ECU Athletics
Teri LaJeunese, Sports Information Director
ADA – East Central University football head coach Al Johnson has announced the addition of 44 new players for the 2020 season.
“We are very happy to finally be able to talk about this class,” Johnson said. “It is almost a year in the making. We invest a lot of time and effort into recruiting, our coaching staff works extremely hard to build relationships with recruits and families. NCAA Eligibility Officer Debbie Claxton and Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance Autumn Suydam are also very important key parts to our programs recruiting efforts. The academic and compliance side of college football is often overlooked but making sure our recruits are eligible and can be successful in college is one of the most important things.”
The group includes 28 true freshmen and 16 mid-year transfers that arrived on campus for the 2020 Spring semester. Of the mid-year transfer group, one is a senior, 12 are juniors and 3 are sophomores.
“Being the youngest DII football program in the whole country last year, we set a program goal within this recruiting class to add some experience to our team,” Johnson said. “I believe we have done that. We also had a goal to keep adding to our current foundation of high school recruited student-athletes, guys that come in from high school and grow within our program for 4-5 years. This class has both.”
The Tiger offense will be bolstered by 19 student-athletes, including six wide receivers, two tight ends, one running back, one quarterback and nine offensive linemen.
The defense will add three outside linebackers, five inside linebackers, five defensive backs and 10 defensive linemen, for a total of 23 new faces.
“These 44 ECU Tigers address all of our program’s needs, both from an immediate need and longer term stainable need,” Johnson said. “Our staff is extremely happy with the potential this class has at every position. What will define them as Tiger’s in the future, will be the work they do once on campus.”