With graduation and reunions wrapped up, it's football camp season.
Ah, but as we've noted here before, this is not your father's football camp. What once were week-long camps with football instruction after breakfast, swimming and canoeing in the afternoon, hanging out in the game room or watching and scary movies at night are now essentially half-day tryouts conducted in front of watchful coaches from like-minded colleges.
Given the nature of today's football camp, Kevin Daft, Dartmouth's offensive coordinator and quarterback coach, regularly Tweets recommendations for would-be college football players, many of which have to do with helping players' chances of getting noticed at these events. Here is a random selection of suggestions culled directly from Daft's Twitter account that college hopefuls heading to campus in the coming weeks might want to keep in mind, both while they are in front of coaches and when their seasons resume in the fall.
• With Camp Season approaching, plan on attending 5-7 camps at the Schools that are interested in you or a couple Mega camps with several schools in attendance
• Advice for Camps, Follow Instructions, Give Great Effort, Carry Yourself with Confidence, Wear something Identifiable Compete & Have FUN!
• Wear something IDENTIFIABLE at these camps...i.e. Color of shirt/shorts/socks/cleats
• Be able to explain your Offensive or Defensive Scheme because Coaches are going to evaluate your FOOTBALL IQ.
• Every interaction with a College Coach or Staff Member is like a Job Interview. Always remember you are making a Resume statement with what you do. Make great decisions On and Off the field.
• Have your DMs Open so College Coaches can get ahold of you
• As soon as your Spring Semester ends, get your Updated Transcript and save it on your phone...before your counselor goes on summer break
• Take a Minimum of 4 Academic courses each Semester…try and have at least one of them be an AP/Honors
• Update your Height and Weight on all your Profiles, you don't want to be Evaled off of your Frosh/Soph size
• Take the @ACT or @OfficialSAT as many times as possible. It can only 𝗛𝗘𝗟𝗣 you get into school
• Put your @ Twitter handle on your @Hudl profile, so College Coaches can find you
• QBs: Don't put INCOMPLETIONS OR QB SNEAKS on your Highlight tape
• Update your @Hudl page: Grad Yr, Position, Jersey #, Ht, Wt, Twitter Handle, Highlights labeled with Season and Stats
• Finish your Highlight tape as soon as your season is over
• Always have an up-to-date Highlight tape on your @Hudl page, that is Clearly Labeled with Current Year and 'Highlights', so it's easier for College Coaches to Recruit you
• Your High School or Prep School Coach is a College Coach's #1 Resource to find out what you're all about. What will they say about you?
• Your @Twitter Bio is your Resume: First/Last Name, School, Grad Yr, Position, Ht, Wt, GPA, ACT/SAT. Include Location, Highlight Link, and have DMs open
• We strongly recommend Min. 4 Academic courses each Semester Take an AP/Honors Course Get all As & Bs Take ACT/SAT multiple times
• Watching film is a necessity to get better in Football...Watch Offense AND Defense and never stop learning about this game
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EXTRA POINT
Back home after most of a week away we caught up on Jeopardy and for as much as I love the game show, sometimes it can be maddening.
Back home after most of a week away we caught up on Jeopardy and for as much as I love the game show, sometimes it can be maddening.
Three times in Friday night's episode the same contestant had rulings about her "answers and questions" that left me wondering about the rules.
In Single Jeopardy, in the category Historic Alliances, the $1,000 clue was: "Around 1428 Texcoco Tlacopan & this Aztec city-state formed the Triple Alliance."
The contestant responded: "Tenochtitlan." She clearly knew the answer but was ruled incorrect because she allegedly mispronounced the word by leaving out one of the final t's.
In Double Jeopardy, in the category His Widow Lived On, the $2,000 clue was: "Wife Geneviève outlived this "Carmen" composer by 50 years, but even after she stopped wearing black, stuck mostly to mauve."
The contestant responded, "Bizet." Again, she made a pronunciation mistake, rhyming the name with "bet," but this time she was ruled correct even though the proper pronunciation would rhyme the name with "ray."
In Final Jeopardy, the clue in the category 19th Century Contemporaries was, "Congratulating her on the 1869 release of her biography, Frederick Douglass wrote, "I have wrought in the day – you in the night."
The correct response, of course, was Harriet Tubman. This time our same contestant was ruled incorrect because the judges decided she left the "n" off her hurriedly scribbled response. Once again, she knew the information and this time the ruling cost her dearly.
As I said at the top, maddening.
