Lower Rated Recruits and Minnesota Players

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WAGopher

WAGopher

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We've signed a few players that were not highly recruited and they may be great prospects. However, I'm wondering if the Gopher program would be better served by offering some of these scholarships to Minnesota players that have gone to other D1 schools like NDSU?
 



I think it's a fair questions, but couldn't even begin to figure out how to answer it.

Is Vraa better than Hutton? I honestly have no idea.
 

Vraa and Hutton both have little to no shot to contribute at the Big Ten level. Hutton is a legacy. Vraa is not. Advantage Hutton.
 


The thing that I have always been surprised about is that guys like Vraa aren't just patient and wait until signing day (or later) to make their decision. Those NDSU type of offers will be there next week.

If I had to guess, Vraa probably would have gotten an offer (or a walk on to a teeam with schollys open) had he not jumped at the NDSU offer. However, he was already signed up and we wanted to add another WR. Hutton was open, and he gets the Big 10 scholorship rather than Vraa. Another thing to keep in mind, although Hutton isn't highley ranked, he had an offer from Navy which is considerably better than any offer that Vraa received.

This is a season where MN seemed to have some extra scholorships and if a couple of these kids would have sat tight, they probably would have gotten Big 10 scholorships. Oh well, i'm happy with Hutton instead of Vraa (3.5 student, legacy, Navy recruit), but I probably would have been happy vice versa as well.
 

They wanted Vraa to walkon. He did not want to, even if Vraa had not signed with NDSU he would not have gotten an offer before Hutton
 

That's probably true. However, my point is that Hutton would not have gotten an offer a few weeks ago (when Vraa committed to NDSU). My hypothetical could be completely off, but i'd imagine that if Vraa was still unsigned (like Hutton) today, and we were looking to add a WR, I 'd imagine there would have at least been some debate over which player to offer a scholorship. I honestly don't know anything about Hutton, so maybe he is a much better prospect than Vraa, so I don't know.
 

Vraa's problem as a prospect is.....no room to grow on his frame. Good speed, but not very quick......soft blocker....
He was in an offense where route combos do not exist, so he is as raw as they come at the position. A longshot at best to be a success at the big Ten level. Great jumper with great hands though. Talking to Parc Williams (Rosemount LB coach) he once told me he would be a good TE prospect if he was a little tougher. He did not have an issue with the gophers not offering him.

I also know nothing of Hutton
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
The thing that I have always been surprised about is that guys like Vraa aren't just patient and wait until signing day (or later) to make their decision. Those NDSU type of offers will be there next week.

If I had to guess, Vraa probably would have gotten an offer (or a walk on to a teeam with schollys open) had he not jumped at the NDSU offer. However, he was already signed up and we wanted to add another WR. Hutton was open, and he gets the Big 10 scholorship rather than Vraa. Another thing to keep in mind, although Hutton isn't highley ranked, he had an offer from Navy which is considerably better than any offer that Vraa received.

This is a season where MN seemed to have some extra scholorships and if a couple of these kids would have sat tight, they probably would have gotten Big 10 scholorships. Oh well, i'm happy with Hutton instead of Vraa (3.5 student, legacy, Navy recruit), but I probably would have been happy vice versa as well.
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NDSU did offer him a full ride, he did wait until early January and I guess at some point recruits just want to get it over with. NDSU's program is very attractive, Bohl has sent a number of kids to the NFL and the school has facilities that would be great compared to most MAC and WAC schools. That is going to make it tough to get a player, especially one with a full ride, to turn NDSU down to walk on at any school.
 


FargoBison said:
NDSU did offer him a full ride, he did wait until early January and I guess at some point recruits just want to get it over with. NDSU's program is very attractive, Bohl has sent a number of kids to the NFL and the school has facilities that would be great compared to most MAC and WAC schools. That is going to make it tough to get a player, especially one with a full ride, to turn NDSU down to walk on at any school.
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I'm not ripping on the NDSU program when I made my post. My guess is that Vraa would have chosen a full ride to MN over a full ride to NDSU. I could be wrong, but I think it would be extremely odd for a kid to chose NDSU over a full ride to a Big 10 school.

I understand that Vraa probably wanted to come to a decision, and I can respect that. (I never ripped on the kid). I just think that in this year in particular, if he had held out before committing to NDSU (one more month), he might have had a decent chance at landing a full ride to a Big 10 school.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I'm not ripping on the NDSU program when I made my post. My guess is that Vraa would have chosen a full ride to MN over a full ride to NDSU. I could be wrong, but I think it would be extremely odd for a kid to chose NDSU over a full ride to a Big 10 school.

I understand that Vraa probably wanted to come to a decision, and I can respect that. (I never ripped on the kid). I just think that in this year in particular, if he had held out before committing to NDSU (one more month), he might have had a decent chance at landing a full ride to a Big 10 school.
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There is no doubt he wanted to be a Gopher, same thing with Grant Olson from Wayzata. Olson sounded really disappointed an offer didn't come.

I do know that if Minnesota offers it pretty much ends our chance. I'm just saying that none of them thought too much about walking on, it is pretty clear that if Minnesota wants these kids they are probably going to need to offer or they'll be going to NDSU.
 



I would have thought the Gophers could have coached Vraa up and taught him the system and route-running that they are going to use. Zack is also an (A) student who learns things quickly. If anyone here has watched him play football, basketball, or run track, I think they would agree with me. He has great hands and can jump out of the gym and will probably be faster in the next couple years than he was last fall. Vraa has an upside that will be interesting to watch. I see none of the WR's the Gophers were recruiting ended up signing with them so maybe Zack would have been offerred if he would have waited a couple more months. I do think Vraa would have contributed to the Gophers in the next 5 years, especially after a red-shirt but we will never know now. What people are not talking about though is that the Gophers need to find a QB that can throw the ball to their receivers. From what I have heard, Parish could be that guy in a couple years.
 


Well, I think this recruiting thing works both ways. Most of us understand why a darn good Minnesota football player should take a chance on the U and stay home for his college career. The other side of the road is that we need to take a flyer now and then on Minnesota kids who have a shot at playing B10 ball, especially if they have proven themselves academically. I'd rather do that than take a lot of gambles on JUCO players and guys from out of state with no major conference offers. It's not a formula. Each case has to stand on its own merits, but we ought to go into the thing with the attitude that we'd like to be able to offer the deserving MN kid. I know one thing, a lot of good Minnesota FB players have gone through NDSU, et al. Wonder what might have been had we had a few of them.
 

FargoBison said:
There is no doubt he wanted to be a Gopher, same thing with Grant Olson from Wayzata. Olson sounded really disappointed an offer didn't come.

I do know that if Minnesota offers it pretty much ends our chance. I'm just saying that none of them thought too much about walking on, it is pretty clear that if Minnesota wants these kids they are probably going to need to offer or they'll be going to NDSU.
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It's very understandable that a player/family would choose the scholarship offer over the "possibility" of earning one as a walk-on. It would be asking a lot, especially in this economic environment, of a player to pass on the opportunity for a full-ride to be a walk-on. I'm quite sure the coaches/recruiters at the FCS schools are well-versed in pointing out that they are willing to "have skin in the game", while the FBS (Minnesota) school is not.

As a life-long Minnesota resident, UofM alum and Gopher fan, I would surely like to see the local kids stay home and play for the U. At the same time, it's unrealistic to expect the U to offer all those kids. Recruiting is a game of numbers and a guessing/projecting game for the coaching staff. Given the opportunity at hindsight most college coaches are bound to regret the "one that got away" or "one we missed on". Perhaps one of the more interesting examples of this in Gopher history is Karl Mecklenburg, an Edina kid who went to DII Augustana before transferring back to MN for a very successful 2-year run followed by a 12-year NFL career. Karl's story is recounted in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader: http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20101100337

Too make a long story longer, while I tend to agree with the poster who suggested it would be preferable to give that "iffy" scholarship to a MN prospect rather than an out-of-state prospect, the possibility of opening future recruiting opportunities in talent-rich states like Texas cannot be discounted.
 

NDSU has similar facilities as the WAC and MAC? You are kidding yourself.

Why are we even discussing this? Is this so NDSU can act relevant on signing day?
 

GoGophers2005 said:
NDSU has similar facilities as the WAC and MAC? You are kidding yourself.

Why are we even discussing this? Is this so NDSU can act relevant on signing day?
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This is all I will say...back when the MVC was debating adding NDSU for football they toured our facilities, this is what a few schools thought...

“I for one will tell it very openly. I’m not wide open to taking North Dakota State,” Missouri State director of athletics Bill Rowe said. “We’ve got a tough enough league right now. Their facilities are comparable to some Big 12 schools."

Notice I didn't say Big 12, I said MAC or WAC, I'll keep it more realistic.
 


I think Minnesota should sign a good half dozen kids out of Minnesota every year and more on good years. We could go after the top 10 each year. We won't get them all, but I would think we would be pretty pleased with the ones we sign.
 

This is one I'm torn on. You want to get the best players, but if you're filling out the dance card at the end of the recruiting season, I'd just as soon see Minnesota kids getting a little edge in the consideration department.

I don't think they can could have gone wrong with either Vraa or Hutton. Both seem to be great kids who probably aren't slated to be All-Americans, but could grow into steady contributors.

I think it's a no-brainer on the walk-on v. full-ride argument. With the price of higher education these days, who can blame a player for wanting it paid for.
 

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