Dec. 10-16

At Inside the League, whether it’s in player representation or player evaluation, we try to recognize excellence. That’s one reason the annual ITL Combine Seminar has gone from a strictly informational event to one in which we hand out awards to the best in the scouting and agent worlds (as well as providing the results of our annual salary survey). However, after soliciting feedback from scouts on the best NFL liaisons in the business earlier this year, we realized we had a blind spot.

We want to fix that in March, when we’ll hold our 14th annual seminar. That’s why, for the rest of this month, we’ll be accepting nominations for the ITL NFL Liaison of the Year Award. It’s a working title, but the point is, we want to recognize the excellence of the unsung people who are out there helping make scouts’ jobs easier. It’s an idea that was first suggested to us in Orlando last year during all-star season, and it gained steam after we received such a groundswell of feedback and glowing feedback for various pro liaisons across the country. 

Got someone that you feel does a great job? Let us know. We’ll gather names for the next two weeks-plus, then add them to our list of candidates. Everyone who gets multiple mentions will go on the ballot. Also, those pro liaisons who gained recognition from scouts in October will already be among those eligible. They include:

  • Marcus Alleyne, Arizona State
  • Tyler Barnes, Iowa
  • Pablo Cano, Utah
  • Chris Coulter, Wake Forest
  • Matt Godwin, Georgia
  • D.D. Hoggard, NC State
  • Jay Kaiser, Illinois
  • Colton Korn, Coastal Carolina
  • Kodi Look, Oregon
  • Eddie Simpkins, Oklahoma St.
  • Graham Wilbert, Pittsburgh
  • Ethan Young, UCLA

Voting will take place in January and February as part of our Best Draft Award polling and salary survey. The winner will be recognized alongside the BART Award winners, C.O. Brocato Award, Eugene Parker Award and other honors we’ll present at our seminar Wednesday, March 1. We’re looking forward to getting to know the best of the best in the pro liaison environment. To nominate someone, email us.

The seminar is filling up, and we hope you can make it. As a reminder, we’ll be saluting the following:

  • The 2022 Best Draft Award
  • The winners of the 2022 BART List Awards, which this year include 10 “road” scouts from each conference, plus three pro scouts from each conference and three executive-level evaluators, again from each conference.
  • The C.O. Brocato Memorial Award for Lifetime Service to NFL Scouting
  • The Eugene E. Parker Memorial Award for Lifetime Service to the agent industry
  • The ITL NFL Liaison of the Year Award

If you’re receiving this email, you’re welcome to attend our event on the first day of March. Our annual seminar is our celebration of the industry. Last year, we had about 150 NFL scouts and evaluators, agents, members of the media, marketing professionals, trainers and others who are active parts of the industry. We hope to see you there. 

Now, here’s a look at what we saw, heard, read and said in the business of college and pro football this week.

The stamp of approval: Identifying talent is part of the fun of being a contract advisor. Betting on your client (and your ability to find a sleeper), then seeing it pay off, is what keeps agents coming back to an often-frustrating business. Still, there’s no shame in seeking the counsel of someone to confirm what you think you see. Former Titans executive Blake Beddingfield does  just that for us. For $100 plus tax ($108.25), Blake will provide a nearly full page of evaluation with strengths and weaknesses, as well as a draft projection. It’s a great way to help in your decision on not only who to sign, but how much to spend on the clients you sign. All we need is a name, position and school, and we’ll get to work. In most cases, we can have a report back to you in 48 hours or less. Ready to get started? Let’s get going. 

Best foot forward: Blake isn’t the only former NFL executive we have on staff. Former Bears GM Jerry Angelo is our interview prep trainer, and for most of the last decade, Jerry has worked with prospects big and small, helping them tell their stories to NFL scouts at the combine or all-star settings. Last year, we worked with four first-rounders (including two top-ten picks) and 11 Day 1 or Day 2 picks and 34 prospects total. No job is too big or too small, and our rates are the best in the business. Contact us today for a quote and a rundown on how we’ll accommodate your clients based on their training location and all-star schedule. 

Catching Up: Clarence Dierking, 83, started out with BLESTO in the early 80s before spending almost two decades scouting for the Lions. We caught up with him this week.

·      Where are you living and what are you doing now? “I’m in Crawford, Texas, about 15 miles out of Waco. I’m an old Baylor guy from way back, played football at Baylor, played in the Gator Bowl. We had a real good team. James Ray Smith, Bill Glass, Hank Gremminger. Cotton Davidson was the quarterback. I played with him one year. He lives in Gatesville(, Texas), and I plan to go see him tomorrow. I played with Cotton Davison one year, and then he played pro ball for the Raiders and some other teams. But I’ve been retired for, I don’t know, 20 years or something. I spent two years with the combine, then I went with the Detroit Lions, a good organization.” 
·      Do you miss the job? What do you miss most? “Well, I miss the relationships with the coaches and, of course, meeting the players for the first time. . .You get to know the people. Coach Bear Bryant was one of them. He was a super nice guy, and when he went to Alabama, when I went to scout the team, he would drive up with his four-wheeler and . . .  we would have a brief conversation . . . He was just a good person. After you go in to those schools with the top players, you get to know them, and when you show up at the practices, (coaches) will come over and we’ll visit briefly. But it’s very time-consuming being a scout because you try to cover one team per day, then travel to the other team, and then you got to do your paperwork. Sometimes they have 2-3 players, sometimes 8-10, and obviously, that’s very time-consuming. . . You stay busy but you meet a lot of good people, good coaches, like the coach at Nebraska (Tom Osborne), (former Oklahoma head coach) Barry Switzer, all the guys.” 
·      Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues? “I try to. I’m up in age now, and I haven’t. . . I’d like to.” 
·      Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)? “No. I used to. I’m a Baylor guy, and at one time I went to all the Baylor games. Then I lost my wife and I kinda lost interest. I’d go to Dallas games some, but I got tired of the traffic. It’s been a long time since I went to the game.”
·      Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game? “I do watch the games on Sunday afternoons on TV. I don’t know that many players now, though, because I’ve been retired a while. Time goes by, obviously.” 

Review the latest from other former NFL scouts and executives by accessing our Catching Up archive here. Want to hear from a former scout, or know someone who may be interested in being interviewed? Let us know.

Mike Leach, 1961-2022: We don’t have colorful stories about the unforgettable college coach who passed away this week due to complications from a heart attack (or at least none that can be shared here). However, we do want to take note of Leach’s steady work in all-star play, as we noted in Tuesday’s post. Leach coached all-star games in 2007 in Houston (Inta Juice North-South All-Star Classic) and 2011 in Tuscon (Eastham Energy College All-Star Game), showing that he was willing to play a role not just in coaching the best college players, but also in helping them show their stuff to scouts. A true original, our prayers go out for his friends, family, coaches and players. 

Did you know?: There’s been a lot of all-star talk this week with so many players already invited and five of the top six game directors joining ITL members in a Zoom session this week (more on that later). We kept the conversation flowing by passing along seven fun facts about the all-star games. Which rock star showed up at the Tradewinds Island Resort, team hotel for the 2016 East-West Shrine Game? Which games are run by former NFL scouts? Which are run by ex-agents? Which games played through the pandemic with no suspended games. Answers to all these questions and more are part of this week’s post. Check it out here. 

Distinguished guests: Wednesday, for the second year in a row, we invited the directors of the six top all-star games to join dozens of ITL members in a Zoom session. Over the space of two hours, we were joined, in turns, by Jim Nagy(Senior Bowl), Eric Galko (East-West Shrine Bowl), Dane Vandernat (NFLPA Collegiate Bowl), Jose Jefferson and Mike Rittelman (College Gridiron Showcase) and Michael Quartey (Tropical Bowl). Each of them spent 5-6 minutes offering details on their respective games, answering questions, and providing best ways to reach them. Unfortunately, due to a conflict, the Hula Bowl’s Damond Talbot was unable to join us this year. When one of the directors didn’t have the floor, ITL’s Neil Stratton gave a deep dive into all the need-to-know information associated with the games, from how to communicate with the directors to when to be there to how to (politely) withdraw a player from a game, plus plenty more details. Unfortunately, unlike last week, the proceedings were not recorded, so if you missed it, we’re very sorry. With our first six Rookie Agent Sessions completed, we’ll take January off before we return to our schedule. Need to catch up on any of our previous topics? No problem. If you’re an ITL client, let’s get together and get your questions answered. 

Next week: With all-star game invitations flowing steadily, players signing quickly and search firms wrapping up their duties, we’ll have our hands full just keeping up with it all. That’s not all that’s going on, however. Here’s a look at what’s ahead next week.

·      Our biggest job for the next two months will be filling in our Signings Grid. Little by little, we’re adding all-star invitations, agent signings and even training locations. 
·      We’ll have our Agents by Total Clients list, hopefully on Tuesday. We expect only minor changes since last month.
·      Our goal is also to post our Agent Changes for December, though that might be a taller task.
·      Naturally, we’ll have lots of good stuff in our Rep Rumblings with bowl play under way and dozens of players ending their college careers and preparing to move on. 
·      Entering the weekend, Navy is without a head coach, while Kent State and Mississippi State have only recently filled their vacancies. While the search goes on in Annapolis, we’ll also be on the hunt next week as we try to fill in a few last blanks in our College Coaching Changes Grid. 
·      We’ll have words of wisdom especially for the next generation of football business professionals in our Succeed in Football post.
·      We’ll go to Zoom again Tuesday night, welcoming three NFL executives to join dozens of aspiring NFL scouts. Our guests will give their origin stories, answer questions, and hopefully, provide encouragement to the next generation. Want to join us? Let us know.

It’s going to be another big week in the business of football. Join us; we think we’ve got a winning team.

Merry Christmas to you and yours during this blessed season.