D1 Special Commitment Report: Logan Purcell (Annandale-2021)

The second Minnesota Golden Gopher commit in the class of 2021 is a player who I am very proud to say I discovered before most in early October while he was on a very good 2019 Annandale Cardinals football team: Logan Purcell, a 6'7, 240 lb. OT/DE. He was kind enough to agree to answer a few questions for Northstar Football News, and I left the interview feeling very certain that the junior is high school's recruiting would blow-up eventually. Well, blow-up seems to be a pretty accurate statement, as Purcell visited Iowa State on a gameday visit in late November, received a scholarship offer from the University of South Dakota, and then visited the University of Minnesota's Junior Day, wherein he was offered and committed to Head Coach PJ Fleck three days ago on the 27th. I am psyched to present the follow-up to that October "Recruiting Report" with this special D1 Commitment Report brought to you by Northstar Football News. Get know the Annandale rising senior as he updates us on his recruitment taking off after we spoke in October, Annandale's 2019 season and expectations for 2020, how the Gopher offer/commitment went down, and what position he's projected to play in college. <a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/11578347/5dd363884decd7049c31d69b">Junior Year Highlights</a> NFN: Hello and thanks for your time, Logan. It’s been a while since our recruiting report in early October. At that time, recruiting was pretty slow despite your productivity, when did things really begin to pick up for you in the recruitment process? Who contacted you first, what did it feel like, and when did the Gophers get involved? Purcell: "Ya I started getting more game day invites and intrest after I had talked with you in October. Before the dead period I had quite a few colleges texting me, mostly fcs schools but a few pac 12 and big ten. And now after the dead period and even in it it really picked up and I had coaches wanting to come a couple of times a week. I had lots of junior day invites at this time and I was planning on just going to Minnesota Iowa and South Dakota. UND was my first contact and visit. I was not a fan of the North Dakota feel. I was extremely excited and quite surprised when the gophers texted me for the first time. I jumped in right away and took a game day visit there and started building a relation with the coaches." NFN: How was your 2019 season with Annandale. You guys made it into the state tournament but fell short of a ring, give us some detail in the season, your play, what you did well, and watch we should expect from Annandale in 2020? Purcell: "Ya our season was phenomenal and myself included plus our whole team loved every second of the season. We played well in just about every game, but we had a trouble throughout the whole year with holding onto the ball. And losing our starting running back didn’t help that out, as I don’t believe he had a fumble in his varsity career. That ended up costing us the game in the state semi-finals game to a very good Dassel-Cokato team. We were huge up front. I was our smallest weight wise olineman and we were athletic too. I played solid year round, I never really had a bad game. Next year we will bring back almost everyone. We had a dlineman, linebacker, back, and a couple of skill players that will be missed. We should be just fine to fill those spots well. Look for us to once again be controlling on the line of scrimmage next year." NFN: Can't wait. So how did the offer and commitment happen with the Gophs? When did you first hear from them? How’d the offer happen, and what did it feel like to get recruited by the hometown team? Purcell: "I stayed after the basketball game on Sunday night for a while to talk to Coach Fleck and we talked for a little bit about the visit and stuff. He then offered me a scholarship to play football for the Gophers. It was really what I had always wanted. I knew that it was the perfect college for me. I wanted to go a ways from home, but not too far. They were a great college and very good at football. It didn’t really take me that long to make my decision I went home and talked to my parents about it before I called up Coach Fleck and said I wanted to be a Gopher." NFN: What can we expect from you and your football career in college? What kind of player is PJ Fleck getting? Purcell: "In college they will be looking to start me at tackle. Of course I need to gain a bit of weight. And if I’m not gaining as much as needed I’ll stop and play DE. In college im looking to play as much as possible. I’m gonna work as hard as possible to gain the weight and I’ve set a good hard working bad for myself already. So there getting a hard working play with a motor who wants to be the best that I can possibly be." Can't wait to watch you on Saturday's, Logan. Thank you so much for the time and Row the Boat!