NFL Drafting vs College Recruiting

Les Miles one of the nations best recruiters

Wherever and however you are reading this today, thank you for making the Gray Area Matters Part of your day. I want to talk today about the difference between college recruiting and drafting players for the NFL. What surprises me most about college recruitment is the credit (or lack thereof) given to the coaches.  With the NFL draft, roughly 95% or more players come from the 120 FBS (division one) teams. Out of those, the NFL scouts and teams pick 7 players, and they end up with around 250 players total selected by the end. Most teams are concerned with players from round one to five actually becoming starters. But, in college, it’s a whole other story! You have 24 scholarships, and you are expected to make sure they all are legitimate players who will start at some point. A team can get away with a few players who stay on as back-ups, but for the most part, you sign a player to the school because a coach believes he will be a starter.  

Belichick is known relies more on veteran
free agents than on drafted players. 

My point is that college recruiting is much, much harder than selecting players for the draft. There are thousands of high schools across the country, and a potential college football player can come from just about anywhere. Not to mention, you are competing with those aforementioned other 119 teams just in the FBS! Add on top of that dealing with teenagers who struggle with decisions as we all did.  Also, a staggering number of commits never reach full potential because of lack of effort or of talent. Face it, sometimes players are only good in high school, much like some players are only good in college.

The difference in my mind is that in college if you have a poor recruiting year you can set your team back an entire season. In the NFL, it is very difficult for any team to completely miss in the draft. The information the NFL receives is much more accurate and reliable than what the college world is working with. The margin for error in the NFL may appear to be smaller but a team only adds seven players to its 53 man roster. While in college you add 24 players for a 72 man roster.  That means each year a college team adds and loses about a third of its roster year to year. 

Tommy Tubberville one of the best at getting the best
out of his players. 

The bottom line is that putting together a great recruiting class takes an all-around commitment from every one on a coaching staff. With many high school players trying to make it the next level, it takes tremendous effort to find the right ones for a team. I tip my hat to the coaches for that are able to do it year to year and build a solid program.  While the NFL may be the top level of the coaching world to some people, the best coaches in football just might be at the college level.  As always thank you for making this blog part of your day if you want to hear more from me you can always follow me on twitter @chrisgrayarea and don’t forget to check out the Facebook page for the latest updates!