’t know what they are doing. Yes even sometimes I disagree but when you look at the situation for example I didn’t want to play offensive line but when I played it I was good at it and it earned me a scholarship. Now it freaks me out writing this to think, how did the coach know I would be good at it, I wasn’t even big at all. But what it does for me is help me motivate and explain to players that are facing a similar situation. How selfish would I have been to not play the position that coach wanted me to play? And I probably wouldn’t have earn a scholarship without helping my team out.
Now you see the connection between helping the team and being unselfish and how Lorenzo Hemingways block relates to this whole concept? Exactly he could’ve easily done what most wide receivers would have done and not blocked. I don’t know if you remember Randy Moss this season he had some good blocks, yes he is a wide receiver but he knew that being selfish would hurt his team which in turn would hurt him as well. So always think help the team…because like I told that coach this weekend when you help the team you truly help yourself at the same time. Lorenzo Hemingway keep up the good work. RMCFE.com Salutes you and congratulations to all the players on both teams who participated in the 2008 Connecticut vs Rhode Island Game. Well I guess I’ll end on that note. Until next time…