Class of 2014 Offer

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vames

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Posted this earlier on GI.

Was working on the Class of 2013 top player lists and just saw a post that sophomore running back Jeff Jones from Washburn picked an offer from Minnesota. Needless to say....caught me by surprise.
 

I saw him play a couple times this year. He's already one of (if not the) biggest player on the Washburn team. I'm not a recruiting analyst at all, but in his game against Southwest he ran all over them. Not breakaway speed but fast enough and elusive enough to get the job done.
 

Washburn Sophomore RB Jeffrey Jones Gets Early Gopher Interest

Here is a Q&A that GopherHole's Chris Monter did with Jones a few months back:

Washburn Sophomore RB Jeffrey Jones Gets Early Gopher Interest
The sophomore RB is receiving early interest from Minnesota, Michigan State, Iowa State and Wsiconsin.
By Chris Monter

Jeffrey Jones, a 5-foot-10, 180-pound sophomore running back from Minneapolis Washburn, is one of the top players in the state in the Class of 2014. The two-sport standout attended the Minnesota Junior Day and their Friday Night Camp Under The Lights. GopherHole.com recently caught up with Jones to learn the latest on his early recruitment and expectations for his sophomore season.

Jones is receiving recruiting interest from Minnesota, Michigan State, Iowa State and Wsiconsin among other. He attended the Minnesota and Iowa State camps this summer.

Jones helped lead the Millers football team to a 7-4 mark, losing in the Class AAA, Section 2 finals to LeSueur-Henderson 60-32. Jones rushed 128 times for 773 and eight touchdowns as a freshman. Jones had 100 or more rushing yards in four games.

Jones rushed 15 times for 101 and one score against Minneapolis Henry. He had 26 carries for 139 yards and two touchdowns versus Minneapolis South. Jones rushed 20 times for 105 yards against Minneapolis North and had a season-best 17 carries for 200 yards and three touchdowns versus Minneapolis Southwest.

Jones was also a standout on the basketball team. He played on the junior varsity for the Millers and had a strong spring for the Minnesota Heat Select AAU program and played for 43 Hoops in July.

GH: You attended several camps this summer. Were you able to pick up some things that you can utilize in your game this season to make yourself a better player?

JJ: The running back coach is always telling me to stay low and keep my shoulders square. Last year, it was a rookie mistake, because I was a freshman, but now I am starting to get the game and starting to think up one more level from high school

GH: You had a decent number of Washburn players at the Minnesota camp. Did that make it a little bit easier, knowing that there were friends?

JJ: Yes, because if I don’t do good, but the other guys might do good and it would still look good for Washburn.

GH: What are the expectations this season at Washburn? You lost some good seniors, but you have a good group of returning players

JJ: We’ve got everybody back except for big-time wide receiver Cedric Chappell and our lineman who had been a captain since he was a sophomore, Peyton Lauber. Cedric Chappell beign gone, kind of killed our receiving yards, but we’ll replace him with someone else and we’ve got new offensive lineman coming in, so we’ll have a pretty good team this year. We were a young team. We made it to the third round of sections. We lost three or four good seniors. The team expects us to get to state. We lost in the third round and I had a broken finger. I couldn’t do that much, but this year, it is going to be way different.

GH: You were invited to the Minnesota Junior Day, despite being only a freshman. That had to make you feel good?

JJ: Yes. We sat down with the new coaching staff. Coach Jerry Kill seems like a really good coach and the coaching staff looks better than last year. The running back coach talked about what we are going to be working on and pushing us to the limit and not letting us quit. We got to a tour of the buildings and see the locker rooms. We saw the Hall of Fame.

GH: Was that the first time you had seen the campus and what did you think?

JJ: Yes. I had been wanting to go there since I was a little kid. I liked the camps anyways. I think that might be where I am heading to in the future.

GH: What things are you working on to improve yourself as a player?

JJ: I am in the weight room every day from 6:30 to 8:15 except Wednesdays. I have been working out, getting ready for this season, because I was kind of a “lightweight dude: last year and I think that is how we lost in the playoffs because we weren’t in the weight room enough and the other team was bigger than us. I am going to try to step up as a leader this year and get my team in the weight room. I am going to try to get faster in pads, because I know I can run a 4.4 (40-yard dash) now, but in pads, it is a 4.5, almost 4.6. I am going to try to work on being in the weight room and run around with a 30-pound vest on to get used to the pad weight

GH: You run track. Do you think that helps you for football in terms of speed and explosiveness?

JJ: I think that I am getting better form from running track.

GH: You had a good season playing basketball. Do you like basketball or is something to keep you busy?

JJ: I really like basketball as well. I am going to try to get better at it, but that is not my main priority. I mostly likely will be done with basketball my junior year and focus on football.

http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/100473?referrer_id=388419
 

Speaking of 2014 - Bob, what's the word with RJ3? Do we have any shot, or is he Notre Dame/SEC bound?
 




dpodoll68 said:
Speaking of 2014 - Bob, what's the word with RJ3? Do we have any shot, or is he Notre Dame/SEC bound?
Click to expand...

He is an elite passer, but he is still pretty small (he was only a SO this year). He is fairly athletic (played DB for the varsity), but where he really excels is as an accurate and intelligent passer. If he doesn't grow, i'd imagine that the premier programs might shy away a bit. I don't have any inside information about him, but I think a lot of it could depend on how well the Gophers do. If Gray and his successor (Nelson or Shortell) are both effective in our offense, I think that would go a long way towards keeping him interested. He could be a really nice fit into our offense.

He's certainly the golden boy of CDH at the moment, and he works his butt off.

For those who are interested, we are talking about Ricardo Johnson III. He is going to be an elite QB at Cretin and he was a DB last year, as a SO.

http://bigcountypreps.com/180/tag/ricardo-johnson-iii/
http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting/football/recruiting/player-Ricardo-Johnson III-122163

He also has some 10th grade team highlights on youtube.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
He is an elite passer, but he is still pretty small (he was only a SO this year). He is fairly athletic (played DB for the varsity), but where he really excels is as an accurate and intelligent passer. If he doesn't grow, i'd imagine that the premier programs might shy away a bit. I don't have any inside information about him, but I think a lot of it could depend on how well the Gophers do. If Gray and his successor (Nelson or Shortell) are both effective in our offense, I think that would go a long way towards keeping him interested. He could be a really nice fit into our offense.

He's certainly the golden boy of CDH at the moment, and he works his butt off.

For those who are interested, we are talking about Ricardo Johnson III. He is going to be an elite QB at Cretin and he was a DB last year, as a SO.

http://bigcountypreps.com/180/tag/ricardo-johnson-iii/
http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting/football/recruiting/player-Ricardo-Johnson III-122163

He also has some 10th grade team highlights on youtube.
Click to expand...
He looks like he's 12 years old.
 





Is it just me or has this kid manufactured all this hype? He won't even be the starting QB at Cretin next year as a Jr, correct? What are people seeing that make them think he can play D1 football?
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
He is an elite passer, but he is still pretty small (he was only a SO this year). He is fairly athletic (played DB for the varsity), but where he really excels is as an accurate and intelligent passer. If he doesn't grow, i'd imagine that the premier programs might shy away a bit. I don't have any inside information about him, but I think a lot of it could depend on how well the Gophers do. If Gray and his successor (Nelson or Shortell) are both effective in our offense, I think that would go a long way towards keeping him interested. He could be a really nice fit into our offense.

He's certainly the golden boy of CDH at the moment, and he works his butt off.

For those who are interested, we are talking about Ricardo Johnson III. He is going to be an elite QB at Cretin and he was a DB last year, as a SO.

http://bigcountypreps.com/180/tag/ricardo-johnson-iii/
http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting/football/recruiting/player-Ricardo-Johnson III-122163

He also has some 10th grade team highlights on youtube.
Click to expand...

Played for his dad (basketball) in middle school. Had us wearing shirts and ties on gamedays. Stand up man from what I remember
 

sonnygarcia said:
Is it just me or has this kid manufactured all this hype? He won't even be the starting QB at Cretin next year as a Jr, correct? What are people seeing that make them think he can play D1 football?
Click to expand...

I think it's fair to call it hype, because he really hasn't done much and he doesn't have the requisite size yet to be a D1 QB. But when people close to the program talk about RJ3, like he's the next big thing at QB. Whether that hype comes to realization, I don't know. I'd bet it does, because he's a kid like James Onwualu who supposedly is a hard worker, 4.0 student, etc, and he performs really well at these camps.

I think he'll split time with Connor Rhoda for awhile, but it wouldn't surprise me to see him overtake Rhoda at sometime next year.

But yeah, for now, I think it's a lot hype. Sometimes the hype is deserved and sometimes it isn't, I guess we'll see on RJ3.
 



The fact that he's referred to as "RJ3" is laughable. The kid has done absolutely nothing to deserve a nickname.
 

Kuato Lives! said:
The fact that he's referred to as "RJ3" is laughable. The kid has done absolutely nothing to deserve a nickname.
Click to expand...

What does one need to do to deserve a nickname from other teen agers?
They called me the Vanilla Gorilla in high school, I just need to confirm I did enough to earn it. I mostly got it for being really pale and a little on the chunky side.
 

Kuato Lives! said:
The fact that he's referred to as "RJ3" is laughable. The kid has done absolutely nothing to deserve a nickname.
Click to expand...
This is a stupid comment. What did you do to deserve the nickname "Kuato Lives!"? (yes, I would say a moniker is a nickname)
 

Tie? You want me to wear a *tie*? Listen: There's only one time in
a man's life when he should have a rope knotted around his neck, and that
time ain't yet come for me.
-- Canada Bill Jones
 


"Quaid...Quaid...start the reactor..."

kuato-in-total-recall.jpg
 


Kuato Lives! said:
The fact that he's referred to as "RJ3" is laughable. The kid has done absolutely nothing to deserve a nickname.
Click to expand...

He's done nothing but be named Ricardo Johnson III. I knew a lot of kids in HS who were referred to by their initials or other nicknames. It was never to make him sound like RG3, i've heard him referred to as that before "RG3" was a household name.

There are tons of HS kids who have nicknames or go by their initials, the fact that it bothers you is kind of laughable. It's not like his nickname is something like Ricardo "The Greatest" Johnson....it's just his initials.

But since people who are sometimes referred to as their initials, KGM must really annoy you, the D.L. of D.L. Wilhite must be laughable, and i've even heard people refer to Andre McDonald as "Dre".
 

Ricardo Johnson III is a solid young man. He will be competing for the starting job next at CDH. He will have to earn the varsity spot and prove he is D1 worthy. As far as the efforts to get his name out there, I wish every Mn player did the same thing to get national exposure as a player to watch. As of now, he is just that....a player to watch. No reason to start jumping on his family efforts to get him experience and exposure.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
He's done nothing but be named Ricardo Johnson III. I knew a lot of kids in HS who were referred to by their initials or other nicknames. It was never to make him sound like RG3, i've heard him referred to as that before "RG3" was a household name.

There are tons of HS kids who have nicknames or go by their initials, the fact that it bothers you is kind of laughable. It's not like his nickname is something like Ricardo "The Greatest" Johnson....it's just his initials.

But since people who are sometimes referred to as their initials, KGM must really annoy you, the D.L. of D.L. Wilhite must be laughable, and i've even heard people refer to Andre McDonald as "Dre".
Click to expand...
Exactly. One of the lamest critiques of a kid I've ever heard.
 

I am a little confused as to the level of animosity toward a kid who's a sophomore? He seems like a good kid, he's undersized for sure, but he's taller at 16 than the Badger's starting qb and he threw for 2137 yards with 2 picks. I wouldn't exactly call that hype. I live in Florida and those are impressive numbers down here. I cant imagine there are very many kids doing that in Mn. Anyway what can you see in young athletes other than potential ? It looks like he's got that, plus he's a good student and a seemingly poised young man. I hope we see him throwing for the Gophs one day.
 

floridagopher said:
I am a little confused as to the level of animosity toward a kid who's a sophomore? He seems like a good kid, he's undersized for sure, but he's taller at 16 than the Badger's starting qb and he threw for 2137 yards with 2 picks. I wouldn't exactly call that hype. I live in Florida and those are impressive numbers down here. I cant imagine there are very many kids doing that in Mn. Anyway what can you see in young athletes other than potential ? It looks like he's got that, plus he's a good student and a seemingly poised young man. I hope we see him throwing for the Gophs one day.
Click to expand...

I think he will be a good QB and has a very good chance of being a Big 10 caliber QB, however, his numbers are skewed because those were his numbers on the Sophomore team. He was not the starting QB at Cretin at as SO and he will split time next season with Conor Rhoda (eventually I believe he will be the starter next season).

He's an athletic guy, he should grow into a Big 10 QB (physically), and he has impressed at all the summer camps....so it'll be exciting to see what he does.

As far as people questioning him for not starting as a SO, that's the Cretin way (for better or worse). Joe Mauer did not start until he was a JR and he wasn't playing behind a QB who was anywhere near D1 caliber. The joke around the football team (I was a year older than Joe), so from when I was a SO on, was that the best QB in the entire school was playing for the Freshman team.
 


First look at some of the names for the Class of 2014 that had impressive seasons for a sophomore.

Reid Travis, 6’6 190, QB, DeLaSalle - In 8 games, completed 107 of 206 passes for 1694 yards and 18touchdowns.

Jacques Parra, 6’3 180, QB, Roseville Area – 2011 All-Pioneer Press. 2011 All-Conference. In 8 games, completed 115 of 248 passes for 1558 yard and 16 touchdowns.

Travon Hearns, 6’4 210, QB, Bloomington Kennedy - In 9 games, has completed 66 of 133 passes for 842 yards and 9 touchdowns.

Jeff Jones, 6’0 190, RB, Minneapolis Washburn – Received offer from Minnesota. 2011 All-Conference. In 9 games, has 141 carries for 1310 yards for 9.3 ypc and 18 touchdowns. Had 11 receptions for 75 yards. In 10 games as a freshman, had 128 carries for 773 yards for 6 ypc and 8 TDs.

Chris Williams, 5’8 160, RB, DeLaSalle - In 8 games, has 124 carries for 893 yards for 7.2 ypc and 9 touchdowns. Had 12 receptions for 112 yards. In 12 games as a freshman, had 22 receptions for 345 yards for 15.7 ypc and 4 TDs.

Zach Hovey, 6’4 220, TE, Eden Prairie – In 6 games, has 6 receptions for 154 yards and 1 touchdown.

Zack Melbostad, 6’2 170, WR, La Crescent - In 6 games, has 33 receptions for 577 yard and 3 TDs. Had 20 carries for 215 yards and 2 TDs. Averaging 14.8 PPG in basketball.

Cody Scherff, 6’5 205, WR, Albert Lea – 2011 All Conferece.

Joe Wagner, 6’4 210, OL, Cretin-Derham Hall – Starting offensive tackle.

Andrew Stelter, 6’3 215, OL, Owatonna – 2011 All Conference

Mitch Merten, 220, OL, Holdingford – 2011 All Area Team.

Ed Penson, 6’3 290, OL, Cretin-Derham Hall

Frederick Schroeder, 6’3 225, OL, Hopkins – Started all games as a sophomore.

Preston Woods, 6’3 280, DL/OL South Saint Paul – Two way starter on 11-2 team as a sophomore. Had 16 tackles (14 solo), 9 TFL, 2 sacks, 3 knockdowns, 2 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery, 3 pass breakups, and 1 safety. Bench 330. Squat is 510.

Drew Greely, 6’2 210, DE, Wayzata – In 11 games, has 37 tackles (24solo), 2 sacks, 8 TFLs, 1 INT, 2 hurries, 3 PBUs and 4 PD.

Christian Triplett, 6’3 245, DE, Delano - In 10 games, has 57 tackles (36 solo), 3 sacks, 1 TFL, 1 fumble recovered, and 1 punt blocked.

Steele Berg, 6’1 180, LB, Wayzata – In 9 games, had 37 tackles (31 solo), 4 TFL, 1 sack, and 4 QB hurries.

Payton Jordahl, 6’1 185, LB, Perham – 2011 All-Conference.

Ejodamen Ejiya, 6’2 170, LB, Spring Lake Park - 2011 All Conferece.

Kyle Kalivoda, 5’10 150, DB, Wayzata – In 13 games, had 58 tackles (41 solo), 3 TFL, 3 INTs, 7 PD, and 4 PBUs.

Blake Banham, 5’8 160, DB, Cretin-Derham Hall – 2011 All-Pioneer Press. All-Conference HM.
 

Vames

Thanks Vames - That is a very impresive list for a group of sophmores. I am going to save this list and look at how they are doing at the end of the 2012 and 2013 seasons. It would be great to have another Minnesota class like the 2012 class.
 


Kuato Lives! said:
The fact that he's referred to as "RJ3" is laughable. The kid has done absolutely nothing to deserve a nickname.
Click to expand...

I was nicknamed "Buzz" when I was 1 year old. I will have to remember to chastise my parents since I hadn't really done anything to earn that nickname yet. I didn't even have a buzzcut and I didn't make buzzing noises!
 

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