David Beaty liked the quality and numbers of summer camps

The players reported yesterday for fall camp and that now signals recruiting will slow down in August. With new rules in place it has cut back on summer recruiting in the months of June, July, and August so coaches across the country scrambled last week to host camps and get visitors on campus.

The Kansas staff held their Friday Night Lights camp which attracted 217 players. That’s the highest amount of players since Kansas started the event nine years ago.

“It's a testament to our coaches and our staff on their communication and recruiting efforts,” Beaty said. “They've been in touch with these young men as long as they have been able to and work hard to get them here because we weren't the only Friday Night Light camp. There were several others going on. So guys had the opportunity to go to a lot of places and they chose to come here.”

There were several players who hold division one offers and others who will be on recruiting boards. There was a good group of talented players along with the numbers.

“I wasn’t just impressed with the numbers but the fact there were quality players,” Beaty said. “It's one thing to have a lot of people there and it's another thing that number of quality players here.”

The new NCAA recruiting calendar limits a lot of the summer time for recruiting. The latter part of June is a dead period along with most of July. The coaches had one week at the end of the month to get visitors on campus and host camps. Then August goes back to a dead period as college and high school coaches/players focus on their fall camps.

“You’ve only got 10 days and everybody's trying to pack them into the same time,” Beaty said. “So it's not like they're all spread out. It’s not convenient for you. You don't spread them out. There's a dead period in the middle of the summer and it just makes it to a point where everybody's racing for the first 10 days of summer and then the last couple days of summer.”

Beaty said his staff was able to see thousands players in the early part of the June when camps are in full swing. Some college staffs have access to planes allowing them to see multiple camps in a small period. That was a big help for the Kansas coaches.

“Just having the resources to be able to get around and not always be stuck driving and on a commercial plane is key,” Beaty said. “Recruiting is the lifeblood of the program. And you’re only going to be as good as the resources your university allows you to have. And the fact that we were able to be in several cities in one day and see upwards of 2000 people over a day period was big.”