2019 Signing Day Focus: Northern State

Northern State University has been a program on the verge of big things. For the past five seasons, the Wolves have been just a win or two away from being in the mix for a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference North Division title. With a larger than normal recruiting class coming this fall and the investments the university is putting into improving – not only football program – but the entire university, the Wolves are set up to make a jump towards the top of the NSIC. The focus for head coach Tom Dosch and the coaching staff was clear going into the recruiting season. "We signed a class of forty recruits this year," Dosch said. "We emphasized offensive line, and signed ten offensive linemen – we need depth and competition there. With four defensive backs graduating, we signed seven defensive backs. We signed a wide verity of other positions, but offensive line and defensive backs were a focus." They hit it big on the offensive line. "We extended early offers to some offensive linemen," Dosch said. "Realistically we hoped to sign six to seven guys at that position. We got ten because we signed a few early on and then we came across a couple guys late that we really liked. We thought they would be a good fit for our program. Getting ten was encouraging for the future." Forty recruits was a big number – bigger than what Dosch was expecting. "It is a big class. I thought we would be in the 35 range, but like with the offensive line, we found some guys late, and we had a good run of guys committing late. We brought in four or five more guys than we expected. Football is such a numbers game, and we would rather err on the side of too many guys." One of Northern State's best talking points when recruiting is that the Wolves' players are true student-athletes. "One of the things we have been proud of is we have led the NSIC in academic All-Americans six years in a row," Dosch proudly explained. "We have had a 3.0 or higher team grade point average for twelve consecutive semesters. This fall we had the highest GPA we have ever had – 3.19." Another draw to Northern is over the next few years, practically the entire campus is undergoing a facelift. "Our facilities are going through the roof in terms of what we have and what we are adding," Dosch - who is entering his tenth year at the helm - said. "We just built a new $6.5 million practice facility. We have three brand new residence halls, are in the process of building a $25 million regional science center and are building a new on-campus football stadium that will hold 7000 fans." Getting kids to campus and camps is critical for Northern State – not just to show off the new facilities. "When you look at basketball or volleyball, you can watch a kid play 30 games in a summer," Dosch explained. "Kids don't have 30 football games in the summer. Camps are the best way to see them. Getting them on campus to our camps has been a big part of our success. Our coaches will go out to some of the neighboring camps – particularly the FBS schools – and identify kids there too, but anytime you can get them to your camp, it is a big advantage." Dosch and the coaching staff have a type of person they want to be involved in the program. "We want to find guys who really want to be college football players," Dosch told northstarfootballnews.com. "With all the social media stuff that is out there, everybody is putting something on Twitter or Snapchat or whatever. That is great, but do you like being recruited and put a bunch of stuff out there, or do you want to be a college football player? I don't have a crystal ball, so I don't know, but you try and find guys you feel college football is really what they want to do. They really want to be at Northern. Sometimes you come across prospects who are just excited to get recruited or just want a scholarship – there are some red flags there." If the fit is right, the Wolves will take a one sport athlete, but they prefer a more well-rounded athlete. "Multi-sport athletes are big to us. Just about all our signings played at least two sports," Dosch said. "That is important to me too – just getting the right kind of guys. We try to stick with that as best we can and hope that translates into getting kids here and keeping kids here." Recruiting the right type of kid is more important to Dosch than recruiting the right positions. "We want to recruit competitors. That goes back to the multi-sport thing. The unique thing about college football is there are so many different positions on a football team. There are more opportunities to compete in a college football program than there is in almost any college program. If you are a talented enough guy, you are a competitor, you have some skill set, and you want to work at it, we will find a spot for you. We are looking for competitors and guys that want to win and are high achieving guys academically and high achieving guys athletically. We try to find guys who are coming off teams that were playing for state championships or in state semi-finals, guys who are used to winning because that becomes contagious." The staff recruits Minnesota hard. "We had a big class out of Minnesota this year," Dosch said. "We got ten guys out of Minnesota and will have over 30 guys on our roster from Minnesota this year." Minnesota has been a critical area for the South Dakota college. "It has been a good area for us," Dosch explained. "Some of our best current players are from Minnesota. We seem to have success in the area just north of the Twin Cities." Dosch know all the bells and whistles they have or soon will have on campus are nice. However, he feels recruiting ultimately comes down to one thing. "We are excited about all the facilities and things we have coming up, but ultimately it is about the people that make Northern State a special place — starting with our school president. He comes to all our recruiting lunch-ins. When we have recruits in, he is always there, and you don't see that a lot where the president wants to be part of the recruiting process. Our athletic director, our coaches, our academic people are lights out on our campus. They are great people – our campus is full of great people. Our campus is a fun place to be right now."