Questions to Ask College Football Coaches
Questions for football recruits and their families: scheme fit, depth at your position, the redshirt path, practice contact, medical policy, scholarship terms, portal turnover, and academics.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Which coach would I work with every day, and how long has he been on staff?
Why ask it
The head coach recruits and the position coach shapes your career. Ask about his tenure and where he was before, because position coaches move more often than anyone mentions during recruiting.
What do you run, and where does my position fit in the scheme?
Why ask it
A staff that has evaluated you can describe the specific job they see you doing, which you can then check against film of their games. General praise for your athleticism means nobody has decided what you are yet.
How many players do you have at my position, and what class is each of them in?
Why ask it
This is the arithmetic behind every playing time promise. Two returning sophomores ahead of you is a different picture from a graduating senior, no matter how the conversation feels.
What is a realistic path to the field for me: redshirt, special teams, rotation?
Why ask it
The honest version names a year and a role. Count how many players they signed at your position and ask yourself whether the same promise can be true for all of them.
How do you use the redshirt year and the four-game rule?
Why ask it
Playing in up to four games while keeping a redshirt is now common, and staffs differ in whether they treat it as development or as emergency depth. Ask which freshmen used it last season and why.
What does a week in the fall look like, from Sunday through Saturday?
Why ask it
Ask for it hour by hour, including meetings and treatment. Football weeks are the longest in college athletics and the meeting hours, not practice, are what collide with afternoon classes.
What are winter workouts, spring ball and the summer like?
Why ask it
The offseason is where most of the year happens. Ask what time winter workouts start, whether summer school and summer training are required, and who pays for housing if you stay.
Who runs strength and conditioning, and what is an in-season lifting week?
Why ask it
Strength staff turnover is high and quality varies widely. Ask how many staff cover the roster, and how lifting is adjusted for someone who played eighty snaps on Saturday.
What is your approach to contact in practice, and how often is it full speed?
Why ask it
Practice contact volume is the health variable a program actually controls. Staffs with a policy can tell you how many padded practices they hold in a normal week and what the day after a game involves.
Who provides medical care, and who decides when a player returns after a head injury?
Why ask it
The answer should place an independent physician at the end of the chain. Programs where the coaching staff influences return dates put you in a bad position at the worst possible moment.
What happens to my scholarship if I am injured and cannot play again?
Why ask it
Ask whether it has happened recently and what that player's situation looked like afterwards. Specific cases beat general reassurance, and this is the answer families most often wish they had.
Is the offer good for four or five years, and what would stop it being renewed?
Why ask it
Multi-year scholarship terms are allowed but not universal. Ask what the aid agreement will actually say, since annual renewal puts your place in someone else's hands every spring.
How much class do players miss, and how are Friday travel days handled?
Why ask it
Ask for a number and a system. A program with academics organised describes travel letters, proctored exams and someone whose job is dealing with faculty; without it, every conflict lands on you.
Which majors do your players take, and are there any that do not work with the schedule?
Why ask it
Meeting hours and afternoon practice rule out labs and clinical placements at many schools. The name of a current player in your intended major is the only reliable check on the answer.
What academic support is required, who monitors it, and who sees my grades?
Why ask it
Required study hall, mandatory tutoring and grade checks are unpopular and useful. The important detail is whether tutors cover the courses players actually take rather than generic subjects.
What is the team's graduation rate, and how many players finish their degree here?
Why ask it
Both figures are published. Finishing here rather than somewhere else is the more telling number, because it separates programs that keep players from programs that move them along.
How many players entered the transfer portal after last season, and why?
Why ask it
Portal traffic is public and the reasons are not. A staff that can account for departures without blaming the players is unusual, and the total tells you how quickly a depth chart resets.
How is name, image and likeness organised here, and what have players at my position received?
Why ask it
Ask who administers deals, what compliance requires from you, and what has actually been paid rather than what is possible. Verbal promises about future money are the least reliable part of recruiting.
How do you handle discipline, and what does a first offence look like?
Why ask it
Ask for the process rather than the philosophy: who decides, whether there is an appeal, what gets reported to the school. Then ask a current player whether it is applied the same way to everyone.
What do you want me to weigh, run and lift by the time I report?
Why ask it
Numbers show you where you actually stand on their board and give you something to train toward. A staff that cannot name any is not far along in evaluating you.
Working out whether a football program fits
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Preparation that changes the conversation
Count the position group yourself
Rosters and commitment lists are public. Walk in knowing how many players sit at your position and what class they are in, so a general answer about opportunity can be tested on the spot.
Watch their games rather than their highlight reel
Two full games tell you whether your position is used the way you play. It also gives you something specific to ask about, which changes how the staff talks to you.
Check who has left the staff
Look at the staff page from two years ago against today's. High assistant turnover means the coach who recruits you is unlikely to be the one who coaches you as a senior.
Claims worth verifying
- Playing time promises, checked against how many players they signed at your position
- Portal departures, which are public and often numerous
- Graduation figures, published for every program
- Name, image and likeness talk, checked against what players say they have received
- Academic claims, checked with a current player in your intended major
- Medical and return-to-play policy, checked with players who have been hurt
Common pitfalls
Trading the degree for the depth chart
Most players finish their careers in college, and the schedule that gets you on the field early is the same schedule that makes some majors impossible. Decide which of those you can live with before you visit.
Taking verbal money seriously
Nothing about aid or third-party payments is settled until it is written down. Ask for the aid agreement language, and treat everything else as an intention.
Deciding on the atmosphere
Game day, the facilities tour and the crowd are the easiest things for a program to show you and the least relevant to a Tuesday in February. Judge the meeting rooms, the training room and the people.