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Weekend Visit to the Al Golden Camp

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NorthFlaCane

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So last weekend I took my nephew down to Miami and we attended the June 22-23 Al Golden camps. Here are some thoughts:

Camp Organization -

  • - The camp starts out with players registering, getting their height/weight, a jersey, and heading out to the field to warm up, stretch, and run the 40.
  • - Once the 40s were done, they grouped all of the offensive and defenisve lineman together but grouped by age (senior, junior, underclassmen). They go through some offensive line drills working on their stance and on different blocking techniques, and rotate to different sets of coaches between drills (so the UM coaches work with all of the players there a little bit).
  • - After the oline drills are done, the players get with Jethro Franklin and they do dline drills. On the first day Kehoe broke out a select group of oline on the side and worked with them instead of them doing dline drills. On the 2nd day Franklin had a group of select dline off to the side later in the day after 1 on 1s.
  • - They did 1 on 1s after lunch, broken up into 4 groups (underclassmen, junior, senior, select). If you want to really get looked at by UM's coaches, you have to be in that select group. Golden, Kehoe, and Franklin were standing together on Sunday watching the 1 on 1s of that group pretty closely.
  • - After the 1 on 1s there were some more oline and dline drills to close out the day. Many of the kids were getting hot and tired, and you could see some kids maintaining their technique while others started to get sloppy.

Getting noticed -
  • - I can understand the complaints of that one guy who said you won't get noticed by the coaches if they don't know you. With most of these people, there's a grain of truth that is exaggerated into a mountain. The coaches mostly notice guys they already know, but there were other ways to get noticed (especially by volunteering during drills). It would be nice to get different kids more exposure, but the coaches have a job to do and the kids have to figure out a way to network with the coaches before the camp starts.
  • - My nephew has some growing left to do (5'11" 265), but is a rising junior so he's got time left. If he grows like expected, he should be around 6'2" 285 by next summer. At that height and weight, he could rate a legit look by the coaches.
  • - He did pretty well at the 1 on 1s. Did 14 reps over 2 days. Won probably 9-10 of those reps. Most kids lose the majority of their reps on the oline. The dline has a big advantage because they can go left or right.
  • - He did do some networking with some 1-aa coaches. He talked to the oline coach from Samford for a little bit, so at least there is the start of a backup plan.


Individual players -
  • - On the 2nd day after 1 on 1s, they started doing dline drills (my nephew is a guard all the way) so I walked over and watched the running backs drill. There was this kid doing the drill where they hit you low then hit you high, and you keep your balance. This one kid got flipped up into the air and landed on his back. The sideline erupted in laughter, guys were falling down laughing.
  • - In that same drill I saw Madre London run and that guy is tough. Strong runner. Knocked the pad clear out of the coach's hands one time.
  • - There was another kid who won Co-Most Improved with London but I can't remember his name. He was also a strong runner.
  • - We watched QBs for a while, and there was one black kid with an orange jersey on who was drilling the ball on every thrown. QBs wore green jerseys, so I think they were just giving him a look. He might have been the Gray kid who committed.
  • - I saw Michael Smith walking the sideline on Saturday. Also saw about 3 other recruits touring at one point or another.
  • - Canes we saw: Chickillo, Seantrel, Duke, Dallas Crawford, Luther Robinson, Denzel Perryman (looked jacked).


Coaches -

  • - Talked to Michael Barrow for a second and told him that his hit on Vanover was still my favorite.
  • - Kehoe is funny as **** and was pulling no punches with the kids. I'm not gonna print half what we he said, but it was funny from the sidelines. He has not time for jackassery, and if he shows you a technique once you better get it the next time.
  • - Golden was doing some kind of pimp limp on Sunday, or he's got a hurt ankle/calf.
 
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A couple other things:

  • It was blazing hot both days. We had to rotate around the field looking for shade.
  • An olineman, #73, looked impressive on Sunday. Saw him throw down 2 different guys with one hand.
  • A dlineman, #1, looked good on Saturday. Tall, skinny white guy, very fast off the line. I think that was Patchan.
  • Another junior dline, #56, looked really fast on Saturday.
  • Chad Thomas was out there and looked impressive. Tall and fast.
 
Thank you North for the insight, extremely helpful and good luck and best wises to your kid. At the end of the day the biggest thing that these kids fail to realize is regardless of school if you can get a free college education that's what matters most. Good luck to your kd
 
Thanks man... good ish... good luck to the lil homie... keep him in the weight room... Ray Lewis said EFFORT just put that 1st and you will be recognized
 
good update. on a scale 1-10, how would you rate it overall in terms of (1) coaches ability to evaluate talent and (2) recruiting tool/effectiveness?
 
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Canesfrom said:
good update. on a scale 1-10, how would you rate it overall in terms of (1) coaches ability to evaluate talent and (2) recruiting tool/effectiveness?
Click to expand...

Evaluation is about an 8. They get to see drills, see the kid's toughness, but they put kids through some drills that I'm not sure if they apply.

Recruiting tool is good, obviously. Saw lots of recruits visiting. Seems like those post-camp office visits are working.
 
Canesfrom said:
good update. on a scale 1-10, how would you rate it overall in terms of (1) coaches ability to evaluate talent and (2) recruiting tool/effectiveness?
Click to expand...

It's a great tool, granted it wasnt a weekend with a huge mount of talent you can see though its an evaluation experience they don't get any where else. For the most part it's really about 2 fields. One is the oline/dine field witha the rising sophmore, juniors and top players, that's where Jethro and Kehoe hangout and work With the kids. The other field is the offensive skilled players and QBs which are the rising frosh, soph, and juniors. That field gets run by Coley and Carroll and they are putting all of them Through drills and route running.

AG floats between these two fields mostly and watches from the 50 yrs line like a boss.

When you ask about the recruiting affectiveness this is what I'd say, it's not about the kids who are in HS right now coming to this camp, this camp is still fairly new to them and coaches, it's about the little kids who are there that are 8,9,10 years old who every summer now will be attending this camp and by the time they are 16-17 they already have an undying loyalty to AG and this University.
 
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Great Write Up.

Camps have always been that way as far as exposure. I remember my first camp which actually was @ Um...i was a bit timid and didnt really understand what was going on as far as the one on ones go...So i may have gotten in one rep..the kids that were taking the one on one reps heavy for the most part all became top recruits.(Joe Cohen,Taurean Charles,Randy Hand,etc)

So at the next camp i did..(down and dirty) i got into it during the one on ones...and did my thing against some of those same guys....and got my name out there...and got some offers based of of that imo.

For your nephew...you said you guys conversed with the ol coach from Samford..Its a solid school, i woul dkeep in touch with that guy throughout the year...showing him progression.(game film).and then actually try to camp at Samford, or do um camp again next year...It will only solidify that Samford offer which is a solid to good div 1 aa school.

#73 you were talking about likely was the manchild Trevor Darlingon one of our commits
 
Thanks for the insiders view NoFla. I like what Burr said about the younger group growing up into this system, and camp setting. I hope Golden sticks around for awhile so he can continue with the path he is setting around the program. Love whats happenning And I second gogeta regarding Samford. I live here in B'ham, and its a pretty well respected small religious school in a nice area of town, with plenty of financial backing and nice facilities. Birmingham as a whole isn't all that, but the Mountain Brook/ Homewood area where the school is, is the place to be if you are here.

Oh, and Golden's walking with that limp because of him breaking his foot off in Emmerts culo last week.
 
Great insight. Thanks. Good luck with your nephew. Keep him in weight room. If he get get nasty, it will help him a lot. Oline can be docile, so a nasty kid will attract attention. Art was small kid that lied about his wieght to get visit back in the day. He will have soft spot for tenacious smaller guy with motor and fight. 6'2" 285 nasty at guard after redshirt year eating in weightroom can be low center 315 monster.
 
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Thanks North. Your article was very interesting. Best of luck to your young man. Maybe we'll see him in orange and green.
 
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