First off, can you let me know about The College Gridiron Showcase – what it is and your role?
We’re on year 12 – I’m the Director of Player Personnel and Scouting for the event – the founders are Jose Jefferson and Craig Redd.
Our niche is those fifth through seventh round players and undrafted free agents – we have about 250 to 300 college players every year attend with scouts from every NFL team, CFL team, UFL… we have over 130 scouts attend each year.
These are usually the back-end of the roster guys that aren’t invited to the combine but play key roles on NFL teams.
How does the process work – how do you decide who to invite?
Myself, Craig, Jose and others on the team -we build out our board of players over the Summer. That’s about 1,000 kids we look at and whittle down to about 250 to 300. These are kids from smaller division I schools, FCS, NAIA, Division II and III schools, even the Canadian college programs. Kids who dominate play at that level, have the height, weight and speed…
I know you’re based out of Pittsburgh – see a lot of local guys there?
It’s always great to see guys from the WPIAL teams. The talent is there every year. I get excited when I see those guys.
As a scout, how do you see college players and the game changing?
I think football is an ever-changing sport. In the passing game you’re seeing more different types of wide receivers – more big and small slot guys and tight ends that are more flexible – that can split out more.
How do you work with the scouts in attendance?
Every team has different criteria in what they look for. The Steelers’ scouts are great guys – it’s an honor working with them.
We have interns bring the players to the scouts – they give us a list of players and the interns bring them over to talk with them. We don’t do athletic testing – we use controlled practice settings and an OTAs format. We also have a controlled game at the end of the week which is why we don’t do testing – you aren’t allowed to do testing if you hold an All-Star game like we do.
We hold our event the first week of January and send invites out in November.
Any WPIAL talent you’re excited about?
It’s still early for next year – we’re still closing out 2025. But this year there were three WPIAL guys in Steelers camp – Hollis Mathis, Seth Morgan and Eddie Faulkner.
Some past WPIAL guys and CGS alumni that are on the Steelers now include Christian Kuntz, Dylan Cook, Ryan McCollum and Daniel Ekuale.