The Gophers figure to win Saturday’s game against Florida Atlantic but the trip to south Florida may ultimately have a more important payoff for coach Tim Brewster and his staff. The Gopher travel party was scheduled to fly to south Florida last night, choosing to arrive about a day early for a road game because Brewster and his assistants want to recruit high school players there.
Brewster regards south Florida and the Houston,Texas area as places with extremely large numbers of major college football prospects. Previous Gopher coaching staffs have recruited those areas with limited success. “ I think without question the Houston area is in my mind the best area in America today as far as the number of football prospects in a city wide area,” Brewster said. “It’s just phenomenal, and south Florida is obviously pretty good, too. There are a tremendous number of football players in south Florida. They’re both areas where we are going to target recruiting extremely hard.”
Brewster said he hopes his 2008 recruiting class will have three or four players from the Houston and south Florida areas. He already has a commitment from highly regarded receiver Eric Lair of Houston.
Florida Atlantic plays in the Sun Belt Conference. The Owls had a 5-7 record last season. This season the Owls defeated Middle Tennessee at home, 27-14, and lost to Oklahoma State 42-6 last Saturday in Stillwater.
Most of the Owls games are played in Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale with a capacity of about 20,000. A source said 11,398 attended the Middle Tennessee game in Lockhart earlier this month. NCAA rules allow a school to move one home game per season from its regular stadium to another venue and Florida Atlantic chose to play Saturday’s game with the Gophers in the 75,000 seat Dolphins Stadium, home to the Miami Dolphins.
While Florida Atlantic isn’t an impressive name in college football, the Owls have chosen the Gophers and Dolphins Stadium as a showcase game. Some high school Floridians who are interested in the Gophers and Florida schools will be paying attention.
Brewster made it clear earlier in the week he’s making this a serious road trip, working the Gophers inside to simulate the heat and humidity of Miami where temperatures could be around 90 at game time. He also announced a change in place kickers with freshman Eric Ellestad of Armstrong High School and junior Joel Monroe from Robbinsdale Cooper competing in practice this week to replace junior Jason Giannini of Canton, Ohio who missed three field goals last week.
The guess here is that the more experienced Monroe will replace Giannini. Monroe will also continue as the kickoff man for the Gophers.