Minnesota Football Recruiting: Building An Empire - The Class of 2016

The recruits from Minnesota's 2016 class aren't messing around. They want to make Minnesota great, and thanks to a fun article by Chip Scoggins we now know that they aren't waiting until National Signing Day to start making their goals a reality:

Eden Prairie’s star linebacker told his dad he needed to use the family’s cabin in Pequot Lakes for a weekend in June. Coughlin wanted to invite a bunch of strangers with a common connection to the lake for a getaway.

"I thought that having the guys up to the cabin would just be killer," he said.

...

Eight of his recruits in the Class of 2016 — seven Minnesotans plus Chicago-area offensive lineman Sean Foster — had a blast getting to know each other.

They did lots of fishing. They rode personal watercraft and went tubing. They gave wakeboarding a valiant effort.

"That was hilarious," Coughlin said.

The group exchanged wisecracks and devoured a mountain of food that Coughlin’s parents kept on the kitchen counter.

And there was horseplay, of course, highlighted by defensive lineman JoJo Garcia challenging Foster to a series of 1-on-1 speed rush matchups in the backyard.

"It was pretty even," Coughlin noted.

Bonfires lasted past midnight as they talked about how much fun it will be to play college football together. They set goals for the Gophers program, vowing to continue to help build it.

They wore specially made T-shirts with "Empire" written on the front. As in, they hope to turn the Gophers into an empire.

Make sure you take a minute to click over to read the whole article, because there is no way you do so without feeling excited for these future Gophers. We've seen Kill, his staff, and his players show how to build a program back up brick by brick. If the Class of 2016 recruits have anything to say about it, the thing they'll be building with those bricks is an empire.