So, you want to play D1 Football. Now what?

by PAUL REPPENHAGEN

This article is first in a series by Paul Reppenhagen, father of current Texas Christian University player Ben Reppenhagen. His articles will discuss the recruiting process for those wanting to play Division I football.

Nothing beats Friday Night Lights. No matter where you live, high school football is awesome! The only problem with it is, when you’re a senior, it ends. If you’re good though, you likely have the dream of playing Saturdays, on TV, with huge crowds, great bands, cool SWAG, and all the pageantry that goes along with it. That means you’re dreaming of playing D1. Fantastic! But how do you go from high school standout to D1 commit or walk-on? Read on.

I played DIII football and baseball in Michigan. But it has been 30 years since I last put on the football pads. I was recruited to play at D1 schools –Army, Air Force, WMU, EMU — but had no idea how to go about the process. Things have changed a lot in recruiting since then but most parents and players still have no idea how to go about it. It’s full of land mines, potholes, and dead ends. I learned the hard way; by going through it.

My son, Ben, was a top linebacker in MN for St. Thomas Academy. Sometime between his sophomore and junior year, he came to us and said he wanted to play football at Michigan (I’m a Michigan fan since I grew up watching them). Whoa! Ok. That’s certainly an audacious goal. So, I went to work trying to figure out how to make it happen. Long story short, he’s now playing at TCU and had offers at Wake Forest, San Diego, UPenn and Stanford. But it was a roller coaster ride and I wish I had known then what I know now.

First, know the numbers. There are 255 D1 Schools (130 FBS, 125 FCS) and approximately 29,000 rostered D1 football players. That’s about 5800 new D1 players each year. There are approximately 500,000 high school seniors in the US playing football. So, that means about 1.2% of high school senior football players are going to play D1 each year. The reality is, no matter how much you may want to play D1, it’s hard to make it. It’s even harder if you don’t have an organized approach or don’t have someone that can help guide you – what to do, when to do it, how to go about it, etc.

The first question to ask yourself is “Do I really want to play D1 football?” A lot of kids think they want to play D1 because of what they see on TV. They think it will be an extension of their high school experience. It isn’t. College football is a business. It’s a huge commitment and it’s hard. Yes, it’s fun, you meet a lot of great guys and have great experiences. But make no mistake, you sacrifice a lot of the traditional college experience to play in college. You must really, truly want to play the game at that level. You need to love it because if you don’t, it will show up on the practice field. Coaches at that level have no time for players that don’t love playing football. Simply put, their jobs and livelihoods are on the line.

The next question to ask yourself is “Do I have the necessary combination of size and skill?” Just about everyone playing D1 was a stud on their high school team. Everyone is going to be big, fast, or big and fast. All programs are looking for fast guys. If you run a legit 4.4 or faster, you will find a place to play. Schools will find you if you go to camps. Coaches never feel they have enough speed. If you are big – 6’6” or taller, 275 or heavier, you will find a place to play. Schools will find you if you go to camps. Coaches never feel they have enough size on the OL and DL. If you’re not really fast or really big, then you better have some compelling combination of the two. You should also know that you have your work cut out for you. You’re going to have to do a lot of networking, go to a lot of camps, send out a lot of correspondence to get coaches interested in you. It’s not impossible. It just takes more work.

The third question you need to ask yourself is “What am I really willing to give up to play D1?” If you’re dead set on playing only a certain position, only at certain schools, you’ll narrow your chances. If you really want to play at that high level, you may need to switch positions, choose a school with lower academic standards, or look at schools in different geographic areas. Those choices aren’t inconsequential. You need to be honest with yourself on what you are willing to do to play D1 ball.

Now here’s the deal. You kind of want to have all that figured out by your sophomore year of high school. What? That seems crazy. Yes, it does seem crazy but you can’t wait until your senior year to get going on the recruiting process. It’s too late by then. You’ll be relying on hope which is never a good strategy. You want enough games to be able to generate good film content. You need time to cultivate conversations with coaches. You need to go to enough camps to get a good look. You need time to visit colleges to check out the vibe and see if you’ll like the campus and people. Sometimes, you don’t know if you’ll like a school until you physically walk the campus, see the stadium, check out the surrounding city, etc. All of that takes time. To get my son recruited, we visited 16 different D1 programs the summers of his sophomore and junior year. That means eight weekends of each of those two summers we spent on the road going to camps/colleges. As I said, all of that takes time.

Does everyone that plays D1 have to do that? No. As mentioned, if you’re really fast, really big, or have some compelling combination of the two, college coaches will likely find you. Those are the three-, four-, and five-star recruits. If you’re not one of those, then yes, you do need to do quite a bit of work or be willing to live with what you get. If that isn’t enough to motivate you into action, consider this fact. There are 86 D1 FBS players rostered from MN high schools. That’s only 0.6 percent of all the FBS players rostered. The point is, while we have some great talent here in the state, we aren’t necessarily a recruiting hot bed. D1 college coaches aren’t constantly canvasing MN looking for talent. If you want to get noticed coming out of MN, you have to work at it.

What does that mean – work at it?

It means you have to approach your recruiting like a communications or ad campaign. You must establish your message, outline who’s likely to be interested in you and why, script out how you’re going to differentiate yourself and get attention. You have to plot out when and where you’ll attend camps, who you’ll talk to when you’re there, how to send out teaser communication before the camp so you’re top of mind with coaches. You need to prioritize and rank your school preferences; investigate the type of players they recruit and the offense and defensive schemes they run. Find out where their coaches are from and where they played ball so you can make some connection and stand out from others. Send follow up notes to coaches and update them on your progress. As I said, you have work at it.

In my next article I will get into more specifics about the recruiting process – things to do, things to avoid, tips to consider. While the process seems daunting, it’s also very exciting and fun. You may send out dozens of letters and hear nothing and then, one day, boom, you get some interest from a coach. They key take away here is if you want to increase your chances for playing D1 ball coming out of MN, you must drive the process yourself. Don’t leave it up to your coach. Don’t leave it up to your parents. You have to drive the recruiting bus yourself.

No. 3-ranked Redwood Valley are also off to a 2-0 start, but will play No. 10 Maple River this week in what will be a great match up.

Senior quarterback Alex Lang and senior WR/S Drew Lundeen are both top-notch players leading the Cardinals.

West Central Area/Ashby comes in at No. 4 after a hard fought opening win over Barnesville who was ranked No. 4 in our pre-season rankings but this week dropped out of the top 10 just barely. West Central followed up with a nice 48-12 win over Staples-Motley.

Blooming Prairie might be the Awesome Blossoms, but they’re also a pretty awesome football team. They extended their win streak to 20 games with two wins to start the season. But they are now in a different section, which could mean different results after winning the Prep Bowl in 2019.

That’s because they will have to deal with teams like Minneapolis North, ranked No. 2 in our pre-season coaches poll, but who fell to No. 6 this week after a 28-21 loss to Fridley, albeit Fridley is a Class 4A school who was also ranked high coming into the season. There is no doubt North will be there at the end of the season having played a tougher schedule than most, if not all 2A schools.

Moose Lake-Willow River is at No. 7 after a gritty 28-21 won over Hermantown and then a 55-0 slaughtering over International Falls last week.

And falling from No. 1 to No. 8 after seeing their 71-game win streak come to an end is the 5-time current state champion Caledonia Warriors.

The Warriors dropped their opener against Lake City. After being tied 13-13 at the half, Lake City ran away with it in the second half to win 30-13. Of course, Caledonia rebounded with a win last week, and maintain a top-10 position in the rankings. But it will be interesting to see how the Warriors fare in 2021.

Kimball Area and Maple River round out the top 10 in what looks like will be a very competitive class this fall. Match-Up of The Week: No. 10 Maple River at No. 3 Redwood Valley

Rankings

Class 3A

1. Cannon Falls

2. Annandale

3. Litchfield

4. Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton

5. Pierz

6. Waseca

7. Fairmont

8. Albany

9. Dassel-Cokato

10. Breck

Class 3a

Bombers cannon their way to the top

The Cannon Falls Bears are 17-2 in their last three seasons, including a 7-0 run last year in the COVID-shortened campaign.

They are off to a 2-0 start this season thanks to a 17-14 win over Rochester Lourdes last week. The Bombers use a “T” offense that has proven difficult to defend, and they have a strong defense to boot, making them, so far, the team to beat in Class 3A.

Annandale senior quarterback Carson Gagnon threw six touchdown passes in the first half alone against Glencoe-Silver Lake last week. Three of them went to fellow senior Bryce Fobbe. Gagnon has eight TD passes already as the No. 2-ranked Cardinals look to be one of the top teams to compete in Class 3A.

Litchfield at No. 3 is another stal- wart in this class. They trounced Milaca 32-8 in the opener, and Milaca turned around and defeated previously top-ranked Albany. That is why Albany drops to No. 8 and Litchfield ups to No. 3.

Litchfield’s ground attack has been stellar with six rushing touchdowns in a 48-7 win over Holy Family School and four more against Milaca. Lukas Kuehl is the main back and had 242 yards and three scores in the Milaca win.

Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton, better known as D-G-F, comes in at No. 4 this week after posting two quick wins to start the season, a 16-0 win over Thief River Falls and a 20-18 nail biter over Pequot Lakes.

Pierz, a perennial power, is in the middle of the pack for the top 10. They have yet to give up a point after two shutouts against Holdingford (20-0) and Minnewaska (41-0). Chances are the Pioneers will be competing for a section title when that time comes.

No. 6 Waseca got a huge scare last week when head coach Brad Wendland collapsed on the sideline during the end of their 21-13 win over St. Peter.

The good news is Wendland was revived and is currently recovering. More good news is that his Bluejays are off to a 2-0 start after beating St. Peter and Marshall to start the 2021 campaign.

The Bluejays finished last season 6-1 with their only loss coming to topranked Rocori. This season should be a strong one for Waseca, with hopes Coach Wendland can return to the sidelines soon.

Fairmont is right there with Waseca, having also beat St. Peter and Marshall in their first two contests, even by better margins.

Led by senior 6’4” quarterback Zach Jorgensen, the Cardinals could be a contender down the stretch.

Albany, the pre-season top-ranked squad, fell to Milaca in their second game of the season, albeit a close one

30-28.

The Huskies are a traditionally strong program, however, and despite losing quality seniors off last year’s squad, could very well win out the rest of their regular season schedule and remain a one-loss team.

Dassel-Cokato and Breck round out the top 10 in Class 3A with still six games to go. Like most classes, it’s anybody’s guess who will rise to the top come section playoff time.

Match-Up of The Week: No. 2 Annandale at No. 9 Dassel-Cokato

Rankings

Class 4A

1. Hutchinson

2. Becker

3. Kasson-Mantorville

4. Stewartville

5. SMB

6. Fridley

7. Rocori

8. Orono

9. Simley

10. Mound Westonka

CLASS 4A

Hutchinson claims top spot

The Tigers from Hutchinson have already played three games this season and have made mincemeat out of each of their opponents, including Class 5A school Alexandria.

In addition, they also defeated St. Cloud Apollo and Willmar and have done so largely by running the ball. With a strong offensive line and three

FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT continued on page 14