|
|
Post by coachtater on Nov 8, 2018 11:18:43 GMT -6
I am interested in coaching college football. Mainly, I feel like the players in college play the game because they love the game. I feel like they pour themselves into it because they are doing something they love . . . not just playing to say "I play football."
First of all, does this sound right? Am I overthinking it when considering smaller college players (Div 3, NAIA). Also, can anyone give me any insight to what this job looks like? I would like to hear from coaches that have coached at the college level. What does a daily schedule look like? What about the pay structure? I hear that the pay is quite low. What does offseason usually look like? Scouting 24/7 or do you get to work with players also?
Thanks in advance
|
|
|
|
Post by aceback76 on Nov 8, 2018 11:23:07 GMT -6
I am interested in coaching college football. Mainly, I feel like the players in college play the game because they love the game. I feel like they pour themselves into it because they are doing something they love . . . not just playing to say "I play football." First of all, does this sound right? Am I overthinking it when considering smaller college players (Div 3, NAIA). Also, can anyone give me any insight to what this job looks like? I would like to hear from coaches that have coached at the college level. What does a daily schedule look like? What about the pay structure? I hear that the pay is quite low. What does offseason usually look like? Scouting 24/7 or do you get to work with players also? Thanks in advance Your ability as a RECRUITER will be paramount! You MAY be required to take a course in a "Charm School" (you must "charm" the Moms)!!! |
|
|
|
Post by RunThePistol on Nov 8, 2018 11:37:15 GMT -6
Just as Aceback76 said, recruiting is almost more vital than your coaching ability.
I can't speak for a full time coach because I served as a GA, but the hours are much different than coaching the high school level, so is the amount of job security.
The hours you will work for most places: 6 am- 6 pm, that includes staff meetings, position meetings, practices, workouts, and other daily tasks. The hours will fluctuate a little during season and out of season of course, becuase you better put however much time in it takes to get the job done.
The off-season is the part that sucks the most, because you will be there from 6 am- 6 pm most nights, plus you have recruiting things to get done (watching film, talking to the recruits, talking to area coaches about recruits, etc.) During this time you also do your final self scouting procedures, you do self-study to see what new schemes/fix current schemes. You also have to do class checks to make sure the players are attending class, you will probably have study hall 1 or 2 nights a week all year long.
As far as the player go, there's not much different between college kids attitude versus high school players attitude. The biggest difference is you get to pick who you want, and then once the player is in they realize this is A JOB that pays for their school, their FOOD, and their BOARD, and if they want to keep all of those things then they better compete for their job every day in every aspect of life.
|
|
|
|
Post by coachtater on Nov 8, 2018 12:17:49 GMT -6
Thank you RunThePistol for the details. That was helpful. If you've been coaching high school for 10+ years, how do you demonstrate that you have recruiting skills? Also, what is the best way for a high school coach to break into the college ranks?
|
|
|
|
Post by jgordon1 on Nov 8, 2018 12:26:57 GMT -6
Thank you RunThePistol for the details. That was helpful. If you've been coaching high school for 10+ years, how do you demonstrate that you have recruiting skills? Also, what is the best way for a high school coach to break into the college ranks? the best way is to take a low level paying job that maybe you might be able to get benefits. All recruiting is, is working hard and developing relationships. most recruiters are crappy communicators |
|
|
|
Post by IronmanFootball on Nov 8, 2018 12:33:51 GMT -6
I am interested in coaching college football. Mainly, I feel like the players in college play the game because they love the game. I feel like they pour themselves into it because they are doing something they love . . . not just playing to say "I play football." First of all, does this sound right? Am I overthinking it when considering smaller college players (Div 3, NAIA). Also, can anyone give me any insight to what this job looks like? I would like to hear from coaches that have coached at the college level. What does a daily schedule look like? What about the pay structure? I hear that the pay is quite low. What does offseason usually look like? Scouting 24/7 or do you get to work with players also? Thanks in advance Many college football players play for scholarships. If you asked them, they play NBA 2K and love basketball or some other thing (music, WWE, video games, etc). They aren't that different from HS kids- just older. |
|
|
|
Post by fshamrock on Nov 8, 2018 12:50:54 GMT -6
Thank you RunThePistol for the details. That was helpful. If you've been coaching high school for 10+ years, how do you demonstrate that you have recruiting skills? Also, what is the best way for a high school coach to break into the college ranks? know somebody, volunteer and hang on, or get extremely lucky once you get in it's a war of attrition, you have to hang around longer than the guys around you, eventually they will start families or just get sick of the grind and start to wash out, attach yourself to an up and coming assistant coach that will take you with them when they get coordinator and head coaching jobs, once you attach yourself to a guy hope like hell that they don't mess up by losing a lot or pissing off the wrong people or regularly using an escort service for players and yourself under a fake name and they are right about the recruiting aspect, the few guys that I know that have "made it" in college fb tell me some scary stories about the X's and O's that get thrown around the office sometimes, and the higher the level the worse it gets. Don't get me wrong, the coordinators and most assistants are usually squared away, but apparently every staff has a few guys on it that are there because they have a great eye for talent and know how to sell kids be prepared to throw a few bits of integrity out the window, the higher the level the more your going to have to look the other way or blatantly participate in some less than above board practices, particularly in recruiting, not necessarily out and out rule breaking like you might see on TV, more along the lines of misleading young and impressionable kids here's a conversation I overheard in the car with a guy who was talking to a kid that was committed elsewhere but they were hoping to flip "hey what's up reg this is coach ______ over at ______ how are you?" "oh uh...good coach how are you?" "hey man I"m great look I heard you committed over to ________ and just wanted to say good luck to you and we're so sorry you didn't want to come on over here with us" "yeah it just seemed like a good deal and stuff" "okay well hey reg let me ask you something have they pulled your transcript over there yet?" "uh...sir?" "dang reg everybody is pulling transcripts for all of their commits, we did all of ours last week" "say what?.....I don't know?" "well hey reg are you sure that you are committed over there? I mean I heard they had maybe signed too many guys and were going to have to back off on some kids...hopefully you aren't one of them man" "oh man well I better call coach _______ and find out" "reg...coach ________ will tell you that it's all good even if it's not, they'll keep you on the hook even if they plan on dropping you in case somebody else backs out......the fact that they haven't pulled your transcript doesn't look good at all" "oh chit coach....what do I do?" "tell ya what reg...why don't you go ahead and come take a visit with us....check us out and we'll hold our offer for you, that's how bad we want you, if you like the visit and they still haven't pulled your transcript let's get you signed here guaranteed and you won't have to worry about not having anywhere to play next year" "uh okay, yes sir" when dude hung up I was flabbergasted..... I said "hey man is pulling transcripts a real thing?" "nope" "how often do you do that" "eh...few kids a year maybe" "how often does it work?" "...you'd be surprised" |
|
|
|
Post by carookie on Nov 8, 2018 13:06:23 GMT -6
Thank you RunThePistol for the details. That was helpful. If you've been coaching high school for 10+ years, how do you demonstrate that you have recruiting skills? Also, what is the best way for a high school coach to break into the college ranks? know somebody, volunteer and hang on, or get extremely lucky once you get in it's a war of attrition, you have to hang around longer than the guys around you, eventually they will start families or just get sick of the grind and start to wash out, attach yourself to an up and coming assistant coach that will take you with them when they get coordinator and head coaching jobs, once you attach yourself to a guy hope like hell that they don't mess up by losing a lot or pissing off the wrong people or regularly using an escort service for players and yourself under a fake name and they are right about the recruiting aspect, the few guys that I know that have "made it" in college fb tell me some scary stories about the X's and O's that get thrown around the office sometimes, and the higher the level the worse it gets. Don't get me wrong, the coordinators and most assistants are usually squared away, but apparently every staff has a few guys on it that are there because they have a great eye for talent and know how to sell kids be prepared to throw a few bits of integrity out the window, the higher the level the more your going to have to look the other way or blatantly participate in some less than above board practices, particularly in recruiting, not necessarily out and out rule breaking like you might see on TV, more along the lines of misleading young and impressionable kids here's a conversation I overheard in the car with a guy who was talking to a kid that was committed elsewhere but they were hoping to flip "hey what's up reg this is coach ______ over at ______ how are you?" "oh uh...good coach how are you?" "hey man I"m great look I heard you committed over to ________ and just wanted to say good luck to you and we're so sorry you didn't want to come on over here with us" "yeah it just seemed like a good deal and stuff" "okay well hey reg let me ask you something have they pulled your transcript over there yet?" "uh...sir?" "dang reg everybody is pulling transcripts for all of their commits, we did all of ours last week" "say what?.....I don't know?" "well hey reg are you sure that you are committed over there? I mean I heard they had maybe signed too many guys and were going to have to back off on some kids...hopefully you aren't one of them man" "oh man well I better call coach _______ and find out" "reg...coach ________ will tell you that it's all good even if it's not, they'll keep you on the hook even if they plan on dropping you in case somebody else backs out......the fact that they haven't pulled your transcript doesn't look good at all" "oh chit coach....what do I do?" "tell ya what reg...why don't you go ahead and come take a visit with us....check us out and we'll hold our offer for you, that's how bad we want you, if you like the visit and they still haven't pulled your transcript let's get you signed here guaranteed and you won't have to worry about not having anywhere to play next year" "uh okay, yes sir" when dude hung up I was flabbergasted..... I said "hey man is pulling transcripts a real thing?" "nope" "how often do you do that" "eh...few kids a year maybe" "how often does it work?" "...you'd be surprised" Thats the junk right there I cant stand. I was on a staff a few years back with a bunch of former college and nfl coaches. They were mostly just passing through and coaching their sons; theyd always say, "hey you should come coach college with us." I'd tell them how I just couldnt pull all that BS as a recruiter, how I didn't like being a snake-in-the-grass salesman. They kept trying to tell me how it wasnt that bad, but every story I read like this makes me glad to not be there. |
|
|
|
Post by fshamrock on Nov 8, 2018 13:34:06 GMT -6
know somebody, volunteer and hang on, or get extremely lucky once you get in it's a war of attrition, you have to hang around longer than the guys around you, eventually they will start families or just get sick of the grind and start to wash out, attach yourself to an up and coming assistant coach that will take you with them when they get coordinator and head coaching jobs, once you attach yourself to a guy hope like hell that they don't mess up by losing a lot or pissing off the wrong people or regularly using an escort service for players and yourself under a fake name and they are right about the recruiting aspect, the few guys that I know that have "made it" in college fb tell me some scary stories about the X's and O's that get thrown around the office sometimes, and the higher the level the worse it gets. Don't get me wrong, the coordinators and most assistants are usually squared away, but apparently every staff has a few guys on it that are there because they have a great eye for talent and know how to sell kids be prepared to throw a few bits of integrity out the window, the higher the level the more your going to have to look the other way or blatantly participate in some less than above board practices, particularly in recruiting, not necessarily out and out rule breaking like you might see on TV, more along the lines of misleading young and impressionable kids here's a conversation I overheard in the car with a guy who was talking to a kid that was committed elsewhere but they were hoping to flip "hey what's up reg this is coach ______ over at ______ how are you?" "oh uh...good coach how are you?" "hey man I"m great look I heard you committed over to ________ and just wanted to say good luck to you and we're so sorry you didn't want to come on over here with us" "yeah it just seemed like a good deal and stuff" "okay well hey reg let me ask you something have they pulled your transcript over there yet?" "uh...sir?" "dang reg everybody is pulling transcripts for all of their commits, we did all of ours last week" "say what?.....I don't know?" "well hey reg are you sure that you are committed over there? I mean I heard they had maybe signed too many guys and were going to have to back off on some kids...hopefully you aren't one of them man" "oh man well I better call coach _______ and find out" "reg...coach ________ will tell you that it's all good even if it's not, they'll keep you on the hook even if they plan on dropping you in case somebody else backs out......the fact that they haven't pulled your transcript doesn't look good at all" "oh chit coach....what do I do?" "tell ya what reg...why don't you go ahead and come take a visit with us....check us out and we'll hold our offer for you, that's how bad we want you, if you like the visit and they still haven't pulled your transcript let's get you signed here guaranteed and you won't have to worry about not having anywhere to play next year" "uh okay, yes sir" when dude hung up I was flabbergasted..... I said "hey man is pulling transcripts a real thing?" "nope" "how often do you do that" "eh...few kids a year maybe" "how often does it work?" "...you'd be surprised" Thats the junk right there I cant stand. I was on a staff a few years back with a bunch of former college and nfl coaches. They were mostly just passing through and coaching their sons; theyd always say, "hey you should come coach college with us." I'd tell them how I just couldnt pull all that BS as a recruiter, how I didn't like being a snake-in-the-grass salesman. They kept trying to tell me how it wasnt that bad, but every story I read like this makes me glad to not be there. the pressure gets to 'em....they go in as good guys thinking they'd never treat a kid like that, but then the desire to win and move up the ranks overtakes 'em I mean you figure if your working at a place in FCS as an assistant you're making 55-70k and working your a$$ off, you catch one break and make it to the big show you are tripling your income, getting onto the big time coordinator head coach train is like a lottery ticket just sitting out there, not to mention all the guys telling you it's no big deal, everybody does it, if we want to compete we have to do etc |
|
|
|
Post by carookie on Nov 8, 2018 13:58:28 GMT -6
Thats the junk right there I cant stand. I was on a staff a few years back with a bunch of former college and nfl coaches. They were mostly just passing through and coaching their sons; theyd always say, "hey you should come coach college with us." I'd tell them how I just couldnt pull all that BS as a recruiter, how I didn't like being a snake-in-the-grass salesman. They kept trying to tell me how it wasnt that bad, but every story I read like this makes me glad to not be there. the pressure gets to 'em....they go in as good guys thinking they'd never treat a kid like that, but then the desire to win and move up the ranks overtakes 'em I mean you figure if your working at a place in FCS as an assistant you're making 55-70k and working your a$$ off, you catch one break and make it to the big show you are tripling your income, getting onto the big time coordinator head coach train is like a lottery ticket just sitting out there, not to mention all the guys telling you it's no big deal, everybody does it, if we want to compete we have to do etc Oh yeah, I am not judging them. I am just writing I can't do that (or at the very least wouldn't want to). |
|
|
|
Post by RunThePistol on Nov 9, 2018 6:26:42 GMT -6
I was at an FCS level school, in the middle of BFE... our recruiting area was a 6 hour radius of the school which included cities like St. Louis, Nashville, Starkville, Louisville, Atlanta, etc. just to give you an idea of places we would canvas on recruiting trips.
I was able to get quality players in, and yes I missed a few guys we should have got, but I never pulled anything like the aforementioned story. I would fudge the truth a little to get their attention, but I tried to be as honest as I possibly could with the kids. Hell I offered on kid the same day as an SEC school offered him, and I told him go ball out there, and wished him the best of luck.
The pressure to succeed and win the recruiting battles is a real mother F*&#$r though, and it can drive a man to do questionable things in a hurry.
|
|
CoachSP
Sophomore Member
Posts: 212 
|
Post by CoachSP on Nov 9, 2018 7:55:22 GMT -6
and they are right about the recruiting aspect, the few guys that I know that have "made it" in college fb tell me some scary stories about the X's and O's that get thrown around the office sometimes, and the higher the level the worse it gets. Don't get me wrong, the coordinators and most assistants are usually squared away, but apparently every staff has a few guys on it that are there because they have a great eye for talent and know how to sell kids Not to hi-jack, I'm curious as to what you mean by "scary stories about X's and O's" Do guys not know what they are talking about but have a job strictly bc they can recruit? |
|
|
|
Post by RunThePistol on Nov 9, 2018 8:33:28 GMT -6
That's exactly what he means... I worked with an OL coach who kept saying "We need to run this" and I would respond with "That's what we call Washington/Redskins"... His response "Oh, well we need to run that." But he was a hell of a recruiter... somehow he would get guys that should have gone bigger than us to commit to us.
|
|
|
|
Post by JohnDutton on Nov 9, 2018 8:53:00 GMT -6
and they are right about the recruiting aspect, the few guys that I know that have "made it" in college fb tell me some scary stories about the X's and O's that get thrown around the office sometimes, and the higher the level the worse it gets. Don't get me wrong, the coordinators and most assistants are usually squared away, but apparently every staff has a few guys on it that are there because they have a great eye for talent and know how to sell kids Not to hi-jack, I'm curious as to what you mean by "scary stories about X's and O's" Do guys not know what they are talking about but have a job strictly bc they can recruit? Absolutely. There are plenty of coaches that get HC jobs that have never called a single play, just had the right title. The college is game, especially at the big level, is almost 100% who you know. Shake the right hands, get into the right situation and you have a chance to make it. Couple examples: Bobby Petrino's son is his QB coach and has been since his Arkansas days when he was a student assistant but Bobby coaches the QBs. And the QB coach off the newest season of Last Chance U, don't see how in a 1 year span he could have gone form Indy CC to FAU with Kiffin had he not been on a huge hit TV show. Exposure and who you know. To the original point of the thread, I would say you better love the kids and the game. I have a close family member who is a current HC at a Division 1 program and has 30 years in D1 ball and better be willing to miss a lot of things family related if that's your ultimate goal. 6am-6pm may be the case in the off-season but in-season realistically looking at 6am to 10pm. Saban has a page in one of his playbooks online that breaks down his coaches work week schedule that shows a good example of the hours. Like others have said, pay is low at lower levels. Could be anything from a stipend and housing to just a stipend that when broken down is like making $1.50/hr. |
|
|
|
Post by pitt1980 on Nov 9, 2018 11:08:11 GMT -6
Not to hi-jack, I'm curious as to what you mean by "scary stories about X's and O's" Do guys not know what they are talking about but have a job strictly bc they can recruit? Absolutely. There are plenty of coaches that get HC jobs that have never called a single play, just had the right title. The college is game, especially at the big level, is almost 100% who you know. Shake the right hands, get into the right situation and you have a chance to make it. Couple examples: Bobby Petrino's son is his QB coach and has been since his Arkansas days when he was a student assistant but Bobby coaches the QBs. And the QB coach off the newest season of Last Chance U, don't see how in a 1 year span he could have gone form Indy CC to FAU with Kiffin had he not been on a huge hit TV show. Exposure and who you know. To the original point of the thread, I would say you better love the kids and the game. I have a close family member who is a current HC at a Division 1 program and has 30 years in D1 ball and better be willing to miss a lot of things family related if that's your ultimate goal. 6am-6pm may be the case in the off-season but in-season realistically looking at 6am to 10pm. Saban has a page in one of his playbooks online that breaks down his coaches work week schedule that shows a good example of the hours. Like others have said, pay is low at lower levels. Could be anything from a stipend and housing to just a stipend that when broken down is like making $1.50/hr.
Pretty sure you're talking about Clint Trickett, who was the starting QB at WVU for the better part of two year, and whose dad was the OLine coach at FSU for many years
yeah, who you know is a big part of it,
(I wouldn't assume that he doesn't know his stuff just because he's a well connected guy, ime, that's usually a poor assumption)
----------
Like a lot people in this thread have said, in many ways, college coaching is largely a sales job
and a high pressured one at that, pressure wears people down and causes them to do things they otherwise wouldn't do
if its something you want to do, it is something you can and should get better at
want a recommendation? read every book on this list under the heading Sales personalmba.com/best-business-books/ (actually I don't think you'd be wasting your time reading any book on that entire list, the operational functioning of a football team is where a huge number of wins and losses actually happen)
the better you are at it, the better positioned you are to withstand the pressures that come with it
|
|
|
|
Post by coachd5085 on Nov 10, 2018 5:02:25 GMT -6
I am interested in coaching college football. Mainly, I feel like the players in college play the game because they love the game. I feel like they pour themselves into it because they are doing something they love . . . not just playing to say "I play football." First of all, does this sound right? Am I overthinking it when considering smaller college players (Div 3, NAIA). Also, can anyone give me any insight to what this job looks like? I would like to hear from coaches that have coached at the college level. What does a daily schedule look like? What about the pay structure? I hear that the pay is quite low. What does offseason usually look like? Scouting 24/7 or do you get to work with players also? Thanks in advance I would have to say I disagree with your apparent premise which seems to be that college football players play the game because they love it more than HS guys. |
|
