Dave Campbell's Texas Football reached out to 52 of the top recruits in Texas to get their honest opinion on several intriguing topics hot to the game.

We asked them various questions pertaining to NIL, their honest opinions on in-state college head coaches, who the best player in TXHSFB was (besides themselves of course) and some other fun stuff.

Alright, so let's get into it.

Anything recruiting related these days seems to have NIL tentacles attached to it somewhere, which is precisely why we went NIL-heavy with this survey.

One of the more surprising responses we received was to the question of how much will/did NIL play a role in your decision to commit to a school? Is it truly "All About the Benjamins"? Apparently not.

A whopping 75 percent said the money was cool but that their relationships with the coaching staff was more important. The next most-popular response (13.5 percent) was that the money was critical, of course, but that immediate playing time was most important. Not a single recruit said it was all about the money. Not sure about y'all, but that was pretty shocking to us.

Speaking of Benjamins, we asked these recruits what the most amount of $$$ was that they were offered. The results will make you want to go put on some shoulder pads.

• $500,000 (x 2)
• $750,000
• $1,000,000 (x 2)
• $1,500,000 
• $1,600,000
• $1,700,000
• $200,000 (x 2)
• $125,000 with room to go up
• $150,000 (x 2)
• 2-years, $1,700,000
• $210,000
• $250,000
• $300,000 (x 2)
• $350,000
• $400,000 (x 2)
• $450,000
• $48,000
• $5.1 Million
• $60,000
• $600,000 (x 4)
• $700,000
• $825,000
• $900,000

Whew. 

Surely, of the recruits we surveyed who are committed already, they took the highest offer, right? Actually, no. 79.6 percent (or 36 of the 52) said they DID NOT take the highest offer. 20.4 percent (10) said they did. Over half of them (61.5 percent) said they are working with an agent or NIL rep to help navigate this journey.

Obviously, the money is nice but there are aspects of recruiting that aren't. When asked what the worst part of the recruiting process was, the overwhelming response we received were the amount of phone calls they get on a daily basis. Figuring out which coaches were being honest was also a popular response. 

 "Every coach is lying to you in some way. You just have to pick the lie that sounds best for you," one recruit said.

"Trying to figure which part is recruiting and which part is reality," another said.

Other popular responses centered around the amount of stress they're constantly under, including when they have to tell these other coaches that they're committing elsewhere. And then what happens to these recruits after they've made their decision.

"THE LOSS OF CARE FOR A PLAYER AFTER THEY COMMIT," stressed one recruit.

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Here are some of the most eye-opening responses when we asked them to list their craziest moment on the recruiting trail.

Coaches moving our number of money around to try to get you to commit.

Coach telling me that he would offer me, but if I don’t go there, it’s not going to affect them, but I need to go there.

[An in-state] RB coach telling me how much he needed me, then a few weeks later telling my dad he’s not desperate to have me.

Having 10 phone calls in one day.

Christian McCaffrey pulled up to Stanford.

Coaches wouldn’t let me take visits anywhere else.

4 offers in one day during school.

A school had me set up an official visit, then never answered the phone for me after that.

Some of these recruiting OV’s can get wild!

A program got mad during the negotiations because other programs were more invested and said they don’t need me.

Silent committing to Texas Tech then flipping to Texas A&M the day before my commitment.

Coach telling me to my face that I'm wasting my time playing QB and my window of opportunity for WR is closing.

Every school I visited during the season dropped me.

Got offered by a smaller school to play tight end instead of tackle to try and flip my commitment.

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The results were pretty close when asked which in-state head coach they'd most like to play for. Leading the way at 21.2 percent was Texas' Steve Sarkisian. There was a three-way tie for second place (17.3 percent) between TCU's Sonny Dykes, Texas A&M's Mike Elko and SMU's Rhett Lashlee. Texas Tech's Joey McGuire was next at 11.5%.

There was a runaway winner with the best in-state football stadium. That went to Texas A&M at 53.8 percent, followed by Texas at 28.8 percent. Texas Tech came in third at 7.7 percent. The Aggies were also the overwhelming winner when it came to best in-state home atmosphere at 63.5 percent, followed by the Longhorns at 21.2 percent and Texas Tech at 7.7 percent.

There was a close decision on which in-state school has the best uniforms. TCU ended up No. 1 at 28.8 percent, followed by SMU at 26.9 percent. Houston was third at 15.4 percent, and then Texas (11.5 percent) and Texas A&M (7.7 percent) rounded out the top 5.

The crown for the best in-state facilities goes to Texas with a resounding 44.2 percent of the vote. Texas Tech came in second at 23.1 percent, followed by Texas A&M at 13.5 percent.

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We also asked the recruits who the best player in the state is besides themselves. The top entry was Willis' Jermaine Bishop with 11. Houston Legacy QB Keisean Henderson was second with eight entries, followed by Frisco Panther ATH Jalen Lott (5).

Other recruits with multiple votes: 

Celina QB Bowe Bentley

Temple DE Jamarion Carlton

Forney RB Javian Osborne

Cy Springs ATH Paris Melvin

Euless Trinity DB John Meredith

Waco University WR London Smith

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Fifty-seven percent of the recruits surveyed said they'd rather build up a program as opposed to playing for a blue blood.

Fifty percent of these recruits said that they thought 7-on-7 helped them in their recruitment, followed by 46.2 percent who said it doesn't help or hurt and then 3.8 percent (just 2 recruits) said it hurt their recruitment.

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The final question we asked was for recruits to list on a scale from 1-to-10 how much they felt their high school coaches were helping them get recruited. Forty-eight percent gave their coaching staff a 10, 17.3 percent rated their coaches a nine and 9.6 percent said five. Only 13.4 percent of the recruits gave their coaches a four-or-less.

Without question, recruits are happy with the support they're receiving from their high school coaching staff when it comes to getting them recruited by college programs from across the country. Great work coaches! Keep it up.