DL Xion Chapman commits to the Gophers

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Tully55 said:
I have been following Gopher football since #78's first year in a Gopher uniform. I also have been diagnosed with early stages of dementia. I guess the fact that I might not recall individual players solely by their numbers disqualifies me as a true fan. Oh, by the way, for those of you to young to know, the #78 I am referring to is Bobby Bell.
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Just having some fun with a known board grouch. I wish you many more years of Gopher memories.
 


DarthGopher said:
I choose to believe the coaches responsible for evaluating talent know what they are doing. Stats are one set of data, but not the only set of markers they consider.
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Stats are the primary metric we get to consider as fans, along with other schools showing interest. I think we have pulled in some nice players at positions of need, particularly on defense, but nothing transformational.

It's the off-season. If we all just say "we trust the coaches" we won't have anything to yammer about for the next 8 months!
 


GreasyGopher said:
I’d say that there’s quite a few guys that had good production at lower levels. I’m honestly more concerned about the higher rated guys. As they didn’t really contribute at their last P4 stops.
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13 tackles and 3 sacks doesn’t speak highly of this signee.
 




Gopherchase said:
A decent DT who plays a lot of reps is going to have at least 50 tackles and a handful of sacks. It just isn’t true that they aren’t counted on to make plays.
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He’s rather highly rated in the portal by at least 1 service and had teams like Penn State after him.

He also had 22 QB pressures and 18 hurries.
 

I was looking at 247 and Chapman did not have any stars at that point, a few other of our signees don’t either. I get the punter and kicker, but can some of the learned guys explain this? Is it of concern? Thanks.
 




Gopherchase said:
A decent DT who plays a lot of reps is going to have at least 50 tackles and a handful of sacks. It just isn’t true that they aren’t counted on to make plays.
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Eastern was our best DT last year and he had 2.5 sacks. Logan-Redding was arguably our second best DT and he had 15 tackles and 0.5 sacks on the year.
 

matt said:
Eastern was our best DT last year and he had 2.5 sacks. Logan-Redding was arguably our second best DT and he had 15 tackles and 0.5 sacks on the year.
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And we got gashed up the middle a lot that was kinda my point. Plus, against good teams we got no push on pass rush. Our DTs were liabilities last year.
 

Tech Machine said:
I was looking at 247 and Chapman did not have any stars at that point, a few other of our signees don’t either. I get the punter and kicker, but can some of the learned guys explain this? Is it of concern? Thanks.
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We have learned guys on this board? Huh
 







Clairemont Gopher said:
Your 2nd and 3rd sentences seem contradictory.
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Not really. The higher rated offensive transfer (I.e. Warren and Thompson) are more potential while the defense recruits are players productive at lower levels and seem to be smart moves. This makes those higher rated offensive players at a greater risk to underperform.
 






btowngopher said:
Is it? Or is it just filling out the roster? Not sure why’d you ever want to leave roster spots empty.
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Our current count of enrolled, carryover players from the 2025 season, plus our HS signs, plus our transfer portal guys is significantly in excess of the permitted roster size of 105. Several more rostered guys must leave or be trimmed before the 2026 season just to get us down to the maximum permitted roster. So I don't think this year's portal activity is about filling empty roster spaces. My hunch is that PJ is looking for (1) 3 or 4 instant impact guys, such as Xion Chapman, who might immediately start in key roles; (2) several guys, with multiple years of eligibility, who will provide competitive upgrades from current depth pieces, as well as development opportunities in future seasons; and (3) a few diamonds in the rough--WR Thompson from Auburn?--guys with great but as yet unrealized upside, one or two of whom might well blossom in the Gophers' supportive environment. Good strategy for a team that is returning a lot of quality starters, but has some noticeable gaps and some depth weaknesses.
 
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Gophergrandpa said:
Our current count of enrolled, carryover players from the 2025 season, plus our HS signs, plus our transfer portal guys is significantly in excess of the permitted roster size of 105. Several more rostered guys must leave or be trimmed before the 2026 season just to get us down to the maximum permitted roster. So I don't think this year's portal activity is about filling empty roster spaces. My hunch is that PJ is looking for (1) 4 or 5 instant impact guys, such as Xion Chapman, who might immediately start in key roles; (2) several guys, with multiple years of eligibility, who will provide competitive upgrades from current depth pieces, as well as development opportunities in future seasons; and (3) a few diamonds in the rough, guys with great but as yet unrealized upside, one or two of whom might well blossom in the Gophers' supportive environment.
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Some guys are going to learn the hard way that the code to get into the facilities no longer works..... ;)

At least it will help prepare them for life after football in the corporate real world.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I get where people would like to see really productive numbers on all the guys transferring in but especially as it pertains to the DT transfers stats don't really tell the story because DT often don't wrack up a ton of them. I like that we are bringing in some DT with nice size. If they can clog up the middle and let the ends go to work they will be well worth the roster sports.
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Agreed on the bolded. I’d add protecting LBs also. It seemed to me when other teams had success running the LBs were often fending off O lineman way too much.
 

DarthGopher said:
Some guys are going to learn the hard way that the code to get into the facilities no longer works..... ;)

At least it will help prepare them for life after football in the corporate real world.
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Yes, no one talks about the downside of the portal for players. I suppose teams that use it effectively need to be a bit ruthless in culling the herd.
 

IMO this is a very solid pickup and possibly their best so far. Highly rated by those that have seen his film and evaluations (line play is the hardest for casual fans to evaluate). I would bet that he saw our edge rushers, which are going to need to be accounted for by opposing coaches, as a great opportunity to show his skills. Anthony Smith is going to make every player on that line look better as he is going to be a serious problem for offenses. This could be one helluva a D line.
 


Gophergrandpa said:
Our current count of enrolled, carryover players from the 2025 season, plus our HS signs, plus our transfer portal guys is significantly in excess of the permitted roster size of 105. Several more rostered guys must leave or be trimmed before the 2026 season just to get us down to the maximum permitted roster. So I don't think this year's portal activity is about filling empty roster spaces. My hunch is that PJ is looking for (1) 3 or 4 instant impact guys, such as Xion Chapman, who might immediately start in key roles; (2) several guys, with multiple years of eligibility, who will provide competitive upgrades from current depth pieces, as well as development opportunities in future seasons; and (3) a few diamonds in the rough--WR Thompson from Auburn?--guys with great but as yet unrealized upside, one or two of whom might well blossom in the Gophers' supportive environment. Good strategy for a team that is returning a lot of quality starters, but has some noticeable gaps and some depth weaknesses.
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I just don’t believe it’s a strategy of spreading NIL money around instead of investing in a few expensive guys by choice. I think it’s we can’t afford the big time guys. If we could we would go for them and also be adding a lot of cheap guys. I have a hard time believing it takes a bunch of of money to get a guy with 20 catches from Tulsa to come here.
 

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