Grant Schmidt, a 6-6 1/2 , 290-pound junior offensive tackle from Sioux Falls (SD) Roosevelt, has a scholarship from Minnesota and is one of their top recruiting targets from the Class of 2015. Schmidt has taken a number of visits to Minnesota, and most recently attended a spring practice this past weekend.
Gopher Hole caught up with Schmidt to learn the latest on his recruitment.
Gopher Hole: You attended a recent Minnesota practice. What was that experience like?
Grant Schmidt: It was a nice one. I got to see Coach Limegrover coach a little bit in an everyday setting and not a game setting. It is a little bit different than a game because it is what everyday life is like, so it was definitely cool to see.
Gopher Hole: Have you had a chance to visit Minnesota any other times?
Grant Schmidt: I went down to a basketball game when they played Indiana.
Gopher Hole: Have you been to any other campuses?
Grant Schmidt: This spring, I have been to quite a few. I have been to Iowa once, Iowa State, who I have gotten an offer from. I went to Nebraska once, too.
Gopher Hole: How many offers are you up to right now? The last I saw was eight. Does that sound right?
Grant Schmidt: I have nine right now. I just one from Rutgers today.
Gopher Hole: I think that you have Cincinnati, Iowa State, Minnesota, North Carolina, South Dakota State, Utah, Washington State, Wyoming and Rutgers. Does that sound right?
Grant Schmidt: Yes.
Gopher Hole: What other schools are you hearing from besides those nine?
Grant Schmidt: I get a lot of mail from some schools and I talk to a lot of different coaches on Facebook. We’ll see who is really interested and who come up this spring. You have to fly up to South Dakota to come to see me. You know what I mean. That is going to be the time that I really find out who is interested.
Gopher Hole: Have you thought about football camps for this summer?
Grant Schmidt: A little bit. Me and my family have drafted up some plans, but we are going to see how this spring evaluation period goes and evaluate the plans from there and set some stuff in stone.
Gopher Hole: Minnesota has their spring game this weekend. Are you planning on going to any spring games?
Grant Schmidt: I am going to Iowa State’s spring game this weekend.
Gopher Hole: Any other plans to make some upcoming visits?
Grant Schmidt: No.
Gopher Hole: I know that it is still so early being only a junior, but have you thought when you would even try to decide on a school? Would you try to decide before your senior year or have you even thought that far?
Grant Schmidt: Oh, yes definitely. Our school, Roosevelt, made it to the state championship game last year and we are supposed to win it this year. We are picked to win it. I don’t know if that is the “kiss of death” or not, but we are working really hard to get that done and there are a couple of us on our team that are getting recruited and we have all been making a conscious effort to it about a team thing and about us getting to state and not about this recruiting thing. I want this all to be done with by summer, so that is the goal.
Gopher Hole: Last year, you had an excellent season, finishing 9-2. You lost, unfortunately, to Lincoln twice, including in the state championship game. Did they lose a lot of their players?
Grant Schmidt: Lincoln lost a big part of their “O” line and their running back, which is what did the real damage on us in the run game. They lost a ton of their guys up front on their defense and their linebacking corp. We lost a lot of our defense this year. We lost our whole secondary. A lot of offensive guys are going to have to play both ways, which isn’t something we usually do at Roosevelt. Our offense, we are keeping most of our guys on offense. We lost two guards and two wide receivers and our running back, but he split time with a running back that we have coming back. We are pretty set for offense and we are excited.
Gopher Hole: Will you play Lincoln in the regular season again this year?
Grant Schmidt: Yes.
Gopher Hole: Is that a game that you have already circled on the schedule to get back at them a little?
Grant Schmidt: A little bit. How it is, our schedule starts really hard. We will usually play the top five teams in the state our first four games, is how it usually ends up. Then we go to West River schools, which is kind of bad after that. We are concentrating on the first game because you have to win one at a time. We are playing against Brandon Valley, so we have that one circled and we are getting ready for it.
Gopher Hole: You won the state title your freshman year. How great would it be to finish out your high school career with another state title?
Grant Schmidt: That would great. That is the goal. That is what we really want to do. Our class is a pretty tight class. We all know each other well and grew up together. It is really what we want to do.
Gopher Hole: When you finally make your decision, what is going to be the main factors that is going to make you pick School A over School B or C?
Grant Schmidt: I would say that distance is not a factor, actually. That doesn’t really matter to me as much because I am the type of guy who goes where the opportunity is. What the program is looking like, who their head coach is and what their philosophy is and the relationship with the “O” line coach and also what their strength and conditioning training is like. I really like to see those strength and conditioning coaches because they help develop players a lot and you are going to spend a lot of time with that person.
Gopher Hole: It seems like you have a good relationship with Coach Limegrover. What is that relationship like?
Grant Schmidt: It is a pretty open deal. If I ever have any questions, I can shoot him a message on Facebook and usually by the end of the day, he will message me back We get along really well. He is a really nice guy and he is a great coach, I think.
Gopher Hole: Are you going to try to get back to Minnesota any time in the near future?
Grant Schmidt: I think that I will probably come up there this summer, maybe shoot for a camp date, maybe just a weekend date because we have workouts, open fields and Power (training) during the week for our football team and I don’t want to miss any of that going to a camp that I don’t necessarily need to go to. I can go to Minnesota on a weekend. That is probably the plan.
Gopher Hole: What things are you really working on top continue to improve yourself not only senior year, but to get ready to play at that collegiate level?
Grant Schmidt: My upper body strength is lacking. I could probably only bench 275 at the beginning of the season. I have gotten that up 25, 30 pounds, but I need to keep working on that because at the next level, you are going to need that strength. I have big legs and I have always been able to squat and clean a ton, so I am kind of there, but I am working on that and speed. I am a little light right now, 273 or 274 and right now, I am just trying to put on a lot of muscle because there is no need for me to weight 300 my senior season, but I am going to have to play both ways. I think 285 would be nice. That is no gut or anything, so when I come in after my redshirt freshman year, depending on how much weight I need to put on, I’ll have some more leeway on that. That is the plan.
Gopher Hole: It sounds like you have leaned out and lost some weight because weren’t you around 290 last year?
Grant Schmidt: Probably at my heaviest, I was 285, 290. I carried that pretty well, but then when we got to the end of the season, I had just lost the weight because I realized that I had a little bit of a gut on me. You couldn’t really see it in a T-shirt, but when I was wearing a super tight jersey, I had a little gut. I kind of lost that as the season went on. I just that run its course. I started eating healthier because I want to take this football thing as serious as I can and the fat just kind of came off and know I am left pretty lean but a little light, so I have to put on a little more muscle.
Gopher Hole: Can you tell that it has helped you in terms of foot work and speed a little bit?
Grant Schmidt: Yes. My foot work has always been pretty good. We started learning a kick slide in eighth grade here, so I have been doing it for a long time. You can definitely tell that my speed has picked up again. I can dunk a 180 again like I used to be able to do when I used to play basketball, so it is cool to get your vert about 30 again, which hit was at the end of Power, so I was pretty pumped about that. It was kind of fun because now I am a lot lighter and more athletic, so it is cool.