P/K Brad Nortman changes his mind, but...

In light of the recent kicking troubles it was too bad to read tonight that Brad Nortman, of Brookfield Central in Milwaukee, has decided to de-commit from the Gopher Football program. Rivals is listing him as a "soft verbal" commitment to Wisconsin. Not a big surprise.

But there is some potential good news on the recruiting horizon. With a dozen or so recruits in town to see the Gophs take on OSU, there have been some rumblings since Saturday night's game of potential verbal commitments coming.

Jonathan Dandridge, CB, from the Detroit area looks like he could be making a verbal to the Golden Gophers within the next few days.

"Big Play" Traye Simmons, CB, juco transfer from College of the Sequoias, was supposed to visit Florida this past weekend, but was in Minneapolis to see the Gophers play.

Gary Tinsley, LB, from Jacksonville, looks like he might have more interest in the Gophers as of late.

Keanon Cooper, CB, from Dallas Skyline HS, one of several Skyline players to visit the Dome on Saturday night, has some new interest in Minnesota as well.

Jewhan Edwards, DT, from Philly (who, OH BY THE WAY, is 6'1", 338lbs, and is an absolute BEAST) looks like he might be leaning toward the Gophers as well. Can you imagine having guy this big in the middle of our D line, gobbling up Big10 running backs?!?!?! I just watched his spotlight video on Rivals, and this kid just runs people over and is a violent tackler... I think I just wet my pants a little bit!

Of course this is a lot of speculation. Speculation I don't mind adding to because it is dang exciting to start to thinking about some of these guys in Maroon & Gold. As I mentioned in a previous post, we haven't seen this kind of excitement around recruiting at this time of year, maybe ever, and it's a lot of fun.

And do you see a trend here? Defense, baby, DEFENSE!!!