So You Want to Play College Ball?

The College Combine, A Trip Report.

     This past weekend Mill and I were invited by the President of Recruits Unlimited to attend a College Combine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center�s (UPMC) indoor practice facility.

     We attended and got an inside look at some future college prospects trying to impress many college coaches and land a scholarship.  We were also fortunate to get a tour of the world class practice facility.

     College Combines are relatively new.  They have been going on for around 10 years and are a great way to be seen in action.  Recruiting is a difficult business.  It requires coaches to visit schools, watch games (live or film), meet parents and try to land a kid that fits your team�s needs.  These combines bring in hundreds of kids in one day and run them through tests, similar to the NFL Combine, and conduct position drills.  This Combine brought in 300+ kids from PA, OH, MD, VA, NY and many others.  College coaches pay to come and watch and have access to Recruits Unlimited�s database of players.  It is a tremendous way to showcase your abilities as a young player.  Parents and High School coaches were handing out game tapes to whoever was interested.

How it works:

     Recruits Unlimited puts on several Combines in the spring all over the United States at various Universities.  High School sophomores and juniors can attend and there is no charge for the athletes.  Parents and High School coaches are also encouraged to attend.  Recruits Unlimited is partnered with the National Collegiate Scouting Association� (NCSA) and is sponsored by Adidas� and Gatorade�.  The NCSA gives the parents and coaches classes on NCAA recruiting guidelines, marketing the player (how to make a proper game tape), and academics requirements.  The President of Harris Nutrition is also available to give body fat tests and to discuss pros/cons/legality of supplements an athlete may be taking.

Inprocessing.  A critical portion of the Combine.  You are assigned a number and that is how you become recognized, good or bad.  Your number shows up on a roster that the college coaches are given and that is how they notice you.  Some coaches already have an idea who they are looking at, but often a coach is seeing the kid for the first time.  The coaches will watch a player and annotate his roster accordingly, interested or not interested.  The athletes are also given a card to record all their scores.  These scores will be uploaded into a database that college coaches can access within seven days of the combine concluding.

Recordable Tests: 

•  Height/Weight/Wingspan.  A shocker for some kids.  This may be the first time an accurate height and weight is taken.  Many kids have erroneous heights and weights listed in their High School Programs.   It is kind of like Jerome Bettis being listed as 250 pounds on the official roster.
•  Bench Press.  Similar to the NFL Combine but an athlete has more variety in the weights.  They can pick from 135, 150, 185 or 225 pounds and do as many reps as the can.
•  40 Yard Dash.  Another shocker for some since the time is started and stopped without a coach manning a stopwatch.  They set up a series of lasers; one set at the starting line, one set at 10 yards and the final set at the finish line.  Once the athlete breaks the first laser, it automatically starts the clock.  The 10 yards time is recorded, (mainly for lineman as a burst indicator) and the clock stops when the finish line laser is broken.  Most players added 2-3 tenths of a second to their 40 time because it is more accurate than the traditional stop watch.
•  Vertical Jump.  Each athlete has three chances to jump as high as he can.  The best jump is recorded.  They are assigned a value score that takes their jump result, height and wing span into consideration.
•  Pro Agility Run.  Also timed with the laser system, the athlete will run 5-yards and touch the line with one hand. Then the athlete will turn and run 10-yards the other way and touch that line with one hand. Finally, the athlete will turn again and run though the center lasers as quickly as possible. The athlete�s best score out of two tries will be recorded on the athlete�s Player Profile.

Agility Drills:

     Once the testing portion has concluded the athletes are divided into groups (by position) and they rotate through five agility drills to include: 

• Bag Jump
• Ropes
• Bags
• Corner Cones
• Line Cones

     High School coaches are used to run these drills.  They augment the Recruits Unlimited Staff and often give the athletes some instruction/coaching when doing the drills.  We saw the coaching staffs from Gateway, Upper St. Clair and powerhouse Woodland Hills High School, all from Western PA.

Position Drills:

     The real meat of the camp.  College coaches can easily get and read results from the recordable tests.  Paper does not allow them to see the player in action and these position drills allow the prospective coach an opportunity to scout technique, speed and strength.  Again, high school coaches facilitate these drills.  They then transition to 1 on 1 drills and these are equally exciting.  The Offensive and Defensive lineman drills are small wars.  These kids are not in pads and go after each other.  I spent most of the time watching the big boys.  The QBs and WRs were also paired up against LBs and DBs and ran routes against a defender.  We witnessed some pretty good contact, again without pads.

Colleges Represented:

     Several Division-I schools were in attendance to include Pitt, Rutgers, Tennessee, West Virginia, Maryland, Buffalo, Stanford and some smaller schools.  Most of the coaches showed up in time to observe the position drills and 1 on 1 series.

     Mill and I briefly chatted with Pitt Head Coach Dave Wannstedt.  He was cordial and welcomed us to the facility.  He was obviously pre-occupied watching the players but seemed bland, just like his offense.  Big guy and much taller in person.

     We did chew the fat with Pitt O-Coordinator, Matt Cavanaugh.  Very nice guy and we had a good discussion.  He was hopeful that the new recruits will launch the Panthers to a more successful season this year and they have been addressing holes in the roster (o-line and defense) that were kind of ignored during Walt Harris� tenure.  He commented on their two top recruits, Dorin Dickerson and Nate Byham and is excited to incorporate them into the offensive scheme.  Cavanaugh was also glad to see Pitt on ESPN three times this upcoming season.  For those that are not familiar with Coach Cavanaugh, he was the Pitt QB and MVP of the Sugar Bowl when Pitt won their last National Championship in 1976.  He also QB�d in the NFL (14 years) for the Pats, 49ers, Iggles and NY Giants.  He has coached in the NFL and received a Super Bowl Ring when he was the O-Coordinator for the Rat Birds.

Other Notes:

     Mill and I got to see the entire Pitt section of the UPMC.  The Stillers section was locked up.  We went into the weight room, locker room and the coaches� offices.  Of particular note, the Pitt Hall of Fame is impressive.  If you ever get the chance to get into UPMC, I would highly recommend trying to see this exhibit.  It was a good trip down memory lane since many of the players in the HOF were players I remembered watching in old Pitt Stadium as a kid. 

     I took lil� Triv, my nine year old son, with us.  He is a young footballaholic so this was like Christmas for him.  He went into the locker room and immediately found Tyler Palko�s locker.  We tried to get his official height but their scale started too high.  He did attempt the Bench Press at 75 pounds and did one more rep than Lendale White at USC�s Pro Day.  He was also allowed to be timed in the 40 and was clocked at a blazing 7.4.  Surprisingly, he beat three kids that were actually competing in the Combine and was faster than Ex-Stiller FB, Jon Whitman.  They set up an area for the FG Kickers to show off their stuff and he spent about a half hour shagging balls for the kickers.  He got to shake Cavanaugh and Wannstedt�s hand which made his day.  A picture of Triv Jr. at UPMC:

    We departed the Steel City, after we grubbed on our favorite Primanti Bros sandwich on the Southside.  I wanted a Vincent�s Pizza but it was a little out of our way (Sorry Swiss & FC).  On our way back home, we stumbled through a small town in West Virginia named Paw Paw.  Mill immediately referenced this town to be the birthplace of Jason Gildon.  It was a hopping town and they were getting ready for what we think was the High School�s Prom.  We saw several young men and women in tuxes and gowns hanging out at the only gas station in Paw Paw.  Ain�t that America!

     A special thanks to Recruits Unlimited out of Lincoln, Nebraska (www.recruitsunlimited.com).   The President of the organization gave us full access and he was truly a great guy with a first class staff and it was a pleasure to meet them.  His company has put on over 200 of these camp/combines to include the National Combine last January.  They are extremely organized, unbiased, and professional and have developed a solid reputation so the top colleges use their database and attend their events.  They are honest and up front with the parents and kids.  It is a competitive market out there and there are thousands of quality players hoping to make a coach notice them in order to land a rare scholarship.  The Northwestern coach reportedly mailed out a couple of thousand letters to players, for 24 open scholarships.

As a side note, since I like stats and numbers, here are a few I picked up this weekend:

D1-A Recruiting Guidelines: (Courtesy of Florida State University)

*Preferred Grades:  3.0 GPA, 24+ ACT, 1,000 SAT

Schools Offering Football: 

Scholarship Opportunities:

*NCAA Division III schools offer merit, academic and need-based scholarships.