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College Football: 5 Recruiting Trends in 2019

By Justin Dottavio

PALO ALTO, CA - SEPTEMBER 23: Head coach David Shaw of the Stanford Cardinal looks on while his team warms up prior to playing the UCLA Bruins in a NCAA football game at Stanford Stadium on September 23, 2017 in Palo Alto, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
PALO ALTO, CA - SEPTEMBER 23: Head coach David Shaw of the Stanford Cardinal looks on while his team warms up prior to playing the UCLA Bruins in a NCAA football game at Stanford Stadium on September 23, 2017 in Palo Alto, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) /
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3. IMG is on fire in 2019

If you thought the sports representation agency turned high school football powerhouse IMG was slowing down you’re sadly mistaken. Student-athletes have been choosing IMG for tennis, golf and other random individual sports for quite a while. Within the last five years or so they’ve decided to ramp up their prep football representation.

Whereas the tennis kid pays $80,000 a year to attend IMG the football players are on a full-scholarship. These football players are being trained by elite coaches, athletic trainers, and the leading gurus of athletic performance. IMG alumni that have excelled immediately are names like FSU quarterback Deondre Francois. SB Nation covered IMG’s 2016 crop and postulated that an IMG signing class would’ve ranked 14th overall in the entire country.

The 2018 class ‘took a dip’ (tongue-in-cheek, y’all) by only having the 3rd, 20th and 58th players in the country. The 2019 class is a step in the right direction. IMG has the 5th, 6th, 26th and 42nd overall players in the country as of Feb. 11, 2018.

IMG is able to not only recruit, which regular high schools claim they don’t do but c’mon, they’re able to acquire, develop and deploy like no other. Sure IMG loses games but they also schedule road trips all over the country and split their roster between A-team and B-team as well as shuffling guys around to multiple positions in order to gain them maximum exposure.

The IMG Ascdenders aren’t loading up on kids that care about winning high school state titles, they’re finding kids that want diet, nutrition, athletic performance, medicine, and coaching that will make them NCAA, and eventually NFL ready. It’s a business decision to leave home and attend IMG and it’s panned out for many players over the past half-dozen recruiting classes.

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