2013 Recruiting Primer - Defense

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Good article but I am not sure if DE is the position of greatest need. I would rank LB as our number one need given the number of older LB's. This would be followed by safeties at second and DE's at third. That is because we are likely to have at least one young DE starting this fall (Ben Perry – Soph.) and two young strong reserves (Michael Amaefula- Soph. and Theiren Cockran – Fresh.) receiving significant playing time. I am sure the coach will be evaluating their priorities after spring practice and seeing who is developing and who is not. They will then adjust our priorities accordingly.
 

Killjoy said:
Good article but I am not sure if DE is the position of greatest need. I would rank LB as our number one need given the number of older LB's. This would be followed by safeties at second and DE's at third. That is because we are likely to have at least one young DE starting this fall (Ben Perry – Soph.) and two young strong reserves (Michael Amaefula- Soph. and Theiren Cockran – Fresh.) receiving significant playing time. I am sure the coach will be evaluating their priorities after spring practice and seeing who is developing and who is not. They will then adjust our priorities accordingly.
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I was suprised to read that also. No doubt we need LB's. Hard not to agree with the writer when he said we could use a highly rated recruit at all defensive postions. IMO the offense is way ahead of the defense. Going forward, it's huge if we can take care of our CB needs with Minnesota kids.
 

howieramone said:
I was suprised to read that also. No doubt we need LB's. Hard not to agree with the writer when he said we could use a highly rated recruit at all defensive postions. IMO the offense is way ahead of the defense. Going forward, it's huge if we can take care of our CB needs with Minnesota kids.
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DE won't be. I think we will recruit the position every year, but half of the DE's they listed will be college DTs.
 

I think part of it depends on who from the 2012 class ends up at DE. Keith will be a DE for sure, but if Plsek and Anyanwu end up at tight end or LB, I could see us taking 2 or 3. As for the young guys on the team, Amaefula showed me a lot last year, he looks like the real deal, a speed rusher off the end with a variety of moves. Perry seems to be more of a "contain" guy, I'm not sure if he'll be the type of player that can get a consistent rush. Cockran has been talked up a lot by the staff, it will be fun to see what he can do this spring and next fall.
 


John Galt said:
I think part of it depends on who from the 2012 class ends up at DE. Keith will be a DE for sure, but if Plsek and Anyanwu end up at tight end or LB, I could see us taking 2 or 3. As for the young guys on the team, Amaefula showed me a lot last year, he looks like the real deal, a speed rusher off the end with a variety of moves. Perry seems to be more of a "contain" guy, I'm not sure if he'll be the type of player that can get a consistent rush. Cockran has been talked up a lot by the staff, it will be fun to see what he can do this spring and next fall.
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I always thought of Perry as more of a speed rusher too. But generally, I agree with your point. It does depend on how it shakes out with Plsek and Anyanwu (if I had to guess, they both end up on offense).

I don't think our staff will ever not find room for a player who can rush the passer, so I think we'll always recruit DEs. Additionally, DE type athletes can play a ton of different positions (TE, H-Back, OLB).

However, I do think with our current roster that DE won't be a the biggest need (that's not to say we won't add some). But next year at this time we will have Perry (JR), Amaefula (JR), Cockran (SO), Bauducco (SO), Garin(SR), Keith(FR), possibly KGM (SR)*.

*I've heard that KGM is really serious about playing TE this season, so I expect him to make that switch. He was a really good TE in HS.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I always thought of Perry as more of a speed rusher too. But generally, I agree with your point. It does depend on how it shakes out with Plsek and Anyanwu (if I had to guess, they both end up on offense).

I don't think our staff will ever not find room for a player who can rush the passer, so I think we'll always recruit DEs. Additionally, DE type athletes can play a ton of different positions (TE, H-Back, OLB).

However, I do think with our current roster that DE won't be a the biggest need (that's not to say we won't add some). But next year at this time we will have Perry (JR), Amaefula (JR), Cockran (SO), Bauducco (SO), Garin(SR), Keith(FR), possibly KGM (SR)*.

*I've heard that KGM is really serious about playing TE this season, so I expect him to make that switch. He was a really good TE in HS.
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Always need to recruit along the D line every year, including for nose tackle. Each year we get shorted guys up front that have upper classmen status due to a lack of recruiting for these positions. This year we have 5 upper classmen along the d line. If KGM goes to TE, we then only have 4, which is not enough to rotate without going to the depths of inexperience. We will remain inexperienced unless we recruit at least 3-4 d-line guys each year. If we do not rush well, it takes away the ability to disrupt in the secondary as well (which makes it appear as if we never recruited well in this area). We concentrate so much on the secondary because our primary d suffers shortages. Let's reverse the trend and build for d-line dominance. I have never seen a dominant d-line at Minnesota. About time we change that by shooting for 8 upper classmen along the line for each year.
 


I've read quite a bit about Malik Rucker visiting practices. If we can lock him up, it will be a coup to land him and Brookins, two in-state DBs in the same class.
 



There are more good athletes at DE than DT at this point, not a lot more, but if I had to pick a postion of need it would be DT unless we are going to continue counting on JUCO DTs. At this point Botticelli is not depth, he is a starter, although I do expect Johnson to start. Legania seems like a player that fit the last defense a lot better than he fits this one. He is not a quick disruptive tackle, he is more of a gap control tackle from what I can see. I think Jacques is a guy who could continue to develop if he can get stronger, he does seem to be able to play low.
 


corcoran1 said:
There are more good athletes at DE than DT at this point, not a lot more, but if I had to pick a postion of need it would be DT unless we are going to continue counting on JUCO DTs. At this point Botticelli is not depth, he is a starter, although I do expect Johnson to start. Legania seems like a player that fit the last defense a lot better than he fits this one. He is not a quick disruptive tackle, he is more of a gap control tackle from what I can see. I think Jacques is a guy who could continue to develop if he can get stronger, he does seem to be able to play low.
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If Hageman plays like he finished up last year, I think we're solid at DT with him, Johnson, Jacques, and Botticelli the 4-man rotation. Hopefully Legania has improved and can also get some snaps. I'd be shocked if one of the freshmen doesn't play as well, if for no other reason to gain some experience and space out the class. My prediction is that it's Ekpe since he's already here and Kill has said some really good things about him.

We added 3 DTs in the last class, Ekpe, Hinojosa, and Timms, so my guess is we only add 1, maybe 2 for this class. For DE, we probably add 3, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Hendrick Ekpe as one of them.
 




John Galt said:
I've read quite a bit about Malik Rucker visiting practices. If we can lock him up, it will be a coup to land him and Brookins, two in-state DBs in the same class.
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Rucker is now up to 14 offers (8 BCS - 9 if you count SMU who will be in the Big East in 2013). Someone remind me again why we waited so long to offer this guy?
 

dpodoll68 said:
Rucker is now up to 14 offers (8 BCS - 9 if you count SMU who will be in the Big East in 2013). Someone remind me again why we waited so long to offer this guy?
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I wouldn't call offering a player in March of their junior year as "waiting so long." He said he walked out of junior days pretty much knowing he was going to get an offer. Yes, he picked up a few before us, but I think this is because Kill and staff make sure they do their due diligence so they understand where a player is at academically and character-wise before offering. In the end, I don't think it will have any impact on where he goes.
 

John Galt said:
In the end, I don't think it will have any impact on where he goes.
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I hope you're right. It's just that being the first to offer goes a long way with a lot of players, especially when you're the local school. Let's all hope that it's immaterial in this particular instance.
 


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