Minnesota High School Football Recruits

2012 is a very strong year for D1 football prospects out of the state of Minnesota.  The past couple classes have had a few very good prospects coming out of our state but combination and depth and quality has been lacking.  On paper, before a snap of college football is ever played by these kids, this appears to be one of the strongest classes since recruiting services have been ranking kids out of high school.

There obviously have been some very good players out of Minnesota in recent years who have gone to high profile programs.  Seantrel Henderson and Michael Floyd come to mind very quickly.  Jimmy Gjere, Tommy Olson and even Sam Maresh were highly ranked kids who chose to stay home.  But this year appears to be a little different as it has some talented kids at the top of the list and then several kids also on the list who are going to be highly sought after commodities.  A total of 13 Minnesota high school athletes received D1 football scholarships last year, 9 of them were at a BCS caliber school.  This year could see that number of D1 scholarships double and we may see 15+ kids get a BCS scholarship.

Below is the list of 30+ names in the Rivals database, many of whom will receive BCS level scholarship offers.  To say that the list is in no particular order would not exactly be true but the list is not any sort of actual attempt to rank in a specific order.  At the top are the only three guys to receive an early star in Rival's ranking system.  After that it is a minimal attempt to put players in a sort order based on their actual offers or schools interested.  I know some will yell at me asking how on earth I could rank Lucas Wiborg over Michael Roane or Maxx Williams belongs ahead of Will Johnson.  You may be correct but I'm telling you now that this is intended to be a general guide, not a specific ranking.  This list is for your own enjoyment and to be used as a reference.

Name	High School	Pos	Stars	Height	Weight	40 time	BCS Offers (interested schools)	Notes
Andre McDonald	Hopkins	WR		6'3"	200	4.5	committed MINNESOTA	Iowa, Ill and AZ also offered.  Great get for Kill
Nick Davidson	Eden Prairie	OL		6'7"	270	--	Minn, Clem, UNC, NC St, Duke, Marylnd, SCar, Stan, VTech, WVU	recently moved to Minn from North Carolina, father is a Vikings coach
Jonah Pirsig	Blue Earth	OL		6'9"	300	--	Minn, Aub, OSU, Mich, Iowa, Wis, Ill, Ind, MSU	highly recruited and the perception is Persig will earn a 4th star.
Isaac Hayes	St. Thomas Academy	OL	(ESPN)	6'3"	270	--	Minn, Boise, OreSt, VTech, mid majors (Bama, Ark, Aub, LSU, MSU, NU, Stan, others)	ESPN 4-star, ranked 116th.  Smart kid looking at engineering, brother played at Stanford.
Philip Nelson	Mankato West	QB	(ESPN)	6'2"	212	4.6	committed MINNESOTA	nearly 2,500 yards passing in JR season
Will Johnson	Osseo	TE	(ESPN)	6'7"	245	4.8	Minn, Aub, BC, Miss, ISU (Iowa, Neb, Wis)	good offer list, not sure about Minnesota's chances considering we've already got commitment from a TE
Charles Webb	Minnetonka	DB	(ESPN)	5'10"	174	4.6	Toledo (Minn, MSU, Wis, Iowa, Syr, Tenn)
Maxx Williams	Waconia	TE		6'3"	210	--	committed MINNESOTA
Nick Rallis	Edina	DB	(ESPN)	6'0"	200	--	none (Minn, Wis)	brother of Mike Rallis and decommitted from Minn
Jonathan Harden	Cretin-Derham Hall	DT	(ESPN)	6'0"	300	--	North Dakota (Minn, Iowa, PSU, Wis, KU, mids)
Karmichael Dunbar	Prior Lake	DT		6'2"	290	--	none (Minn, LSU, Iowa, Stan, Wash, Wis)	father is Vikings Ast Coach
Joe Mollberg	Detroit Lakes	QB	(ESPN)	6'2"	210	--	UND, NDSU, SDSU (Minn, Iowa, MSU, Neb, Wis)
Antonio Ford	Coon Rapids	RB		5'9"	208	4.5	none (Minn, MSU, ISU, Mizz, OK St, NDSU)	injured early in JR year, looking to earn big offers
Adam Bungum	Dodge Center (Triton)	ATH		6'2"	180	4.6	none (Minn, Iowa, ISU, MSU, Wis, mid majors)	outstate athlete at a good but smaller football program
Drake Michaelson	Eden Prairie	LB		6'1"	205	4.6	none (Minn, Iowa, Wis, Ivy schools and others)	working hard at several camps to earn offers, intelligent kid
Tavaughn Blair	Hopkins	DB		5'10"	175	--	none (Minn, Iowa, ISU, NDSU)	knee injury early in JR season
Kevin Carroll	Edina	OL		6'3"	265	5	UNI (Minn, Ill, MSU, VTech, UCF)	father played for Vikings, brother plays at VTech
Ryan Dahl	Holy Family	OL		6'9"	285	--	none (Minn, Iowa, ISU, MSU, NU, OSU, Stan, Wis)
Stefan Sauer	Rosemount	OC		6'3"	275	5.7	none (Minn, Neb, Wis, ISU, UNI)
Sam Lee	Blue Earth	OL		6'5"	300	--	none (Minn, Wis, Iowa)	Pirsig's teammate
Mitch Leidner	Lakeville	QB		6'4"	220	4.9	none (Minn, Iowa, UAF)
Lucas Wiborg	De La Salle	OL		6'4"	270	5.2	none (Minn, BC, NDSU)
D.J. Hebert	Osseo	ATH		6'2"	185	4.6	NDSU, UNI, SDSU (Minn, Mich, NIU)
Chase Roullier	Burnsville	OG	(ESPN)	6'4"	272	5.1	Toledo, UNI
Michael Roane	Holy Family	DB		6'2"	185	--	none (Minn, Wis, UND, UAF)
Kendrik Brewster	Cretin-Derham Hall	RB		5'11"	178	--	none (Minn, Wis)
Taylor Montero	Cretin-Derham Hall	TE		6'4"	215	--	none (Minn, Wis)	good basketball player
Nate Howard	Cretin-Derham Hall	LB		5'11"	165	--	none (Minn)
Shawn Willis	St. Louis Park	OLB		5'10"	190	--	none (Missouri)
Kasey Robinson	Breck	WR		5'9"	160	--	none (Wis)
David Simmet	Hill Murray	OL		6'9"	340	--	none (Wis)
Bryson Johnson	Champlin Park	OL		6'2"	285	--	none (Wis)
Andrew Larson	Eden Prairie	RB		5'11"	194	4.5	Harvard, NDSU, SDSU	attended ISU camp and Minn next week
Brett Pierce	Holy Angels	DE		6'6"	250	--	North Dakota, South Dakota
Taj Rich	Robbinsdale	LB		6'2"	210	--	North Dakota
Emeche Wells	Roseville	WR		6'3"	195	--	none

A lot of those names are guys that have received letters or some form of mild interest from the Gophers or other schools, but in the end they will end up playing D2 ball.  We will know a lot more in the next few weeks as these kids are attending camp after camp trying to earn a scholarship offer from the Gophers and other schools.

Recruiting updates are coming fast and furious.  There have been several changes just since I started putting this post together.  I'll do my best to try and keep this updated but at any given moment it will be behind.