BleedGopher
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per Pat:
Mike Grant learned several things about coaching from his father, Bud, and the most important was common sense. He told the defense to keep Connelly for the rest of the playoff run.
Shaeffer headed off to St. Thomas, where he was the point guard for an NCAA Division III national title basketball team in 2016. Connelly returned to quarterback for Eden Prairie and the Eagles were state champs again — three in a row — in 2013.
Connelly was 6-3 and 215 or so, with a chance to add pounds. He also was a lacrosse standout, a tribute to the mobility that went with toughness, intelligence and zeal to win.
“Ryan was a terrific athlete,” Shaeffer said. “I wasn’t going to be surprised by anything he accomplished in football.”
Nor was Mike Grant.
“I tried to tell everybody that he was a Big Ten player,” Grant said. “The Gophers kept saying they weren’t sure. Wisconsin was the only one that listened.”
The Gophers’ reluctance was in line with most recruiters. North Dakota State and the rest of the FCS schools surrounding Minnesota weren’t interested in offering a scholarship.
“The only scholarship was UMD [Minnesota Duluth],” Connelly said. “Mike Grant was talking to schools for me. And I had another connection to Ben Strickland, the recruiting coordinator at Wisconsin. The Badgers offered me a preferred walk-on, and I took it on the spot.”
http://www.startribune.com/eden-pra...laymakers-football-recruiters-miss/467964543/
Go Gophers!!
Mike Grant learned several things about coaching from his father, Bud, and the most important was common sense. He told the defense to keep Connelly for the rest of the playoff run.
Shaeffer headed off to St. Thomas, where he was the point guard for an NCAA Division III national title basketball team in 2016. Connelly returned to quarterback for Eden Prairie and the Eagles were state champs again — three in a row — in 2013.
Connelly was 6-3 and 215 or so, with a chance to add pounds. He also was a lacrosse standout, a tribute to the mobility that went with toughness, intelligence and zeal to win.
“Ryan was a terrific athlete,” Shaeffer said. “I wasn’t going to be surprised by anything he accomplished in football.”
Nor was Mike Grant.
“I tried to tell everybody that he was a Big Ten player,” Grant said. “The Gophers kept saying they weren’t sure. Wisconsin was the only one that listened.”
The Gophers’ reluctance was in line with most recruiters. North Dakota State and the rest of the FCS schools surrounding Minnesota weren’t interested in offering a scholarship.
“The only scholarship was UMD [Minnesota Duluth],” Connelly said. “Mike Grant was talking to schools for me. And I had another connection to Ben Strickland, the recruiting coordinator at Wisconsin. The Badgers offered me a preferred walk-on, and I took it on the spot.”
http://www.startribune.com/eden-pra...laymakers-football-recruiters-miss/467964543/
Go Gophers!!