Mesabi East’s Gavin Skelton Signs NLI for UMD Football Team

Skelton says there were two things that sold him on UMD: the short distance from home, as well as the team's coaching staff.

DULUTH, Minn. – The UMD football team had just one Northland recruit in their 2021 class as Mesabi East’s Gavin Skelton signed his National Letter of Intent to join UMD.

Skelton says there were two things that sold him on UMD: the short distance from home, as well as the team’s coaching staff.

“They were really pushing. I was getting texts constantly. I was always talking to them on the phone and they were really awesome to me. I was never like ‘yeah I want to go super far’. An hour away is far enough, but not super far if I need to go home for something,” said Skelton.

“He’s a big strong athlete that can run. When he was at camp, we were excited with the way that he moved and that way he interacted with us, and we felt right away after meeting him on campus that he was going to fit our football program,” Wiese said.

Skelton was an All-Conference selection in the past three seasons, which includes leading the Giants in rushing and scoring in 2020.