Crawford-Tufts a Gophers bright spot

One very recent bright spot for the Gopher football team has been the play of freshman receiver Devin Crawford-Tufts.

The Edina graduate, who is one of the fastest athletes ever out of Minnesota (once ran a 10.4 100-meter dash), showed on Saturday how he can spread the field for the Gophers offense. He caught two passes in the surprising 22-21 win over Iowa, good for 100 yards.

Crawford-Tufts figures to virtually always be the fastest player on the field. That's a heck of an attribute and is obviously scary for any defense, fearing his ability to strike quickly. Two other things to like about Crawford-Tufts is his size (6-foot-2, 190 pounds) and that he is apparently becoming better and better at catching the ball. Minnesota coach Jerry Kill praised him recently for his progress in becoming a "hands" catcher than a guy who catches with his body.

Looking ahead to next year, Minnesota has a chance to have a decent bevy of receivers. One of them could be four-star recruit (as ranked by ESPN)  Jamel Harbison, a highly-regarded athlete from North Carolina who has verbally committed to Minnesota.

And another is a local guy, Caledonia's Isaac Fruechte. Fruechte, who played one season at Rochester Community and Technical College, certainly has the right physical attributes. He's 6-foot-3, 210 pounds and runs a speedy 4.4 40-meter dash. Another thing to like about him is he is known as a tremendous worker.

Crawford-Tufts, Harbison and Fruechte could be a nice alignment in a year or two.

— Pat Ruff