The Immutable Laws of Recruiting

I'm now approaching “old man” or “unc” status at the age of 36 and have been in the recruiting game for officially over a decade and, from what I can tell, still, there is no way to predict how recruiting will go.

There is a 100% chance that you will not end up exactly where you think you will, even when, and especially when, all indications are that you will.

You can do everything right — academically, athletically, know all the right people, have the perfect plan — and still something sidelines your recruiting goals.

Timing, chance and luck play outsized roles in recruitment — way more so than we'd all like to admit. You are never quite sure what THE THING was that tipped the scales over into a coach offering a particular player: Was it their tape, their height, the recommendation of their head coach, their handshake grip, their eye contact, that one dazzling rep in camp that coach saw by sheer chance?

The best we can do is make it more or less likely that a particular school or program offers you, but to be clear: there is no way to force a coach to offer you.

You can't make an offer happen, but you can make it more likely.

And so, in a decade of helping parents and players navigate the recruiting process at high-academic colleges and universities, here are what I think to be some immutable laws of recruiting:

Measurables — height, weight, wingspan, hand size, speed, shuttle time, strength — start the recruiting conversation and largely determine the level of college football you can physically access. Bigger, faster, stronger bodies play at bigger, more high-profile colleges and universities.

While there are sometimes exceptions to the average height, weight and speed at various position groups — the random 5'8" CB playing for a B10 school — these exceptions prove the rule. Everyone thinks they are the exception, they think they are the Rudy. But that is not true. My advice to those families is to not play college football at all. You are just going to drive yourself nuts.

It's not hard to figure out what these measurables are. Google the rosters of the teams you want to play for — height, weight, is all there. You won't be a 6'3" OT for an FBS or a 5'9" QB for an FCS.

Admissibility is 1/2 to 1/3 of the recruiting equation in the Ivy+ world. Coaches care about what your unweighted core — History, Math, English, Science — is. They want to see you have rigorous courses as well.

Rigor is not binary. It is a spectrum. Don't totally slam yourself with AP STEM courses you are going to struggle in. But you should take Honors and AP courses you can do well in. You can get by with a few B's, maybe a single C — but that is it. B's and C's don't get degrees in this context.

You can be the perfect fit for a team, but if they are not recruiting your position this year, then there's nothing you can do about it. Some teams simply won't need a kicker or linebacker some years and that's that. Best to move on quick.

Or, if you have a head coach who wants to see what is in the transfer portal first before deciding on whether or not to take a HS player, there's nothing you can do there either.

For recruits from smaller HS programs that play weaker schedules, or a player playing out of position who projects more as a safety than an edge in college but is stuck playing DL because of team needs, recruiting can be tough. You might be told to come to camp before getting an offer — to go against better competition or show yourself at your projected position.

Programs that place more players have an easier time placing even more players — it's a self-perpetuating loop. The reverse is also true. If your HC doesn't do recruiting, you have to do all the networking, travel and trying to identify teams that are interested in you.

When you have a head coach who has Ivy League head coaches asking him about his dog by name, you know you're plugged in. At least you will be in a program where you will get a look.

Every coach wants to feel like they got a steal of a player. They want to feel like they stole a player from a higher level. Therefore, most Ivy League commits — in 2026 at least — are players who got a lot of FBS recruiting attention as well. The NESCAC guys who sign are players who got lots of Ivy League recruitment attention.

Everyone is recruiting UP a level 24/7. You will end up one level down from the highest levels of recruitment interest you're getting.

Especially QBs and specialists — you need to go to camp. Coaches want to see how you kick and throw live more than anything else. OL who are 6'7", 300 lbs and move like gazelles probably don't need to do many camps since there just aren't as many of them.

If you have to choose between a hype camp and a college-run camp, do the college-run camp — and do it early. Coaches generally are just going to offer the first best guy they see. Very rarely will they wait until the end of camp season to offer a kid anymore.

Rankings are A TOOL but not THE ONLY tool in the toolbox. Coaches want to feel safe when they offer a kid. Any kind of authority, no matter how arbitrary, can help. “What do we know about Johnny?” “Well, he's a 3-star QB according to MaxPreps.” “He's a 5-star kicker.” “He's ranked number X.” Coaches like shortcuts to status, and rankings are an easy way to get them.

It's already hard enough getting recruited, but if you add needing to take SAT/ACT into the mix the summer going into senior year, it's too much to manage. Take the test early so you can have the score you need by summertime junior year.

All Ivies require ACT/SAT now and many schools are going back to requiring the test. A great ACT/SAT alone won't get you an offer, but it will help. Take the test.

X only has two purposes:

• Document your recruitment by posting weekly tape, visits, graphics and offers.
• Making first contact with college coaches.

That's it. Once you make contact with a college coach on X, the next step is to take the conversation OFF X and onto a phone/Zoom or iMessage text ASAP.

You need to be your own salesperson. You are not bothering these coaches. You might feel weird DM'ing them, but it's a normal Monday for coaches who recruit 24/7.

There is going to come a moment when the college coach who was so nice to you chews you out in front of the whole team in preseason, and you are going to question what you're doing with your life at least 4–5x over the course of your first semester in college — that's normal.

But you need to understand that college football values realism, rounds down on talent and potential, and coaches' paychecks and children getting braces depend on what you do. They are not going to start you just because they like you.

You have to help the team win, period.

These are arbitrary, and I'm sure I'll change them around again in a few years, but so far these rules have proven largely true in the past decade.

What do you think?

— Brendan