RECRUITING HAS BECOME CRAZY

I used to love going away to summer camp. Was there anything better than the smell of watered down powdered eggs in the morning?

But this post isn't about Sleepaway Camp. It's about prep football camps and the cottage industry of combines and competitions that has spun off from them.

We addressed this in Friday's post. Today, we have insights from someone who can speak from authority. PJ Fleck is the recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach at Northern Illinois. He is in his 2nd season as a coach at Northern. Fleck is responsible for the Huskies' recruiting efforts.

How much stock do you put in these things? 

"All these combines, we get the results, but it's someone else's watch, someone else's ruler, someone else's scale. We used to attend these, but now we can't (the NCAA prohibits Division 1 coaches from evaluating student-athletes at independently held combines). We'll get information from a big one, like a Nike camp, but stay away from the little ones." 

Why are you seeing so many of these combines/challenges/7-on-7’s? 

"Kids are learning so much about plyometrics, about their bodies, which helps their game. But there are a lot more trainers today, more of these performace enhancers. Kids are going to other places besides high school to be trained. So trainers are running their own (camps, combines). Recruiting has become crazy. You still need to have the high school (coach). Recruits still need personal development. 

Coming in a later post, Fleck reveals how he evaluates a recruit and the best time for a student-athlete to start the process...