Before Friday Nights: The Modern Blueprint for Building a D1 Football Future

The game has changed. Recruiting has changed. And the old belief that “if you’re good enough, they’ll find you” is costing talented athletes their future.

Before Friday Nights is a direct, no-nonsense blueprint for parents and athletes who want to understand how Division I football recruiting actually works today — and how to prepare for it before it’s too late.

Written by Coach Tukes, founder of North Texas’s elite training program The Lab Football, this book breaks down the modern recruiting landscape into a clear, actionable system built on three pillars:

Training. Exposure. Brand.

Inside, you’ll learn:

• Why the D1 clock starts earlier than most families realize, and how development must be age-appropriate but intentional from day one
• How position-specific training — not generic workouts — creates real separation
• Why Twitter is your business page, Instagram is your visual résumé, and film is your proof
• How to choose camps with real ROI and avoid wasting thousands on exposure that leads nowhere
• What recruiting services, rankings, and profiles (247Sports, ESPN Jr., Rivals/On3) actually do — and what they don’t
• The truth about schools, politics, and why no system will prioritize your athlete more than you do
• How to build visibility without arrogance, confidence without entitlement, and discipline without burnout

This book speaks directly to two audiences at once:

• Parents trying to guide their child without overstepping or getting misled
• Athletes willing to take ownership of their future when no one else will

It is part training manual, part recruiting guide, and part reality check — grounded in years of real-world development, not theory or hype.

If your goal is to give your athlete the best possible chance to be seen, evaluated, and recruited, this book shows you where the clock starts, how the process works, and what it takes to stay ahead of it.

This is Book 1 in The Lab Football Blueprint Series.

The early game gets you seen. The next one gets you signed.