Gerry DiNardo's analysis of our recruits

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dpodoll68

dpodoll68

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For those who may not be aware, DiNardo has been watching tape of all the Big Ten recruits and posting his analyses on Twitter. He has finally gotten around to Minnesota and will be posting his thoughts on our recruits today. I will share them here so we can discuss - plus, it's always good to know what knowledgeable people think about our future Gophers.
 

#Gophers commit-Jonah Pirsig-6'9" 290 OT-only jr.tape- real deal-good feet/quickness plays O/D-4 star 4 sure-great take best player in class

#Gophers commit-Isaac Hayes-6'3" 270-OG-only jr. tape Strong, good feet,explosive,times up contact,great effort Rated 3 star why not 4 or 5?
 


KoolAid said:
Debatable
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Not really; you don't become a BCS head coach (at LSU, nonetheless) without knowing a little about football. Whether you agree with his opinion is a matter of debate, but there's no debate that he has a base of knowledge from which to draw.
 

First off thanks for posting the comments and it will be interesting to see what he has to say about the rest of the class. However looking at those first two comments I was wondering if he ever has anything bad to say about recruits? Kind of getting a Paula Abdul on Idol vibe where he will go out of his way to find positives in everyone and talk them up.
 


MNVCGUY said:
First off thanks for posting the comments and it will be interesting to see what he has to say about the rest of the class. However looking at those first two comments I was wondering if he ever has anything bad to say about recruits? Kind of getting a Paula Abdul on Idol vibe where he will go out of his way to find positives in everyone and talk them up.
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Yup, I definitely get that vibe from his tweets too. If it were up to him, every Big Ten recruit would be a 4- or 5-star. I tend to look less at his opinion on the rating and more at what he is saying about them from a technical standpoint. He will throw in a negative now and again (slow feet, undersized, lacks explosion, etc.) but he definitely tilts extremely positive.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Yup, I definitely get that vibe from his tweets too. If it were up to him, every Big Ten recruit would be a 4- or 5-star. I tend to look less at his opinion on the rating and more at what he is saying about them from a technical standpoint. He will throw in a negative now and again (slow feet, undersized, lacks explosion, etc.) but he definitely tilts extremely positive.
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Let's see him work down the list a little first. He started with a couple well regarded guys.
 

He is a positive guy, that is his role, I don't think those evaluations are hard to believe. They are consistent with most of the rest.
 

He says most of the other guys don't have tape so I'm guessing the rest will be really shallow evaluations
 



I've always liked Dinardo. He didn't have much success as a coach, but he seems like a really nice and genuine guy. And like someone above said, you don't get to the level he got to without knowing quite a bit about football.
 

dpodoll68 said:
(at LSU, nonetheless)
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LSU was not a great job when DiNardo took over, in fact it was probably at its lowest point in its history. These days, I am pretty sure LSU wouldn't consider hiring a Vanderbilt caoch who had never had a winning season.
 

Winnipegopher said:
LSU was not a great job when DiNardo took over, in fact it was probably at its lowest point in its history.
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Doesn't the fact that he took a 4-7 team to two straight division titles tilt it even more in his favor?

Winnipegopher said:
These days, I am pretty sure LSU wouldn't consider hiring a Vanderbilt caoch who had never had a winning season.
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If Les Miles left LSU after next season (to go to the NFL, or wherever), and James Franklin called to tell them he was interested, I am quite certain that they would at least listen.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Doesn't the fact that he took a 4-7 team to two straight division titles tilt it even more in his favor?



If Les Miles left LSU after next season (to go to the NFL, or wherever), and James Franklin called to tell them he was interested, I am quite certain that they would at least listen.
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Sorry if that came out wrong. It was not meant to, just that DiNardo got the job when they were at a very low point. Your "none-the-less" implies that LSU was a good job, my position is that it wasn't a good job when he was hired. I would suspect it was a bottom tier SEC job at the time.

I do agree that he he did ok there and likely set the table for Saban to make it a great job.

If James Franklin has another losing year, no, I don't see LSU answering any phone calls. You need to do better than 6-7 at Vanderbilt (especially if your marquee win is Wake Forest, followed by Kentucky) to coach LSU in 2013.
 



Winnipegopher said:
LSU was not a great job when DiNardo took over, in fact it was probably at its lowest point in its history. These days, I am pretty sure LSU wouldn't consider hiring a Vanderbilt caoch who had never had a winning season.
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From '89 to '94 LSU was a combined 25-41 and never finished above .500. DiNardo took over in '95 and went 7-4-1.
 

So Nardo is only gonna review two of our commits? Is this a BTN thing or is he doing this on his own? Saying you don't have tape is pretty lame. Why is he only looking on Scout.com. The interwebs are plentiful and feature film of all sorts. If he's doing this for BTN, here is an idea, get the film yourself.
 

KoolAid said:
So Nardo is only gonna review two of our commits? Is this a BTN thing or is he doing this on his own? Saying you don't have tape is pretty lame. Why is he only looking on Scout.com. The interwebs are plentiful and feature film of all sorts. If he's doing this for BTN, here is an idea, get the film yourself.
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He's never explicitly said, but I get the feeling he's getting a little side check to do this for Scout. He only uses Scout team and player rankings when he discusses the recruits, and he apparently is restricting himself to film found on Scout (because using film found elsewhere would show even more explicitly how much Scout sucks).

As for the evals - he hasn't done any more since those two this morning. If that's all he ends up doing - lame-ass.
 


50PoundHead said:
I've always liked Dinardo. He didn't have much success as a coach, but he seems like a really nice and genuine guy. And like someone above said, you don't get to the level he got to without knowing quite a bit about football.
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I read somewhere that his attitude or lack there of was one reason he achieved great success in college coaching. He's too nice of a guy and didn't have the obsessive quality that many great coaches have.
 

gay


gerrydinardo Gerry DiNardo
#Gophers commits - sorry don't have more on each commit but really limited with information.
 

I like DiNardo, he is a positive guy, he coached in the conference at a school with real limitations, and he has mostly been right in what he said about us over the last few years.
One does not have to be a critical jerk to be a knowledgeable person. I'll take just about anybody who has done a competent job as a coach, big winner or not, as an evaluator over someone who has never coached. That may not always be right, but having to live with your evaluation skills and working with players as they practice and develop every day seems necessary to me for someone to be able to evaluate talent.
 


@gerrydinardo
Going back for the 2nd time studying all B1G commit lists based on Scout.com #Gophers 5 more Lauer/Maye/Johnson/Anyanwu/Travis
 

Surely he could have figured out that Nelson, McDonald & Harbison are highly regarded offensive weapons on the first go-round? Doesn't he know about YouTube? I like Dinardo but this was a half hearted attempt.
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
Surely he could have figured out that Nelson, McDonald & Harbison are highly regarded offensive weapons on the first go-round? Doesn't he know about YouTube? I like Dinardo but this was a half hearted attempt.
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Agree.
 

No new information here Gophers 12 of 12 according to Rivals.com, but I want to know why Kill has such a difficult time signing guys outside of the state of Minnesota. Yes, he obviously inked plenty of athletes from beyond our borders, but none that even scratch a high 3-star ranking, much less a 4-star. I think Nelson, Pirsig and Hayes have the potential to be legit Big 10 caliber players and possibly make a decent impact. The rest of the class appears littered with guys with offers from non-BCS schools. What's the deal???
 

BigGopherFan said:
No new information here Gophers 12 of 12 according to Rivals.com, but I want to know why Kill has such a difficult time signing guys outside of the state of Minnesota. Yes, he obviously inked plenty of athletes from beyond our borders, but none that even scratch a high 3-star ranking, much less a 4-star. I think Nelson, Pirsig and Hayes have the potential to be legit Big 10 caliber players and possibly make a decent impact. The rest of the class appears littered with guys with offers from non-BCS schools. What's the deal???
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Depends on which school of thought you subscribe to. 1 says that Kill is targeting these more under the radar guys because the fit his system and he will develop them into Big Ten caliber players. 2 says he isn't that great of a recruiter and can't convince the more highly sought after recruits to sign.

Me I think it is probably a combination of both. They have definite targets in mind and have been together long enough as a staff to know what kind of players they want to run their systems. Those systems have worked very well at the places they have been in the past. The question that remains to be answered is if his systems and the players he recruits to run them can transfer to the Big Ten and be successful at this level. My feeling on Kill from day one is that I have zero doubt in my mind that he will return us to Mason level success which means 6-7 wins a year minimum, bowl games, competitive..... What we will find out is if he is good enough to take that next step. A lot of coaches have tried and failed before him, hopefully he is the one to get it done.
 

BigGopherFan said:
No new information here Gophers 12 of 12 according to Rivals.com, but I want to know why Kill has such a difficult time signing guys outside of the state of Minnesota. Yes, he obviously inked plenty of athletes from beyond our borders, but none that even scratch a high 3-star ranking, much less a 4-star. I think Nelson, Pirsig and Hayes have the potential to be legit Big 10 caliber players and possibly make a decent impact. The rest of the class appears littered with guys with offers from non-BCS schools. What's the deal???
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Kill has not used your expertise yet. He needs to improve on those communications.
 

BigGopherFan said:
No new information here Gophers 12 of 12 according to Rivals.com, but I want to know why Kill has such a difficult time signing guys outside of the state of Minnesota. Yes, he obviously inked plenty of athletes from beyond our borders, but none that even scratch a high 3-star ranking, much less a 4-star. I think Nelson, Pirsig and Hayes have the potential to be legit Big 10 caliber players and possibly make a decent impact. The rest of the class appears littered with guys with offers from non-BCS schools. What's the deal???
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Whatever.

Here's your last Mason class,
Mason 2006

Your last Brewster class,
Brewster 2010

And this class.
Kill 2012

Which class is better? We won't know for a year, but this one has me far more excited...
 

BigGopherFan said:
No new information here Gophers 12 of 12 according to Rivals.com, but I want to know why Kill has such a difficult time signing guys outside of the state of Minnesota. Yes, he obviously inked plenty of athletes from beyond our borders, but none that even scratch a high 3-star ranking, much less a 4-star. I think Nelson, Pirsig and Hayes have the potential to be legit Big 10 caliber players and possibly make a decent impact. The rest of the class appears littered with guys with offers from non-BCS schools. What's the deal???
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Oh noes BigGopherFan is upset! Can't sign 3-star guys from out of state? Really? I count 14 3-star guys from out of state. But hey, I actually looked. And nah, that Harbison kid is gonna be terrible, same with that McDonald kid. Boddy wasn't thought of as an SEC recruit if he stayed one more year in JuCo. Nope nope nope.
 

Criticize him if you want, but it is a legitimate question. Kill was able to pull in 3 in-state guys with offers from other BCS programs (Pirsig, Hayes, McDonald). Perhaps Philip and Maxx (or others) would have received offers had they not committed so early, but we don’t know that.

Also, while the in-state haul is impressive, the out-of-state haul is considerably less so. For a coaching staff with ties to the midwest markets, they did a poor job compared to their peers, losing every single player they went after who had offers from any other BCS program. We offered 14 Chicago-area kids and received one commit (Jack Lynn) who had only MAC offers. We offered 24 kids in Missouri/Indiana/Ohio and received two commits; again, kids who had no other BCS offers.

These aren’t selective numbers; this pattern holds up across the country.

You can shrug this off as no big deal, or a product of the fact that we're the Gophers and we're just not going to be able to recruit nationally. But it is a question worth raising.
 

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