All Things 2022 Minnesota High School Football Thread

Donate To GopherHole
Gophers_4life said:
OK. Isn't this roughly like what you were suggesting?

I'd be good giving it a shot!
Click to expand...
I would love if we used Wisconsin model as a model.
I’m sure they have their problems as well but our current model just buries and leaves for dead about 20% of the programs in the state
 

Gophers_4life said:
First things first: separate private and public for the post-season.

They can play during the regular season, but they have separate brackets for post-season.


Some (several?) states already do this, and it makes sense. You'll never be able to compare the enrollment numbers of a public vs private high school.
Click to expand...
I think Minnesota did do this at one point.
But are there really enough private schools to justify it, and do you separate them by class? Pretty huge disparity between say, Sleepy Eye St. Marys and Providence Academy.
 

Some guy said:
I would love if we used Wisconsin model as a model.
I’m sure they have their problems as well but our current model just buries and leaves for dead about 20% of the programs in the state
Click to expand...
Agree with this. MSHL should schedule the way Wisconsin does it.
 

The once proud football program of Rochester John Marshall has hit rock bottom. Gopher greats Darrell Thompson and Kent Kitzmann are both alumni. Through 4 games they have yet to score.
 

MSHSL uses school enrollment for assigning classes and schools can appeal to either go up in class or down I believe every 2 years. People will always complain about any system especially if you have a school with a large enrollment playing a school with a much smaller enrollment. Thus the classification - I believe it is similar for hockey and other sports. If Brainerd has the enrollment similar to other 6A schools, that's the playoffs they should play in. Hopkins has a big enough enrollment that it's in 6A. Unfortunately not very many good football players per enrollment. Both boys and girls basketball is quite different story for them though.
 


maroonfive said:
The once proud football program of Rochester John Marshall has hit rock bottom. Gopher greats Darrell Thompson and Kent Kitzmann are both alumni. Through 4 games they have yet to score.
Click to expand...
I played against the Kitzmann teams for Rochester Mayo. They killed us....
 

I'm not sure he's quite B1G level, but a junior to keep an eye on is Francis O'Malley from Montevideo. He's 6'0", 235lbs. and was 2nd in the State (Class A) in both shot and disc last spring (as a sophomore). He's also one of Monte's top sprinters. He went off for a school record 348 yards (on 26 carries) and 7 TD's (also a school record) on Friday. He barely played in the 4th quarter as the game was well in hand.

Great kid and a positive leader on and off the field. As an inside linebacker, he's also their leading tackler and a solid punter. If he were a little taller and/or a little faster, I'd be paying close attention. He seems like a NDSU/SDSU stud, but I wouldn't count him out.
 

maroonfive said:
The once proud football program of Rochester John Marshall has hit rock bottom. Gopher greats Darrell Thompson and Kent Kitzmann are both alumni. Through 4 games they have yet to score.
Click to expand...
People don't want to live in Rochester. Many commute there for work
 

46Gophers said:
MSHSL uses school enrollment for assigning classes and schools can appeal to either go up in class or down I believe every 2 years. People will always complain about any system especially if you have a school with a large enrollment playing a school with a much smaller enrollment. Thus the classification - I believe it is similar for hockey and other sports. If Brainerd has the enrollment similar to other 6A schools, that's the playoffs they should play in. Hopkins has a big enough enrollment that it's in 6A. Unfortunately not very many good football players per enrollment. Both boys and girls basketball is quite different story for them though.
Click to expand...
All sports are reassigned every 2 years for enrollment. The problem is that all enrollments don't look the same. Much easier to put a basketball team together than football. Larger private schools are all becoming basketball schools over football. They can't get the quality football players they used to. Hard to get a kids that been playing with the same football kids since 4th grade to jump ship to a private program in football. Basketball is all AAU connections.

Totino Grace 6A is 1-3 with a win over a 0-4 team.
Cretin Derham Hall is 0-4 at 5A
Hill Murray 1-3 4A
Academy Force 0-4 4A
Holy Angels 3-1 4A (Loss to 1-3 Cooper)
SMB 2-2 4A (Lost to Mpls. North 2A) and wins over Combined 1-7
DeLaSalle 1-3 4A
Benilde 0-4 4A

3A private schools are combined 8-12
2A combined 15-5, one 4-0 team is combined with a public school.
1A combined 6-6

Private schools are not a huge factor in football and there are not enough of them for their own league.
 



MaxyJR1 said:
All sports are reassigned every 2 years for enrollment. The problem is that all enrollments don't look the same. Much easier to put a basketball team together than football. Larger private schools are all becoming basketball schools over football. They can't get the quality football players they used to. Hard to get a kids that been playing with the same football kids since 4th grade to jump ship to a private program in football. Basketball is all AAU connections.

Totino Grace 6A is 1-3 with a win over a 0-4 team.
Cretin Derham Hall is 0-4 at 5A
Hill Murray 1-3 4A
Academy Force 0-4 4A
Holy Angels 3-1 4A (Loss to 1-3 Cooper)
SMB 2-2 4A (Lost to Mpls. North 2A) and wins over Combined 1-7
DeLaSalle 1-3 4A
Benilde 0-4 4A

3A private schools are combined 8-12
2A combined 15-5, one 4-0 team is combined with a public school.
1A combined 6-6

Private schools are not a huge factor in football and there are not enough of them for their own league.
Click to expand...
What happened to Cretin? It can't be that their numbers were just inflated all those years by beating up on St. Paul City conference schools? Obviously for a time they had some pretty serious talent (Walsh, Weinke, Mauer, Birk, Floyd, Lacina etc.) Where are those kids going now, or do they just not exist in the city anymore?
 


MaxyJR1 said:
People don't want to live in Rochester. Many commute there for work
Click to expand...
Commute from where? I forgot that Lourdes built a new high school a few years ago so they do have 4 high schools.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
People don't want to live in Rochester. Many commute there for work
Click to expand...
The only reason population growth hasn't been faster is because builders can't put up housing fast enough. All three RPS high schools are near capacity, and the spillover has moved Byron, Kasson-Mantorville, and Stewartville at least one class up in most sports/activities.

I know of some people who commute to Roch from Hastings, Farmington, Lakeville, and the like. That gets really old really fast, especially over the winter.
 



GopherRock said:
The only reason population growth hasn't been faster is because builders can't put up housing fast enough. All three RPS high schools are near capacity, and the spillover has moved Byron, Kasson-Mantorville, and Stewartville at least one class up in most sports/activities.

I know of some people who commute to Roch from Hastings, Farmington, Lakeville, and the like. That gets really old really fast, especially over the winter.
Click to expand...
My wife is from Faribault, and my in-laws were surprised Faribault was playing Byron a few weeks ago.
 


maroonfive said:
The once proud football program of Rochester John Marshall has hit rock bottom. Gopher greats Darrell Thompson and Kent Kitzmann are both alumni. Through 4 games they have yet to score.
Click to expand...
Tough down there for the old Big 9 the once proud program of Austin hit rock bottom many, many years ago and remains there.
 


46Gophers said:
MSHSL uses school enrollment for assigning classes and schools can appeal to either go up in class or down I believe every 2 years. People will always complain about any system especially if you have a school with a large enrollment playing a school with a much smaller enrollment. Thus the classification - I believe it is similar for hockey and other sports. If Brainerd has the enrollment similar to other 6A schools, that's the playoffs they should play in. Hopkins has a big enough enrollment that it's in 6A. Unfortunately not very many good football players per enrollment. Both boys and girls basketball is quite different story for them though.
Click to expand...
No question a classification system is necessary. However, schedules need to be built during the regular season that are less class dependent so that the bottom of classes aren’t basically gutted as programs.

It isn’t good for rosemount and lakeville south that Eagan, Eastview, and Burnsville struggle
 

I have been led to believe by what I think are credible sources that St. Thomas Academy is getting a lot of kids who might have gone to Cretin in the past (one of their two star running backs was actually at Cretin as a freshman).

And some of those records for private schools are a bit illusory due to strength of schedule so far. Cretin already had to play Spring Lake Park, Mahtomedi, and St. Thomas; Hill Murray has lost to Holy Angels, Mahtomedi, and Simley. Hill Murray trounced Two Rivers almost as badly as St. Thomas Academy did.
 

xyz1 said:
I have been led to believe by what I think are credible sources that St. Thomas Academy is getting a lot of kids who might have gone to Cretin in the past (one of their two star running backs was actually at Cretin as a freshman).
Click to expand...
That makes a lot of sense.
 

Gopherchase said:
Tough down there for the old Big 9 the once proud program of Austin hit rock bottom many, many years ago and remains there.
Click to expand...
And Albert Lea is even worse. It is interesting that Mankato West was a doormat and is now a power.
 

Video of Gopher commits from Prior Lake. Skip to 13:50 for the preview of Friday's big Prior Lake at Eden Prairie matchup.

 

Crazy the papers making prior lake number 1

I think they just want number 1 to go down 3 weeks in a row
 

WI has 8 man FB not 9 man. Also, they play 9 regular season games (2 non-conf and 7 conf). Teams with a conference record over.500 get a playoff berth. They then take a few .500 teams in conference if needed to get 224 total before dividing them into divisions.
 

mnsports1 said:
WI has 8 man FB not 9 man. Also, they play 9 regular season games (2 non-conf and 7 conf). Teams with a conference record over.500 get a playoff berth. They then take a few .500 teams in conference if needed to get 224 total before dividing them into divisions.
Click to expand...
How does 8-man work?. I coach youth football and we play 9-man, which makes more sense, because you're essentially just removing two linemen.

It looks like WI has eight classes of football. Divison 1-7 (1 being the largest) plus 8-man.
 

I believe Minnesota is one of the few states that play 9-Man. 8-Man appears to be more popular which is interesting to me because like the previous poster said, 9-Man is essentially the same on offense but with 2 less lineman. You have the same number of eligible athletes, etc.

Defense is a lot more interesting and unique to traditional 11 man football. Main thing you'll see is ton of man coverage and if the offense gets to the corner/sideline it turns into a foot race. Lots of defenses seem to run a 3-3.
 

MNfootballfan said:
I believe Minnesota is one of the few states that play 9-Man. 8-Man appears to be more popular which is interesting to me because like the previous poster said, 9-Man is essentially the same on offense but with 2 less lineman. You have the same number of eligible athletes, etc.

Defense is a lot more interesting and unique to traditional 11 man football. Main thing you'll see is ton of man coverage and if the offense gets to the corner/sideline it turns into a foot race. Lots of defenses seem to run a 3-3.
Click to expand...
You're right. This, per Wiki.

As of 2015, 1,561 schools in 30 states sponsor reduced-player football, with 1,161 of those teams participating in eight-man leagues, whereas 284 teams play six-man football and 116 teams play nine-man football.[1]

Looks like Minnesota and the Dakotas are the only states that play nine-man. Eleven states play six-man football, and the remainder play eight-man.
 

go_gophers said:
I'm not sure he's quite B1G level, but a junior to keep an eye on is Francis O'Malley from Montevideo. He's 6'0", 235lbs. and was 2nd in the State (Class A) in both shot and disc last spring (as a sophomore). He's also one of Monte's top sprinters. He went off for a school record 348 yards (on 26 carries) and 7 TD's (also a school record) on Friday. He barely played in the 4th quarter as the game was well in hand.

Great kid and a positive leader on and off the field. As an inside linebacker, he's also their leading tackler and a solid punter. If he were a little taller and/or a little faster, I'd be paying close attention. He seems like a NDSU/SDSU stud, but I wouldn't count him out.
Click to expand...
Sounds like the perfect Preferred Walk On prospect. Great athlete and sounds like a good guy off the field too.
 

I've watched a lot of 9-man FB over the years, and I enjoy it. It still allows for differences in style and strategy. I've seen 9-man teams play a power running style, and I've seen 9-man teams that play run-and-shoot and chuck it all around the yard.

for smaller schools, especially, it's a benefit, because it's generally easier to find backs and receivers than it is to find quality linemen.

that's really true for the smaller Class A schools and even some AA schools - not enough quality linemen. if one school is playing its linemen both ways, and the other school is platooning, that is a huge advantage.
 

District football has ruined MN high school football outstate. It is great for the metro, but it has really put a hurting on the mid-size and smaller schools.
We have teams from AA to AAAA in our district.

Not sure how it does any good to let these AAAA schools beat up on the rest all year. Especially when some of them are a better hour and a half drive. Funny because our conference was always largely competitive and nothing further than a half hour. Some of the bottom feeding teams have had their once proud programs completely crushed and most are having trouble getting enough to fill rosters. It makes no sense, yet here we are.

Glad for Eden Prairie and the like though.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom