- Thinking of Mike Grimm and his father as they're going through a tough time.
- Really excited about the 2018 and 2019 classes moving forward collectively together. People worry about with so many freshman playing, what does the 2019 class think? The best players and people will play.
- This we focused on defense. Heavy emphasis on DL and DB.
- We wanted to keep three or so spots available to be able to play in the free agent market. Last year, we would have loved to have had one or two more for January's market.
- To win championships, you must have champions. This class has seven state champions.
- 18 of 23 members are multi-sport athletes in high school. It's not a must but it's as close of must as there is to play for us.
- Nnamdi Adim-Madumere goes by Nnam.
- MJ Anderson was the 6A Defensive Player of the Year in Missouri and won the state championship. He has the longest armspan of anyone in the class. That's important when you play on the defensive line. We take those measurements. He'll play the five-technique.
- Solomon Brown is a mid-year enrollee. He's versatile and can play corner, safety, or the money position (what Chris Williamson played).
- Michael Brown-Stephens' uncle is John Legend. They have a celebrity wall in their house, and I'm thinking "head coach, great I'm gonna be on that wall." But they have John Legend, Barack and Michelle Obama on that wall, so maybe not. Loved him at the satellite camp. You know me and receivers, I need to see him live. Told the staff that he'd be the best player at the camp, and he did.
- Most underrated player we have is DeAngelo Carter. He was by far the best player on the field at the Georgia State Championship. Twitch, explosion, arm length, he has it all as a nose tackle. His tenacity and motor is unlike anything I've seen in recruiting.
- Rashad Cheney will be here mid-year and can play right away. We didn't want to take anyone who couldn't play within two years.
- Jacob Clark is a gunslinger. He camped with us at an Oklahoma camp. Have to see QBs play live. We needed to get one of those Texas quarterbacks. cc: @stroke the post
- Jahmile Addae is from Tampa and knows everyone from Tampa. Addae's known Kelvin Clemmons for a long time. He's a very physical corner and can play safety. Very unique story in that he's never visited campus. We used technology in the best way you possibly can for as long as we possibly could.
- Tyler Cooper is a barrel-chested, big, nasty guard. He's another camper. He's one of the guys you need to watch live to really respect how they play because he has incredibly HOW. His brother let me know that I wasn't his favorite head coach, so maybe I didn't win that battle but
- If one of you want to make a lot of money, make a reality TV show on in-home visits for three weeks. I'm not talking about Heather shopping in all the cities we go. But it's amazing how much fan we have and what all we see. We walked into James Gordon's home visit, and they call it the man cave. It's off back in the woods a little bit. Walked in and there was a ton of family members and there and woah, there was memorabilia and flags for all different teams that weren't us. They were talking about teams that weren't us, so you talk about being nervous. We had alligator. It was an interesting home visit. He introduced me to every single person that was there. He had three pick sixes as a linebacker.
- JJ Guedet: He was 6'7" and 240 when we met him, and there's not many that can get from 240 to 300. So you try and look at their bone structure, their mom and dad. He's now 307 pounds. He lives in a cul-de-sac in a suburb and has horses, chickens, and goats in his backyard in a residential area of a suburb. One of the goats is best friends with the horses and follows the horse everywhere it goes. He's a tremendous multi-sport athlete. He was also one of the few that cooked the home meal and he knocked it out of the park.
- D'Vion Harris isn't the biggest guy, but might be the most twitch guy we have in the class. He can bend and dip really well.
- Cole Kramer didn't throw an interception until his senior year. He can really fly, he's tough, he's really intelligent. He's first cousins with Carter Coughlin.
- Michael Lantz: With Emmit Carpenter graduating, needed to get the best kicker we could possibly get. He was our top kicker from the beginning. He wanted to wait, but we found our way back together. If there's one position I'm okay with them not coming until June, it's kicker.
- Tyler Nubin: He led them to the State Finals. He played wildcat, cornerback, everything. After their team won, his entire team was chanting "Nubin! Nubin!" and he made them chant the school's initials instead. He's 3x academic all-conference.
- Trey Potts: I've always wanted to go to the Little League World Series. It's on the bucket list. That's where he lives, so it's not a big deal for him. Great receiver out of the backfield, scatback. He's coming back from in-season surgery. Early enrollee. We'll get him involved in the return game too.
- Logan Richter got a lot better. He's really big, has great twitch and get-off. He's worked hard and getting his body where it needs to be.
- Keonte Schad: This was a recruiting battle. We brought the Axe to his home, and that wasn't to show off. It's very important to him. He grew up around that rivalry being from Madison.
- Peter Udoibok, pronounced "you-doi-bock." He's really long and we needed to add that to the receiving corps.
- Brady Weeks is on his official visit, stands up with the mic when we're introducing ourselves and says "My name is Brady Weeks, and this should be the last time you hear my name." Then he sits down. Glad that he's representing the Gophers in the UA All-American Game.
- Cameron Wiley is a big, physical back that's incredibly long but very fluid. Has great hips. He's a track star, as well. He has a unique running style.
- Jason Williamson is Mr. Football. Heather and I get back from the Wisconsin game, just watching ESPN and then the top 10 comes in and Jason Williamson is on top 10.
- We have another young man committed that's possibly signing in February. Also interested in the free agent market in January.
- One of the things I tell them about recruits is that Minnesota has Big Ten media. This is big time. You're going to answer really tough questions. You're going to be in a big market where you need to represent the University of Minnesota well. We talk about you (media) in recruiting, as well.
- When I was out recruiting, there was a report that there were 6-8 players not practicing. There's way more than that. I allow people to miss bowl practices to study for finals. We have injuries and rehabbing. We have transfers that have met with me. And if we have anyone that breaks team rules, we're going to discipline them. It's a privilege to play here.
- 6-8 players will not miss the bowl game. That is inaccurate. A player or players will miss the bowl game. Not going to get into what student-athletes do. This was nothing that was dealt with outside in a legal issue or anything violent. The reporting of the numbers is inaccurate. There could be a starter or starters that miss the game for discipline reasons.
- The conversation with Blake Cashman and Donnell Greene to miss the bowl game was healthy. I'll give them advice but I'll never tell anyone what to do.
- Udoibok and Cooper are fully committed to the University because of what they have to do personally to be here and then get put on scholarship later down the road. We think those two guys have a really good chance to earn what they deserve down the road.
- It's the head coach's job to outrecruit everyone on the team. I tell the players that it's your job to keep your job. It's not a fear or a threaten. We're going to keep competing with each other, not against. We want to make everyone better, not separate the team. I love bringing in another full class to raise the level of our program on and off the field.
- Rodney and Shannon will both be back.
- Curtis Dunlap Jr. will be able to start in the bowl game and still redshirt.
- We don't know who are quarterback will be next year. It's a competition.
- Every head coach has a philosophy. I don't think one way is right or wrong. Everyone has their approach. When you hire a new head coach, you hire a new systematic way of doing things. We want to bring consistency here. Heather and I love living here. That consistency is earned and we'll work hard to have it.
- Holding people accountable is what we will always do. If you do the right things, you'll be okay. If you don't, we'll have a hard time liking each other. I think some were surprised by how drastic that's been the past two years.
- We knew we couldn't take defensive lineman that we needed to wait 2-3 years to have a ready body. When you do that, you put yourself in a completely different league. It's hard to recruit the ready-made guy. We knew what we had to be able to get at the nose and 3-tech and we went after it really hard. We got the bigger guys now we just need to make them stronger. Everyone changes in our S&C and nutrition program.
