Minnesota Football Recruiting: Drew Wolitarsky Commits

Lose a recruit, gain a recruit. 'Tis the season.

At the inaugural West Coast Bowl, California's all time leading prep receiver --Canyon Country's Drew Wolitarsky-- announced his decision to continue his playing career at Minnesota for head coach Jerry Kill.

Wolitarsky is the 15th member of the 2013 recruiting class, joining Lakeland (FL) Eric Carter as the staff's reinforcements at wide receiver for the current cycle. Drew chose the Gophers over San Jose State and had listed offers from Arizona, Army, Navy, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico State and San Diego State. 247Sports Industry Composite rates Wolitarsky as a 3-star prospect.

Quotables

ESPNU evaluation ($)

Wolitarsky is a possession player with redeeming qualities and at times can stand out against this competition. Has a nice feel for the game. ... Positions himself nicely against the leverage of the DB's. Knows when to hit top speed and when to tempo routes to get open. Has a great understanding of where he is at on the field relative to the sidelines, uses his body well to shield defenders. ... Adjusts well to poorly thrown passes, good body control to make tough catches. Catches the ball away from his body. Makes tough catches in traffic, does not need any separation to make the catch.

YouTubes and/or other Highlights

Junior year:

Senior year highlights via Hudl.

Commitment video from Scout:

(Likely Fraudulent) Measureables

Height: 6'2"-6'3"
Weight: 190-215 lbs.
Fake 40 Time: 4.67s

Thoughts

At long last, the Gophers have their WHITESPEEDRECEIVER for the 2013 class. We can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Joking aside, it does feel as though Gopher recruitniks have been waiting on Wolitarsky to commit forever. Drew took an official visit to Minneapolis the weekend of the Syracuse game; Four months is an awfully long time to hold off on making a commitment to a school after you took the time to visit (and took only one other trip). Confounding matters even further were his comments after his official visit to Gopher Illustrated ($):

"One thing that stuck out to me about what Coach Kill said was that to never make any decisions in life that you won't follow through with and I agree with that one hundred percent. Minnesota is my number one school and I'll probably go there, but I just want to make sure."

There was some speculation that the Minnesota staff was slowing Wolitarsky after his official visit, a plausible theory given that the coaches were waiting on a decision from Waco (TX) receiver Hunter Jarmon (who also visited the Syracuse weekend). When Jarmon dropped Minnesota from contention and eventually picked Oregon State in January, Coach Kill and Limegrover possibly circled back to Drew to drill down a commitment from the big bodied wideout.

In Wolitarsky, the Gophers are getting a tall, physical receiver who simply knows how to get open with a variety of crafty route running and double moves. He was remarkably productive in high school, holding both the career receptions and receiving yards records in the state of California. Neither the most athletic nor fastest receiver, his large frame should prove an assest in outside run blocking and winning battles in traffic.