Hotbed Spring Tour: A Priceless Experience

Posted on April 19, 2022 by Marcus Benjamin

Springtime. A time when dreams become reality.  Spring football games are for some, the first time collegiate student-athletes get to step on the field in a game uniform.  Getting to that moment is a result of selections.  Coaches select, students-athletes select, parents co-sign and all have the same goals, success.  

Choosing the best option to get to success, is a process.  

Football Hotbed offers the opportunity for players to visit colleges, meet with coaches, and experience what life will be as a college student using the ‘Football Hotbed Spring College Tour ‘ as a vehicle.  

“It’s priceless to experience these tours,” said Brandon Odoi, Director of the Football Hotbed Spring College Tour.  “What we are hoping is that these elite experiences help the kids so that they can take something away from it that they can keep for the rest of their life.”  

To get on the tour bus, you have to be selected by the Football Hotbed staff.  Athletes can submit their film on various Football Hotbed social media platforms in hopes to secure their seats.  

“You have to be a serious prospect,” Odoi said.  “You have to be somebody we think can attend one of these places as a student-athlete.  It’s very selective.”

It is a wide range of athletes that are selected.  From five stars to no stars, the participants what it’s like to be a college athlete.


“We take kids who have these big offers that sometimes can’t afford to get around.  With donations from legitimate donors, people who want to see kids succeed, we get them to college campuses.”  

Participants get a tour of the practice facilities, weight room, team lounges, and meeting rooms.  Schools take students through the stadium in most cases, get exclusive access and a behind-the-scenes look at the program. The purpose is to give the students a real feel of what it’s like to be a student-athlete at that particular university.  

Aside from the tour itself, the information obtained about the business of college football is priceless.  North Carolina Head Coach Mack Brown had some words of wisdom for athletes during the tour in the Carolinas. 

“Coach Brown talked about a verbal offer and a committable offer,” said Odoi.  “And a lot of these kids tweet out these verbal offers, he called it a ‘hug.’  When he called a verbal offer a hug, it changed my whole life.  It was very sobering.  It takes a lot to get the attention to be tendered as an official offer.  Which you can only get on August 1st of your senior year.”  


With the transfer portal, graduate transfers, and the COVID year giving players an extra year of eligibility colleges are offering fewer scholarships to high school players.  Based on college coach interactions, players get an idea of where they are in the eyes of college recruiters.  Athletes learn about their areas of improvement and also learn where they can on a college football roster.   

“The exposure to the coaches helps me to understand so we can help teach the generation of kids coming up what it takes to be a college recruit at this level.”  

The tour then stopped in South Carolina to visit the Gamecocks.  The new quarterback in Columbia is Spencer Rattler, the MVP of the Hotbed National Middle School Invitational Showcase Future 4 competition in 8th grade.  The five-star rated quarterback spoke to the tour participants and praised Football Hotbed for helping him develop into the quarterback he is today. 


That was incredible.  I had no idea what he was going to say and that kind of blew me away.  It just emphasized what we try to do, because you become a very important part of a kids process. This is a kid that will be one of the top quarterbacks in the country this year, and he said we had something to do with his growth and development. 

 

Rattler is expected to be a mid-round NFL draft pick.

“That was our very first middle school showcase. We are going to our 8th one in July.  So for him to get in front of those guys, put trust in me, put trust in Hotbed, explain what it meant to him, give them some pointers about the process, it’s a priceless experience.”  


The University of Miami offered 2023 three-star defensive tackle Caleb Bryant out of Vicksburg, Mississippi as a result of the tour.  Bryant was invited on the trip because as an underrecruited prospect.  His brother is the starting nose tackle at Florida State.  

“They like what he can do. You turn on his film, he’s very electric.”

Junior cornerback Marcellus Williams from St. John Bosco, CA also received an offer from Miami and Hurricanes commit Lamar Seymore received an offer from Auburn on the tour.  Florida A&M offered every athlete on the tour.

“A lot of times you won’t be recruited by a school if you don’t show up there.  Bring some elite guys and bring some sleeper-type guys, and that gets them looks. That’s what affords them to make new Spencer Rattlers because we do the scouting on the front end.” 

“The purpose is always for the kids to get exposure.  They see how tough it is, how hard you have to work, how early you have to get up, how much dedication there is to your body, maintaining your diet, nutrition, and strength, all these things are emphasized when you go.”

Football Hotbed’s next tour will be make stops in the midwest. Schools to visit are SMU, Texas A&M, Baylor, Oklahoma, TCU, Texas and HBCU Prairie View A&M University.  Hotbed also plans to visit schools in Iowa, Mississippi, Louisiana, and schools in the Dakotas on future tours.

About Marcus Benjamin

Marcus Benjamin works as the senior writer and editor for FootballHotbed.com. He attended Florida A&M and Florida Memorial University completing a bachelors degree in communications in 2010. He's covered high school football in the South Florida area since 2010 for the Miami Herald, Miami Sports Tribune and ShawSports.net. He is married and lives in Fort, Lauderdale, FL.
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