The State of Tennessee Prep Football
The state of Tennessee traditionally has never been regarded as a state for top high school football prospects. Georgia, Florida, California and of course Texas have always produced more 5 and 4 star commits than the rest of the country. Texas in particular is so dedicated to its high school football programs that the residence as taxpayers are willing to fund $62 million dollar stadiums like the ones in Allen Texas and MCKinney Texas. Over the past decade Tennessee has seen a huge increase in the number of D1 commits signings especially from the mid-state. So what is the difference between the talent now and the talent from 20 years ago when I was a sophomore at Mt. Juliet High School? Well, the kids are the same crazy fun-loving teenagers, I am a first hand witness to that everyday that I watch my son and his involvement with the FRA Panthers. However, the amount of work being done in off-season camps is not the same. Football in Tennessee and the country for that matter, is a year-round sport. One of the biggest contributing factors is the rapid spike in population in the mid-state. The more kids there are the more talent there will be amongst those kids. Year-round training programs and camps are another reason. High school football is now a 24/7 365 affair…you’re either in it or you’re out. The season lasts from August to December, from December until April you have weight training, in April spring practice starts up and by the time schools are out for the summer kids have began signing up for showcase and training camps like National Playmakers Academy with Buck Fitzgerald and On Top Athletics with Chavez Jobe. All the while in the midst of all of that training you can’t forget about the cult like following behind what has become National Signing Day in February.
The level of coaching has also improved since the NFL has come to Tennessee as of 20 years ago. There are more and more former NFL players that have made Middle Tennessee their permanent residence after retiring from the NFL. This has resulted in former players getting involved in local high school football programs bringing their vast knowledge of the game and training techniques along with them. Kevin Dyson of Independence, Chris Sanders of MBA, and Ingle Martin of CPA, have helped some of our local programs make huge names for themselves on a local and national level.
Over the past 5 years the Mid-State has produced such top recruits as Alex Bars, Jalen Hurd, I’Tavius Mathers, Jalen Ramsey, Josh Malone, Van Jefferson and JaCoby Stevens. Here at D1 Highlights one of our objectives is to help expose the player that may not be a five or four star recruit but has enough skill on the field and smarts in the classroom to receive a scholarship offer from smaller programs. In saying that, the attention that a five star recruit brings to a local high school and area overall is usually a positive thing for the entire community.
