Barring any last minute surprises, Walt Bell will finally get to talk about the most highly touted recruiting class in UMass history Wednesday.
For nine months, the verbal commitments continued to roll in for the Minutemen and stayed devout to those pledges even through a tumultuous 2019 season. It’s currently ranked as the best class UMass will sign in the FBS era of the program with 17 three-star recruits as rated by 247Sports among the 20 verbal commitments. The process will end for many Wednesday when they put pen to paper on the first day of the early signing period and ink their National Letters of Intent.
This year’s class is a glimpse into where Bell believes the most pressing needs are for the Minutemen, but also a view of where the coach wants to build in the future. The crux of these recruits will help a beleaguered defense that was among the worst historically last season.
UMass currently has three defensive linemen, three linebackers and five defensive backs committed, which is more than half of the current recruits.
The most intriguing prospect of the bunch is German defensive end Hugo Klages, who burst onto the recruiting scene through PPI Recruits, an international service run by former UMass defensive lineman Brandon Collier. Klages excelled at several camps around the United States last summer and he has largely flown under the radar as an international prospect.
Collier has raved about Klages on Twitter and the German is the type of diamond in the rough prospect UMass can develop into the pass rusher around which to anchor the defense.
At linebacker, UMass has seemingly stressed size and athleticism with all three recruits between 6-foot-1 and 6-3, but none of them are more than 220 pounds — a little leaner than the Minutemen’s current crop of linebackers.
The potential star in the group is Nahji Logan out of Hatboro-Horsham just outside of Philadelphia. He racked up 155 tackles, including 34 for-loss, in 15 games as a senior. He transformed himself into a Division I prospect last offseason after being a dependable player his first three years in high school.
On offense, Bell continued to build in the trenches with four offensive linemen currently committed. Three of those four played high school football in Massachusetts last season. The fourth is Reggie Marks, a key member of the Lackawanna College offensive line that paved the way for the Eagles to play for the NJCAA national championship this season.
But of course, Bell is still searching for the quarterback of the future and two signal-callers are expected to sign Wednesday to add to the competition for the job.
Brady Martin was the first high school quarterback to commit to Bell when he pledged to UMass in March, and he is finally going to sign on the dotted line after an interesting career at Lawrence Academy. But Bell wanted more veteran options under center as well and was able to secure a commitment from Kyle Lindquist, who played last season at Butte College in California.
Both are listed as pro-style quarterbacks by 247Sports, but Linquist is 6-4, 212 pounds and Martin is 5-11, 188. Martin, though, is the eighth-best recruit in UMass history according to 247Sports while Lindquist is the second-worst rated recruit in this year’s class.
The Minutemen are also scheduled to add a player at each of the skill position groups with Jared Cole at running back, receiver Onuma Dieke and tight end Jackson Manning.
Josh Walfish can be reached at jwalfish@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshWalfishDHG. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.