Monday, March 15, 2010 Last Update: 08:14 pm
Monday, March 15, 2010 Last Update: 08:14 pm
In the chaos of the college football-recruiting season, recently hired Montana coach Robin Pflugrad had his work cut out for him.
With the long run in the playoffs and the proceeding week-long coaching search chewing up the recruiting period before Pflugrad was hired, the new coach and his staff faced an uphill battle before yesterday’s national signing day.
Pflugrad’s hectic first month on the job came to a close yesterday afternoon as he announced the signing of 19 future grizzlies.
“I’m glad today is here and the ink is dry,” Pflugrad said Wednesday afternoon.
After a three-week flurry of recruiting, Pflugrad said he is pleased with the class of recruits he and his staff were able to assemble in such a short period. Pflugrad joked about a news story where recently hired Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly complained about only having seven to eight weeks for recruiting.
“Boy, I would have loved to have had more than three weeks. But realistically that’s all we had. Every other team we recruited against … they were in (recruits’) homes potentially four times before we got into their homes for our first visit,” Pflugrad said.
The class that Pflugrad and his staff managed to recruit is one that contains a hefty dose of size, speed and athleticism.
After losing senior offensive linemen Levi Horn, Terran Hillesland and Chris Dyk, Pflugrad said replenishing the line was a top priority.
The Grizzlies signed four offensive linemen, including two 300-pounders.
The biggest of the men that will be relied upon to protect the future Griz backfield is Danny Kistler, Jr.
Kistler, an offensive tackle from O’Dea High School in Seattle, Wash., lists at 6’8”, and pushes the scale to 335 pounds.
The biggest player on the Griz roster last season was Hillesland at 6’7”, 320 pounds.
Pflugrad said that Kistler and other incoming linemen can have a shot at making an instant impact this season, but losing a little bit of weight wouldn’t hurt.
“Like a lot of linemen that aren’t with the program … he’s got a little weight on him,” Pflugrad said. “He needs to get down to 315. He’s a tremendous run blocker, but for what we want to do offensively, he needs to lose a little weight.”
A player that Kistler could potentially be protecting in the near future is the Oregon high school 6A player of the year.
Jordan Johnson, a 6’1”, 185-pound quarterback from Sheldon High School in Eugene Ore., had a prolific high school career and is expected to be one of the gems of this Griz recruiting class.
As a senior, Johnson threw for 3,508 yards and 46 touchdowns while compiling 1,091 yards on the ground, scoring 20 times.
Pflugrad said Johnson is a player whose ability could potentially mirror a Montana legend.
“He reminds me of Dave as much as anyone I’ve ever seen,” Pflugrad said of Johnson, re-kindling the memory of former Griz QB Dave Dickenson, who led the Grizzlies to the National Championship in 1995.
“He has quick feet. Quick release. He’s maybe one of the two that you would let your daughter go out with in this class,” Pflugrad joked.
A theme that resonated from all of the recruits, Pflugrad said, was overall physicality.
“How we evaluate people is how they hit people. Not if they hit people, but how they hit them. Do they hit with their face? Will they run through players if they’re tackling or blocking?” Pflugrad said. “This class is amazing this way.”
Of the 19 recruits that signed, seven were from Washington, four from California, three each from Arizona and Montana, and one each from Oregon and Colorado.
The trio of recruits from Montana consists of quarterback Shay Smithwick-Hann from Kalispell, defensive lineman Derek Crittendon from Whitefish, and safety Zach Wagenmann from Missoula.
While UM signed three in-state recruits, Montana State signed seven. Pflugrad said a combination of a less-than-stellar year for Montana high school football and some academic programs that MSU offers compared to UM is the key to the discrepancy between the two numbers.
“Montana (high schools) will always have some great players, but not as many this year,” Pflugrad said, adding that he lost a couple of in-state players to the Bobcats because the players wanted to enter the engineering program that Montana State offers.
Along with the Bobcats competing for recruits, the Grizzlies faced another challenger in the quest for top players, this one coming from the neon glow of Las Vegas.
After coaching the Grizzlies for seven years, new UNLV head coach Bobby Hauck proved to be a competitor for some of Montana’s sought-after recruits. Having established a connection with potential recruits before his departure from Montana, Hauck had some advantage over Pflugrad, although this wasn’t expected from the new Griz coach.
“There were some quality players that Coach Hauck and some of his assistants had some great relationships with, so I knew that was going to happen,” Pflugrad said. “It’s all fair game. That’s the thing with recruiting sometimes.”
The three-week cluster that was recruiting season is now over for Pflugrad and his staff. And although starting with a handicap, at the end of his first recruiting rodeo as a head coach, Pflugrad knows he and his staff put in the work that will lead to the continued success of the Grizzly football program.
“We had to play catch up. We worked from dawn to exhaustion. We started from ground zero and we got after it,” Pflugrad said. “I feel very comfortable in talking about the 19 players we signed.”
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Class Portrait 2010
CJ Atkins
WR 6’2” 210 Encino, Calif. (College of the Canyons)
Alex Bienemann
DT 6’2” 275 Denver, Colo. (Regis Jesuit HS)
Derek Crittendon
DL 6’3” 230 Whitefish, Mont. (Whitefish HS)
Sean Haynes
WR 6’3” 183 Los Angeles, Calif. (Bishop Alemany HS)
Jake Hendrickson
OG 6’3” 285 Gilbert, Ariz. (Scottsdale CC)
Jordan Johnson
QB 6’1” 185 Eugene, Ore. (Sheldon HS)
John Kanongata’a
LB 5’11” 218 Bellevue, Wash. (Bellevue HS)
Brett Kirschner
RB 5’10” 207 Bellevue, Wash. (Interlake HS)
Danny Kistler Jr.
OT 6’8” 335 Seattle, Wash. (O’Dea HS)
William Poehls
OT 6’8 286 Chandler, Ariz. (Chandler HS)
Trevor Poole
DL 6’5” 275 Spokane, Wash. (Ferris HS)
Austin Reifeis
TE 6’3” 230 Sammamish, Wash. (Eastlake HS)
Stephen Sabin
OG 6’4” 305 Chandler, Ariz. (Scottsdale CC)
Mitch Saylor
WR 6’5” 210 Vancouver, Wash. (Union HS/Camas WA)
Shay Smithwick-Hann
QB 6’4” 215 Kalispell, Mont. (Glacier HS)
Taylor Tuliaupupu
LB 6’ 225 LaVerne, Calif. (Claremont HS)
Bo Tully
Safety 6’2” 185 Spokane, Wash. (Mead HS)
Zach Wagenmann
DE 6’3” 210 Missoula, Mont. (Sentinel HS)
Justin Whitted
Safety 6’1” 175 Los Angeles, Calif. (St. Bernard HS)
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