Can we envision a Gophers' Top 20 Recruiting Class ?

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hungan1

hungan1

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I know that PJ Fleck is not necessarily enamored with stars alone. He relies heavily on in person evaluations and other intelligence in recruiting. But, he won't say no to a four or five star athlete if there are no character or other issues.

Will we see a day where the Gophers reach upper echelon recruiting classes regularly? I am talking about an average recruit rating of 88 and 220 points or greater (247SPorts ranking).

It is entirely possible that PJ Fleck will erase the notion that Minnesota is geographically disadvantaged in recruiting. IMHO, his recruiting engine is just firing up!

I think with this coaching staff, at this level of recruiting it is not hard to imagine a run for a national title. This is too far ahead thinking, but it feels good to dream.
 
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Regularly? Maybe not. Should we start seeing an uptick and potential top-20 classes? I think, yes.
 

This class is going to be pushing into the low 20's/high 30 range here, so it is certainly possible to have a class push up 10ish ranks. The big thing is securing 6-7 4 stars in a single class and having everyone else be high 3 stars.
 

I highly doubt it. I’d be surprised to land a top 20 class any time soon.
 

hungan1 said:
I know that PJ Fleck is not necessarily enamored with stars alone. He relies heavily on in person evaluations and other intelligence in recruiting. But, he won't say no to a four or five star athlete if there are no character or other issues.

Will we see a day where the Gophers reach upper echelon recruiting classes regularly? I am talking about an average recruit rating of 88 and 220 points or greater (247SPorts ranking).

It is entirely possible that PJ Fleck will erase the notion that Minnesota is geographically disadvantaged in recruiting. IMHO, his recruiting engine is just firing up!

I think with this coaching staff, at this level of recruiting it is not hard to imagine a run for a national title. This is too far ahead thinking, but it feels good to dream.
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There's a lot of energy and enthusiasm surrounding our program right now. There's also a cutting-edge quality that seems to be attached to the Gopher football brand — a feeling of new-ness and modernity.

Not many programs have that going for them at this point in time.
 


Back in 1986 or 1987, Gutey had a Tom Lemming's top 25 class. The Gophers had a great buzz at that time that was similar to now - Holtz had left but there was still a lot of excitement here. Gutekunst landed QB Scott Schaffner from Ohio - the Midwest offensive player of the year. Ohio St. took Kirk Herbstreit that year. Gutey also landed the Midwest defensive player of the year in LB Rickey "The Train" Williams and Kraig Hackbarth who was listed as a man amongst boys and a player who would be in the pros someday. Alas -- it didn't all work out and there were many busts in that class but if a guy as dry as Gutey could do it, it could be done here again by someone as dynamic as PJ Fleck!!
 

Oregon might be a good comparison for a school without a deep natural recruiting base. It took Mike Bellotti 9 years to get to a 247 ranked #12 class for 2004. But those players were being recruited shortly after the breakthrough 2000-2001 seasons. After a few up and down recruiting years after that, Oregon's recruiting has steadily moved into the teens most years. Hopefully Fleck can get there with a head start from where Bellotti started.
 

BeerFueledFF said:
This class is going to be pushing into the low 20's/high 30 range here, so it is certainly possible to have a class push up 10ish ranks. The big thing is securing 6-7 4 stars in a single class and having everyone else be high 3 stars.
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Huh?
 

Yes, absolutely it's possible. Is it probable? I guess it depends on your predictions for the success of the program. Winning huge will be the key, of course.

Win 10+ games again, win the division, be in the playoff conversation or even make it...you'll absolutely see a top 25 class. Combined with Fleck's personality and the national pub the program is picking up, sustained onfield success would set this program on fire.
 



Exactly. One good year will always help get the attention of top recruits but is not going to change much. It going to take consistent winning and being in contention for the BIG West title and finally winning the BIG. Tough road.
 

Does Carter Couglin have a younger brother?? That's what we need an in state anchor, high end, high visibility recruit to commit early and repeat what Carter did for his class.
 

Wisconsin for all it's success is not frequently in top 20 for classes, hard to see us becoming consistent top 20 class

I would think it's possible however

If we're consistently in 25-40 range we should be pretty solid
 

MGGopher said:
Yes, absolutely it's possible. Is it probable? I guess it depends on your predictions for the success of the program. Winning huge will be the key, of course.

Win 10+ games again, win the division, be in the playoff conversation or even make it...you'll absolutely see a top 25 class. Combined with Fleck's personality and the national pub the program is picking up, sustained onfield success would set this program on fire.
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By "this class", I assume you mean 2020 class, correct?
 



PMWinSTP said:
By "this class", I assume you mean 2020 class, correct?
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Sorry, I'm not seeing where I said "this class" anywhere. I don't see this one pushing past the mid 30's, except perhaps on 247 alone because of their regrading.

I said "a class" at some point if the program continues winning a lot of games. But it'll take a LOT of games and a big splash like a B1G title and CFP appearance or something IMO. That's what CLemson used to leap 10 - 15 spots in the rankings from what they'd traditionally done.
 


One day maybe.

I'd just rather closer to it than we are now.

There's a lot of variance outside the top 25 ... I'd REALLY like to see a general trend over time... of some nice high croots... but also general increase as far as the general population goes.
 

WI rankings this year and back to 2011 per 247 composite: 26, 29, 45, 39, 35, 41, 32, 40, 65, 44
IA rankings this year and back to 2011 per 247 composite: 24, 41, 39, 41, 47, 59, 58, 56, 40, 26
MN rankings this year and back to 2011 per 47 composite: 33, 45, 38, 59, 46, 63, 57, 67, 59, 57

You don't need to be a top 25 recruiting team....
*you need to recruit to o and d systems that work in the Big Ten,
* you need to retain coaches that can teach and develop to that system,
* you need a great s and c program,
* you need to keep your top kids in-state as best as possible,
* you need to keep the kids eligible (see Wisconsin with Cephus vs without; NE issues this year),
* you need to get lucky on some walk-ons,
* more and more you need to play the transfer portal very astutely.
a stud at QB goes a long, long way, see NE with Martinez.
 
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I'd be thrilled if we could consistently land top 40 classes. The classes in the low 50s are not good. I mean, there are only about 65 Power 5 teams.
 

MGGopher said:
Sorry, I'm not seeing where I said "this class" anywhere. I don't see this one pushing past the mid 30's, except perhaps on 247 alone because of their regrading.

I said "a class" at some point if the program continues winning a lot of games. But it'll take a LOT of games and a big splash like a B1G title and CFP appearance or something IMO. That's what CLemson used to leap 10 - 15 spots in the rankings from what they'd traditionally done.
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Sorry, I grabbed the wrong post to respond...
 

swingman said:
WI rankings this year and back to 2011 per 247 composite: 26, 29, 45, 39, 35, 41, 32, 40, 65, 44
IA rankings this year and back to 2011 per 247 composite: 24, 41, 39, 41, 47, 59, 58, 56, 40, 26
MN rankings this year and back to 2011 per 47 composite: 33, 45, 38, 59, 46, 63, 57, 67, 59, 57

You don't need to be a top 25 recruiting team....
*you need to recruit to o and d systems that work in the Big Ten,
* you need to retain coaches that can teach and develop to that system,
* you need a great s and c program,
* you need to keep your top kids in-state as best as possible,
* you need to keep the kids eligible (see Wisconsin with Cephus vs without; NE issues this year),
* you need to get lucky on some walk-ons,
* more and more you need to play the transfer portal very astutely.
a stud at QB goes a long, long way, see NE with Martinez.
Click to expand...

I'm curious if the recruit services just don't do a good job of ranking Upper Midwest players. Wisconsin and Iowa average in the 30s-40s in recruit rankings but the teams routinely finish in the top 20 polls and both teams rank around top 15 in NFL players (probably the best measure for player quality). Meanwhile, you get schools like Texas and USC that do the exact opposite.
 

Tim Brewster got a top 25 class here...so yes I think it’s possible for Fleck.
 

K
Jeshurun said:
Tim Brewster got a top 25 class here...so yes I think it’s possible for Fleck.
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Brewster was highly regarded as one of the best recruiters in the country. He also gambled on a few kids with academic issues that didn’t pan out. I don’t think Fleck has the same recruiting chops, I also don’t think he takes a lot of risks as far as we’ve seen so far.
 


Gotta start not only putting kids in the NFL but have those kids succeed in the nfl. We just dont have a lot of examples to point to in that regard like a WI or IOWA right now.
 

swingman said:
WI rankings this year and back to 2011 per 247 composite: 26, 29, 45, 39, 35, 41, 32, 40, 65, 44
IA rankings this year and back to 2011 per 247 composite: 24, 41, 39, 41, 47, 59, 58, 56, 40, 26
MN rankings this year and back to 2011 per 47 composite: 33, 45, 38, 59, 46, 63, 57, 67, 59, 57

You don't need to be a top 25 recruiting team....
*you need to recruit to o and d systems that work in the Big Ten,
* you need to retain coaches that can teach and develop to that system,
* you need a great s and c program,
* you need to keep your top kids in-state as best as possible,
* you need to keep the kids eligible (see Wisconsin with Cephus vs without; NE issues this year),
* you need to get lucky on some walk-ons,
* more and more you need to play the transfer portal very astutely.
a stud at QB goes a long, long way, see NE with Martinez.
Click to expand...

You consider Martinez a stud qb and his performance having gone a long long way?!
 



In the spirit of ....It doesnt matter who starts the game, it matters who ends it......
I am more interested in guys leaving our program being drafted and playing in the NFL, to the tune of 4-5 per year. This is how I will judge our recruiting classes on the back end as well as the play on the field.

If you're not one of the top 10 classes, it becomes a complete crapshoot anyway.
 

btowngopher said:
K


Brewster was highly regarded as one of the best recruiters in the country. He also gambled on a few kids with academic issues that didn’t pan out. I don’t think Fleck has the same recruiting chops, I also don’t think he takes a lot of risks as far as we’ve seen so far.
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Brewster also was friends with Tom Lemming and was able to "help" himself look better. The percentage of his 2008 top 25 class that finished their career here? 66%
 

Top 20 class with all five star wide receiver recruits from Georgia.
 

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