Blue 57 knows what makes over 700 football players with Power 5 offers in Florida and Georgia tick.
Through individual player interviews, scouting, and psychological profiles, Blue 57 has made it their mission to gather information on every top D1 high school football player in Florida and Georgia.
The scouting service is a college football recruiting coordinator’s dream. Players also benefit from building relationships with college coaches faster.
The company, based out of Jacksonville, Florida, got its recruiting roots in Georgia, where Friday night football is king. Within six hours of the Jacksonville radius lies South Florida, Atlanta & South Georgia. These neighboring areas provide talent-rich football players who play at elite high school programs across the Southeast. In this part of the country, football season is in the fall, but recruiting is a year round sport.
Blue 57 Scouting gives coaches the resources to choose players that best fit into their team culture.
The company hopes to reduce the number of “one and done” situations. These resources also help players choose a school where they have the greatest chance to succeed.
Blue 57 owner Jay Holgate stated that, “We saw a huge void with college coaches needing more information on players. Players also needed their profiles to be more than just height, weight, their Hudl videos, and offers. We received hands-on feedback from college coaches during our start-up mode, who explained to us what information they were lacking when recruiting. As a result, we started providing scouting intel with psychological profiles, which allows college coaches to filter players much quicker, so they don’t choose the wrong people for their program.”
College coaches have always desired more information on the players they recruit. They depend on high school coaches and scouting services to provide updated information on recruits. Finding this intel has become more difficult because there’s recruiting activity going on constantly, and it’s coming from multiple sources simultaneously. This includes players receiving new offers from colleges, attending elite camps, and daily social media updates to keep up with.
College coaches have constraints on the amount of time they can spend with recruits by the NCAA. Due to this limitation, coaches spend tremendous amounts of resources flying to see players, the staff watching Hudl videos, and also evaluating large numbers of athletes on their recruiting board.
“Our belief was that we could change how college prospects are evaluated going forward. We created a technology platform where our analysts could collaborate on highly organized player boards. The coaching staff would have their own private boards to ensure that their information was safe, secure, and for their eyes only.” Holgate added.
Through being heavily involved in the recruiting process of top players, the Blue 57 team knew college coaches are often ill equipped with vital information during this time period.
Many parents have told stories of college coaches inviting their family in for a visit, and then used profanity throughout the entire weekend. If the recruit is from a strong Christian family, the coach just lost this player. Knowing more details about players as people outside of football will help to reduce these mishaps.
The current Blue 57 team consists of 28 people who come from varying fields such as sports psychology, sports journalism, and football scouting. The team consists of strong intel analysts, all with a passion for seeing young people find a great college to call home. Their backgrounds include being football coaches, ex-military intelligence, psychology graduates, an MBA, and former college and high school athletes. The team uses technology such as GroupMe, GoToMeeting for video presentations, Google spreadsheets, and shares project management software with college programs on player intel.
“Our analytical approach was less about how many stars a player has and what their skill evaluations said, which is usually the bulk of information provided by most other scouting companies. We combined aspects of stock evaluation with special forces operations. Every player has value, and we want them to be at a program that sees their worth, and will help them to reach their full potential.” Holgate added.
Blue 57 recently got re-approved by the NCAA and has started communicating with elite college football programs across the country. Texas recruits will be the next target, and the company is already branching out to cover players from the Lone Star state. Their recruiting information will allow players and coaches to build stronger and more successful relationships, faster.
Kaela Harmon is a contributor for The Subway Alum and works in Sports Psychology for the Blue 57 Scouting Network. She writes on college football recruiting and analyzes the impact of Psychology on football in Florida, Georgia and Texas.
Follow Blue 57 on twitter @Blue57_
