If they switch, the window for Rucker and Brookens is closing fast.

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ruppertflywheel

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My Irish math ( not good ) tells me we've 7-8 scholarships left for 2013.
I think we've a very good chance to get a commitment from DT Demaris Peppers this weekend. On the 21st we've chance to land 3 kids. WR. Eric Carter, WR Drew Wolitarsky, and RB Berkley Edwards. The other two coming in David Yancy, athlete, and Purdue commit and WR Hunter Jarmon. The class will fill out with 1 JC LB 1 or 2 DB and I think the DE from Alabama ( name escapes me ) Brookins to me seems solid to Wisconsin. Rucker has been sniffing around the U coaching staff on a regular basis. We dump Western Michigan, Syracuse, and keep the pig. I think he bolts. The problem. Kill may not have a "ship" for him if he waits that long. I see no chance for James O, the Damer commit.
 

Based on what I have heard, I'm not sure we would still want him at this point.
 

There is always the chance that after the season some guys will transfer and open up a couple more spots. Couple guys that come to mind ( this is my own opinion have no inside info )

WR---L.Hutton, C.Wilson, V.Keise could all go down a level if they want to see the field b/c of all the young WR on the roster already ahead of them on the depth chart and the chance we bring in 2 more WR's.
TE--M.Alipate, probably will not go anywhere, maybe graduate and "retire" IMO will never see the field with his size
DB--K.Watkins, again like the wr's a lot of young guys ahead of him and if we got one or both of the MN's to switch they could be as well. Might want to go down and start in FCS for a year, who knows.

That is 5 more open spots right now. Never know if someone is home sick or just unhappy.
 

Hutton and Watkins

Hutton got reps in last Saturday ( caught one pass). Watkins is injured. But yes, there could be some transfers that are already resigned to leaving. I did forget that we may also land the brothers of Thompson and Epke. So yes, it certainly is a numbers game.
 

It is always a numbers game, but if a coach wants a player he will find room for that player.
 



It is only year two of Kill's rebuild and with the way Iowa and Wisconsin are playing, those games are huge this year for Kill and recruiting. If he can show that the Gophers are on their way past Iowa and Wisconsin on the road this year, huge gains in tickets and recruiting should follow.
 

Wollman said:
There is always the chance that after the season some guys will transfer and open up a couple more spots. Couple guys that come to mind ( this is my own opinion have no inside info )

WR---L.Hutton, C.Wilson, V.Keise could all go down a level if they want to see the field b/c of all the young WR on the roster already ahead of them on the depth chart and the chance we bring in 2 more WR's.
TE--M.Alipate, probably will not go anywhere, maybe graduate and "retire" IMO will never see the field with his size
DB--K.Watkins, again like the wr's a lot of young guys ahead of him and if we got one or both of the MN's to switch they could be as well. Might want to go down and start in FCS for a year, who knows.

That is 5 more open spots right now. Never know if someone is home sick or just unhappy.
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Keise, Alipate, and Watkins are all juniors. It's doubtful that they transfer and sit out a year at this point to play 1 season somewhere else. Ferguson and Foreman are candidates since they weren't on the 105 man roster in August. We probably end up with 15-16 scholarships. We currently have 6 commits plus Bobek, so we probably have 8-9 remaining.
 

John Galt said:
Keise, Alipate, and Watkins are all juniors. It's doubtful that they transfer and sit out a year at this point to play 1 season somewhere else. Ferguson and Foreman are candidates since they weren't on the 105 man roster in August. We probably end up with 15-16 scholarships. We currently have 6 commits plus Bobek, so we probably have 8-9 remaining.
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John, Ferguson not listed in the roster for Western Michigan. Do you know if he is alrewady gone?
 



This is assuming that ever player that visits, also commits (unlikely since many of them are visiting multiple other places) and that still allows a few spots.

I've already said I'm totally avoiding the Brookins/Rucker drama, but there will be spots.
 

ruppertflywheel said:
John, Ferguson not listed in the roster for Western Michigan. Do you know if he is alrewady gone?
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That's a really good eye. His player page was also removed from the official roster as well. In the past, this was always a precursor to a confirmation of a player leaving the program, as it's something the U is usually pretty tight lipped about until pressed to answer.
 

If there is anything we have learned, it is that the window closes February 6. Lots of things can happen in the next 4-1/2 months. I thin you can start "worrying" about January 22nd...
 

Wollman said:
There is always the chance that after the season some guys will transfer and open up a couple more spots. Couple guys that come to mind ( this is my own opinion have no inside info )

WR---L.Hutton, C.Wilson, V.Keise could all go down a level if they want to see the field b/c of all the young WR on the roster already ahead of them on the depth chart and the chance we bring in 2 more WR's.
TE--M.Alipate, probably will not go anywhere, maybe graduate and "retire" IMO will never see the field with his size
DB--K.Watkins, again like the wr's a lot of young guys ahead of him and if we got one or both of the MN's to switch they could be as well. Might want to go down and start in FCS for a year, who knows.

That is 5 more open spots right now. Never know if someone is home sick or just unhappy.
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As was said, take the juniors off the list. If a player transfers it's almost always with at least two years of eligibility left (Deleon Eskridge was a rare exception, but that was a family issue).

Here are the sophmores and redshirt freshman who haven't played a game yet. That would be a good place to start.

-Dexter Foreman
-Cameron Wilson
-Peter Westerhaus
-David Cobb
-Jephete Matilus
-Quinn Bauducco (edit: injuries)
-Luke McAvoy
-Sean Ferguson (apparently already left)
-Kyle McAvoy

With the # of linebackers graduating, I wouldn't expect playing time to be an issue for Matilus and Westerhaus next year. I wouldn't expect more than a handful of transfers. Like John said, I think 15-16 is a realistic estimate of total scholarships.
 



highwayman said:
If there is anything we have learned, it is that the window closes February 6. Lots of things can happen in the next 4-1/2 months. I thin you can start "worrying" about January 22nd...
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No one's worrying, we're just discussing our favorite team.
 

John Galt said:
It's doubtful that they transfer and sit out a year at this point to play 1 season somewhere else.
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I disagree with this. Transfers from I-A to I-AA schools don't have to sit out for a season, so if they'd rather spend their last year of eligibility on the field and playing rather than standing on the sidelines, they can do so without sitting and be eligible to play right away. Moreover, many of these guys are 4th-year juniors. Given that, it's reasonable to assume that many may be graduating in the spring. For those players, they could transfer anywhere in I-A and play immediately.
 


dpodoll68 said:
I disagree with this. Transfers from I-A to I-AA schools don't have to sit out for a season, so if they'd rather spend their last year of eligibility on the field and playing rather than standing on the sidelines, they can do so without sitting and be eligible to play right away. Moreover, many of these guys are 4th-year juniors. Given that, it's reasonable to assume that many may be graduating in the spring. For those players, they could transfer anywhere in I-A and play immediately.
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Then why does it happen so infrequently? If a player has been at a school for 4 years and has just finished his junior year and hasn't really seen the field, he pretty much realizes the NFL isn't in his future, with Nate Triplett being the one exception I can think of for the Gophers in the last 20 years. The players are usually comfortable at the school and have friends there, so most aren't going to transfer so they can play 1 season in the middle of nowhere at a school like Northern Iowa. It could probably even be argued that it's no guarantee that a player who hasn't seen the field at all for us would be able to replace a starter at a 1-A school. If you can name me 5 Gophers in the last 20 years that moved to a 1-A school after their junior year to play football, I'll admit I'm wrong.
 

John Galt said:
If you can name me 5 Gophers in the last 20 years that moved to a 1-A school after their junior year to play football, I'll admit I'm wrong.
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I don't know when the current transfer rule was put in place, but I'm 99% certain that it hasn't been 20 years, so the question is moot. Further, my point wasn't that they are likely to transfer (I agree with you that they aren't), but more a point of clarification that they would not have to sit out a year if they transfer to a lower division, and would not have to sit out a year if they've graduated and want to transfer to a I-A, thus removing an obstacle for a junior who may be inclined to do so.
 

ruppertflywheel said:
John, Ferguson not listed in the roster for Western Michigan. Do you know if he is alrewady gone?
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Looks like it. Here are my predictions for how things shake out:

QB(1): Streveler (the staff seems to love his speed and athleticism, and also mentioned he could wind up at DB or WR). If Nelson is the multi-year starter that we think he will be, Streveler would only have 1 year to start at QB.
RB (1): Edwards or Yancey
WR (3): Wolitarksy, Carter, and possibly Jarmon
TE (1): AJ Stockwell seems to be getting interest
OL (1): Mayes; probably only need 1 since we're in a good position with Pirsig, Lauer, and Hayes all red-shirting; plus we're already going hard after C Mayes and Ragnow for the class of 2014
DL (4): Hinojosa, Salzwedel, Peppers, Ekpe
LB (3): Wipson, 2 TBD
DB (3): Myrick, Thompson, TBD

That's 17 right there. I really think we end up with 3 DBs and 3 LBs, so maybe we only take the first 2 WRs to commit.
 

Gopherprof said:
As was said, take the juniors off the list. If a player transfers it's almost always with at least two years of eligibility left (Deleon Eskridge was a rare exception, but that was a family issue).

Here are the sophmores and redshirt freshman who haven't played a game yet. That would be a good place to start.

-Dexter Foreman
-Cameron Wilson
-Peter Westerhaus
-David Cobb
-Jephete Matilus
-Quinn Bauducco
-Luke McAvoy
-Sean Ferguson (apparently already left)
-Kyle McAvoy

With the # of linebackers graduating, I wouldn't expect playing time to be an issue for Matilus and Westerhaus next year. I wouldn't expect more than a handful of transfers. Like John said, I think 15-16 is a realistic estimate of total scholarships.
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Not to nitpick, but Cobb played quite a bit early last season and would have played more if he didn't catch a case of fumbleitis.

There will likely be transfers which will open up a few scholarships. One thing that gets lost in the discussion is that some of these guys actually came to the university for more than just the opportunity to play football and if they are more than halfway through their major and like the program they are in, they aren't likely to transfer.

PS--Someone mentioned Logan Hutton early in the thread and I see he logged some game action last week. Good for him.
 

I know I'm putting the cart before the horse, but if we work hard enough to keep winning we could potentially attract interest from some players who may not be currently thinking of us, especially if we can somehow win a few B10 games. Winning games sure makes a program look better to undecided/leaning recruits.

If I were Rucker or Brookens I would take a hard look at committing now, thinking some other player better than me might suddenly consider MN more with the wins and progress of this years team. It's nice that we can start being a little more optimistic these days.
 

Brookins needs to talk with Kim Royston. Why would any rationale person choose to spend 4-5 years of their life w/ BB instead of Jerry Kill? Hopefully this is a game JK and KB are playing with the Badgers, and he switches back again in January when it really hurts Wisky. Rucker seems like he may be re-thinking his decision, I'm sure he heard the boos when he was down in Iowa last week and is thinking, why on earth would I want to spend some of the best years of my life in Iowa? James Onwualu? The Irish could finish 0-12 and hire Tim Brewster in December, and JO would remain firmly w/ the Domers.
 

John Galt said:
No one's worrying, we're just discussing our favorite team.
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My point was, there is no window, and therefore is no "closing" of such.

You have things like this that happen all the time. Suddenly, another scholarship becomes open.
 

50PoundHead said:
Not to nitpick, but Cobb played quite a bit early last season and would have played more if he didn't catch a case of fumbleitis.
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Not nitpicking, just naming all of the sophmores and rs freshman who haven't played yet this year. One would assume that if someone is going to transfer due to playing time, before your junior year is the time to do it. Cobb did play some last year, but as things sit now he's not in the discussion with the three guys ahead of him (and another redshirting) all set to come back next year. I have no idea what he's thinking or what the coaches are telling him, but those are the types of guys I look at when thinking about transfers.

And, yes, Hutton not only played last week in his first game, but got his first career catch. Happy for him.
 

Gopherprof said:
Not nitpicking, just naming all of the sophmores and rs freshman who haven't played yet this year. One would assume that if someone is going to transfer due to playing time, before your junior year is the time to do it. Cobb did play some last year, but as things sit now he's not in the discussion with the three guys ahead of him (and another redshirting) all set to come back next year. I have no idea what he's thinking or what the coaches are telling him, but those are the types of guys I look at when thinking about transfers.

And, yes, Hutton not only played last week in his first game, but got his first career catch. Happy for him.
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Yeah, I'm really surprised about Cobb. Something has happened between Spring and now.

Happy for Hutton. Always excited when a Gopher legacy player comes along and does well. We have the Olsons, Carter, Hutton, Grant, Nick Rallis, Tow-Arnett, and Williams. Did I miss anyone?
 

I doubt Hutton goes anywhere, he played some last week and he has connections to the area.

Anyone else not playing could go, it's always possible. Another guys is Moulton. I realize that he's a JR, but players drop down to play FCS and there is obviously something going on with him.

The scholarship situation is always more fluid than people think. I don't want to speculate about Brookins or Rucker, it seems pointless, but if they wanted to attend the U, we'd have room.
 

I would say there will always be a scholly available for either because they are that good.
 

highwayman said:
Yeah, I'm really surprised about Cobb. Something has happened between Spring and now.

Happy for Hutton. Always excited when a Gopher legacy player comes along and does well. We have the Olsons, Carter, Hutton, Grant, Nick Rallis, Tow-Arnett, and Williams. Did I miss anyone?
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Whichever McAvoy technically finished signing his name second. JK
 

According to Sid

• Sean Ferguson, a Gophers offensive lineman from Philadelphia recruited by ex-coach Tim Brewster, is no longer a member of the team.
 

Flatfoot said:
Do we have a kicker lined up for next year?
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Would think Hawthorne would have the inside track. I thought he demonstrated some talent last year prior to the injury and Wettstein stepping in so well.
 

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