Former Maple Grove Standout Ryan Wynn Hopes for Big Gopher Season

Ryan Wynn, a 6-foot-3, 292-pound center from Maple Grove, is hoping for a boring, normal and maybe even uneventful season this year as the starting center for the Minnesota Golden Gopher football team.

Wynn missed the 2009 season with a back injury and was limited to just three games last year with a variety of injuries, causing him to miss 22 contests the last two seasons.

Wynn is hoping that he can stay healthy and be a leader in the middle of an offensive line that lost its starting center, right guard and right tackles from last season. Maple Grove Patch caught up with Wynn to talk about his hopes for his senior season, being promoted to the starting center spot and his memories of playing at .

Senior Season

Wynn started all 13 games as a redshirt freshman in 2008, but he missed the entire 2009 season and was limited to only three contests last year.

Wynn started his first game in two years against Illinois and helped lead Gophers to three rushing touchdowns and a 38-34 come-from-behind victory to snap a nine-game losing streak. Wynn was a backup for all five positions on the offensive line and he was the team’s only reserve in the Michigan State game.

Wynn transferred from to after his sophomore season. He helped lead Crimson to a 9-1 mark and a berth in the section playoffs as a junior. Wynn was named Minnesota Vikings and Associated Press All-State and was chosen to the Star Tribune All-Metro Team as a senior.

Gopher offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover thinks that Wynn has a chance to be a special player for the Gophers this upcoming season.

“Ryan is a kid who has had such a tough go of it here,” Limegrover said. “He had a great start to his career and then had the back injury, so this is really the first year he has kind of got back and got healthy. He’s one of the first guys that I seeked because I had done my homework on the kids here and I told him ‘that you are going to be my center. You’ve been around the block. You are a smart kid. You are a guy that I know that I can count on.’ He has not let me down, so it is great having an older kid who you can rely on day-in and day-out to be there and lead by example and really be a kid that you can build an offensive line around from the center position.”

Limegrover felt his versatility may have hurt him at times as he never got the opportunity to concentrate on one position in the past.

“That is a great thing to have, but at the same time, you want your center to be your center,” Limegrover said.

Wynn feels the adjustment to the new coaching staff under head coach Jerry Kill has been relatively smooth so far.

“You have know what the coaches like, you have know what their expectations are compared to the other coaches,” Wynn said. “Your next adjustment is the playbook. There are always different things in comparison, different calls and different formations. You have to learn that. I would say that we have all pretty much gotten through this adjustment period, if there really was one.”

Center Position

Wynn played every position on the line last season, but is hoping to concentrate on center this year.

“Yes. I was at center last year,” Wynn said. “I was backing up at every position because of our injuries last year."

"One thing that I am happy about [this season] is that I haven’t played anything else since the new coaching staff has been here. I’ve been at center ever since and I’ve been able to focus on my snaps, focus on my position and my skills, which I am really appreciative of," he said.

The Gopher offensive line was hit by so many injuries last season that Wynn was listed in the depth chart as the backup at all five positions, which he admits was tough at times. 

“Against Michigan State, I was listed as a backup at every position and I was actually in a couple of tight end packages and got in a couple of play at that,” Wynn said. “That was kind of crazy there."

The team was so short on depth last year that it would not have been a surprise to see the linemen being escorted to class to prevent injuries.

“It got to the point last year where they were escorting everybody,” Wynn said. “We were having enough troubles just trying to get over the hump and try to get a couple of wins. When we were down to six linemen, it was just ridiculous. Practices were the definitely lightest that I’ll ever experience in college, not because they want to take it easy on us. They just didn’t want to risk injuring any more linemen.”

Wynn feels the wins in the final two games of the season over Illinois and Iowa can carry over to this season.

“I think it was good because it kind of lit a fire under our butt,” Wynn said. “We realized that we have the talent to win in the Big Ten. We beat a very capable Iowa team and a very talented Illinois team at the end of the year."

Wynn and his teammates worked hard in the offseason with new strength and conditioning coach Eric Klein, who is considered one of the top people in the business. Wynn feels that the off-season work with Klein and his staff should make a big difference on the field this season.
 
“The first thing I want to do is to credit Coach Kill, Coach Klein, Coach (Chad, assistant strength and conditioning coach) Pearson and our strength staff,” Wynn said. “They got us in the best shape of our lives. They have a very good strength program here. We might not be the heaviest line out there in the Big Ten, but I think that we will be the most physical and athletic.”

Maple Grove Memories

Wynn has plenty of memories of his time at Maple Grove.

“Looking back at high school, the big thing I always remember is my junior year, winning the Northwest Suburban Conference. Being undefeated. Unfortunately, losing in the section finals to Wayzata. They won state that year in 2005," Wynn said. "It was probably the hardest emotions that I have ever experienced in football. I was really connected to that football team."

"What I have to remember is Craig Hansen, who is now the former head coach at Maple Grove. He is what got me to this point. I really credit him," Wynn said. "He taught me what I needed to know to make it to the next level and his coaching staff alongside of him did a great job. There was just great kids out there."

"I love playing football for the “U,” but I still miss those Friday Night Lights.”