Adam Rittenberg: In the long run Kill and staff need to do better outside the area

[BleedGopher]

Nastradamus from Los Feliz: Adam, I bleed Maroon and Gold and I thought that Jerry Kill did a good job recruiting in state and JUCO talent in the 2012 class. However, the out of state recruiting was extremely weak (most guys didn't have multiple BCS offers). I believe Jerry Kill needs 7 to 8 wins this fall in order to recruit better out of state in the future. What say you?

Adam Rittenberg: That's part of it, Nastradamus, but give Kill credit for keeping some of the top in-state players at home. That's the way you build a program, and that's what he's doing at Minnesota. Think about all the good in-state prospects who have gone elsewhere, whether it's Michael Floyd to Notre Dame or Seantrel Henderson to USC and then Miami. So keeping good players at home is a good start. But I agree that in the long run, Kill and his staff need to do better outside the area. The WR from North Carolina was a nice get.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/45349/big-ten-chat-recap-feb-8

Go Gophers!!

 

[Gophers09]

Half-heartedly agreed to a leading question - don't really read much into it one way or the other.

 

[upnorthkid]

Rittenberg never seems to say anything that contributes to the discussion for the Gophers. So I don't really take much stock in what he reports. He usually just drops a few names or doesn't really say anything that provides an insight. So meh..

 

[zambam]

Rittenberg never seems to say anything that contributes to the discussion for the Gophers. So I don't really take much stock in what he reports. He usually just drops a few names or doesn't really say anything that provides an insight. So meh..

TBH - I don't expect him to know much about the Gophers until we are relevant in the conference again.

 

[nsmike]

Rittenberg doesn't get a chance to see the Gophers first hand so everthing is a rehash of what others write. Until the team does something, to get ESPN's attention, we will keep getting third class coverage. I look for that to happen next year.

 

[josh087]

What do you want Rittenberg to say?

"Nostradomus: On the contrary - a bunch of outstate recruits with little or no other BCS conference offers is good enough for Kill and Minnesota to win the Big Ten. All the pieces are in place. This is the exact formula in recruiting that has made Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, and Wisconsin so powerful in the Big Ten. No need for Kill to do any better in recruiting outside of the state."

Do you think if you asked Kill himself he wouldn't say they needed better players than they got this year?

Sometimes this board is so dilusional it is almost comical.

 

[zambam]

What do you want Rittenberg to say?

"Nostradomus: On the contrary - a bunch of outstate recruits with little or no other BCS conference offers is good enough for Kill and Minnesota to win the Big Ten. All the pieces are in place. This is the exact formula in recruiting that has made Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, and Wisconsin so powerful in the Big Ten. No need for Kill to do any better in recruiting outside of the state."

Do you think if you asked Kill himself he wouldn't say they needed better players than they got this year?

Sometimes this board is so dilusional it is almost comical.

No one was disagreeing with this, at least not vocally. The discussion was about how Rittenberg never really says anything when he talks about the Gophers.

 

[highwayman]

What do you want Rittenberg to say?

"Nostradomus: On the contrary - a bunch of outstate recruits with little or no other BCS conference offers is good enough for Kill and Minnesota to win the Big Ten. All the pieces are in place. This is the exact formula in recruiting that has made Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, and Wisconsin so powerful in the Big Ten. No need for Kill to do any better in recruiting outside of the state."

Do you think if you asked Kill himself he wouldn't say they needed better players than they got this year?

Sometimes this board is so dilusional it is almost comical.

The point is that Rittenberg cherry picked this question to look like he's working hard. If Kill had not gotten Pirsig or Hayes, he would have found a different question in his inbox and said that Kill wasn't locking down the borders. Rittenberg has little tangible knowledge or insight.

I think the word "delusional" is so contextually misplaced here it's comical.

 

[50PoundHead]

I thought Rittenberg's answer was pretty much right on the mark. His second sentence pretty much says it all. We're building from the foundation, not simply putting on the roof. The first step in that process is keeping the good kids home and he did that.

 

[MNVCGUY]

No one was disagreeing with this, at least not vocally. The discussion was about how Rittenberg never really says anything when he talks about the Gophers.

I thought Rittenberg gave a very good answer to the question. He didn't bash the out of state recruiting, which was in fact pretty average, he instead pointed out the fact that the team did very well in the state and highlighted one out of state player he thought was a nice pickup. We bitch and moan all the time about negative media coverage and now we are moaning about semi positive media coverage. No one outside of a few on this board is going to give our recruiting class rave reviews because from a national perspective it was just a so so class. Rittenberg gave the most positive answer to that question that he could, for those of you that don't like it what would you expect him to say?

 

[BHgrappler]

Step #1: Lock down the boarders and keep your best talent in state.
Step #2: On-field improvement - # of wins
Step #3: Attract higher level of outstate recruits

Repeat cycle and rinse!

 

[GopherinFlorida]

Nobody said Rittenburgs answer was wrong...just saying it was something that has been said by 1,000 people already...he phoned it in...like usual.

Here is a better question for Andy: Did the B1G go to 4 year scholarships because we are getting are butts kicked in recruiting by the SEC and we aren't relevant in National Championship discussions anymore? And will this help since the other big time conferences can match next year? Also, who do you think 4 year schollies will impact more, large or small D-1 schools? Do you think in the long run that 4 year schollies will be an overall positive or negative to the athletic programs of tier 2 and 3 D-1 schools like MN?

 

[husker70]

I love when the Rittenburgs comment on what Jerry Kill needs to do. It would be less of a story, but more accurate if he simply would have written Jerry Kill knows what he is doing.

 

[matt]

TBH - I don't expect him to know much about the Gophers until we are relevant in the conference again.

I do. That is 1/12 of what he is paid to do.

 

[Monty519]

I do. That is 1/12 of what he is paid to do.

Now you know his duties aren't spread evenly over all 12 teams lol. The OSUs and Michigans are gonna take a lot of punch just by fact that they are nationally relevant, and frankly, more people care about them than they do us and Purdue.

At the same time, it seems he catches a lot of heat for not going into intense detail about everything about our program or something. Rarely does he note anything that isn't true, but for some reason, people seem to expect him to bring a GopherHole-like amount of detail to his coverage of our program. Let's face it, the people on these forums, we read EVERYTHING related to this program. So we see duplication of the same themes over and over cause we read practically every article put out about this program (Thank you Bleed haha). It's like when Kill articles kept popping up all over throwing out the same stuff about him after he was hired. People got tired of reading the same thing over and over, but all these other sources aren't catering to a hardcore fan group like GH, they are catering to a wider audience, one that doesn't read every intimate detail about the program everyday.

Even when (yeah I said it, WHEN) we go to the Rose Bowl, an ESPN blogger is not likely going to bring better coverage and know as much about the program than any of us, I'm sure.

 

[oleboy41]

I don't pay any attention to what any national writers say about MN. The only guys that have anything relevant to say are the BTN guys. Most of the rest don't know anything other than what they read in the Strib

 

[Formo]

Now you know his duties aren't spread evenly over all 12 teams lol. The OSUs and Michigans are gonna take a lot of punch just by fact that they are nationally relevant, and frankly, more people care about them than they do us and Purdue.

At the same time, it seems he catches a lot of heat for not going into intense detail about everything about our program or something. Rarely does he note anything that isn't true, but for some reason, people seem to expect him to bring a GopherHole-like amount of detail to his coverage of our program. Let's face it, the people on these forums, we read EVERYTHING related to this program. So we see duplication of the same themes over and over cause we read practically every article put out about this program (Thank you Bleed haha). It's like when Kill articles kept popping up all over throwing out the same stuff about him after he was hired. People got tired of reading the same thing over and over, but all these other sources aren't catering to a hardcore fan group like GH, they are catering to a wider audience, one that doesn't read every intimate detail about the program everyday.

Even when (yeah I said it, WHEN) we go to the Rose Bowl, an ESPN blogger is not likely going to bring better coverage and know as much about the program than any of us, I'm sure.

Exactly. We already know pretty much everything there is to know about the Gophers. When Rittenburg does a Gopher bit/article, he's catering to the average B1G fan (or fans of other B1G teams), not to the fans of whatever school he happened to do a bit/article on.

The complaints about Rittenburg in this thread are no different than the complaints that PSU, OSU, or Michigan fans complain about.

 

[re3886]

Now you know his duties aren't spread evenly over all 12 teams lol. The OSUs and Michigans are gonna take a lot of punch just by fact that they are nationally relevant, and frankly, more people care about them than they do us and Purdue.

At the same time, it seems he catches a lot of heat for not going into intense detail about everything about our program or something. Rarely does he note anything that isn't true, but for some reason, people seem to expect him to bring a GopherHole-like amount of detail to his coverage of our program. Let's face it, the people on these forums, we read EVERYTHING related to this program. So we see duplication of the same themes over and over cause we read practically every article put out about this program (Thank you Bleed haha). It's like when Kill articles kept popping up all over throwing out the same stuff about him after he was hired. People got tired of reading the same thing over and over, but all these other sources aren't catering to a hardcore fan group like GH, they are catering to a wider audience, one that doesn't read every intimate detail about the program everyday.

Even when (yeah I said it, WHEN) we go to the Rose Bowl, an ESPN blogger is not likely going to bring better coverage and know as much about the program than any of us, I'm sure.

I not sure anybody expects anything like you describe here. What the complaint is, is that Adam doesn't do anything original ever, in his coverage. He just vomits up writing he attempted to digest from others. That works great if your rasing baby birds, it doesn't get the job done when you are paid for insight.

 

[Formo]

I not sure anybody expects anything like you describe here. What the complaint is, is that Adam doesn't do anything original ever, in his coverage. He just vomits up writing he attempted to digest from others. That works great if your rasing baby birds, it doesn't get the job done when you are paid for insight.

Wrong. Adam's target audience isn't Minnesota Gopher fans like us. I guarantee we know more about the team than he does. Partially because his job is to cover 12 teams. His job is to inform those teams' fans. OSU/PSU/Michigan fans make the same complaints. It'll never change, and it shouldn't.

 

[Parski1]

So was Henderson at USC redshirted or hurt?

 

[paulser21]

So was Henderson at USC redshirted or hurt?

I thought he was released from his LOI, signed with Miami, and didn't burn anytime. I could be wrong on this.

 

[Killjoy]

I thought he was released from his LOI, signed with Miami, and didn't burn anytime. I could be wrong on this.

You are right. The best part was his first interest was Ohio State, then it was USC and finally Miami. His father was his advisor and it often felt like he was more interested in his own needs, not his sons. His father's top three schools certainly have been in the press for their recruiting etc.

 

[nsmike]

I thought he was released from his LOI, signed with Miami, and didn't burn anytime. I could be wrong on this.

The NCAA gave him a waiver because USC lied. The NCAA felt that USC telling a recruit, that there would be no major sanctions given the stage of the investigation, was disingenuous at best.

 

[calminnfan]

TBH - I don't expect him to know much about the Gophers until we are relevant in the conference again.

Basically agree...until then he like a lot of others are simply going to glance at what others are saying or the star factor and that will be about it...better to give more credence to those that depend on knowing the info such as BTN or others that have to do their research on all teams.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

You are right. The best part was his first interest was Ohio State, then it was USC and finally Miami. His father was his advisor and it often felt like he was more interested in his own needs, not his sons. His father's top three schools certainly have been in the press for their recruiting etc.

From what i've heard, that whole dynamic was largely overblown. Sean Henderson made a good villain for the story. He was the Johnny-Come-Lately character who steered Seantrel away from the U.

With or without Sean around, most people thought that Seantrel was heading to USC. That's always what I thought (no inside info). USC didn't have anything to do with Sean's rap career, it was just that they were the premier program in the country at the time and it's LA. After the USC drama rolled out, he chose Miami. It was somewhat surprising, but Miami was a late push. Maybe that one had something to do with Sean Henderson, I really have no idea. Then again, having no clue about the situation hasn't stopped the countless people from saying that it positively was Sean Henderson that pushed Seantrel to the other U. I don't know, I doubt they do. It's pure speculation and it's aimed at an easy target (Sean Henderson), so there is little pushback.

If I had to guess, and it's just a WAG. I'd guess that Sean had little to do with Seantrel's final decision. He seemed interested in the glitz and glamour of a big time program in a fun area. I don't think many of us can blame an 18 yr old kid from liking what USC and Miami have to offer (think of the McDonald threads and people saying "if he visits UCLA, we're in trouble"). If I had to guess it was more the appeal of the high publicity program located in South Beach or LA that drew Seantrel.

 

[WHB Brewer]

I not sure anybody expects anything like you describe here. What the complaint is, is that Adam doesn't do anything original ever, in his coverage. He just vomits up writing he attempted to digest from others. That works great if your rasing baby birds, it doesn't get the job done when you are paid for insight.

Actually, if you look at his blog, he is being paid to "vomit up writing digested from others". His job is to provide a general overview of what is going on in the B10 to the national audience that visits espn.com. The majority of info his blog is just links to news articles from the various B10 markets. take it for what it is worth. It's simply a one-stop-shop to get information about what is going on around the B10. The higher profile teams are going to get more coverage, as it appeals to the wider audience, which is the casual NCAA football fan. All the "college conference" blogs are the same thing. If you think you are going to get any sort of insight from espn, you are going to be very misguided.