General Recruiting Question

[WaDE'05 8]

So, while I was going to school at Auburn I coached wrestling in the area, for AHS, AJHS, and a club team. One of my wrestlers is now a senior at Opelika. He is a linebacker and is, honest to God, one of the most impressive athletes I've ever seen. As a wrestler he is a two time defending state champ at 215lbs. his freshman year he finished third at 215 despite being 15 years old and only weighing 192lbs. His sophmore year he won while wrestling the entire state tourney on a high ankle sprain, and after winning his finals match by decision he proceeded to do a roundoff-back tuck across the mat. His junior year he posted a record of 39-0. I only give you all of the wrestling info to give some kind of understanding as to what kind of athlete I'm talking about. As far as football is concerned, I am pretty sure he is the leading tackler on Opelika's team with 92 tackles, 5 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, and an INT. (don't hold me to those stats, because they came from his mouth, but he usually isn't one to exagerate, especially to me.) Now, getting to my question, why is a guy like this not getting recruited? Not just by Auburn, but by anybody. the only offer he has is from Southern Missouri. According to him, the only D-1 team that is showing him any interest is Vandy. He has never gone to any individual camps, just team camp at JSU every summer with OHS. I am really scared that his lack of exposure at camps is going to end up costing him a D-1 scholarship. Now, I have been around sports for all of my life, I have coached football and wrestling for a number of years now, and I am not going to make the call as to whether this kid is good enough to play at AU or any other top tier SEC program, he may very well not be, but I know this kid is without a doubt good enough to play and make a significant impact at the D-1 level, especially at schools like UAB, Troy, So. Miss, and any lower tier SEC school. I have become very close to this guy over the years. I practically raised him for three years while I was at Auburn. I want nothing more than to see him succeed at the next level. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get a kid like this a "foot in the door" at a D-1 program??

[RadioWryn 0]

My guess is that Coach McCracken, if he thought this athlete was good enough, would get in touch with the appropriate people. A lot of this is up to the head coaches talking to college coaches, getting them tapes, etc.

[AU! 0]

Well I ran the names of all the junior and senior linebackers at Opelika High through a rivals search and none of them came up on the site. Rivals is pretty good about having all the top recruits on their site. Is he not a senior or something? There are strict rules about when a school can approach a kid (a lot of schools got in trouble over this from approaching jimmy clauson too early). But if he's not in the rivals system, maybe he doesn't compare to linebackers nationwide. Although by the way you talk about him, it would seem that he's nothing to shake a stick at. I would suggest maybe sending an email to Auburn linebackers coach james willis with some recruiting footage of him but that is something that the coach would normally do. If he's a senior and he really is that good, I would expect him to be more talked about, although its hard to find anything on him, apparently high school wrestling stats aren't exactly broadcast all over the internet. I don't know what else you could do other than encourage him to make visits to schools and talk to them about recruiting. Hell if he really is that good and just underrated, he could try walking on to a team. Being from Opelika he would have instate tuition at Auburn and could live at home if money is an issue.

[WaDE'05 8]

Well I ran the names of all the junior and senior linebackers at Opelika High through a rivals search and none of them came up on the site. Rivals is pretty good about having all the top recruits on their site. Is he not a senior or something? There are strict rules about when a school can approach a kid (a lot of schools got in trouble over this from approaching jimmy clauson too early). But if he's not in the rivals system, maybe he doesn't compare to linebackers nationwide. Although by the way you talk about him, it would seem that he's nothing to shake a stick at. I would suggest maybe sending an email to Auburn linebackers coach james willis with some recruiting footage of him but that is something that the coach would normally do. If he's a senior and he really is that good, I would expect him to be more talked about, although its hard to find anything on him, apparently high school wrestling stats aren't exactly broadcast all over the internet. I don't know what else you could do other than encourage him to make visits to schools and talk to them about recruiting. Hell if he really is that good and just underrated, he could try walking on to a team. Being from Opelika he would have instate tuition at Auburn and could live at home if money is an issue.

He is a senior, and yeah, I find it strange that he is not on rivals or scout. I believe that a lot of the information those sites gather on HS players comes from various individual camps. While he has been invited to several camps he has never attended due either to money or having conflicts with wrestling tournaments. He may also be hurting on exposure due to the fact that he was a transfer student his sophmore year and was ineligible to participate in athletics for his first semester, and his junior year in order to help the team he was moved to DE, despite being a rover linebacker. Granted I do have a personal relationship with the kid, but I honestly believe he is a sleeper, and it really does bother me that he isn't getting any offers. I'm just trying to figure out a way I could help. I know a couple of coaches on the coaching staff at AU form coaching their kids, maybe i'll just shoot them an email as sort of a hail mary attempt. Thanks for the insight guys...

[AuburnGrad02' 0]

Put him together a DVD of highlights and send that bad boy out. Worse thing is you lose a couple of dollars and time. Kids from small schools everywhere do this. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.