Carter Coughlin is the Gophers top 2016 recruit and is expected to visit Minnesota again this upcoming weekend before making a final decision.
Bob Coughlin was the Minneapolis Star Tribune co-Metro Player of the Year in 1985 and signed with Minnesota, where he lettered in football for the Gophers. However, he is now known more as being the father of Eden Prairie’s standout linebacker Carter Coughlin, the top high school junior in the state.
Gopher Hole recently caught up with Coughlin to learn more about his son’s recruitment.
Gopher Hole: Your son is being recruited for football. You went through that same experience a long time ago. Through him, have you seen a big difference in the way that you were recruited?
Bob Coughlin: It was way too long ago. I’ve been hit in the head too many times to remember (joking). You know, that I think that it has changed in the fact that it is so much earlier. It is a process. The scope of it with all the websites. That is the big difference, but it is still the coaches contacting the players and following up and getting them into schools. It is the same, but the intensity is different.
Gopher Hole: When you were being recruited by Minnesota, when did you commit?
Bob Coughlin: It was probably two weeks before the signing day when I committed. That was what everyone did. Everybody waited. There were no juniors ever committing. Most kids didn’t get scholarship offers until after they played their senior year. Very few people got in early, so that is way different now.
Gopher Hole: Your son told me recently that he is going to commit fairly soon and he is not going to his senior year yet.
Bob Coughlin: I think for him, as he has talked to me, is that he is developing relationships with these coaches. They are flying in to watch games. Contacting him and he has been able to visit the schools that he has got an interest in. He said that he knows his top three and he has visited them, so now he can make a decision and just wants to enjoy high school, so he doesn’t have to worry about it and doesn’t have to lead these coaches on.
Gopher Hole: Do you think that it helps him having you, who hasn’t gone through the exact same experience, but someone who knows what he is going through a little bit?
Bob Coughlin: Yes. My wife, too. She was a tennis player at the “U” and was recruited by all these colleges, so it helps giving perspective, but again, the truth is, he is the one going through it. He comes to us and we help the levels set. They (the coaches) get paid to say these things. They are great salesmen and they are active. They have done a great job. The coaches have been great. It helps talking to him.
Gopher Hole: You both went to Minnesota and you have other family members who went to Minnesota. I know that you want him to go wherever he wants to go and you want the best for him, but it is ever hard to not push for him to stay close to home where you can see him play much more often?
Bob Coughlin: Our exact thing is that “we actually like you, we want you to be here.” Selfishly, if we could choose for him, it would be over, but it has got to be his decision and he has narrowed it down to three great schools and if he picked any one of those three, we would be excited for him. Probably devastated inside, because the University has done an excellent job. A great coaching staff. They help turn young men into men and that is what I love about the program, but the other programs that he is looking at, do a great job, too. We hope he stays, but if he chooses to go, we are going to get excited for what he decides.
Gopher Hole: Like I told him recently, he really can’t go wrong. Oregon and Ohio State were in the national championship game and Minnesota is where you have a lot of ties.
Bob Coughlin: And they are playing amazing football. Seven points to Ohio State. I was sitting across the table to Urban Meyer at breakfast and I think before he figured out who is competition was, his exact comment was that Minnesota was by far the best defense his team played all year and then he started figuring out that is who is competing with. He got quiet quick. When you talk about Minnesota, you are talking about an elite program. The facilities are going to be better than anyone else because they will be newer. Great coach. Coach of the Year. A great, amazing program. Great, amazing football. Great education. So it is great, great or great, but Minnesota is great, make no mistakes about it.
Gopher Hole: Do you think that he will be glad to have the decision over with?
Bob Coughlin: He wants it done, so I think that he has a visit set up with Minnesota on the 7th of March and he said that he wants to pull the trigger within the next week after that because he wants to be done.
Gopher Hole: Will you kind of be glad that it is done too?
Bob Coughlin: Yes. People keep asking me.
Gopher Hole: Do you get that a lot?
Bob Coughlin: 15-20 times a day.