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As recruiting has gotten crazier, there are more and more consultants in the recruiting space, many of whom are doing good work.
One of the features I’m increasingly seeing is “referring players” to coaches and helping families “connect”. What they really mean is they’re providing some kind of a warm introduction to college coaches in their network for the players they know of.
In reality, that is a huge benefit. It helps you cut the line, so to speak, and cut through the DM/email/text overload many college coaches face. Every college coach has their “X guy”, their QB guy, their OL guy, their DB/WR guy, their specs guy and so on. If you’re a good trainer or HS coach who has a track record of referring quality players, college coaches will keep going back to you for “leads”.
But, “lead” might be the extent of which a coach referring a player can be. There is no phone call a trainer or consultant can make that will “get you an offer”. The stakes are just too high in college football (even DIII) to miss on guys because you didn’t do due diligence on your end as a college coach. I generally find this:
If your academics and athletics are not good enough to catch a coach’s interest on their own without a referral, no referral will help you.
All you are functionally getting from these services is a light “bump” to the top of a coach’s mental inbox when a trainer or coach says they’re going to “help you connect”, that’s it. Outside of that, there is nothing you can do to turn yourself into a legit prospect for a team.
Having a coach refer your information to a college coach will just get you to a “no”, or “yes” faster, but it will not fundamentally change your recruiting outcome. It will save you time, but will not alter your general trajectory as a prospect. I think, for most families, the ability to cut through the endless “coach talk” and just know, black and white, if they’re being recruited is all they want. Families can handle “no”, they’re not so great at handling the endless “maybes”.
There’s even highly profitable businesses that only charge to repost kids’ posts on X to “increase exposure”. I think exposure is one of the biggest myths in all college football. With social media, and AI, now more than ever, your measurables can be found. What exactly is being “exposed” anyway?
Being reposted by a semi-big X account doesn’t mean a college coach is going to be moved to follow you, let alone DM you. It would be infinitely better to take that money you are about to drop on a reposting business and reinvest it in SAT/ACT prep, or a phenomenal math tutor to get your grades up. If you are squared away academically, then sure, a reposting account won’t hurt you, but it won’t move the needle fundamentally either.
A stronger core GPA or SAT/ACT score will do more to improve your recruiting odds than any reposting account will.
But, here is the more difficult question of all with all these recruiting services (probably of whom I am a member): Recruiting has so many twists, turns and curveballs, and is so subject to things like timing, chance and luck, even when you have all the right academic and athletic measurables, it’s impossible to actually tell what was the actual behavior, call, or thing that actually DID move the needle.
Was it the head coach with a great college reputation you used?
Was it the insane catch you made that blew up on X?
Was it the firm handshake and great posture you showed when you met coach?
Was it the GPA/SAT score you had?
Was it actually the consultant picking the phone up and calling that did it?
The better philosophy would be this: There is no single fundamental service you can purchase or thing you can point to as THE thing that gets you an offer, but rather it is the intentional, long term, gradual stacking of the habits, behaviors and beliefs that are generally what successful families and recruits do that make getting an offer difficult to NOT happen.
Brendan
