MANKATO – The engine of most strong football teams is the offensive line. Minnesota State Mankato, 13-0 and hosting Concord (W.Va.) in the NCAA Division II semifinals at 2 p.m. Saturday, has such a line that's very large and fully experienced.
Four seniors are starters: Chris Reed, Josh Meeker, Gary Hiatt and Max Hofmeister. The other starter is a redshirt junior: Herschel Prater, a 6-6, 310-pound left guard.
The Northern Sun names its all-conference team by divisions. Reed, Meeker and Hofmeister were first team in the South, and Prater was second team.
The four senior starters come from Omaha. Prater's hometown is Ferguson, Mo.
Minnesota State has a lengthy reach through the middle of the country and was made aware of Prater as a big lad with potential at McCluer South-Berkeley, a high school that opened in Ferguson in 2004.
"I came to Mankato in the summer of 2011 and haven't been home since,'' Prater said.
You made the decision before the police shooting on Aug. 9 that has made Ferguson a world-famous tinderbox of rage for the past four months?
Prater nodded in the affirmative and said: "There was too much going on in Ferguson that might not be good for me. It's much quieter here. Play football and go to school. I enjoy that.''
