I think it's a major problem

by Rob (Rakes of Mallow), Chicago, Monday, April 20, 2009, 12:26 (6246 days ago) @ domer.mq

Anyone who has experience in strength and conditioning knows the importance of diet in body development. You better plan on working out (and having the metabolism) like Michael Phelps if you want to be able to eat anything you want.

I've witnessed both the good and bad of athlete's dieting at Notre Dame. Brady Quinn was an absolute freak when it came to what he ate. You have probably seen him without his shirt and it shows.

On the other hand, I've seen certain position players have pizza and fries on their plates for dinner. I've also seen freshmen defensive linemen, who should be putting on college muscle for the first time in their lives, eat Gran N' Go. That meal consisted of a PB&J as the main course.

Here's a somewhat relevant excerpt from Ivan Maisel's "Ten Commandments for learning how to recruit":

5. Make your own evaluation.
The ability to see a skinny 16-year-old for what he could be at 21 is, as Davis put it, "the craft and the art of evaluation." The trick is to learn what to value and what to ignore.

Tommy Tuberville, looking for work after 14 years at Ole Miss and Auburn, described an evaluator as part geneticist.

"How much weight can he gain?" Tuberville asked. "You're looking at his parents, looking at his brothers and sisters."

Davis said the facilities that the player has available to him in high school can lay a trap for a recruiter.

"You may be buying the finished product," Davis said. "There's a little bit of that in Texas. Those schools have got more money than God. They have a strength coach, 15 high school coaches. The players have been in the same program since sixth or seventh grade. You get them and four years later they are the exact same player.

"You go to Pahokee, Fla., where a kid eats once a day, his parents may not be around," Davis said. "You get him in a weightlifting program. Two years later, he's three times better than the kid from Texas."