2021 Minnesota Class

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GoldenGophers7

GoldenGophers7

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Looking at the 2021 Minnesota class I see again that the top two prospects are not staying home. I don’t get what it’ll take to keep the kids home. I would love to play for PJ.
 

I'm not too concerned fwiw! Have more seasons like 2019, and kids will want to stay closer to home!
 

Some kids just want to move away for . Riley Mahlman was wowed by the routing of Michigan at Camp Randall during a recruiting visit.

Justice Sullivan grew up in Iowa after being adopted. He only moved to Eden Prairie when one of his folks took a job in MN.

There is something about Lakeville players not giving PJ Fleck and Minnesota a chance. I sensed the same thing with Bryce Benhart.

Some kids just want to move for nefarious reasons. They want to go to the dark side.
 

hungan1 said:
Some kids just want to move away for . Riley Mahlman was wowed by the routing of Michigan at Camp Randall during a recruiting visit.

Justice Sullivan grew up in Iowa after being adopted. He only moved to Eden Prairie when one of his folks took a job in MN.

There is something about Lakeville players not giving PJ Fleck and Minnesota a chance. I sensed the same thing with Bryce Benhart.

Some kids just want to move for nefarious reasons. They want to go to the dark side.
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Makes sense with justice. We all know Michigan isn’t what they used to be. Jimmy needs to find a new job. I find the Penn State and Auburn win way more impressive than a Michigan win.
 

I would much rather get the top Minnesota kids, but if Fleck can recruit kids equal to or better than kids who would rather go somewhere else, than I am perfectly fine with it. TE Joe Alt from Totino Grace is also going to be tough to get as he will be getting a major push from Iowa and probably his dad, too. Iowa is putting a lot of TE's into the NFL right now and it is not a featured position for the Gophers. That just might be changed with Simon and Sanford. TE is traditionally a position that has been strong for the Gophers and we get a lot of good TE prospects from here so I would like to see it utilized more if possible. Two predictions: Fleck's last class that he just signed is going to be a very good one, and next year's class will be even better!!
 


Gold Rush said:
I would much rather get the top Minnesota kids, but if Fleck can recruit kids equal to or better than kids who would rather go somewhere else, than I am perfectly fine with it. TE Joe Alt from Totino Grace is also going to be tough to get as he will be getting a major push from Iowa and probably his dad, too. Iowa is putting a lot of TE's into the NFL right now and it is not a featured position for the Gophers. That just might be changed with Simon and Sanford. TE is traditionally a position that has been strong for the Gophers and we get a lot of good TE prospects from here so I would like to see it utilized more if possible. Two predictions: Fleck's last class that he just signed is going to be a very good one, and next year's class will be even better!!
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The one good thing with Alt is that a lot of scouts are projecting him as a tackle, not a tight end, so that might help our ability to bring him in.

Supposedly he will be at our junior day in late January, over Iowa's the same day, so hopefully that's another good sign.
 

PJ has said, he's not for everybody. I don't think either of the Lakeville boys cared much for him.
 

GoldenGophers7 said:
Looking at the 2021 Minnesota class I see again that the top two prospects are not staying home. I don’t get what it’ll take to keep the kids home. I would love to play for PJ.
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In a state with limited high end players like Minnesota it sucks when some of the top kids choose to go elsewhere but it is what it is. As others mentioned, if we can put together a run of sustained high level success we will become more of a destination school for local kids. As it stands, most of these kids have grown up seeing the Gophers as decent but not a true contender.
 

There is plenty of talent in Minnesota, many of these coaches are more comfortable recruiting their own home states or where they came from instead of doing a little more work and looking under some of the rocks in our own state. Any one can offer the 1 or 2 kids in the state that are 6'8". Minnesota kids are at somewhat of a disadvantage when it comes to recruiting, we have one D1 program in the state and most programs do not recruit the state because more numbers elsewhere. Until you start building your team with local kids we will continue this cycle along with the cycle of coaches.
 



Tommyboy said:
There is plenty of talent in Minnesota, many of these coaches are more comfortable recruiting their own home states or where they came from instead of doing a little more work and looking under some of the rocks in our own state. Any one can offer the 1 or 2 kids in the state that are 6'8". Minnesota kids are at somewhat of a disadvantage when it comes to recruiting, we have one D1 program in the state and most programs do not recruit the state because more numbers elsewhere. Until you start building your team with local kids we will continue this cycle along with the cycle of coaches.
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Fleck is doing fine finding talent from all over.
 

I would love to see more MN kids pick the Gophers. It feels good to see guys like Tyler Johnson and Carter Coughlin do well. And it is also a more efficient distribution of resources. You don't always have to build relationships with new coaches in other cities and spend as much time/money on a recruit in your backyard.
 

btowngopher said:
Fleck is doing fine finding talent from all over.
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Yeah, there are quality football players in this state but not enough to build a team around at the Big Ten level.

The coaching staff's job is to go out and find the best players they can, regardless of what state they are from.
 

Tommyboy said:
There is plenty of talent in Minnesota, many of these coaches are more comfortable recruiting their own home states or where they came from instead of doing a little more work and looking under some of the rocks in our own state. Any one can offer the 1 or 2 kids in the state that are 6'8". Minnesota kids are at somewhat of a disadvantage when it comes to recruiting, we have one D1 program in the state and most programs do not recruit the state because more numbers elsewhere. Until you start building your team with local kids we will continue this cycle along with the cycle of coaches.
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I have to admit, I understood very little of this post.

Maybe it's Friday afternoon fog.
 



Tommyboy said:
There is plenty of talent in Minnesota, many of these coaches are more comfortable recruiting their own home states or where they came from instead of doing a little more work and looking under some of the rocks in our own state. Any one can offer the 1 or 2 kids in the state that are 6'8". Minnesota kids are at somewhat of a disadvantage when it comes to recruiting, we have one D1 program in the state and most programs do not recruit the state because more numbers elsewhere. Until you start building your team with local kids we will continue this cycle along with the cycle of coaches.
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These types of statements don't agree with each other.

If there's "plenty of talent" here, programs will come here. The talent is present, but not in great bulk. I played MN football and love to continue to follow MN football and wouldn't have traded it for anything, but to say we have "plenty of talent" just isn't really the fact. We do always seem to have some top tier talent, but they are relatively few and far between at this stage.

I guess to be clear, if you are saying there are guys who can be depth guys, contribute on special teams, etc, yes there are some more of those. But the number of impact guys is pretty low realistically
 


The last sentence may be the most perplexing of them all. Give him the benefit of the doubt- maybe a 3 Bloody Mary lunch
 

Urbandale said:
I have to admit, I understood very little of this post.

Maybe it's Friday afternoon fog.
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Ultimately what he is getting at is he thinks we need to offer Kristoff Kowalkowski. I think.
 


Tommyboy said:
Minnesota as many high school athletes that would do a great job for the gophers.
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Yep, we have about 40 Minnesota kids on the 2019 roster. Of those 40 - 10-15 made an impact of some kind this season. A good portion of the remaining 20-25 very few of us could even name because the majority of them are walk-ons.

If you got the best of the best in the state every year you could form a solid core on your roster but you would still need to bring in a lot of guys from out of state in order to be competitive. Minnesota high school football just doesn't churn out a high number of high end athletes every year.

2016 was a very deep year for the State in terms of quality players. Most seasons don't come anywhere close to that.
 

Urbandale said:
I have to admit, I understood very little of this post.

Maybe it's Friday afternoon fog.
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You then will continue to wonder why our local guys are not signing up after just one successful year.
 

GoldenGophers7 said:
Looking at the 2021 Minnesota class I see again that the top two prospects are not staying home. I don’t get what it’ll take to keep the kids home. I would love to play for PJ.
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Track record of putting their position in the NFL and the desire to stay close to home. That is all it will take.
 

hungan1 said:
There is something about Lakeville players not giving PJ Fleck and Minnesota a chance. I sensed the same thing with Bryce Benhart.
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Maybe its the crappy way Mitch Leidner was treated by "fans"?
 

I remember watching a basketball game in Swanville a
upnorthkid said:
These types of statements don't agree with each other.

If there's "plenty of talent" here, programs will come here. The talent is present, but not in great bulk. I played MN football and love to continue to follow MN football and wouldn't have traded it for anything, but to say we have "plenty of talent" just isn't really the fact. We do always seem to have some top tier talent, but they are relatively few and far between at this stage.

I guess to be clear, if you are saying there are guys who can be depth guys, contribute on special teams, etc, yes there are some more of those. But the number of impact guys is pretty low realistically
Click to expand...
Our guys just do not get the skill and development training like down south. We do have a lot of talent. I remember watching a basketball game in the middle of no where in Swanville, a few years ago and no kidding they had a center that was 6'9" that was big and fast, the kid did not even play football. It just is not as big as down south.
 

In state MN kids still play a huge role on the Gopher's success. Although a majority are walk-ons, they help drastically with the practice squads. Many of them probably will never see the playing field. They get to be around the program with its success and celebrations. PJ Fleck treats all the players the same way. At least it doesn't seem like there is a dichotomy. PWOs fight for a starting spot and occasionally you have a Blake Cashman or a Sam Renner that beat the odds and crack the starting lineup.
 


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