By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
National Signing Day has come and gone, and the Missouri Western football team has pieced together its first recruiting class under new head coach Tyler Fenwick.
Hired in early December, Fenwick put together a staff of seven full-time assistants, and together, this staff signed 25 players - 11 on offense and 14 on defense. Coach Fenwick commends his staff for getting this class together in such a short amount of time.
"I couldn't have put together a better staff that was able to hit the ground running," Fenwick told reporters. "Getting on kids who they had already been recruiting, and just be able to build those relationships at a different school in a sense, and they did a phenomenal job."
The most recruited position was linebacker. The Griffons signed seven of them in all. Fenwick says a schematic change on defense was the main reason for this. Offensive line is also a position he hopes to fill more as well.
"Us moving from a 4-2-5 to a 3-4," he said, "kind of changes things a little bit. We're young on the offensive line currently, so we'll pry do a little more transfer stuff just so we have some classes we have to fill in there."
The Griffons also signed three receivers, two running backs, two tight ends and a quarterback. Fenwick says the main thing they’d been seeking on offense in this class is speed.
"We set out to find some speed we could add to the skill positions," he said. "There's some receivers who can really go. There's a couple of running backs. One that's extremely fast and one that's bigger, stronger. We kind of have that balance between speed and physicality that we can put back there and that'll be good for the future."
Of the 25 signees, eight are from Texas and seven are from Missouri. Several of Fenwick’s assistants have recruiting ties in the Lone Star State. But for Fenwick, simply getting back out to area high schools in northwest Missouri brought back memories of his time as Missouri Western's offensive coordinator under coach Jerry Partridge from 2007-2012.
"When I started getting out to go see a kid or whatever, it brought back some memories," Fenwick said. "Traveling down with other coaches. Coach Partridge and some of those other guys. Seeing games and stuff. Just a lot of familiarity and easy to get around, because you know where you're going."
Fenwick says he and the staff may still bring in some transfers after a full evaluation of the current roster during spring practice.
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