In the 1980s and 90s, no one knew how to evaluate a kicker’s ability. So, big meat market camps grew to supply college coaches with quality leads on who was worth recruiting. It was simple: attend, compete, get ranked and Nick Saban will call you.
Today, the reliability of these camps has taken a nose dive to many college coaches. Who do the camp organizers push to college coaches: the best player or the most profitable one?
Still, they can be of some limited use on your recruiting journey.
This is roughly how your star ranking correlates to the division level you wind up at. Clearly, if you can crack a 5 star ranking, you’ve almost doubled or tripled your chances of going P5 FBS. While if you are a meager 4 star (sarcasm) you wind up at D2/3 school.
https://twitter.com/CarpenterSam15/status/1468615571528900612?s=20&t=M_WhHaiPEgtQzRdPPQoltQ
Inevitably these camps turn into simply who can hit the biggest ball possible for these camps’ YouTube accounts.
Physically, I don’t think they are worth attending unless you can strike a FG 60 yards and KO 70+ yards and hit a 5.0 50 yard Punt.
That will physically ensure you have a shot at the finals where the “ranking” occurs.
If not, hit the weight room, hit your technique and find a local coach you can train consistently with (these ranking camps will pretty aggressively market you on their “regional coach” who will be your advocate at their ranking event - which sounds like pay for access, but I digress)
Samuel Carpenter is a good ex. of a player who can physically finish in the top 10-20% of these camps who capitalized on it during one their bigger events. This strong showing was the rocket fuel that kickstarted his recruiting last year. (Now attending Pitt)
He already had the 80 yard KO ability before the camp, and didn’t magically find it once there.
Camps can be a lot of fun, but they aren’t magic bullets. They turn into biggest ball contests with minimal “coaching”. If you can’t physically finish in the top 10-20% of these camps there can still be some value in simply going and having fun, but just know that to reap the full ROI that these camps promise you, you will need to physically be able to win and that inevitably comes back to technique, and weight room work.
We’ve looked at the benefits of recruiting, the metrics of different level of college football, and the question of ranking camps. But wait - before we dive into recruiting timelines, what about getting into the school in the first place…?
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Chapter 1: Understanding Specialist Recruiting By The Numbers
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