I think the reality of the situation is if you're WWE and you're looking for talent, you're going to want the best guys out there, and you're gonna look at Ring Of Honor, because that's where the best talent is.
I remember bumming rides across town to Georgia Tech, trying to get myself registered, trying to apply for financial aid, trying to get their coaches to watch my film.
My dad always wanted me to be a cricketer, study no chance. Once he saw that I was quite good for my age, no school. So, as soon as I did my GCSEs, I got signed by Warwickshire at 15.
Notre Dame is the one school that has a national recruiting base, from Florida to Texas to California.
I haven't had a chance to pick where I wanted to play since 2007 when I chose to go to Michigan State.
When you look at guys who get recruited, most of the best athletes, they come from poor families. I don't forget. I was a junior looking through my mother's stuff and looked at her bank statement, and we had $30 in the bank.
I had played in a tournament with the captain of the University of Minnesota's golf team, and he thought I was good. He called his coach, and the coach called me and recruited me. A five-minute phone call changed my life.
There's no way I can go play for the Yankees.
If you're an outsider, you don't know how to get signed by the WWE. It's not like football where you can sign up and segue your way in. You've got to know somebody.
Central Michigan was the one FBS team that recruited me hard.
Coming out of high school, however, I wasn't a decorated recruit. As a result, I found myself one month from signing day with only two scholarship offers and they were from the Mid-American Conference.
I never thought that shoes would be the reason that you recruit players, but it's a factor. I think we need to get the shoe companies out of the lives of the athletes. I think we need to get it back to where parents and coaches have more of a say than peripheral people, but that's easier said than done.
Soccer and cricket were my main sports growing up. I had trials as a soccer player with a few clubs interested, Crystal Palace being one, but it was cricket which became my chosen profession.
The number one thing in recruiting in terms of making it a great job is players in your own area.
A lot of the kids gave a lot of positive feedback about if I ever became a coach, they would love to play in our program. And I was very confident that we would be able to get the top-tier players to come in.
I had a coach when I was getting recruited say maybe you should play basketball at a Division III level, because you're not good enough to play football in college.
I look at Syracuse and I love the way that the coaches say they'll use me in their offense. I really like the family atmosphere there and I feel really comfortable there.
I was always an Alabama fan growing up, but when the Alabama recruiter told me I would probably not be able to play until the end of my sophomore year, or the beginning of my junior year.
It's interesting in the recruiting process because I have recruits and parents that say, 'You're so positive about the other schools!' And I am, because I had a great experience at LSU. I had a great experience at Auburn. I had a great experience at Florida.
Among the clubs that most wanted to recruit me were Marseille and Leicester.
I don't know how Coach Saban found me all the way in Hawaii from Alabama.
I had no idea the Vikings were interested. I was actually expecting other teams because the Green Bay Packers and three or four other teams asked for film after the combine in Dallas, and the Vikings weren't one of them.
My family and I took visits to each and every school and listened to each coaching staff. I felt the most comfortable with and really excited about playing at SC. Being close to home in one of the best offensive systems is paying off now as I'm making the jump to the pros.
So, I got a lot of recruitment letters from track.
With goalkeepers, when a team looks for a keeper, it looks for someone with experience.
