NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Recently, while evaluating football players for the NCSA/Takkle Top 200 list at our offices in Chicago, founder and CEO of NCSA Chris Krause came into the room to check on the progress of the project. At that time I reported to Chris that things were moving a bit slower than planned. The reason? The quality of some of the DVD’s that were to be evaluated. These DVD’s were of some of the possibly best football candidates in the country and they weren’t up to par!

Chris and I began to discuss as to what actually is a good DVD and what is a DVD that would be considered sub-par. Let me begin by saying that in this day and age, there is no excuse for a DVD being sent to colleges that does not give a clear picture as to the abilities of the young man in question. Let’s look at it this way — when you consider all of the hours, days, months and years that a young man prepares as a player and when his “audition” finally occurs, it is displayed in a manner that makes the sum and total of his efforts difficult to discern. It’s just is not fair to him, his team or his family.

This process should not be difficult. Camera equipment and the use of the equipment in today’s era of technology should be considered as an investment in the future of the young men on a particular team. When you consider the number of players on a high school team and the cost of basic and good equipment, the cost is minimal. There are adequate cameras that actually cost less than the amount of money needed to suit up one player!

Parents as well as booster club members need to investigate and know the quality of camera equipment at their respective school. As a college coach, I don’t want a huge production of a game tape. I want clear and concise footage that permits me to initially identify the prospect in question and to watch game footage knowing exactly where he lines up on every play.

I don’t want to have to be a “detective” searching for the young recruit on every snap of the ball. Again, I need a clear and concise tape that moves along in a manner that affords the evaluating coach an opportunity to make a fair and accurate evaluation.

Consider the consequences of poor footage. I can only reflect upon the years and years of being met by literally hundreds of VHS tapes in the staff room at the beginning of the evaluation process — hours and hours of evaluation that need to move along expeditiously in order to complete the process. At times, we had difficulty identifying a young man in question, so his particular tape was moved to “the back of the line.” This should never happen. It is just unfair to a young guy who has so much invested in his performance.

Every school has an AV office with trained professionals that should be solicited, and yes, compensated for the effort in assisting with the presentation of good game footage. Many times, these wonderful people just love to be included with “the team.” Look to these people at your school — include them, make them part of your football family. That investment will bring huge benefit to your program. Their technical knowledge will not only bring a very viewable tape to the table, but also, their expertise will be able to identify players with an actual arrow pointing to the player in question or use the technique known as “spot shadowing.”

Spot shadowing is the process by which a player singled out just prior to the snap with a bit of a shadow. Ah! Spot shadowing! An evaluators dream! At NCSA we have the ability to do both of these techniques. We are able also to educate you as to what college coaches are looking for in a prospect’s tape.

Finally, please do not let all of those hard, tough days on the practice field go unrewarded when all is said and done because there was not prudent diligence in the preparation of game footage. It is your duty and responsibility to know that when your school sends out a recruiting DVD, it is minimally of a quality that gives the young guy in question the opportunity to be evaluated in a fair manner as he pursues his dream of playing in the college ranks.

Tags: Video

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 9:44 am and is filed under Athletic Scholarships, College Football, Highlight Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.