Purdue's 2012 football recruiting class gained its second commitment today when B.J. Knauf of Florida's Santa Fe Catholic High School near Lakeland chose the Boilermakers. He chose Purdue over offers from MAC program Western Michigan and Sun Belt member Western Kentucky. He is listed as a three star recruit according to Rivals who also had interest from Miami, Oregon, Boston College, and Arizona State. At 5'10" and 180 pounds he comes from one of the smaller schools in Florida, where he played both safety and Wildcat quarterback in 2010.
I managed to find some very encouraging information on him. He is listed as having a 3.66 GPA, a 4.33 40-yard dash, and solid strength number through three years. Some other highlights:
- Rushed for 442 yards and had 409 receiving yards with 10 total TD's as a freshman
- Had 778 rushing yards and 16 total TD's as a sophomore.
- Rushed for 1,508 yards with 18 touchdowns as a junior last year.
- Was a regional champion in the 100, 200, and long jump in 2010 and was a top 10 finisher in the state meet in all three.
- State champion in the 200 and state runner-up in the 100 and long jump in 2011.
This kid seems to be a hard worker and a pure athlete by every reasonable metric. He had a fantastic year in track, setting school records that he may well break next year. He can play running back, wide receiver, or defensive back once he gets to Purdue with that kind of speed, and he projects as a possible slot receiver. Dare I say it, but do we have another Vinny Sutherland on his way?
His team was listed as having a 5-6 record in Florida last year, and it is very small with a listed enrollment of just 236 students. It is still very early, but it looks like we got a very talented pure athlete here.