Damien Wilson, best Gophers MLB since?

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WorkingMyTailOff

WorkingMyTailOff

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Someone else asked this question over the weekend on Twitter and I sadly can't remember a better one, but maybe my memory is failing. I realize he's only 8 games into his Gophers career.
 

Gary Tinsley, in his Senior year, was very good.
 


We had a pretty good set in '09, Lee Campbell was pretty legit.
 

I can't think of one. No offense to Mike Rallis, but I've thought to myself several times this year "Good God I'm glad we got Damien Wilson and thank God I don't have to watch Mike struggle playing out of position."

I know that star rankings matter, but we have made the most out of 2 & 3 *. Derrick Wells, Thieren Cockran, Antonio Johnson and Demarious Travis were NOT heavily recruited and look at them now. All contributing and some significantly.

The list goes on and on and on, especially on D!!! Got to love their evaluation process and coaching ability.
 



He has been an outstanding juco pickup. Hard to believe we and Kansas were his only BCS offers.
 

I'm thoroughly please that someone started a thread about Damien Wilson. I was honestly thinking about starting one up but never got around to it.

1. Has really good vision
2. Has great closing speed
3. Hits like he has an anvil in his shoulder pads
4. Great energy, fierce on every play.
5. Tackles like a professional, not too many ball carriers get out of his tackle.
 

I'd go back to Sean Hoffman, it was a different game back then. He was a tough, old school LB but would have struggled facing all of the spread offenses now.
 



Right now Wilson is a good as Najarian was. The thing is Wilson is still getting better he could be 1st or 2nd team B1G next year after a few better known MLBs graduate. Shazier will be the biggest competition after Bulloch, Borland and Morris graduate
 

nsmike said:
Right now Wilson is a good as Najarian was. The thing is Wilson is still getting better he could be 1st or 2nd team B1G next year after a few better known MLBs graduate. Shazier will be the biggest competition after Bulloch, Borland and Morris graduate
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the guy from trade monster and the brick by brick videos?
 

He made a play on a swing pass against Nebraska where it looked like he was shot out of a cannon. Either great coaching, great anticipation, or both.
 

Damien is good not great like Theiren or Shede but above average, better then rallis, on par with GT51 but probably not as good as Lee Cambell or Triplett were, good thing we have him for another year
 



nokomismod said:
Someone else asked this question over the weekend on Twitter and I sadly can't remember a better one, but maybe my memory is failing. I realize he's only 8 games into his Gophers career.
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He is the fastest middle linebacker that I can remember. He made a few mistakes in the first few games but really seemed to have it all together in the Neb. game. I think Jack Lynn will be just as good in a couple years when DW graduates
 


<a class="embedly-card" data-card-via="http://embed.ly/code?url=http%3A%2F%2Fm.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DQpj73xhGvmM" href="http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpj73xhGvmM">Joe Montania</a>
 

nsmike said:
Right now Wilson is a good as Najarian was. The thing is Wilson is still getting better he could be 1st or 2nd team B1G next year after a few better known MLBs graduate. Shazier will be the biggest competition after Bulloch, Borland and Morris graduate
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Completely agree on Najarian. He was very good. The Oklahoma game in 85 was really a defining game for Pete. I think he had north of 15 tackles in that game. He is a helluva of a lot better than Rallis. Rallis could never shed a block.
 

diefirma said:
He is the fastest middle linebacker that I can remember. He made a few mistakes in the first few games but really seemed to have it all together in the Neb. game. I think Jack Lynn will be just as good in a couple years when DW graduates
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I wonder if Lynn may get moved to the outside next year so he can get on the field more often. If they feel he is on of the top LB on the team, he very well could. Then move back to MLB when Wilson is gone.
 

Wilson has played much better the last couple of games but he needs to be more consistant IMO. He still makes to many mistakes and forgets to wrap up at times. He is better than the last two years but he has a way to go as a player.
 


Ollie Bakken, Jim Frarnhorst, Pete Najarian, Bill Light, Michael Hunt, Sean Hoffman are the measuring sticks. He has improved the defense, has made plays, but he still has to improve to reach the level of the above. We haven't had a force in the middle since Hoffman.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I wonder if Lynn may get moved to the outside next year so he can get on the field more often. If they feel he is on of the top LB on the team, he very well could. Then move back to MLB when Wilson is gone.
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I'm all about this as we could use a little more thump out there at the SLB spot and Lynn could bring that perhaps next year. I'm a little surprised that Lynn doesn't play more on special teams and hope that doesn't say something. Anyway, I'm hopeful that Lynn will end up being a quality B1G LBer, too.
 

Husker, no one knows Gopher history better than you, but I would respectfully suggest that Jon Leverenz in 1987 was as good as anybody on that list. I always wondered what kind of NFL career he might have had if he hadn't shredded his knee in the 1988 season opener.
 

xyz1 said:
Husker, no one knows Gopher history better than you, but I would respectfully suggest that Jon Leverenz in 1987 was as good as anybody on that list. I always wondered what kind of NFL career he might have had if he hadn't shredded his knee in the 1988 season opener.
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You are absolutely correct. Leverenz was excellent and certainly deserves to be on the list of Measuring Sticks of Middle Backers.
 

Another linebacker who needs recognition. Noel Jenke. He not only was a great linebacker, but possibly the best Athlete to ever play at the U of Minnesota. Now you say come on, man. But Noel was a 3 sport Letterman. Football, Hockey, and Baseball. Played linebacker on the 1968 team. He certainly needs to be on the list of linebackers to be used to measure Wilson.
 

Monty519 said:
We had a pretty good set in '09, Lee Campbell was pretty legit.
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That's my vote! Similar type of player...true Mike with physicality and speed!

Hoffman was above avg, but he was a plugger...C gap to C gap player (tackle to tackle)...a step slow for outside plays for my liking.
 

husker70 said:
Another linebacker who needs recognition. Noel Jenke. He not only was a great linebacker, but possibly the best Athlete to ever play at the U of Minnesota. Now you say come on, man. But Noel was a 3 sport Letterman. Football, Hockey, and Baseball. Played linebacker on the 1968 team. He certainly needs to be on the list of linebackers to be used to measure Wilson.
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Hard to believe he made the hockey team. Southern Minn. and Owatonna were not exactly hockey hotbeds in the mid 60's.
 


husker70 said:
You are absolutely correct. Leverenz was excellent and certainly deserves to be on the list of Measuring Sticks of Middle Backers.
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I agree with that, Leverenz was pretty damn good. I believe that he was part of Holtz's first recruiting class if memory serves me right.
 

husker70 said:
Another linebacker who needs recognition. Noel Jenke. He not only was a great linebacker, but possibly the best Athlete to ever play at the U of Minnesota. Now you say come on, man. But Noel was a 3 sport Letterman. Football, Hockey, and Baseball. Played linebacker on the 1968 team. He certainly needs to be on the list of linebackers to be used to measure Wilson.
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Husker, your knowledge of Gopher History is awesome. A couple of days ago I was going to mention Noel Jenke, but none of the pups of today would have to google his name, and they still would not understand what his biography entailed.

Thank you for bringing Jenke into the fold.
 

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