Empire Class

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GoldMedalCounty

GoldMedalCounty

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While we celebrate all of our Gophers from near and wide, one special group has earned a shoutout! I was digging for a recruiting update and was reminded how strong the 2016 class has become, including Antoine, Carter, Conner, Kamal, Sam, Seth, Philip, Tyler and Thomas. Lou Holtz was right, the heart and soul will come from the state of Minnesota!
 


Tracy Claeys.
usa_today_9776095.0.jpeg
 

If you actually look at the whole class, it was remarkably good.

Almost everyone is/was a solid contributor. There were 4 JuCo guys.

The only two guys that didn't/aren't contributing significantly are Mark Williams and Tamarion Johnson. It'd be hard to find a class that hit on 19/21 guys.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
If you actually look at the whole class, it was remarkably good.

Almost everyone is/was a solid contributor. There were 4 JuCo guys.

The only two guys that didn't/aren't contributing significantly are Mark Williams and Tamarion Johnson. It'd be hard to find a class that hit on 19/21 guys.
Click to expand...

I'd add Drew Hmielewski and maybe Phil Howard.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
If you actually look at the whole class, it was remarkably good.

Almost everyone is/was a solid contributor. There were 4 JuCo guys.

The only two guys that didn't/aren't contributing significantly are Mark Williams and Tamarion Johnson. It'd be hard to find a class that hit on 19/21 guys.
Click to expand...

Completely agree.
 

GoldMedalCounty said:
While we celebrate all of our Gophers from near and wide, one special group has earned a shoutout! I was digging for a recruiting update and was reminded how strong the 2016 class has become, including Antoine, Carter, Conner, Kamal, Sam, Seth, Philip, Tyler and Thomas. Lou Holtz was right, the heart and soul will come from the state of Minnesota!
Click to expand...

The class was viewed as strong at the time, it was arguably the best instate class we've had. It will be a long time before we see the top 6 kids in the class all be from Minnesota. Not only does a strong instate class help the gophers land a strong class, I'm guessing it is a huge help in regards to attrition. I assume attrition is much more likely for kids that go to school further from home.
 

We owe a huge thank you to Carter Coughlin for his leadership in making these guys a family before PJ even started digging the foundation. The weekends to the cabin, the communication he organized...all pretty awesome for anybody ...but especially to do so as a high school senior.

Let’s make it 9 and 0!
 

This was the class we had 4 star's Dredrick Snelson and Sean Foster, the massive OT, plus Elijah and Elisha Daniels and Chaska OT Matt Kegel committed and 6-7 QB Tony Poljan as former commits.
 




die hard gopher said:
This was the class we had 4 star's Dredrick Snelson and Sean Foster, the massive OT, plus Elijah and Elisha Daniels and Chaska OT Matt Kegel committed and 6-7 QB Tony Poljan as former commits.
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Snelson declared for draft early and I dont think is on a NFL roster
Daniels transferred out of Maryland, but not sure where they went
Poljan was QB, then back up QB and now back up TE for CMU
Foster-Doesn't play much for Ia State
Kegel-Doesn't play much for Ok State


Foster/Poljan was told by Claeys to move on, iirc

Daniels/snelson was just weird situation, no loss
 

btowngopher said:
I'd add Drew Hmielewski and maybe Phil Howard.
Click to expand...

I don't know if I would count Howard. He is one of our best special teams players and actually gets quite a bit of burn on defense. If he is a "miss", then it even further proves my point, that's a really high standard.

Hmielewski, yeah, I get adding him. I have a hard time adding players who get hurt to that list. It sure looked like he was set to play quite a bit, I think he was our #1 PR, etc.

But yeah, it never really ended up working out on the football field.
 

salzie said:
Daniels/snelson was just weird situation, no loss
Click to expand...

Probably good example about how we put emphasis on getting some guys and don't and we're bummed and ... oh wait nevermind.

I don't consider myself a good evaluator of talent but I see folks really excited about some guys and then we don't get them and we never hear from them again and I just wonder, what the hell did any of that mean?
 



Snelson had 106 catches, 1500 yards and 15 TDs in 3 years.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I don't know if I would count Howard. He is one of our best special teams players and actually gets quite a bit of burn on defense. If he is a "miss", then it even further proves my point, that's a really high standard.

Hmielewski, yeah, I get adding him. I have a hard time adding players who get hurt to that list. It sure looked like he was set to play quite a bit, I think he was our #1 PR, etc.

But yeah, it never really ended up working out on the football field.
Click to expand...

Are you sure Hmielewski was hurt? I don't remember that. I think he just focused on playing on the Gopher baseball team, which he is still doing.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Are you sure Hmielewski was hurt? I don't remember that. I think he just focused on playing on the Gopher baseball team, which he is still doing.
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I could be wrong on that, I thought he had battled concussions and that was the reason he focused on baseball. But I probably have that wrong.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I could be wrong on that, I thought he had battled concussions and that was the reason he focused on baseball. But I probably have that wrong.
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I thought he had a torn labrum IIRC.
 

GoldMedalCounty said:
While we celebrate all of our Gophers from near and wide, one special group has earned a shoutout! I was digging for a recruiting update and was reminded how strong the 2016 class has become, including Antoine, Carter, Conner, Kamal, Sam, Seth, Philip, Tyler and Thomas. Lou Holtz was right, the heart and soul will come from the state of Minnesota!
Click to expand...

Thank you Empire class. Thank you Carter, Kamal, Sam, Seth, Connor, Philip, Tyler, Thomas, Blaise (class before?), and others for staying home!

Thank you Coach Tracy Claeys.
 

Great class.
Nice to have top level seniors.
 

die hard gopher said:
This was the class we had 4 star's Dredrick Snelson and Sean Foster, the massive OT, plus Elijah and Elisha Daniels and Chaska OT Matt Kegel committed and 6-7 QB Tony Poljan as former commits.
Click to expand...

4 star East Ridge DT JoJo Garcia too who was our first commit and unfortunately passed away.
 

Both concussion, torn labrum. Goid athlete though. Empire class has done a lot to build Minnesota football. To bad Garcia picked pot over football.

Sent from my SM-J327P using Tapatalk
 

hungan1 said:
Thank you Empire class. Thank you Carter, Kamal, Sam, Seth, Connor, Philip, Tyler, Thomas, Blaise (class before?), and others for staying home!

Thank you Coach Tracy Claeys.
Click to expand...

Yes, indeed.

The Empire Class will be a tough act to follow.
 

You have to think this year is EXACTLY what Coughlin had in mind when he committed here (and for my two cents, was important in landing a few of the others in this class)! I am really happy for him (and us faithful Gopher fans)!
 

PoockItInfor6 said:
You have to think this year is EXACTLY what Coughlin had in mind when he committed here (and for my two cents, was important in landing a few of the others in this class)! I am really happy for him (and us faithful Gopher fans)!
Click to expand...

Yessir.

In addition to being a truly outstanding player, Coughlin has been an excellent leader.
 

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