Ryan Hoerstkamp Class of '21 Tight End From Missouri Picks Up Spartan Offer
East Lansing, MI—While it took a while for his first offer to come in, Washington (MO) 2021 3-star tight end Ryan Hoerstkamp has seen his recruitment take off. After receiving his first offer in January, Mel Tucker and Michigan State became the first Big Ten program to extend an offer on Tuesday.
Spartan Nation caught up with Hoerstkamp to discuss his recruitment and his offer from the Spartans. The fast-rising tight end prospect said that the recruiting process has been both stressful and exciting, but has enjoyed hearing from schools who are showing interest and extending offers.
“I would say the whole thing is stressful and exciting, it’s a little bit of both, to be honest,” he said. “I talked to a lot of schools that haven’t offered me yet and a lot of schools that no one knows I’m talking to. It is exciting because that’s always been the dream, to go D-1 and in the first half of January, I had no offers, and we’re in March now, and I have over ten, and I’m talking to a lot of schools and a lot of places that I’ve always dreamed of playing. It’s nice, I do enjoy it, but I can see why people say it’s stressful, it takes a lot of time. It is a lot, but if you can manage it, it’s all good stuff too. I manage it, and it’s all things that I’m more than happy to do and things I want to do.”
Hoerstkamp now holds more than 10 Division 1 offers, including offers from Kansas, Kansas State, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Missouri, and Texas Tech and will likely see several more offers come in the not-so-distant future.
When it comes to his offer from Michigan State, Hoerstkamp said that he found out about it from Spartans tight end coach Ted Gilmore and was excited when he found out because Michigan State was a team that he saw plenty of when he was growing up.
“The tight ends coach, I talked to about a week before they offered and he said that they liked my tape, and he was going to show it to the head coach, and he sees me as one of the guys that can play at Michigan State and he said if the head coach gives him a go, he was going to give me an offer,” he said. “Then yesterday, he said, ‘Call me’ and I was pretty excited hoping it was some good news, and sure enough it was. Michigan State is a place that when I was little, it was always a powerhouse and always on those late-night Saturday games, and those were guys that I looked up to as a kid.”
Hoerstkamp said that his conversation with Gilmore was a good one and added that considering Gilmore’s reputation and track record as a coach, he feels that he could be a coach that can help get the most out of him at the college level.
“It went well,” he said. “He’s been coaching for a while, and he knows what he’s talking about. I feel like he’s someone that can develop my game and help me become one of the better tight ends, hopefully in the nation, if I can get there and hope he can develop me as a player and get me set for the next level after college. We haven’t gotten into all of the details about the offense, but we just started talking two weeks ago, and I’m excited to learn about the offense and learn about what they’re going to do with the tight end position.”
Hoerstkamp told Spartan Nation that he would like to take a visit to East Lansing and added that Michigan State is a school that he’s considering and, “somewhere I could see myself going.”
A 6-foot-3, 225-pound tight end who has shown the ability to be a legitimate threat in the passing game and a reliable blocker as well, Hoerstkamp described himself as a passionate, team-first player.
“I would describe myself as someone very passionate about the game, someone that’s going to work hard,” he said. “I like to catch the ball; I like to block, I like to do a little bit of everything. I play defense, and I’ve been recruited to play defensive line as well. But what I would say about my game is that I like to catch, I want to play passionately, I’m going to play as hard as I can, finish the blocks, make catches and do whatever I can that helps the team win.”
With a Michigan State offer and several other Power 5 offers in hand, Hoerstkamp said that it’s a result of the time and effort he’s put in and a credit to his teammates around him.
“It shows me where my hard work has gotten me,” he said. “It shows that what I’m doing is positive, and the right way to do it. I wasn’t one of those kids who had a whole bunch of offers as a sophomore or even going into my junior year, but it just shows that the hard work that I’ve put in is paying off. I don’t go to the biggest school, I’m from a small town with less than 15,000 people, and there haven’t been a lot of Division 1 players, we had a Division 1 coach come into our school this year for the first time in 10 years. Where I grew up, it’s hard work, and you have to earn what you’ve got, and I think it’s a lot to do with my team. We’ve lost some kids over the past couple of years that go to different schools—a couple of my buddies. To stay with my friends and stay with my team and stick with our town, our local team, it’s nice to see that the hard work is paying off no matter where you go, no matter how big the school is. As long as you play hard and you play well, you’re going to get offers.”
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