Albert Lea Tribune: Southern teams have advantage over Gophers w more rated prospects

BleedGopher

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per the Albert Lea Tribune:

One of the first steps Gophers head coach Jerry Kill needed to make when he took over in 2011 was to convince the best high school players in the state to stay home. While he’s done a solid job at that so far, in a state where the culture of high school football is much different than that of the South, it will continue to make the program only marginally better. In order to make leaps and bounds towards the top of the conference and, eventually, nation, Kill would have to go into states like Tennessee and steal the top players from teams like the Volunteers.

That’s a tall order.

To put into perspective the advantage schools like Tennessee, a middle-of-the-road SEC program, have over Minnesota and other Big Ten schools, you can simply look at the talent they have in their backyards.

The state of Tennessee is home to 42 recruits rated three stars of higher by ESPN in the 2015 class. Minnesota has just nine. Tennessee also has nine four-star recruits in its high school programs this year. That’s as many as Minnesota has had the past five years combined. Gophers running back commit Jeff Jones, for example, was ranked a four-star recruit.

But even Tennessee’s talent pales in comparison to Texas, which has an astounding 239 three-star recruits within its borders.

http://www.albertleatribune.com/201...ntage-over-gophers-with-more-rated-prospects/

Go Gophers!!
 

Speeds kills.

We get most of our lunch pail big galoots OL/DL from corn fed Midwest, and
the small crop of top state/regional talent.

The speed guys mostly come from the talent rich South. It is what it is.

Top recruits aren't exactly beating down the door to play for Minnesota.
Coach Kill has to sell the program to kids who don't particularly care for
the northern tundra.

MN has to keep winning, and consistently get players drafted every year
before we get on the radar of most higher caliber southern recruits.

Right now, we seem to get the leftovers which are mostly good enough
and highly coachable.



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