Gophers 2026 class remains in the top 20 nationally, will it stay there?

[GopherGold01]

12 of the 18 teams in the conference have an average recruit ranking between 86-88. If you want to pretend like there is a massive difference in player quality among those classes feel free but trying to frame the talent we are bringing in as 16th in the conference is a joke, especially when you consider the teams results which are clearly far better then 16th in the conference on the field.

We go through this every year with the team recruiting rankings which are in my opinion one of the most flawed rankings out there. There are the handful of teams that are clearly bringing in elite talent, then there is a massive jumble of teams all bringing in various levels of talent on paper that are all really comparable to each other.

No recruiting class should truly be evaluated until the guys have been in college for 2-3 years and you find out who actually can play and who can't. Add in this transfer portal era where guys are moving all over the place and it lessens the value of recruiting rankings even more because a big chunk of the players you bring in will never play for your team anyway.

In the end it looks like this class is going to be very comparable to most of the classes Fleck has brought in. Won't compare with the classes of teams like Ohio State, USC, Penn State but will be right in line with what the bulk of the conference is bringing in on paper.

Agreed. I also tend to feel better about the way/timeframe the classes are filled, in comparison both to past MN coaches and other comparable teams. PJ has consistently filled the class by May/June--- they are going out and getting the guys they want, many of whom we've seen get increased ratings and interest later on. This is a lot different than getting commitments in the following fall/winter/spring. Even if they aren't rated super high, the coaches are getting their targets, rather than making do with what's left over.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Agreed. I also tend to feel better about the way/timeframe the classes are filled, in comparison both to past MN coaches and other comparable teams. PJ has consistently filled the class by May/June--- they are going out and getting the guys they want, many of whom we've seen get increased ratings and interest later on. This is a lot different than getting commitments in the following fall/winter/spring. Even if they aren't rated super high, the coaches are getting their targets, rather than making do with what's left over.

Yeah, can remember under previous staffs when there would be threads with concerns about when we are going to get our first commitment. That hasn't really been an issue under Fleck. He identifies players he wants and they go out and get them committed. Leads to more decommitments and things like that but we typically are one of the earlier teams to fill their recruiting classes each year.

Fleck clearly likes to go this route in order to get a jump on building the next class whereas schools like Iowa often wait until much later in the process to fill their class for the current season.

 

[PMWinSTP]

Agreed. I also tend to feel better about the way/timeframe the classes are filled, in comparison both to past MN coaches and other comparable teams. PJ has consistently filled the class by May/June--- they are going out and getting the guys they want, many of whom we've seen get increased ratings and interest later on. This is a lot different than getting commitments in the following fall/winter/spring. Even if they aren't rated super high, the coaches are getting their targets, rather than making do with what's left over.

The flip side is they have plenty of time to decommit, which has happened with Fleck, sometimes very late.

 

[MNVCGUY]

The flip side is they have plenty of time to decommit, which has happened with Fleck, sometimes very late.

Decommits don't really bug me. I mean sure, it sucks when it happens but those guys were probably unlikely to stick around anyway so better to have them decide to go elsewhere before the staff wastes any time trying to develop them.

 

[btowngopher]

The flip side is they have plenty of time to decommit, which has happened with Fleck, sometimes very late.

I feel like most Fleck decommits actually happen pretty early.

 

[btowngopher]

Agreed. I also tend to feel better about the way/timeframe the classes are filled, in comparison both to past MN coaches and other comparable teams. PJ has consistently filled the class by May/June--- they are going out and getting the guys they want, many of whom we've seen get increased ratings and interest later on. This is a lot different than getting commitments in the following fall/winter/spring. Even if they aren't rated super high, the coaches are getting their targets, rather than making do with what's left over.

The stories of finding the kid who started playing football half way through his senior year on the outskirts of Death Valley in a 9 man league who’s dad was buddies with Jerry Kill’s brother in law’s best friend were always interesting, but this definitely has a different feel to it.

 

[btowngopher]

12 of the 18 teams in the conference have an average recruit ranking between 86-88. If you want to pretend like there is a massive difference in player quality among those classes feel free but trying to frame the talent we are bringing in as 16th in the conference is a joke, especially when you consider the teams results which are clearly far better then 16th in the conference on the field.

We go through this every year with the team recruiting rankings which are in my opinion one of the most flawed rankings out there. There are the handful of teams that are clearly bringing in elite talent, then there is a massive jumble of teams all bringing in various levels of talent on paper that are all really comparable to each other.

No recruiting class should truly be evaluated until the guys have been in college for 2-3 years and you find out who actually can play and who can't. Add in this transfer portal era where guys are moving all over the place and it lessens the value of recruiting rankings even more because a big chunk of the players you bring in will never play for your team anyway.

In the end it looks like this class is going to be very comparable to most of the classes Fleck has brought in. Won't compare with the classes of teams like Ohio State, USC, Penn State but will be right in line with what the bulk of the conference is bringing in on paper.

While it won’t compare with the blue bloods, I still think this class has the potential to rank among Fleck’s best per recruiting sites. With several guys being borderline four stars and a couple four stars still yet to decide the potential is there. Ratings aside I personally like the look of this class quite a bit. They seem to have taken less developmental type guys from instate this year.

 

[PMWinSTP]

I feel like most Fleck decommits actually happen pretty early.

So they commit and decommit early?

 

[Lifeleadership]

I like everything that Fleck is doing right now. He is the best coach for a program like Minnesota. He is a great fit for Minnesota. I truly believe the next 5 years will be the best 5 year stretch that Gopher Football has had in my 50 years as a Gopher fan. He is able to get the players that fit his culture and program. I am excited to see what Drake Lindsey and the team can do this season. The future looks very promising. Go Gophers!

 

[swede2]

12 of the 18 teams in the conference have an average recruit ranking between 86-88. If you want to pretend like there is a massive difference in player quality among those classes feel free but trying to frame the talent we are bringing in as 16th in the conference is a joke, especially when you consider the teams results which are clearly far better then 16th in the conference on the field.

We go through this every year with the team recruiting rankings which are in my opinion one of the most flawed rankings out there. There are the handful of teams that are clearly bringing in elite talent, then there is a massive jumble of teams all bringing in various levels of talent on paper that are all really comparable to each other.

No recruiting class should truly be evaluated until the guys have been in college for 2-3 years and you find out who actually can play and who can't. Add in this transfer portal era where guys are moving all over the place and it lessens the value of recruiting rankings even more because a big chunk of the players you bring in will never play for your team anyway.

In the end it looks like this class is going to be very comparable to most of the classes Fleck has brought in. Won't compare with the classes of teams like Ohio State, USC, Penn State but will be right in line with what the bulk of the conference is bringing in on paper.

So we end up with recruiting classes in the bottom quarter of the conference but infield results are middling. I guess it's better than finishing in line with recruiting rankings but as for me, I'd prefer high recruiting rankings and higher finishes.

 

[swede2]

I like everything that Fleck is doing right now. He is the best coach for a program like Minnesota. He is a great fit for Minnesota. I truly believe the next 5 years will be the best 5 year stretch that Gopher Football has had in my 50 years as a Gopher fan. He is able to get the players that fit his culture and program. I am excited to see what Drake Lindsey and the team can do this season. The future looks very promising. Go Gophers!

I wish I had your glasses. I don't see anything to suggest that our teams will be anything other than mid conference finish at best, beating a diminished Wisconsin team regularly and losing to a mediocre Iowa team regularly.

 

[Word]

I wish I had your glasses. I don't see anything to suggest that our teams will be anything other than mid conference finish at best, beating a diminished Wisconsin team regularly and losing to a mediocre Iowa team regularly.

Probably should just give up, huh?

 

[RememberMurray]

Probably should just give up, huh?

Exactly. He needs to find a new source of joy in his life, since Gopher football just ain't doing it for him.

Me, I'm having a lot of fun as a Gopher fan. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see 'mediocrity' everywhere I look. I see an enthusiastic, likable team that plays really hard. I can't wait for this upcoming season.

 

[Eastside Forever]

I wish I had your glasses. I don't see anything to suggest that our teams will be anything other than mid conference finish at best, beating a diminished Wisconsin team regularly and losing to a mediocre Iowa team regularly.

Your glasses are just as fogged by your perceptions and attitudes. We all wear "glasses" but I prefer optismistic outlooks. Granted, you may be right about mid conference finishes. But that is no fun to contemplate. There is hope for more. It can happen. Go Gophers!

 

[Word]

Exactly. He needs to find a new source of joy in his life, since Gopher football just ain't doing it for him.

Me, I'm having a lot of fun as a Gopher fan. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see 'mediocrity' everywhere I look. I see an enthusiastic, likable team that plays really hard. I can't wait for this upcoming season.

I've been following the Gophers since the early 80s. This is the best era of Gopher football in my lifetime (Kill and Mason not too far behind). Yes there have been a couple frustrating games we've lost, but big-picture it's going well.

 

[TNGophfan]

I have a good feeling about this year. I'm still saying 9 - 3 with losses to TOSU, Oregon and either Iowa or Nebraska.

 

[MNVCGUY]

So we end up with recruiting classes in the bottom quarter of the conference but infield results are middling. I guess it's better than finishing in line with recruiting rankings but as for me, I'd prefer high recruiting rankings and higher finishes.

We would all love to be in a position like Ohio State or the other schools that are able to attract the best of the best talent on a yearly basis but that isn't realistic and highly unlikely to change.

But I disagree that we are bringing in bottom portion of the conference talent and getting middling results with those players.

Fleck has the program in a very healthy place. If you can't enjoy that then you are probably wasting your time following this program.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

So we end up with recruiting classes in the bottom quarter of the conference but infield results are middling. I guess it's better than finishing in line with recruiting rankings but as for me, I'd prefer high recruiting rankings and higher finishes.

To me, recruiting rankings are totally irrelevant to how I evaluate coaches. At the end of the day, if a coach is winning enough to satisfy, in don't care if he exclusively signs 2 star offensive linemen and teaches them to play every position on the field. If he's not winning enough games, i dont care if he is consistently signing the top class in the conference. They may have predictive value, but especially when you have a coach who's been here long enough to have a record, like we do, what matters to me is how the sausage tastes, not how it's made.

 

[swede2]

We would all love to be in a position like Ohio State or the other schools that are able to attract the best of the best talent on a yearly basis but that isn't realistic and highly unlikely to change.

But I disagree that we are bringing in bottom portion of the conference talent and getting middling results with those players.

Fleck has the program in a very healthy place. If you can't enjoy that then you are probably wasting your time following this program.

Probably I am wasting my time of this is as good as it gets

 

[MNVCGUY]

While it won’t compare with the blue bloods, I still think this class has the potential to rank among Fleck’s best per recruiting sites. With several guys being borderline four stars and a couple four stars still yet to decide the potential is there. Ratings aside I personally like the look of this class quite a bit. They seem to have taken less developmental type guys from instate this year.

The reality of this current landscape is bringing in quality transfers is probably more important then high school recruiting but this does have the makings of a solid class on paper and I love the size we are bringing in along the O-Line. Having guys that are already college sized when they walk in the door means they just have to focus on strength and technique as opposed to also trying to pack on bulk as well.

 

[SeaBee_Gopher]

Things have changed since we now basically have a P-2. I'd expect our rankings to increase because all the other conferences have trouble competing with all our money.

Below are the B1G & SEC standings from last year as a starting point. We will likely never jump over Oregon, Penn State, OSU, Michigan, USC and probably, Nebraska, because of all the NIL money I think they'll always bring to the table. They routinely recruit 90ish+ in 247. That's 6 right away. The remaining 12 are 88 or lower and we can compete with all those programs.

As for the SEC, most of that conference will recruit well because of superior recruiting footprint and good financial resources. We have a chance to out compete only Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Kentucky & Mississippi State routinely and that's being generous. All of them have higher rankings than us right now. Throw in South Carolina, Ole Miss (only if Lane Kiffin leaves) & Missouri if they are having down periods. I'd say even when the Gophers are doing really well, we could jump maybe 4 SEC schools so the other 12 beat us.

That means even in a very good scenario and just including the B1G & SEC, we will likely never be ranked in recruiting above 19. Throw in a few teams from the ACC like Clemson, Miami, and Florida State that we'll likely never out recruit and now we're at no better than 22. I was going to include North Carolina because of recruiting footprint, but it doesn't look like the Bill Belichick experiment is going very well there. If they ever get it right there, we're down to 23.

That leaves the remaining 13 teams in the ACC and the whole Big 12 of 16 teams as peer level competition mostly at our level. So we have to outcompete 12 + 4 + 13 + 16 = 45 teams for the 2 or 3 spots that are likely available to be top 25. We have major advantages over a lot of those programs because of B1G money and our coaching stability, but not all of them. I thought my news would be better, but being top 30 even when our program is going good will still be challenging.

As MNVCGUY mentioned, the transfer portal is very important. It helps us even out the recruiting disparities with the top teams when teams like us steal their higher rated recruits after they are tired of sitting on the bench.

 

[caliGopher]

I wish I had your glasses. I don't see anything to suggest that our teams will be anything other than mid conference finish at best, beating a diminished Wisconsin team regularly and losing to a mediocre Iowa team regularly.

Which would be the best five-year stretch in the past 50 years, TBH.

 

[caliGopher]

Exactly. He needs to find a new source of joy in his life, since Gopher football just ain't doing it for him.

Me, I'm having a lot of fun as a Gopher fan. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see 'mediocrity' everywhere I look. I see an enthusiastic, likable team that plays really hard. I can't wait for this upcoming season.

You can get joy from rooting for your favorite team, even if you have an outlook that doesn't depend on woulda, shoulda, couldas. We've stabilized in the Mason, Kill/Claeys, Fleck range, and we've more resources than at any time since 1961.

The changing landscape is also reducing the number of threats we face, as the B1G and SEC dominate the conversation and dictate many of the decisions regarding the new direction.

While we aren't getting the bill of goods Coyle sold us, we have a stable program and could do much worse football-wise (see Wacker, Jim, or Brewster, Tim).

Hope springs eternal.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Probably I am wasting my time of this is as good as it gets

Not what anyone is saying.....there is always room for improvement....could also potentially catch lightning in a bottle like Indiana and capitalize on a favorable schedule with some key transfers.

That said. If you aren't having fun following a team then you 100% are wasting your time and energy because this should be entertainment and if it isn't find something else to spend time on.

 

[mngg11]

Probably I am wasting my time of this is as good as it gets

It took you this long to figure it out? It's not like we used to be Ohio State 10 years ago and we're in a lull we need to climb out of, we've had just about every barrier to success thrown in our way in terms of academic expectations and a university who has put athletics on the backburner for the past 60 years. Fleck is doing a stellar job building this program considering the barriers to success.