Welcome to Gopher Nation Kid - Hasan Lipscomb

One prominent recruiting sight (Scout.com) is reporting that coach Brewster and staff have landed a 4-star running back from Houston, Texas. Lipscomb's journey continues. The athlete began in New Orleans, transplanted to Houston because of Hurricane Katrina and now makes the move north to Minnesota.

RB is a major need for the Gophers who missed out on a couple 4-star guys last year and Lipscomb looks to be the guy to fill that need in the fall of 2009.

Lipscomb rushed for 1,625 yards as a junior, scored 26 rushing TDs and 2 kick off return TDs.

ESPN Insider has this to say about Lipscomb...

"Lipscomb is a productive runner with good perimeter speed and quickness for his size. He possesses a good frame with his compact, thickly-built body but prefers to bounce it outside than hitting it hard between the tackles. Follows his blocks well and runs with good vision. Shows good lateral quickness and outside speed stretching the zone run and turning the corner. Can be shifty through the initial traffic flashing good stop-start skill and body control making defenders miss. Shows a burst and sneaky extra gear when he finds an open seam. Not a burner, but displays good speed in the second level to separate."

I don't know exactly how the numbers work out but after bringing in a massive class for 2008, it appears our scholarships available for this year's recruiting class will be limited to right around 10 available (give or take a few). With that in mind I think we have two primary concerns for the 2009 class.

1. Quality over Quantity. The class of 2008 is full of talent upgrading players. We brought in 30 players (JUCO and true freshmen) last year who will be called upon to upgrade the overall talent, especially on defense. The 2009 class will be a smaller class and we need to get a few studs who can help contribute quickly.

2. Keep Minnnesota kids. Currently we have five players signed, three of them are local. This is important, not to keep everybody but to get the ones we want. Signing 4-star QB Moses Alipate and two OL recruit in Josh Campion and Ed Olson are solid commitments. On the flip side we have pulled our offer from ATH-Fritz Rock out of Waconia. This is a controversial move but with limited scholarships there is no call for signing a player who is arguably a Big Ten player, regardless of where he is from. The one player left who should be our number one target is WR-Bryce McNeal who is currently hot on Michigan.

Outside of Minnesota kids, Lipscomb is a major get (currently #212 in Rivals top 250). RB is a big need and getting a kid who runs a sub 4.4, had major offers (LSU, Nebraska, Tex A&M) and has been very productive in the talent rich Houston area.

We have a few areas of need and getting quality players to fill those needs is exciting. Commitment #5 is an exciting player.

If I were a football betting man, I'd give even odds that there's more out of state blue-chippers on the way.

Current Commitments - interesting to note that not one defensive recruit yet this year.

QB - Moses Alipate (Bloomington, MN)
OL - Josh Campion (Fergus Falls, MN)
OL - Ed Olson (Mahtomedi, MN)
WR - Victor Kreise (Coral Springs, FL)
RB - Hasan Lipscomb (Houston, TX)


Rivals has now confirmed the commitment!

** ED NOTE - I should point out that my primary source for recruiting information is GopherIllustrated.com (Rivals.com). They are always accurate and great with their information. While they have speculated for a while that Lipscomb will commit to the Gophers, they have not yet announced anything official. So this post is based on what I generally use as secondary information. Scout is a fine site, I am just not as familiar with them. This commitment has been rumored so I feel confident running with this post.