AFCA 2026: What College Coaches Are Prioritizing in Recruiting

The Scorability team at this year’s AFCA. Charlotte, NC.

The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Convention brings the football world together each year. Programs arrive with different resources and responsibilities, but many share the same goals.

As a proud sponsor of AFCA 2026, the Scorability team spent four days in Charlotte talking with coaches across college and high school football. We connected at our booth and through longer conversations throughout the convention, including two evening get-togethers that gave coaches space to unwind and connect outside the daily schedule.

Here’s a quick look at what coaches shared about recruiting at AFCA 2026 and why it matters as teams head into the offseason.

Evaluation goes beyond measurables

Size and speed matter, but coaches need more. Throughout the week, coaches emphasized character, effort, body language, and consistency on film. They pay close attention to how players respond to adversity and carry themselves around teammates and coaches. Coaches also highlighted mentality — resilience, coachability, and leadership — because those intangibles determine whether talent translates once a player enters the program.

Coaches want a more complete picture as soon as possible, while there’s room to adjust. Scorability brings academics, measurables, film, coach notes, and mentality indicators into one place so staff can evaluate faster and better anticipate fit within the program.

More options only matter if they’re real options

Most programs want more choices and less clutter. Coaches talked about the same priority: expanding the recruiting list while staying focused on players who truly fit the program. That means filtering early for athletic profile (height, weight, speed), academics, and mentality, before the list grows too large to manage.

Academics carry equal weight. Recruiting staff use academic results as an early filter to protect eligibility and preserve flexibility. As recruiting timelines compress, early clarity matters more than ever.

Recruiting works best when every name can turn into a real decision. Scorability filters athletes across every relevant detail — measurables, academics, film, evaluations, and character fit — so coaches can discover players who match their criteria with confidence.

Time shapes every decision

Coaches talked about how they manage time during recruiting. Many teams track hundreds of athletes using spreadsheets alongside tools and processes they already trust. Coaches value anything that removes repetitive work, keeps information in one place, and helps them move decisions forward with confidence.

Scorability supports that approach by keeping recruiting information organized so staff can stay aligned and move decisions forward.

Smart spending matters

Coaches weigh tools carefully and look for solutions that cover multiple needs at once, rather than adding another system to manage.

They focus on what they can clearly explain to their teams and decision-makers and what fits into how they already work. Tools that reduce overlap, replace existing processes, and simplify recruiting help coaches move forward with confidence.

The transfer portal shapes every roster decision

Even programs that don’t rely heavily on the portal track it closely.

One unexpected transfer can reshape a depth chart and trigger movement across the roster. As timelines compress, coaches need player information before athletes enter the portal. The programs that move fastest already know who they want to evaluate.

High school and transfer recruiting now feed the same roster decisions. Scorability centralizes recruiting information early, so when movement happens, staff already have the details and shared notes needed to act quickly and confidently.

What AFCA reinforced for us

AFCA reinforced what coaches focus on every day, and those conversations continue to guide what we build at Scorability. Coaches want recruiting information centralized, easy to work with, and tied directly to real recruiting decisions. Hearing directly from coaches and their staff helps us keep building tools that support how recruiting actually works.

If you want to learn more about Scorability and see how teams are using it to find better recruits faster, we’d love to chat. We’re excited for AFCA in Indianapolis next year!