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February 5, 2010

MSU becoming a hot spot for football recruits

Denny Weller Special to The Free Press

MANKATO — Former Minnesota State football coach Clarence Holley used the following line to describe his recruiting classes: “Everybody’s going to tell you that their crows are the blackest.”

Or “Nobody’s going to tell you that their boys are a bunch of mules.”

It was his folksy way of telling you that every coach is going to say great things about his recruits on signing day because it’s a lot like an election: Whatever you say today will be forgotten soon enough.

Same with Mavericks coach Todd Hoffner, who said Wednesday that this is the best recruiting class he’s had in his three years at Minnesota State. It’s probably true because his first recruiting season only lasted nine days,   having been hired late in the process, so that made last season’s recruits his first real opportunity to get into the high schools and homes of the best players possible.

That, and the team’s two-year run of success, should have paid off this winter and offseasons to come. Before, when Minnesota State coaches told recruits that they could have successful careers, it took a bit of salesmanship. Now, Hoffner can point to the program’s success to show high school seniors that their days at Minnesota State should be filled with hard work and plenty of victories, possibly sprinkled with trips to the national playoffs.

When you look at each recruit on film, it’s easy to be impressed. Certainly, the coaches weren’t going to show one of their quarterbacks throwing an interception or a running back fumble. The videos showed their offensive lineman flattening a defensive lineman, not the other way around.

But you could see enough talent on some of the players that should directly lead to success at the college level, provided that athlete understands how much work it takes to succeed in athletics, as well as academics.

Keyvan Rudd of Davenport, Iowa already looks like a college receiver. At 6-foot-3 and 187 pounds, he seems to be fast enough and athletic enough to make the transition at a position where the Mavericks must fill two holes left by graduation.

Cornerback Kelend Smith was recruited out of the St. Louis area, and you might have heard about the last cornerback to come here from there: A guy named Kelvin Rodgers, who should end up in some professional team’s training camp this summer.

It will be interesting to watch the four linemen grabbed from Omaha, Neb. Hoffner said there were a lot of good linemen available, but to take four from Nebraska-Omaha’s turf could be a recruiting coup. Or maybe Nebraska-Omaha thought there were better prospects. Who knows?

There are a lot of situations where the Minnesota State coaches said they beat out Winona State, Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State for recruits. They also said they beat out some of the bigger schools from South Dakota and North Dakota on a couple of players.

It’d be nice if we remember who those players are in a couple of years to see if the coaches were right. But by this time next year, we’ll have forgotten most of what was said this week.

However, I’m sure Hoffner won’t be talking about mules or crows.



Chad Courrier is a Free Press staff writer. To contact him, call 507-344-6353 or e-mail at ccourrier@mankatofreepress.com or check out his local sports blog at www.mankatofreepress.com

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