Over the weekend, Colorado hosted a plethora of unofficial visitors including two 2021 recruits from Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village. The first, Chase Penry, committed to Colorado on the Saturday of his unofficial, announcing it publicly on Monday.
Penry was joined by teammate and classmate Gunnar Helm, a 6-foot-5, 225-pound TE.
Helm had come up to Boulder last fall unofficially when the Buffs hosted Arizona on Oct. 5, but this past Saturday was the first time he'd gotten an in-depth taste of Colorado and its coaches.
In particular, Helm got some quality time in with Mel Tucker.
"Before Saturday, I’d never talked to him personally," he said. "He came to one of my games, I went up there on one unofficial, but I’d never really talked to him. I went up to his office, he brought me to a window that overlooks Folsom Field and he said ‘just look at this.’ I said ‘there’s nothing better coach, not at all.’ (Colorado) just really felt like home and has great scenery."
Helm's recruitment has taken off and then some in the last few days. In the last 48 hours alone, he's received scholarship offers from Central Michigan, Auburn, Oregon State, Utah and Iowa State.
The slow start followed by an explosion of offers has roots in the dramatic change he went through between his sophomore and junior years at Cherry Creek.
At the start of the 2018 season, Helm was on the lankier side and new to the varsity team. By the end of his junior year, he'd gone from reserve wide out to starting tight end on a state championship team — all in one year.
"At the end of (the 2018) season, I was about 175-180 if that and going into the first game (of 2019) I was 215," he said. "From the end of (sophomore) year to the end of last year, I put on 45-50 pounds. When I got the idea that I’d get moved (from WR to TE), I just lifted my ass off. Every night I was in the gym, I started getting on some protein, (I drank) lots and lots of water, got lots of rest — just the ins and outs to gaining weight and it definitely paid off.”
Helm was transitioned from WR to TE in the summer leading up to the 2019 season. As he alluded to above, he had the intelligence to start adjusting his body to meet the standards of being a tight end before he was formally switched.
At Cherry Creek last year, he caught 25 passes for 370 yards and eight touchdowns.
The waterfall of recent P5 offers began with the Buffaloes, who issued a scholarship offer to Helm before he left Boulder over the weekend.
"(Tucker) sat me down and went through why it took so long for (Colorado) to offer," Helm said. "He said ‘we like to take our time with in-state guys, because we don’t pull with in-state guys. We want you man. We’re going to start using the tight end a lot. We want to flex you out and put your hand in the dirt, we want to motion you into the backfield and lead block.’ I told him I could play anywhere and he goes ‘with that being said, I’m glad to say that you’ve got an offer from CU.’"
Helm also enjoyed sitting down and talking at length with Buffaloes tight ends coach Al Pupunu.
“I went into the TE room and (Pupunu) had a slideshow prepared. He talked about CU and why it’s a good fit for a tight end," Helm said. "He went through some plays they run up there, and they started to look really familiar. I thought ‘yeah, we run that exact play, actually (at Cherry Creek)...it’s a really similar offense to what I’m running in high school."
Of course, with the sizable number of Cherry Creek alums currently on Colorado's roster, the home feeling Boulder has for Helm definitely is personified by the prospects of playing football and attending classes with old friends and teammates from Cherry Creek.
“I didn’t get moved up to varsity my freshman year," he said. "The rest of my teammates from middle school did, so I went into in looking up to Carson Lee, Dimitri Stanley and Alec Pell for sure. Every time I saw them in the hallway, I just kind of froze, but I loved playing with those guys. It was a special time. I wish we could have gone all the way with them (in 2018).”
While Helm takes time to consider his options — which continue to grow each week — his time at Colorado over the weekend left a good taste in his mouth.
"I told (Pupunu) when I left that in the end, it’s going to be tough to turn down CU, not just because it’s at home, but I think I’m already falling in love with the coaching staff," Helm said. "Coach Tucker, I love how he handles things and is trying to flip the program around. He has the right dudes to help him and now he’s trying to get the right players.”
