Dave Campbell's Texas Football

[jambo67]

I just bought my last copy of Dave Campbell's high school hype. Recruiting has taken over with the magazine and recruiting services have spoiled something I have looked forward to for many years. It has corrupted the season-to-be with Pre season All-State teams, Super teams and MVP's, even to the point of hyping underclassmen sophomores. Late blossoming athetes are relegated to nothingness despite what they did during a good senior season. College scouts are afraid to take the chance on anyone other than the hyped few(the ones listed in the mag) because if they do and are wrong their careers could be in affected. If you recruit one of the popular recruits and are wrong...well, that's the cost of doing business. If you take a chance on an athlete and are wrong it's your credibility all because someone that has never put their career on the line thinks you made a mistake. I don't think Texas Football is wrong in recognizing who they do but just feel there are enough athletes to broaden the hype. They have all year to research what they do. Consesus on talent is the worst thing that's happened to sports journalism.

[Cowboy_Up]

Originally posted by jambo67
Consesus on talent is the worst thing that's happened to sports jounalism.

Your right about that and factor in all these measuarbles recruiters use and next thing you know how well they play the game takes a back seat to everything else.

But, I would encourage any young athlete who thinks they can play at the next level to go for it. There are places you can walk on and you can always prove yourself at a JC or small school. There are places to play for kids that don't get ink. And, speaking of that ink, just to show that in many cases a lot of DCTF and FNF is simply filler in an attempt to say they cover everything...here at Edna we have a young man who was all-state last year as a soph, HM on one list, 2nd, 3rd team on others. Now, he's dropped to 2A, has two big time offers, one from a Big -12 school, and neither mag even had him as a player to watch. Those mags are geared to the big towns; FNF is all about DFW, and the big 5A schools. Two years ago we had a kid get a full ride to TCU and he even started a game as a freshman. DJ Yendrey never got a sniff from DCTF or state wide press, but he’s getting his education paid for and he’s playing for the frogs. The mags are there to make money, being accurate, especially at the small school level, is secondary.

[Pick6]

Isn't the "players to watch" players that the coach has the magazine write? Isn't most of the info on the team info from a form that the coach fills out?

[Matthew328]

Cowboy I can admit we made a mistake regarding the exclusion of your player....if possible please make sure your HC or someone on staff sends us your team info or questionaire...I know we had a big issue with that this year in South Texas w/FNF...every extra team counts.

It was our first shot at doing a magazine and I can say getting coaches to respond to requests is tough

[Bullaholic]

Originally posted by jambo67
I just bought my last copy of Dave Campbell's high school hype. Recruiting has taken over with the magazine and recruiting services have spoiled something I have looked forward to for many years. It has corrupted the season-to-be with Pre season All-State teams, Super teams and MVP's, even to the point of hyping underclassmen sophomores. Late blossoming athetes are relegated to nothingness despite what they did during a good senior season. College scouts are afraid to take the chance on anyone other than the hyped few(the ones listed in the mag) because if they do and are wrong their careers could be in affected. If you recruit one of the popular recruits and are wrong...well, that's the cost of doing business. If you take a chance on an athlete and are wrong it's your credibility all because someone that has never put their career on the line thinks you made a mistake. I don't think Texas Football is wrong in recognizing who they do but just feel there are enough athletes to broaden the hype. They have all year to research what they do. Consesus on talent is the worst thing that's happened to sports journalism.

Not criticizing your opinion, jambo, most of what you say is true. It seems any part of the modern media is given over to hype, hype, and more hype ad nauseum.

There are still parts of DCF that I do enjoy---particuliarly the individual high school team summaries---which at least give me some insight to nearly every team.

I am particuliarly interested to see what our resident media types---BDR, TxB, Chuck, Matt, and yes---maybe even Keith (did I post that? :D) will have to say on your observations--not to say that I won't enjoy everyone else's posts, of course....:D

[Matthew328]

I agree its tough for the late blossoming kid to get the hype that a kid who has a big soph. or junior season has...its the nature of the beast...if a kid hasn't really stepped up heading into his senior year its kinda tough for a pre-season to mag to really pump him up unless his coach mentions it in a questionaire. I mean what can you expect?

As I said there are ALWAYS omissions etc in these kind of magazines...over 1000 schools and over 1000 head coaches each w/a different personality....I'd say for FNF we had less than a 50% return rate on questionaires.....so if a coach doesn't submit a questionaire how can anyone complain when all the info isn't accurate?

[LH Panther Mom]

Kids don't have to be "late bloomers" to not get ink. If they don't "measure up" to whatever "star/stud" qualities have been determined to be the only ideal college-player material guidelines, then they can forget it.

[SHSBulldog00]

With a successful Senior year an athlete can get a scholarship. But it only takes on incident for it to be taken away.

Measurables are important but grades and athletic ability also factor into the equation.

[Matthew328]

Originally posted by LH Panther Mom
Kids don't have to be "late bloomers" to not get ink. If they don't "measure up" to whatever "star/stud" qualities have been determined to be the only ideal college-player material guidelines, then they can forget it.


There's no doubt the recruiting game is a cold cruel world....as far as the ink it all depends on what kind of ink you are looking for...for a site like rivals if you aren't Division 1 material its just not happening. It's a cold cruel reality of recruiting...rivals mostly caters to college sites and those sites only care about kids their schools are recruiting...its def. a business for them.


A high school only site can give some ink but that all depends on where coverage is etc...for example on TOC we just dont have anyone reliable enough who works anywhere other than DFW...I sure wish we did but good help is hard to find...the magazines pretty much rely on what the coaches send in..high school sites dont generate a lot of profit on the networks thus there's not much coverage and for some reason people dont want coverage on the independent sites that are free...they want it on the big network sites...so its like this weird cruel cycle that happens....I could go on for hours about the whole coverage/business angle of things...

[Matthew328]

Originally posted by SHSBulldog00
With a successful Senior year an athlete can get a scholarship. But it only takes on incident for it to be taken away.

Measurables are important but grades and athletic ability also factor into the equation.

For a big time Division 1 school measurables are a huge chunk of it...you can have all the ability in the world but if you dont fit in the box it's unlikely you get offered.....you've got to be SO Much better than the guy who has the measurables to even get a sniff...I talk to many many college coaches and I see what they are looking for...