Recent changes to NCAA rules, officially rubber stamped this week, have created a window for summer football camps, designed to rein in the satellite camp extravaganza of recent years. Coaches can still go and work camps at other schools throughout the country, but it’s now limited to a 10-day window in June and July.
Earlier this month Mike Riley told Sam McKewon of the Omaha World Herald that Nebraska would head out on the road to work some of those camps this summer, but with an interesting twist — Nebraska will look to partner with fellow Adidas schools throughout the country.
The Huskers have already been listed on two such camp fliers. On June 4, Nebraska staff members will take part in two camps at Texas A&M alongside coaches from Arizona State, Kansas, Louisiana Tech, Mississippi State, Texas-San Antonio and Tulsa. (All Adidas schools.)
That same group of schools will be in Lawrence, Kansas, July 22 for a junior college camp at KU.
Thankful we give this opportunity to JC guys! #JUCOProduct ✊️ pic.twitter.com/c9KWTUXqrc
— Tyler Olker (@TylerOlker) April 27, 2017
It’s sort of a unique idea, linking schools based on their equipment supplier, but if there’s a time to try it that time is probably now. Adidas remains red hot at the moment, so maybe there’s a little extra clout that comes with that. As college football recruiting continues to look more and more like college basketball recruiting — which is already heavily influenced by the shoe companies — it’s possible this practice could become more common.
There’s a debate to be had on if that’s a good development or not, but it will certainly give Nebraska a pop-up home for a day in some valuable recruiting territories like Texas and, yes, Kansas thanks to that state’s robust junior college league. Just connect the dots, or stripes in this case, and you have a pretty extensive network of potential camp sites. Mississippi State could get schools into the southeast (though Starkville isn’t exactly easy to get to). So could any of the three Louisiana schools (Lafayette, Monroe, Tech). Miami is an Adidas school now. UCLA flipped to UnderArmour, so that great California link maybe isn’t there right now, but Adidas does sponsor UC-Davis which plays FCS football.
It feels like a pretty smart way to organize things. We’ll see how it plays out.
Dr. Route
This video featuring wide receivers coach Keith Williams sort of dropped without much context, other than that it’s part of a series from Ben Coleman at whyicreate.co. It’s worth look (and also includes some great San Diego State highlights from back in the day.)
The Grab Bag
- A group of ESPN personalities gave officiating a try, refereeing Georgia’s spring game.
- The CFP title game is getting moved up to earlier in January in the future.
- Here’s a breakdown of the first-round NFL Draft picks based on their recruiting rankings coming out of high school.
- Oregon’s spring game is tomorrow if you’re looking to do a little advance scouting for next September.
Today’s Song of Today
Brandon is the Managing Editor for Hail Varsity and has covered Nebraska athletics for the magazine and web since 2012, Hail Varsity’s first season on the scene. His sports writing has also been featured by Fox Sports, The Guardian and CBS Sports.
