The state of Nebraska has opened it’s borders to NDSU in recent years and the Bison have seen the talent first hand from the Cornhusker State; just look at two of the stalwarts on defense; Kyle Emanuel and Christian Dudzik. The Bison graduate a four year warrior from Beatrice in Garrett Bruhn and brought in 3 recruits from Nebraska last year (Sam Hahn; who’s left the program; Bo Liekhus and number three quarterback Derek McGinnis) NDSU has been busy in Nebraska this year, already with one commitment from Papillion’s Tyler Wrice and got another on Tuesday from Omaha’s Nick DeLuca, who hails from nationally known Millard North High School, why it’s known nationally in a second.
DeLuca’s high school coach Fred Petito confirmed the decision to me earlier tonight; Millard North just completed an undefeated and state championship winning season; DeLuca is built to be a football player; 6’4, 235 pounds and plays inside linebacker. Petito told me DeLuca had offers from South Dakota State, South Dakota, NW Missouri State and Ohio; not surprising to see NDSU battle MAC schools and win out, we’ve seen that in the past few years in the recruiting wars. Petito told me that AJ Cooper and Steve Stanard have been working Nebraska hard, especially Stanard, the former Husker, who like Craig Bohl has many ties in the state; Petito shared with me that NDSU has been trying for many years to get into the state of Nebraska and now is finally seeing the fruits of that labor. Here’s DeLuca’s highlight video, it’s impressive and who knows at a spot where NDSU is critically thin, this could be a guy that plays right away next fall, we’ll see. Petito did add he wouldn’t be surprised if Nebraska made a late run at DeLuca, the Huskers are known for doing that, and I know from speaking with the other Nebraska natives on the team that’s the dream for all football players from that state. Why Millard North is so popular; especially for football; that’s the same high school that Eric Crouch hailed from and as most everyone knows, went on to play at Nebraska and eventually win the Heisman Trophy for the Huskers, Petito told me he’s sent 23 or 24 guys to play Division 1 football from Millard North.
This brings NDSU to a known total of 15 verbal commitments with two weeks to go till signing day, I’ve been told the Bison aiming for the 18-20 range, so there are still a couple players they’re waiting on; we know that they have offered Bismarck running back Layne Johs, the player of the year in the state, who ran for 1900 yards and scored 32 touchdowns for the state champs this past year. By my count, NDSU has freed up 13 scholarships for next season either by graduation or players leaving(Juckem and Jerve for example); curious to see what other positions NDSU gets down the stretch here’s what they have so far:
- Defensive End: 2 (Ambrosius, Tuszka)
- Defensive Tackle: 3 (Morgan, Jacobsen, Tanguay)
- Linebacker: 3(DeLuca, Gates, Hahn)
- Tight End: 2 (Wentz, Illies)
- Offensive Line: 2 (Ziemer, Kuhnert)
- Quarterback: 1 (Davis)
- Wide Receiver: 1 (Wrice)
- Running Back: 1 (Morlock)
I was pissed when the staff scheduled a visit for bunch recruits last week when the weather was -20f. Who on earth with right frame of mind would do such a thing ,… showing Fargo right in the middle of winter to high school kids from Arizona…gee..wizzz
Sure enough we lost Clarence Smith from Arizona, he committed and decomitted within 24 hours.
Weather is definitely not our friend here and the staff should be sensitive about this when dealing with visits for potential recruits.
Bison2928,
Wow, questioning our staff’s frame of mind. Good one! Do you think there might be more reasons to scheduled visits than what you think? There could be many reasons for the timing of visits. Questioning the recruiting process of the Bison staff after back to back championships is pretty funny.
We’ve seen kids leave our program after being here for a year. Maybe some of the ones that left couldn’t handle the cold and didn’t realize how tough you need to be to take North Dakota weather. I would rather have them decide right away rather than waste a year when we could of had a player that was here for the long haul. I say weed out the weak ones right away. Just my two cents.
If weather has that much weight with a recruit, then maybe that isn’t the kind of guy we want in the NDSU program.
Thank you for putting it nicely, Patrick.
If he plays in Missoula, he damn well better get used to the cold; if he thinks Missoula is near the equator or the tropics, the young man is in for a cultural shock. Maybe he learned how to snowski or snowboard as a child and wants to continue that. . After all, is there another place that screams “fun in the snow” as much as Arizona?
Are you suggesting we try and fool them about the weather? Also, how do you know weather factored in with the de-commit?
Clarence Smith got an offer from Utah and Nevada, I believe, as well. Those are teams that NDSU more than likely will not beat out for recruits.
Good point Patrick. With 2 Natty’s in a row I trust the coaches decisions on this program.
Dewey
Seriously? If a kid is going to be scared off by the weather I don’t think we want them anyway.
Looks like a decent class on paper. Good plug ins across the board. Couldn’t expect too much with such few schollies this year. Next year will have to be a huge recruiting class!
McKinley the rb that verballed to Montana over NDSU Was LIED TO BY MONTANA.
In the end, one major factor swung the decision to Montana.
“APR,” he said, referring to UM’s Academic Progress Rate. “I’m a student-athlete first and foremost and my parents feel the same way. Montana had the highest APR of the three schools, and the highest graduation rate.
WHAT THE HECK? >>>Montana had a 929 APR in football while NDSU had 964 and has been consistently higher over the last five years.
Wouldn’t kids that have to leave the program because of injuries (Juckem) still retain their original scholarship? Or is the money pulled immediately and they are on their own?
I am not 100% certain but I think they keep their scholarship. Maybe it is discounted, or maybe he is graduating after 4 years. It happens.
I think we want to get these guys here in the winter but we also want to get them here in the summer and fall. Summers here are awesome… encourage them to enjoy Lakes area! And nothing is a bigger selling tool than a game itself.
Reply to all , I agree with what everybody said, like the saying.
“Its not what you look at, its what you see”
but you cant expect a teenager to think beyond whats in front of them , if you dont belive see for your self
http://instagram.com/csteeeezy/
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