MARQUETTE -- Courtesy:  NMU

Northern Michigan head football coach Chris Ostrowsky announced his first recruiting class today (Feb. 1) as 26 future NMU student-athletes signed National Letters of Intent on the first day of the signing period.

"I’m thrilled with what’s gone on here during the last eight weeks," said Ostrowsky. "I’m lucky to have great assistants that helped create a template and follow it. We went out and aggressively pursued the top players in our target four states. We wanted symmetry with the class and got 13 on offense and 13 on defense."

The class consists of players from Michigan (20), Wisconsin (3), Illinois (2) and New Jersey (1). The lone Upper Peninsula recruit is Austin Young from Escanaba.

"We want to be cautiously optimistic and we got the football players that we wanted," Ostrowsky added.

Ostrowsky was named the 21st head coach of the NMU football program on Nov. 30 after serving as the offensive coordinator for two seasons.

"We play in a great league and for us to be successful next year, we need to become a football team," Ostrowsky added. "We will start winning when that happens."

NMU finished 4-7 overall and 3-7 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for sixth-place in the North Division. The 2011 team had 23 seniors end their football careers.

Listed below are the individuals signed on the first day of the signing period:

Name  Position  Height  Weight  Hometown/High School

Evan Bishop LB 6-3 205 Algonquin, Ill/Harry D. Jacobs

Matt Boonstra LB/DE 6-1 230 Belmont, Mich./Rockford Senior

Keon Collier RB 5-9  185 Franklin, Mich./Wylie E. Groves

Kyle Croskey OL 6-8 330 Pontiac, Mich./West Bloomfield

Jalen Cureton WR 5-11 165 Grand Blanc, Mich./Grand Blanc

Nolan Davenport LB 6-3 215 Lake City, Mich./Lake City

Terrence Dye WR 5-9 170 Grand Blanc, Mich./Grand Blanc

Matt Economou DB 6-2 190 Ortonville, Mich./Oxford

Anthony Harris DL 6-1 235 Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook

Josh Hogan TE 6-6 205 Charlevoix, Mich./Charlevoix

Julian Hornback ATH 6-0 200 Allegan, Mich./Allegan Senior

Tyler Leightner P 6-0 185 Cadillac, Mich./Cadillac Senior

Thomas McNamara DB 6-1 190 Mason, Mich./Mason

Chazz Miller OL 6-5 275 Ovid, Mich./Ovid-Elsie

Christopher Nelson QB 6-3 215 Twin Lakes, Wis./Wilmot Union

Sean O'Brien DB 6-1 190 Capac, Mich./Capac

Dakota Perry DL 6-2 265 Capac, Mich./Capac

Omar Sitto LB 6-1 220 Oak Park, Mich./Berkley

Dakota Smith RB 5-8 185 Grand Haven, Mich./Grand Haven

Lance Smith RB 5-8 170 Orange, N.J./West Orange

Jordan Strope OL 6-5 295 Traverse City, Mich./West

Jay Tollefson QB 6-0 180 De Pere, Wis./West

Keshawn Walker WR 5-11 175 Dearborn, Mich./Dearborn

Adam Williams DL  6-4 220 Lake City, Mich./Lake City

Drew Wudtke DL 6-3 275 Bonduel, Wis./Bonduel

Austin Young ATH 5-10 165 Escanaba, Mich./Escanaba