How I got Recruited

…And earned a full football scholarship. Well it all started
around this time my junior year of High School. I was left gaurd and left defensive end at the time. I remember being pissed when they moved me from tail back, because nobody couldn’t tackle me. Not even the gauntlet. Actually it didn’t bother me in a selfish sense about moving from tailback because I needed to help the team. At last sentence is something that not enough football players appreciate. You need to help the team. I guess I was a better blocker. We went 7-3 my junior year. I was all conference and I was receiving my first few Football Questionnaires. I didn’t know what to make of them I thought they were pretty cool. At the same time I had no thought of even playing college football. My thought process being this is a new sport I just started playing as a sophmore I still don’t even understand the game. But the University of Rhode Island came and they liked me. I went to their junior day, toured the campus, and spoke with players and coaches. Then I came up and had free tickets to a football game. They were losing by 6 points with 30 seconds left and they broke a 60 yard touchdown to win it. Actually at that game I was the only recruit that the coach wanted to see in his office that day. I went on the sideline during pregame. They treated me real good. (now I get sideline passes all the time) Then I came up for an official visit. I ate all you could eat at multiple restaurants, went out with players to a few parties came back to hotel at about 5am and had a 7am breakfast then meeting. By 10am I had given them my verbal commitment.

Big decisions for recruits

Other schools came and they liked me. But I saw University of Rhode Island almost everywhere I went. I went to a New England high school football combine, I went to the Uconn Huskies football camp and there were scouts from everywhere not even just Rhode Island but there whole Atlantic 10 conference. Coaches began showing interest and telling me how good of a fit I would be for their program. Umass offered me, University of New Hampshire offered me and Maine just to name a few. But who I chose was the school that showed interest first and recruited me from jump.

Not only is picking the right college to play for a big decision so is every other aspect of the business. By business I am referring to the whole College and College football experience. You have to be satisfied academically. Make sure the school you choose has a reputable education program. You also have to be satisfied with the distance. Make sure your close enough or far enough away from home. Make sure you factor in the idea of your family coming to your games. Would they be able to afford it if your far away? If your playing college football at a school far away, are you games televised?

Don’t take recruiting personal

There are schools that may recruit you and bash other schools, perhaps schools that you are interested in. But take it with a grain of salt because after all its your choice not theirs. I think I did a recruit a huge favor, to help him make his decision I told him pick a time off the record and come up and stay with me and my roomates. This would help you get a sense of how it really is up here, aside from coming on an official visit. He came he had fun and it helped him make a decision. Also another reason not to take recruiting personal is because if you choose a big time D1a school and things don’t work out you need to be able to market yourself to those other schools you turned down and see what you can make happen. Most coaches like when a player can approach them and admit they made a mistake. Actually they admire that because it shows accountability and the emergence of a man. So don’t burn bridges with schools that are recruiting you even though your not interested. You never know you may need a coaching position, a graduate assistant position or something along those lines. Anyhow it’s my turn to help other players get recruited. I’m glad to be here helping all of you. mel@rmcfe.com
Coach Lewis

Recruiting and What can you do over vacation

Welcome back. Today officially starts the christmas or winter break for high school. If you live close to a University or College where you would like to one day play football go and visit. This is an unofficial visit for you because you are paying for all the expenses of this visit. You may be able to meet the coaches and market yourself. By market yourself I mean show them your size, your height & weight in person. Show them your intelligence by the way you speak to them.

Recruiting Advantage

The bottom line when trying to get recruited is that you want to have every advantage over other potential recruits. So if you can actually come up over the break and meet with a coach this is great because every other player will not be thinking about doing this. Also if you plan on visiting over break bring a tape with you. Have something that the coaches may be interested in seeing, like an all state or all county award, a report card, SAT/ACT scores and a tape of one of your best games. All of these things work towards your advantage in standing out from the other potential recruits. And if you can’t make a visit call a coach once or twice over the break. Don’t know what to tell a college football recruiting coach? Tell them about your interest in the University or your interest in play college football as a whole. Also be current know whats going on with the bowl games and the NFL coaches love a player who has a lot of knowledge about current events in football. And besides if you don’t know whose playing in a big game the coach may wonder how much you really like football…or are you just looking for a scholarship.

Stay in the Weight Room

Even though you are on break remember it is football and there are no days off. The player that puts in the most will get the most out. If you don’t have access to a gym thats fine but you can do push ups. Not just 10 push ups and thats it. Do three sets of 30 push ups with 45 sec rest in between each rep. Do 4 sets of 20 crunches with 10 secs rest between each rep. Just work, work, work, Always be thinking of ways to better yourself and your body. Get a jump rope, you don’t need much space for one and you could jump inside your home or apartment.

In closing

If you are a younger player and you haven’t even filled out a college football questionnaire go to RMCFE.com and go to their college football questionnaires page. This page will provide you with plenty of college football questionnaires. And if you need additional questionnaires or if you need phone numbers or contact information, you can call the College or University by getting their contact information off the College Football Coaches Directory. Well until next time…

Hello and welcome back to the College Football Recruiting Blog written by Mel Lewis. I love writing this blog because when I was a junior and senior I had no resources to help me with college football recruiting. It was more like I just took everything in and went with no guidance/direction. But I still ended up with a full scholarship, books and room and board and when I learned how to manipulate the system -a few thousand dollars in my pocket. I want to share everything that I know and learned during my college football career. I have experience in being recruited and in hosting recruits so if you leave a comment on my blog I will gladly respond to you. Anyhow I want to list 10 ways that you can increase your chances of being recruited:

Playing hard until the whistle blows means you are playing with intensity and you don’t stop until the whistle blows. That could mean the difference between a touchdown and 4th down. Be a leader on and off the field. Lead by example good grades, good reputation others will follow and college coaches love players who can lead. Having your tapes ready is always a plus because if a coach says they need you to rush your tapes…You can’t rush them if they aren’t ready can you? Also you never know the urgency of the situation they could be ready to sign a player but be considering you as well so they may need your tape immediately. Also step ahead of the game and upload a clip to youtube or google videos etc. because you can always email them the url.

Being coachable means not talking back or disrespecting a coach. Coaches love respect they love a player who can take what they say and respond to it positively instead of pouting. Attitude really is everything and just from my experiences playing college football I know a negative attitude is cancerous to the team. A negative attitude immediately causes a decline in your performance on and off the field. Having good character means doing the right thing no matter if someone is watching you or not. College coaches love a player that they don’t have to worry about getting in trouble, missing classes etc. They want players with good character to represent their team.Take no days off on and off the field and you and your coaches will be glad you didn’t. Go 100% every play. This will definately catch a scouts attention.

Keeping your nose clean is a no brainer, nobody wants a trouble maker on their team. Or a player with a bad reputation who can’t stay out of trouble. Being your own advocate means calling coaches yourself instead of waiting for your high school coach to do so. I’ve seen this happen last year with players calling me and emailing me saying their coach didn’t send out their tapes etc. etc. if you do it yourself you know it was taken care of. Also there are blogs written that will guide in this step.

In closing I just wanted to briefly touch on somethings that I know will increase your chances of being recruited. Following these steps will greatly increase your chances. But I will tell you it takes a lot of work on your part to get recruited. Thanks for stopping by again.