“Where are you going to college?”

Recruiting is an essential part of the high school football conscience, and anxiety is the axis it wobbles on. Its rules, unwritten and written, are ever-changing. Even the best-connected high school coaches don’t know exactly what to tell their players — not about the transfer portal; or name, image and likeness (NIL); or why a spot on a college roster that once would have been all but guaranteed is no longer open.

On these nights in Severn, Washington will do everything, and have everything, a Power Five coach wants in a quarterback. He leads one of the country’s 100 best high school football teams, who will play for the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association title Sunday. He’s a composite four-star recruit and a “blue-chip prospect,” which, independent of the era, remains the ultimate commodity in college football.

Washington, who holds scholarship offers from Maryland, Penn State and Oregon among many other schools, is a rare recruit who seems unbothered by the process. He also doesn’t have an answer yet. A consummate teammate, he lobbies for his Cavaliers peers when he talks to college coaches.

Though many of his teammates will eye a future in college football — and, by their coach’s estimation, would have held plenty of offers a decade ago — most won’t have the same balmy process as Washington. At Spalding, coaches have guided everyone from four-star prospects down to those at the fringes of college football. But recruiting’s new reality means a lot remains out of their control.

Local coaches estimate there are somewhere between 30 to 50 percent fewer spots on Division I rosters for high school recruits than there were even five years ago. Several high school coaches suggest the NCAA mandate college programs to take a certain percentage of high-schoolers.

“It’s frustrating to talk to them and their parents and explain: ‘You’re doing everything right, you’re getting good grades, you’re playing great football. But this is out of your control. Five years ago, you’d have 15 or 20 offers to all the MAC and Group of Five schools; now you have two or three,’ ” said Pat Ward, the coach at St. John’s, a local and national power.

“They just want an opportunity.”

Spalding senior Jameson Coffman understands why Division I offers haven’t come in yet.

He was a lacrosse star first and has committed to Maryland Baltimore County, though football programs know he has kept his recruitment open. He didn’t prioritize regularly posting his football film or attend the camps that Division I recruits typically attend until this year. He’s a senior, and time is running out.

His football acumen suggests an absence of scholarship offers is ludicrous. He is a 6-1 wrecking ball in the middle of the field. Entering the MIAA championship game, he has nine rushing touchdowns and seven receiving scores. Washington compared him with New Orleans Saints uber-utility player Taysom Hill and said he’s good enough to eventually play on Sundays. Saturdays, at the least, shouldn’t be out of the question.

“I’ve always been confident in myself,” Coffman said. “I’m around a bunch of guys who are the best at their position in the state. … [Their support] really made me realize how much more I could achieve. … They’re like, ‘You can definitely be at that top level.’ ”

Spalding Coach Kyle Schmitt said that, in past years, Coffman’s talent and doggedness would have compensated for a late ascent. He is a player who belongs on a Division I roster. But in the eyes of Division I schools, a late bloomer could be considered a “project.”

In 2023, “project” is a difficult label to shake. Ever since the NCAA changed its transfer rules and no longer required transfers to sit out a season, schools have a larger pool than ever to choose from. Power Five schools can pluck once-undervalued players who shined at Football Championship Subdivision and Division II schools and are now ready, as 21- and 22-year-olds, to get their shot with the big boys.

High school recruits, save for the top prospects, get squeezed.

“Imagine if, in NFL free agency, everyone in the league was free to sign with a new team,” Schmitt said. “The draft wouldn’t be quite as relevant as it is now [except] for the first couple of rounds. That’s what you see now [in college]. There’s just such an expansive pool of players that you can fill needs with.”

High school coaches, for the most part, don’t blame their collegiate peers. The average Football Bowl Subdivision head coach has been at his school for just 3.7 years. An 18-year-old with a high ceiling but present-day limitations doesn’t do much for a coach if he’s gone by the time the player is ready to contribute. Particularly in the trenches, in the secondary and under center, Schmitt said, coaches prioritize experience and college tape.

Coffman, like many recruits, is looking to stay at one school. Despite the transfer portal’s popularity, many freshmen want to develop in one spot. And there’s a distinct value, high school coaches say, in seeing a player’s evolution over four years.

“Unfortunately, I think player development may begin to deteriorate at a lot of these programs when you can go find something fast,” Schmitt said. “A late bloomer, those redshirt type of guys, there’s not that real long look at them to see if you can take them in your senior season. They don’t have the spots. They’re going to allot those spots to transfers. And why wouldn’t you? It’s not the college coaches’ fault. It’s the system that’s created this.”

Coffman’s mind is nevertheless set on Division I athletics. He has always valued competition — that’s why he plays two sports and why he and his teammates chose MIAA football. That’s what Division I programs represent, along with ever-valuable athletic scholarships. If the offers don’t come, so be it. He still has a spot at UMBC.

When Tyler Brown’s first Division I offer came, the Spalding safety sat in his kitchen crying as he relayed to his mom that, after more than 10 years on the gridiron, he had a spot on a college football roster. Rhode Island, an FCS program, offered him a spot following a breakout junior season in which Brown nabbed eight interceptions. He had earned a free college education.

Offers continued to arrive in the ensuing months, from schools that matched his academic, athletic and theological priorities. But they weren’t Power Five offers. He heard what many recruits hear from well-meaning family members and friends who don’t understand college football’s new landscape: “You deserve better.”

“It was an emotional roller coaster,” said Brown, who committed to Liberty. “I was young. I was wondering about what everyone else had. I had to go through that growth process and understand what’s meant for me will happen at its own pace. But now …”

He paused to collect his thoughts.

“In my mind, I believe I deserve what I have. I’m where my feet are at. I was just grateful for every opportunity I’ve got.”

At top local high schools, coaches constantly sift through the noise and ask college coaches for advice and transparency. They try to relay recruiting’s new rules: You’ve got to get your foot in the door before classes fill with transfers; Instagram is going to make it seem as though everyone is better off than you; you should commit to a school, rather than a coach on a short leash; and you should check a school’s transfer portal activity. And there’s plenty of information even the most adept coaches don’t know.

When Brown chats with his teammates, there isn’t as much anxiety. Players listen, congratulate and support. If a coach talks to two players, they share notes. If two players are interested in the same school, they’ll identify who else the school is recruiting. Above all, they care about honesty and transparency.

“Just keep it real,” Washington said. “I’m a regular kid, but I’m also mature enough to have these conversations.”

They also hold out hope for those who haven’t gotten their due. Not everyone is so bullish.

“If you’re in a place like St. John’s, you’re in a good spot because there’s so much traffic,” Ward said. “Who I really worry about is teams that don’t have the same means or history or who are geographically far out, where coaches don’t go as much.”

Plenty of unanswered questions remain, particularly around NIL. There are concerns that it will alter locker room dynamics. Coaches ask their players to read NIL clauses closely, particularly as it pertains to transferring. Some think the NCAA may move toward a salary cap system, where NIL money is capped.

Some are worried about an influx of business executives with outside interests who aren’t afraid to pull NIL money if a player isn’t performing on the field. A handful of local coaches said they support players being paid but worry schools aren’t teaching them enough about financial literacy. Some coaches believe NIL will drive more players to remain close to home, able to build on a brand in a location where they’re known as a commodity.

A player such as Washington would fit that bill. But those who know him know better. For now, Washington said, that’s unimportant.

“I’m just a 17-year-old kid,” he said. “I’m not really worried about making a whole lot of money right now. I just want to play football. I leave that to the side. I’ll let my parents handle that, and I’ll focus on being a great quarterback.”

Washington still doesn’t have an answer for the kids who want to know where he’s going. He’s leaning toward committing in the spring. But that doesn’t mean they won’t speculate or that the recruiting terrain won’t tilt once more and alter his decision. Somehow he’s still both unfazed and realistic about it all.

“At any moment, it can all be taken away,” Washington said. “So I just cherish it.”