Inside the Huddle
5/21/13 - Hello, my name is Ricardo Johnson III. I want to thank Matt Gravett for asking me to write a weekly blog on recruiting. A lot of guys in Minnesota have asked me questions regarding recruitment, and I hope I can answer some common questions. I also hope this blog helps people who are trying to realize their own dream, while I am trying to realize mine.
I am currently entering my senior season, which is unequivocally the most important season of the career I started in first grade. From a young age, I knew I wanted to play the most coveted position in all of sports - quarterback. I originally made this decision because I was too slow to play running back; however, after the wonderful changes of puberty, I find myself catching up to and even surpassing some of the best athletes I once competed against. I am one of four captains of the 2013 Cretin-Derham Hall football team. After an unheard of season last year (we finished 6-3), my teammates and I look to bring back the state championship to St. Paul and return dignity to our football program.
Before I discuss the future of my recruiting, I’ll explain a simple truth in my life and the lives of athletes such as Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, and kickin’ it old school Doug Flutie. THE FOOTBALL DOES NOT KNOW HOW TALL OR HOW BIG YOU ARE! The only thing the ball knows is to go where my effort and talent tells it to go. Throughout the early stages of my career I was substantially smaller than all of the other quarterbacks I faced. I’ll never forget the first touchdown I threw…I couldn’t even see over the offensive line! I just made an educated guess and threw it, and from that moment on I knew that nothing I could ever do could compare to the love I had for football. So if you’re a young football player or even an older one, just know that with the combination of desire for greatness and skill anything can be achieved.
Although I like to believe that I know all the secrets to life, and specifically football, unfortunately I don’t. The whole recruiting process, similar to what I hear/know about women, is a complete and utter mystery. There is no specific y=mx+b formula that works for everyone because everyone’s situation is truly different. For me, I received an offer from the University of Hawaii after my sophomore season. It’s rare for colleges to offer such a young quarterback, especially with limited varsity film. However, thanks to my elite group of trainers and Elite Scouting Services, I was able to become the second 2014 athlete to receive an offer (Minnesota Commit Jeff Jones Jr.). Since then I have received interest from colleges from schools in the SEC, ACC, Big 10, and Pac-12. As the summer camp phase of recruiting approaches, I look forward to going to these colleges and proving my skills as a signal caller. Next week I will take you further into the complicated process of college recruiting.
“Show me a good and gracious loser and I’ll show you a failure.” - Knute Rockne
God Bless,
RJ3
Editor’s Note: “Inside the Huddle” is written by Ricardo Johnson III, the starting quarterback for Cretin-Derham Hall. “RJ3” will provide readers with an inside look at the recruiting process and life of a Division-I recruit.
5/30/13 - It’s the last week of May and I am hyped because football season starts for me in a couple of days. I will be in the State of Texas on Friday and Saturday for an unofficial visit and a camp. At CDH we had our pre-summer football meeting yesterday, and a lot of CDH alums were on campus today: Michael Floyd, Marcus Binns, and Kendrik Brewster.
Those alums attended or attend Notre Dame, University of Iowa, and St. Thomas University, respectively. All are very different universities and yet if you were to talk to each of them about their recruiting process, training, team and game day experiences, you would hear very similar stories.
I have a D-I offer, but I have no idea where exactly I will be playing after next year. What I have learned, however, is I’d rather play...play for a program that really wants me, than be on a team that is willing to offer me.
I really think in Minnesota there is a misconception that in order to be a college football player you have to be a Michael Floyd or a Larry Fitzgerald. Those are nearly impossible standards. Based on his NFL draft position, Michael was better than all but 12 guys in the nation. Larry was a Heisman finalist and will be a first ballot Hall of Famer.
I've personally seen these guys’ God given talent and their other out-of-this-world work ethic. If they are the bar by which college football players are measured, we should all quit!
There are 124 Division-I FBS programs, 123 Division-I FCS programs, 148 Division-II programs and 199 Division-III programs in college football. That’s 594 college teams – not even including NAIA or junior college teams! In many ways the schools, academics, football traditions and fans are different, but in most ways they are the same.
The football traditions here in Minnesota are not as deep as one might find in the South or out West, so we don’t hear a lot about where Jerry Rice, Walter Payton, or Aaron Rodgers went to college. We mostly hear that Phillip Nelson went to the Gophers and he’s the man – which he is – so I want to go there or somewhere like there, too.
The point is simple... Get in where you fit in.
I know there are people who would be happier at smaller programs, but their ego made them go to a bigger and supposedly better place. If you’ve been to a St. Thomas vs. St. John’s (D-III) game, you’ll know their rivalry is just as serious as Michigan vs. Ohio State, Cal vs. Stanford or Alabama vs. Auburn. Yes, there’s not as many people watching, but I will tell you the atmosphere at their game – despite the programs being Division-III – is just as special as many Division-I rivalries. Their fans take it just as seriously.
Conversely, I have a good friend who had a four year offer, but chose to walk on to a D-I program because he knew he was good enough to compete at that level. He wanted a challenge and the opportunity to compete in the Big Ten.
Personally, I absolutely and without a doubt want to compete at the highest level possible; however, the place that will give me a great education and a legitimately consistent opportunity to play and win will be the school I choose. I would suggest the same for any other readers hoping to one day become a collegiate student-athlete.
Regardless of division... get in where you fit in.
"Paralyze resistance with persistence." - Woody Hayes
God Bless,
RJ3
6/6/13- I ran into another Minnesota QB on Sunday at an out-of-state camp. Even in high school, the QB club exists. He and I were talking about balancing attendance at camps vs. working with your high school team in the summer.
If you have an offer or offers, attending camps isn’t as much of a priority, in fact. I have heard stories about a guy who had an offer from a school and after he performed poorly at the camp the school took the offer off the table. (That’s very unusual, but it has happened).
If you do not have an offer or what you consider the right offer, then camps are vitally important to your recruitment.
I attended two camps last weekend, both out-of-state. I had been in contact with the first school I attended prior to my arrival and set up an itinerary. I met the head coach and sat down with my position coach; the position coach and recruiting coordinator gave me a tour. The next day the coaches spent significant time with me during the camp. I had already attended the Junior Day of the second school’s camp I attended. However, I decided to attend their camp last minute and “walked up” (as opposed to pre-registering). I imagine if I hadn’t showed up at all but said I did, then none of the coaches would have even known the difference. In fairness to the latter school, I didn’t register and I did speak briefly with a few coaches and they said they were surprised to see me because I hadn’t reached out to anyone to say I was coming. I mention these two experiences to make a point: The days of showing up to a camp where there are 600 players and becoming a star are slowly dwindling. It’s not impossible to do, but it is becoming less and less likely to happen. Coaches almost have a pre-set plan of who they’re going to evaluate, who they already know that they want, etc. They know nearly everyone’s situation – making it incredibly important that coaches know who you are before you attend their camp. If a school has not mailed you significant communications – called you or your coach, hit you up on Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. – and you attend their camp, you have a fairly steep hill to climb.
So what are your options if you’re a 2014-2015 player who below or off the radar screen?
There are several college “Showcases” that you can attend where there are several schools attending. Many websites that cover college athletics and/or recruiting, such as The Gopher Report and Minnesota Preps, do a good job of posting information about these showcases. If you decide to attend any of these events, do a little homework first. Have your high school head coach contact the position coach or head coach of the college that’s sponsoring the camp, find out what other schools will be in attendance, and ask your coach to forward your HUDL and/or highlight film to the coaches of the school you hope to attend. Facebook friend request the college coach and if your head coach can’t or won’t, you send the film to him via IM. Do what you can to establish some connection with the coach. When you attend an event, you want to be an athlete coaches are taking note of, not an athlete that the coaches know nothing about.
Football is unlike that other sport (what’s it called again...oh yeah, basketball) where AAU is often more important than the high school season. In basketball, you have several “seasons” to prove your worth. Our beloved sport of football is still run by high schools and high school coaches. This means that you have to spend as much time or more preparing yourself and teammates for the fall because unless you go Prep School or JUCO, next season is your last or second to last chance to make it to the Saturday game day destination of your choice.
I am heading to Florida this weekend after the ACT and my sister’s graduation party, (Congrats Camille!) and while I’m there I am going to several schools in the region. At CDH we have three captain’s practice a week and I try not to miss more than 4 practices a month, because no matter what happens this summer on college campuses, Friday Night Football will make or break our careers as football players.
Most important is getting your high school team working together. It makes for a close knit team, a fun summer training period and a greater chance to make it to the Dome in the fall.
"Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation." - RH Schuller
God Bless,
RJ3
6/13/13 - I had an opportunity to see our incoming freshmen at school today and thought about all the things that have happened in my football life over the last 4 years.
The 2010 Seniors told me that the time would fly and though I didn’t believe them, it did fly. I think about how important I thought every practice, each game and all of the events would be to my goal to play college football, yet I cannot honestly redraw a map that would show someone else what to do or not do to be a successful high school athlete.
I say that in part because I do not see myself as a success. Although my 2014 class had great success our freshman and sophomore years, our program and I have fallen short of our goals.
When I was entering CDH we had just won a state championship. The following year we lost in the first round to Mounds View, the next year we were blanked in the Dome by Wayzata and last year we didn’t make it out of the first round. Two of those years I watched from the side line – a very unhappy feeling.
At the beginning of the summer our team discussed how talented those teams were, and yet we failed on our team goals.
So when I talk to incoming freshmen or to any of you who have a year or two left in your high school career, the one thing I believe insures success on the field is to work consistently as a unit off the field and have as much fun doing it as possible.
I cannot honestly say I have stopped to smell the roses, but mostly because my goals are still largely unfulfilled. There’s no doubt football is the best game in the world, but it’s so much more of an enjoyable game when there’s one team goal and every coach and player is working toward the same goal.
You can go broke going to every camp and you can go crazy trying to figure out definitively how to get recruited when the fact is more than anything you have to be the right player, on the right team, being recruited by the right coach, for the right school at the right time. It’s not luck, you absolutely have to be talented and physically gifted among other things, but the best players don’t always play or get recruited, so a little luck does indeed help.
So while you get ready for 9th grade, 10th grade, or varsity football take some time to have fun. It sounds corny, but it’s true. “You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.”