Urban should make a bold statement and just quit recruiting kids invited to The Opening or the The Rivals 5 Star. Here's the thing, until they make a National 7 on 7 League where guys are getting multi million dollar contracts, football has nothing to worry about as in going the AAU route.

Have been at 8 camps at UC over the past two weeks and in large part the guys they have labeled as "hot" get the most attention. Still, I have seen quite a few catch a coaches eye that they didn't have identified before hand. The percentage is very small, but you can catch the coaches eye if the skills and athleticism stand out...

 

Took my incoming Junior son to UC this past Saturday. The UC coaches pulled him out at the end of the camp along with 2 WR's (my son is an OL) They had the 3 of them run 40's for all the coaches there along with the other college coaches attending. So it was basically a bunch of coaches watching 3 kids run 40's. This supports your "Eye Catching" theory. If you are at the camp and the kid catches a coaches Eye, that is a great thing for that kid. As a result, they told my son you are now on our radar. At the Purdue camp yesterday, the OLineman coach pulled him out at the end and told him that his technique was solid and that it appears he was well coached as a result of the technique. Asked him if he had any offers. My son replied, "no sir." Coach told him, don't worry. If you keep on this path and keep improving, they will come. Long story short. You can catch their eyes and they look for athleticism and speed. They can tell how well you are coached as well. Camps are worth it in my opinion to get on radars. Small step, but a necessary step.

Urban Meyer may truly care more about the HS coach's recommendation than camp attendance, but I'll tell you what he cares about even more than that:

 

DOES THE KID FIT THEIR PRE-DETERMINED HEIGHT/ARM-LENGTH PRESCRIPTIONS FOR THE POSITION THEY NEED.

 

If the answer to the above is "yes" (even WITHOUT the HS coach's recommendation), Coach Meyer will do whatever is possible (whether an OSU camp or viewing the kid in person at his HS) to test three things:

 

1. STRAIGHT LINE SPEED (unless an OL, then this is down the list)

2. HIP and OVERALL FLEXIBILITY

3. REACTION SKILL (stimulus to eyes to brain to feet)

 

Pretty much every player at the D1 level (especially Power 5 schools) is recruited based on this protocol with obvious exception of kicker/long-snapper (often non-scholarship kids).

 

It's this simple: D1 scholarships go to about 1% of HS playing seniors. Your kid then needs to be in the top 1% SIZE-WISE while also being in the top 5% SKILL/SPEED-WISE to garner an offer.