YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY ANYONE TO GET RECRUITED OR COMMIT TO A COLLEGE. ZERO DOLLARS IN RECRUITING FEES.
You can learn the process and handle the work yourself, or choose to pay for assistance. But before spending a dollar, understand exactly what you’re buying, who does the work and what you’ll still have to do yourself.
Your talent and your character come before everything else. That ability has to show up on film and in front of coaches at camps.
A thousand emails won’t compensate for being unable to play at the level you’re pursuing or having character nobody wants in their locker room. But if you have the talent, measurables, and character, the rest of the recruiting work becomes extremely valuable.
Paid help ranges from an app with a small monthly fee to services costing thousands. Guidance, access to a database and personal representation are different purchases. Make sure you understand which one you’re getting. The app will tell you everything you need to do and coach you along every stage, but you have to do the work yourself. Services in comparison do the work for you, and databases only list your info.
My friend Andrew Cohen at @Get__Recruited picks up the phone, contacts coaches and gets film in front of them. For families with the money and limited time, that can serve a real purpose.
There are also dirtbags in your kid’s DMs selling offers from schools they don’t even work for. They’re counting on your excitement getting ahead of your judgment. Have your coach verify the contact. Don’t send money or announce an offer.
I created the Byronic Heroes app to help families understand and handle this process. It draws on my own family’s experience and conversations with hundreds of coaches across the country, with guidance from age five through high school and college: development, training, nutrition, film analysis and feedback from me, recruiting strategy, academics, character and NIL preparation.
There are legitimate options for people that need help. Getting educated helps you choose the right assistance—and recognize the dirtbag who’s just trying to take your money.
➡️ 𝗔𝗣𝗣 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞 𝗜𝗡 𝗕𝗜𝗢 @benjaminjcarey
Giving up 20 yards and making a tackle downfield with 5 of your teammates IS NOT A HIGHLIGHT!
If your HIGHLIGHTS are mediocre, what in God’s name does the rest of your film look like?
I’m walking through LaGuardia watching recruiting clips, and some of this is atrocious. You control which plays a college coach sees first, and you’re choosing clips that make him close the damn video.
Add a 3 second text overlay with your name, school, grad year, position. Put your strongest plays first. Keep the recruiting reel under five minutes without padding it.
Show the full formation before the snap and the entire rep at normal speed. Use ONE arrow OR circle for 1–2 seconds BEFORE each play, then remove it. Stop following yourself downfield with arrows and circles. Some of these highlight clips look like your 5 year old brother did them on Roblox!
EXAMPLES OF WHAT TO INCLUDE
• DL: get-off, block destruction, pressures, tackles for loss. Splitting double teams.
• OL: footwork, legal finishes, pass protection, second-level blocks.
• LB/DB: reads, coverage, block shedding, sound tackling.
• WR: releases, separation, ball skills and blocking.
• RB: vision, burst, contact balance, pass protection.
• QB: accuracy, anticipation, pocket movement, varied throws.
EXAMPLES OF WHAT NOT TO INCLUDE
• DL reps where you get washed out and join a routine tackle 20 yards later.
• OL “pancakes” achieved by holding or hitting after the whistle.
• Clips starting mid-play, cropped formations, slow motion, endless replays and celebrations.
A great rep doesn’t require a touchdown or sack, but it should show why you can play at the next level.
Get on X, where college coaches actively recruit. Instagram can help, but if that’s your entire plan, your ego is getting more attention than your recruitment.
Have your coach review your reel before posting. Contact me or someone who understands schemes and recruiting if you need help.
@AlPopsFootball endorsed my Byronic Heroes coaching app. It gives fathers and sons a personalized Blueprint for football development, recruiting, academics, leadership and NIL preparation, with film critique, daily lessons, and action steps matched to your grade.
Link in my bio for the App @BenjaminJCarey
A grown man who needs an 11-year-old’s football score to feel important has no business leading children.
Coaches in their forties and fifties are online taunting kids, calling out other programs and trying to settle personal grudges through youth football. The kids aren’t even the ones doing it. It’s the adults seeking validation and embarrassing themselves.
Leadership starts with teaching a player class and character. Teaching them to take correction, own a mistake, control his temper and respect an official. That requires a coach who can do those things himself.
Your 11U record won’t earn a kid a high school starting job. No one cares.
At the highest levels of high school and college football, the roster is full of size, speed and talent. A defensive coordinator needs to trust you to fit the right gap, execute the call and stay composed after the whistle. A third-down stop means nothing if you hand the offense another set of downs because you couldn’t control yourself.
Our coaches have played in college and coach at top high schools. They aren’t daddies running gimmick offenses and defenses. But most importantly they don’t excuse being disrespectful. They understood the boy in front of them will eventually become somebody’s husband, father and leader.
Too many adults excuse arrogance as confidence and aggression as toughness, then act surprised when games end in fights and kids lose scholarships because they act like idiots. They’re rewarding the behavior they should be correcting.
At Long Island Elite, we coach character with the same attention we give footwork and technique. Accountability, integrity and emotional maturity have to be taught, demonstrated and enforced, especially when your best player is the one who needs correcting.
Winning matters. So does sending a kid to high school prepared to compete, accept responsibility and earn the respect of his coaches. Football ends. What matters most is whether his family can depend on the man he becomes.
If you’re more interested in humiliating 11 year olds on Facebook and hooting and hollering about how great you are than preparing a child for their future, put the phone down and get a hobby.