Bison team adds 25 new players
Written by Rob Detjen Friday, 05 February 2010 08:00
Head Coach Craig Bohl and the football team added 25 new players this Wednesday on National Signing Day.
Four of the recruits come from the state of North Dakota, seven from Minnesota, two from Wisconsin, three from Bohl’s home state of Nebraska, two from South Dakota, one from Iowa, Illinois, Texas, and California, and three are junior college transfers.
While there are not any five star recruits, Bison fans will see a lot of speed and athleticism. An amazing 15 of the new players have some sort of track and field experience in high school. “Great deal of speed with these recruits. No matter what position you play, you better be able to run,” Bohl said.
The past couple of recruiting classes the Bison have focused on spreading out their recruiting process to more southern states and got away from the Midwest a bit. “Because you have a 10-1 record you feel those guys will just come,” Bohl said.
This year, they got back to focusing on recruits in Minnesota and North Dakota. “A theme you see is a lot of these athletes attended our camps,” Bohl said. “This is one heck of a class.”
The staff clearly felt that linebackers were in need of an upgrade. Nine of the 22 recruits are projected as potential linebackers for the Bison. “Linebackers are becoming more and more viable,” Bohl said.
After a 3-8 recorded the Bison, will be looking at a couple of these newcomers to help turn the ship and put NDSU back on the Missouri Valley Football conference map. “A couple of them will probably be lining up against Kansas,” Bohl said.
College recruiting has become more and more competitive over the past 10 years. With the development of new technology and the Internet, recruits are getting a jump-start on were they would like to go to school.
That means high school juniors are now able to speak to respective colleges. “Right now we know were a lot of the top juniors are in geographical areas,” Bohl said. “We better be burning those road hours during the season.”
Even the men’s basketball team had an impact on the football team’s recruiting, according to Bohl, “We were in the NCAA tournament; that was a huge impact.”
We probably won’t see the impact of this recruiting class for a couple more years, but hopefully coach Bohl is right, and a couple of these players make an impact this season and improve upon our 3-8 record.
