🏈 How important are camp performances for kids hoping to get a committable offer?

[TerryP]

I'm not sure how many of you guys caught the conversation about a month ago about how many kids in the 2014 class had committable offers from Bama. We had a brief discussion about it just around the beginning of the summer camps on campus.

The number was "rough." Hypothetical, if UA has 100 letters of interest out to players in the next high school class you can anticipate 10 to 15 of those letters are actually "written offers;" or committable offers.

The one position it's most evident has been the QB position. Recently, there was an article written and published in an Arkansas media outlet about how Bielema was "one up on Saban" due to a QB committing to the 'Backs for the 2015 class. I'm certainly not taking a thing away from the kids potential, but at the same time I do feel it is important to take into consideration he very likely doesn't have an offer from Bama he could commit to if he so desired.

All that said, here's an interesting tweet from Rick Trickett who is currently coaching at Samford.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Campsmatter&amp;src=hash">#Campsmatter</a> RT <a href="https://twitter.com/CoachTTrickett">@CoachTTrickett</a>: 5 of our 8 offensive signees from 2013 class earned scholarships off of their summer camp performance!</p>&mdash; Andrew Bone (@AndrewJBone) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewJBone/statuses/354038011123601408">July 8, 2013</a></blockquote>
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(I have no idea what positions those offensive players fit, but if Samford is being this selective what's that say about other schools and early offers? A clear example of schools misevaluating kids is found in Austin.)

 

[TerryP]

While I thought I was off of this subject for a little while...then I come across this:

The son of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Paul Zeise recently committed to the University of Pittsburgh, so with the recruiting process over, Zeise has written an article that shares his advice to parents of recruits. I particularly liked #5 of Zeise's 11 tips for parents.

Ziese wrote, "Get all of the information, don't be afraid to ask questions: Over the years of covering recruiting and college athletics, I have always been amazed by the number of times kids either (1) think they have an offer and don't or (2) talk about schools that aren't interested in them. I never understood how this could happen - until now. Here is the thing - coaches can be very vague, they can say things that they don't necessarily mean AND (this is a big one) position coaches say a lot of stuff but unless you hear it from a coordinator or head coach, it doesn't mean much. In order for a kid to get an offer at almost every place I've been to, the head coach has to sign off on it. So if you haven't heard it from the head coach or coordinator and the words "we are offering you a scholarship" aren't said, then it probably isn't an offer. And if you have questions about what was said, don't be afraid to say "so where do we stand" This will help you understand where you stand with each school and avoid making mistakes."

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In the last week or so I noticed one of the major recruiting sites had changed their format a little and now they show "schools of interest" instead of having a column listing "offers." That was a good move—at the least a move in the right direction.

I'm sure you've seen some sites report a kid has an offer and at the same time other sites not reflecting one. Why? Outside of what the player, or in some cases his high school coach or parent, say there's no definitive way to say "he's got an offer." So often I've seen players with letters of interest which they describe as an offer.