If you haven’t been paying attention, North and South Dakota have seen an uptick in both the quality and quantity of their high school football prospects, and things are only trending upwards. One of the high school programs playing a big part in the increase of Dakota recruiting attention is Pierre T.F. Riggs High School in Pierre, South Dakota, who are fresh off seeing their 2023 4star quarterback Lincoln Kienholz off to Ohio State, as well as fellow 2023er Jason Maciejczak to Nebraska and 2024 TE Jett Zabel to North Dakota State. It looks like the Governors have reloaded and already have a new name hitting the Midwest and potentially national P4 recruiting scene, as 2027 6’5, 215 lb. TE/EDGE Cooper Terwilliger earned a P4 offer from Iowa State in mid-April, his first overall offer of any kind. If you’ve ever read any of my stuff for the Minnesota site, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of how Iowa State recruits, as I believe they do a great job of evaluating and trusting their gut on Minnesotans – and now Dakotans – in offering them earlier than anyone else.

This seems to be yet another example of my belief ringing true, as Terwilliger looks like a heckuva high school football prospect, much less a freshman prospect at that, and has a balanced, versatile, and impressive foundation of a skillset that showed up all over the field and all season long as a freshman. In 2023, Terwilliger totaled 19 receptions for 274 yards and 3 TDs and played a significant role in helping the Govs win another South Dakota 11AA big school state championship. Terwilliger looks like a 6’5 TE on tape and brings tons of length to the table and a great frame that can hold a significant amount more weight going forward. He demonstrated the speed to beat DBs deep in 2023 and can win contested catches, as he times and high-points the ball well, shows a big catch radius, and can reel in receptions away from his body and out of reach of smaller pass catchers. The 6’5 TE has some good moments as a route runner – as does a good job of working to a defender’s blind spot before breaking off his route, uses his big frame to his advantage out of his breaks, and when catching the ball out of the air, stacks DBs and LBs once he gains a step, and does a good job of working to get open and find space when things break down and his QB is rolling out and/or improvising. I also like his contact balance after the catch, and he showed he can stick his cleat in the ground and put a move on a would-be tackler. In true Upper Midwest fashion, Terwilliger is also a physical blocker and shows a good initial punch, bend in his hips, gets up and under an opponent’s chest plate, and he drives his legs after contact and looks to finish. The 215 lber. manhandled a few opponents as a freshman and is strong enough to take on and succeed DEs and bigger in-the-box defenders at the LOS but nimble enough to break down in space and corral smaller, quicker defenders. Great frame, dynamic skill set, big game experience, athletic, and coming from a program manufacturing P4 prospects as of late. Terwilliger seems like the real deal.

I would say one of the most accomplished 2027 prospects in the Dakotas, is Pierre T.F. Riggs tight end Cooper Terwilliger Cooper Terwilliger 6'5" | 225 lbs | TE Pierre T.F. Riggs | 2027 State SD . At already 6’5 215 pounds, Cooper has the big-play athleticism on tape that will already impress coaches at the next-level with how smooth he makes high-traffic catches look. He also has the basketball background I like at the tight end position as you can see that vertical rise effectively on tape. He also shows a well-versed pad-level as a blocker that creates high amounts of early leverage of his first step in which you will see him drive block into the second and sometimes even deeper into the third level. Cooper is for sure my early favorite to take the #1 overall spot in the South Dakota (and likely both Dakotas) when the 2027 rankings come out in the coming months. Twitter

I have persistently seen Governors Head Coach Steve Steele call out his tight end position on his Gov Mountain Builders each week, and one underclassmen name I have found commonly on that list is 2027 TE prospect Cooper Terwilliger Cooper Terwilliger 6'5" | 225 lbs | TE Pierre T.F. Riggs | 2027 State SD . At already 6’5 210 pounds, Cooper shows off his long stride mixed in with a well-seen burst with his route-running ability. Cooper might play the role of a tight end, but he certainly has wide receiver speed that pops out quickly out of his first step and he already shows finesse athletically making high-traffic catches look routine. I also believe playing alongside NDSU commit and our TE1 in the 2024 class, Jett Zabel is enhancing this young man’s development at a quicker rate. When I told my Prep Redzone NEXT scout Al Pops about Cooper last Spring, he was as ecstatic as I was for this young man’s future as one of the top prospects in the Dakotas in my eyes as we finishing building out our 2027 classes this winter. Twitter