Tony Eason didn’t announce his college decision on Twitter. He didn’t send out a link to his Hudl highlight video. He doesn’t have a Wikipedia page that lists his height, weight and high school statistics.
High school football recruiting was a bit different for Tony Eason, a 1984 graduate of Snohomish who went on to play wide receiver at Notre Dame, than it has been for his son Jacob Eason, a senior quarterback at Lake Stevens who is one of the top-ranked recruits in the nation.
“It’s just night and day. I feel like a dinosaur with the way Jacob’s (recruitment is) going,” said Tony, who coaches wide receivers and defensive backs for Lake Stevens. “I didn’t find out I had a scholarship to Notre Dame until halfway through signing day. I was stressed out my whole senior year up until about halfway through signing day.”
A star for head coach Dick Armstrong at Snohomish, Tony was getting looks from several Pacific-10 schools and had an agreement to attend Stanford. But a coaching change — with Jack Elway taking over for the Cardinal — left Tony without a home and an uncertain future.
With several schools already filling their scholarship spots, Tony went back to the drawing board. While nowadays players post highlight videos on Hudl — online reels college coaches use to see tape on players — Tony had to go a different route in the mid 80s.
“Back in the day, when I was playing, all my film was on 8 millimeter (film) and you’d mail out,” Tony said. “And then you’d have to wait for schools to mail it back so you could send to someone else. I remember waiting three weeks for Cal to send it back. After awhile it was like, ‘Hey, you guys going to send that back?’”
By comparison, Jacob’s junior highlight reel on Hudl has over 105,000 views.
Unlike his father’s stressful recruiting journey, Jacob has had several schools come to him, even after verbally committing.
Tony likes to remind him of that.
“The first thing that jumps to my mind is when I compare the two is mine was very stressful and his hasn’t been,” Tony said. “I tell him that, ‘You don’t know how blessed you are.’ Especially, with the way things have changed.”
When Notre Dame coaches came to visit Tony in Snohomish, the meeting had to take place at the Easons’ neighbor’s house.
“The Notre Dame coach came by my senior year and would visit,” Tony said. “We’d go over to our neighbors to use the VHS and watch some film. VHS was just coming out and we didn’t have one at our house.”
There were no direct messages on Twitter or texts from coaches for Tony.
“I remember the phone ringing. Back then I didn’t know if they had any rules on that,” Tony said. “Now they (direct message) Jacob. The phone used to ring back in my day and I’d talk to coaches. If I had homework or was busy I wouldn’t.”
After talking with Stanford, Washington, Washington State and others, Tony still didn’t know where he would go when he woke up on National Signing Day — the annual celebration in February when high school football players can officially sign scholarship offers with their universities.
“I can remember waking up that morning, the phone wasn’t ringing,” Tony said. “I went into my room and prayed. I can remember praying that I was going to have a home. I don’t know how many Hail Marys I said — I must’ve said several of them — before the phone rang.
“It was such a weight lifted off my shoulders. I can remember the stress. As a dad, I’m happy Jake hasn’t had to experience that.”
Tony’s journey has helped shape the approach his son has taken to his own recruiting saga. In his sophomore campaign, Jacob threw for 2,941 yards and 23 touchdowns, quickly making himself a sought-after recruit. Oregon State was the first to offer the 6-foot-5 quarterback, followed quickly by Washington State and Florida State.
The latter made Jacob a household name to college recruiters.
“Florida State came out of nowhere and then it started rolling and got kind of crazy,” Jacob said. “I was getting called left and right. I got offered by Notre Dame and Michigan on the same day, I didn’t know what to do. I was so excited. It was a crazy experience.”
The wild recruiting extended to the Lake Stevens football team and Vikings coach Tom Tri.
“It’s crazy. I can’t believe it,” Tri said. “He’s a 16, 17-year old high school kid that’s got reporters walking around with him for a whole week. That’s insane if you think about it.”
Jacob verbally committed to Georgia last summer, citing the Bulldogs’ coaches, facility and fellow recruits as big reasons for his decision.
Tri has been impressed with how Jacob handled the pressure — and stress — of being a top recruit.
“He’s not overly excited — he’s obviously grateful and loves the process — but in the long run I think he was glad he was able to commit fairly early to Georgia,” Tri said. “He could put an end to this whole recruiting thing so he could focus on how to help Lake Stevens High School get better and hang out with his buddies. I think he’s handled it really well. He knows what he wants to do.”
Eason is still contacted by coaches — and their teams’ fans — on social media. Unlike several high-profile recruits, he has not wavered in his commitment and plans on graduating early in December and heading to Georgia.
“It kind of quieted down for a little bit,” Jacob said. “I’ve been committed for a little more than a year now and (other schools) are still going to recruit me. It’s not as hard as they were, but they’re still there letting me know, ‘If anything changes we’d still love to have you.’ I like to compare it to having a girlfriend. When you commit you’re kind of married. I want to be faithful to my school.”
However, the temptation has been there. In late January, new University of Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, who recently coached the San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League, flew to Lake Stevens to watch one of Eason’s basketball games.
“He’s so relaxed about it,” Jacob said of Harbaugh. “It was a big deal for me and a lot of Lake Stevens guys seeing the guy you see on TV every week come down and watch our game. He was a really cool guy.”
“I didn’t have Jim Harbaugh flying out in a private jet with his offensive coordinator,” Tony said. “He’s a much bigger recruit than I ever was.”
Going through the process didn’t just help Jacob. It helped his coach as well.
“You always know what the recruiting process is, but to get to really see it first-hand and behind the scenes, is cool. It was really enlightening,” Tri said. “It made me even more solidified in being happy that I’m a high school football coach and not trying to do some of the things that college coaches have to do. I don’t want to have to fly across the country recruiting.”
Jacob has used his father’s experience with his own recruitment, and credits the elder Eason for helping guide him through the craziness of high school recruiting. Family is important for the Eason clan, including Tony’s wife Christine and their three children: Bryon, Jacob and Lillian.
“He went through the same process,” Jacob said. “He dealt with going away form home to go to school. He dealt with talking to the coaches and the media. He taught me who to talk to, who to trust. Having him there is definitely a huge part of where I’ve gotten so far. It’s a blessing to have him. I couldn’t be more thankful.”
And while the methods and the interest has increased exponentially, college recruiting for Jacob still comes down to the same thing it did for Tony 31 years ago, as he approached his senior year of high school.
“At the heart of it it’s still a relational thing,” Tony said. “You’re getting a feel for if you like the coach and he likes you. That hasn’t changed. It’s still a huge life decision that you have to make.”
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