I recently had the chance to read an article on an aspiring Division I football recruit. This player has spent the last two seasons starting at quarterback on the varsity level. He has also put up All State type numbers throughout the last two years and has attention of college coaches throughout the country. While there are no offers, there is definite interest.
The reason why I talk about this quarterback is that there recently was an article on him that talked about his abilities and interest from college coaches. But what stood out to me was one specific quote that was written. Maybe it was the writer who did it, maybe it was exactly what he was told. But here is what it said: Division I programs rarely make offers to quarterbacks until summer camps, coach and athlete said. Really, most quarterbacks don’t have offers? What are they talking about?
Let me say that this quote is completely false. There is no doubt in mind that college coaches can take a tape of a recruit and see if he has what it takes to play at the Division I level. This is not a quarterback who played in a run first offense. He threw for well over 2,000 yards as a junior. I have not personally looked at or seen his film so I can’t say for sure if he should be getting offers. But that statement is something that I do not believe at all.
The reason may be because college coaches are feeding lines to the coach and the athletes about how they need to go to their camp this summer to be evaluated. The reason that prospects need to be evaluated at summer camps is a few reasons. It could include not having put together a highlight video, having a very bad highlight video, or the coaches not seeing enough ability on the tape to warrant a scholarship offer. You can feed all the lines to reporters about most college coaches not offering quarterback prospects but if a college coach is sold on a quarterback, they will offer him.
What I believe scholarship offers for quarterbacks hinge upon is other quarterbacks and the chain reactions that happens when they commit to schools. Here is a good example for you. Lets say that Recruit A has a final three schools of USC, Penn State, and Florida. Each of these schools has a number of outstanding quarterbacks in the pipeline so they only want to land one in the Class of 2011 (this is hypothetical). Because Recruit A is so good, the schools have not yet offered other quarterbacking prospects. While they have other recruits in mind if they lose out on this sweepstakes, they are hoping to land this top rated athlete.
Recruit A ends up picking USC. This leaves Penn State and Florida in a position to offer other quarterback recruits that they like. USC is now done with quarterback recruiting. Penn State has two played rated as their second tier recruit so they offer both of them. One ends up committing who was also considering Wisconsin. Wisconsin then offers another quarterback recruit because they lost out on Recruit B. This cycle continues simply because the amount of quarterbacks that a college wants in each recruiting class is usually no greater than two. Chain reactions work quickly with quarterback recruits.
I honestly feel that a quarterback may be one of the least likely to leave with a scholarship following a camp. The reason is because unless you blow the college coaches away with your abilities, then the best you will do is become a B, C, or D recruit who is hoping that their scholarship offers to other quarterbacks are not accepted.
Another good example of quarterbacks and football camps is that a Division I college program known for sending camp invites to any football players with a pulse told an athlete if he is the best quarterback at camp, he would get an offer. I would be curious how many times that coaching staff said that. The quarterback ended up going signing with a non-scholarship Division I school before transferring to a Division III school. The good news for the coaches is that they got the money for their camp.
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