UMD Football Welcomes 2017 Recruiting Class

The 2016 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference North division champion Bulldogs welcomed 29 high school students to the 2017 recruiting class today on National Signing Day.

The recruiting class features players throughout Minnesota and neighboring state Wisconsin, while bringing in one from Illinois.

A position-by-position breakdown of the class boasts six offensive linemen, five defensive backs, five defensive linemen, four linebackers, three wide receivers, two running backs, two tight ends, one quarterback, and one placekicker/punter.

“When we’re recruiting these guys were looking one to two years out for these guys to develop and play for us,” said UMD head coach Curt Wiese at today’s press conference, “you’re looking at your junior class and your senior class when you sign the young men that we do and sometimes certain classes develop based on the ability of recruits.”

With the emergence of a new recruiting class comes the loss of an old class. This then opens up new opportunities for players to step up on and off the field.

“You can always replace football players,” Wiese said, “it’s tough to replace the leadership and the character and I think our staff and our campus has done a really good job evaluating these guys before even making them a scholarship offer or before even maybe bringing them to campus.”

Wiese believes that this recruiting class will bring some depth and the opportunity to compete and is excited to see this class push the current upper classmen that are on roster.

“It’s our job as a staff to out recruit the next class every year and to make sure that athletically and physically we are getting better as a football program,” Wiese said, “ I think our last couple classes have been really talented and this class we feel as good if not better about moving forward.”

Photo Credit: Austin Rush