Coach Cahill Kicking & Punting LLC
The High-Academic Athlete Recruiting Playbook
The complete system for kickers, punters, and snappers pursuing NESCAC, Ivy League, and Patriot League programs — built on a decade of placing specialists at the best academic schools in the country.
Founding member price. Regular price $197 after launch.
Coach Cahill
The High-Academic Athlete
Recruiting Playbook
12 Chapters
The Problem
Most families are flying completely blind.
High-academic specialist recruiting is unlike any other recruiting process. The schools are different. The coaches are different. The admissions process is different. And the mistakes families make are completely different from what generic recruiting guides warn you about.
A coach following your athlete on Twitter is not the same as recruiting them. A response to an email is not the same as real interest. And a D1 dream school on your list is not the same as a D1 offer.
Most families figure this out the hard way — in the fall of senior year, when it's too late to adjust.
What families get wrong
- Confusing a Twitter follow or form email with genuine recruiting interest
- Not knowing what a pre-read is, or what the three outcomes actually mean
- Building a school list that's all dream schools and no real targets
- Sending a five-paragraph first email when six lines is what a coach actually reads
- Spending $1,000 on a highlight tape editor when coaches hate opening slides
- Waiting for coaches to follow up instead of having a follow-up system
- Not knowing that NESCAC programs move faster than Ivy programs — or why that matters
What's inside
Everything you need.
Nothing you don't.
What Does a Good Outcome Look Like?
The D1 reality check. The Venn diagram framework. How to define success before the market defines it for you.
Know Your Academic Profile Cold
Core unweighted GPA, why it's almost always lower than your transcript, and what coaches look at before your film.
Know Your Athletic Profile Cold
Exact benchmarks for kickers, punters, and snappers at NESCAC, Patriot League, and Ivy programs.
The Band System Explained
How coaches divide recruits by academic profile, what your band means for available slots, and why this changes everything.
The Academic Pre-Read
What a pre-read is, the three outcomes, and why coaches aren't always incentivized to tell you the full truth about a red light.
Junior Days & the Summer Offer Timeline
Why Junior Days aren't optional, how offers actually get made, and why NESCAC programs move faster than the Ivies.
Where Are You Starting From?
The audit. How to tell real interest from politeness — and why most families dramatically misread both.
Building Your Target School List
The 4/4/4 framework. Why the goalposts move once you hit the market, and how to build a list that accounts for that.
Your X Presence & Social Media
Think LinkedIn, not Instagram. What your profile must have, what to never post, and how to audit the damage before coaches do.
Your Highlight Tape
10–12 clips. No music. No editor. Start at the snap, end when the play ends. And why Hudl is non-negotiable.
First Contact
The exact six-line email template that coaches actually read — and why everything your instincts tell you to write is wrong.
How to Follow Up Without Being Annoying
The three-step system. The bump email. The close email. And the exact language that gets coaches to respond when nothing else does.
This is for you if…
- ✓ Your athlete is a kicker, punter, or long snapper with real academic credentials
- ✓ You're targeting NESCAC, Ivy League, or Patriot League programs
- ✓ You want to understand the process before you're deep in it
- ✓ You've been in contact with some coaches but don't know what it actually means
- ✓ You'd rather spend $147 on a playbook than $300/hour on a consultant for every question
- ✓ You want the real story, not a sanitized version of how recruiting works
This is not for you if…
- × Your athlete is pursuing FBS or Power Five programs (different process entirely)
- × You're looking for a guarantee — nothing guarantees an offer
- × You want someone to tell you your athlete is definitely a D1 prospect
- × You're not willing to do the actual follow-up work once you have the system
- × Your athlete is already committed — this is a pre-process guide
About the author
"Following up is approximately ninety percent of recruiting. The athletes who get recruited are almost never the ones who sent one great email and waited."
I've spent more than a decade placing kickers, punters, and long snappers at NESCAC schools, Ivy League programs, and Patriot League teams. I've sat across from hundreds of families who came to me with the same questions, the same misconceptions, and the same mix of hope and anxiety.
This playbook is the system I use with every family I work with — the band system, the pre-read process, the offer timeline, the first email template, the follow-up sequence. Every framework in here is earned from real experience with real athletes at real programs.
A note on what this is
Nothing in this playbook guarantees an offer. Recruiting involves timing, roster needs, coaching decisions, and factors no family can fully control. What this playbook does is eliminate the self-inflicted mistakes — the misread signals, the wrong list, the bad first email, the silence that gets interpreted as rejection — that cost families real opportunities every year. You can't control whether a coach has a need. You can control whether you're prepared when they do.
What families say
Real results. Real families. Real schools.
"Coach Cahill helped him throughout the entire process — guiding him how to contact coaches, which schools to target, which visits to attend. He was honest and accurate with his assessment of my son's skillset."
GUY GIALANELLA
Parent · Son at Tufts University (NESCAC)
"The process for kicker/punter recruiting is not the same as the recruiting process for other positions. Coach Cahill takes the guesswork out of everything. Our son picked up D1 and D3 offers from high academic institutions."
SUK LEE
Parent · Son at University of Chicago
"Coach Cahill not only helped with form, steps, timing and approach — he used his college coaching contacts to find the perfect place for Luca. Luca went from a basic knowledge of the kicking game to earning a spot on the Boston College roster and kicking off for the Eagles opening day."
KEITH LOMBARDO
Parent · Luca Lombardo, Kicker at Boston College (ACC D1)
"We paid for SAT tutors, college counselors and football camps. Using Brendan was the best money we spent. Matt will be attending Amherst College. We highly recommend Brendan, he is great."
MICHELLE & TOM KELLEY
Parents · Son at Amherst College (NESCAC)
"His support during the recruiting process was outstanding. He reached out to college coaches multiple times on my son's behalf. I have been a high school football coach 25 years — I trusted him with my own son. That says it all. My son will be kicking for Cornell University."
PETER LESIEWICZ
HS Football Coach & Parent · Son at Cornell (Ivy)
"He is the best and most elite kicking and punting coach in the country. When we recruit a kicker/punter that has worked with him, we know they will have great technique. He is the only kicking coach I contact because his evaluations are always spot on."
DAN DICENZO
Head Football Coach, Wesleyan University (NESCAC)
Money-Back Guarantee
If it's not worth it, you pay nothing.
Read the entire playbook. If you don't feel like you have a clearer picture of the recruiting process, a better school list, and a concrete system for outreach and follow-up — email me within 30 days for a full refund. No questions asked.
I'm confident enough in this material to put my money where my mouth is. Families who do the work get results. That's been true for over a decade and this playbook is built on the same foundation.
30-Day Full Money-Back Guarantee
Ready to stop guessing and start competing?
Get the complete system used by specialist recruits at NESCAC, Ivy, and Patriot League programs.
Regular price: $197
$147
Founding Member Price — Limited Time
- ✓ Complete 12-chapter playbook (immediate PDF download)
- ✓ Band system framework with school-by-school context
- ✓ Athletic benchmarks for kickers, punters & snappers
- ✓ Exact first contact email template
- ✓ Three-step follow-up sequence with word-for-word language
- ✓ School list worksheet and audit framework
- ✓ 30-day money-back guarantee — no questions asked
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