Several area players among UD’s latest recruiting class
DAYTON — Dayton Flyers football coach Trevor Andrews and his staff had about two months to build a recruiting class a year ago. He was hired Dec. 12, 2022, and announced a 37-man class in mid-February.
Last week, Andrews revealed a 32-man 2024 class. It’s the first class the new UD staff built from scratch.
“It was good because we knew most of these guys for a longer period of time and got to really develop relationships with them,” Andrews said Friday. “I’m still amazed what we were able to get here last year in such a short time. We identified the right guys. I’m excited about what those guys can do.”
A change in Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms added a new wrinkle for 2024.
“We had a lot of guys that were interested,” Andrews said, “and we just didn’t have the financial details that we could present to them until January, so that made it tough. But we were able to work through it. Our admissions and financial aid departments helped out. Once we started rolling, we got rolling pretty good there.”
Dayton finished 4-7 overall and 2-6 in the Pioneer Football League in Andrews’ first season. The season ended on a high note with a 45-14 victory at Davidson.
Dayton had a 30-man class in 2022, the last season for coach Rick Chamberlin. The 2021 class had 26 players. Dayton had 45 recruits in 2020, 35 recruits in 2019, 26 in 2018, 35 in 2017 and 38, 36, 38 and 28 players in the previous seasons.
The Dayton coaches didn’t focus on any one position group this year.
“We looked at taking a little bit of everything,” Andrews said. “You try to focus on areas where you may be a little bit thinner. Linemen are always going to be at a premium at any level. So you’ve got to really commit to recruiting those guys on both sides of the ball. We’re really focused on recruiting length and speed and athleticism at every position. I think we were able to hit on that. Then I also like to take guys that were athletes in high school. A lot of times, coaches will put their best players at quarterback, and they might not be a college quarterback, but then those guys kind of get overlooked in the recruiting process. We signed four quarterbacks, but two of those guys can play other positions right away. That’s one of the things that we talked to them about during the
recruiting process. You can maybe steal a good athlete that way.”
Among the recruits are several local seniors.
■ Charlie Olds is an offensive lineman from Bellbrook.
“Great kid,” Andrews said. “Going to be an engineering student here.”
■ Tight end Bryce Cowgill was a team captain at Centerville High School as a senior and caught seven touchdown passes.
“You recruit these guys, and you watch all this film,” Andrews said. “You like guys that stand out on their film. He’s fun to watch.”
■ Sam Mitchell, a linebacker from Vandalia Butler, is the brother of Luke Mitchell, who appeared in all 11 games last season as a redshirt freshman safety for the Flyers.
“Sam’s a little bit bigger version of his brother Luke,” Andrews said.
Dayton starts spring practices March 1. Andrews expects to add two more 2024 recruits soon.
The program also picked up one player from the transfer portal: Jadyn Nirschl, a 6-foot-1, 207pound quarterback from DeLand, Florida. He’s a graduate transfer from Northwest Missouri State and has two years of eligibility remaining.
Dayton lost quarterback Dante Casciola, who shared the job at the beginning of the season with Cole Dow, to the transfer portal. He’ll play for Randolph-Macon College next year.
Andrews prefers to focus on adding freshmen instead of building the roster through the portal.
“I prefer to do it the oldschool way and bring in young men who are 18 and develop them,” he said. “I think this is one of the last true places where you can actually do that. You bring them in. They work hard. They earn their playing time. You develop them, and they move through your program. They graduate, and they go off into the world and you follow them all the way through. I want to hang on to that philosophy as long as I can.
“We’ll add a transfer if we feel there’s a spot where we need to solidify something, add some depth or bring in somebody to compete for a starting job. But I don’t want to live in the portal because we’ve got a really good thing going here with a culture on our team, and sometimes if you start adding stuff, you can mess with that
“I’m a loyal guy. I want to be loyal to our guys as much as possible.”