Gophers heavyweight wrestler Tony Nelson considers Football

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Unless he gets a waiver, I don't believe he can play with the team. According to his page, he started school in 2009 and redshirted his first season. That means his 5 year clock started in fall of 2009 and will expire right about the time that football season starts. It's possible, though, that he didn't start school in the fall of '09 and waited until winter '10, in which case he'd have 1 season of football eligibility since his clock won't run out until after the season.

Does anyone know more about this?
 

2727Gopher said:
Unless he gets a waiver, I don't believe he can play with the team. According to his page, he started school in 2009 and redshirted his first season. That means his 5 year clock started in fall of 2009 and will expire right about the time that football season starts. It's possible, though, that he didn't start school in the fall of '09 and waited until winter '10, in which case he'd have 1 season of football eligibility since his clock won't run out until after the season.

Does anyone know more about this?
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I would guess he enrolled in the fall like most and his D1 eligibility should be expired prior to next season. I know the rules are different at D-III and I would presume D-II for different sports, maybe that has changed at the D-I level and he'd have 1 season to play.
 




GoldenRodents said:
Brock Lesnar should have done this
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He did consider it and it didn't work out. I do remember him playing in what I think was the spring game after completing his wrestling career. Why it didn't work out I don't know? If I were to guess, he either couldn't make the transition or was set on becoming a professional wrestler.
 





Tony is about 6'4" and 285 lbs. I believe he has to cut slightly to make the heavyweight limit. Carries that size at ~7% body fat.


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mcgi0024 said:
Tony is about 6'4" and 285 lbs. I believe he has to cut slightly to make the heavyweight limit. Carries that size at ~7% body fat.


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:eek::clap:
 

MNGoldenGophers1 said:
He did consider it and it didn't work out. I do remember him playing in what I think was the spring game after completing his wrestling career. Why it didn't work out I don't know? If I were to guess, he either couldn't make the transition or was set on becoming a professional wrestler.
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Because he got absolutely abused by the offensive linemen that he faced. When he tried out for the Vikings, it was man against boy...and Brock was the boy.

 

A lot of the basic principles of wrestling correlate to football - Balance, footwork, using your hands to control an opponent, etc. I live in SW MN, and I see a lot of HS kids who are very good in both sports. In my experience, wrestlers are very motivated, they're always in good shape, and they love to compete. If Nelson wants to give it a try, more power to him.
 



I wouldn't be surprised if this turned out better than the Brock Lesnar experiment since college athletes aren't on the same level as the big boys.

If he could just be a guy to come in when the regulars need a rest for 10 or so snaps a game I'd be very happy about that.
 

Brock's shortcomings were likely due to his lack of commitment. Stephen Neal who he lost to in the NCAA finals as a junior (and who did not play college football), went through the developmental leagues and eventually became a pro-bowl offensive guard for the Patriots.


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mcgi0024 said:
Brock's shortcomings were likely due to his lack of commitment. Stephen Neal who he lost to in the NCAA finals as a junior (and who did not play college football), went through the developmental leagues and eventually became a pro-bowl offensive guard for the Patriots.


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Thanks - This is an excellent and very interesting post in that it shows what is possible.
 

Lesnar was a vastly superior athlete to Neal where Neal was a better technical wrestler. I would have actually predicted the opposite outcome.


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Gopher wrestler Tony Nelson says he may join Gopher football team

Listen to Tony Nelson at 1500 ESPN – Click on the link to access button to hear it. It appears it would only be for this fall semester and he would probably play on the defensive line.

http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/gophers
 

By saying "only for fall semester," you're insinuating he'll miss our New Years Day bowl game?


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If Lesnar would have went in to football after college instead of heading to the WWE first, I am pretty confident he would have been a very good NFL player. Not only did that increase the time between his last HS football game and the next time he put the pads on, but the wear/tear of a few years of the WWE travel schedule couldn't help things.

I remember when Shelton Benjamin (who also went to WWE) was rumored to join the Gopher football team. He was another superior athlete who might have made a successful transition to football.
 

Prior to coming to the U Shelton Benjamin was a 2x JUCO heavyweight wrestling champ and a 2x JUCO 100M dash champ in track. He was a freakish athlete.


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