As a St. Olaf graduate who spent more than his fair share of time in Northfield throughout my formative years, I couldn’t be more excited about the Raiders‘ recent wealth of talent on the gridiron. A multi-signee recruiting pipeline to FCS heavyweight South Dakota State in Brookings has really put Northfield’s football prospects in the spotlight, and the Raiders have some fun up-and-comers in the next two grad classes. One of the big names to know is multi-sport standout Liam Oakland Liam Oakland 6'1" | 165 lbs | WR/DB Northfield | 2028 State MN , the younger brother of one of those aforementioned SDSU signees and a noteworthy athlete on both the gridiron and hardwood.

Running with Northfield/MN Fury and ranked #43 in the PrepHoops 2028 Rankings, Oakland played significant minutes with a Northfield team that went 26-5 in 2025, qualifying for the state tournament for the first time since 1932 and losing to eventual champion Totino-Grace in the 3A semifinals before losing to Richfield for the 3A third place game. Oakland averaged 8.9 PPG, .407% FG percentage, 4.0 RPG, and 1.9 APG on a loaded Northfield basketball squad that really made some noise in the bigger school ranks off the Minnesota basketball scene. On the gridiron as a sophomore, Oakland posted 3 tackles and 1 catch for 8 yards and has only one game of public film on Hudl, which came against Rochester Mayo. In it, Oakland proved he was a good tackler, high effort player who was physical on both sides of the ball. If I had to guess, Oakland is more than likely leaning towards hoops at this point of career, but with his gigantic, SDSU-bound brother in his bloodlines, I’d keep an eye on this young buck from the 507 going forward in both sports.