Four-star Arizona DB Steven Ortiz Jr. commits to the Gophers


On the spring game he definitely was in there on D. I didn’t see him make any plays per say but that could be a good thing if he had his guy locked up! He will see the field this year I’m sure. Beanie looked good and might have took some time from him as did Staap, but I think he’s in the mix.
 

He made a tackle at the line of scrimmage in the 2nd half. Can't remember who the RB was but looked like be was the nickle and was playing close to the line of scrimmage. I believe that was his only tackle as I looked for him throughout the game.
 

Did Steven Ortiz, Jr. get injured last year? He is listed as a Redshirt Freshman.
 






Yes, it is scary. I was at the bowl game in Phoenix and sat next to two kids who were friends (or knew him) of his from high school. One said that he had not played during the season and he thought that Ortiz would transfer. The other kid emphatically said, "he's not going to transfer." I hope that he doesn't. Go Gophers!
 
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I don't really want to have this discussion/argument, to be sure, but: who was Ortiz going to take reps away from, last year?

Walley earned the reps and did a pretty nice job.
 

Portal next year after he makes all B1G this upcoming season.

Hope not, but after losing the two running backs, nothing is for certain.
 

Portal next year after he makes all B1G this upcoming season.

Hope not, but after losing the two running backs, nothing is for certain.
Nothing at all is certain in the current college football and basketball landscape. But the default expectation from fans should also not become that all players are going to transfer.
 




Who was the DB that committed here around the same time as Ortiz? He was from Nebraska and ranked very highly.
 

Who was the DB that committed here around the same time as Ortiz? He was from Nebraska and ranked very highly.
Avante Dickerson. Ended up at Oregon. Played in 12 games as a freshman in 2021, but only 1 this season. Did an additional search to see if he was injured this past season, but can't find anything.

Feel bad it didn't work out for Ortiz here. Highly-regarded out of high school and was energetic in trying to get more guys here after he committed. Best of luck to him.
 


Interesting, but not surprising in the portal era. He's also brought in some 4*'s from other programs through the portal. Fleck truly is a developmental coach and some walk-ons and 3* guys are going to develop right by a 4*.
 

Anyone else have a hard time figuring out sometimes if Liebert is trying to be positive or negative with a lot of his tweets?
 

Anyone else have a hard time figuring out sometimes if Liebert is trying to be positive or negative with a lot of his tweets?
In Twitter land it doesn't even matter I don't think.

Throw stuff at the wall and people can assume whatever and you get responses.
 



If Potts had decided to medically retire, and if then Bucky decided to stay (they would've found some money for him, not Nike money, but something), it would've been interesting to see if we could've had a legit 1-2 punch at RB this year, instead of a 1-1-1-1-1-1-1...........-1-1-1-1-1 punch.
 


Anyone else have a hard time figuring out sometimes if Liebert is trying to be positive or negative with a lot of his tweets?

Click bait media always skews negative. I hate it. Maybe Liebert will land a coveted SKOR north job with his style.
 


Interesting, but not surprising in the portal era. He's also brought in some 4*'s from other programs through the portal. Fleck truly is a developmental coach and some walk-ons and 3* guys are going to develop right by a 4*.

This Tweet is like a Rorschach test. Everyone sees something different. I see that it hurt to lose 1.5 of those four players (Irving and Dunlap to a lesser extent).

Irving - Future starter for the Gophs.
Dunlap - Solid starter for the Gophs but shared playing time in 2021.
Ortiz - Didn't see much playing time. Maybe he blooms in the future but a big question mark.
Brown - 1 tackle for MSU this year. Got in trouble for the Michigan tunnel assault issue.
 

He brings this up like it's unusual.

If you look at Fleck's first three recruiting classes (2018-2020), almost 50% of the three star recruits have transferred out. I only included the first three because the 2021 and 2022 classes will work out over the next couple of years. However, attrition has ALWAYS been a major part of college football and it is exponentially more normal now with NIL, portal, and free transfer.
 

Anyone else have a hard time figuring out sometimes if Liebert is trying to be positive or negative with a lot of his tweets?
No. It’s very easy to tell that Liebert is trash. At least he quit referring to himself as “Gopherhole’s own” in his post on gopherhole.

He is a clown. A poor man’s Daniel House would be worth 20 Liebert’s.
 

He brings this up like it's unusual.

If you look at Fleck's first three recruiting classes (2018-2020), almost 50% of the three star recruits have transferred out. I only included the first three because the 2021 and 2022 classes will work out over the next couple of years. However, attrition has ALWAYS been a major part of college football and it is exponentially more normal now with NIL, portal, and free transfer.
Yep, attrition has always been a massive factor and it is yet another reason to put little to no stock in team recruiting class rankings in the year the class is signed. What does that class look like 2-3 years down the line, how many of those players are even still on the roster by that point.
 

Yep, attrition has always been a massive factor and it is yet another reason to put little to no stock in team recruiting class rankings in the year the class is signed. What does that class look like 2-3 years down the line, how many of those players are even still on the roster by that point.
I think it's why PJ has focused more on in-state recruiting last year. I like all the recruits, but I do believe the ability to keep guys from transferring out is going to be factored in more now than in previous years.
 

Not overly surprised by this. The fact that he's a 4* guy and hasn't seen the field yet in 2 years, in the world of college football today, a chance of transfer is likely. Gone are the days of sticking it out and hoping to get playing time as a Jr/Sr. Good luck to him.
 

Not overly surprised by this. The fact that he's a 4* guy and hasn't seen the field yet in 2 years, in the world of college football today, a chance of transfer is likely. Gone are the days of sticking it out and hoping to get playing time as a Jr/Sr. Good luck to him.
Makes sense as even if you think as a Jr you'll get in... portal means any number of dudes may just jump the line in front of you at random. You've no idea what the lay of the land might be.
 




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