The UND Football team continued their strong recruiting season by picking up a pair of commitments on Wednesday night. We believe both are projected to play OLB in the 3-4 base UND defense.
Jaxson Turner is a 6’2″-200 athlete who played at Esko High School in Esko, MN. Turner lined up at WR, RB, S, CB and was a return man for the Eskomos (great nickname). We project him as an OLB in UND’s 3-4 scheme.
Turner shows great athleticism and play-making ability on tape. He has natural football instincts when carrying the ball and an aggressive nature on defense. Turner has the big frame that the UND coaching staff has been trending towards, making the team longer and much more physical.
In his senior season, Turner rushed 131 times for 1,143 yards and 20 TD’s. Turner also caught 24 passes for 397 yards and 3 TD’s. Defensively, Turner had 3 INT’s for the Eskomos.
Turner also had what Maxpreps deemed the #3 overall best punt return in the country at the high school level. Pretty impressive honor:
Raymond Haas played safety and TE Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. The 6’5″-195 athlete showed an amazing ability to go up and get the ball on offense and on defense.
While he made plenty of plays in the secondary, we don’t believe he has the hips and footwork to play safety in the Big Sky, which is why we project him as a big, fast, athletic OLB. He’s also projectable on the offensive side of the ball as a big, physical WR or a mismatch-type TE out of the slot. However, we believe defense will be his calling at UND to begin with.
On the season per Max Preps, Haas registered 58 tackles, 6 interceptions from his safety position on defense. On offense as a tight end, he caught 11 passes for 277 yards and 3 TDs. Most impressive is that he returned punts and kicks for Arapahoe, as shown in his highlights. Not bad for a 6’5″ kid.
Along with Andover High commitment Jake Geier, UND has three OLB commits in this class. All three have the requisite athletic ability to play other positions if necessary. Always a good trait to have.
UND now has 16 commitments in their Class of 2016.
