Star recruit to Minnesota fans on Gopher Hole: I love you guys

Minneapolis Washburn running back and Gopher commit Jeff Jones reaffirmed that Minnesota would at least be among his top three schools on Saturday morning, apparently while posting under an anonymous account on GopherHole.com.

Jones, one the Gophers' most highly sought after recruits, has attracted the attention of several more schools since earning MVP honors from Thursday night's Under Armor All-America Game. Since the game, both Michigan and Florida have offered Jones a scholarship, adding to the dozen BCS-level offers he has already received.

Jones committed to the Gophers early on in the recruiting process, but as his profile has ascended, he suddenly has several more choices – some of which might be more attractive depending how one looks at it. (For more Jones recruiting information, links are provided at the bottom.) Jones is a consensus four-star talent and is very possibly Minnesota's best running back talent from the Internet recruiting era.

On Saturday morning, a poster in a Gopher Hole thread dedicated to "All Things RB Jeffrey Jones" jokingly bet $500 that Jeff Jones wouldn't attend the University of Minnesota. That's when it got interesting.

Another poster replied simply, "I'll bet you." Two posts later, that poster said they were in fact Jones, checking out what fans had to say about him. Sound sketcky? Of course – it's a college sports message board.

But Kyle Goblirsch of 247 Sports soon confirmed that it was in fact Jones posting on the friend's account.

The post from Jones's friend referring to a bet that Jones won't go elsewhere isn't worth much, people "close" to recruits say all kinds of things, and the main post that can be attributed to Jones doesn't really break new ground.

"Yes it is actually me but I'm just trying to take my time with it but know Minnesota is gunna be in the top 3 I love you guys here!!," the post said [sic].

It's not a definite announcement that Jones is enrolling at the U of M and if anything, it seems like Jones is still deciding where he wants to go.

One could speculate all of the different reasons of why Jones went on GopherHole, depending on how detailed you want to get. Maybe he was thinking of going to another school and his friend wanted to show him how much Gopher fans liked him. Maybe Jones wanted affirmation that Minnesota is the right choice for him. Or maybe he is just a regular human who heard that people on the Internet were talking about him?

Who knows?

At any rate, it's going to be an interesting month for Jones, as he plans to take a Jan. 24 visit to the University of Florida. He has apparently already taken an unofficial visit to Michigan, where Goblirsch said there is mutual interest.

National Signing Day is Feb. 5.

TDG's Scroll of the Sworn: Jeff Jones [Matt H.]

Jeff Jones Recruiting Pages: Rivals, 247 Sports, ESPN.