How To Email College Coaches To Get Football Offers (FREE TEMPLATE)

July 31, 2025•3 min read

If your son is serious about playing college football, learning how to email coaches the right way can be the difference between getting ignored and getting recruited. Sending random highlight videos or copying and pasting the same message to dozens of schools won’t work. Coaches are busy, and if your email doesn’t stand out, it will be deleted in seconds.

I earned a Division 1 football scholarship in the SEC at just 5'7 and 150 pounds, and 83% of the athletes I mentor go on to earn scholarships too. The key? A simple five-step playbook for emailing coaches.

Step 1: Identify the Right Coach

Every college staff has multiple coaches, but only one is responsible for recruiting your area. Smaller schools may recruit by position, but most programs assign recruiters by region. If you send your email to the wrong coach, it’s going to get ignored. Do the work to figure out which coach is responsible for your area first.

Step 2: Keep Your Call to Action Simple

Most athletes overload their emails with multiple requests—questions about camps, stats, GPA, height, weight, everything all at once. Coaches don’t have time for that. Your one and only goal is simple: get the coach to watch your highlight video. Nothing more.

Step 3: Use the Perfect Pitch Email Framework

Instead of blasting the same template to every coach, customize each email. Here’s how:

Subject line: Use the name of another coach on staff who told you who recruits your area. This sparks curiosity and gets the email opened.
Introduction: Mention that you learned from Coach ___ that they handle recruiting in your area.
Personalized line: Reference something specific from their bio (e.g., “Congrats on being named Defensive Coach of the Year in 2023”).
Self-intro: Share your name, position, and graduation year. Keep it short.
Pitch: In one strong sentence, connect your skills to the team’s needs. Use stats if you have them.
Call to action: Invite them to watch your highlight video, then ask if they’re available for a quick call.

Step 4: Make Your Highlight Video Accessible

Don’t send coaches digging through your Hudl profile. Create one clean, organized highlight video with your best plays at the very beginning. If possible, host it on a personal webpage so the coach sees your video, stats, and contact info all in one place without ads or log-in barriers.

Step 5: Track Your KPIs

Think like a businessperson. Track:

How many emails you send
How many are opened
How many coaches click your video
How many respond

If your open rate is low, your subject line needs work. If your click rate is low, your pitch isn’t strong enough. If your response rate is low, you might be emailing the wrong schools or your video isn’t convincing. Tracking these numbers helps you improve week after week.

Bonus Tip: Respond Fast

If a coach replies and says they recruit your area, don’t wait days to respond. Answer quickly and keep the conversation moving.

Final Thoughts

The recruiting process isn’t about blasting out hundreds of emails—it’s about precision, personalization, and persistence. By following these five steps, you’ll stand out from the flood of generic recruiting emails and give yourself the best shot at earning a football scholarship.

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Richie's mentorship program provides access to the entire Next Play® protocol for earning a football scholarship, complete with mentorship, coaching, and accountability for your son, thereby ensuring he develops into an elite communicator, leader, and businessman, and ultimately earns a full-ride scholarship.