College Coaches may tell you things that aren’t true

My college coaches told me I would play Defensive End, but I ended up being a 2 time 2nd team All Atlantic 10 player and All New England Player as an offensive lineman. Did this hurt me? Not particularly, the reason being because I was told our Offensive line played like defensive lineman on the offensive side of the ball. However, this was true
and I later found that out.

Me as a true Freshman

I was an offensive lineman weighin a measly 230lbs. I was on scout team tearing up our defensive lineman some of who
were NFL prospects (meaning NFL scouts often came to watch and talk to them in practice). I know what your thinking at 230lbs. Yep that was me I loved being the underdog. But anyhow it came to a point that I was on 2nd team during the spring football season
right before my redshirt freshman year. Not to get cocky but I started in a spring scrimage as a center because the center wasn’t in practice and I kicked ass. So I had an epiphany and I spoke to the defensive line coach and said if I can’t get any playing time on offense I want to know that you would let me come over to D. He looked me square in the face and said I support you just get the ok from your coach. I talked to Coach Ashley Ingram who is now the
offensive line coach at Navy and he said no. The words that followed came as what I would use as my mindset. “Shamel do whatever you need to do this summer to come back her in the fall ready to play, you have to be on the field.”
And I took it and started every single game after that, even beating out the Senior who was the starting right tackle.

Coaches Changing Positions

Its funny but I appreciate this saying more as a coach than a player now. You have to do what helps the team… In high school I was a fullback weighin 230lbs. Then I was moved to tale back. By my junior year I was moved to defensive end and offensive guard. Hell yea I was pissed but I still earned a scholarship so I say thanks coach C all the time. We had a freshman on our team this season who coach moved to offensive tackle, I’ll admit this kid wasn’t big at all. His dad called whining and crying that we don’t have his best interest in mind and he’s too small for tackle bla bla bla. I said if that was my dad I wouldn’t have ever made it to college, never played Division 1 College Football and never even thought about rmcfe.com. So thank you Coach C, and thank you mom and dad. But anyhow as a player you have to understand that you have to do what helps the team. And in return it may help you. Alot of people feel that I would have played pro if I played D end in College but Offensive Line is what helped the team. And if I played pro I couldn’t help you. And I did have a chance to play pro tell you in the next paragraph.

College Football and Pro football are businesses

It’s no longer a sport when you leave high school. And some of you big football loving towns of the south, midwest and west coast already get a sense of this at the high school level. But there are jobs and positions at stake every day. This is why some coaches make these decisions to recruit a fast running back and never give them a carry in college but instead turn them into defensive backs. We had a player
Michael Bland who was the fastest man in New England he was about 5′8 180lbs and they made him a defensive end. I guess they needed a quick D end to pressure QB’s from their blind side. Some people do anything to save their jobs so understand that from a coaching stand point. On another note there have been players who have committed to schools
and transferred upon having their position changed. But then there have been pro players like Tabucky Jones who went to syracuse as a running back and got switched to defensive back but also had a great pro career. And now coaches at a rival school, New Britain high school in CT.

In closing the bottom line is be prepared for coaches to change your position or tell you things that aren’t necessarily true.
You ever hear the expression “I tell them what they want to hear, so I can get what I want” With that in mind be smart and try to be loyal to the schools that are recruiting you because they are really interested in you. With that being said understand that you have to approach playing college football as a job. A job without sick days, but opportunities.
Train Hard
Coach Lewis

What High School Football Recruits need to know

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Some of you can already imagine there is going to be an increase since of popularity. Your going to have supporters and haters. The supporters are people who are geniunely proud of you. They come to your games, actually they have came to your games before you were being recruited. The haters are going to be obvious, they won’t come to your games, they’ll make negative comments and might try to persuade you to do negative activities ie: smoking, drinking etc.

The reason behind this post is two fold so that the future college football player can know what to expect from the college football recruiting process and so everyone else not involved can know what the player has to go through. As always I will mention my personal experiences so you can see what I went through. I’ll be honest before I started being recruited I would occassionally make it to a house party every know and then. But I definitely noticed random people inviting me over and increased attention from girls. I wasn’t at all overwhelmed because I always believed that if you support someone you have to support them before they get famous or popular.

Recruiting Coaches visiting you at school

College recruiting coaches will come and talk to you at school randomly. I never knew when they would come, I never knew what schools were coming until they were there. I was randomly pulled out of classes to come down and speak privately with these coaches. They offer you things like scholarships, tell you about the free gear or apparrel that they would give you if you came, sneakers etc. They do everything they can to get you to come there.

Conversation between me and recruiting coach

I’ll be honest and say those conversations were so cut and dry here is what I can remember word for word:

Umass recruiting Coach: Yea we are really interested in you. We want to offer you a $100,000 scholarship. We will give you 2 pairs of sweatsuits and 2 pairs of sneakers that you can wear to all of the games. We are 40 minutes from your home in CT.

Me: So I get 2 pairs of sweats and sneakers?

Coach: Yes. So what do you think?

I didn’t know what to ask. The coach didn’t tell me about the offense they ran, the defense neither did he offer me to come up and watch a complimentary game. With that being said some coaches do the recruiting job a lot better than others. This conversation was so cut and dry….We want you, this is what we will do what do you think? That was basically our conversation. If I knew what I know now I’d obviously had asked more questions about me coming to a game about where they think I fit in, in there program etc. If you notice anything from the dialogue I think the coach thought he had me by telling me about the sweats and sneakers. Whoopity doo. Now granted at the University of Rhode Island we had some terrible travel clothes. And on that note I can’t say its not what you were to play because the high school I coach at right now is #5 in the State and all of our coaches are under amored like we are sponsored by them.

Surround yourself with good people

As a player you have to make good choices. Surround yourself with positive people not people that can hurt your career. I had a player last year who was a freshman tell me that he was picked up for baseball by a team captain who was going to smoke marijuana in the car. He then said coach you gone be so proud of me. He said I told him stop the car and I got out and called my mom to get me. I gave him a hug, because that is a good choice and that says something about him as a person. He has great character. You can only teach it but you can’t force great character on people. I had a teammate who got caught selling marijuana as a senior in high school. He still earned a full scholarship but his college career sucked. He was the one I wrote about who cried in front of the team at the end of our senior year. Don’t be that player.

On a closing note I just want to say to all the recruits don’t think for one moment that you don’t have support. Because I Coach Lewis will always support each and everyone of you who supports rmcfe.com

Things teachers will notice during college football recruiting

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High school teachers of College Football recruiting prospects will definitely notice an increase in popularity. A good amount of students will want to associate with the football player being recruited on a regular basis. When my football recruiting process started I immediately noticed new friends that I never knew existed. New friends that offered me rides, parties and gifts. I think the main idea of this is to “make the football player remember you”. I notice a loss of aquaintences or people that used to associate with me. I attribute this to jealousy or them thinking that this would good to do so I wouldn’t think they were my friends because I was going to play college football. So popularity is one thing that teachers will definitely notice with their student who is a college football recruit.

Another thing that teachers can expect to see is that student getting pulled out of their class. Could be more or less depending on how high profile of a recruit the student is. I was getting pulled out on back to back days. However it can be very organized under the control of the High Schools head football coach. Or it could be overwhelming to the student, his peers and the school staff. It’s important that as a teacher you communicate with the head coach just so you can know to expect that the student may be pulled out of your or your colleagues class at some point. Coaches need to do a good job of communicating with these recruiting coaches so they can know when and what to expect. As a coach you can sit with the recruiting coach and the high school player or you can let the player handle this himself in a private area.

Football recruit attitudes

I can easily see how football recruits can develop these bad attitudes and a sense of cockiness. It’s all what everyone around him makes it to be. It comes from the way he was raised,the way he was coached and the way he was taught in the classroom. If Johnny is a cocky person and has been for the last 10 years don’t expect anything less if he is being recruited. This is why discipline is very important in your football program. And that doesn’t start when something big is happening. For example you want to teacher your senior “stud” linebacker to be respectful to adults. You shouldve instilled this in him as a freshman, right now you can start but don’t be disappointed if its too late.

What teachers can do during football recruiting process

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Getting to know the recruit goes a long way in helping them through their college football recruiting process. Be supportive of the football recruit. Know that they are about to make the biggest decision up to this point in their life. Be understanding that they are stressed and may not be getting a lot of sleep, may be gone for a few days due to a college visit. Offer reasonable extensions and due dates on assignments. So you don’t appear to be against the recruit, but supporting of him. Go to his football games, find out his jersey number. Offer compliments, ask questions like: do you like your position or that was a great block or tackle you had in the game. Let them know that you care about them and their success. Make sure that they know you care about themand you are their for them, especially if they need to vent to you. In closing I just want to say to the recruit, don’t change no matter whats going on. Embrace this time and enjoy the experience but be humble and carry yourself with high regard. People look up to you. Good Luck!