While coaches recruiting a player are limited to one call a week, people working for the recruiting sites can make unlimited calls. Many of the area's top recruits acknowledge that they received far more calls from recruiting services than from college recruiters.
"Not even near close: It's by far the Internet people," said Nick Patterson, a wide receiver and safety at Hazelwood Central who orally committed to Ohio State in mid-January. "Some of them call different times a day and on weekends. I know they have to do their jobs, but they could be better about it. I liked dealing with the coaches. They're a lot more sensitive of your schedule. They won't call you when you're doing homework or after you're in bed."
Patterson said some of the recruiting service reporters seemed knowledgeable, though he said that the constant calls had pitfalls.
"You get asked the same question so many times and you better answer it exactly the same way, or those guys think you're changing your mind," said Patterson, who also considered Missouri, Notre Dame, UCLA and Wisconsin. "Sometimes, they take part of an answer and make it sound like I was saying something that I wasn't."
