4 Questions with Recruit Georgia founder David Ewalt

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Today’s interviewee is David Ewalt, founder of Recruit Georgia, an NCAA-compliant scouting service that evaluates, promotes and guides college football prospects in the state.

David Ewalt, founder of Recruit Georgia

1. The NCAA this week extended the dead period for Division I recruiting until Jan. 1. What does this mean? “At this point, it is business as usual. This ruling affects D-I football programs and pushes back on-campus visits or in-person recruiting, but colleges can still maintain correspondence through social media or phone calls with the class of 2021 and 2022.”

2. What impact will that have on players hoping to play college football? And on colleges? Who does it hurt? “Well, if I was a recruit right now that had D-I offers, I would be thinking long and hard about committing. At this point there is no guarantee that you will be able to take an official visit to a D-I program. For the colleges, it has been a mixed bag. The FBS programs mostly have their recruiting classes set, and honestly the prolonged dead period has not impacted them nearly as much, especially the Power Five Conference programs, but the FCS programs have languished with commitments and identifying players without the college mega camps to attend during the summer. Both the FCS colleges and recruits that fit that mold have been the biggest losers so far. For D-II, NAIA and D-III programs, that remains to be seen how all of this impacts them, as a lot of their recruiting occurs in the latter half of the recruiting cycle, but interestingly enough D-II programs were allowed to have college recruiting camps over the summer.”

3. What advice would you give to college prospects in trying to be recruited or finding the best fit in this unique year? “You have to create an online presence more than ever now. Hoping for a college coach to walk into your weight room or attend your game is just not going to happen during this football season, so you have to build your brand more than ever and show these college programs what you’ve got. College coaches and recruiting staffers are constantly looking for the next big recruit, and even if your high school is not a hotspot or your high school coaches do not put much effort into recruiting, you can still be found. Families and recruits should not rely on companies or recruiting gurus to unlock exposure. It is out there right now, and all it takes is making the plays between the lines and then putting it out there on Hudl and Twitter. Finding the right fit with a college football program is definitely the trickiest part of this entire situation. It will have to be done mostly virtually, and recruits are going to have to communicate with the college coaches recruiting them to build a relationship that way. The college football program will not be able to accommodate in-person visits, but to my knowledge, a lot of colleges are allowing high school students to take campus tours.”

4. The same number of players will get scholarships as before, so does this really matter? What is the effect on this for college teams and players? “It seems like this is a complete train wreck waiting to happen, honestly. The NCAA is going to be awarding every athlete another year of eligibility, and meanwhile you have another recruiting class coming into the fray and onto campus a year from now? What are they going to do with scholarships, and how will they stay under the 85-player threshold? I’m afraid with no action, both players and recruits are going to get squeezed out of scholarships. There are still a lot of questions to be answered right now, and there will most likely be negative side effects to all of this no matter how you slice it.”

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