Joe Christensen covered Major League Baseball for 15 years, including three seasons at the Baltimore Sun and eight at the Star Tribune, before switching to the college football beat. He’s a Faribault, Minn., native who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1996. He covered Jim Wacker’s Gophers for the Minnesota Daily and also wrote about USC, UCLA and the Rose Bowl for the Riverside Press-Enterprise before getting this chance to cover football again.

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Friday update: Gophers recruit flips to Florida State; New Mexico State coach leaves; Tusler flips, too

Posted by: Joe Christensen under Coaching, Gopher recruiting, NCAA: football Updated: January 25, 2013 - 2:15 PM
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Gophers WR/DB recruit Nate Andrews has flipped his commitment from Minnesota to Florida State, according to AL.com.

Andrews is rated a three-star recruit by Rivals.com and committed to Minnesota in late-November. He's from Fairhope, Ala., and reportedly had interest from Alabama and Tennessee, among others.

Chip Scoggins told me a few weeks ago that Andrews might make a good column if he indeed stuck with the Gophers with all those southern schools recruiting him. Scoggins has followed Minnesota's recruiting for years and seen this many times.

The 6-foot, 180-pound Andrews apparently visited Florida State last weekend and notified Minnesota's coaching staff of his decision today.

"It's done," Fairhope coach Adam Winegarden told AL.com, a conglomerate that includes The Birmingham News. "He's going to Florida State."

NEW MEXICO STATE COACH BOLTS FOR NFL

One team on the Gophers 2013 schedule is suddenly looking for a new head coach.

New Mexico State coach DeWayne Walker left his post to become an assistant coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars, overseeing defensive backs, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News.

Walker, 52, actually lettered for the Gophers in 1981. He was the defensive coordinator at UCLA for three years before becoming New Mexico State's head coach in 2009.

The Aggies went 4-9 in 2011 but fell to 1-11 last year, so this move wasn't  surprise. McKinley Boston, former Gophers athletic director and now the AD at NMSU, named offensive coordinator Doug Martin interim head coach and plans to conduct a national search.

The Gophers play at New Mexico State in their second game of the season, on Sept. 7.

TUSLER FLIPS, TOO

Bridgeport Tusler, the Star Tribune's Metro Player of the Year, has already decommitted from Northern Iowa and committed to South Dakota State, according to our David La Vaque (via Twitter).

And yes, as a newbie to these college football recruiting wars, I can officially say my head is spinning.

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