For any of you who think your school is too small, your game or season scores too low, your combine results not good enough, or your chances not great enough, this could happen to you . . .
Andy Studebaker, a defensive end/lb who attended D-3 Wheaton College in IL (not exactly a household name for college football) and who sustained a broken foot halfway through his senior season at Wheaton, became the NFL’s highest Division III pick since 2002.
How did he do this? Well, we won’t lie and say he just logged on to PrepChamps.com and the scouts came calling, but close. From the article, “‘It would be a complete fabrication to say the YouTube videos had any role in exposing Andy to NFL teams, because all 32 teams knew exactly who he was. But I do think it was a tipping factor at the end.’”
Those words came from Studebaker’s agent, Josh Wright, who’s been representing athletes for over 15 years. Given his experience, Wright has seen the rise of online athletic recruiting opportunities and resources coming on par with traditional recruiting methods: Pro Day Workouts, combines, video footage, etc.
Using YouTube to their advantage, ”An hour after Studebaker’s workout, Wright’s wife posted it on YouTube for the rest of the league’s teams to peruse. ‘Teams were already in their [draft] meetings, and many of them asked [for the tape] to be overnighted to them,’ Wright said. ‘I said, ‘I’m just going to post it on YouTube and you can see it right away.’ They said, ‘Cool.’ So we shot out the link to everybody within an hour of the workout being over.’
“Before Studebaker’s impressive workout, the Eagles figured they would be able to sign him as a free agent. But once it went on YouTube, they knew that probably wasn’t likely.
“‘We liked him going back to his junior year when he had all those sacks,’ Eagles General Manager Tom Heckert said. ‘It was Division III, but he was so dominant. He was unbelievable.’
“When he got hurt, we thought for sure he’d fall through the cracks. Especially if he didn’t work out [before the draft]. But once he did and the workout went on YouTube, we knew somebody else was going to take him if we didn’t.‘”
Now, this isn’t to say that the only thing you need to do as an athlete is get some footage up on YouTube, but rather that having the video on YouTube complemented what Studebaker and his agent had already done to prepare and market him for the NFL. Having an online presence, though, definitely helped.
Tags: college football, Eagles, football, NFL, NFL Draft, PrepChamps, Studebaker, YouTube
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