CrossFit Athletic Group

Since I was in 2nd grade I can remember reading my dad's Wolverine Magazine - skipping past the interviews, game recaps, and player features. Nope, none of those interested me in the slightest.

I wanted to see the high schoolers.

Justin Fargas, Drew Henson, Carl Tabb, Kelly Baraka, David Underwood, Prescott Burgess, and Gabriel Watson were all immortals in my eyes before their senior year in high school... mainly because Fred Jackson said so. (If you don't know who any of those names are, you might as well check out of this post before you've wasted any more time.)

The precipice of my recruit obsession was capped in '07 by the McGuffie Mixtape.

While in college and the few years after I did not follow recruiting as much because no amount of 5-star prospects could overcome a Brady Hoke regime. But now that football matters again in Ann Arbor, I have been trying to track the inner thoughts of about 28 high school seniors spread throughout the country. I am not alone in this. For specifics, see MGoBlog's latest post.

...........

Tomorrow marks a holiday in the football world known as National Signing Day. Hundreds of recruits across the country either fax a signed letter of intent to play at a college or, even better, hold a press conference keeping all fans involved praying to any and all gods known to man. It's kind of unhealthy, after all, seeing as you could simply go on the internet the next day... or wait till next season to see who takes the field. But nevertheless, ESPNU is holding a 24-hour show to televise the event. All directed towards 17 and 18 year olds. And I'll be watching as much of it as I can.

Another interesting thing to follow is the methods coaches use to recruit kids to come to their school. With their jobs - and the jobs of many of their assistants - riding on winning, they have to be good salesmen. Talking to a recruits parents, teachers, girlfriends, coaches, and relatives all come into play. Then the coach has to make it sound like they haven't said the same thing to four different recruits playing the same position. It's an art really. And sometimes you have to just get down and dirty.

One one hand, I could understand how it could be considered creepy to stalk on high schoolers. On the other hand, it really boils down to people rooting for the team they have been following since they were 5 years old. From the coaches' point of view, they have to make their football program relevant to high school kids - the future lifeline of their team. From the fans point of view, it comes with the whole charm of College Football.

College Football greets you with a smile, punches you in the balls, then kisses you on the forehead and says, "I'll see you in 9 months."

- In the Valleys of Kings and Pydamid Schemes

We only get three months of this thing every year (four months if you are lucky). Recruiting is simply the next best thing that can create those stirrings of Saturdays in the fall.

That is all. As Jacob says: /rant over