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Vet your sources - College scouts should be · Scouting the League

• Rodrik David @RightStepAdv: It's Monday, October 12th, and welcome to Scouting the League. This week's trade discussion regarding Marvin Harrison Jr., who I would still bet on certainly show some in the media are mostly making stuff up. Some of them out there were quiet because they had no sources, and it became obvious that Marvin was going to be traded. The destination, the price tag, they were still up for debate, and so many out there really leaned in their so-called sources. And today, still clean an egg off their faces. So, today, in the lens of scouting, I'm going to talk about sources: how scouts get them, how they develop them, how they vet them, and so much more. But before we jump in, make sure you head over, like, subscribe, share this podcast wherever you're listening and watching. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, that video portion over on YouTube. Make sure you hit those buttons. Sharing and commenting really help us out. Make sure you head over to my website, rsafootball.com. I am Roderick David at Right step A D V is where you can find me on Twitter. Head over and give me a follow there as well. For all things scouting reports, scouting insight into player reports, head to right stepscouting.com, That is rightstepscouting.com. Go check it out after you've listened to this episode, of course. And if you're a scout or aspiring scout, make sure you go check out the scoutingcommunity.com for resources, sources, information that you need no matter where you are in your scouting journey. And then last but not least, the best insoles on the market, blue maca.com. Code Scouting20Jout will get you those insoles and let them know we sent you. So A little more on sources. Again, we have grown accustomed. We have grown used to Scheffer, Rappaport. They are the guys that have all the sources when it comes to getting all their information. A lot have tried to break in, people have tried to get into that lane. Br a lot of misinformation comes from those as we throw things against the wall. Jordan Schultz does a good job as well. They are tied in largely to those that want information released. Again, it is not. Hard to see when those when information gets released, who it's coming from, when it's a real rosy picture, agents, agents are a massive source information for good reason. Sometimes GMs, sometimes people in buildings are that source of information, but they are the source information so many want to be. Anytime so-called information comes out, the first thing you should be doing is asking, why is this information out? Why is it that this would come out at this time and what is the context? Who benefits from it? That is going to tell you how much of it's true and how much of it, okay, I need a headline. I don't need all the rest of the fluff that comes to behind it. When it comes to breaking news, that's the info that should be out. How much of it, you know, trade trade it for it to use Marvin Harrison Jr., what are the trade details? Forget all the conversations. Forget about the so-called phone calls that did or didn't happen. Again, a source should have hey, this information, that's what it is, that's the matter of the facts. But for Collar Scouts, it's completely different. There is so much information out beyond a tweet string that you know somebody's gonna put out on players that is so important to Collar Scouts. The film is the easy part for collared scouts. The reason scouts should get paid much more than they do is all the background, the character. That they have to rely on sources for. So in the age of the portal, source information, background information is harder than ever to get. The teams that are just going about business like they always have, we've got scouts on the road doing their work, they're gonna fall behind. The scouts that are rethinking the way we're going to do character, gather information, are going to have an advantage. That's probably a conversation for another day, a conversation I've had with some scouting departments across the NFL, scouts across the NFL. Things have to change. They can't just do what they've always done because the baseline of information that schools, universities have on these players has gotten so much more limited. So, for scouts, who the sources are that are most of the time working. Are going to be important. Again, there's always a rule of thumb at every school. You're always gonna be either set up, gonna be part of a schedule. Generally, you're going to be able to get information from at least a list of peace people. And that always starts with pro liaisons. Pro liaisons are the kind of first information source that a scout's going to get to at a school because they're setting up the visits. They are showing scouts where they need to go, whether they can watch film, getting them from room to room, whatever it is, pro liaisons. Also can be really surface level information. This is what we know about them since they've transferred, since they've come in. Some pro liaisons are very intertwined, very involved in the day-to-day. They know these players. There's a lot of pro liaisons. They probably have two or thing, two or three other things they're doing, and they don't get to know these players the way other people in the building do. They're gonna know maybe parent information, they're gonna know what jobs they have, they're gonna know kind of a little history. They're gonna have some bullet points that's often very filtered. Again, that's one of the things that scouts are always trying to do is hey, how fine a filter has this information gone through? Because we have to go back to the raw information. It's not just about the filtered, the put-out, the front information. You've got to read between the lines, you've got to develop and find ways to get more information. Even when a pro liaison wants to tell you something, they'll tell you without telling you. Because they've been directed oftentimes by the head coach, hey, we're not going to share this information. But pro liaisons also have to be friendly, also have to have good relationships with scouts, which means they're going to do things in a roundabout way to get some of that information. So going from the pro liaison, the co next one is coaches. Coaches are fantastic sources of information. Different coaches are going to share it in different ways. But again, scouts have to understand coaches have an agenda. Their job is Absolutely affected by how players are perceived, how they grow, how they develop. They have a very narrow focus, which is we've got to win now, we've got to win this week. So the way a player interacts with them can be really positive, really negative, somewhere in between, to where coaches can be really tough sources of information as well. Again, you want to hear how a player is learning? What is their personal personality like in the classroom? Which can be tough one because there are great coaches, great players that their personalities just conflict. That is the nature of the business, the nature of football as a whole. And you can sit there and listen to a coach beat a player up when in reality a player just learns a different way or is new to the system and wants to spend more time, needs a different way to learn it. So scouts have to get through that information. I have been in rooms where coaches beat players up. And they're the only one that beats them up. Everybody else loves them. And you go back a little bit. well, again, whatever relationship, whatever happened between them, there's a reason, there's a perspective that coach has that has certainly changed the way they're going to talk about that play. After you go through coaches, strength staff is another huge one. Again, the amount of time players spend in season and then out of season with the strength staff. Strength staff is awesome because they are. With the players when things are tough, when the lights aren't on, when it's early mornings, late days, long days into practices. All the time the strength staff gets with these players, often they get a slightly different view of the player based on what that player's doing. Are they working extra hard? Are they putting that the extra work in? Are they a minimum type player? What personality? When things get really tough in the weight room, gritty, and you're not going to get you know held up on Saturday highlight tapes. How do you respond to things going good or bad in the weight room gains form? There are some medical insights that can come from the strength staff that they will give you in directly. Strength staff is always a big one. After you go to strength staff, medical staff. This can be a really tough one. Athletic trainers, medical staff, completely different purview. Some schools are really, really limited here because HIPAA, other compliance. It's not always just about the medical, which is always one of the things that there are certain athletic trainers like, no, we can't talk about well, okay, what about can we talk about the way a player approaches rehab? Can we talk about the way a player attacks rehab? Should they have come back in four weeks instead of six weeks? Were they milking it a little bit at the end? Again, this is a one of those spots where you have to read between the lines. I remember an example where a everybody was talking glowingly about a player at a Big Ten school And when I sat down with the athletic trainer, there were a couple other scouts there, and he didn't want to beat up on this player. And it was very he came in, he did his work. Well, I was able to get him after the fact and He he opened up the can on the player. He was a a pain in the training room. There were certain young student athletic trainers, there were some female athletic trainers they would not assign to this player because of behaviors. And if you would have just listened, you would have thought, okay, this player maybe he just needs to grow a little bit when in reality this player was a bad dude that the athletic training staff did not want around. It was a bad day when he came in. And he made life really miserable for anybody. That is a major factor when you start putting that character piece together for some of these players. And that is only going to be found when you read between the lines. And reading between the lines for athletic trainers, that has to be the case because there's so much they can't talk about. As we keep going down, again, diet nutrition that can kind of fall in strength staff, kind of can't fall into the medical athletic training, how they approach their habits, meals, are they taking care of that again? You're going to want to ask all the questions and really dive in and dig in on any individual answers. They give same thing with equipment, high maintenance, low maintenance. Are guys always in there? Are they treating, you know, your athletic training, equipment, video staff, equipment staff? Are you treating them well? Video portion again, how much time are you spending on the XOS? The video staff has a great view. They can see what players watching what cut ups, what players are spending time in their game plan. Something that I used to always do, hey, who's your top film watcher? What are they actually watching? There were he would say, yeah, this guy he's recorded 16 hours this week already. what's he watching? Well, he he's actually just watching his highlights. Great. Is he actually grading himself? No, he's just watching his he he he likes to go back, he just watches it over and over. it's probably not the same film watching as a guy who's watching He he's watched this every opponent three to four times. Again, the video staff is always a great one. They can give different insight. Even if it's not personal, they can tell you what some of their habits are. Academics, this has always been a really big one that has gotten even harder in the portal era. Online classes, whether students are actually going to school, whether they are now graduates, whether they graduated their previous school, they're not, probably in a non-degree seeking. class where again there's no homework, there's no class requirements, they're basically working as a football employee. Yeah, imagine that. And so academics will have less of an insight. Academics have always been a big one because how you approach what you have to do, there is a lot of that at the NFL level. Yes, it's football, yes, it's game plan, but there are things that you're going to have to do at the NFL level that you're not going to want to do. Yeah, that sounds a lot like academics for some of these guys at the college level. Academics can give that insight to again how you treat your academic staff to people that are trying to help you, even though you don't want to be helped. Are you taking care of the small things? And oftentimes all it is is showing up and putting your name on a piece of paper. Are you doing the little easy things or are you making that part of the job for everybody else around you that much harder? Today, in the days of A portal of NIL of everything, NIL marketing managers. If you can get sources that you trust that you know in that area, scouts are absolutely doing work. They're finding out how guys are managing their money. Are they seeking more? Is it all about, hey, I just want to do all the marketing I can, make all the money I can now? Or is it, hey, this is all part of my quote unquote brand? Is there thought to it? Is it football first? If I can make some money outside of it, great. Marketing NIL managers are great. And then Even beyond that, scouts are making calls to high school coaches, high school teachers, principals, counselors, the high school time for these players when unquestionably they're good players on college teams. They're probably the best athlete, maybe the greatest athlete to ever come out of some of these schools. And again, how that player reacted, treated people, worked in that high school time is probably going to shed some insight on either this player has grown up. This guy's always been immature. This guy is doing these things. High school sources are a big part of it, should be a big part of it. organizations that are making sure they turn over that stone, looking under that leaf, are going to be advantage. Anybody in the building can be a source for NFL Scouts from front front desk office workers, student staff, recruiting interns, janitors. Those that are bringing in you know, food, catering, anybody that you can say, hey, who what are the best players? What are the worst players? Who do you like seeing? How do they treat you? Do they even look at you? Anybody in a building, anybody that comes into interaction with these players, I've been at a spot where bus drivers that basically have a route to the athletic department, bus drivers sometimes have some pretty interesting things to say about players that have done the work that they have I've never been asked a question about this player, other than, you know, he gets on the bus. Cool. Is he a great dude? Tell me more about him. Again, those are the types of sources that really separate the good scouts from the scouts that are just there that want to evaluate film the easy part. It is the veterans of the game, the people that have done the grunt work, that have grown up in a time where scouting wasn't as glorified and easy as it is now. Those are the scouts that have. the great sources that do the work outside of just the film work and the check boxes in the building that get the information. The other piece that has to come into it is the collaboration piece. And this is where scouting staffs have to have some information going into school so they can ask the right question and not have that gotcha element. I was in a situation in Atlanta where I was it was a new school for me. I didn't have a lot of sources, and I got absolutely dunked on come meeting time because the source that I had that I had asked some of these same questions didn't know me. And he gave me company line. I didn't feel great about the information. I said that right up front. I sounded like a good kid. Sounds like there may be something more, but nothing. Scout was happy to come in, dunk on me. I get pulled. Hey, you know, you gotta work on your sources. I called that same source back. I wasn't gonna call him a liar on the phone, but I was gonna say, hey, I heard there might be something. no, no, that that's not true. yeah, we're not gonna talk about that. There was something there, that's why source. development. There's gotta be an a a a longevity to it. There's got to be the personal, the people skills, the face-to-face way of doing this work, which so many young scouts have not grown up with, not grown up with a face-to-face, grown up on Zoom, on FaceTime, on all these things where in-person source development, interaction, growing those relationships is not natural to so many young people, myself included. That was one of the Biggest challenges for me as I went from pro to college, and it's something I'm still working on every day. And meeting some scouts at the NFL Combine at some of these All-Star games, it's a dying art, dying thing that so many scouts all they want to do is evaluate. That way I can get promoted when the source information is so, so important. Vet your sources. Scouts have to decide who to trust. You don't just Listen and follow and write down who you want to listen because that will lead to you getting burned both as a scout and for those out in the football world going to get you you know some you know cleaning off that egg from yeah. I was told reliably by a number of sources this weekend that the Texans were not the destination for Marvin Harrison Jr. I knew better, but again, those people I have squarely put them in a different spot for sources because I'm not going to listen to them in the future. But again, Not always about me. What do you think? What do you think about Source Development? Where do you think scouts in the NFL need to spend more time? Are spending time if you're a scout? You agree with me, disagree, do some work with the scouting community for the scouting community. Help as we work to make the scouting landscape a better spot for every scout involved. That's the scouting community.com. Hit me up. Let me know what you think. Let me know. There's gonna be a lot of people who are happy to disagree with me at Right Step A B B. Head over there and find me there. Stick around. We'll have a player to talk about tomorrow in the twenty twenty seven draft. And we hop in with a guest on Wednesday. So make sure you come back here on Scouting the League where we keep scouting.