Transcription
Hey everybody, how's it going? Hope everybody's day is going well and everybody is ready to enjoy holiday festivities. Um, just wanted to touch bases on something really, really, really quick.
When we talk about the recruiting process, a lot of people are comparing their recruiting processes to, um, someone else on another team, another town, another state, or someone else they just see in social media, right? Um, we got to be careful not to compare the recruiting processes in athletics. The reason being is because no one, or should I say no two ath-student athletes are alike, right? You may have a kid that's overly excelling on the ro—in the classroom, right? Excelling in the classroom but may not be as athletic as another kid, right? Similar positions, similar schools, may even, you know, do pretty well in their role, right? But let's flip it: you may have that kid who is not excelling as well in the classroom and just is whatever your quote-unquote definition of a beast may be—a beast in whatever their sport is, right? So, somewhere along the line it equals out. But the one thing—the reason why, you know, you can't compare it—is because you can't say what that coach is currently looking for, right? And while classroom is the extremely important part about it, the coach is going to be the deciding factor as to what they want. So therefore, comparing the processes really means nothing; it means that you're causing yourself a headache—for your student athlete, the parents, the coaches—it's a headache. Because while you cannot compare it, all you can say is what you are doing: whether you're doing well in the classroom, you're doing well at your particular sport, you're not damaging yourself—I, I want to say your career—you're not damaging your career by explicit postings on social media and things like that, right? Cuz social media is something that we've been talking about for years and years and years with student athletes destroying themselves. Um, not only student athletes, but parents have to be careful of what they're posting as far as the rants and things like that. College coaching is a business; college sports is a business. So let's just keep remembering that when we talk about comparing these processes.
And then you, you know, you have the transfer portal, right? So that brings an added dynamic to it. When the transfer portal first came out, I was here telling you about the transfer portal. Um, I mean, I don't have to agree with the way that it is, but guess what? It is what it is now, right? It's another variable in the recruiting process where a coach may get a kid out of that transfer portal because of many reasons. One: kids coming out of a transfer portal, they already now have college athletic experience and they have college academic experience; those are two variables that you can't ignore, right? Biggest question is: why is a kid transferring? All right, so here's the thing: you'll have a time where a kid is transferring because it's now not the best fit for them, right? So what do people always say? They always say, "Trust the process," and the fit and all of that stuff. Listen, how many of you have changed jobs multiple times in your life because it wasn't the best fit? It's almost—it's probably about the easiest way that I could explain it, right? The only difference is we look kind of down on it sometimes, right? Because it's a student athlete that's at a school trying to get an education, right? Or supposedly trying to get an education. Some people, it's just a breeding ground for the league, right? For one of the leagues. But at the end of the day, as adults, what do we do? You know, we've all changed jobs, all of that stuff, right? But we're trying to get these student athletes to understand that while the academic side of it or sports can lead you to whatever you're going to do in life, right? Because not everybody's going to play professional sports. So the comparison in the process is so off-base because not everybody's going through the same things. Some of the highly recruited kids are now in the transfer portal because they went to the big-name school where the coach was at and they loved it, and now it's, "I'm not playing; I'm not getting the time that I felt like I deserve; I'm not getting what I was promised." Unfortunately, this is where they get that first experience, and a lot of people won't tell you this stuff; they don't want to; they just want to ride the coattails; they won't—don't want to come out and really tell you that, "Hey, the fit is the fit for right then and there." So let's talk about that recruiting process: it's the right fit for right then and there. That doesn't mean that one or two years into this thing you're going to be like, "You know what? I think I want to go somewhere else." It happens, right? But no one's—no one's really sitting there telling you that, "You know, hey, this might happen; that might happen." But I'll tell you what—what—what a lot of those recruiting services are doing: while they don't discuss that with you, a lot are taking your money, and you're—you're happily giving them the money, right? Saying, "Oh yeah, handle this process for me." The one thing I need you to—need to caution you on is with that transfer portal being out there, know that depending on how good you are or whatever that coach is looking for, you may not be as high on that totem pole as you once thought you were coming out of high school, coming out of JO, because that transfer portal has created a whole another level of kids to recruit from. So until you kind of figure that out and think about that part of the process, because that's not something that people had to deal with years ago—you know, years ago you had to worry about, you know, it was just, you know, you're getting out of high school, and it was whether you were recruiting kids from AAU and things like that, or whether or many of the other circuits—the transfer portal is pretty much a—it's just another layer, you know? Even if you want to classify as employers or whatever, you know, if Jobs had those kind of transfer portals, you know, it would be a great thing, I believe, right? So while I think the transfer portal actually hurts some people, it does help some people as well. I don't have to agree with the transfer portal; I don't have to, you know, but it does help some folks. Do I believe that it hurts a lot more folks than it helps? Um, I want to say that it—that it kind of hurts, right? But is it really any different than when a lot of professional teams or whatever, or college—or college—colleges and universities when they hire the same coaches over and over again at different schools, right? This is what's going on now sometimes with the transfer portal, with some kids being in there two and three times, where the kids are now resurfacing everywhere, and it kind of takes away from a kid who's worked hard all their life to achieve a stu—athletic scholarship to play at a school or whatever, right? But understand, it's chess, not checkers. The recruiting process now has to figure in the transfer portal. If you are not figuring in the transfer portal along with your recruiting process, you are making a grave mistake because you have—while you may not know who's all in the transfer portal at the time—it's a new question to ask the coach: "Hey coach, um, you know, I really want to, you know, if I decided I want to come play here, how—how, you know—" Just ask them how likely are you to take kids from the transfer portal, or are there any kids right now that are on a team that you started recruiting from the beginning, or they came from—or they came from the transfer portal? So asking the coach about the transfer portal, you know, you can ask them—you can ask the coaches anything you want. Um, I'm not sure how they'll react to it, but ask them, "You know, do you have a lot of transfer players here?" Um, or whatever. "What are my chances of getting any playing time?" Because here's the thing: you can come in as a high school freshman, but you get a—um—um—get a student athlete coming in from the transfer portal that's played two years somewhere else, already has probably—you know, especially if they've been at a big school somewhere, Power Five conference, whatever—whatever you want to say—and then they come in and they're your—in your position; they play your position, but they have college academic experience, college athletic experience, and they play your position, and you're coming as a high school freshman. They've already been through the—the—the rigors of getting up at 6:00 a.m. in the morning, practicing twice a day, um, all the meal schedules, the classes, workouts, all—all of those things—how, you know, how it is to live the life of a student athlete for two years. But you're coming in as a high school freshman potentially that you're looking to do that, right? Supposing that they do that, and they—if they're big on the transfer portal—the transfer portal then cuts you out of your potential to get that scholarship. So those are things that you need to ask because sometimes if you don't ask them and you go to these schools and these schools are stockpiling talent, so to speak, you may then—parents, coaches, or student athletes—you may find yourselves in that transfer portal, and that's a whole different pressure than having felt that you've put in all this work over the years, and then it feels like you get nothing out of it, right? Continue to ask these coaches questions. I mean, it's about the freest advice I could ever give you: continue to ask the coaches questions. Do not go into your interview with a coach without questions. You have to have questions. Um, I've been on interview panels where when we ask folks, "Do you have any further questions?" and they say, "No." Now, it's either that the coach or the employer or whatever answered every possible question that you had, maybe, but there had to be some kind of a nuance that you had—a question that you had, and the transfer portal is one of the biggest ones. Ask the coach about the transfer portal because if they're heavy on the transfer portal, why are you really wasting your time? You're wasting your time because of the name on the—the name on the jersey; is that what you're doing? You're wasting time on that; that's the biggest thing of why you want to go there, so you can sit on the bench for two years. I'm just saying. Um, these are things and realities in the recruiting process that you have to know about. But you're going to always hear, "Trust the process." Yeah, I've always said, "Trust the process," and to some—and some—to some degree that still holds true, but you have to understand that the process has changed, and then you have to understand: if the process—the way that it's currently going—is it really truly for you? Do you really want this life? Do you really want this life of a student athlete? That's the question that you really, really, really have to ask yourself. So stop comparing your process because your process is completely different than the next person. You have to believe that even if things seem similar, you're not going through the same thing in someone else's life. Stop comparing your process; work your plan as best you possibly can. And if you have a plan, continue to work it, but just know that at some point you may have to do some tweaking. Ask those coaches about that transfer—about that transfer portal. Ask them what are they doing with transfer—ask them scenarios; ask them because these are the people that you're signing with; these are the people—some of you are signing that very first contract, and that's what they're going to hold you to even after the coach leaves after two years; this is what they're going to attempt to hold you to, and then you're going to want to get into the transfer portal because you didn't want to play for that—you didn't come there to play for the new coach; you came there to play for the coach that sat in your living room and—and—and told your parents that they were going to take care of you. Ask the coach's questions. Not saying it's super personal, but you have to ask the questions that pertain to you, whether you go JUCO, NCAA 1, D1, 2, 3, NAIA, wherever you go, one thing is still the same: you are somewhat in control of the recruiting process, right? To an extent, but the transfer portal has changed the game, and you must do the same as well. So remember: do not compare your process. All you can do is research, watch whatever others have been through, and continue to learn. All right, so don't compare your process; it's simple. If you got anything out of this, don't compare your process; adapt; watch what you're putting on social media; put your parents on pause sometimes on social media too, if—if—if student athletes are watching this, put your parents on pause; let them know, "Hey, you could be wrecking this for me." All right, so don't compare your process; ask coaches questions about the transfer portal. All right, have a happy holiday everybody. Hope your recruiting processes are going well wherever you are in the recruiting process, and look forward to watching all the signings that are going to be coming up all throughout the year, and that everybody has a prosperous holiday season and in 2021—on a good note—entering 2022.