By: Joseph Stuckey

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The unofficial kickoff to football prospect camping season can be signified by 3 simple words: Mercer Mega Camps.

For football prospects across the southeastern United States, these camps give them an opportunity to show their skills in front of dozens of college coaches from across the country.

For the most part, the college football recruiting cycle consists of 3 parts before the start of the college football season, which is around Labor Day.

Once the new year rolls around, Junior Days will start happening, allowing rising seniors to visit college campuses.

Then, as we get closer to June, college coaches will be on the road visiting high schools and watching spring practice.

Then, basically, once June hits, college prospect camps will mix with official visits, allowing prospects to visit campuses across the country.

These prospect camps and official visits will run until the dead period hits around the 20th of June.

These camps usually take place on college campuses and are coached by various college coaching staff. Performing well at these camps and making an impression on coaches can really jumpstart a kid’s recruiting process and set them up for future success.

As the calendar flips to June, usually during the first few days of the month, Mercer Football will host their total exposure mega camps in Macon, Georgia.

The camps are hosted at Five-Star Stadium on the campus of Mercer University. There are numerous sessions each day with position groups broken up.

Normally, quarterbacks throw to wide receivers who are defended by defensive backs. Offensive and Defensive linemen compete against each other. And finally, running backs and linebackers compete together.

For under-recruited kids or underclassmen looking for exposure, this is a great opportunity to get on a college’s radar. These camps attract student-athletes from all over the Southeast, but the majority of the kids come from the state of Georgia.

Macon is basically the central point in Georgia and a short drive for most prospects. Given Georgia’s status as a recruiting hotbed, it’s no surprise that so many college coaches flock to the state during this time to attend these camps.

The energy at Five-Star Stadium during these camps is electric and provides a true opportunity for high-school athletes to be evaluated by college coaches across all levels. Coaches from power-4 schools all the way down to Division 3 schools are in attendance.

The camp is run by the Mercer Football staff, but the big draw for prospects is the dozens of other college coaches who will be in attendance.

This year, there were numerous power-4 teams advertised to be there, including: Oregon, Texas, Minnesota, Kentucky, North Carolina, and LSU. There were also many Group of 6 schools in attendance, including: Arkansas State, Georgia Southern, Toledo, Eastern Michigan, and Appalachian State. There were also several service academies in attendance, including Army-West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy.

With so many schools in attendance, each athlete can be truly evaluated by coaches based on their skill level and experience. These conversations with coaches at the camps are critical and can lead to scholarship offers and campus invites.

So, with these camps basically kicking off the football prospect recruiting season, at least for a few days in June, Macon becomes the epicenter of the college football universe.