Customer Reviews

Recruiting Confidential: A Father, a Son, and Big Time College Football

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The description on the cover reads like this is a big-time football star and is wanted by several very major college football teams. Truth is that he was a very good player in Illinios, but not a Blue Chipper that is sought by all of the major college football teams.

If you consider "Big-Time" college football as Central Michigan, Western Michigan and Northwestern then you won't be disappointed. There are mentions of a few big college football schools, but nothing serious. There are some very good academic schools that are interested instead cause the kid is smart.

You can tell this father cares about his step-son and his step son is a bright person willing to put in the time it takes to be a good athlete. There's also a few mentions of the Olive Garden throughout the book if you're hungry.

If you're looking for a recruiting story that involves under the table cash, cars, girls and all of the other stuff you hear about, this is NOT the book for you!!! If you just want to read about the average college recruiting experience, this is your book. I was disappointed!!! The ending also was not very good, but it's how it happened.

I, too, enjoyed this book. I was less putoff by the author than other reviewers although I can certainly understand some of their points. Still, he's a father looking out for his son and, well, I guess I could understand the lengths he went to help and protect his son during the recruiting process. By the end I was really pulling for the kid to do well and I was anxious to read his decision. You really can't ask for more from a Sunday afternoon read. I had wished for a different ending but, hey, it's not my life!

Good story about how a kid gets recruited to play college football. The recapping of his high school games gets tedious though. Either buy it or go to the library because it is worth reading.

I too loved the premise of this book. You will get an inside look at the college recruiting process, a thing most of us won't get a chance to be involved with. I wish the kid in the book a lot of luck, and hope his college career works out. But the father in this book really brought it down. He seemed arrogant and downright mean towards some of the college recruiters, especially the Harvard guy. Here is this offer to get your kid into Harvard on a full scholarship and the father seems annoyed with the recruiter because he calls all the time. I wish I were so lucky. Did you know that the father was an athletic director at a college? Well, if you don't he will tell you a dozen times in the book. If the ego was put aside this would have been a perfect 5.

I live in the Chicagoland area, so I was intrigued but not too optimistic about how the book would be. That doubt was quickly put away after the first few chapters. Claerbaut does a very good job of keeping the reader interested by blending different plots and ideas together. This book could fall into many different genres: sports, nonfiction, advice/"how to", father-son bonding, etc. But amazingly it still follows a very linear storyline. I was surprised at how many facts about college football history that he included, therefore appealing to me as an avid sports [history] lover. Also, the stepson-stepfather bonding is heart-warming, especially if you have a similar background such as I do. But the real treat is how much you can learn about the recruiting process. If my father had this when I was being recruited, I probably would have gotten to play in college. Read it for entertainment, but be sure to read it for advice if you're parenting a recruit. After all, it is their future.

Recruiting confidential is just a great book. It operates at two levels. It is a dynamite sports story, and at a deeper level, a terrific family drama. I really liked the HONESTY and SENSITIVITY with which James' dad writes the story. He explains how he was adopted and how "blood" means nothing to him as far as being a dad is concerned. If you read between the lines you can tell that something horrific happened with James' father and that the bond James has with his dad is now as important to him as it is to the author.

The inside football stuff is just first-rate. Instead of the same old "rip city" treatments of big-time recruiting, you see it from the inside. You ride in the car with James and his dad, you go to the schools, and meet the coaches. You experience the highs and the lows as they happen. Best of all, you can't put it down, because you want to know how it will end.

Get this one, it's a treat.

The title is misleading when it says "Big Time Football Recruiting". The player the book was about did not have many D1 offers and showed up at a few schools to visit the campus ans the coaches had never heard of him.

Great story about a kid and his dad, but not very informative in regards to a look behind the scenes in football recruiting.

This book is successful in describing the recruiting process in Division 1 football. For those who want to learn about Division 1 football recruiting, this book should be on their reading list.

We are going through football recruiting with our son right now and I found this book's depiction of how the process works and what it is like dealing with college coaches to be dead on. We highlighted passages and refer to them often. The book is also a sweet story of the bonding that takes place between a father and son durnig this process and how rewarding it is to see your son becoming a mature man. The book has an unexpected ending that made me smile since Harvard is also recruiting our son. I would love to know what James is doing now.

I enjoyed this book a lot, particularly the campus visits and the conversations with head coaches and assistant coaches. The reason I did not give it 5 stars was because the author seemed kind of full of himself, name dropping all the time and telling every coach who calls expressing interest in his STEP (emphasize again STEP) son that "he knows how recruiting works" because he was an "AD" at the college level. Yeah, there is a little bit of difference about being the AD at a D-III school for two years and relating to the big time recruiting game. The final thing that bothered me was how he inserted "son" into every comment he addresses to James. Example: "You know, son, the college game is a lot like life. When I was counselling some Yankees back in '86 about choking on the mound I....blah, blah, blah. Son, the game is life is like a box of chocolates..." I wonder how James' real father feels about this guy moving and claiming his son. Yes, the author is trying to make James feel like his own, but most of the times it appears he is trying too hard. Aside from the anoying author, the main story about the recruiting of James was a real treat. James seems like a cool kid. Buy the book!