The Minnesota Gophers have to be excited about the team’s future because they have some promising prospects that can help the team become contenders in the Big Ten by the time they sign with the school. These players are still in high school, so they won’t have an impact on this season’s college football betting lines, but from the 2018 season, they will.
According to reports, one of the most promising players the Gophers are expecting to commit to the team in 2018 is defensive back Nehemiah Montague. Montague hasn’t even played on the varsity team in his high school, but he looked impressive last weekend at the Minnesota Gophers Senior Showcase, where he performed against players older than him.
The final Senior Showcase of the summer was held on July 16, and prospects for the 2017 season came in to compete. While there were many talented players at the showcase, the biggest surprise was Montague, who was better than a lot of the seniors at the showcase.
Montague was very competitive on the field, and he shut down nearly every receiver he was matched up against, while cheering his defensive teammates any time they made a big play.
The Gophers coaches and assistants were very impressed with Montague’s performance and are looking forward to having him on the team when he graduates high school. However, if Montague is as good as the coaches have been saying, Minnesota will have a lot of competition from other schools once the high school junior is eligible to play in college.
While most of the kids Montague’s age participated in Minnesota’s Sunday camp, which is their junior showcase, Montague felt it would be more beneficial to him to participate in the Senior Showcase instead because it provided him with an opportunity to go up against the best players his opponents this fall have.
Montague said he felt the competition would be more intense because the seniors he was going up against are bigger, faster, and stronger. Since he knows he would be facing some of these guys when the season starts, he wanted to test himself against the older players to see if he can hold his own, and to show the coaches watching what he is capable of doing.
The defensive back was also present at Sunday’s showcase, but he did not participate in it. Instead, he watched the wide receivers in action and tried to pick up on the different habits the players have when they are running routes, as a way to prepare for the upcoming season.
Montague, who is the youngest of three brothers, said his older brothers have been teaching him what to do and what not to do his entire life. All three brothers played football at Minnetonka High School, they all played defensive back, and all wore the number 24.
Montague said since 2011, the number 24 has been worn by a Montague, so it is his turn to honor the name and the number. He also added that he learned a lot from his brother, from their successes and mistakes, so he knows he has to avoid the same mistakes they made.