Recruiting Report: Zac Janz (Farmington-2021)

When I think of 2021 running back [player_tooltip player_id="18104" first="Zac" last="Janz"], I see the epitome of a Farmington Tiger football player. The 5’8, 190 lb. bowling ball of a RB is built like a NCAA create-a-player thanks to Farmington’s strength and conditioning program - which is one of the best in the state - and he has the talent and skills to put his frame to good use and can run through or around opposing defenders. Besides his strength and explosiveness, Janz embodies another Farmington ideal, one that has aided them tremendously since they bumped up to 6A a little more than a few years ago: toughness. Farmington Tigers - and especially Janz - play football the way to should be played, and Janz is a perfect example of this as he is a physical, aggressive, and tough running back who cannot be tackled by one defender alone, and would be rather be dragged off the field than miss another down of football. After gameday visits to SDSU, NDSU, and UND, a junior day invite from SDSU, and a junior day visit to the Bison, Janz has still somehow not received an offer, and I hope this “Recruiting Report” serves to give Janz a little more exposure, and hopefully helps him eventually earn a scholarship offer. After seeing him play last fall against Rosemount I feel very confident that the 2x All-District RB would be more than able to play at the scholarship level, and the stud was kind enough to give Northstar Football News some of his time to discuss his career thus far at Farmington, the big Tiger senior class and their expectations for 2020, some thoughts on recruiting, and more. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy! <a href="http://www.hudl.com/v/2CNyKc">Junior Season Highlights </a><a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/9729291/5be12ad7a018850d2c01ddcf">Sophomore Highlights</a> [caption id="attachment_18285" align="alignnone" width="300"] A host of Blaze defenders try to take #26 down.[/caption] NFN: Hello and thank you for your time, Zac! Please begin by sharing with our readers a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? When did you begin playing football? And what do you love about the game? Janz: “I live in Farmington now, but I spent most of my childhood and growing up in Huntley, Illinois. I was there for probably 10 years and moved to Minnesota going into 7th grade. I started playing flag football in Illinois when I was in kindergarten and then moved onto tackle in 3rd grade. A couple fun facts about me is that I’ve always played running back, even back when I started at the flag level I always loved running with the ball and having it handed off to me. I also considered not playing football my 7th grade year because my mom had convinced me that cross country was a great sport, and I wouldn’t have played football that year because I had missed sign ups in Illinois but luckily we moved to Minnesota that summer and I decided I would rather stick with football, and my first season here ended up being my favorite season of all time. I love playing football because I like being able to use my athleticism, speed, strength, and intelligence all in one sport. But obviously it wasn’t always because of that, I also love playing because I grew up around football and having it in my family and I was just always a part of it. I used to watch Packer games with my dad and then at halftime throw on his old high school helmet and throw the football to myself in the backyard and pretend I was in the NFL. Getting to more current stuff, I’m 5’8”, 188lbs, 4.54 laser timed. 524 squat, 305 bench, and 324 powerclean.” NFN: Awesome. Now tell us a little bit about your sophomore season in 2018. How was the year for the Tigers? And how was your season personally? Janz: “Our 2018 season was not too pretty obviously, but was a huge learning and transition year for our team. We had some senior leaders, but a lot of our seniors were hurt throughout the season and we had a lot of sophomores starting on our team. Obviously our highlight of the year as a team was beating Eagan at TCO and the rest of it was a lot of beat downs from other teams week after week. I think it was a great learning season for me, starting at running back as a sophomore and getting to experience a whole varsity season as an underclassman. That helped me adjust to the speed of varsity football pretty easily and get used to being hit by people that might be bigger than I am. Personally, I felt like I had a successful sophomore campaign especially after the first few games when I started rushing consistently over 100 yards a game. My 2018 stats were 721 rushing yards, 4.26 YPC, 76 reception yards, and 12 TDs to earn an All-District award.” [caption id="attachment_18283" align="alignleft" width="200"] Janz.[/caption] NFN: Not a bad sophomore season at all! So how were expectations for the team going into 2019? How had y’all built off the 2018 season to find some success last fall? Also, how was your personal season? Janz: “As a team our expectations were drastically different than they ever had been before coming into a season. With a small but hard working and dedicated senior class, we knew that our junior class would be putting in a lot of work for this team and making up most of the starters. This season we had expected to win, instead of being surprised by it. We expected that we would go out and be a good football team, instead of being surprised and not expecting ourselves to be able to make big plays and win games. We built on the previous season of beat downs by now having a lot of experience on the varsity level along with the losing side of the win column, and we were prepared to do what it takes to change that. Personally, I expected to take over the game a little bit more this season and rush for over 1000 yards, which I fell short of. I wanted our run game to become a big part of our spread offense and I wanted to have a much more successful season than I had the year before. My 2019 stats were 795 rushing yards,8 rushing TDs, about 5 yds/carry, and another All-district selection.” [caption id="attachment_18284" align="alignnone" width="300"] Janz runnin’ that rock son.[/caption] NFN: It was fun watching you guys this past fall, lots of fight in that 2019 Tiger team. What did your offseason entail to give you guys that confidence? Also, what do you love about the Farmington program? Janz: “Coming into the 2019 season and throughout the season we worked a lot on the mental side of our game, even having a sports psychologist come in every few weeks and talk to us. But preseason wise our senior class worked a lot with the junior class on creating a tight knit family where we all had trust in each other off the field. Then that trust would carry over onto the field during games and everyone knew that we all had each other’s backs. We also worked on the actual football part of it as well, traveling to USD for team camp and then going to multiple 7on7 tournaments in Minnesota and one in Wisconsin. We had a lot of fun and success in the 7on7 tournaments and events and that brought our team a lot closer together too because we were all winning and having fun together as a team and starting to see success as a football program even if it wasn’t in full pads on Friday night. Personally I think one of the best memories I have from our season was going to Minnesota State Mankato and winning the 7on7 tournament after starting the day off rough. It helped us face adversity together as a team and then once we had the momentum and were making plays, it was all up and fun from there. I love the Farmington football program because of how included everyone is in everything and how much we do together as a team.” [caption id="attachment_18286" align="alignnone" width="300"] #26[/caption] NFN: Great answers. What will this offseason look like? And what is your grade focusing on going into 2020 and what are its expectations? Janz: “Our summer workouts 4 days a week are all together as the entire team goes to the same session of strength and conditioning. I also think because of some of the not so successful seasons Farmington has had in years prior, everyone in every grade level is humble and is willing to put in the work to change Farmington to a winning culture and keep it that way for a long time and are aware of the work they are going to be asked to put in. As a team we have very high expectations, which include being a 1 seed in sections and being in that state championship game. We plan on accomplishing these goals by building on what the senior class from 2019 started and keeping a team where everyone is involved and included and there is a lot of trust in each other. We also of course are always working to be in top physical condition for this season, with our senior class being bigger and stronger than we’ve ever been as a class before.” NFN: Perfect. Now get into some detail on the 2019 season, both for you and for the Tigers! Janz: “Our schedule and win-loss for our regular season in 2019 went: Stillwater - W Osseo- W Eagan - W Rosemount - L Burnsville - W Eastview - W Lakeville South - L Lakeville North - L I believe that we had a very, very successful season for our program. A couple of our biggest games as a team were definitely Stillwater because it was a strong start and statement for the season we were about to have, also tying out amount of wins from the season before, Eagan because even though Eagan didn’t have the best football team, we came out too confident and put out a terrible first half and then had to come together as a team in the locker room and change our plan to make sure we won the games. After halftime we finished the game a lot stronger and had a sound win over them. Finally Eastview was a big game because we lost the lead, and could not move the ball for almost the entire 2nd half, and with two minutes left we put together a drive on offense and scored. Our defense also sealed the game the next drive with a pick six. That was another game where we had to come together as a team to get it done in the end. For me, my best games rushing wise were Osseo, Eagan, and Burnsville. Our game with Shakopee, even being a loss was definitely the most fun game of the year for me. We had our leads and lost our leads and there were many things that went our way and then went shakopees way. We knew that they were a higher seed than us but were definitely a beatable team as we knew we could’ve gotten a higher seed as well. I had a pretty decent game against them with around 80 yards and a touchdown, but just a few plays held us back from having a shot at the 1 seed Totino. We had a botched play at the beginning of the game that lead to a safety and a few passes throughout the game that could’ve been touchdowns if completed, and those plays definitely hurt our chances of winning. It was a fun game though because I got to run to the edge a lot more than usual and was able to get into open space more than I was used to, and the closeness of the game made everyone’s adrenaline pump a lot more than ever before because both teams were fighting hard for that win. I think if we played Shakopee at some point this season we would beat them very handily because of what we are building this season.” [caption id="attachment_18287" align="alignnone" width="300"] #26 TD time.[/caption] NFN: You guys are building something great, that’s forsure. Last but not least, what’s up with recruiting? Who has been in contact? Are you heading to any camps this summer? And what do you think you do well as football player/what can you bring to a college program? Janz: “Some colleges that I’ve communicated with to some extent are NDSU, SDSU, UND, USD, Yale, Columbia, SIU, and Drake for the D1 level, and a number of D2 and D3 colleges as well. My goals and plans are to be playing football at the division 1 level because I know I work hard enough in every aspect of my life to do so, I just need to find that one coach and school that believes in me. I visited SDSU for a junior day so far but coming up I’m going to NDSU, UND, and Drake in the next month and also am planning to get down to SIU and over to Yale for junior days too. Honestly, I’m not sure if I would want to play football at any level but D1 because I work too hard in the classroom and on the field to not go to a school that reflects the work I’ve put in, but of course I am always open to what any coaches have to say to me and am open to any colleges that are interested in recruiting me. I plan on having a busy summer with camps this year, and last year I just went to the U of M mega camp and Wisconsin’s camp. I’m being patient so far in my recruiting, still waiting for my first offer but I also am confident in myself and am hopeful that I will have the opportunity to play football at the next level and hopefully division 1 level. I think I can add a lot of speed and power to a college backfield, with me running a 4.54 40yd going into junior season and hopefully even faster this year, and my numbers in the weight room. I think one reason I might be overlooked is my height, but I know I make up for that with my strength, explosiveness, speed, and ability to make plays on the field. I also am a solid back weighing almost 190lbs currently. I think as a football player I can be a game changer in the run game and have great breakaway and acceleration speed. I also am consistently breaking tackles and am very hard to bring down which I credit to wrestling for 10 years growing up.” I really enjoyed this interview with Janz, and I have a feeling his hard work will pay off very soon.

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Recruiting Report: Zac Janz (Farmington-2021)

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