Regis Coach Thinks Lincoln Plsek Would Make A Good Gopher

Regis Catholic finished 5-5 as they were besieged by injuries, including a high ankle sprain to Plsek that caused him to miss a game. Regis has been a football power as they won four private school titles from 2004 to 2009.

GopherHole.com caught up with Waggoner to learn the latest on Plsek’s recruitment.

What did Lincoln say about the visit to Minnesota?

Mark Waggoner: He enjoyed the visit and really liked it a lot. He was impressed by it. It is usually 110 degree down here, although today it is 35. Normally when you get up to the cold, it is fun for us to go up there once and awhile. He had a really good visit. He really like the coaching staff there, the players that he was with. He liked all of them. I think that he was really, really happy with the visit.

What schools is he hearing from right now?

Mark Waggoner: He has been offered by Minnesota, all three military academies, Texas State, Stephen F. Austin, Rice and if you wait two days, they’ll probably be four more.

Who else might be offering him?

Mark Waggoner: TCU, Baylor, Arkansas. He is a good player, Chris. He’s special.

What do you see as his strengths as a player?

Mark Waggoner: I think it is his speed. He is a 4.5 legit 40 guy, 250-pounds. He is real smart. He is a 28 ACT guy. He’s got it all. He’s got a schizophrenic attitude on the field. He can be real nasty. He’ll bring it pad level low. He’s got all the tools. With us, he can play running back, offensive tackle, tight end, H-Back and defensive end. He is a squeeze end that can if the ball is on the hash, he can squeeze it and still make the play on the sideline for no gain. He has that type of speed. He plays with good leverage. I think because of his intelligence, he can play so many different positions. In high school, you will have some smart kids, but they can’t grasp the game of football, but Lincoln because he is such an athlete, I think that his intelligence that he brings to the field is invaluable to us. We can put him anywhere and therefore, his leadership skills can come out because he knows what everyone is supposed to be doing. The second thing that he brings in whenever you are looking for that big hit, that big play, he is the one who can get them excited about it because he plays with speed.

What position are most schools looking at him playing. I know that he is a versatile player for you.

Mark Waggoner: That is the deal. He is versatile. Minnesota has said that they like him as that H-Back, tight end type. Same as Arkansas. Schools like Rice like him on both sides of the football. The thing about him is that he is so marketable. He is a can’t-miss and a lot of it is because he can go either way. I have to specific with each school, because they are all a little bit different. I would say that the majority of them are leaning in that H-Back, tight end type and the others ones are defensive end.

What about things that he needs to continue to work on?

Mark Waggoner: If he was on the defensive side, I think that he would have to work on some more hand moves. I think that he gets away with stuff in high school without having to use his hands like he is going to have to at a bigger level, so he’ll have to improve there. His blocking is really good. He finishes blocks right now. I think that if he goes as a tight end, he’ll have to work on his route running, stuff that he has not been asked to do. He’ll have to do that a little bit more, I think that he understands the concepts of route reads. I don’t know what Minnesota does, but if they are reading the secondary and blitzes, that is something that he has not done.

How many official visits has he taken?

Mark Waggoner: Minnesota was his first official visit.

Did he have a chance to go to many college football games this fall?

Mark Waggoner: He did. I wouldn’t be comfortable saying which ones, but I know that he was able to get out a little bit.

Did he make to out to many football camps last summer?

Mark Waggoner: Not really. We are big on 7-on-7 and our guys don’t make it out to a lot of camps, so if he did, I couldn’t even remember.

It sounds like he is getting a lot more interest recently. Is there a reason for that was he just a little bit under the radar?

Mark Waggoner: He was definitely under the radar. He just turned 17 in August, so I would say a late bloomer, definitely. We had a Division I defensive end ahead of him last year, so he was more relegated to the offensive side of the ball and as his speed increased, he was running an 11.2 100 for us and of course, that intrigued all of us. You have a 250 pound kid and you start exploring the possibilities of moving him around and doing some different things with him. He was just a big kid that starting coming into his body and his speed started coming, obviously. With that, he is under the radar. We didn’t have a lot of junior tape on him as far as showing what he could do. His junior tape would make him look like a lineman who was 6-4, 250. Instead of being an undersized offensive lineman, now he is a big, skilled kind of guy.

Is he planning on making some more visits before he decides on a school?

Mark Waggoner: He has them all scheduled right now and we had them scheduled before we made the trip to Minnesota. He is going to have to make his decision on which ones he is going to attend as these people come in here and the offers keep rolling. He is going to have to make up his mind. I’m not so sure that he wouldn’t make up his mind immediately and go to Minnesota, even though I know that his mother wants him to make sure that he visits a couple to make sure.

Does he have anything planned this week or the next week?

Mark Waggoner: He is playing in an All-Star Game (Texas private school All-Star Game held at Arlington Hearst) this weekend, so I know he is not doing anything this weekend.

What about your dealings with him just as a kid away from the football field?

Mark Waggoner: I don’t know a lot of kids up there, but I would say that he would be number one in character. You couldn’t get a better kid. I think that it speaks for itself that the military academies are on him. I know that Brown was in here today offering. This kid is special. He really is. He could go any place he wants to, because of what he has done in the classroom. A hard worker. I wish that I had a thousand of him.

Has he talked to you much about what he wants to study in college?

Mark Waggoner: No, we haven’t really discussed what he wants to be. He is a kid who is 17 and doesn’t know what he wants to be yet. His course rigor is incredible. He has Calculus AP, Chemistry AP and with his science background, I would think that he would fall into Science. He is not one of those seniors who is taking the year off, let’s put it that way.

Is he playing any other sports for you?

Mark Waggoner: He plays post on our basketball team right now, so he is juggling basketball with the All-Star game and these visits and the basketball coach is about to kill me. His other buddy (Jordan Smith), who is 6-foot-5, he just said that he is not going to play basketball this year. He had already committed to Kansas. Of course, that has got to change since Kansas has changed a little bit.

What is Jordan going to do? Is he going to open things up or wait a bit on Kansas?

Mark Waggoner: Once our kids commit, they commit. We don’t allow them, well I guess they can do what they want to do, but you know what I’m saying. We make them understand “You don’t commit until you are ready and once you do, we are staying with it.” He stayed with Kansas and once Turner (Gill) had to leave, they came down immediately and said that they would honor the scholarship, but they would certainly understand if we had to shop and you never know who is going to come in. With us, it is more about the coaching staff than location or anything else. That is why, I mentioned to Lincoln that he really liked Coach Poore, who has been down to Texas and he really like the coaching staff there at Minnesota and that is huge. We know that it about the coaches that you are with and that is where you are going to stay.

Had he ever been to Minnesota before?

Mark Waggoner: Never had been to Minnesota. He was excited that he got to see Tim Tebow. I think they said that they say him practicing and they came there before the game or something. I just know how excited he was when he saw Tim Tebow.

Is he doing any spring sports?