Latest / Scouting the League / Day 1 Wrap - 2026 Personnel and Recruiting Symposium
Transcript
- Rodrik David: Hey everybody and welcome to Scouting the League. And we are gonna jump in as we wrap up day one of the 2026 Personnel and Recruiting Symposium brought to you by Teamworks. It was a jam-packed building as I am still in the main ballroom where sessions today happen. A little bit of networking going on, but people are starting to get ready for the social tonight. As I've said multiple times, make good decisions if you're going to be out having a few beverages. Networking could be one of the most important things some of the young people are doing here, but we will talk more about that as we go. Shorter day today, though arguably an important one as everybody gets here. A lot of people will be here today, tomorrow, as camps are kicking off across the country. So We will get people in and out. That Wednesday session will be some big ones in the morning, but lots going on. Tomorrow will be the big day for sessions. I will be here. Neil will join me at some point tomorrow as we either go live or get some content out with some of our great GMs, NFL scouts, and friends from around the country. Updates on all things symposium. Follow me over at Right Step A D D. Be posting some pictures as well as clips and everything for us there. Check out the show notes. All you need to know who to follow. Let's get right into it today. What did we see today from the symposium? Over 1600 people from across the country, the biggest number that has happened so far. 25 NFL teams confirmed to come this year, 159 schools from the cost. The country, just massive numbers for this event, bigger than last year. Shoulder to shoulder in the hallway, really an outstanding event. If you are in football, you want to work in college, you want to work in the NFL, this has to be a destination for you. And that was one of the things. Agents have figured that out. This is a one-stop shop for agents across the country. Come in here, meet a bunch of people, get to know in person some of the GMs. Personnel, people, and scouts they're talking to throughout the year. So really good way for agents to get in the building. Start off the night, Impact Award winner Katie Decker was recognized for all the work she did for this year's symposium. And no surprise, executive of the year, Matt Wilson of Indiana was given that award. We then went to Josh Pate, who sat down with former head coach Matt Brown, keynote speaker. The man still has some juice. I think Matt Brown could. probably still coach. He got fired up on the mic a few times, talked about a number of things which again bordered on some coach speak, which is always good to hear. But talked about creating an edge. Five things to get better at every day. Put it down in writing. the writing aspect being a big part of it. You've got to get better every day. If you're not, you are just going through the motions. And then he talked about what things he looked for in hiring people. He wanted happy people. He used the word happy a lot. He does not want miserable people. You're either an A, you're a B, or you're a C. Those A people, those are the people you want in your program. If you're a B, you better move up or move down. Move up to an A, stick around, move down to a C, we're gonna get you out of here. C people, we don't want you in the building. He wants driven, high-energy people. He wants idea people. Encourage a lot of the young people, the 20 to 30, definitely the demographic most represented here in Nashville. Be idea people, be a smart person. Don't come across as smart, but bring good ideas to the table. Don't act like you are the smartest person. Be a great communicator. We are in a business of communication. Gotta have that. And then he talked about the evaluating is hard. Recruiting is the easy part. Be a good evaluator. That goes well beyond the film. Easy to look at film, hard to evaluate, hard to find good people in the program. So Matt Brown brought some juice, really good session, moderated by Josh Pate. We kicked off with that before we jumped over to kind of the one session for tonight: how AI will change scouting and roster building. Garrett Grareem Kassam of Teamworks spoke about that, spoke about some of the hesitation, some of the limitations, where it's going to go. But Kareem did talk about the advantage selling a product. Yes, digital scouting assistants, how valuable they are going to be, and the window for younger people who know technology to step into some of these roles where you're going to have to know technology. The age for older scouts who refuse to use a computer are largely disappearing. A window for younger scouts is going to happen. The scouts, the younger personnel recruiting people that are here gonna be a great window for them and then we wrapped up a panel Derek Ray of UCLA sat and talked about how they how he is using how he is expected to use AI data information and it really comes down to two big things data to support your decisions. If you are a scout you have more than ever to support your decision which means you've got to come in with strong opinions that you can stand behind and that you can point to when it comes to those reasons why you like players. And then he is pushing for college football to have that shared data among programs. Reliable, transparent, nothing that needs to be ⁓ again, HIPAA compliant. We don't need to go there, but high school coach information, phone numbers, transcripts that should be part of every Transfer portal entry, a part of every player's profile that whether it's the SEC, Big Ten, whether it's FBS, shared data has to be a part of everything happening at college football if we want to continue to take college football, scouting, recruiting, transferring what is free agency to the next level where it is a sustainable project product. It was a good session that was a short question and answer session with Derek Ray, but again, good points that he made. There's gonna be a whole day filled with sessions. We will bring you those. Myself at Bright Step ADB, make sure you're tuning into all of those. Neil Stratton will be joining me tomorrow. He is at Inside the League as always. A couple observations I made today as I was walking through the hallway, sitting here in the side of the room, looking across. Man, there are a ton of young Females that want to work in football and that are here. I don't know if it's quite 60-40, maybe 70-30, but there are a good portion of females from across the world of football that want to be here. They are getting out here. For any young man, you have more competition than ever. For any of the ladies that are out there listening to this, you showed up. Make sure you are doing the work. Do not rely on that checkbox and a diversity quota. Do the work. Put in the work. Put in the time to make sure you are doing everything. And that way you are not just a diversity hire. And then as I mentioned at the beginning. Agents have recognized the value of being here and getting with the people that they are on the phone with all the time, whether they are working NFL deals, whether they are talking about players as it comes to 2027 draft, or it's these portal conversations. We did a deal, we want to get guys in. Agents have recognized the value of being here, being in person, shaking hands. networking so agents have learned to do it. So Scouting League, I am here, Roderick David, with you throughout this two and a half days. I'll be here all day tomorrow. I'll be here Wednesday as well. If you are a listener, a subscriber, we love you. Thank you. Come find me. Let's shake hands. Let's talk ball. Let's do whatever we need to to make sure you are doing what you need to be doing while you are here in Nashville. Don't waste this time. Make good decisions. Take notes. Put down every name that you meet. P pack business cards away, get them plugged straight into your cell phone. I am here, you're here, let's keep scouting, let's do it together. We will be back tomorrow for day two, so make sure you come join us.