Concordia-St.Paul kicker Sam Henson commits to the Gophers.

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A random thought/question: Other than kickers and punters how frequently do you think that guys who end up on DIII might be able contribute at the DI level? In the late 1970's as a student at Luther College I thought that there was one guy who could have played at a DII school and maybe DI. His biggest challenge would have been that, even though he had the talent, I'm not sure that he loved the sport enough to to put the time and effort into a DI lifestyle. I recall Jerry Kill saying that at the DI level players have to love football, like the sport was not enough. So maybe playing at the DIII level is the right spot for some really talented athletes.
 

denguegopher said:
A random thought/question: Other than kickers and punters how frequently do you think that guys who end up on DIII might be able contribute at the DI level? In the late 1970's as a student at Luther College I thought that there was one guy who could have played at a DII school and maybe DI. His biggest challenge would have been that, even though he had the talent, I'm not sure that he loved the sport enough to to put the time and effort into a DI lifestyle. I recall Jerry Kill saying that at the DI level players have to love football, like the sport was not enough. So maybe playing at the DIII level is the right spot for some really talented athletes.
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I understand your point, just clarifying that Concordia St Paul is DII in sports.
 



denguegopher said:
A random thought/question: Other than kickers and punters how frequently do you think that guys who end up on DIII might be able contribute at the DI level? In the late 1970's as a student at Luther College I thought that there was one guy who could have played at a DII school and maybe DI. His biggest challenge would have been that, even though he had the talent, I'm not sure that he loved the sport enough to to put the time and effort into a DI lifestyle. I recall Jerry Kill saying that at the DI level players have to love football, like the sport was not enough. So maybe playing at the DIII level is the right spot for some really talented athletes.
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Kind of like the wrestler who de-committed from the Gophers years ago and then went to Augsburg. It was clear that he wasn't cut out for Division 1 as it turned out.
 


denguegopher said:
A random thought/question: Other than kickers and punters how frequently do you think that guys who end up on DIII might be able contribute at the DI level? In the late 1970's as a student at Luther College I thought that there was one guy who could have played at a DII school and maybe DI. His biggest challenge would have been that, even though he had the talent, I'm not sure that he loved the sport enough to to put the time and effort into a DI lifestyle. I recall Jerry Kill saying that at the DI level players have to love football, like the sport was not enough. So maybe playing at the DIII level is the right spot for some really talented athletes.
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Not football specifically, but I played in basketball leagues into my 40's. When I was at the U (in the 90s) I got a chance to play in some pickup games with the Gophers in the off season. Later in life I played with and against some former D2 and D3 players. My take was always that the difference between the D1 and the D2/D3 players was sheer athleticism. The D2/D3 guys might have been just as skilled (maybe even more in some cases) but they didn't have the size, speed, quickness that the D1 players had. The D1 players were all athletic freaks. Perhaps the same things applies to football?
 




Power 4 D1 (weird to type that) are the freakish athletes. Taller, faster, stronger, and jump higher. It can be a big jump even within the top to bottom of D1. The NFL are the freaks of the freaks. Many D2/3 football players are very skilled and great athletes in comparison to HS, but probably don't have that extra couple inches nor tenths of a forty time for D1. Both the MIAC and NSIC have had a handful of freak players go to the NFL, but it's an outlier.

For kicker? I don't know. Skill is probably a bigger deal.
 

Word said:
Not football specifically, but I played in basketball leagues into my 40's. When I was at the U (in the 90s) I got a chance to play in some pickup games with the Gophers in the off season. Later in life I played with and against some former D2 and D3 players. My take was always that the difference between the D1 and the D2/D3 players was sheer athleticism. The D2/D3 guys might have been just as skilled (maybe even more in some cases) but they didn't have the size, speed, quickness that the D1 players had. The D1 players were all athletic freaks. Perhaps the same things applies to football?
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I played D2 football and this is my take-away.

The intensity of a D2 program is closer to FCS & FBS than it is D3. This comes with scholarships and what is required of you as a student-athlete.

The overall skill, speed, athleticism between FBS and FCS is huge. The gap between FCS and D2 is huge and the gap between D2 and D3 is even larger.

With that being said, I can without a doubt say, some of our best players could have played at the U, but of our 22 starters 20ish of the 22 would be laughed off the field.

The biggest difference to me, and anyone can disagree with me, is the top end of a D2 team could compete for playing time on a D1 team, whereas the top Gopher players are looking at getting NFL contracts after college. The other difference is in any given D2 (or D3 to a lesser extent) game there are probably 4-5 players between the two teams that have the skill to play D1 and a D1 game has 44 starters between the two teams that are D1 skill levels.
 
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I played on a soccer team in New Mexico that was mostly made up of recent D3 players. In mid-season we had a recently retired Corner from the Broncos (he got cut from the team, but had played in the league for years) and I couldn't believe how fast he was, both in his first-step acceleration and flat-out speed. In a foot race, he blew everyone off the field, including the D3 guys who up until then thought they were fast.
 




denguegopher said:
A random thought/question: Other than kickers and punters how frequently do you think that guys who end up on DIII might be able contribute at the DI level? In the late 1970's as a student at Luther College I thought that there was one guy who could have played at a DII school and maybe DI. His biggest challenge would have been that, even though he had the talent, I'm not sure that he loved the sport enough to to put the time and effort into a DI lifestyle. I recall Jerry Kill saying that at the DI level players have to love football, like the sport was not enough. So maybe playing at the DIII level is the right spot for some really talented athletes.
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100% there are guys on every top D3 team that could play D1. Some of them like the St. John's Ben Bartch are even better than that and would have been stars at D1.
 


#2Gopher said:
Kind of like the wrestler who de-committed from the Gophers years ago and then went to Augsburg. It was clear that he wasn't cut out for Division 1 as it turned out.
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Was this the kid that played QB for Augsburg as well? I can’t remember his name. He was a phenomenal athlete.
 



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