Gophers impress local recruit

For Mahtomedi, Minn., three-star fullback Jerod Arlich this official visit thing has become old hat. After already taking three visits, Arlich, who is 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds, took his fourth visit this weekend to Minnesota.

“It was good,” Arlich, ranked as the nation’s No. 9 fullback, said. “I’ve been to a lot of places so far and you’ll get a similar feel at each one of them. But this was my first real opportunity to hang out with the coaches and players and see if I want to spend the next five years of my life with people like them.”

And from all indications, Arlich liked what we saw.

“We hung out with the players, and the second day we were in meetings most of the day, and when we weren’t we were eating,” Arlich said. “We had breakfast at the hotel and then we had lunch at Gameworks, which was really cool. I had a lot of fun.”

Arlich also had a good talk with Gopher coach Glen Mason.

“When I was up there at camp about four months ago, I asked him if they would still have a scholarship for me if I took all five of my visits,” Arlich said. “And then I asked the same question of coach Mason again today. He gave me the same answer he did back then. He told me he expected me to take my visits, so I could be sure about my decision.”

And that decision looks like it’s going to come down to three teams. One of them is Minnesota. The other two, Arlich said he’s not able to reveal yet because he wants to talk to a coach of a fourth team and tell them that they are eliminated. He’s visited Colorado, Minnesota, Northwestern, Notre Dame and is still set to visit Stanford on January 9.

“I have dropped Notre Dame, so that’s one of the teams off my list,” he said. “And I still need to tell the other school first before I release it publicly that they’ve been eliminated.”