Hole Poll: What grade would you give the 2020 Gophers football recruiting class?

[GopherHole Staff]

Hole Poll: What grade would you give the 2020 Gophers football recruiting class?

 

[MNVCGUY]

Feels like a solid B on paper. Good balance with the late editions and seems solid from top to bottom. Will be fun to see how these guys develop and if any of them are able to make an immediate impact.

Also still a few potential openings so class could get a boost at the late signing day.

 

[BeerFueledFF]

B+ class for me, needed a few more 4* guys to get it to a solid A.

 

[PMWinSTP]

Looks good...but I'll let you know in Feb when all the dust has settled.

 

[Spoofin]

8th/9th in the B1G seems like a C, but I am not a believer in Recruiting Rankings in the 20-50 range and have seen enough from PJ to trust his recruiting. Solid B.

 

[Pete smith]

Bottom half of the West. Hard to give anything but a C- to a D. Very disappointing.

 

[MNVCGUY]

8th/9th in the B1G seems like a C, but I am not a believer in Recruiting Rankings in the 20-50 range and have seen enough from PJ to trust his recruiting. Solid B.

The crazy part of that 8/9 ranking in the conference is that overall we are 32nd. Basically the Big Ten and SEC dominate the top 30 in the rankings with the other power 5 schools mixed in. Here is how we would stack up currently compared to the other power 5 conferences:

ACC - 6th
Big 12 - 4th
Pac 12 - 5th

I would say the separation between the classes gets really thin even earlier then 20. Once you get beyond those elite schools at the top it is pretty much a tossup.

 

[Spoofin]

The crazy part of that 8/9 ranking in the conference is that overall we are 32nd. Basically the Big Ten and SEC dominate the top 30 in the rankings with the other power 5 schools mixed in. Here is how we would stack up currently compared to the other power 5 conferences:

ACC - 6th
Big 12 - 4th
Pac 12 - 5th

I would say the separation between the classes gets really thin even earlier then 20. Once you get beyond those elite schools at the top it is pretty much a tossup.

Careful Now....

 

[GoGophersUMN]

I hope that eventually a class like this will be considered a C or D but for now it is easily a B. Still behind the top schools so it shouldn't be an A but way ahead of most of our previous recruiting classes so C would be too low.

 

[PMWinSTP]

The crazy part of that 8/9 ranking in the conference is that overall we are 32nd. Basically the Big Ten and SEC dominate the top 30 in the rankings with the other power 5 schools mixed in. Here is how we would stack up currently compared to the other power 5 conferences:

ACC - 6th
Big 12 - 4th
Pac 12 - 5th

I would say the separation between the classes gets really thin even earlier then 20. Once you get beyond those elite schools at the top it is pretty much a tossup.

There's a decent chance Gophs end up 10th in B1G when the dust settles.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I want a "hell if I know" option.

 

[northeast_mpls_guy]

Solid B. The 3 or 4 guys that committed in the last week really bumped it up a notch

 

[hungan1]

I am feeling good about the Defense.

 

[gophernut1]

High end talent = C - not happy with only 2 four stars.

Overall Class = B - what is amazing is how every recruit we get seems to have competitive P5 offers. The overall depth of this class is impressive. While I would love a few more high profile recruits, I am very happy with having an entire class that seems to be ranked well.

 

[Plato]

It all depends on the numbers that are used. The four digit significant numbers are a scam.
In the real world of math that is one not inhabited by recruitniks those numbers should be rounded up to one or at the most two significant figures.
.8740=.9 or.88 Try that with the numbers and you will see that various schools are closer together.

 

[btowngopher]

Fleck seems to do a good job of identifying and addressing needs. This class does that. I love how we didn't bother signing a QB, and only took 1 RB. I thought all the WRs were getting out of hand, but now it all made sense with some of them likely not signing and VanDyne leaving. The five DEs hopefully produce a future pass rush. Depth was added to every other position. I liked that we took 2 clear safeties. The linebacker group looks very athletic and fast. The punter was a solid add. Only think missing is a big DT, but that group was stacked last year, and Saad looked very impressive on film.

 

[BroncoRedux]

I don't think it was the class that PJ promised when hired but a 10 - 2 regular season softens some of the disappointment. Two years in a row the defensive line has been emphasized. There should be a nice return from those players in 2021 and 2022. The linebacker position has also been strengthen,.

So when the Gopher open the 2021 season at home against Ohio State, we'll see if PJ recruited the right players. It's going to be a hell of an opener.

 

[BeerFueledFF]

It all depends on the numbers that are used. The four digit significant numbers are a scam.
In the real world of math that is one not inhabited by recruitniks those numbers should be rounded up to one or at the most two significant figures.
.8740=.9 or.88 Try that with the numbers and you will see that various schools are closer together.

Those 4 sig digits are only used when they average the three recruiting platforms together into a composite ranking. None of the individual platforms are anywhere near that specific.

 

[HoustonTXGopher]

I voted C, but if C+ were an option I would have voted that way. Could end up being an A or an F, only time will tell.

 

[#2Gopher]

Bottom half of the West. Hard to give anything but a C- to a D. Very disappointing.

You haven't seen these guys perform in the Big 10 yet. Why would you say very disappointing?

 

[Bayfieldgopher]

They are all just "Paper Lions" at this point.

 

[Plato]

Those 4 sig digits are only used when they average the three recruiting platforms together into a composite ranking. None of the individual platforms are anywhere near that specific.

That is correct.
But when you report a composite or average the answer cannot be in more significant figures than least significant figure in the group you are averaging. If one scouting report use 1-5 stars then the composite using that report can be in only one significant figure. Reports I have seen are using up to six significant figures. You can believe them particularly if you pay to get the reports but they practice math lies.

 

[EG#9]

I really struggled with whether or not to give this class a "B" or a "C" and eventually ended up with the "C" option. I don't really agree with those who are saying this class is "9th" in the B1G. While that is the composite ranking, the truth is nothing really separates 6-10 in the B1G rankings they are so bunched together. Minnesota could easily be 6th in the composite ranking right now and it wouldn't change my feelings about the class.

Positives: The Gophers continue to recruit at the level of Wisconsin and Iowa when it comes to out of state recruiting. The bottom of the Gopher classes now are comparable in offers/ratings to top 1/3 of the class players not that long ago. For example, Victor Pless, rated a composite .8410, would have been the 8th highest (out of 24, 25 with him) recruit in the 2015 class. Pless had offers from Louisville, Syracuse, Boston College, and Indiana and is just kind of a "meh" recruit for us now. Towards the bottom of that 2015 class was Kiante Hardin whose best offer was either Tulsa, Toledo, Bowling Green or Army. When I was making my decision between "B" and "C" stuff like this was the most compelling argument to go with a "B"- maybe we are getting too used to a certain standard of recruiting too quickly.

Negatives: The Gophers continue to fall well behind the level of Wisconsin and Iowa when it comes to in state recruiting. Wisconsin clearly separated itself from the pack of schools ranked 6-10 in the B1G by landing two stud in-state tackles and lading Kaden Johnson from Minnesota. Wisconsin would actually land the top 4 Wisconsin kids in this class. Take away one of those top 3 kids though, and Wisconsin is right with the group from 6-10. Iowa landed the top player in their state, a defensive end, and 4 of the top 7 total. If you add in Iowa landing Black from Minnesota, they had 4 kids combined from Iowa/Minnesota that were above their average recruit rating. In contrast, Minnesota had just two Minnesota kids that were above their average recruit rating and a Wisconsin kid (without a Wisconsin offer) who was exactly at their average rating. It's great to get the talent from wherever you can get it, but you can't be losing the local kids to the border schools unless you are doing even better out of state than the Gophers are currently doing. The inability to close the borders is really the difference between a class equal to Wisconsin's and above Iowa's and a class that is below Wisconsin's and equal to Iowa's. The extra frustrating thing is that this issue has already started with the '21 class with the top Minnesota kid choosing Wisconsin and the second ranked kid choosing Iowa.

The other issue I have with this class and what kind of broke the tie between the "B" and "C" grades is the success of Nebraska, Purdue, and Maryland. All 3 schools had disappointing seasons, yet Nebraska killed it on the recruiting trail to the point of having the best class in the West by a large margin. Purdue, for at least the second year in a row, was able to bring in a class that rivals Minnesota's on paper. If you are losing ground to Nebraska (and everyone did) and not separating from Purdue (or really Northwestern), who are you really beating in the West as far as recruiting? Just Illinois? It's pretty much 1. Nebraska 2. Wisconsin and 3-6 is pick your flavor between Iowa, Minnesota, Purdue, and Northwestern.

In the end this is a "C" from me with the hope that the strong start to 2021 out of state recruiting, the stong season on the field in '19, and a follow up strong season on the field in '20 leads to an "A" grade for the '21 class.

 

[fmlizard]

I sort of wanted to say C because it feels a little underwhelming in the rankings for all the momentum built this season. But it's a B.

We're right there with Wisconsin and Iowa. Wisconsin has been stuck in the 20s in recruiting rankings for many years in spite of all the success they have had. Nebraska's still out-recruiting them on paper in many years. Moving the needle on a team's place in the historical recruiting hierarchy is hard, as is overcoming geographic disadvantages. Oregon's probably had the best luck at it, and they bought a lot of that.

 

[Bayfieldgopher]

Gophers top two recruits are ranked #308 (Brown .8982) & #311(Jackson .8978) by 247 and averages .8584.

To put things into perspective, Clemson has seven players ranked in the top 30!!! OSU averages .9204, Michigan .8952 and PSU .8949.

 

[MNVCGUY]

The other issue I have with this class and what kind of broke the tie between the "B" and "C" grades is the success of Nebraska, Purdue, and Maryland. All 3 schools had disappointing seasons, yet Nebraska killed it on the recruiting trail to the point of having the best class in the West by a large margin. Purdue, for at least the second year in a row, was able to bring in a class that rivals Minnesota's on paper. If you are losing ground to Nebraska (and everyone did) and not separating from Purdue (or really Northwestern), who are you really beating in the West as far as recruiting? Just Illinois? It's pretty much 1. Nebraska 2. Wisconsin and 3-6 is pick your flavor between Iowa, Minnesota, Purdue, and Northwestern.

In the end this is a "C" from me with the hope that the strong start to 2021 out of state recruiting, the stong season on the field in '19, and a follow up strong season on the field in '20 leads to an "A" grade for the '21 class.

I get where you are coming from to a certain degree but I disagree with the part in bold, especially as it pertains to Nebraska. In my opinion this is putting way to much stock in the rankings and treating them as fact as opposed to opinion.

Look at Nebraska, since 2015 every class of theirs has ranked 4th or 5th in the conference. Over that same time period they have 1 winning season (9-4) and 4 where they finished below .500. They have also failed to qualify for a bowl (not hard to do these days) 3 straight times.

Contrast that with Minnesota. Over that same stretch our average team ranking according to 247 has been 10th yet we have 3 seasons with winning records and only missed a bowl game 1 time.

There is value in recruiting rankings but it is limited once you get past the best of the best. On paper, Nebraska has kicked our butt in recruiting over the past 6 years....so would you prefer to have their recruiting classes or our results?

 

[MNVCGUY]

Gophers top two recruits are ranked #308 (Brown .8982) & #311(Jackson .8978) by 247 and averages .8584.

To put things into perspective, Clemson has seven players ranked in the top 30!!! OSU averages .9204, Michigan .8952 and PSU .8949.

If you are going to judge our recruiting classes against places like Clemson, Ohio State...you will almost always be disappointed. Those are helmet schools located in prime recruiting hotbeds. On paper we are always going to struggle to keep pace with schools like that in recruiting.

The trick is finding the right players to be able to hang with those schools on the field. Even if those players don't have the same number of stars next to their name.

 

[Dano564]

I was thinking B, but I watched what PJ had to say about the guys, and I went with an A.

Expecting much better at this stage seems a bit unreasonable to me. We're consistently setting higher recruiting trends on the overall rankings (consecutively above 50's) and seems to be trending upwards. The weakest players in our classes have seen the most improvement. We don't seem to be settling to fill a spot as much anymore.

Previous years it might be easier to identify the weakest couple kids in the group where now it seems the floor to the class has been raised.

Would like more 4 and 5 starts, but that doesn't happen overnight.


I don't know how Nebraska keeps getting high ranking players year after year despite not being a major power for 20 years no matter who the coach is.

Seems really odd.

 

[BeerFueledFF]

I was thinking B, but I watched what PJ had to say about the guys, and I went with an A.

Expecting much better at this stage seems a bit unreasonable to me. We're consistently setting higher recruiting trends on the overall rankings (consecutively above 50's) and seems to be trending upwards. The weakest players in our classes have seen the most improvement. We don't seem to be settling to fill a spot as much anymore.

Previous years it might be easier to identify the weakest couple kids in the group where now it seems the floor to the class has been raised.

Would like more 4 and 5 starts, but that doesn't happen overnight.


I don't know how Nebraska keeps getting high ranking players year after year despite not being a major power for 20 years no matter who the coach is.

Seems really odd.

Nebraska probably has another 5-10 years of good will left if I were to take a guess to where the recruiting rankings will begin to slide down to where they should be given the location and team performance. If they can't get back to a contender by then, the kids they are recruiting won't even have parents who remember when Nebraska was a major college football force.

 

[Bayfieldgopher]

If you are going to judge our recruiting classes against places like Clemson, Ohio State...you will almost always be disappointed. Those are helmet schools located in prime recruiting hotbeds. On paper we are always going to struggle to keep pace with schools like that in recruiting.

The trick is finding the right players to be able to hang with those schools on the field. Even if those players don't have the same number of stars next to their name.

Not judging as I realize we are far behind the top schools in the rankings. I've always said that whoever is the coach, getting Minnesota to the level to compete with the best in CFB is a huge task.