Brian Vossen on Potential of Gophers Offering Greg Menard: “I think it is a no-brainer to make that offer.”

Greg Menard, a junior defensive end from Lakeville North, has picked up plenty of mid major interest and is hoping that a strong summer camp could lead to an offer from the homestate school. He attended several Gophers game, including home contests versus New Hampshire, Northwestern and Michigan last fall. 

 

Menard helped lead the Panthers to the state Class 6A Prep Bowl, where they lost to Eden Prairie.

 

Gopher Hole caught up with Lakeville North head coach Brian Vossen to learn the latest on his standout’s recruitment.

 

 

Brian Vossen: NDSU, SDSU, USD, Army, Illinois State and Montana have made official offers. Harvard and Princeton have both came in and showed interest as well. They, obviously, do not do athletic offers.

 

 

Brian Vossen: UND has been in, but has not offered yet. I anticipate that they would. Wyoming showed interest early. The University of Northern Illinois was in. The Gophers have been in. He is going to go to one of their one-day camps and they are going to evaluated him there. He fits their caliber.

 

 

Brian Vossen: I do. I am always a little bit baffled by the recruiting process. There have been other kids that I thought could play at a higher level, maybe not Big Ten, that didn’t get the same excitement, but he is more than deserving of it. I think that at his height, I am excited that no one seems to mind that he is not your classic 6-5, 260-pound D-end. There seems like schools in his situation are recognizing the effort and desire and all that stuff that you don’t always see from the big ones. 

 

 

Brian Vossen: He has got to be 15 to 20 pounds heavier than that. He is pretty solid. He was measured at one place at 6-2. He admits that there is plenty of hair in that measurement. 

 

 

Brian Vossen: The only reason that would keep other schools from being interested is his height and not anything more. His situation, I think is unique in that I think that he is athletic enough to play outside linebacker. We hope to play him there some this upcoming season and depending on how he does, may open up some opportunities for him at the higher levels. I also know that he is planning on heading out to a bunch of camps this summer, hoping to get recognized at camps and maybe play fast enough that height doesn’t matter. 

 

 

Brian Vossen: He hasn’t said for sure, but I know that there was a stretch where he was thinking about going to the NDSU camp, but he has gotten the NDSU offer. I know that he is going to do a Gopher one-day. I think that he is doing a Northwestern camp because they have all the MAC schools that are there and one of the coaches from South Dakota State said that he had already signed up for the camp, but that could be something that was before he got the offer. I feel that once you get offered at a 1-AA, you might as well spent time at a higher level camp and make something happen. I know that the Gophers and I am pretty the Northwestern camp, just because of the MAC exposure.

 

 

Brian Vossen: Just exceptionally fast. Very explosive. I don’t that there is another O or D lineman that is as relentless as he is. He doesn’t quit, so the motor never stops going. I think that a passing team and we saw this a lot last year, an average team might hold on to the football for three or four seconds. Teams that know he is rushing will hold onto for one to two. He is forcing bad throws. Otherwise, if they hang onto it longer than that two second mark, he is there. He is far and away faster than every single offensive lineman in the state. I don’t know if there is an offensive lineman who can block him, so you are going to have to use a running back or an extra tight end and even that, you’d better be damn quick, even if there is two of you because he doesn’t quit. The schools that I have talked to that is what they are excited about, is that regardless of his height, they know that in long yard situations, he can offer something that lots of kids can’t. 

 

 

Brian Vossen: Obviously, there are always areas to improve in, but he is already our top guy. I would say more than anything, to get better in open space and open field tackling, so that he can play on two feet without a hand on the ground, so that he can maybe read from an outside linebacker prospective. I can’t imagine that we will ever waste him on pass dropping when we can use him for blitzing a quarterback, but that would be an area when he goes to camps that he will have to show that he is quick enough to cover his own flat or hook the curl.

 

 

Brian Vossen: To be honest, most are looking at him playing defensive end in the four-front. There have been a lot of teams that have said whatever weakside end doesn’t need to be that tall. Every school has a different name for him, but basically just a rush side defensive end. A defensive end that is not going to get hit with a tight end and a tackle, where you can allow to widen out and rush and make tackles and cause some panic for the tackle. 

 

 

Brian Vossen: Yes. The Gophers have been in and talked about him. They are very calculated with how they set their offers. I know that their interest level is high and I know that Jerry Kill has looked at the film and he liked the effort that he saw from him. I know that Greg made it out to a practice or two and had a chance to talk to the guys on their staff. I think that they want to see him out at camp. I know that he signed up for one of their senior one-day camps and I imagine from there, they will decide if he is worthy of an offer or not. I like what the Gophers are doing. I don’t think that there is any rush or hurry to do that in my eyes or in Greg’s eyes. But looking at the talent that the Gophers have right now and what the type of kid that Greg is. I think it is a no-brainer to make that offer. You have absolutely nothing to lose by bringing Greg in with an offer.