JohnnyGopher
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Since it will take longer to get a plan together on possible outstate kids to recruit, I think Coach Kill and staff(when they get here) should and will start with locking up the current commits and then move on to the remaining Minnesota kids. I'm sure Coach Kill will get plenty of reccomendations from the high school coaches when he meets with them on potential kids he should be looking at. Brewster came in with the same big talk of visiting every school and looking for diamonds in the ruff but the reality is he wasn't very interested in most MN kids and never took the time to find the Karl Klugs and Marcus Williams. I think Coach Kill is much more sincere and will give most of the in state kids an honest look.
I would first go to visit with Crawford-Tufts, Westerhaus, and Olsen and just make absolute sure they are still on board. Next I would make a drive to Rosemount and invite Mr. Bjorklund on an official visit and then meet with his coaches and study film on him so I would be ready to make him an offer on his visit. Next trip would be to Minnetonka to try to talk James Farrow into reconsidering Minnesota. MN has produced some great WR's the past few years(Floyd, Fitzgerald, Swift, Gilreath, Decker) but we have had very few big time CB's and Farrow will be an immediate impact player in college, both in the secondary and in kick return game. His dad was a Gopher(hopefully not a member of SGF) and he committed to us once already so you have to make him your best pitch and who knows, would work on him up until signing day. Tyler Marz would be worth a trip to talk too but I don't think he is the kind of kid who goes back on his word, but give it a shot. Anthoney Hayes never looked at anyone but Stanford so unless Harbough leaves, don't waste your time.
After that is a bunch of borderline kids on the edge of Big Ten/Big 12 vs. MAC, Dakota schools which every year there are about 10 kinds in this range. This is where coaches earn some of there money. Wisconsin and Iowa do a great job at evaluating these type of kids and I believe to succeed at MN, you have to do the same. You will never hit on them all but need to be right more than not and at least give them all a solid look and proper evaluation.
This year I would think Gandy from DeLaSalle will be at the top of your list. Opinions are always very split on the DLS running backs like Evan Williams and Alex Robinson, but you have to at least give him a very hard look, maybe he fits with there style, maybe not. Veldman from Eastview is another strong candidate at Safety. Is he fast enough for them, who knows but give him a good look. Heifort is another, is he another Karl Klug? Levine at EP, tough call, look at what Corey Frazier is doing at Rice, may get squeezed out if they load up on juco secondary players. Never seen the Jacobs OL from Delano, may not have room if they take Bjorklund. The osseo Kids Sonnefield and Jackson. I wasn't that impressed with Jackson at WR and think we can find better nationally and even though Sonnefield has committed to the Bizon, we could flip him easily but I would rather have Veldman at S. The big Lineman in St Cloud is too slow and not a big fan of Athey at EP even though he is a West Virginia commit. There is a running back in Brainard putting up big numbers but he would be a walk-on candidate.
Last, I would make a trip up to Glencoe-Silver lake just to make sure there aren't anymore VanDeSteeg's or Hoese flying under the radar, those are some tuff kids with alot of heart.
I would first go to visit with Crawford-Tufts, Westerhaus, and Olsen and just make absolute sure they are still on board. Next I would make a drive to Rosemount and invite Mr. Bjorklund on an official visit and then meet with his coaches and study film on him so I would be ready to make him an offer on his visit. Next trip would be to Minnetonka to try to talk James Farrow into reconsidering Minnesota. MN has produced some great WR's the past few years(Floyd, Fitzgerald, Swift, Gilreath, Decker) but we have had very few big time CB's and Farrow will be an immediate impact player in college, both in the secondary and in kick return game. His dad was a Gopher(hopefully not a member of SGF) and he committed to us once already so you have to make him your best pitch and who knows, would work on him up until signing day. Tyler Marz would be worth a trip to talk too but I don't think he is the kind of kid who goes back on his word, but give it a shot. Anthoney Hayes never looked at anyone but Stanford so unless Harbough leaves, don't waste your time.
After that is a bunch of borderline kids on the edge of Big Ten/Big 12 vs. MAC, Dakota schools which every year there are about 10 kinds in this range. This is where coaches earn some of there money. Wisconsin and Iowa do a great job at evaluating these type of kids and I believe to succeed at MN, you have to do the same. You will never hit on them all but need to be right more than not and at least give them all a solid look and proper evaluation.
This year I would think Gandy from DeLaSalle will be at the top of your list. Opinions are always very split on the DLS running backs like Evan Williams and Alex Robinson, but you have to at least give him a very hard look, maybe he fits with there style, maybe not. Veldman from Eastview is another strong candidate at Safety. Is he fast enough for them, who knows but give him a good look. Heifort is another, is he another Karl Klug? Levine at EP, tough call, look at what Corey Frazier is doing at Rice, may get squeezed out if they load up on juco secondary players. Never seen the Jacobs OL from Delano, may not have room if they take Bjorklund. The osseo Kids Sonnefield and Jackson. I wasn't that impressed with Jackson at WR and think we can find better nationally and even though Sonnefield has committed to the Bizon, we could flip him easily but I would rather have Veldman at S. The big Lineman in St Cloud is too slow and not a big fan of Athey at EP even though he is a West Virginia commit. There is a running back in Brainard putting up big numbers but he would be a walk-on candidate.
Last, I would make a trip up to Glencoe-Silver lake just to make sure there aren't anymore VanDeSteeg's or Hoese flying under the radar, those are some tuff kids with alot of heart.
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