With some of these guys getting drafted, I was looking back at the 2016 in-state class on 247 to see how they were ranked and was pretty shocked at how loaded this class was. Best MN high school class ever? Let's lay it out.
I won't spend too much time on the Gophers in this class because we all know them well, but they included Carter Coughlin, Tyler Johnson, Kamal Martin, Thomas Barber, Sam Schlueter, Conner Olson, and Phillip Howard. That's a pretty incredible haul.
Other guys who went the Big 10 route include future Gopher JD Spielman (wink), Ramaud Bowman who was had a decent career at Northwestern, Patrick Kasl who was considered one of the best players in the class and went to Madison but quit the team to focus on academics, and possibly the best player in the whole class in Amani Hooker who went to Iowa and already has a year in the NFL under his belt.
Other standouts from this class:
-Dillon Radunz an O lineman from Becker was ranked as the 39th best prospect in the state; he was the FCS offensive lineman of the year last season playing LT at NDSU. Should be drafted next year.
-Tommy Doyle from Edina is the starting left tackle for Miami (Ohio) and was named first team All-Mac last season.
-Kayode Awosika from Maple Grove is the starting right tackle at Buffalo and was second team All-MAC last season.
-Elerson Smith from Minneapolis South was the 52nd ranked prospect in the class. He finished with 14 sacks for Northern Iowa last season and was a second team All-American; he's 6'7 and I imagine could also be a NFL draft pick next year.
-Isaiah Weston, another guy who ended up at UNI, by way of St. Michael-Albertville, led Northern Iowa in receiving with 1053 yards and 10 TDs.
-Added UNI note, because they are killing it recruiting in the Twin Cities, true freshman Omar Brown from Minneapolis North picked off 6 passes and was a third-team FCS All American as an 18 year old.
I remember this class being considered loaded at the time but it might look even better in retrospect, how would you rank these guys now??
I won't spend too much time on the Gophers in this class because we all know them well, but they included Carter Coughlin, Tyler Johnson, Kamal Martin, Thomas Barber, Sam Schlueter, Conner Olson, and Phillip Howard. That's a pretty incredible haul.
Other guys who went the Big 10 route include future Gopher JD Spielman (wink), Ramaud Bowman who was had a decent career at Northwestern, Patrick Kasl who was considered one of the best players in the class and went to Madison but quit the team to focus on academics, and possibly the best player in the whole class in Amani Hooker who went to Iowa and already has a year in the NFL under his belt.
Other standouts from this class:
-Dillon Radunz an O lineman from Becker was ranked as the 39th best prospect in the state; he was the FCS offensive lineman of the year last season playing LT at NDSU. Should be drafted next year.
-Tommy Doyle from Edina is the starting left tackle for Miami (Ohio) and was named first team All-Mac last season.
-Kayode Awosika from Maple Grove is the starting right tackle at Buffalo and was second team All-MAC last season.
-Elerson Smith from Minneapolis South was the 52nd ranked prospect in the class. He finished with 14 sacks for Northern Iowa last season and was a second team All-American; he's 6'7 and I imagine could also be a NFL draft pick next year.
-Isaiah Weston, another guy who ended up at UNI, by way of St. Michael-Albertville, led Northern Iowa in receiving with 1053 yards and 10 TDs.
-Added UNI note, because they are killing it recruiting in the Twin Cities, true freshman Omar Brown from Minneapolis North picked off 6 passes and was a third-team FCS All American as an 18 year old.
I remember this class being considered loaded at the time but it might look even better in retrospect, how would you rank these guys now??
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