Gophers get commitment from Wayzata TE Brandon Lingen

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lakesgopher said:
Why didn't Iowa or wisky offer them if they were such studs?
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First off do you question whether these kids are studs? Second, who cares why our neighboring state institutions didn't offer them. Maybe they were busy offering their own in-state kids but really who cares. They were all a 25 minute or less drive from Brew's office and I bet he never even took the time to visit with any of them.
 

Indi1006 said:
First off do you question whether these kids are studs? Second, who cares why our neighboring state institutions didn't offer them. Maybe they were busy offering their own in-state kids but really who cares. They were all a 25 minute or less drive from Brew's office and I bet he never even took the time to visit with any of them.
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My point is basically there was a reason these kids were "missed." Maybe it was considered they were too much of a project or something of that nature. I don't know? None of us do? I don't care where the kids come from, we could take kids from Texas only for all I care, but I'm not going to be supportive of trying to get into recruiting battles with the Dakotas. They are not our peers or our rivals. Good players will go there and have success, get over it
 

Indi1006 said:
First off do you question whether these kids are studs? Second, who cares why our neighboring state institutions didn't offer them. Maybe they were busy offering their own in-state kids but really who cares. They were all a 25 minute or less drive from Brew's office and I bet he never even took the time to visit with any of them.
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None of those guys were flawless prospects.
Tarpley should have been recruited harder, the others were fringe fbs types that made good in fcs.
Would kill have offered them? Maybe. And only maybe.
Hindsight is 20/20, which is why kill's foresight record with guys like plsek, wells, Murray, lauer, etc counts more than getting hot and bothered about fcs players from mn.
 

Ole said:
None of those guys were flawless prospects.
Tarpley should have been recruited harder, the others were fringe fbs types that made good in fcs.
Would kill have offered them? Maybe. And only maybe.
Hindsight is 20/20, which is why kill's foresight record with guys like plsek, wells, Murray, lauer, etc counts more than getting hot and bothered about fcs players from mn.
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Not hot and bothered, just bothered since these players all anchor spots that are of great need for us; and it does irritate me that folks tend to downplay their talent to excuse us not offering them. They were all misses and of the Dakota ones mentioned, Turner and Olson were big time misses. Vraa had a larger question that being his speed, but compare him to 3/4 of our current receiving corps and that argument seems a bit silly. He'd catch 40 passes for us this year.
 

Indi1006 said:
First off do you question whether these kids are studs?
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I wouldn't call Vraa a stud by any means. Good player against much weaker competition. I don't think he would help our WR group much.

Second, who cares why our neighboring state institutions didn't offer them. Maybe they were busy offering their own in-state kids but really who cares.
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I think that shows that some of them were a little under the radar and had question marks. Iowa and Wisconsin have shown in the past that they recruit MN pretty hard.

They were all a 25 minute or less drive from Brew's office and I bet he never even took the time to visit with any of them.
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I would take that bet.

The only miss I would criticize Brewster and staff for is Tarpley. Not sure why they didn't offer him.

By the way, Brewster offered 5 of the top 6 ranked MN kids in 2010 so your comment about Brewster just focusing on Henderson doesn't make sense.
 


GophersInIowa said:
I wouldn't call Vraa a stud by any means. Good player against much weaker competition. I don't think he would help our WR group much.



I think that shows that some of them were a little under the radar and had question marks. Iowa and Wisconsin have shown in the past that they recruit MN pretty hard.



I would take that bet.

The only miss I would criticize Brewster and staff for is Tarpley. Not sure why they didn't offer him.

By the way, Brewster offered 5 of the top 6 ranked MN kids in 2010 so your comment about Brewster just focusing on Henderson doesn't make sense.
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As is your norm, well said and good points and you're probably right about them getting visits from BrewNut. Remember, three of these kids just helped their team beat K State and all played major roles in that. K State is down but would they beat us or Iowa? Remember, too, that Vraa and Engel played in the same conference and I would think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone other than Engel's relatives who went to games when they were playing against the same competition who would argue that Engel was anywhere near Vraa's class. Since he's now apparently our number one receiver I would ask that you at least give that some thought. Olson had 140 tackles last year and is going to be a two time captain at NDSU and had a solid game including a pick against K State. Whether they were marginal prospects is certainly up for debate, but whether they're "stud" I don't think should be; we should give our home state kids their due.

Anyway, I digress it just irritates me that our homestate kids even when offered by us don't get much love from us. This kid isn't going to be Ryan Grant or J.D. Pride. Those days are over.
 

This conversation is about as helpful as shutting down the nation to save a buck.
 

Indi1006 said:
As is your norm, well said and good points and you're probably right about them getting visits from BrewNut. Remember, three of these kids just helped their team beat K State and all played major roles in that. K State is down but would they beat us or Iowa? Remember, too, that Vraa and Engel played in the same conference and I would think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone other than Engel's relatives who went to games when they were playing against the same competition who would argue that Engel was anywhere near Vraa's class. Since he's now apparently our number one receiver I would ask that you at least give that some thought. Olson had 140 tackles last year and is going to be a two time captain at NDSU and had a solid game including a pick against K State. Whether they were marginal prospects is certainly up for debate, but whether they're "stud" I don't think should be; we should give our home state kids their due.

Anyway, I digress it just irritates me that our homestate kids even when offered by us don't get much love from us. This kid isn't going to be Ryan Grant or J.D. Pride. Those days are over.
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Big producers, those two? Oh, I just got it. Good one. Yeah. meh.
 

Dean S said:
This conversation is about as helpful as shutting down the nation to save a buck.
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I couldn't agree more but I can't help myself it periodically irritates me to the point where I feel compelled to bring it up. Sorry, kinda hijacked the kid's thread as well and didn't mean to do that.
 



Indi1006 said:
As is your norm, well said and good points and you're probably right about them getting visits from BrewNut. Remember, three of these kids just helped their team beat K State and all played major roles in that. K State is down but would they beat us or Iowa? Remember, too, that Vraa and Engel played in the same conference and I would think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone other than Engel's relatives who went to games when they were playing against the same competition who would argue that Engel was anywhere near Vraa's class. Since he's now apparently our number one receiver I would ask that you at least give that some thought. Olson had 140 tackles last year and is going to be a two time captain at NDSU and had a solid game including a pick against K State. Whether they were marginal prospects is certainly up for debate, but whether they're "stud" I don't think should be; we should give our home state kids their due.

Anyway, I digress it just irritates me that our homestate kids even when offered by us don't get much love from us. This kid isn't going to be Ryan Grant or J.D. Pride. Those days are over.
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Just to make it clear, my comments have nothing to do with Lingen. I just don't think we can offer every "under the radar" local kid. Your points are valid, but I guarantee there are a lot more good local guys that prove to have not been worthy of a BCS scholarship offer. There are always going to be guys that are overlooked like the ones you mentioned. But I don't think that is the norm. It's not an exact science and it never will be.

What about guys like Caleb Bak, Cameron Botticelli, Jon Christenson, Mike Henry, and Aaron Hill? I know they're not superstars but they're all examples of walk-ons/under the radar guys who have been big contributors.
 

dpodoll68 said:
No thanks. I even specified that it has nothing to do with the kid himself. If he's an in-state player with offers from FAU and Air Force, it's questionable recruiting strategy to offer him in October. He's basically a Ben Lauer-level recruit, and the Gophers wisely held out on Lauer and offered him just before signing day. That doesn't mean Lingen can't and won't be an impact player, as evidenced by Lauer starting in his 2nd year. It just means that the recruiting strategy is very peculiar.

I don't care about Brandon Lingen outside of his potential ability to play for the Gophers. I'm sorry if that offends anyone. If he were just some random kid from Wayzata and not a Division I football prospect, he wouldn't be discussed here. I care about the Gophers, not about Brandon Lingen. Scholarships are like gold, especially for a program trying to dig out of the bottom quartile of the Big Ten. If they like him a lot, great, but I'm pretty sure an offer could've waited until January or February after other options were exhausted. Maybe they got wind of a forthcoming offer from Iowa or Wisconsin, but I doubt it.

Now, does anyone else feel the need to chirp away at an honest opinion because someone's feelings might get hurt?
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I don't know about feelings, but it's pretty safe to say you haven't raised any issues unknown to the coaching staff. Still, you could shoot 'em an email just to make sure they're up to speed.
 


lakesgopher said:
Brew failed no doubt. He took the risk of talented kids that were borderline to be admitted into the U. He brought some talent here but his problem was the actual coaching part. Kill is a good coach but he's dealing with kids considered low talent in big ten standards.
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Where would the outstanding, exciting, hot chili-master Harold Howells fit in here?
 



GophersInIowa said:
Just to make it clear, my comments have nothing to do with Lingen. I just don't think we can offer every "under the radar" local kid. Your points are valid, but I guarantee there are a lot more good local guys that prove to have not been worthy of a BCS scholarship offer. There are always going to be guys that are overlooked like the ones you mentioned. But I don't think that is the norm. It's not an exact science and it never will be.

What about guys like Caleb Bak, Cameron Botticelli, Jon Christenson, Mike Henry, and Aaron Hill? I know they're not superstars but they're all examples of walk-ons/under the radar guys who have been big contributors.
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I know I should let it go and I'll swear off this topic foroever after this post and apologize in advance, but again that's my point. These four kids weren't "under the radar" they were awesome players and pretty easy (yes I admit in my opinion) to project as college players of the caliber that they have turned out to be. They also just happen to play positions of signficant need for our Gophers. Olson was too short, Vraa too slow and Turner had surgery on one or both knees. I get that, but they all had "it". Jimmy Gjere did too but he could only bench press a hair over 200 pounds when graduated so that was a big question mark for those in the know at the time, too. Had Brew's class that year not been such a disaster it wouldn't stick in my craw as much. Opportunity lost, that's all and these kids would have died to play for the Maroon and Gold; again but for Tarpley which I guess I don't know why Brew didn't get on him until very late because he had it all. Anyway, I'm all about supporting our new commit and welcome him aboard with open arms and I bet he does great for us in the future.
 

Indi1006 said:
That's the thing, though. It's not really hindsight these kids ripped it up during their HS careers and were deserving an offer of their hometown team. I believe that while Brewster that year was focused on renting a helicopter to try and impress Seantreall, had Kill been here then he would have offered and gotten these kids; perhaps Tarpley notwithstanding with his Stanford offer. There were a good crop of Minnesota players around that year and Brew wasn't paying attention. These kids aren't just having success they're dominant players and would be difference makers here. If I put Zenner on this list then it would be hindsight. I don't think anyone really saw his absurd level of success coming but the four mentioned have "it" and i saw them all play in person and it was hard to miss; unless again you were up in the clouds in your helicopter or flying to the hinterlands to recruit marginal players with marginal character as our boy Brew was.
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Brewster did fly the helicopter to Wayzata vs. Minnetonka, but at that time he was only going after Beau Allen. Tarpley and the Trojans were an afterthought.
 

Indi1006 said:
These four kids weren't "under the radar" they were awesome players
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Billy Turner - ZERO B10 offers - Zero. Offers from NDSU, Illinois St., UND, Northern Iowa.
Grant Olson - ZERO B10 offers - Zero. Offers from NDSU, Army, UND, Wyoming.
Zach Vraa - ZERO B10 offers - Zero. Offers from NDSU, UND.
A.J. Tarpley - ZERO B10 offers - Zero. Offers from K State, Stanford, UCF. With those offers, maybe he made it clear that he was moving away, I have no idea.

Please tell me your user name on every other B10 board (plus links, 'cause I don't creep), so I can see what you've posted lambasting those other institutions for foregoing these "awesome players".
 


Unregistered User said:
Billy Turner - ZERO B10 offers - Zero. Offers from NDSU, Illinois St., UND, Northern Iowa.
Grant Olson - ZERO B10 offers - Zero. Offers from NDSU, Army, UND, Wyoming.
Zach Vraa - ZERO B10 offers - Zero. Offers from NDSU, UND.
A.J. Tarpley - ZERO B10 offers - Zero. Offers from K State, Stanford, UCF. With those offers, maybe he made it clear that he was moving away, I have no idea.

Please tell me your user name on every other B10 board (plus links, 'cause I don't creep), so I can see what you've posted lambasting those other institutions for foregoing these "awesome players".
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Eric Decker: zero B10 offers was going to St Johns but for the U. MB lll: zero B10 offers but for the U.
 

Indi1006 said:
Eric Decker: zero B10 offers was going to St Johns but for the U. MB lll: zero B10 offers but for the U.
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I'd really like to see someone put together a list of all the first-team all-state football players that went to FCS or MAC schools and weren't stars. Something tells me that list would be much, much, much longer than the list of guys that the Gophers have let go elsewhere that they ended up regretting.

ZOMG! They didn't bat 1.000 when offering MN players! The only logical response is to offer every star from the Metro!
 

The Coaching staff had him in camp several times so they've been able to get to know him personally & evaluate him physically at length. These things are far more important than who else has offered him imo.

He's the 7th ranked player in the state (not a big deal) but wasn't able to play as Junior due to injury, which puts that ranking into perspective. The staff wanted to see some early tape of his Senior season, they got it & offered immediately. This is the kind of guy who could have ended up with some nice offers Nationally as other schools saw this film so I'm happy enough to get him now.

He seems to catch the ball well enough, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him move to Tackle at some point because he's a nasty run blocker. He really gets after it & plays with a mean streak. After watching us get pushed around by Iowa I think the staff is actively recruiting guys with some nasty in them.
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
The Coaching staff had him in camp several times so they've been able to get to know him personally & evaluate him physically at length. These things are far more important than who else has offered him imo.

He's the 7th ranked player in the state (not a big deal) but wasn't able to play as Junior due to injury, which puts that ranking into perspective. The staff wanted to see some early tape of his Senior season, they got it & offered immediately. This is the kind of guy who could have ended up with some nice offers Nationally as other schools saw this film so I'm happy enough to get him now.

He seems to catch the ball well enough, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him move to Tackle at some point because he's a nasty run blocker. He really gets after it & plays with a mean streak. After watching us get pushed around by Iowa I think the staff is actively recruiting guys with some nasty in them.
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Wow...this sounds oddly familiar! Does Ben Lauer ring a bell? TRUST THE COACHES!!!!
 

SamSquatch said:
Congrats to the kid. If he's ready to work his ass off to see the field in a few years, than more power to him.

I don't see why we added another TE though. I am excited about Elmore and we have a young TE contingent with Goodger, Plesek, and Williams already established, and all returning next year. In a small recruiting cycle, taking a flyer on a second, less-heralded TE is questionable.

Unfortunately, we had a great opportunity to make a strong impression with some well-regarded recruits on Saturday, and we completely bungled it. It was a bad showing in front of some legit prospects. Our recruiting will be reflected in our on-field performances, and recruiting evaluations do matter.

Anyway, glad you're excited to be a Gopher, Brandon. Welcome to the squad.
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OK....let me begin by saying I'm not a recruiting guru. However, I'd be willing to wager that I've seen Elmore play more than 95% of the posters on GH. He's a phenomenal athlete and I DOUBT he will stay at TE. Although he's playing against small school competition, he's unblockable as a DE. I saw him play about 3 weeks ago and he was going up against a 285 pound tackle who's getting looks from the MAC and he absolutely destroyed the kid. Pushed him into the backfield on just about every play. I really believe his future is as a stud DE....he's already about 230-240 and agile. So perhaps the latest commit makes more sense......
 

Indi1006 said:
Eric Decker: zero B10 offers was going to St Johns but for the U. MB lll: zero B10 offers but for the U.
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And most everyone here would agree that both of them were under the radar type of guys out of High School because they didn't have big time offers. That's what "under the radar" means. You're just proving our point even more by bringing them up.

There are dozens of players that are great in High School. That doesn't mean they will automatically be great at the next level.
 

MOAR TROJAN RECRUITS!!!!!
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9psHkhRnr94" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 

AO54 said:
it's an honest opinion, but a stupid one. Lingen might have committed to FAU before the Gophers offered. You might be able to flip some of those kids with verbals to smaller schools, but not all of them.
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If we can't convince a Minnesota kid to switch from Florida Atlantic we might as well shut the program down.
 

Gopherprof said:
If we can't convince a Minnesota kid to switch from Florida Atlantic we might as well shut the program down.
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Not every situation is the same. Some kids will keep their commitment even if they get better offers.

While living in North Carolina, I knew a HS baseball player who committed to a good D2 school after his junior year, then blew up as a senior and had offers from good D1 schools but stuck with his commitment. He was a 3-time All-American and now plays in Double-A.

I know that isn't the norm, but I don't think it is ever a 100% certainty that a kid will switch commitments.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Not every situation is the same. Some kids will keep their commitment even if they get better offers.

While living in North Carolina, I knew a HS baseball player who committed to a good D2 school after his junior year, then blew up as a senior and had offers from good D1 schools but stuck with his commitment. He was a 3-time All-American and now plays in Double-A.

I know that isn't the norm, but I don't think it is ever a 100% certainty that a kid will switch commitments.
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College baseball also doesn't have the extreme hierarchy that football does. My comment was mostly in jest either way.
 

Unregistered User said:
Billy Turner - ZERO B10 offers - Zero. Offers from NDSU, Illinois St., UND, Northern Iowa.
Grant Olson - ZERO B10 offers - Zero. Offers from NDSU, Army, UND, Wyoming.
Zach Vraa - ZERO B10 offers - Zero. Offers from NDSU, UND.
A.J. Tarpley - ZERO B10 offers - Zero. Offers from K State, Stanford, UCF. With those offers, maybe he made it clear that he was moving away, I have no idea.

Please tell me your user name on every other B10 board (plus links, 'cause I don't creep), so I can see what you've posted lambasting those other institutions for foregoing these "awesome players".
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AJ Tarpley and Grant Olson -- The Gophers signed linebackers Dwayne Mitchell and Willie Tatum. Willie didn't make it the year and Dwayne transferred the next year.
Billy Turner -- The Gophers signed five offensive linemen including Gjere and Epping. Matt Eggen was gone before the 2011 season and Ragoo didn't make it through fall practice.
Zach Vraa -- Actually, not signing him is probably as strange as having no interest in Tarpley. Brewster grabbed Cameron Wilson in June of the next year. That was strange to me, but maybe someone else can explain that to me.
 


EE_Gopher said:
AJ Tarpley and Grant Olson -- The Gophers signed linebackers Dwayne Mitchell and Willie Tatum. Willie didn't make it the year and Dwayne transferred the next year.
Billy Turner -- The Gophers signed five offensive linemen including Gjere and Epping. Matt Eggen was gone before the 2011 season and Ragoo didn't make it through fall practice.
Zach Vraa -- Actually, not signing him is probably as strange as having no interest in Tarpley. Brewster grabbed Cameron Wilson in June of the next year. That was strange to me, but maybe someone else can explain that to me.
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Cameron Wilson is a legacy. His Dad played for the Gophers. He was also an incredibly late offer, as you note, because they struck out with their first options.
 

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