Marquese Williams in the transfer portal

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I agree
fmlizard said:
Why do so many think there's this huge bag for Darius Taylor out there?

He plays the most fungible position in football, and the market likely isn't enormous for a freshman running back from an okay team who had troubles staying healthy.

He put up all his numbers against the 3 worst run defenses the Gophers faced all year and looked very mortal (3.7 YPC) against Iowa.

I'm hoping he's back and our RB1 next year but let's not overhype Taylor without seeing him stay healthy and consistently produce against upper tier Big Ten defenses.

If 3 good games against marginal defenses is enough to start panicking about guys then the future of Gopher football isn't going to be very much fun.
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I agree. Good RB but there are a lot of them. Finding a starting QB is a bigger concern.
 

Golden Gophers Football has some good reading tonight on fartbook. Folks fighting whether fans drove out Marquese or not. Apparently Marquese mother was ranting yesterday. Gousbys dad defending program on the post. The new era of college football has begun!!
 

oak_street1981 said:
I forgot all about this recruit.

Our staff seems to have a real bias against giving young RBs some carries, even in garbage time, when red shirts (4 game thing) are not in doubt.

The old NFL paranoid fear of 3rd down back/ pass protection does not really apply to PJ Fleck's offense... but still no carries for up and coming players, or at least rarely. A retread linebacker or #21 Williams type always got the chance first.

My recollection is that when #26 Evans got a (rare) garbage time TD in a previous season, he showed a real burst we had not seen from anyone else, yet there was no opportunity for him all year, up to that point.
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PJ doesn't give his reserve QB any experience, either - as someone here pointed out, even when Gophers are way ahead or way behind. When Ak was stumbling, Cole should have had a shot or two. Who's the QB in the bowl?
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
PJ doesn't give his reserve QB any experience, either - as someone here pointed out, even when Gophers are way ahead or way behind. When Ak was stumbling, Cole should have had a shot or two. Who's the QB in the bowl?
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Like when Cole got his chance against NC and threw a terrible INT? We needed to give AK as many reps as possible this year to see if he could turn the corner. He didn’t, but he was by far our best option (which is Fleck’s problem, of course).
 

rivergopher said:
I kept thinking that Williams would be gone, if he was not getting run in front of a guy with crisco on his hands and arms. Assuming Taylor comes back

Taylor
Evans
Nubin
Jaydon Wright FR
Ohifame Ijeboi FR

Could see us picking up a more established running back as well.
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Very young group. Nice to pick up a grad transfer RB for maturity, leadership, mentoring, etc. ... and some time on the field.
 


M. Williams was a 3* recruit. his other reported offers were Arkansas, Arizona State and Boston College. And he is listed now at 5'8" and 180. I think he came out of HS weighing a little over 170.

so a smaller slasher-type runner. and he never played a snap on offense this season despite numerous injuries - with a DB converted to RB in J. Nubin becoming the lead back.

it's the way of the world now. If a player isn't starting or getting major snaps right away, they start looking for another school where they can get more playing time.
 

SPEGOPHER said:
Like when Cole got his chance against NC and threw a terrible INT? We needed to give AK as many reps as possible this year to see if he could turn the corner. He didn’t, but he was by far our best option (which is Fleck’s problem, of course).
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Kaliakmanis' attempts in the 4th quarter:
EMU: 3
Louisiana: 4
MI: 0
MSU: 0

That's essentially an entire game (4 games x 1 quarter) with a total of 7 passes. There was plenty of time in those games to where Kaliakmanis was getting essentially zero benefit and a backup could have been put in. But we all know that's not how PJ works. God forbid you give some reps to the backups when the game is either in-hand or out-of-hand. Especially in the age of free transfer, getting FR/RFR/SO in there to get a taste may be the difference between them bolting immediately and sticking it out a bit.
 


Gopher Ally said:
Golden Gophers Football has some good reading tonight on fartbook. Folks fighting whether fans drove out Marquese or not. Apparently Marquese mother was ranting yesterday. Gousbys dad defending program on the post. The new era of college football has begun!!
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Wait... you mean to say that parents are upset about their kid not getting playing time? And they are mad at the coach? They think it couldn't possibly be because their kid is not as good as the players in front of him? Huh... Never heard that before.
 



Stuff said:
Drew and Williams
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Drew Viotto? I think it quickly became obvious to coaches and the player himself that he was never going to play at this level. Good for all involved that he has moved on. This is the positive side of the easy transfer.
 

SPEGOPHER said:
Like when Cole got his chance against NC and threw a terrible INT? We needed to give AK as many reps as possible this year to see if he could turn the corner. He didn’t, but he was by far our best option (which is Fleck’s problem, of course).
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Thats what I was thinking. Athan was probably the best shot we had until it's confirmed that Drake Lindsey comes to Minnesota or Max Brosmer comes and plays next year. I don't think it was entirely his fault but there isn't much of a better option right now.
 





short ornery norwegian said:
M. Williams was a 3* recruit. his other reported offers were Arkansas, Arizona State and Boston College. And he is listed now at 5'8" and 180. I think he came out of HS weighing a little over 170.

so a smaller slasher-type runner. and he never played a snap on offense this season despite numerous injuries - with a DB converted to RB in J. Nubin becoming the lead back.

it's the way of the world now. If a player isn't starting or getting major snaps right away, they start looking for another school where they can get more playing time.
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I can't think of a plausible excuse as to why Williams didn't see some action after his red-shirt was secure. I agree with you wholeheartedly that if you are watching a walk-on whose a converted DB carry the mail 20+ times, you have to be a little frustrated.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
M. Williams was a 3* recruit. his other reported offers were Arkansas, Arizona State and Boston College. And he is listed now at 5'8" and 180. I think he came out of HS weighing a little over 170.

so a smaller slasher-type runner. and he never played a snap on offense this season despite numerous injuries - with a DB converted to RB in J. Nubin becoming the lead back.

it's the way of the world now. If a player isn't starting or getting major snaps right away, they start looking for another school where they can get more playing time.
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I don't know your source but, according to 247, you've underestimated his offers significantly. They reported 27 offers including the following:

Minnesota
Arizona State
Arkansas
Boston College
Iowa
Duke
Maryland
Mich State
Notre Dame
Louisville
Penn State
Pitt
Rutgers
Syracuse
Texas A&M
Vanderbilt
Virginia
Virginia Tech
West Virginia
 

So far, IMO every transfer out (with the possible exception of Vitto who would have given us some needed depth at QB) has been a positive for the Gophers. We're getting rid of players who didn't play or weren't going to play next year, which opens up new slots for incoming players.

We need to see who we get to fill those slots before it's all a net positive, but I'm optimistic that we can give proven players a credible "yes, you'll be starting" pitch which means a lot to a player that only has 1 or maybe 2 years of eligibility left. I don't think the NIL is as big of deal as most folks seem to think it is, purely because I don't believe the "look how much NIL money I got" reports on X are way overinflated.
 

SPEGOPHER said:
Like when Cole got his chance against NC and threw a terrible INT? We needed to give AK as many reps as possible this year to see if he could turn the corner. He didn’t, but he was by far our best option (which is Fleck’s problem, of course).
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I was at the game in Chapel Hill. The pass that everyone is referring to sailed on him as he was throwing west to east on an angle, where a stadium corridor between the east stands and the north stands had a pretty significant breeze coming threw. Cole is capable of throwing the ball 15-20 yards further than that particular pass.
 

50PoundHead said:
I can't think of a plausible excuse as to why Williams didn't see some action after his red-shirt was secure. I agree with you wholeheartedly that if you are watching a walk-on whose a converted DB carry the mail 20+ times, you have to be a little frustrated.
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I'm not saying these are the reasons in any way/shape/form but there could literally be dozens of plausible reasons. Among them:
-Worse than the guys in front of him
-Can't grasp the playbook
-Fumbles more than Tyler
-Terrible blocker
-Nagging injury such as ankle/hamstring
-Didn't go to class
-Didn't practice hard
-Bad character/insubordinate to the coaches

You don't think any of those COULD be plausible? Bottomline, unless you're involved in the program it's just all a guess.
 







Where this year's transfers are ending up, they are not as good as we thought they were. If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen.
 


I clicked on his twitter logo and I noted that he identifies himself as a "professional athlete."

interesting.
 




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