Earlier this afternoon, Old Dominion head coach Bobby Wilder tweeted out a list of statistical talking points published by the National Football Foundation that caught our attention.
As a player, I can remember seeing the same type of information posted up in our locker room saying that somewhere around just 6% of high school football players went on to play at the college level. I remember how motivating that was for me as a young player on a daily basis - how I wanted to be a part of that elite 6% while the other 94% became simply a college student.
See the tweet Wilder shot off below.
There are a number of interesting nuggets on the release, highlighted by the following points you'll want to share with your players, or pin up in the locker room:
- 1.1 Million - The number of high school football players in the US
- 6.5% - Number of HS football players that will go on to play in college
- 255 - The number of college players drafted in 2015
- 338 - The number of college players who signed free agent deals in 2015
- .5% - The percentage of college football players who were on NFL rosters on opening day
- 75% - The graduation rate of FBS student athletes (an all-time high) compared to just a 59% graduation rate of general student body body
- 3.3 years - The average length of an NFL player's career
- .0002% - The percentage of college football players that go on to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Hang these numbers up somewhere to serve as a daily reminder of the work ethic it takes to play at, and succeed at the next level.