College Football Camps and Combines
It is not whether you should attend a camp or combine, but which ones are the best for improving your chances at a scholarship. Signing up for camps and just hoping to get discovered is not a good strategy. You should only be attending camps at the schools where the coaches have shown interest in you. When attending combines or showcases, you need to be choosing the ones that college scouts routinely attend.
This page is going to give you everything you need to identify schools, camps and combines that are going to get you recruited and in position for a scholarship.
Attend Camps at the Schools You Are Interested In
If you are serious about playing for a particular school you should plan on attending the summer/ID camp there. The evaluations coaches make during these camps go a long way in determining who they will be making scholarship offers to. Before you just sign up for camp at Alabama, you need to make sure you are being invited as a recruit and not just a camper.
Coaches will invite just about any athlete to their camp. If you will pay the money, you can attend. However, you will notice when you are there, while there might be a couple hundred campers, coaches are really only focused on a select group. The group getting all of the attention are the athletes that have been evaluated before camp and identified as recruits for the program. This means the coaches identified them (usually online or through a scouting service), have already watched their film and invited them to camp for a closer look.
It is a only a good idea to attend camp at a school interested in recruiting you. To make sure you are good enough to play at that school, email the coaches before camp and sending them your highlight film. *Our free online profiles make it easy for you to have all of your information in one place and share it with coaches. Create a profile by clicking on the parent or athlete button at the top of the page. Once the coaches respond and if it sounds like the coach is interested in you as a recruit, then attending that camp will help your recruiting.
Get Exposure at Combines and Showcases
Football combines and showcases can be a great opportunity for a recruit to compete against other top recruits and catch the attention of college scouts. When looking at a combine or showcase, you want to be sure it has other top recruits in attendance. This ensures scouts will be there and if you do well you can get some good publicity. Every year relatively unknown recruits make a name for themselves at a combine or showcase by having a great performance. Remember, college coaches are not allowed to attend these events, so your goal is to get the attention of scouts who share their reports from the event with college coaches.
Here are a few of the combines we recommend. This is by no means a complete list of combines, but these events have an established history of attracting elite recruits and top scouts.
- Schuman’s National Combines – These events are among the longest running combines in the country. They hast several invite only events where top recruits compete against one another. In order to get invited to the elite events, you need to attend an open combine and do well.
- Nike Football Training Camps (NFTC) – These events are free to the student athlete but are invite only. If your coach is willing to make a recommendation and/or you send your highlight tape in to the NFTC staff, chances are you can get in to the regional event.
- Nike SPARQ Combines – These events are free as well. If you are looking to get into the NFTC events or get some verified combine numbers to share with coaches I recommend you attend these events.
- Combines for high school seniors and junior college athletes – All of the events listed above are for athletes graduating in 2015 or later. If you are a senior or junior college athlete looking for a combine, Schuman’s has events for you.
Can you handle the competition at elite camps?
Where do you stack up against current college football players? We break down it down by Offense and Defensive.
It is your job to understand the NCAA Eligibility Requirements.
If you are having a difficult time identifying camps or showcases please contact me directly. Author: David Frank