Ramses Barden

PNL: You're another NFL player who took an obscure path. What's your recruiting story?

Ramses Barden: "I went to Flint Ridge Prep, a small private school on the outskirts of Los Angeles County. There were about 400 students in my school, about 100 in my graduation class. So, we didn't get a lot of attention on the recruiting front and I wasn't well-versed on the process."

PNL: What did you do about it?

Ramses Barden: "It was actually my Geometry teacher who made my highlight tape, with the help of our coaches. But just to show you, it was my Geometry teacher who was the guy in the film room, deciding what my best plays were and cutting it up. That's not surprising because my high school didn't have a big athletic focus; it was an academic institution and that was a good thing but from a football-standpoint, it made the recruiting process more confusing for me."

PNL: So you sent the tapes out and you did get recruited, right?

Ramses Barden: "Yes, I got recruited by a lot of strong academic schools who also played football. I got recruited by Cal Poly, Stanford, and a couple of Ivy League schools – Yale and Dartmouth – and UC San Diego. I also got letters from some Pac-10 schools, WAC schools, other different schools in the west. Now getting offers, that was another thing.

PNL: What did you learn about recruiting letters?

Ramses Barden: "Letters are different than telephone calls. Letters are different than visits. At first you think, oh, wow, there's interest but then you gotta think about who's sending these letters? This might be the guy on the bottom of the totem pole in the athletics office and the head coach might not know anything about me, so you gotta keep things in perspective."

PNL: How did you manage that?

Ramses Barden: "Looking back, not as well as I should have. I think one of things I didn't do and probably should have is gone to those camps - the USC camp, the Nike camps, stuff like that. I didn't do any of those things. I didn't really know how to go about the recruiting process because my school was not that athletic oriented and there weren't a lot of guys who had been recruited so I was just kind of feeling my way around and we were just kind of doing of lot of stuff by ourselves but some of it was passive or misdirected. I figured they'd come to you and find you. I didn't know any better."

PNL: Players only go through recruiting once in their lives. Your recommendations?

Ramses Barden: "You have to be more proactive. The biggest thing I tell guys in similar situations now is learning how to market yourself because the way the college recruiting process is, they miss a lot of people. Even the small schools at lower divisions, they miss a lot of people."

PNL: You seem wise about the process now.

Ramses Barden: "Yeah (laughing). I had an opportunity to watch a lot of tape of guys we were recruiting at Cal Poly – and coaches would ask, `what do you think?' And it's funny. I'd think this is who they're looking at and this is how they go through it? Oh, they like this guy's track time or they like this guy's strength and how throwing a shot put relates to football. Some of it was puzzling. "Then you look around in those coaches' offices and the film rooms and you just see a whole pile of tapes. And with all the stuff we do daily with football, they're not going to have the time to get thru all these hundreds of tapes and DVDs, so how do they go about to picking these players? You gotta imagine some of those guys get lost in the shuffle, regardless of how good they are."

PNL: Words of advice for those players?

Ramses Barden: "If you're serious about playing at the next level, you're the one who has to be making those phone calls and following up with the coaches, saying, `Hey coach, this is so-and-so, did you get my tape? I'm really excited about your university. I'd like to come up for a visit. Oh, you didn't get a chance to watch my tape? I'll send you another one.' You have to make sure they watch your tape because if they see you and you have something to show, they're going to like you but they have to see you first."

PNL: You mentioned how it was your Geometry teacher who went through the work of putting together your highlight tape. Is it fair to say you and him would have taken advantage of PlayNextLevel.com – a free site where you can send a digital link through your email or direct a coach to your own personal page and profile with your highlights?

Ramses Barden: "Definitely. The more you can do to drive energy and attention to your abilities, it's going to make you more valuable and get more looks, more offers and hopefully more choices and a chance at success on the football field and in the classroom."

PNL: "You don't sound bitter that you were bypassed by a lot of major football programs?

Ramses Barden: "It's what you make of it. I tried to make the most of it athletically and academically. I loved my experience at Cal Poly. I wouldn't change anything for it now but I basically had to go there. I'll admit that if I had more options, I would have liked to weigh them all. Who wouldn't want to see what it would be like to choose between a USC and Michigan? Maybe Cal Poly still would have been the right place for me but there's no way to tell without having those options and exploring those paths. That's why I tell kids don't think you're so good that they're automatically going to find you, or that your coaches can do it for you. Make a great highlight tape, take control and market yourself."

PNL: You said coaches don't have the time to do it, do the players?

Ramses Barden: "Sure, in high school. Take care of your business in the classroom first. It doesn't do you any good if you can play football but can't get into a school or you haven't created good study habits. Every kid has choices to make with his time. You can still socialize, you can still play your video games but there's enough time to do it right if you have your priorities in order. You see a lot of guys with regrets. It's better to go through life without a lot of regrets."