Brian Bennett: Kill's greatest challenge: to get top-notch talent to the Twin Cities

Donate To GopherHole

I don't really agree with that sentiment as I don't think it's entirely realistic.

I think Jerry Kill needs to improve his recruiting to the point that we are close to the middle of the Big 10, however, he will need to continue building an identity, keep his staff in order, and continually make progress.
 

I haven't been impressed with nearly any of the writing Bennett has done so far with the B1G blog. He seems like a complete outsider thrown into B1G country trying to make sense of everything.
 

It was a typical off handed comment about the program. A program beyond Coach Kill he knows very little about. Sure it would be great to get great talent, but having Coach Kill and the complete staff in a second year is the news. Systems, expectations, and certainly strength and conditioning are all better. If this team can find a way to stop teams on third down as they did against Iowa and Illiniois it bodes well for this year. A resurgent Gopher team is bad news for Iowa, Northwestern, and Illinois.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I don't really agree with that sentiment as I don't think it's entirely realistic.
Click to expand...

You mean Bennett threw out a meaningless platitude, did absolutely no research whatsoever, and patted Minnesota on the head like the cute little football team that it is? Naw, I can't imagine that happening.

Anyone who is waiting for Minnesota to bring "top-notch talent" to the Twin Cities is going to be holding their breath for quite some time. Since Rivals began rating their top 250 annual players in 2006, Minnesota has signed a grand cumulative total of 4 (Gray, Maresh, Carter, and Gjere), all recruited under that horrible recruiter Tim Brewster. For comparison's sake, and just to illustrate the massive disparity in talent, in that same time frame (2006-12), Alabama has signed a cumulative total of 80, despite those first two recruiting classes (2006 and 2007) being signed almost entirely by Mike Shula and Joe Kines. In Saban's 5 full recruiting classes (2008-12), Alabama has signed a cumulative total of 70, or an average of 14 per year, compared to Minnesota's average of .8 per year over that time frame. Quantitatively speaking, one could say that Alabama has signed 17.5 times as many "top-notch" players over the past 5 recruiting classes as Minnesota. Alabama has also signed a cumulative total of 8-10 JuCo/prep recruits in that time frame who were Rivals250 worthy, despite the fact that only desperate, loser schools sign JuCo recruits.
 


Before anyone can bring top-notch talent to Minnesota, they are going to have to win games. To win games, you obviously need talent and coaching; building a football program is much deeper than attracting just one or two top notch recruits like in say, basketball. (Even attracting those one or two players is difficult.)

Kill will win not because he somehow convinced a bunch of top talent to come to Minnesota and forsake other top programs. He will win if he identifies gaps within the way high school talent is evaluated, if he finds guys that fit his system who might be less heralded but fit his overall system more dynamically. (It will help if the top-level talent that comes up in the area stays in Minnesota, but still.) It has to be a gradual, incremental climb. Once the program can reach another level, it can try attract more high profile prospects and so forth. Think of how Mike Leach did it at Texas Tech.

Bennett's general theme of "He needs players ranked in the Rivals Top 250!!!!!1" kind of misses the forest through the trees. That's like answering the question of, "How can I stop being broke?" by replying, "Get more money."
 

That is far from his "greatest" challenge when it comes to this program. That's just extra IMO if he starts loading up on top 100 guys. To win just one B1G title, it is not just about getting top notch talent. If that were the case Northwestern wouldn't have any. I think there are certain ingredients involved (these are just my opinion). Firstly, you have to have a good to great defense, something Minnesota hasn't known much about since about 2000. You also need a bonafide stud QB. This may not be the case in places like OSU or Michigan, but in Minnesota, to win a title, we're gonna need a stud signal caller. A great O-line would be my third thing. I think those things can be obtained without loading up on top-notch talent (according to recruiting services of course).
 

Team play can beat a group of individual talented player's. Notre Dame is an example. They always are one of the top recruiting schools, but they have not turned that talent into a championship. Sometimes a coach can turn lesser talented high school players into college superstar's.
Hopefully Kill is this coach!
 

Kill has to recruit significantly better than the 12th out of 12 he put up in his first full season. In looking at the rivals data, both Northwestern and Purdue landed two four star players compared to Minnesota's zero. Purdue finished fourth (though by average stars they were sixth) in the rivals Big Ten recruiting rankings. It is not mandatory that Kill (or any coach) must win before they bring in highly regarded talent. We should already have know that after what Tim Brewster did here.

Kill doesn't have to recruit at the top of the Big Ten to have a successful program, but he's got get out of the bottom quadrant. The good news is that Coach Kill did a good job with the Minnesota kids last year and we have to hope that extends to getting more out of state kids with solid offers in the 2013 class.
 




EG#9 said:
Kill has to recruit significantly better than the 12th out of 12 he put up in his first full season. In looking at the rivals data, both Northwestern and Purdue landed two four star players compared to Minnesota's zero. Purdue finished fourth (though by average stars they were sixth) in the rivals Big Ten recruiting rankings. It is not mandatory that Kill (or any coach) must win before they bring in highly regarded talent. We should already have know that after what Tim Brewster did here.

Kill doesn't have to recruit at the top of the Big Ten to have a successful program, but he's got get out of the bottom quadrant. The good news is that Coach Kill did a good job with the Minnesota kids last year and we have to hope that extends to getting more out of state kids with solid offers in the 2013 class.
Click to expand...

This was widely discussed and several people have been run off this board for saying it takes better recruiting than the job Kill did in year one. Hopefully, they will recruit better. This year is starting out very slowly because Coach Kill did not set the world on fire the first year. That impression will last until Kill has consistent +.500 seasons.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom