Gophers just beat a team with three 5-Stars, forty-three 4-Stars, and 33 3-Stars

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hungan1

hungan1

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Not very many in the sports media gave MN a chance to beat Auburn the #13 team in the country talent-wise by 247SPorts.

The Gophers got their rest to heal and be 100 percent for this game inspite of Paulson, Fa'alele, and Martin being out.

The Gophers are ranked #46 talent-wise with 0 5-Stars, 5 4-Stars, and 74 3-Stars.

Fleck has always said that the Gophers are a developmental program. They develop and coach kids up to 4-Star and 5-Star levels.
 

Yes, but...there is a clear bias toward higher rankings (artificially) for those getting interest by blue bloods. By default, the minute it is known Auburn is looking at a player, that player gets an artificial ratings boost. There is no way in hell that Auburn was that much more raw-talented than the Gophers today. Some? sure. Overwhelming? No way. Be skeptical of that bias.
 

For Minnesota to beat down Auburn in that effort, even with all the subjective calls going Auburn's way and spotting them 10 points right off the bat, shows that there's not a talent gap overall. MN had the talent advantage at QB, receiver, O line (which surprised me), and probably defensive backs and running back. Similar to Penn State where they had the advantage at D Line, tight end and maybe O line, but not elsewhere.
 

Panthadad2 said:
For Minnesota to beat down Auburn in that effort, even with all the subjective calls going Auburn's way and spotting them 10 points right off the bat, shows that there's not a talent gap overall. MN had the talent advantage at QB, receiver, O line (which surprised me), and probably defensive backs and running back. Similar to Penn State where they had the advantage at D Line, tight end and maybe O line, but not elsewhere.
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We had the better tight end room today too.
 




cncmin said:
Yes, but...there is a clear bias toward higher rankings (artificially) for those getting interest by blue bloods. By default, the minute it is known Auburn is looking at a player, that player gets an artificial ratings boost. There is no way in hell that Auburn was that much more raw-talented than the Gophers today. Some? sure. Overwhelming? No way. Be skeptical of that bias.
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That's not really how it works.
 


cncmin said:
Fify
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Someone needs to tell the NFL then, because there are a lot more Auburn players in the NFL. You guys seem to think the more physically talented team wins every time, that's where the error lies.
 



SECSPN would have you believe the SEC is the best conference though....
 

We kept getting told by the broadcast team that Auburn has the greatest defense in the history of college football. Kept waiting for them to show up. Must have had the day off.
 

btowngopher said:
Someone needs to tell the NFL then, because there are a lot more Auburn players in the NFL. You guys seem to think the more physically talented team wins every time, that's where the error lies.
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By your logic, this year’s Auburn squad will put about 50-60 players in the NFL; the Gophers maybe a few. I don’t think so.

Reread my argument. It fits with the observed data. Can you make an honest argument that the Gophers were "out-athleticized" at almost every position today? No way.
 

cncmin said:
By your logic, this year’s Auburn squad will put about 50-60 players in the NFL; the Gophers maybe a few. I don’t think so.

Reread my argument. It fits with the observed data. Can you make an honest argument that the Gophers were "out-athleticized" at almost every position today? No way.
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How is that my logic? There isn't a huge gap between high 3 star players and 4 star players. Good coaching and experience can more than make up that gap. It's no surprise though that the player in the game that will be drafted the highest just so happens to be one of the three five stars playing in the game, that being Derrick Brown.
 



btowngopher said:
How is that my logic? There isn't a huge gap between high 3 star players and 4 star players. Good coaching and experience can more than make up that gap. It's no surprise though that the player in the game that will be drafted the highest just so happens to be one of the three five stars playing in the game, that being Derrick Brown.
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Understood. And that also fits with my earlier post. Note that I'm suggesting small bumps in ratings, not large ones. Those small bumps are the differences between low-4-stars and high-3-stars, between mid-3s and high-3s, and so forth. So be it.
 
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Auburn is overall a faster team with more high ranked athletes. MN beat them today. Might be a different outcome tomorrow
 



PJ taught the Gophers how to change their best. He motivated the heck out of them. I'd like to hear the pregame, half-time, and post game speeches. The endorphins must be in the stratosphere.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
Auburn is overall a faster team with more high ranked athletes. MN beat them today. Might be a different outcome tomorrow
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MN dominated Auburn in nearly every facet other than kickoff. Who cares how athletic they are if they can’t block and tackle well. It’s called college football not college recruiting rankings. That’s the point of this thread
 

A very talented Auburn team lost to a team today that has the heart of a champion!

Go Gophers!
 

#2Gopher said:
No...same score tomorrow. Nothing changes. You can relax.
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I am relaxed. Just simply said gophers beat a team that had a overall more talented roster. It’s a credit to the team. If they played tomorrow the outcome could be different. But you only have to be better on game day
 

gopherbadgerman said:
Auburn is overall a faster team with more high ranked athletes. MN beat them today. Might be a different outcome tomorrow
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Are they? Minnesota did whatever they wanted on offense today. How are you figuring they are faster? By what people say or what you saw today? What I saw today was we dominated a good auburn team. Faster? I dont think so.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
I am relaxed. Just simply said gophers beat a team that had a overall more talented roster. It’s a credit to the team. If they played tomorrow the outcome could be different. But you only have to be better on game day
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Combine invites and draft results should confirm this take.
 

Watching the game, I didn’t get the impression there was a huge talent gap between these teams, as I was expecting.

Leading up to the game, the Auburn fans touted average star ratings as the reason they were going to boat race the Gophers, just like the Nebraska and Penn State fans did. When will they ever learn? The same logic could be used with Alabama and Auburn. On paper, Alabama should win that game 9 times out of ten.

Many times, when the less talented team wins one of these games, we can point to a couple lucky bounces or great plays as the difference, rather than complete domination in the trenches, as we saw in the Outback Bowl. There was nothing at all flukey about it. Auburn was lucky it was as close as it was.
 
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btowngopher said:
Someone needs to tell the NFL then, because there are a lot more Auburn players in the NFL. You guys seem to think the more physically talented team wins every time, that's where the error lies.
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Because the NFL never gets it wrong and overestimates talent based on the school you played for. That's what my friend Laquon T. tells me anyway.
 

Auburn has ten players at the combine though. Could it be that Auburn was not particularly motivated to play the Gophers as they would have been to play Alabama or LSU?
 

Otis said:
Auburn has ten players at the combine though. Could it be that Auburn was not particularly motivated to play the Gophers as they would have been to play Alabama or LSU?
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Yeah...some like to put an asterisk on these games too. Do the same with the Penn State win, in the name of talent ratings.
 

Minny's offense is made up mostly of Sophs, a couple Jrs, a frosh or two. So sure, Auburn is going to have more players in the NFL, DUH. In that regard we are still recovering from the last few Glen Mason years and then the idiot's 4 years. Kill started us on the road to being a top notch football program deep with talent, but his philosophy of brick by brick is very apt. Takes time to build a house laying brick by brick. Fleck seems to me more of the kind of guy who comes in with pre-fab walls all ready to set up at a much quicker pace.

UMn was down to almost no one in the NFL, Kill got a few into the league, now Fleck is going to turn UMn into an NFL factory, not as much as Bama or OSU is, more of our guys will end up in the NFL as coaches probably, or in some other types of sports related jobs, and if the XFL survives, we might send more that way, I almost hope we do, as those are guys who will stick around for 4-5 seasons and make us a very experienced team every year, and help us remain a stable consistent power in cfb.

But my original point, our offense is loaded with underclassmen, so we got 4 in this year and Auburn got in 9? Wait til 2021, that's when we might be the team getting 9 in.
 

Otis said:
Auburn has ten players at the combine though. Could it be that Auburn was not particularly motivated to play the Gophers as they would have been to play Alabama or LSU?
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Or more likely it is a case of Auburn may have more prototypical NFL talents (size, speed, athletic ability) then we do.

If you go athlete by athlete through the rosters and lined them up side by side I am sure Auburn would win most of those battles from a pure athlete standpoint.

Just having the best athletes doesn't guarantee you anything. The right athletes paired with the right coaching staff can beat better athletes. It happens all the time.
 

A nonymous said:
MN dominated Auburn in nearly every facet other than kickoff. Who cares how athletic they are if they can’t block and tackle well. It’s called college football not college recruiting rankings. That’s the point of this thread
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Correct. I do hope this improves dramatically next year. Painful to watch.
 

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