Summer camps have changed recruiting process

Schools now get a first-hand look at prospects right on their own campus.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Nevada coach Chris Ault started his career scouting for football players at a time when recruiting video was scarce, the Internet was unknown and word of mouth was the best method of investigating a prized prospect.

In those 1970s, he says, “you took the coaches’ word.”

Nowadays, YouTube is flooded with amateur highlight reels for every scholarship hopeful in the country. Coaching offices at top colleges regularly get homemade portfolios, sent by zealous parents trying to land their child a scholarship.

Yet at a time of endless video streams and Internet buzz, a critical way of bringing top talent into a football program seems decidedly old school — summer camp.

“Camp is critical, especially when they are young. What has happened now in the recruiting process is it’s really been sped up. Kids are committing earlier and earlier and earlier now,” new Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said. “You’ve really got to try and get them in their ninth, 10th grade, 11th grade years, because if you try and wait until they’re going into their senior year some of those kids are going to be gone already.”

The setup is particularly good for coaches, because the NCAA in 2006 barred them from attending specialty camps like the Elite 11 for quarterbacks and the Ultimate 100 Camp that bring together top recruits interested in perfecting their skills.

At a school’s own camp, coaches can see how adept prospects are at receiving instruction and if their coaching style meshes with a player’s approach.

Prospects, meanwhile, can get an advanced look at what playing for a particular school would be like.

“You get to know kids. You get to know their work ethic, you get to know their personality, you get to know who they are,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said.

“Obviously with anybody’s job, the more information you can gather about the situation you have the better you get at making a decision.”

Ault has seen the benefits first hand.

A few years ago, while in the beginning stages of implementing his “pistol” offense at Nevada, Ault was seeking an athletic quarterback with the ability to run, but who could also throw to keep defenses honest.

What he discovered through camp was Colin Kaepernick, a lanky kid from Pittman High School in Turlock, Calif., quarterbacking a modified wing-T offense.

Ault saw the potential and eventually lured Kaepernick to Reno, where he was the Western Athletic Conference offensive player of the year last season as a sophomore.

“The firsthand experience of getting to know them and talking to them ...” Ault said. “You see them, you see their personalities. You see a lot of good things and some bad things.”