Minnesota Football: Minnesota Vikings Sign Former Gopher Kobe McCrary

The Minnesota Vikings had several severe injuries in their 14-10 preseason loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday. Minnesota placed five players on injured reserve on Monday and opened five slots on their current 90-man roster. The Vikings officially filled one of those open roster slots with former Minnesota Golden Gophers running back Kobe McCrary on Monday.

McCrary participated in rookie minicamp with the Vikings in May, but was not signed to the 90-man roster at that time. Now he finds himself wearing #48 and playing fullback for the Vikings.

We previewed McCrary’s quest to make an NFL roster back in April. While it will be a major long shot for McCrary to make the final 53-man roster for the Vikings, it will be expected that Kobe will see plenty of game action in the final two preseason games and the hope is he flashes enough to get a practice squad look somewhere in the league this season. He may be just one injury away from CJ Ham, the incumbent fullback to getting a shot.

McCrary came to the Gophers after two seasons at Butler Community College in Kansas. His junior year he saw spot duty behind Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks and ran for 246 yards and three touchdowns on 36 carries. 176 of the yards and two of the TDs game in one game against Indiana State.

His senior year McCrary began as the #3 running back but became much more of a features back after injuries to Brooks. He ran 94 times for 496 yards and eight touchdowns. He started against Nebraska and rushed 10 times for 93 yards and a trio of touchdowns in the Gophers blowout victory.

Good luck to Kobe with the Vikings and hopefully he can find his way onto a NFL roster or practice squad after the teams cut down to 53-men on September 1st.