June 18, 2008

Welcome to Gopher Nation Kid - Nick Rengel

We now have six verbal commitments, four of which are from Minnesota. As of last night Sartell's Nick Rengal was that fourth.

The 6'3" athlete was at Minnesota's camp this last week and performed well enough to go home with an offer. It didn't take long to accept. Rengal had offers from Central Florida, NDSU, and a handful of MAC schools but had been waiting for the Gopher offer to come through.

"I grew up dreaming of playing for Minnesota, all the kids in Minnesota should. I knew that when they offered me I was going to commit." per Rivals
We need more kids with this attitude. Guys like Matt Carufel and Kim Royston didn't feel like this but later regretted their decisions to play for Notre Dame and Wisconsin respectively . It will take more kids like Rengel and of course a few more wins to truly lock down the boarders.

Obviously as a recruit who has no stars attached to his name this isn't the rock star verbal we all would love to see. But after news of Maresh's heart condition and players defecting news of someone excited to be hear is refreshing.

After reading Bruce Feldman's "Meat Market: Inside the Smash Mouth World of College Football Recruiting" I learned that camp is a great tool for coaches to find those players not yet rated and discovered by everyone. Rengel took advantage of his time in front of the coaching staff and convinced them he was worth a scholarship.

Maybe Rengel is just a local kid who plays special teams and contributes as best he can, or maybe he is that diamond who becomes a factor and makes this team better. I am not here to judge talent, but instead to extend an official welcome.

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