Gophers’ 2017 recruiting class turned program into consistent winner

BleedGopher

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per Greder:

Fleck’s first recruiting class at Minnesota in 2017 took off their redshirts a year later and went 39-20 over the next five seasons, a winning percentage of .661, including 4-0 in bowl games — albeit 0-fer in capturing Big Ten West Division titles.

The class had All-Americans (Ibrahim and John Michael Schmitz), the winningest quarterback in school history (Morgan), two alums already playing in the NFL (Boye Mafe and Esezi Otomewo), with more who will join them (see: Schmitz and Ibrahim). Standout iron men (Blaise Andries and Justus Harris) and a handful of other multi-year contributors rounded out the class.

Twenty of the 25 total recruits became lettermen, and one will keep the legacy alive. Chris Autman-Bell, who injured his knee in September, plans to return for a seventh season next fall.

“I couldn’t be more proud of these seniors,” Fleck said of a broader group that included 15 members of the 2018 class. “They’ve given a lot to this program on and off the field. They’ve represented Minnesota in a first-class fashion, and they should be really proud.


Go Gophers!!
 


Nice class, but I'd argue this class turned the program into a consistent winner:

Absolutely 2016 was critical to the foundation! 100% 2017 IS also pretty dang cool too!
It takes a village as they say over at the Land O Lakes facility. There were some other important holdovers that came along too. PJ inherited a very good foundation.
 

Absolutely 2016 was critical to the foundation! 100% 2017 IS also pretty dang cool too!
It takes a village as they say over at the Land O Lakes facility. There were some other important holdovers that came along too. PJ inherited a very good foundation.
Greder's story uses the 2018-2022 stretch. The 2016 class certainly provided a nice foundation (especially on defense) and were a huge part of 2019, but the vast majority of those guys were not part of the 2021 team and all of them were gone by 2022.

So makes sense to put the focus on 2017 given that was Fleck's first class and those guys were part of all 5 years in question.
 




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