Hartman: Gophers football recruiters go beyond rankings

Cornerback Cedric Thompson and linebacker Damien Wilson didn't have any three-star football ratings when they were recruited by Gophers secondary coach Jay Sawvel. Now they are candidates for All-Big Ten teams and are on NFL draft watch lists.

Jerry Kill and his coaching staff have proved they can recruit players who aren't ranked high by rating services and win with them. Sawvel said if Thompson hadn't come to Minnesota, he would have attended Portland State.

Sawvel talked about what he saw in Thompson — who is tied for third on the team in tackles (34) and tied for the team lead with two interceptions — when he recruited him.

"We thought he had a chance to be a really good athlete for us and really good player," Sawvel said. "But when we recruited him, it was at a time when we really didn't have a lot of size or talent in our secondary. So we took a chance on a guy who really had played a little bit more on offense, had done some things on defense, but he was a nice-sized young man [now 6-0, 208] with a really good body to him, physically, that looked like he ran well. That was our first recruiting class and it was one that you're putting together on a short term after Coach [Kill] took the job here. You didn't have all the time to research everything out, but we took a gamble on him and it has played out really well."

Sawvel was asked how important ratings are when it comes to recruiting.

"It doesn't mean anything," he said. "[Thompson's] really a good athlete. You could put him, if he was in a different city or different part of the country, he would have been a highly recruited kid. [Thompson was from Calipatria High School in California.] He's very talented. It happened to be timing and luck for us and it has worked out great."

Sawvel said Thompson has developed as the coaches hoped he would. He intercepted two passes in Saturday's 39-38 victory over Purdue, with the second basically clinching the win with 2 minutes, 28 seconds remaining. He also had six tackles.

Thompson didn't start right away, but did get playing time as a freshman, as several Gophers are this season.

"We played him a little bit as a true freshman, and the only reason we did that was because we had some older defensive backs that weren't going to be around when we first got here and we weren't going to be very good," Sawvel said. "So we decided that we would play him, get him a little bit of experience just to get him prepared for the next year. He was a freshman, made a lot of mistakes, it took him time. But he has started now since his sophomore year. [He's] a three-year starter that has some experience and knows how to play."

Sawvel said he found Wilson through a connection with a community college coach. Wilson leads the Gophers with 76 tackles — more than double anyone else on the team — and has one interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

"His was an interesting thing, because I know the defensive coordinator at Jones [County] Community College [in Mississippi]," Sawvel said. "His name is Steve Boyd. I had talked to coach Boyd about Damien, Damien was a guy that had just transferred there in the spring. So when I had talked to coach Boyd about Damien in the fall of 2012, he just stopped my conversation and said, 'Look, the guy is a full-blown SEC athlete. He could play anywhere in the country.'

"That sort of got your attention a bit. The more you saw him, watched him, looked at him, you realized that, yeah, this was a very talented guy that was in a sense a little bit under the radar. I think his biggest offers other than us were Kansas and Iowa State."

""Really, it's about finding the fit at the right time and if you know somebody at some of the places, you have a chance to get a good player," Sawvel said. "You still never compromise on a guy that can run. Damien could run, Cedric could run, you could see that, you knew that. A guy that can run always has a chance to do something good for you."

• The Vikings have now sold about 50 percent of their personal seat licenses for the new stadium. … Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman received a lot of criticism when wide receiver Percy Harvin was traded to Seattle in March of 2013, but now the Vikings have two outstanding players they got in the trade for Harvin in cornerback Xavier Rhodes, a first-round pick in 2013, and Jerick McKinnon, a third-round pick in 2104. Harvin is no longer with the Seahawks, after being traded Saturday to a New York Jets team that hasn't won and with a quarterback in Geno Smith, who isn't in the same class as Russell Wilson. The third player the Viking got in the Harvin deal was guard Travis Bond, a seventh-round pick in 2013, who isn't playing in the NFL.

• If the Gophers beat Illinois on Saturday, look for the biggest ticket demand in history for the Iowa game on Nov. 8. Both the Gophers and Iowa have open dates the week before they meet here. And there might be an even bigger demand for tickets for the Ohio State game at TCF Bank Stadium on Nov. 15.

• This has been a big year for Bud Grant. In addition to getting a statue unveiled Thursday in Winnipeg for his coaching job for the CFL's Blue Bombers, Grant was inducted into the Superior (Wis.) Hall of Fame last May before his 86th birthday.

• The Wolves signed forward Chase Budinger to a three-year, $16 million offer in July of 2013, but he has battled injuries for much of his time here. But now Budinger is looking healthy and is averaging 10.2 points on 19-for-39 shooting (48.7 percent) through five preseason games. If Budinger stays healthy, he could be a key component for the Wolves this season. … In the Wolves' 110-91 victory over Milwaukee on Wednesday, former St. Cloud Tech star Nate Wolters scored 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting in 15½ minutes.