welcome to the secrets of college planning i'm your host anthony uva and today we're going to get some insight on football all about football and going to college for football my guest today is mason robinson and he's a former n f l player welcome to  school and when they start thinking hey i can actually go and play football at the college level i want to well the star went to high school and some of the high school small town you know i didn't really think so much of division one football when i first got into high school ever i don't know what that meant i know always wanted to play football in college by didn't know what the different divisions meant but after my sophomore season  came to my school and he offered me a scholarship to complete rocker's and then after that a few other schools came and they began all for scholarships and downside wow this is i never really thought of this no one ever explained what a scholarship was to me or anything but i was completely completely blessed and happy he learned of so it all started sophomore year into junior years that's when it all or began the journey did you start getting bigger better in the team do well is that why they started coming to see yes the team did well we actually wanted to feed it unfortunately we lost in the first round of playoffs but i was one of the few sophomores that was fortunate enough to get in the game and just made the most of it when i did get in so yeah great so now jeanie year of high school now you have a lot of these different schools in many schools or is it just a handful of schools it was a little more than a handful i want to say many  r few kids out there had a lot more than i did but it was a little more than a handful ok and did they all offer scholarships for for the most part few of them offer scholarships and then there was a lot that kept me in the loop in taking me and circles the whole process ok so is it a difficult process to weed out by the time you get to a senior year it is a little difficult  good you are just really difficult then for a kid that has a lot of schools offer them scholarships it's difficult because you don't necessarily know which one you may want to choose and you may be waiting on a certain scholarship to come in so during our process you don't want to wait too long but you do want to find the right fit for you right well so how do you how do you pick out of all those schools healthy and i'm picking rockers took an official  michigan state and i was set to take an official visit boston college however at the time the coach from michigan state just got fired and coach from boston college just took the job done and c state so like rockers just kind and i  d they were back of choice but i wanted to see what boston cause college also had to offer but rockers was a they were they were really goes go up and coming school just had the big season being louisville and everything so so is it is it where you are  the school was close to home is that why you picked that particular school or is it just that you did you go visit those other schools well it wasn't because it was close to home i kind of wanted to stay close but not too close rog is a little too close however when i went there it was just a family environment i know a lot of teams they break it down a family and he say family but from the players from ray rice to brian lynn and i was guys when i was going to my visit they were just great guys who were and who truly was like a family bought me along to me just felt like home great so now you're at rutgers and what how does it all start how does football think was june twenty first or some like that and then i was reported in class by june twenty third at rockers and we're doing summer workouts got to camp and started off playing running back back you know ray rice so richard i did get red shirt ident i did not get red shirted immediately i got a red shirt it the two years tom a c o s actually used those as when i was a red shirt when i was a medical director and what i would say to a lot of kids that want to go in and start right away those are great aspirations to have those are great goals to have however there's a lot of guys that go in and red shirt just because you get red shirted don't be discouraged because you have another year to grow and to progress into learn more about the long before you just get thrown on to fire as a young freshman so been red shirt isn't the end of the world it's actually a lot of players actually come out better and to the public out there what what those red shirted me just means you don't play in the games really if you you practice with the team you prepare with the team you're able to go out there sometimes if you have a great week of practice coaches may allow you to dress you may just go out in your warm ups to the game but you just don't go in so it's like you kind of now know you're there but you're not there right ok so now when you're in college what what what a lot of parents always talk about it's it's all about the sport it's not about the classes what do you say about that learn to balance because the sport only last for so long you know if you say if you live to see one hundred you know and you play a sport in high school say most it's get done around twenty one twenty two and then average careers three years three four years so you're looking at you're done by twenty five from from a sport and now you have seventy five mind to start thinking hey i actually might be able to go to the n f l on this well it was a dream of mine since i was a kid when i was in college after  anybody take it away from me because of a scar on my knee in so after practice every day after practice i would stay after for about twenty minutes a half an hour just working on the craft working on getting better i would bring back up i caught it the incorrect way i did i know was the right way it was not but if i caught it incorrectly then we have to start over from the beginning a think it's only five but that five is added up and you want to catch in about fifty points and it's not even that i was after a game no matter how late we got back from a road trip or whatever i would wake up three o'clock in the morning i would get dressed and by four by four o'clock at least three thirty four o'clock i was out the door had it's this place where i used to train at high school when i was in middle school and now a lot of people from around my way they know it as the hill and i will go there four o'clock in the morning by myself in a dark just spray and sprint sprint uphill downhill and then i would go into meetings going to weigh room do everything to do everything as if nothing happened that day and i was so determined to get there there was not going to be anything in this world as an aside so well in college so football is it an all around sport what do you do from june all the way until the following june give us a sense of what the progression is you know you go through the season in the fall of course right but what happens after that you know what are you doing from june  june well to start in june well i'll start a star in january a star after season so like a post season ok so after season you may based on if you make it's a ballgame or not you may get a break and then from there you go into winter conditioning and once a condition is like i'm not going to say is a hell week but is it separates the men in the boys and we're in a condition if you're not prepared for it you wake up you're  up at four really and you've got to get there in your work the whistle blows at five thirty in the morning and you're just going as nonstop chaos everything is chaotic in you're just one mess up and you affect entire group so you don't want to be the one to mess spring ball and i springboard this is where the seniors aren't there anymore you guys are battling for positions and now you have to stay on a game you have about how many games are in spring will you just have one game is there scrimmage is your scrimmage each other because in college there's no scrimmage is against other teams a goalie scrimmage yourself and then there's a spring game which is not really for the players but it's more so for the finance because it is a show for the fans and during that time of grinding your lift in one day  next day or your practice and next day you're lifting condition progs and lifting it on a schedule saturday's usually scrimmage unless a coach picks another day and then after spring ball you may get the month of may well you finish up your finals  so our spring boys got done april twenty in april twenty first ableton either on a time and then in may through may fifteenth you'll finish up your finals on june first you're back at it you're working now as if you  year you got to be a shape he's still going to pass a one ten test and everything and then once a season comes so that time in august and now can cheney campus probably if you're not prepared for training camp if your mindset isn't the right way your training can't be the hardest time your life i'm talking about that's the time when you get guys that want to go home they want to quit guys that cry cry literally cried they just want to give up you you question yourself you question is football really for me is this really what i want to do in training camp and it's really what i would tell all kids and all parents estate encourage make sure my says the right way because that's just a time when they just want to see who they can trust to put in the game they want to see who's going to break and who's going to prosper in the situation who can handle it and all you have to do i can tell every athlete that i train is that say to yourself well everything i have gone through my life and everything i've done and all the hard work put into it and i'm built for this you know i'm built for this momentum built for his opportunities so i'm not going to let because a lot a campaign hold me back from the true dream or the true go that i want here so and then once august is done now is time is go time in the season and you're pretty much from in the season you're going pretty much every day except for like monday so you played a game on saturday you come back and you train you practice on safety nobody really gave me a shot so with the jets with the new york jets when did i call private workout with some guy some local guys like a local workout did the workout and afterwards like rex ryan and an ornery pull me out of line and he just said we like to which are leading make sure you stay in shape and ready just in case we give you a car and some stayed in shape and then both went well neither team signed me right away and then afterwards the jets called me back to do another mini camp with the veterans so did a mini camp with them and then after after that they still wouldn't sign me i don't think it's over i don't think it's over for me i still believe so what are you what are you doing today what's what's the passion that you got going on today and what a passion i have always always wanted to do sports and i always want to work with kids so i was growing up i never thought i'd be doing what i'm doing now but i just started a started training company where i can do fish training with clients i want to lose weight in tone of their bodies or from a third string running back and still get an opportunity to play in college you can become a four string safety and as long as you are determined and as long as you have the passion for and you want to work hard you dedicate yourself you will go and shine as guys that may have the pr in in high school what are some of the coaches telling you of how you have to get to the college level they talk about academics being there they talk about certain speeds that you need to get to the college level what are some of the things that these high school kids have to know to go on to play college ball football at the college level definitely focusing greets definitely well one thing i would tell the kids is that when you have a goal when you have a dream there's there's no reason for anybody have to give you rules so if you know it you can't play if you're academically ineligible to make sure eligible make sure that you have the grades make sure you stay on top of those grades so definitely have degrees because a lot of coaches look at your great if you attain a high g p a if your not even high but you can maintain a good g p a if you can do well you're testing then is that the headaches that they want to put up with and also as far as athletic side is is not always the fastest guy that went out is not always the biggest guy that went out but sometimes they want to see how you lead how they want to see as a player and this is after playing a game and start to sit down and talk to these guys now in listening in as they want to see how you respond with things are going your way in the game so i could train baseball players and softball players well if you're if you strike out twice how do you respond is that affect the rest of your game in football if you drop a ball if you f ball they're not looking to say oh no you're cut you're done or recrossing off our list they want to see how you respond to that you know so those are some of the things that they want to look at absolute zero so when a kid is doing a  film or a clip to send to these coaches what do you advise them on you know what type of clips should they should they put in there don't put any close in there to waste time don't don't just to fill up your tape don't do that because while i was in that mode from going to college the n f l going back to rockers and i was helping them well like the recruiting aspect of things and just looking at what those guys look for they have thousands and thousands of kids to look at and if your videos ten minutes long imagine much in ten minutes of a thousand kids you know nobody has time for that so they watch the first two or three plays the island tape and if those plays don't pop out to them they're going to the next person so you make sure those first three pl made some will and you know if you're a one minute highlight it could be more effective than a five minute id and just based off what they see and what a lot of coaches also look for say if you play receiver they are going to the sport you have to have a lot of other things like the leadership that like you're saying right there's a lot of kids out there as fast and now you may be the fastest out of mom but now they want as they want to separate as they have to separate you somehow some way what's going to make them  peculiar him because there's i guess what a lot of people don't understand is that there's thousands of kids trying to go as football players at the college level absolutely so you try it you trust trying to get one step ahead of somebody else absolute now  one thing now that the business does start with the personal trainers cost shocked the world and i got there from rocker's where you know i really gave us a chance and we never won a conference title in a year we actually went out we did win the biggest championship this season but the whole shock the road thing how that evolves past it rocker's to the kids is everyone throws out those numbers to everyone or one out of a thousand kids makes a one out of ten thousand kid one out of whatever number they want to give you every year in high school it is over thousands of high schools there's over a thousand seniors on whatever numbers they get all the nonsense that they give you and i would some like it all numbers are true but why can't you be the one sure but i want as long as you work at it you can be i want to don't let anybody with their negativity or what happened in their life dictate what's had dictates what happens in your certain good and well we're coming to the end of our show so usually what i asked my guess is what do you want to give to parents out there that their sons are playing football in high school they want to go on to college and play at the college level what advice do you want to give those kids make sure are prepare mentally mentally you can beat a biggest player you can be the fastest player but if it's not in the air in between the temples then that kid is going to struggle make sure they they know that is bigger than football and life is bigger than football and also make sure that they know dad stay encourage to do the process constantly learn be a sponge be a student at a game don't go into college i've got a lot where a lot of kids make mistakes is they go into college looking to be buddy buddy with everyone looking to be friends looking to be a popular person don't worry about being a popular person you will make plays people want to flock to you and be around you when you're making plays you know you'll make all those friends you know steph curry for instance adrian peterson any name that you want to throw out those guys don't have to worry about making friends everybody wants to be around those you know so tom brady he doesn't worry about making friends you know but true to yourself and make sure that you the parents are pushing them to every day you're working at that craft every day you're striving to be better and better than yesterday you and another thing i want to tell players and parents in anyone anyone out there that can use this they don't have to use if they don't want to use it is when you go into college for those players our want to compete for a spot or like you may be a starter in college or you may be a starter somewhere and now coach them recruited a kid behind you that supposed to be really good or a kid that the kids of theirs was really good at you have to compete with and what i would tell that person is you can't control what they do you can only control what you do so from that point you set a standard for yourself and you said their standards so high no matter what they do they can't recess standard and if they do recess standard then they're going to be the greatest player ever to exist because