How much do recruits care about this?

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You are correct. Maybe when this little O'bannon thing is over the hungry legal team can represent the players harmed by this false advertising...
 

I have been a critic of the U of M Marketing Department, but I think this time they've hit the mark. Yes, they could add more to the video and marketing material, but they have pretty much nailed the appeal to parents. They even put in a little "Hook" regarding the music atmosphere.

Since they put out the appeal to a parent, they have left some areas to WOW the recruits. For instance; the lakes. Yes they showed a little of the lakes and the recreation that takes place, but they left a lot out for the host to wow the visitors. Also, the vibrant downtown with Nicollet Mall and the fact that you can get anywhere on the Skyways.

Coming from a longtime critic; I like it!

Also, who doesn't love the St Paul Winter Carnival and the Crashed Ice Tour. Seriously, we handle winter well and offer a lot no matter what season.
 

maroonedinCA said:
Here's the problem, even when doing that it's not like we're competing against nobodies. Some schools, off the top of my head, that can say they're in a big metro area (some likely straddle the line between college town and big city) with job prospects and such:

-Austin, Texas (UT)
-Berkely, CA (UC) and Palo Alto, CA (Stanford) (pretty much San Francisco)
-Los Angeles, CA (USC/UCLA)
-Seattle, WA (UW)
-Chicago, IL (NU)
-Miami, FL (UM)
-Dallas (TCU)
-Atlanta, GA (GT, UGA-stretch)

Maybe I'm wrong but a few of those cities, especially to a 17/18 year old, likely have greater appeal and just as good of job prospects especially for those not 100% in-tune with what the Twin Cities actually offers.
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I was thinking this also especially the Northwestern example. They have the same business opportunities with better academic credentials and are ahead of us substantially in the race to build facilities. Given that we are competing for primarily the same recruits, parents may see NU as the more appealing alternative.
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
I was thinking this also especially the Northwestern example. They have the same business opportunities with better academic credentials and are ahead of us substantially in the race to build facilities. Given that we are competing for primarily the same recruits, parents may see NU as the more appealing alternative.
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Northwestern is also a private institution and is substantially more difficult to get into than the U (itself fairly difficult to get into). There are a significant number of players who want to pursue business and could get in here but not at Northwestern. Also, as previously mentioned, if someone is interested in an urban atmosphere, Northwestern is nowhere near that and is not conveniently located near downtown.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Northwestern is also a private institution and is substantially more difficult to get into than the U (itself fairly difficult to get into). There are a significant number of players who want to pursue business and could get in here but not at Northwestern. Also, as previously mentioned, if someone is interested in an urban atmosphere, Northwestern is nowhere near that and is not conveniently located near downtown.
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To be fair, the Purple Line makes it relatively easy to get to the Loop.
 




El Amin Fan said:
This is obviously a huge factor in the great quality of life we have here in Minnesota. The diversity in industry in our business climate here as well as the per capita number of Fortune 500s that we have is awesome. And I'm glad that the U touts this both for traditional students and for athletes. But I'm curious, how many recruits truly care about this? Is it 4-5 a year in football? More? Less? Is it the deciding factor for 2-3 football recruits a year? More/less?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>19 Fortune 500 companies and the largest private company in the US. Minnesota is a land of opportunity! <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Gophers&src=hash">#Gophers</a> <a href="http://t.co/qhFjL1ItBh">pic.twitter.com/qhFjL1ItBh</a></p>— GopherGridiron (@GopherGridiron) <a href="https://twitter.com/GopherGridiron/statuses/476097582343540739">June 9, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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I just wish the photo was actually of Cargill's headquarters. Pictured is not the HQ, just one of the large local buildings.
 

maroonedinCA said:
Haha, fair enough. Prior to light rail, how long is the walk to downtown Minneapolis from TCF?
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The walk can be made in under 45 minutes if you hustle (in undergrad, my girlfriend and I made that hustle to get from marching at a football game to watching one of the last Twins games in the Dome). If you avail yourself of the 16 bus and a $90/semester UPass, you can be there in 5-10 minutes with a bus running every 10 minutes.
 



A surprising number of recruits mention academics and specific academic programs as important factors in selecting a school. Many know that an NFL career would be nice but are realistic enough to know they need a good backup plan, hence, an interest in what happens after college football. Having all these opportunities in the TC's is a plus. Go to Iowa City and even Madison and you won't find any where near the job possibilities after graduation as there are in the TC's.
 

proudgopher said:
Go to Iowa City and even Madison and you won't find any where near the job possibilities after graduation as there are in the TC's.
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They have opportunities, the only problem is they are all in the Twin Cities haha
 


fryguy22 said:
A lot of these actually aren't in urban areas though (if you're selling e.g. a skyline). Berkeley and Stanford are WAY different than being in SF, hell, Stanford's campus is called "the farm" by the Bay Area. TCU is in Fort Worth not like it's in downtown Dallas. GT is a stretch as you rightfully pointed out. NU is not close to downtown Chicago and it's not convenient to get downtown from there. Even a school like UT is in a college town - I know it's exploded and gotten huge recently, but the scene still feels more Madison than Minneapolis.

I actually think we are pretty differentiated with how "urban" our campus feels and agree we should try and sell that - lots of people don't like it, but lots do as well. I personally loved it from day one.
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I thought GT was right in the middle of ATL? UG is a ways away in Athens right?
 




Maybe the U of M marketing people have done post signing in processing. The actual recruit debriefed, the coaches, recruiting coordinator input. What works, what doesn't. Which recruits did we not get, and why? This would be the insight to this campaign.
 

husker70 said:
Maybe the U of M marketing people have done post signing in processing. The actual recruit debriefed, the coaches, recruiting coordinator input. What works, what doesn't. Which recruits did we not get, and why? This would be the insight to this campaign.
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There you go again Husker, using proven methods and tactics instead of just guessing and throwing **** against the wall. We will have none of your high thinking, might actually work, do something attitude in the U or M's marketing offices!
 

maroonedinCA said:
Here's the problem, even when doing that it's not like we're competing against nobodies. Some schools, off the top of my head, that can say they're in a big metro area (some likely straddle the line between college town and big city) with job prospects and such:

-Austin, Texas (UT)
-Berkely, CA (UC) and Palo Alto, CA (Stanford) (pretty much San Francisco)
-Los Angeles, CA (USC/UCLA)
-Seattle, WA (UW)
-Chicago, IL (NU)
-Miami, FL (UM)
-Dallas (TCU)
-Atlanta, GA (GT, UGA-stretch)

Maybe I'm wrong but a few of those cities, especially to a 17/18 year old, likely have greater appeal and just as good of job prospects especially for those not 100% in-tune with what the Twin Cities actually offers.
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What kind of things would you suggest the U focus on to differentiate themselves?
 


They win football games every year. Mission accomplished?
 

Schnauzer said:
They win football games every year. Mission accomplished?
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Fine, be a wiseguy about it: win more games. Looking around I find very few examples of schools that have been hugely successful in pitching something non-traditional:

-Oregon: Nike money=facilities/uniforms
-Stanford: Academics

There are likely more but I can't think of a ton off the top of my head. The rest of the programs that have risen above the proverbial ashes without necessarily being in very talent rich areas (Iowa, MSU (though Michigan has talent 5 years ago I'd bet the vast majority of recruits very much held the little brother feelings), Wisconsin) got the ball rolling by simply winning games, going to good bowls and building momentum. Some might claim this is a chicken and an egg scenario but none of these teams had dramatic bumps in recruiting classes prior to their winning they won and then got better talent. From what I can tell none of these teams pitched some revolutionary outside of football angle or tactic because what would they have prior to winning football games?

I just think we as fans like to over complicate things. We need to remember that 17/18 year olds are being recruited and the vast, vast majority may pay lip service to certain factors when choosing a school (great engineering program or something) but really they choose to go to a particular program because of the football that's played and the opportunities on the field. Maybe I'm wrong but I've often found that often the best/most efficient solution and explanation is also the most basic.
 

maroonedinCA said:
Fine, be a wiseguy about it: win more games. Looking around I find very few examples of schools that have been hugely successful in pitching something non-traditional:

-Oregon: Nike money=facilities/uniforms
-Stanford: Academics

There are likely more but I can't think of a ton off the top of my head. The rest of the programs that have risen above the proverbial ashes without necessarily being in very talent rich areas (Iowa, MSU (though Michigan has talent 5 years ago I'd bet the vast majority of recruits very much held the little brother feelings), Wisconsin) got the ball rolling by simply winning games, going to good bowls and building momentum. Some might claim this is a chicken and an egg scenario but none of these teams had dramatic bumps in recruiting classes prior to their winning they won and then got better talent. From what I can tell none of these teams pitched some revolutionary outside of football angle or tactic because what would they have prior to winning football games?

I just think we as fans like to over complicate things. We need to remember that 17/18 year olds are being recruited and the vast, vast majority may pay lip service to certain factors when choosing a school (great engineering program or something) but really they choose to go to a particular program because of the football that's played and the opportunities on the field. Maybe I'm wrong but I've often found that often the best/most efficient solution and explanation is also the most basic.
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"Winning football games." You make it sound so easy. I wonder why nobody at the U has thought of this before?

No, Wisconsin and MSU didn't start magically winning. There was a combination of charismatic and intelligent coaching, recruiting, support from the administration and more. What they have both done -- incredibly well, in Wisconsin's case -- is build a brand and a culture. Some of that, us fans can see. Much if it, we can't. I believe Kill and Co. are trying to do that. Some of it we can see, much if it, I suspect, we can't. But recruits can. It starts with attracting marginally better talent, whether you believe the talent is better or not.

On the bright side, if winning is all it takes, you must agree we're on the right path so far. I guess you're saying the four-star recruits will be coming soon.
 

Hates Monikers said:
"Winning football games." You make it sound so easy. I wonder why nobody at the U has thought of this before?

No, Wisconsin and MSU didn't start magically winning. There was a combination of charismatic and intelligent coaching, recruiting, support from the administration and more. What they have both done -- incredibly well, in Wisconsin's case -- is build a brand and a culture. Some of that, us fans can see. Much if it, we can't. I believe Kill and Co. are trying to do that. Some of it we can see, much if it, I suspect, we can't. But recruits can. It starts with attracting marginally better talent, whether you believe the talent is better or not.

On the bright side, if winning is all it takes, you must agree we're on the right path so far. I guess you're saying the four-star recruits will be coming soon.
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I do think that's all it takes and just because you don't think so doesn't mean coach kill doesn't as well. Yes I think we are on the right track. Get to a rose bowl and let the momentum continue. No where in your post did you disagree with anything I said other than you being condescending in your first two sentences, FYI.
 


maroonedinCA said:
I do think that's all it takes and just because you don't think so doesn't mean coach kill doesn't as well. Yes I think we are on the right track. Get to a rose bowl and let the momentum continue. No where in your post did you disagree with anything I said other than you being condescending in your first two sentences, FYI.
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I disagree that "all they did" was win.
 

I will say this, the University of Minnesota in choosing head football coaches has had a tendency to hire salesmen rather than program builders. It all started when Cal Stoll was canned in favor of Joe Salem. Salem was followed by Holtz, a short stint with Guety and then Jim Wacker. All good men but more focused on selling tickets, pumping up the fan base. The Mason years were what they were, but he left the cupboard bare. Into the breach, and the new stadium back to a salesman Coach Brewster. Get the picture. The University wanted visibility, accessibility, and expected the Head Coach to sell tickets and popcorn. Thankfully, that experiment is over. It was Coach Kill from day one who said he would build it brick by brick. That is how it is done. The first stage is winning at home, winning a game at home no body says you can win. Winning a game on the road. He is right on track. The next step is beating a long term rival, or three.
 

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