ADA, OKLA. – In his first full recruiting cycle as the East Central University Head Coach,
Al Johnson will be adding over 70 student-athletes to the 2019 roster.
"This class had to be driven by character, accountability, hard work family and based around team," Johnson stated. "Those were the big factors we looked at when recruiting players. We wanted to make sure they possessed all those attributes and then we looked at the talent."
The Tigers will add over 70 players to the team that will including over 35 offensive and 40 defensive players. The class includes a long snapper, 14 defensive linemen, seven inside linebackers, six outside linebackers, seven corners, seven safeties, eight wide receivers, 11 offensive linemen, eight tight ends, four quarterbacks and four running backs.
"This is an important class for this coaching staff due to the fact that it had to be so large," added Johnson. "We lost a large number of players to graduation and attrition from the 2018 season and our numbers were down heading into the year. This class had to be big to fill all of our needs for right now and for future depth. This group has tremendous potential and I am very excited to see what they will accomplish."
The ECU coaching staff had its first chance to get in a true recruiting cycle in order to build relationships with coaches, players and their families, after Johnson and most of his staff started working on Jan. 3, 2018, a month before the 2018 signing day.
"I am extremely proud of what our coaches have done over the last 364 days to show our vision and what East Central has to offer these student-athletes as men, a football program and even more importantly as a university," commented Johnson.
The Tigers did not get everyone that they had recruited, but Johnson was not upset about it.
"We lost three committed players last weekend to NCAA Division I schools, but I am not mad," said Johnson. "Our team would be better if we had them, but it also means that we are recruiting the right players that are on the border line between the division I and II and those are the players that we need to go after to succeed."
