Tim Beck announced his first recruiting class as the Pittsburg State head coach Wednesday afternoon, a group that Beck said would help to soothe “depletion” on both lines while upgrading the team’s speed.

The class includes 27 high-schoolers, two of whom — Columbus’s Tank Burns and St. Mary’s Colgan’s Austin Riggs — were among the best in the area. Beck called Burns, a 6-foot-2, 250-pound defensive lineman, the best player in Southeast Kansas.

Three of the high-school players were quarterbacks: Blue Valley’s Anthony Abenoja, Winfield’s Tanner Bailey and Raytown South’s Dennis Tanner.

The Gorillas also added a number of transfers who have signed grants-in-aid or who have already joined the football team, including another quarterback in former Kansas signal caller Tyler Lawrence, who backed up Todd Reesing for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Another Fort Scott Community College signee, Justin Woods, originally arrived with the Greyhounds via Kansas State. Beck said Woods, a former track star, could be the Gorillas’ speediest player since Jermaine Carpenter.

Other transfers include former Pittsburg High School standout C.J. Fondren and former Colgan stars Robby Castagno and Jeremiah Fleming.