Tuesday Tidbits

We’re going football heavy this week as national signing day approaches. South Dakota State has landed a handful of verbal commitments in the last week or so:

Jesse Bobbit is a linebacker from Palatine, Ill., a Chicago suburb. He was a four-year starter and four-year all-conference pick at an 8A school (the largest) and set a Palatine record for career interceptions (17), spending most of his time at safety. The 6-foot-2, 205-pounder was a first-team all-state pick and conference defensive player of the year as a junior, but missed several games as a senior due to a broken leg.
Still, Palatine coach Tyler Donnelly said that Vanderbilt and Indiana had been recruiting him recently and considering making offers.
Bobbit said that the people sold him on SDSU. He liked the hometown feel. Here’s his highlight reel.

Holy Angels (Minn.) linebacker Mikias Alipate also had offers from North Dakota and Northern Iowa, despite missing most of his senior year due to a knee injury. He’s a two-star recruit, per Scout.com. Here’s his film.
Prep coach Ray Betton described the 6-foot-1, 205-pounder as physical and explosive. He’s also got good genes. He has two brothers playing college football, one at Minnesota and another at St. Thomas, and his dad (Tuneau Alipate) played in the NFL and CFL after an all-conference career at Washington State.

Receiver Connor Orgill also competes in basketball, baseball and track. Prep coach Robert Doyle said the 6-4, 185-pounder is the best athlete to come out of Legends High in Parker, Colo. He was an all-conference pick, but did not have any other D-I offers.
Orgill considers himself a possession guy. He played quarterback before moving to WR. Here’s his film.

Charles Harmon is a 6-6, 250-pound offensive lineman from O’Fallon (Ill.) High. Prep coach Brandon Joggerst said Harmon had offers from Florida Atlantic, Central Arkansas, Southern Illinois, Holy Cross and Eastern Kentucky. He’s a starter on the basketball team, too, and is appropriately athletic.
Here’s his junior film.

Jake Weineke (pictured below; photo credit to Maple Grove Patch and Maple Grove Boosters) is a 6-4, 200-pound receiver from Maple Grove. He caught 68 passes for 1,340 yards and 13 touchdowns as a senior, earning all-state and all-metro honors. He was also a finalist for Minnesota Mr. Football. Here are his clips.
Still, Weineke said he didn’t have any other D-I offers, although Minnesota offered a preferred walk-on spot. (Coach Matt Lombardi attributed that to an injury during his junior season.) Did that surprise him?
“Yeah,” he said. “But I’m happy now.”
Lombardi said that teams began to game plan around Weineke as the season went along and still couldn’t stop him.