MONMOUTH, Ill. — Last fall, after recording his second 8-2 season in the past three years, Monmouth College head football coach Steve Bell realized quickly that to stay at that level or improve it, help was needed at several key spots.

“Our goal going in to the recruiting season was to focus on positional needs due to graduation loss,” said Bell. “I think we did that extremely well. We especially wanted to focus on our offense. We lost several skill position players to graduation, and several of our offensive linemen are seniors.

“We also wanted to taper down the number of players in this freshman class, putting a premium on quality rather than quantity,” he continued. “I think we have some extremely talented young kids coming in that will help us in the present, and this class also bodes well for the future.”

Bell, who is 24-16 in four seasons at Monmouth, added, “We’re always excited about getting some of the best players in the area, which we’ve been able to do ever since we’ve been here.”

That area list includes offensive linemen Joe Pilger of Macomb, Orry Peterson of Alleman and James Wagner of South Fulton; running backs Eric Pollpeter of Fort Madison, Iowa, Jess Miller of Monmouth and Bobby Gibbs of Roseville; quarterbacks Andrew Lestor of Orion and Kyle McMorrow of Peoria Notre Dame; wide receivers Josh England of Stark County, Matt McIntire of Southern and Kyle O’Keefe of Tremont; defensive linemen Cory McKeown of Alexis and Lawrence Thomas of Woodruff; linebackers David Brandt of AlWood, Garrett Lenz of Southern and Brandon Neish of Woodruff; and defensive backs Matt Cargill of Monmouth and Wayne Thompson of East Peoria. In addition, Bell recruited four players from Erie – Ben Vittori (OL), Colin Mix (RB), Matt Hingstrum (RB) and Josh Schaver (QB).

In all, Bell and his staff brought in nine offensive linemen, eight running backs, eight quarterbacks and seven wide receivers, compared to 14 recruits on the defensive side of the ball.

“The position that we’re happiest with is the offensive line,” he said. “We really upgraded that position with some very, very quality players.”

Other offensive line recruits for MC include Brad Reinhart of Lincoln, Frank Roppo of 4A state champion Driscoll, Nick Hibbs of Pontiac, Tom Fabian of New Berlin, Wis., and David Abrams of Naperville Central.

In his three full years as the Fighting Scots’ starting quarterback, Rob Purlee led Monmouth to a 21-9 record, and Bell said finding a replacement for the record-breaking signal-caller was a high priority.

“Obviously, the quarterback position has been the centerpiece of the success that we’ve had, and we needed to address it with the graduation of Rob,” he said. “We have some kids in this recruiting class who will compete individually with the group we have coming back right now. Normally, you don’t expect a recruit to compete immediately at quarterback, but with the talent level we have coming in, it has to be expected.”

The rest of the quarterback class includes Kale Williams of Olympia, Joe Exline of Oak Lawn, Anthony Atkins of Pawnee, transfer Mitch Tanney of Lexington and Kyle Tutt of 2A state champion Iroquois West.

That group will hand off to running backs Jeff Davis of 7A state champion Oswego, JR Steele of 5A state runner-up Sacred Heart-Griffin and transfer Brian Kura, and they will throw to receivers Chuck Lief of Lincoln-Way East, Thomas Alvarez of Beardstown, Emmanuel Minter of Rich East and David St. James of Dixon.

The rest of the defensive recruits include Kody Burgett of Beardstown, Wes Levy and Todd Wolf of Yorkville, Andrew Woods of Cross Creek, Ga., Sackett Kaufman of AC-Central, Aaron Payette of Eastland and Brett Wilhelm of Mundelein.

Not to be overlooked, added Bell, were special teams. The program, which lost punter Phil Pullen and kicker Andy Full to graduation, added one specialist – kicker/punter Nate Palkovic of Woodruff – and several of the offensive and defensive recruits also have kicking skills. In fact, Bell said, his team might be in the position to have one individual kick off, another take place kicks and a third handle the punting chores.

Two of the Scots’ recruits starred on center stage in their respective state champion games. Tutt threw for 381 yards and three TDs and also scored on an 8-yard run and 30-yard fumble recovery in a 32-14 win over Carthage and Davis, who gained 2,131 yards as a senior, broke off a 53-yard TD run and gained 111 yards as Oswego topped Libertyville 28-21. Roppo started all season for Driscoll but did not play in the title game.

“This recruiting class complements last year’s class,” concluded Bell. “The quality of the kids that we are recruiting now will only upgrade our program and help us continue our success as we build toward becoming a championship-caliber team.”