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DEL.ICIO.USSo You Want To Know: The AJC answers readers’ football recruiting questions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Q. I’m going to the Corky Kell Classic this weekend. Who are the top prospects there? — J.S., Lilburn.
A. The eight teams playing in the Kell Classic at the Georgia Dome have 12 players who made our The Georgia 150 recruiting list. Here’s a list broken down by school with the players’ grades we assigned them:
Brookwood
OL Kellen Williams (Alabama) … B+
Camden County
WR DeAngelo Smith (South Carolina) … A-
DB Robert Williams … B+
Etowah
None
Grayson
None
McEachern
TE Terrell Mitchell … B+
Norcross
RB D.J. Adams (Maryland) … A
DB Prince Kent (Miami) … A
DE Matt Autry … B-
Starr’s Mill
PK Chris Ward (North Carolina State) … A-
LB Stephen Roberts … B+
Walton
QB Ray Rayburn … B-
PK Brady Biggers … B
DE David Paulsen … A-
NEED TO KNOW BASIS: What do you want to know about recruiting? If you have a question, add it to the blog, and we’ll get back to you with an answer within 24 hours.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Other schools
Comments
By Band Mom Gone Wild
August 18, 2008 11:43 AM | Link to this
At what point in a high school football player’s playing career do colleges start “looking” at them? Would a junior hear about colleges that are interested? Would it be in the form of campus invites or just “letters of interest?”
By baloney
August 18, 2008 11:52 AM | Link to this
Players will get letters after their junior year.Some schools may even invite them to see a spring game at which the prospect pays his own way. Word to the wise,better pay attention to the small schools that send you stuff. Go to their camps, talk to the coaches etc. Many kids want the D1 offer, they are hard to come by.Fact is unless your school and its coach has contacts and respect from the colleges it will be hard to get noticed. You have to play against good competetion,good region etc.I’ve been down that avenue.
By baloney
August 18, 2008 11:57 AM | Link to this
Players will get letters after their junior year.Some schools may even invite them to see a spring game at which the prospect pays his own way. Word to the wise,better pay attention to the small schools that send you stuff. Go to their camps, talk to the coaches etc. Many kids want the D1 offer, they are hard to come by.Fact is unless your school and its coach has contacts and respect from the colleges it will be hard to get noticed. You have to play against good competetion,good region etc.I’ve been down that avenue.
By Paddy
August 18, 2008 12:53 PM | Link to this
What SAT or ACT score is deemed to be accecptable at UGA for an athlete? Does his HS gpa and community activities count a certain portion for admission? Why do some players go to a Prep school while others must go to a JC before admisssion to UGA?
By SickandTired
August 18, 2008 4:36 PM | Link to this
At what point does Georgia actually make the cash payments to high school players. When they commit or when they sign their national letter of intent? Or, do they actually have to be admitted to school. If the player has to be placed at Hargrave do they still get paid?
By tholcomb2988
August 19, 2008 10:26 AM | Link to this
At what point in a high school football player’s playing career do colleges start “looking” at them? Would a junior hear about colleges that are interested? Would it be in the form of campus invites or just “letters of interest?”
Good answer by Baloney, but I’ll add this much: It depends on the player and the school.
Major Division 1-A programs such as Georgia and Georgia Tech have been focusing on juniors for months. Georgia’s ‘’junior day’’ in February is perhaps the biggest recruiting tool the team has. Tech and Georgia already have made scholarship offers to some juniors.
But if a player isn’t being recruited as a junior, that doesn’t mean he won’t be. There will be countless examples of juniors this season that go from virtual unknowns to major college recruits after having a good junior season, then going to combines or evaluation camps in the summer. In fact, sometimes it doesn’t even take a good junior season. If you show up at Auburn or Tennessee or Florida State next summer and impress coaches at their camps, they won’t care that much that you were just a part-time starter last fall.
So the answer is mostly, “It depends.”
What SAT or ACT score is deemed to be accecptable at UGA for an athlete? Does his HS gpa and community activities count a certain portion for admission? Why do some players go to a Prep school while others must go to a JC before admisssion to UGA?
The NCAA uses a sliding scale based on GPA and SAT or ACT score to determine eligibility, and frankly, it’s pretty low. With a 3.5 GPA, you qualify if you can spell your name right. For students with a 3.0 GPA, the minimum SAT score is 620. For a 2.5, it’s 820. For a 2.0, it’s 1010.
Keep in mind that these are NCAA minimums and not necessarily the minimums of a particular school. At Georgia, since that’s the school you asked about, an athlete must meet the universitiy’s minimum admission requirements or get a special waiver from the office of the president, Michael Adams.
Re: Prep school and junior college — A player who goes to a prep school is generally one who keeps trying to make a passing SAT score but fails, then takes the prep route at the last minute. His main objective at prep school is work toward getting a qualifying score. If successful, he can enroll at the four-year school of his choice and be a true freshman.
Junior college is the answer for academic issues that aren’t as easily or quickly resolved and involves more than just an SAT or ACT score. Some students lack the minimum number of core courses in high school to qualify regardless of their SAT score or GPA. Others take the junior college route because academic issues kept away some of the big schools, and proving one’s self in junior college can be the difference between going to Alabama in two years or a Division II school now.