All-time MN high school Gopher dream team

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Anyone who thinks Joe Mauer doesn't belong on the list is crazy. He was National Player of the Year. He may have been the best high school player I have ever seen in the state of Minnesota.
 

Back to the 70's and linebackers. The era started with Bill Light of Hopkins, and who could not have Michael Hunt of Ortonville or Mark Merrill of Roseville on Defense. They were there when Number 1 Michigan was shut out. I think Hunt had something like 28 tackles in the game.
 

Gotta agree about Mauer!

MNfootballfan said:
Anyone who thinks Joe Mauer doesn't belong on the list is crazy. He was National Player of the Year. He may have been the best high school player I have ever seen in the state of Minnesota.
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Mauer was unbelievable in high school. I swear if he didn't have soo much football pub he would have been MR Basketball in Minnesota. Baseball we all know. I think he struck once in his high school career. I saw Wienke and Walsh too...it's not close for me. Mauer was clearly better.

Another guy who was phenomenal in high school was Barry Wohler. 3 sport superstar.

Winfield for the Gophers was a man among boys on a Big Ten championship basketball team. He got drafted by the Vikings but I don't believe he ever played football. Definitely not for the gophers and I don't think in high school either.

Jenke was another three sport stud. Jeff Wright another. Paul Giel was an absolute legend from winona. Great Gopher in baseball and football. Bud Grant was an awesome three sport athlete but as somebody mentioned...techinically he hails from Superior across the bridge.
 

husker70 said:
Back to the 70's and linebackers. The era started with Bill Light of Hopkins, and who could not have Michael Hunt of Ortonville or Mark Merrill of Roseville on Defense. They were there when Number 1 Michigan was shut out. I think Hunt had something like 28 tackles in the game.
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There was a Gopher player named Mike Hunt? That's fantastic!
 

Clayton Tonnemaker at least deserves a mention here at center. All-American who was 7th in Heisman voting and drafted fourth overall by the Green Bay Packers. He didn't play very long in the NFL (had to retire to support his family, go figure with how today's athletes are paid), but was a heck of a player.
 


GeniusGopher said:
My intent was to go off of recruiting. There's always posts about heading down south to find talent and so I was aiming at seeing what kind of teams the Gophers could have if we kept all of our MN kids. In other words, we've produced a top tier QB (Mauer), WRs (Fitzgerald, Floyd), lineman (Henderson), etc. And even if Henderson doesn't do much in Miami, it at least shows we can have high recruits in MN.
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I see, but that doesn't tell the whole picture, because Decker is probably at or near the same level of receiver as Floyd and Fitzgerald, but didn't get nationally recruited.

So if going by straight recruiting, you may lose out on some stars. I think to have a list like this that I think makes sense, you have to take college production into account.

Plus Mauer was always injured in his first few years with the twins, so you would need a back-up. Like Weber, or non gophers like Weinke.

Sent from my PLAYSTATION PHONE using tapatalk
 

Having read the premise again, using only Minnesota High School Players to field a team it opens a whole new can of worms. If you look at just Minnesota High School players who left to play at Nebraska you could field a team. Here are a few

Dennis Claridge Robbinsdale
Larry Kramer Austin
LLoyd Voss Magnolia
Monte Johnson Bloomington
Tom Ruud Bloomington
Bob Nelson Stillwater
Ken Spaeth Mahnomen
Bill Barnett Afton
John Rudd Bloomington
Gary Russell Minneapolis
Rodney Lewsi Minneapolis
Mark Mauer Saint Paul
Ken Graber Armstrong
Von Sheppard Saint Paul

With this talent leaving the state, it not only fueled Nebraska's success but left the Gophers wanting.
 

Was Klug even a DT in HS? And does anyone here know he was a dominant HS player? No disrespect to Klug intended, but I would qualify him as a college over achiever, which I respect, as opposed to a dominant HS player.
 

MNfootballfan said:
Did Leo Nomellini even play football in high school? I thought I remember my Grandpa saying one time that he never played high school football and ended up being an all-american in college.
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My bad. I think Nomellini was from ILL. ANd of course Grant from WI. OUCH
 



How about 2 former Minnesota high school and Minnesota Viking DBs - Keith Nord (Minnetonka) and Kurt Knoff (E.Grand Forks).
 

If I had to pull together an Minnesota Dream Team from the past 10 years, here is my initial list:

QB – Joe Mauer, John Stacco (Wisconsin), Adam Weber (Minnesota)

RB – Marion Barber (Minnesota), Thomas Tapeh (Minnesota), Alexander Robinson (Iowa State)

WRs – Larry Fitzgerald (Pittsburgh), Eric Decker (Minnesota), Michael Floyd (Notre Dame), Nate Swift (Nebraska), Brandon Robinson (Boston College)

TE – Matt Spaeth (Minnesota), John Carlson (Notre Dame), Matt Veldman (NDSU), Jake Nordin (Northern Illinois)

OL – Mark Levoir (Notre Dame), Ryan Harris (Notre Dame), Mark Setterstrom (Minnesota), Lydon Murtha (Nebraska), Tom Compton (South Dakota), Seantrell Henderson (Miami), Billy Turner (NDSU)

DT – Trevor Laws (Notre Dame), Karl Klug (Iowa), Beau Allen (Wisconsin), Ra’Shede Hageman (Minnesota)

DE – Willie VandeSteeg (Minnesota), Broderick Binns (Iowa)

LB – James Laurinaitis (Ohio State), AJ Tarpley (Stanford), Nate Triplett (Minnesota), Mike Sherels (Minnesota), Alex Means (Air Force)

DB – Dom Barber (Minnesota), Marcus Sherels (Minnesota), Kim Royston (Wisconsin/Minnesota), Craig Dahl (NDSU), Marcus Williams (NDSU)
 

vames said:
If I had to pull together an Minnesota Dream Team from the past 10 years, here is my initial list:

QB – Joe Mauer, John Stacco (Wisconsin), Adam Weber (Minnesota)

RB – Marion Barber (Minnesota), Thomas Tapeh (Minnesota), Alexander Robinson (Iowa State)

WRs – Larry Fitzgerald (Pittsburgh), Eric Decker (Minnesota), Michael Floyd (Notre Dame), Nate Swift (Nebraska), Brandon Robinson (Boston College)

TE – Matt Spaeth (Minnesota), John Carlson (Notre Dame), Matt Veldman (NDSU), Jake Nordin (Northern Illinois)

OL – Mark Levoir (Notre Dame), Ryan Harris (Notre Dame), Mark Setterstrom (Minnesota), Lydon Murtha (Nebraska), Tom Compton (South Dakota), Seantrell Henderson (Miami), Billy Turner (NDSU)

DT – Trevor Laws (Notre Dame), Karl Klug (Iowa), Beau Allen (Wisconsin), Ra’Shede Hageman (Minnesota)

DE – Willie VandeSteeg (Minnesota), Broderick Binns (Iowa)

LB – James Laurinaitis (Ohio State), AJ Tarpley (Stanford), Nate Triplett (Minnesota), Mike Sherels (Minnesota), Alex Means (Air Force)

DB – Dom Barber (Minnesota), Marcus Sherels (Minnesota), Kim Royston (Wisconsin/Minnesota), Craig Dahl (NDSU), Marcus Williams (NDSU)
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I like your list....as a TE don't we have to include Dom Bird (USC national championship team) in there somewhere?
 






Just banged AJ Barker's mom's BFF and she wanted to tell all of you she thinks AJ should be listed at WR and ahead of Decker and Ron Johnson.
 

Love this thread. Saw Bill Lights name on here. I believe he still has the record for most tackles in a game - around 34 or so. The best part about that, even if it isn't a record, is that he got kicked out of the game before it ended! Also love seeing all of the names I had forgotten about.
 

Good to see some names mentioned from the 1950s and 1960s. I would add C Greg Larson (who started at C for more than a decade for the NY Giants) and OG Dick Enderle, who bounced around the NFL for 9 seasons. An argument can be made that OG Milt Sunde and C Jim Langer should be in the conversation as well.

From the 1970s, WRs Elmer Bailey and Ron Kullas were solid players (Bailey was a phenomenal athlete).

While he doesn't match the other QBs named, Maurie Daigneau from Rochester started three seasons at Northwestern. He didn't do a whole lot down there, but he was an absolute beast in high school.
 


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