http://missoulian.com/sports/college/montana/griz-making-final-recruiting-push/article_122e963d-961e-5ccd-aeba-bdc97f4d23df.html
Every now and then, Montana defensive coordinator Jason Semore and newly hired safeties coach Shann Schillinger use their Twitter accounts to do a little extra recruiting before signing day arrives on Feb. 3.
On Jan. 19, Semore tweeted "Who offered first, who was with u from day 1? Who saw the talent, who wants you the most! Things to think about!..." A week later, Semore attached a screenshot of the school-record setting stats of Jamaal Jones with the message "Lets see, you can block all day for a tripple (sic) option team or a pro style team. Or you can have stats like this!"
Sandwiched between the two posts were a couple from Schillinger that were aimed at helping Montana overcome its FCS status with pictures of former Griz, including NFC interception leader Trumaine Johnson, who have gone on to success in the NFL.
While it isn't crystal clear who the coaches were targeting, it's not difficult to deduce that they are making their final pitches to a handful of recruits they want in order to put the finishing touches on a class that currently includes 23 names.
In addition to the many in-home visits set up to strengthen relationships with current commits and to hopefully secure those of potential commits, Montana is hosting a handful of players it would like to see join the class. In attendance this weekend among those who have not joined are Samori Toure, Randy Rodriguez, Josh Egbo, Lewis Cowans and Kyle Finch.
Jace Lewis and Trace LeTexier, who committed earlier this month, are also on the final visit before signing day.
Contrary to the current balance of the class, which is weighted slightly more to the offensive end, the final weekend is distinctly slanted toward the defensive side of the ball. Rodriguez is a 6-foot-3, 240-pound defensive end from Peoria, Arizona, and Finch is a 6-4, 220-pound Class A first-team all-state selection from Dillon.
Egbo and Cowans are both projected to join the defensive backfield, though Egbo said earlier this month he was being recruited as an athlete.
Rodriguez landed on Montana's radar in mid-January and said his trip to Montana is his only official visit. Finch met with his high school coach, Rick Nordahl, and Griz defensive line coach Brian Hendricks in Dillon on Thursday.
Nordahl said he thought Finch had narrowed his list down to Montana and Montana State and that he had taken a visit to Bozeman last weekend.
"He'd work well with either program. He's such an intelligent kid and a great leader," said Nordahl, who coached Dillon to an appearance in the state title game this season. "He's a good one. He's really filling out and working his butt off in the weight room and getting a lot bigger."
Montana has already received commitments from in-state defensive ends Cole Rosling (Helena Capital) and Trace Bradshaw (Bozeman) and has added four defensive tackles, including Louisville transfer Pedro Sibiea, who committed Friday afternoon.
Sibiea, a graduate transfer who played on Louisville's defensive line during his redshirt freshman year before playing offensive guard the last two years, will come to Missoula with one year of eligibility remaining.
Egbo and Cowans are relatively late additions to Montana's recruiting efforts. Though conversations date back to early December, Egbo said he received his offer on Jan. 6, the same day his official visit was set up. Cowans, who is good friends with recent receiver commit Brennan Corbin, is still awaiting an offer.
Cowans said he started talking with Montana's staff on Jan. 27 and planned his visit to Montana over the phone.
Though the majority of the players are being recruited to bolster the defense, Toure, a big-play receiver from Portland, may arrive in Missoula with the most acclaim.
"He’s an absolute freaking sleeper. I’m honestly blown away that he doesn’t have five or six more offers," said Ryan Atkinson, Toure's prep coach at Westview High. " ... He’s a 3.6 (GPA) kid, he’s a captain, he’s a leader -- he’s an absolute no-brainer."
Toure recently landed an offer to Georgetown, which plays in the Patriot League, and has longstanding offers from Western Oregon and Air Force. The 6-3, 175-pound speedster said he also holds preferred walk-on offers to Oregon, Oregon State and Washington State.
As recently as Jan. 28, one day after he had an in-home visit with Montana inside receivers coach Mike Ferriter, Toure said that Montana hadn't extended him an offer and that it was something he would talk about with head coach Bob Stitt during his visit.
Why Toure, who set single-game school records at Westview this season and was a first-team all-Metro League selection, hadn't received many offers this late in the process baffled both Atkinson and Jordan Johnson, who coached Toure's 7-on-7 team to a final four appearance at a national tournament in Las Vegas.
"He’s legit, he’ll come in and play in a couple years for you and do some good things," said Johnson, who helps cover Northwest football recruiting for BattlePrepWest.com. "We played state champions out of Hawaii (and) Northern California. We played a group out of Florida and we beat them all and ran the table and Samori was one of the main reasons why."
Johnson said he thought Samori's offers were likely to pile up as area teams lose players off their recruiting boards in the next few days. Johnson figures that a handful of Big Sky Conference teams will come calling and there was a possibility that Washington State and Oregon State could increase their efforts to lure Toure.
Atkinson said he got the feeling that Toure's options were down to Montana and Georgetown.
Toure's recruitment to Montana is muddled by the number of available scholarships the Griz have remaining. Montana hasn't made any public comments about its scholarship levels, but in the Missoulian's reporting only four of the class' 23 players are walking on and Bradshaw and Rosling said they received partial scholarships.
Montana is in the final year of NCAA santions that reduced its scholarship allotment from 63 to 59.
Montana also had discussions with Noah Gerald, an all-Arizona defensive end, and Lance Vecchio, a defensive back from Villa Park, California. Vecchio spoke with Schillinger on Thursday, but no scholarship was offered. Gerald had an in-home visit with Semore and Stitt on Wednesday, but no offer was extended and the parties couldn't find time to schedule a visit. Montana's coaches wanted Gerald to fly up to Missoula this weekend, but he already had a visit set with a college in Ohio.
Gerald said he is likely to decide between walk-on offers from Montana and Arizona.
"I am definitely considering it. Big decision to make, but Montana may be the right one," he said.
Every now and then, Montana defensive coordinator Jason Semore and newly hired safeties coach Shann Schillinger use their Twitter accounts to do a little extra recruiting before signing day arrives on Feb. 3.
On Jan. 19, Semore tweeted "Who offered first, who was with u from day 1? Who saw the talent, who wants you the most! Things to think about!..." A week later, Semore attached a screenshot of the school-record setting stats of Jamaal Jones with the message "Lets see, you can block all day for a tripple (sic) option team or a pro style team. Or you can have stats like this!"
Sandwiched between the two posts were a couple from Schillinger that were aimed at helping Montana overcome its FCS status with pictures of former Griz, including NFC interception leader Trumaine Johnson, who have gone on to success in the NFL.
While it isn't crystal clear who the coaches were targeting, it's not difficult to deduce that they are making their final pitches to a handful of recruits they want in order to put the finishing touches on a class that currently includes 23 names.
In addition to the many in-home visits set up to strengthen relationships with current commits and to hopefully secure those of potential commits, Montana is hosting a handful of players it would like to see join the class. In attendance this weekend among those who have not joined are Samori Toure, Randy Rodriguez, Josh Egbo, Lewis Cowans and Kyle Finch.
Jace Lewis and Trace LeTexier, who committed earlier this month, are also on the final visit before signing day.
Contrary to the current balance of the class, which is weighted slightly more to the offensive end, the final weekend is distinctly slanted toward the defensive side of the ball. Rodriguez is a 6-foot-3, 240-pound defensive end from Peoria, Arizona, and Finch is a 6-4, 220-pound Class A first-team all-state selection from Dillon.
Egbo and Cowans are both projected to join the defensive backfield, though Egbo said earlier this month he was being recruited as an athlete.
Rodriguez landed on Montana's radar in mid-January and said his trip to Montana is his only official visit. Finch met with his high school coach, Rick Nordahl, and Griz defensive line coach Brian Hendricks in Dillon on Thursday.
Nordahl said he thought Finch had narrowed his list down to Montana and Montana State and that he had taken a visit to Bozeman last weekend.
"He'd work well with either program. He's such an intelligent kid and a great leader," said Nordahl, who coached Dillon to an appearance in the state title game this season. "He's a good one. He's really filling out and working his butt off in the weight room and getting a lot bigger."
Montana has already received commitments from in-state defensive ends Cole Rosling (Helena Capital) and Trace Bradshaw (Bozeman) and has added four defensive tackles, including Louisville transfer Pedro Sibiea, who committed Friday afternoon.
Sibiea, a graduate transfer who played on Louisville's defensive line during his redshirt freshman year before playing offensive guard the last two years, will come to Missoula with one year of eligibility remaining.
Egbo and Cowans are relatively late additions to Montana's recruiting efforts. Though conversations date back to early December, Egbo said he received his offer on Jan. 6, the same day his official visit was set up. Cowans, who is good friends with recent receiver commit Brennan Corbin, is still awaiting an offer.
Cowans said he started talking with Montana's staff on Jan. 27 and planned his visit to Montana over the phone.
Though the majority of the players are being recruited to bolster the defense, Toure, a big-play receiver from Portland, may arrive in Missoula with the most acclaim.
"He’s an absolute freaking sleeper. I’m honestly blown away that he doesn’t have five or six more offers," said Ryan Atkinson, Toure's prep coach at Westview High. " ... He’s a 3.6 (GPA) kid, he’s a captain, he’s a leader -- he’s an absolute no-brainer."
Toure recently landed an offer to Georgetown, which plays in the Patriot League, and has longstanding offers from Western Oregon and Air Force. The 6-3, 175-pound speedster said he also holds preferred walk-on offers to Oregon, Oregon State and Washington State.
As recently as Jan. 28, one day after he had an in-home visit with Montana inside receivers coach Mike Ferriter, Toure said that Montana hadn't extended him an offer and that it was something he would talk about with head coach Bob Stitt during his visit.
Why Toure, who set single-game school records at Westview this season and was a first-team all-Metro League selection, hadn't received many offers this late in the process baffled both Atkinson and Jordan Johnson, who coached Toure's 7-on-7 team to a final four appearance at a national tournament in Las Vegas.
"He’s legit, he’ll come in and play in a couple years for you and do some good things," said Johnson, who helps cover Northwest football recruiting for BattlePrepWest.com. "We played state champions out of Hawaii (and) Northern California. We played a group out of Florida and we beat them all and ran the table and Samori was one of the main reasons why."
Johnson said he thought Samori's offers were likely to pile up as area teams lose players off their recruiting boards in the next few days. Johnson figures that a handful of Big Sky Conference teams will come calling and there was a possibility that Washington State and Oregon State could increase their efforts to lure Toure.
Atkinson said he got the feeling that Toure's options were down to Montana and Georgetown.
Toure's recruitment to Montana is muddled by the number of available scholarships the Griz have remaining. Montana hasn't made any public comments about its scholarship levels, but in the Missoulian's reporting only four of the class' 23 players are walking on and Bradshaw and Rosling said they received partial scholarships.
Montana is in the final year of NCAA santions that reduced its scholarship allotment from 63 to 59.
Montana also had discussions with Noah Gerald, an all-Arizona defensive end, and Lance Vecchio, a defensive back from Villa Park, California. Vecchio spoke with Schillinger on Thursday, but no scholarship was offered. Gerald had an in-home visit with Semore and Stitt on Wednesday, but no offer was extended and the parties couldn't find time to schedule a visit. Montana's coaches wanted Gerald to fly up to Missoula this weekend, but he already had a visit set with a college in Ohio.
Gerald said he is likely to decide between walk-on offers from Montana and Arizona.
"I am definitely considering it. Big decision to make, but Montana may be the right one," he said.
