The College Visit Playbook: How to Prep Your Staff for Maximum Off-Season ROI
Every coach loves the idea of visiting a college program in the off-season. The vision is clear: learn from the best, steal some drills, pick up a scheme tweak or two, and bring it all back to your team. But as Coach Joey Wiles laid out in a recent episode of The Board Drill Podcast, there is a right way to do it, and a whole lot of ways to waste the opportunity.
This is not about just showing up, shaking hands, and taking some notes. It is about turning a college visit into a strategic operation. Coach Wiles outlined a smart, systemized approach that high school staffs can follow to get real, actionable value out of every visit.
If you missed the episode, check it out here: Board Drill Podcast - Coach Joey Wiles on College Visits
Here is the playbook:
1. Set a Focus Before You Set Foot on Campus
Before you even email a college staff, know what you are going to that campus for. Are you trying to learn how they handle short yardage? See how they coach their corners? Or how they organize their practice plan? Coach Wiles calls this “having a plan of attack.”
Going in without a focus is like walking into a weight room without a workout. You will wander, waste time, and leave no better than when you walked in.
2. Assignments for your coaches
Coach Wiles recommends dividing your staff up ahead of time and assigning each coach a specific area to study. Your OL guy watches drills and meetings for the offensive line. Your DC locks in on coverages. Your special teams coach? He needs to ask about field goal block techniques.
It is easy to all sit in the same room and nod your heads together. It is smarter to split up, specialize, and regroup later to share notes.
3. Prep the Questions Before You Walk In
One of the most underused weapons on a college visit is the pre-built question list. Coach Wiles emphasized that each coach should write down 10 to 15 questions in advance. Focused, specific, and relevant to your team’s needs.
You are not there to be passive. You are there to hunt.
4. Build a Film and Note Library
Make sure every coach is collecting what Coach Wiles called “assets.” That might be drill video, scheme drawings, terminology sheets, or notes from a meeting.
If you are just writing things down on the back of a notepad and tossing it in a drawer, you are not building a system. Build a Google Drive. Use tags. Organize by topic, not date. This becomes your library that younger coaches can draw on year after year.
5. Post-Visit: Hold a Debrief, Make an Action Plan
Once you are back home, Coach Wiles suggests holding a formal meeting where each coach shares what they learned. Then, and this is key, you create a plan for implementation.
Do not fall into the trap of collecting ideas with no follow-through. Ask: What are we actually going to install? What are we adapting to fit our scheme? Who is responsible for building that install or rep plan?
6. Follow Up and Build Relationships
Coaching is a people business. Coach Wiles emphasized how important it is to maintain relationships with the college staff. A quick thank-you note, a follow-up email with a question, or sharing how their concept worked for your team goes a long way.
Do not just be a visitor. Be a connector.
A college visit can be a goldmine. Or it can be a long drive for a free T-shirt and a couple of ideas that never make it out of your notebook.
Coach Wiles’ advice is simple: treat your off-season visit like a game week. Scout, prep, script, and execute.
That is how you build a program, not just a team.