Down the at Sound Mind Sound Body in Tampa, FL earlier this week Penn State's James Franklin, as well as Arkansas' Bret Bielema and Eastern Michigan's Chris Creighton educated parents on the realities of today's recruiting process in college football.
The first words out of Franklin's mouth to a room full of parents seeking advice on navigating the recruiting process were "do not pay for a recruiting service."
"Now I'm probably going to piss someone off in the room, but do not pay for anything. The only recruiting service that I have ever used at any place that I have ever been, is the ones that we pay for. You guys should not be paying," Franklin shared. "Do we get them, and are they sent to us? Yeah, but they go right in the trash."
That led to one parent asking how kids get on the radar of major college coaches, to which Franklin responded with a quote that will stick high school coaches and parents: "the sleeper recruit doesn't exist anymore."
"The way that social media is now, we know the people that we need to get in contact with in each state and in each area that is going to help us. A lot of us have had the same people recruiting the same places forever. I walk in this room and I see coaches from all over the country that I've known for the last twenty years. The sleeper recruit does not exist anymore. "
"It doesn't matter your star ranking's are at, you'll be found. If you have a school that you love, go to their camp, but like anything, you should have an A List of dream schools that you'd love to go to, you should have a B list of schools that actually fit your son, and some C [list] fallback schools. Because the reality is those fallback schools for most kids - that's probably a dream school, because as parents, you're all biased. You think your sons are the best...probably not," Franklin shared, which elicited laughter from the crowd.
Bielema and Creighton also share some great advice for parents on the recruiting process in the clip. Take a look.
https://youtu.be/l3MNaRYfEco
(H/T Mike Griffith of SEC Network for the video)