Some have suggested that this is the single biggest recriuting weekend in Gopher football history.  Every home game has had a handful of recruits making their "official" visit to Minnesota, but many have been saving their trip for the Michigan game.  This is the game we are bringing everybody to.  Rivals.com does a great job of tracking this and the list of kids coming to campus this week is impressive and growing.

Clearly the Top 3 recruits are the following three kids.  These guys are program changers and can help to raise Minnesota's profile as a big time program that can get big time kids.

• Sheldon Richardson - DL/TE - Richardson is believed to be the first five-star recruit to visit Minnesota (ever).  The big man is the #5 ranked player in the country, has given a "soft verbal" to Missouri but is flirting with Miami, Minnesota and others.  This was a huge surprise announced on Rivals last night and the message boards are giddy with this enticing bit of information.  Landing Richardson would be a huge coup but just having him on campus raises our profile.
• Michael Carter - CB - cousin to Tyrone is finally making his visit to Minnesota as promised.  Carter is a 4-star kid being recruited by Florida and Georgia pretty hard.  Do not expect a commitment from Carter as he plans to announce during the Arm All-American game in January.  Carter is easily in my top 2 of guys I want to see on campus as a freshman in 2009.
• Bryce McNeal - WR - #1 on my wish list.  McNeal needs to be the next Minnesota kid who stays home (along with Maresh).  His official visit being the same game that the Gophers host Michigan, where McNeal decomitted from, would make for some sweet irony were he to commit this weekend.
• Ra'shede Hageman - TE - "only" a three star recruit but another Minnesota kid that we really must have.  Landing Hageman and McNeal would give us the top five kids from the state of Minnesota in this recruiting class which would be unprecedented. 

The next group are some of last year's program changing recruits who didn't quite make it in the 2008 class.  Having these guys on campus to see some of his teammates again and to put in a good word about the program to the 2009 recruits is big.

• MarQueis Gray - QB - ACT casualty but gets another official visit.  
• Spencer Reeves - LB - academic casualty who is excited to see his former Skyline teammates.  Will also be valuable as a Texas kid who can chat up some of the other Texas kids coming and help persuade them to move up north.

The next two, along with Richardson above, are the kids we are trying to steal from other programs. 

• Nosa Eguae - DE - three-star, committed to Colorado, but just might make the switch to Minnesota.  Out of Mansfield, TX, Equae is a buddy of our recent decommit, Eric Stephens.
  
• Brent Singleton - LB - three-star, committed to South Carolina in June.  Would LOVE to see this guy switch as I think we really need to see a LB in this class.  It is also a good thing to start pulling talented kids from the state of Florida and build up even a small pipeline there.
  

The rest of the visiting group.  I don't want to downplay their significance just by listing them last.  There are some talented kids in this group and landing good three stars really help to build depth and upgraded talent on this team.

• Matt Garin - DE - Minnesota kid who is currently ranked sixth in the state.  We are thin at defensive end, especially in a year or two.  Garin would be a great commit this weekend.
• Joey Searcy - DT - 47th ranked player in the state of Texas.  
• Bryant Allen - ATH - talented player on both sides of the ball and the 14th best player in the state of Missouri. 
  
• Turmour Battle - DB - this two-star corner is the 11th best player in the state of Colorado.  Minnesota is his only major school offering a scholarship and I wouldn't be shocked at all to hear him giving his verbal commitment this wekeend.

That my friends is a list of 10 potential recruits (+Gray and Reeves) on campus this weekend.  Last year Brewster had a greater than 70% commit rate from kids who took an official visit here.  That is an incredible number that is not likely to be reached again.  But if we landed half of these guys it will be a successful weekend that would hopefully lead to bigger and better things in the near future for Gopher football.

The names at the top are really huge.  Getting some of the best players from other parts of the country raises our profile a little bit.  Carter is one of the best players in Florida and Richardson is one of the best players in the country.  If they decide on Minnesota, then all of a sudden other kids start to take Minnesota seriously.  Same can be said for the local kids.  If we can land a class where we lock down the top six or seven of the top 10, then local kids will start to fall in line and realize this is a great destination to have a good career on a competitive team. 

The game should be fun and I expect a win, but the Jug might not be the only prize we bring home this weekend.  Early next week we should get a handful of new commitments and hopefully some of the top names will eventually decide that their future is with the Gophers.

Consider this a bonus Rodent Recruiting (PJS will have more for you on the hoops side on Wednesday and I'll have a rundown of incoming recruits for the Michigan game.

The bad news is we gave away a game and lost to Northwestern.  The good news is that we received verbal commitments from two important recruits who were on their official visits this weekend.

The first and one of the biggest so far this year was JUCO wide receiver, Hayo Carpenter. He is a highly recruited and highly rated receiver who fills a big area of need for the Gophers.  As we have found this year the Dunbar Spread is hard on new receivers so we are fortunate that Carpenter is on track to graduate in December, enroll in January and be here for spring practice.

Rivals.com has him rated as a four-star prospect and is the 11th best player coming out of the JUCO's this year.  ESPN Insider is reporting the following for his current year's stats.

Through eight games this season, the standout has 66 receptions for 1,133 yards and 12 touchdowns. He has averaged 19.9 yards on punt returns (one touchdown) and 27.1 yards on kickoff returns (one touchdown).

Rivals lists him with a 4.4 time in the 40 and says he had official offers from Florida, Arizona State, Oregon State and a few other mid-major level schools.  This is a major boost for next year's team as Carpenter has the tools to absolutely be the weapon opposite Decker.  I fully expect Green and some of the other young guys to step up but Carpenter will still trump their experience and his speed will make this offense more dynamic. 

 
  On the other side of the ball we went back down to Texas and grabbed a defensive back.  Kerry Lewis is slightly undersized for a safety but ESPN Insider had some very complimentary things to say about him.

  Give Lewis another inch or two of height and he is one of the more sought-after safety prospects in this 2009 class. Aside from lacking great size its hard to find many physical flaws in his game as a high-point player. He can cover, close and is well-balanced supporting both the run and pass. Lacks great height but is long, rangy and well-defined. Quick-twitched burst gives him added strength on contact and he consistently plays bigger than his listed measurables. Very fluid in his hips and turns and is smooth in all of his movement skills. Real reactive, fast-twitched athlete who loses little in transition when opening to turn and run.

They brought up his less than ideal size (5-9, 178) but everything else made it sound like he has the skills to be a very good players in the secondary.  When glancing over his profile though the thing that jumps out to me is GPA.  Rivals states that his GPA is 3.56 and a Scout article says he is, "Hoping to one day major in aerospace engineering and still be able to excel in football, Lewis is focusing on maintaining his honor-roll status."  Getting kids that appear to be locks to get admitted and appear on track to graduate is good for the program that ranks last in the Big Ten in graduation rates.  Lewis had offers from Oklahoma State, Oregon, Vandy, Kansas, Kansas St, Arizona and Iowa. 

I was expecting a commitment from Carpenter but this one was a pleasant surprise.  And from the sounds of it the commitment was a surprise to Lewis as well.

"My visit was great, it was just great. I went in to the weekend with no intention to commit to Minnesota during my visit. My plan was always to take all five of my visits, but I loved everything about Minnesota so I knew that nothing could be better and I committed.

Lewis is Brewster's eight commitment from the state of Texas which unofficially is a pipeline.  Landing the Skyline Four last year has paid dividends in this year's recruiting class.  Now when kids come up from the Lone Star state they are greeted by a handful of kids who can tell them we made the trip up I-35 and have no regrets.

So on Saturday we lost the game but we took a couple steps towards securing sustianed success in this league and things are only going to pick up in the next 10 days.  The Michigan game has been THE game for recruits to take their official visit.  Many names with multiple stars next to their name will be in the Metrodome as we battle to take the Jug.  This will be a huge week for the current Gopher squad as well as the future.

It feels as though recruiting has been rather slow this year, so I went back and did just a little research.  At this point a year ago we had 13 highlighted by Brandon Green and Sam Maresh.  Today we sit today with 10 verbal commitments highlighted by Eric Stephens and Hassan Lipscomb (more on them later).  Things really are not that slow, but it feels like there isn't much momentum from the 7-1 start.  I would have expected this incredible start to translate into more verbal commitments than we could handle.  This hasn't happened but momentum is certainly going to pick up very soon. 

With three home games in our remaining four there will be plenty of recruits coming to town for their official (or unofficial) visits.  In 2007 Brewster had an incredible success rate with getting verbal commitments from kids who stepped foot on campus.  This weekend with Northwestern coming to town there will be a spattering of offcial visits, but next weekend with Michigan in town anybody we can get on a plane will be here.  There may be more recruits on the sidelines than players in uniform. 

The moral of this story is that with this string of home games we will see plenty of recruits coming to town and hopefully a longer string of verbal commitments.  We will keep you informed who will be in town and when we receive commitments we'll tell you what we can find.

Some Highlights of our Current Verbals

In Minnesota we are a couple rounds into playoffs so the season is winding down.  But in Texas, where we get a couple great running backs, they are stil in the midst of their regular seasson.  Hassan Lipscomb and Eric Stephens are racking up some impressive stats in their senior seaons.

In seven games, Hassan Lipscomb has 13 total touchdowns, is averaging 7.5 yards per carry on his way to 768 yards.  His most recent game he ran for 174 yards and three touchdowns.  His Cypress Ridge Rams are 5-2, 4-1 within thier district.

Mansfield Timberview RB, Eric Stephens is rumored to be reconsidering his verbal commitment to Minnesota.  At this point he is still a Gopher commit and is not to be out done by Lipscomb on the field.  Last week he also scored three touchdowns, rushed for 125 yards and had six receptions for 74 yards.

I am excited to see both of these guys in our backfield over the next four or five years.  Currently Stephens is considering Texas Tech and there are rumors about Lipscomb's chances of qualifying academically.  Those are just rumors at this point but worth keeping an eye on along with their eye popping stats.

My Current Top 10

1. Bryce McNeal - WR - seems as though Michigan is clearly in the rear view mirror.  I've always felt that if we had a successful season he'd end up a Gopher but other schools are still in the running.
   
2. Michael Carter - CB - cousin of Tyrone Carter, narrowed his list down and we are still on it with some heavyweights to knock out.  Will be here for Michigan and be the top recruit at the game.  Wil make his commitment at the Army All-American game in January.
   
3. Ra'shede Hageman - TE - would be a great fit and would guarantee us commitments from at least four of the top five Minnesota kids (McNeal would make us 5/5).
   
4. Hayo Carpenter - WR - Will be visiting on Saturday for NU game.  If he can make 1/2 the impact that last year's JUCO recruits made he'll be a steal.
   
5. Jamar Howard - WR - receiving passes from Clint Brewster.  Four star JUCO and if you are noticing a trend here then you are smarter than your comments make you out to be.
6. Edward Nuckols - DT - 28th best DT overall, 29th best out of California.  Benches 300 and squats 450.  ASU, AZ and Col are after him.
7. Tyler Lewhan - OL - new to my list, but Lewhan recently moved up to a four star kid.  OL is so hard to grade out but our OL is struggling and you can never have too many good linemen.
8. Kendrick James - OLB - defensive help is still a major need.  3.3 GPA is also nice to see.
9. Vladimir Emilien - S -Florida native who is looking forward to playing in the Big Ten.  Emilien is a four star kid who has very good grades.  Mich, Wis and Ohio St are big players here along with Tenn.  We need a great young safety to take over for Brock in 2009.
10. Frank Crawford - S - three star out of Miami.  Ole Miss is the likely front runner.  Also offers from Alabama, FSU, W Vir, S Flor and S Car.
11. Sentrell Henderson - OL - I know he's a junior, but he's one of the top juniors in the country and it would be tremendous to keep him at home. 

Off the list - Craig Drummond narrowed his list to two and we were left out.  Michigan native, WR-Cam Gordon also came off my list.  I feel good about the receivers above him.

On the fense - Minnesota native Matt Garin.  JUCO corner Taikwon Paige and JUCO safety Anthony Leon are both four star guys.  At CB and S I'd rather see a stud freshman come in but these guys are talented and any depth/talent we can add the better.

The recruiting news of the week is clearly Bryce McNeal's de-commitment from Michigan.  The local receiver was an early commit to Rich Rodriguez and his decision was a disappointment to Gopher fans.  As the number one prospect in the state, it was disappointing to once again see the best Minnesota has to offer choose another school.

But McNeal felt he ended his recruiting process too early and wants to reopen his opportunities.  This is great news for the Gophers as he would fulfil an area of great need and would hopefully begin a new trend of the best in state kids choosing to wear maroon and gold for their college careers.  It is too early to know much of anything but on the surface this is great news for Gopher fans.

McNeal was seen a couple weeks ago at a Gopher practice and is schedule to take his official visit on November 7th, ironically against Michigan.

Another recruit who verbally committed elsewhere but is still leaving the door slightly open is defensive end, Nosa Equae from Mansfield, TX.  Equae is verbally committed to Colorado but is planninng to take an official visit to Minnesota on Nov. 7th for the Michigan game.  We need some help on the defensive line especially with the pending graduation of Willie VanDeSteeg. Getting Equae to change his commitment would be a nice addition to the 2009 class.

Finally there is another verbal commitment who seems to be on the edge of changing his mind.  Unfortunately this would be a switch away from Minnesota.  Four-star running back, Eric Stephens committed to the Gophers in July and now is taking a long look at Texas Tech.

Some are greatly concerned about the potential loss of Stephens.  And while I do not want to lose a four-star running back anymore than the next guy I don't think this would be worth declaring that the sky is falling.  We have already received a verbal from Hassan Lipscomb who I believe will be our running back of the future. I could easily be wrong and Stephens will turn out to be the greater of the two but with another four-star a solid commitment I will not be crying in my beer about the possible loss of Stephens.  Don't get me wrong, I want nothing more than to see them both on the field of TCF Stadium next fall but this is all a part of the recruiting game.

Raiding the JUCO's again...

There are a number of reasons for the 6-1 start, but none as important as the increased talent on the defensive side of the ball.  Adding guys like Traye Simmons, Tramiaine Brock and Simoni Lawrence has given us greater athleticism and ability to defend Big Ten offenses.  Improved play by Willie VanDeSteeg, Lee Campbell, Garrett Brown and Eric Small have helped a ton as well but the infusion of JUCO talent has made an immediate impact.

Last year's freshman class was outstanding and 2009's promises to be tremendous jug as well.  But freshmen at this level have a hard time making an impact.  It appears as though we are making another run at some top notch JUCO talent to buy us time until they are ready to carry the load. 

A couple of our biggest areas of immediate need are OL and WR, coincidentally that is who we are targeting most heavily at the JUCO level.  Here are a few of the big names from the JUCO ranks that we need to pay attention to as they may be the next Big Play Traye.

• WR - Jamar Howard - originally a Gopher commit out of high school.  Now the 4-star recruit, receives passes from Clint Brewster at College of Sequoias
  
• WR - Hayo Carpenter - 11th best JUCO overall, 4-star WR and would be an immediate upgrade
  
• DB - Taikwon Paige - a fast 4-star, 23rd overall JUCO
  
• OL - James Carpenter - 6'5", 305, 4-star, 32nd overall JUCO
  
• OL - Joe Evingerr - 6'7", 340! 4-star and 34th overall JUCO, teammate of Hayo Carpenter
  
• OL - Wade Bowen - 3-star guy, with some interest from Florida

We do not have any seniors who start on the offense have only one starter, Jack Simmons, on offense so it will come back virtually intact.  But imagine if the OL was shored up a little and if there was another weapon or two for Weber to throw to.  It would go from a highly efficient offense to an explosive one.

2010 Watch list

Names are slowly starting to come in with official offers on the 2010 list.

• Sentrell Henderson - OL, TE, DL - top 20 in country, could be a five-star and the first five-star to commit to the Gophers.  Will be recruited heavily by all the major heavyweights.
  
• Joel Bauman - RB - out of Kerkoven, Bauman is great wrestler as well as an outstanding runninback.  Wis, Stan, Ore, Boise
  
• Beau Allen - DL from Minnetonka - Wis, Iowa, MN
  
• Jimmy Gjere - OL - Offer from MN and has interest from Wisconsin.  Athletic lineman from 5A Irondale

Current Top 10

This is my personal wish list.  Guys who have the Gophers on their radar and most are considered reasonably getable.

1. Bryce McNeal - WR - was #1 on my list last week and will surey stay after the de-commit from Michigan.
   
2. Michael Carter - CB - cousin of Tyrone Carter, we have to beat out Florida, Georgia, Miami and West Virginia.  No Problem!  Will make his official commitment at the Army All-American game in January.
   
3. Ra'shede Hageman - TE - another local kid being recruited heavily by Wisconsin and Ohio State.  Would look good in the Spread Coast.
4. Hayo Carpenter - WR - brand new to my top 10, but we need help at WR really bad.
   
5. Jamar Howard - WR - receiving passes from Clint Brewster.  Four star JUCO and if you are noticing a trend here then you are smarter than your comments make you out to be.
6. Craig Drummond - DE - Chicago four-star.  Probably the biggest longshot on the list, so much so he probably shouldn't be here.  Moved down from last week.
   
7. Edward Nuckols - DT - 28th best DT overall, 29th best out of California.  Benches 300 and squats 450.  New to the list.  ASU, AZ and Col are after him
8. Cam Gordon - WR - Michigan native with Michigan State after him hard.
9. Kendrick James - OLB - defensive help is still a major need.  3.3 GPA is also nice to see.
10. Frank Crawford - S - three star out of Miami.  Ole Miss is the likely frontrunner.  Also offers from Alabama, FSU, W Vir, S Flor and S Car.
    
11. Sentrell Henderson - OL - I know he's a junior, but he's one of the top juniors in the country and it would be tremendous to keep him at home. 
    

Head to Head

I'm going to look into this in greater detail for a future Roden Recruiting, it seems to me like we are going head to head with Colorado and Ole Miss on a number of recruits.  Last year it was Arizona State.  This year I'll dig into this a little deeper and see just how many and who we are battling with the Buffs and the Rebels.

Welcome to TDG's newest weekly feature to cover the recruiting comings and goings in Gopher Nation.  We are not trying to usurp Rivals or Scout, they do their thing and do it well.  We want to give you more commentary, more info from a variety of sources and less texting of recruits to get their top 5. 

This will be a Wednesday feature, I would recommend a Gopher Illustrated (Rivals) membership to see their Thursday evening "War Room" which usually has plenty of information on a lot guys on the Gopher radar.

The Week in Review 

It was a fairly quiet week for football recruiting. With an away game there were no visits and no additions to the verbally committed list.  What did surface were the names of a couple four-star JUCO kids who have Minnesota near the top of their respective lists.  With the success of Tramaine Brock, Simoni Lawrence and Traye Simmons I'm all for bringing in another guy or two who can make an immediate impact to a position of need.

The first is a four star receiver who has listed the Gophers amongst his top 2.  Hayo Carpenter is in his second season at College of the Canyons in Califorinia (nice little alliteration there huh?) and is currently listing Minnesota and Florida as his top two.  The good news for Gopher fans is that Florida hasn't actually offered a scholarship to Carpenter.  You can see a YouTube video of him HERE.  With the lack of playmakers behind Decker, a guy like Carpenter would be exactly what we need for next year.  Someone who can make an immediate impact would lessent the preasure for the young guys to step up.

Carpenter is a four-star receiver who reportedly has 4.4 speed and is ranked the 11th best JUCO in the country accoring to Rivals.  He is on track to enrol at his new school in January and would have two years left to play.

Another JUCO has also moved on to the Gopher radar and is ranked the 30th best JUCO available.  Anthony Leon is a four-star defensive back from College of Sequois.  If that school sounds familiar it should because it is where we plucked Big Playe Traye and it is where we placed Clint Brewster.  Leon enrolled at Florida State out of high school and has taken the unusual path of playing with the Seminoles for two seaons before deciding to transfer out.  Because of this he would have just one year to play at his next school and he would also enroll at his new school in January. 

I'm not as sold on Leon.  He may be an upgrade but he would also be battling with Kyle Theret and Kim Royston for playing time.  Carpenter would likely be an immediate starter, especially with the spring to get acclimated to the Spread Coast.

The Week Ahead

With Indiana at the Dome this week there will be a handful of recruits on hand for their "official" visits to campus.  Brewster had incredible success last year landing a high percentage of the kids who made it to campus.  And that was with the inability to get a second win.  Everyone is pretty confident that there will be a boat load of recruits at the Michigan game in early November.

The biggest name coming this weekend is Eric Stephens.  He is a four-star running back out of Texas.  Stephens has already verbally committed to the Gophers and the timing of his visit couldn't have been better.  Rumors are swirling that he is rethinking his original commitment and is listening to Texas A&M.  So getting him on campus and showing him a good time would be good to secure things in his mind.

(Ed NOTE: Rivals reported this morning that the Overland Park trio will not be visiting this weekend but feel free to read what I wrote anyway)  Also coming are a trio of three star recruits out of Oakland Park, FL.  First of all we have  Isaac and Jacob Geffard.  The three star twins have dual offers from Iowa State and Louisville.  They are both in that small linebacker / safety / hybrid mold so where they end up playing isn't clear at this point. 

Their teammate,  Xavier Reese, is a three star WR who has offers from Purdue and Central Michigan.  While you usually like to see your Florida recruits holding offers from a Florida school, Purdue and Central Michigan both run spread offenses and need good athletes at receiver.

But let's hope for nice weather so the Florida kids go home with happy thoughts about Minnesota.  Lets also hope the 2008 version of the Skyline-4 will be the Overland Park Trio.  That doesn't exactly roll off the tongue but it would be another nice recruiting pipeline to secure.

Kendall Gregory-McGhee is a Colorado athlete is coming to visit this weekend.  Gregory-McGhee is used offensively as a receiver, tight end as well as starting as defensive end.  He is big and not particularly fast, at least not fast enough to play receiver.  I would guess that tight end is an option and I could also see him being molded into a pass rush specialist.  He also has offers from TCU, Colorado, Colorado State and Boise State. 

How did our verbals do?

This is where I will usually give you amazing stats from the kids who will be wearing marroon and gold for the next four or five years.  But this week I'm going to give you the stats of zero carries and zero yards for this weekend's visitor.  Eric Stephens hasn't played for back to back games for his Mansfield-Timberview Wolves.  Hopefully when in town this weekend we can find out what is going on.  Prior to not making the box score in games three and four, Stephens had rushed for 164 yards and 2 touchdowns in games one and two. 

Current Top 10

I enjoy putting together a top 10 wish list.  If I could pick any 10 future Gophers who have not yet committed these would be the guys I want, IN ORDER.

1. Bryce McNeal - WR - local kid committed to Michigan, but we can't let him be the 2009 Michael Floyd.
2. Michael Carter - CB - cousin of Tyrone Carter, we have to beat out Florida, Georgia, Miami and West Virginia.  No Problem!
3. Ra'shede Hageman - TE - another local kid being recruited heavily by Wisconsin and Ohio State.  Would look good in the Spread Coast.
4. Craig Drummond - DE - Chicago four-star.  Probably the biggest longshot on the list, so much so he probably shouldn't be here.
5. Hayo Carpenter - WR - brand new to my top 10, but we need help at WR really bad.
   
6. Cam Gordon - WR - Michigan native with Michigan State after him hard.
7. Jamar Howard - WR - receiving passes from Clint Brewster.  Four star JUCO and if you are noticing a trend here then you are smarter than your comments make you out to be.
8. Kendrick James - OLB - defensive help is still a major need.  3.3 GPA is also nice to see.
9. Cornelius Carradine - DE - Ohio native with a bunch of Big Ten offers.
10. Frank Crawford - S - three star out of Miami.  Ole Miss is the likely frontrunner.  Also offers from Alabama, FSU, W Vir, S Flor and S Car.
    
11. Sentrell Henderson - OL - I know he's a junior, but he's one of the top juniors in the country and it would be tremendous to keep him at home.  

Thus concludes the virgin installment of your weekly recruiting rundown.  Please let me know if there is more you desire to see.   I'm not planning to spend all week putting this together but I'd be happy to look into anything for my loyal subjects readers.