Commitment Report: Preston Thelemann/Cretin-Derham Hall (2020)

<strong>ST. PAUL-- </strong>The Furman Paladins, a Division 1 FCS program in Greenville, South Carolina got a commitment from Cretin-Derham Hall QB <strong>Preston Thelemann</strong> recently and Northstar Football News was able to chat with Preston about committing to the Paladins, who play in the Southern Conference (SoCon) under head coach <strong>Clay Hendrix </strong>who after being the associate head coach at the Air Force Academy, came home to the Furman Paladins where he was an assistant for 19 years for Furman as he made his return to Greenville in 2017. <strong>What Sold Thelemann on Furman</strong> The competitive nature of the Paladins program was the main draw for Thelemann to take his talents far south to Furman. In Hendrix's first three seasons as head coach of the Paladins, Furman has gotten to the FCS playoffs two of his three seasons and have consistently been 6-2 in the Southern Conference and finished, 1st, 1st, and 2nd in the conference in those three seasons. <strong>Other Sports in the Mix</strong> Most players when I ask this question, go straight to the top 3 or 5 programs that were "in the hunt" for their football talents, which wasn't the case for Thelemann. Being a solid hockey player for the Raiders as well, Thelemann had to choose between hockey or football, which in the end he decided on football and to get out of this cold state and out of the ice rink too. <strong>Biggest Football Adjustment for Thelemann</strong> Thelemann told NFN the biggest thing he'll need to work on is the expansion of his football IQ. "The game is going to get faster and I have to be able to be smarter and more efficient on the football field," Thelemann said to growing his game at the next level. <strong>The Family Impact</strong> Thelemann thanks his older brother for getting him to this level of playing college football. "As a young kid, he showed me how great this game is," Preston said about his big brother and his impact on the game of football. <strong>Looking Forward to the Next Level</strong> As Thelemann wraps up his senior year in St. Paul, he looks forward to his plans to head south and just get out there and compete. Getting on campus at Furman University and showing off that Midwest work ethic of competition is what we all hope to see from Preston Thelemann as a quarterback that went from starting his senior season as a borderline starter (hard to believe from what I saw in Week 2) to now taking his talents to Division I FCS football. Congratulations to Preston on his commitment from us at Northstar Football! Go, Paladins!