2020 Signing Day Awards

[hungan1]

How good is the Gophers 2020 Recruiting Class? How does it compare to 2019, 2018, 2017? There is more to it than simply just the star ratings of recruits. Here is GopherIllustrated take:

2020 GopherIllustrated Signing Day Awards
By Ryan Burns, etal. December 23,2019

Minnesota currently has the #29 rated class overall and #7 in the Big Ten, per 247Sports ranks.

I truly only care about where do the Gophers rank in the Big Ten West, which we at 247Sports currently have them fourth. But there's absolutely context needed here, because the difference between Minnesota / Nebraska / Iowa / Wisconsin are right now is incredibly slim. I'm also just going to take Nebraska out of this discussion as they've recruited well for years, but until they prove they can win more than 13 games in three years, I'm not factoring them in for Big Ten West discussions.

- Wisconsin
Class score: 218.77
Average ranking per recruit: 87.84
- Iowa
Class score: 215.58
Average ranking per recruit: 86.64
- Minnesota
Class score: 212.84
Average ranking per recruit: 86.58

So essentially each of these Big Ten schools is within one point of one another per recruit, and I'll be the first to tell you as someone who is in the star ranking industry. The difference between an "86" and an "87" recruit is so incredibly minimal.
Their class scores are also within 10 points of one another, which is essentially one mid-level recruit. That's it.

I saw this list from ESPN's Bill Connelly, and I concur with this 100% as the three most-important areas in college football are:
1) Talent Acquisition - Recruiting
2) Talent Development - Develop the talent
3) Talent Deployment - Put them in a position to be successful

For Minnesota specifically here. PJ Fleck and his staff have elevated their recruiting from a tier below the Wisconsin's and the Iowa's, to now they're in that same tier. That's a check mark in the most important box.
When all things are relatively equal like they are in these Big Ten West recruiting rankings, it's going to come down to which coaching staff can best develop the talent. So for PJ Fleck and staff, it's time to prove again that once the talent is here, you can turn that into all-Big Ten players and NFL draft picks, which coincidentally coincides with wins on the field. That's how you get to 10 wins for the first time in 114 years.

Now it's time to become consistent with that again next season to prove that 2019 wasn't a fluke, but if recruiting rankings mean anything (and by golly they do), it was another successful class for Minnesota.

That being said, let's hand out some awards for this Gophers recruiting class.

Click on 2020 GopherIllustrated Signing Day Awards to view the rest of the article: Includes includes awards with evaluations/commentary by Ryan Burns, Kyle Goblirsch, and Allen Trieu: Class MVP, Instant Impact - Offense, Instant Impact - Defense, Most Likely To Prove The Star System Wrong, Highest Ceiling, Biggest Steal, Biggest Miss, Recruiter Of The Year.

 

[Gold Rush]

The recruiting this year was just about identical for Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin and if you keep that going you have a level playing field. From there, it will depend on the staffs finding the right place for them, keeping them in school and of course development of their skills. Identical classes will help the team with the lesser talent the most. For example, if you gave the Gophers recruiting class to Alabama, it would provide them mostly with depth and very few starters, while if you gave that same class to Rutgers, it might give them 15 immediate starters and another 6 in the two-deep. This is a class that will (not should) really help the Gophers, especially on defense.