College football satellite camps are all the rage this offseason. You hear about them every day from Jim Harbaugh's mouth as the reason Michigan football will emerge from its playoff cocoon, I think. And Alabama is against them for some reason, probably because it helps aid the process of recruiting as well as Alabama.
I don't totally understand all of it. And neither does Cal's head coach. Sonny Dykes doesn't understand what the big deal is. ESPN's Erik McKinney has more.
"I think the satellite camp thing is a little bit silly," Dykes said. "I think it's all about generating attention, and I get that."
Dykes points out that one bad workout at these camps should not be the determination between a team recruiting a player and going the other direction.
"More often than not, kids hurt themselves more than they help themselves," Dykes said. "A lot of times you're not sure about a kid and he goes to some camp and he doesn't run particularly well, so you say, ‘Maybe we'll pass on him.'"
The big benefit to the camp doesn't have to do with the workouts or the experience, but just meeting players on a more frequent basis and getting to know them more regularly.
"By this stage, we usually know whether or not we're recruiting them," Dykes said. "I don't think we're going to learn that much about them by going out and doing a satellite camp, but we are going to get to know them and they're going to have an opportunity to get to know us, and that's what recruiting is all about -- it's about relationships and it's about trust, and I think that's a lot more important than testing some kid."
Dykes will be holding a few camps in and around the Bay Area, and Cal assistants are expected to be in attendance at a few camps in Southern California and Texas, two hotbeds of recruitment for the Bears as of late. But Dykes doesn't appear to be making satellite camps the be-all, end-all of his recruiting strategy. It's a part of the process, not the big conclusion.
Cal fans, what are your thoughts on satellite camps? Do you feel Dykes has the right approach? How much weight would you put on performance at these camps compared to tape?