All Things Class of 2026 Gophers Football Recruiting Thread (Offers, Videos, Tweets, Rankings and More)

tbh i think star rating breakdown probably is more helpful. if anyone has ever studied the difference between a 3star 86 and a 3star 87 (and 85, 88, and 89) I haven't seen it. It has been pretty clear that cumulative class success over time (one year samples are generally not as predictive) as it averages out based on player star ratings and overall composites have been helpful. They assign the same score based on star rating but then break it down by the ratings within that to tier players more as your highest scoring guys are "worth" more to your class score (i.e a 99 overall guy is going to be worth his full rating and guys are worth lower "fractions" of their ratings as they move down your class). Idea being, you shouldn't get your class dung all that much by filling your class with a lower rated local guy who's just a place holder unless that's what all your guys are.

It's part of why I wouldn't say a ton about "average" class rating, but if you have no 5 stars and minimal 4 stars, you're going to have a hard time. There's a reason we look so overmatched against Oregon and that's because they're 11th ranked guy would be the best rated guy in our class

Our class is fine. Same as all PJs classes have been. Nothing that's going to jump us over a bunch of other teams or separate us from the middle pack at all.

tl,dr; star ratings and percentages of your guys in that star rating are probably more predictive. There's probably not much difference in a class full of 3star 87s vs 3star 86s
Thats a fair point.
 



My take: The fact that Howie Johnson can jump from a 90 to a 94 and a couple other of our recruits (and and two decommits) have made jumps almost as big--and that thing is happening simultaneously to other school's recruiting classes--tells me that there is virtually no meaningful difference between class recruiting "averages" of, say, .8756 and .8859--other than to satisfy the human penchant for constructing lists and rankings. The only ranking things that eventually matters on the field are truly large, categorical differences. For instance, a school with a recurring class average of around 0.9200 is going to have a demonstrably more athletic roster that a school with a recurring class average of 0.8700. But the difference between two wholly-subjective averages such as 0.8600 and 0.8700 is pretty much a popcorn fart. Where such small, subjective, faux-statistical differentials exist, the differentiation will take place down the road--developmental--based on conditioning, coaching, fit to scheme (if the school has a scheme!), and individual player drive to succeed and football IQ.
 
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My take: The fact that Howie Johnson can jump from a 90 to a 94 and a couple other of our recruits (and and two decommits) have made jumps almost as big--and that thing is happening simultaneously to other school's recruiting classes--tells me that there is virtually no meaningful difference between class recruiting "averages" of, say, .8756 and .8859--other than to satisfy the human penchant for constructing lists and rankings. The only thing that eventually rankings that matters on the field are truly large, categorical differences. For instance, a school with a recurring class average of around 0.9200 is going to have a demonstrably more athletic roster that a school with a recurring class average of 0.8700. But the difference between two wholly-subjective averages such as 0.8600 and 0.8700 is pretty much a popcorn fart. Where such small, subjective, faux-statistical differentials exist, the differentiation will take place down the road--developmental--based on conditioning, coaching, fit to scheme (if the school has a scheme!), and individual player drive to succeed and football IQ.
It’s really all just shiny objects at this point -

Which Gopher Great from the last decade was ranked a three star 82?
 






It’s really all just shiny objects at this point -

Which Gopher Great from the last decade was ranked a three star 82?
Yep.....high rated players fail....low rated players turn into stars.....and everything inbetween.

And in the end, in most recruiting classes a decent portion of the players will never log significant minutes for the team they started with....has been that way for a long time but that has only increased in this transfer portal era.
 

This is news to me.
Is everyone on scholarship now?

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Its up to each school. There is a hard roster limit of 105. A school can choose to fund up to 105 full scholarships. A school can also choose to fund something less than 105 full scholarships. A school can also now offer partial scholarships (ala DII). But in no event can the roster exceed 105 players (although I believe that there is some kind of grandfathering going on with this). Wisconsin, for instance, has made several PWO offers this cycle which tells me that Wisconsin is not funding a full 105 scholarships and at least as it relates to the PWO offers, is not offering them a partial scholly.
 


Finding a unicorn (Winfield) once in 20 years is a good reason to ignore the 367 other 82 ranked players who didn't ever make an impact.
Not to mention a good reason to ignore all the 4 stars who DID make an impact.

Sheesh
 





Finding a unicorn (Winfield) once in 20 years is a good reason to ignore the 367 other 82 ranked players who didn't ever make an impact.
Not to mention a good reason to ignore all the 4 stars who DID make an impact.

Sheesh
You're being obtuse but you know that, "diamonds in the rough" are a staple of Minnesota's great players, that same class had Ko Kieft as an 80 grade, Steven Richardson was an 80 grade, Boye Mafe and Chris Autman-Bell, 83's, Ersery an 86, Walley an 87, Baranowski an 83 and the bottom player in his class. Get great ranked players sure, but there's a lot of great players below that too.
 






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