MHN Sweet 24 Football Prospect Watch List: Class of 2012
Several Football Prospects Impress at State Track Meet
The 2011 high school track season is over and so is the NCAA D-1A class of 2012 football evaluation period. So how did the Nebraska athletes fare?
Going into the evaluation time frame there were three Nebraskans that held D-1A offers (Jake Schany, Mike Shoff, Tay Bender). Today there are four: during the month of May Lincoln Southwest TE Sam Cotton picked up a couple of offers from Tulane and Ohio.
As of this date (June 1, 2011) no class of 2012 Nebraska high school football prospect has received an offer from the Huskers. This is the first time I can recall that at least one Nebraskan athlete from a particular class hasn’t received an offer from NU by June.
Pictured at left: Grand Island’s Sam Foltz, one of several class of 2012 football prospects that impressed at the 2011 state track and field meet.
New MHN Watch List Additions
I’ve expanded the MHN 2012 Nebraska HS Football Prospect Watch List from 20 athletes to 24, as a result of some pretty impressive looking athletes that grabbed my attention at the 2011 Nebraska State Track and Field Meet. The new entries are:
Dennis Barfield, ATH (6*0, 180) Omaha Central — played multiple positions for the Eagles football team last season, and is just beginning to reach his athletic potential. He won the Class A 400 meter at state.
Sam Foltz, DB (6-3,185) Grand Island — has a very impressive frame and is a quality athlete with 4.5 speed. There are a lot of the little things to like about this kid. He placed second in the Class A 400m at state.
Levi Gipson, WR (6-2, 180) Lincoln Christian — has very good speed and size and shows good athleticism. He won the class C 400m and long jump.
Brandon Stuart, QB (6-1, 180) Bayard — may be the best pro-style QB in his class. He broke 5 Nebraska state passing records last season.
The next opportunity for all of the class of 2012 athletes to show their true mettle will be at the college camps that begin this month. A good showing by an athlete at camp and he could receive an offer on the spot or at least to move high enough up on the boards to give him a legitimate shot to impress again during his senior season on the football field.
Remember the idea going forward is to first impress these coaches at camp and then to seal the deal with your play on the football field this fall. The more D-1A schools you impress the more chance you have that D-1AA schools and D-II schools will also be interested in you.
Good luck to everyone!
Mike Shoff, OL, (6-6, 280) Cambridge — Offer: Iowa, Florida International. Absolutely ridiculously freaky measures for his size and position. The best overall measures in the class of 2012. Tay Bender, QB (6-2, 190) Lincoln Southwest — Offer: Kansas State. The Wildcats are high on this stud with 4.47 speed and 38″ vertical. Jake Schany, LB (6-2, 210) Blair —Offer: Tulane, Colorado and Ohio. Solid measures, a very good football player and excellent student, will have many more offers come his way. Sam Cotton, TE (6-4, 230) Lincoln Southwest —Offer Tulane, Ohio. Has nice size decent speed. Dennis Barfield, ATH (6-0, 180) Omaha Central — demonstrates strong athleticism with very good speed. He won Class A 400 meter at 2011 state meet. Levi Gipson, WR (6-2, 180) Lincoln Christian — Good frame and speed. He won Class C 400m and long lump and place 2nd in 100m at 2011 state meet. Sam Foltz, DB (6-3, 185) Grand Island — possesses an impressive football frame and has very good speed (4.5) and placed second in Class A 400m at 2011 state meet. Michael Wickham, WR/TE (6-3, 180) Bennington —has big frame with very good speed for size 2011 Class B 200 meter champion. Brandon Stuart, QB (6-1, 180) Bayard — impressive pro style QB with very good mobility — broke 5 state passing records last season. Hunter Greer, OL (6-7, 300) Omaha Burke — great size, best measures in class of 2012 for his position. DaVonta’ Culliver, LB (6-2, 210) Westside — has best measures in class of 2012 for his position. Terry Grigsby, WR (6-2, 190) Omaha North — good athlete with listed 4.5 speed, 38” vertical and size. Best measures in class of 2012 for his position. Ross Dzuris, TE/LB (6-3, 222) Plattsmouth — nice size and good measures. James Anderson, OL/DL (6-4-300) Omaha Burke — nice measures good football player. Joe Jansnowski, TE/DE (6-5, 220) Creighton Prep — good size and good football player. Chris Bailey, RB/LB (6-0, 215) Millard North — good football player. Shane Lentz, FB (6-1, 215) Millard North — 4.5 speed and good football player. Roger Brohimer, RB/DB (6-2, 185) Fremont — good athlete with nice size decent measures. Bryan Bayer, DE (6-5, 220) Howells — size with 4.7 speed. Joe Dugan, LB (6-4. 210) Millard North — good size, decent speed and good football player. Matt Miller, TE (6-5, 225) Omaha Scutt Catholic — size and 4.7 speed. Garret Johns, OL (6-3, 270) Aurora — decent measures and very good football player. Landon Arnold, OL/DL (5-11, 250) Millard North — lacks measures but is a very good football player. Ryan Flynn, LB (6-3,215) Creighton Prep — good measures real nice listed shuttle time. |
June 3, 2011 @ 1:01 pm
Iowa recruit Mike Shoff looks pretty impressive, I’m wondering why the Huskers didn’t offer him. If he isn’t offered what’s the chances of anyone of the rest of these guys getting an offer from them?
June 24, 2011 @ 11:15 am
The Huskers pass on all our kids, except of course the Cotton boys. If NU used the same standards of assessing talent on the Cotton boys as they do on the rest of our in-state kids there is absolutely no way any of them would get offered. But Oh no, “we can’t do that because they’re Big Butt Barney’s kids.”
This is a complete farce if I ever saw one! Bo Pelini and Cotton should be a shame of themselves for pulling this charade and getting away with it. Even Iowa believes in our kids more than Nebraska does!
June 24, 2011 @ 11:33 am
Truth be told: Bo Pelini has been giving pink cards to a lot of the walk-ons.
They don’t believe in Nebraska kids except for practice and scrimmage dummies. So now that the Huskers are in the Big Ten they will be recruiting Ohio and Pennsylvania a lot harder, in addition to Texas and California. Hopefully, Iowa will continue to pick up the slack in our state. The Hawkeyes have always done a good job with Nebraska talent.
July 6, 2011 @ 9:36 am
What happened to Will Cummings?