Football Recruits - 2018

[letsgonecks]

Blair Brooks, Marion HS, Marion, IA
6'3" 180lb WR
http://www.hudl.com/profile/4151946/blair-brooks

If I am not mistaken, this young man's current HS Long Jump, High Jump, and 400M best marks are better than those of our Track and Field squad.

The earlier mentioned Deion McShane ran a 14.23 in the 110 hurdles in their conference meet which would put him #5 in WIU's record books if he ran that for us. He also won 200m, 300m hurdles, and long jump at the sectional meet meet and will compete in all four events at state this next weekend.

Crazy fast 110 meter hurdler who's very solidly built...that could make a very good RB.

He is Steve's brother. Believe they're a family of 10 (1 girl) and might be one or two boys younger than Deion. His future might be in track, but could do both or Football only if he loves it more. He's already a state champ in track and will likely add a few more titles this year and next.

[ST_Lawson]

He is Steve's brother. Believe they're a family of 10 (1 girl) and might be one or two boys younger than Deion. His future might be in track, but could do both or Football only if he loves it more. He's already a state champ in track and will likely add a few more titles this year and next.

Oh wow, big family then. Cool...I figured he had to be related at least.

I've seen some mentions that he might get interest from some bigger schools, but if he really wants to do both track and football, they might not let him do that (just depends on the coach...sometimes they do, sometimes not), but he'd be more likely to be allowed to do it here (and where he's got a pretty clear example of someone doing football and another sport...his brother Steve). I hope we're able to hold his interest and get him in Leatherneck purple and gold too.

[ST_Lawson]

Elijah Ball, Ben Davis HS, Indianapolis, IN
6'0" 190lb CB
https://www.hudl.com/profile/7087737/elijah-ball
Offers from Purdue, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Ohio University, Miami (OH), Colorado State, Cincinnati and Northern Illinois
[follow]ProspectInTown[/follow]

Randall Hepburn Jr., Lake Nona HS, Orlando, FL
6'2" 190lb CB
https://www.hudl.com/profile/7544476/randall-hepburn-jr
Offers from Florida International and Florida Atlantic
[follow]district3tres[/follow]

Anthony Manning, Lake Nona HS, Orlando, FL
5'9", 175lb CB
http://www.hudl.com/profile/4028146/anthony-manning
Offers from Mercer, Furman, Florida Atlantic and Wake Forest
[follow]nthonymanning12[/follow]

Something to keep in mind when you see kids with offers like these is that often we might not win out in the initial recruiting game (especially with a kid who has a Big 10 offer or pretty much his pick of any MAC team he wants), but it's an "investment". A lot of these guys will get there and realize that they don't like it that much...maybe they won't likely get to start any games until they're a senior...maybe they just don't fit with the coaching staff like they thought they would...whatever the reason, but a lot of younger kids end up transferring to other schools where they will get a chance to play more or that are just a better fit. These kids will remember that Western Illinois showed an interest and reached out to them, and there's a much better chance that it'll stick in the back of their minds if they do decide to transfer somewhere...that Western Illinois might be a good option.

You don't really want to build your team on transfers, but nearly every team is going to need at least a few every year just to fill in a few weak spots or whatever, so this is a good way to kinda "cultivate" some interest among potential future transfers.

[ST_Lawson]

Kaleb Dawson, Colquitt County HS, Moultrie, GA
6'0" 175lb FS
Offers from Marshall, Appalachian State, Central Arkansas, Charleston Southern, and Robert Morris
http://www.hudl.com/profile/6222550/kaleb-dawson
[follow]kcdawson5[/follow]

Henry Woodcock, Cardinal Ritter HS, Indianapolis, IN
6'3" 210lb TE
Offer from Indiana State
http://www.hudl.com/profile/4078231/henry-woodcock
[follow]h_dub_705[/follow]

Koby Hauser, Westfield HS, Westfield, IN
6'1" 205lb SS
Offers from Air Force, Indiana State, and Columbia University
http://www.hudl.com/profile/4112485/koby-hauser
[follow]HauserKoby[/follow]

Devin Mathews, Matanzas HS, Palm Coast, FL
6'4" 194lb TE
Offers from Air Force, Army, and Navy
http://www.hudl.com/profile/4187680/devin-mathews
[follow]devin_mathews25[/follow]

[ST_Lawson]

You know, I think it's just going to be easier to do it this way. Had a bunch of offers show up over the weekend, so I'm just going to put them all in a spreadsheet. Feel free to peruse them. I'll be going through and adding in the previous offers when I have time, so right now, these are just the new ones.

[ST_Lawson]

I'm still adding offers as I see them posted on twitter.
Also, just playing around with Google's Fusion Tables stuff, which allows me to more easily do things like maps of the recruits locations, which you should be able to check out here: 2018 Offers Map

[sealhall74]

I'm still adding offers as I see them posted on twitter.
Also, just playing around with Google's Fusion Tables stuff, which allows me to more easily do things like maps of the recruits locations, which you should be able to check out here: 2018 Offers Map

The sky is the limit now. Might be worthwhile to combine all of the MVFC team offer sheets into a view to see where teams are focusing recruiting attention. Fusion does look interesting but the Google sites seem a little dead about it. I wonder if it has been replaced/subsumed by some other project. Another really interesting non-football project would be to explore the twitter botting that is going on. Is it the really the Russians?

[ST_Lawson]

Busy Sunday and out of town yesterday, so I've got a lot catch up on (especially since we had a big football camp this weekend).

Got verbal commitments from DeShon Gavin (CB/RB from New Lenox, IL) and Hunter Mason (OLB/TE from Nevada, MO).
Also, hadn't seen a tweet about the offer, but got a verbal commit from Herschel Blankenship, (OLB/RB from Plainfield, IN).

https://twitter.com/DeShon_Gavin/status ... 5711683584
https://twitter.com/hlmason23/status/886725600249073664
https://twitter.com/Herschel06/status/8 ... 2155175936

[ST_Lawson]

Verbal commitment from Brandon Malkow from Beloit, WI: https://twitter.com/BMalkow62/status/887735502555820034
He's a 6'5", 258lb O-lineman who had offers from South Dakota State and Columbia.

[ST_Lawson]

Verbal commitment from Jack Anderson:
He's a 6'2", 215lb RB from Richfield, MN with offers from the service academies (Army, Navy, AF).