I just listened to a KFAN podcast on the internet with Gophers coach Don Lucia. I criticized him the other day on this blog for saying recruits should not play football after committing to his program.

Lucia was quoted in a Strib story on Tuesday as saying he would discourage recruits from playing football after one of them, Edina’s Zach Budish, suffered a knee injury last fall on the gridiron.

But in an interview with Paul Allen and Paul Charchian, Lucia took a much more open-minded position on the subject of football.

He said both his sons played football at a younger age. And, if a recruit wanted to play football, it was still ultimately the kid’s decision and he would be supportive. He said he supported Budish, who loved football and was a team captain.

“I can’t tell a kid what he can or should do,” Lucia said. “… [But] I can give a preference.”

Lucia said he would obviously worry about a recruit, who is a senior,  getting injured playing football and keep his fingers crossed that he would not get hurt.

And if that recruit wanted to play other sports besides football, cross-country running, soccer or baseball, for instance, that would be fine because there are fewer injuries in those sports, Lucia said.

Asked specifically if he would back off on recruiting hockey players who also played football, Lucia said, he would still recruit them.

He cited defenseman Paul Martin as an example of a great multiple-sport athlete in high school.

Martin, an ex-Gopher now playing for the New Jersey Devils, was a super receiver in high school at Elk River. Martin also played baseball.

Lucia said he is a big-time supporter of kids who play multiple sports, especially younger ones.

Hard to argue with any of those radio comments by Lucia. If he’s had a sudden change of heart, good for him whatever caused it.

Maybe it was Tim Brewster, the Gophers football coach. He’s a persuasive guy.

Or maybe he just realized what a competitive disadvantage in recruiting he could he putting himself in if he kept a hard-line position on football. I don’t really know.

If you want to hear Lucia for yourself on the subject of football, go to KFAN’s website, click on fan on demand, and click Allen’s morning show on Wednesday.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 11:06 pm and is filed under Gophers men's hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.