Official 2013 Class Recruiting Updates Thread

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It's a Pig Man! said:
I'm sure there are some other reasons to choose FIU, even if most people wouldn't choose that option.
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Yes - and those reasons are that if you can pass the Clearinghouse, you can get into FIU. That's not the case with most of the other schools on his list - particularly and especially the 6 schools who are in (or soon will be in) AQ conferences.
 

dpodoll68 said:
I get the "staying close to home" angle, but if that was his main priority, he had two far better scholarship options that were also much closer to home - USF (~40 miles) and UCF (~60 miles). Instead, he'd rather go ~225 miles from home to a lesser school in a lesser conference with a brand new head coach who will almost certainly be worse than his wrongly-fired predecessor? I'd love to play in Miami too, but it's not like Orlando and Tampa are terrible cities. Watch and see when he's likely playing for a JuCo somewhere this fall.
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I'm not sure USF or UCF have the most stringent academic standards either.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Generally, I agree with your point. My issue isn't with the coach and/or fans for thinking the U should offer it's with their refusal to spread some of that blame. You see the same thing with the NDSU teams, everyone is annoyed with Kill for not offering these guys when Ferentz, all the MAC schools, etc, made the same mistake.

It's educated guessing and occasionally you're wrong.

I also don't blame the coach. Of course you go to bat for your kid, especially a guy like Tusler that gave so much to that program. I think it's impossible to see a kid work that hard and be that good and not think he's good enough to play for the U and not be a little bitter.

My take on Tusler....I wish he would get a scholarship. I'd really like him in this class (with it opening up), especially since Edwards is already in the class. I don't think I'd be super comfortable with him being our only RB recruit in this class, but he's a heck of a football player. I can't imagine that he won't be a productive football (at either RB, Slot, CB) . I've been wrong on players like that before and I've been right before. However, despite my opinion, I can't blame Kill for not offering. No one else has offered, so my opinion is the VAST minority.
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All good thoughts.
The thing of it is, often there are behind the scenes flaws that are more glaring once the coaches start recruiting and digging. It could be little things or big things.
I have heard things about several "big time" local athletes that made sense for reasons the gophers or other FBS schools didn't offer.
HS football can be played easily by talented kids who also have fatal flaws in their game or personality.
Most of us have had run ins with HS coaches where they tell us about so and so football player who would have been all world had "this one or these two things" not been true.
Maybe all world speed but too short, all world size but too slow, the whole package but bad knees, fast and strong runningback but can't make a move, huge and powerful Olineman but can't pull worth a damn, fast and built LBer can't pass cover.
All the talent in the world but smoked weed, all the talent in the world, but grades were bad.
Sometimes we see these kids overcome and excel, but often times they fade away too. They are local recruits and they can't hide things from the coaches here, and especially kill's staff because they put such a heavy emphasis on camps and in person evals.
 

Gopherprof said:
I'm not sure USF or UCF have the most stringent academic standards either.
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Yeah, but you'll see players switch their commitments to lesser programs like FIU because programs like FIU will keep the offer extended under the hopes that he is somehow able to get eligible. USF and UCF would simply move on to other recruits. We see this even with some athletes having schools like Penn State back off and we step in (can't remember the recruit this year). The better the program, the less likely they want to deal with academic questions (except if the player is really special).

I'm not saying that is what happened with this kid, but it's not uncommon. You saw it with Charles Webb last year.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Yes - and those reasons are that if you can pass the Clearinghouse, you can get into FIU. That's not the case with most of the other schools on his list - particularly and especially the 6 schools who are in (or soon will be in) AQ conferences.
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I'm sure that there are some legitimate reasons to go to FIU other than just being able to get in easily. Again, there is a very good possibility that you are right, but you don't know Vontarius and you can't possibly know his reasons, you are just assuming.
 


It's a Pig Man! said:
I'm sure that there are some legitimate reasons to go to FIU other than just being able to get in easily. Again, there is a very good possibility that you are right, but you don't know Vontarius and you can't possibly know his reasons, you are just assuming.
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Perhaps the chance at playing earlier--be the big fish in a small pond and not the small fish in the bigger pond.
 

Ole said:
All good thoughts.
The thing of it is, often there are behind the scenes flaws that are more glaring once the coaches start recruiting and digging. It could be little things or big things.
I have heard things about several "big time" local athletes that made sense for reasons the gophers or other FBS schools didn't offer.
HS football can be played easily by talented kids who also have fatal flaws in their game or personality.
Most of us have had run ins with HS coaches where they tell us about so and so football player who would have been all world had "this one or these two things" not been true.
Maybe all world speed but too short, all world size but too slow, the whole package but bad knees, fast and strong runningback but can't make a move, huge and powerful Olineman but can't pull worth a damn, fast and built LBer can't pass cover.
All the talent in the world but smoked weed, all the talent in the world, but grades were bad.
Sometimes we see these kids overcome and excel, but often times they fade away too. They are local recruits and they can't hide things from the coaches here, and especially kill's staff because they put such a heavy emphasis on camps and in person evals.
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Yep, I couldn't agree more. I go to quite a few HS football games and I'm a Gopher fan, so it's a natural nexus. But, I'm not breaking down tape, getting paid for my opinion or know any inside information. I was pretty adamant that the U should have offered Harden last year (still am), but I never ripped Kill for not offering him. He gets paid to make those decisions, he knows more than I do and ultimately he'll be responsible for those decisions (good or bad).

But yeah, your points are spot on.
 

OddStack said:
Perhaps the chance at playing earlier--be the big fish in a small pond and not the small fish in the bigger pond.
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Right, or maybe he really likes the coaches, or the campus, or he just decided that that's the best place to spend the next four years. These are not the most likely scenarios but they are possible.
 

I agree with a lot of your opinions Bob, but the harden I saw at practices looked about 5'9" tall. I don't see how that works.
 



btowngopher said:
Rhoda, Roundtree, Wright, Conway, Hart...anyone know who the 6th PWO is?
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I think they might be referring to Hunter Friesen.

He's the kid who was Nelson's go to receiver in high school. He was also an all state DB. I believe he waited until now to enroll. I believe he broke his leg or something at the very end of the year, but he confirmed that he was going to walk on at the U after taking a year (this year) off rehabbing, thus retaining all of his eligibility.

He was going to go to Minnesota State and changed his mind this summer, and committed to the U to walk on.
 

corcoran1 said:
I agree with a lot of your opinions Bob, but the harden I saw at practices looked about 5'9" tall. I don't see how that works.
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Yeah, it's a fair criticism of the kid. He was just the best defensive player that I've seen in the State of MN. He absolutely dominated HS football, against good players in a way that made me overlook his height. I am probably wrong and maybe his stature will eventually catch up to him. He did have a very nice FR year last year playing a ton as true freshman (had 5 tackles and a TFL against the Gophers).

But you're 100% right. That is what kept him from getting scholarships. Personally, I thought he was the exception for 5'9" DTs.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I think they might be referring to Hunter Friesen.

He's the kid who was Nelson's go to receiver in high school. He was also an all state DB. I believe he waited until now to enroll. I believe he broke his leg or something at the very end of the year, but he confirmed that he was going to walk on at the U after taking a year (this year) off rehabbing, thus retaining all of his eligibility.

He was going to go to Minnesota State and changed his mind this summer, and committed to the U to walk on.
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I think the sixth pwo is Matt Leidner. On the link below, if you scroll down to the middle of the page he is listed as a Minnesota (pwo).

http://www.mnfootballhub.com/page/show/464705-2013-recruitment
 




Bob_Loblaw said:
Yeah, it's a fair criticism of the kid. He was just the best defensive player that I've seen in the State of MN. He absolutely dominated HS football, against good players in a way that made me overlook his height. I am probably wrong and maybe his stature will eventually catch up to him. He did have a very nice FR year last year playing a ton as true freshman (had 5 tackles and a TFL against the Gophers).

But you're 100% right. That is what kept him from getting scholarships. Personally, I thought he was the exception for 5'9" DTs.
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But does Harden play on a legitimately competitive Big Ten team? I don't know. The point is, you can afford to take a chance on maybe one kid a year (borderline D1 player) with a scholarship - if any. Any more than that and you have a crap roster because higher percentage of these guys are NOT going to work out, or at least not on a good, competitive team. They have faults, and those faults get exposed to a greater degree as the competition gets better.

And remember - it's not as though we have 28 scholarships to give out this year.

We agree with each other, but again, as you pointed out previously, there are going to be guys that pan out at smaller schools and it leads to "why didn't the Gophers take them?" Well, nobody else did either, for whatever reason, and that is why they are at NDSU, or Northern Iowa, or South Dakota State, or even Western Michigan.
 

TCF=UnitedWeStand said:
But does Harden play on a legitimately competitive Big Ten team? I don't know. The point is, you can afford to take a chance on maybe one kid a year (borderline D1 player) with a scholarship - if any. Any more than that and you have a crap roster because higher percentage of these guys are NOT going to work out, or at least not on a good, competitive team. They have faults, and those faults get exposed to a greater degree as the competition gets better.

And remember - it's not as though we have 28 scholarships to give out this year.

We agree with each other, but again, as you pointed out previously, there are going to be guys that pan out at smaller schools and it leads to "why didn't the Gophers take them?" Well, nobody else did either, for whatever reason, and that is why they are at NDSU, or Northern Iowa, or South Dakota State, or even Western Michigan.
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I agree and I think he does. But what do I know? I hope I do my job better than Coach Kill could and I'm certain he does his better than me. If I was going to take a chance on a player who had question marks, it would have been Harden. He was simply THAT dominant playing against the best teams in the state. I don't mind the staff having a different opinion than me, I hope they're right about the local guys more often than I would be (I'm sure they will be).

He would have been last year. Take nothing away from Timms, but if I could have swapped out Harden for Timms last year, I would have. However, Timms is supposedly impressive and I know NOTHING about him, so again, what do I know?

It's even more interesting with guys at NDSU that the discussion comes up. At least guys like Harden, Reineke, Cottrell, are going to FBS schools. The vast majority of guys who ended up at NDSU didn't even have MAC offers, yet, some hold the Gopher staff for not offering every kid who turns out (I've even seen it with St. Thomas and UMD athletes).
 

Why settle for Tussler when you can get a guy like Raphael Webb?
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
Generally, I agree with your point. My issue isn't with the coach and/or fans for thinking the U should offer it's with their refusal to spread some of that blame. You see the same thing with the NDSU teams, everyone is annoyed with Kill for not offering these guys when Ferentz, all the MAC schools, etc, made the same mistake.

It's educated guessing and occasionally you're wrong.

I also don't blame the coach. Of course you go to bat for your kid, especially a guy like Tusler that gave so much to that program. I think it's impossible to see a kid work that hard and be that good and not think he's good enough to play for the U and not be a little bitter.

My take on Tusler....I wish he would get a scholarship. I'd really like him in this class (with it opening up), especially since Edwards is already in the class. I don't think I'd be super comfortable with him being our only RB recruit in this class, but he's a heck of a football player. I can't imagine that he won't be a productive football (at either RB, Slot, CB) . I've been wrong on players like that before and I've been right before. However, despite my opinion, I can't blame Kill for not offering. No one else has offered, so my opinion is the VAST minority.
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+1
 



Rivals has him as a 2 star kicker and he beat out Butker (their #10 and 3 star) for the Under Armor game spot.
 



Chad Fahning will be walking on next year. I have to say the WO class is starting to look pretty impressive. Passed on a scholarship offer from Western Michigan to PURSUE HIS DREAM. I love it.
 



@ecarterlg8: @ShoouuuAtMe enjoy your visit Bruh ! Ball out and have fun ! #skiumah

Go Gophers!!
 

reallllllllllllly diggin' this walk on class. I think having really good walk ons will be most crucial to long term success. Kids develop at different times so getting all those potential diamonds in the rough type players is really important for a strong program. I also like that we are seeing more kids who really want to be gophers, i think that gives them a little extra drive to turn this thing around.
 

t-docious said:
reallllllllllllly diggin' this walk on class. I think having really good walk ons will be most crucial to long term success. Kids develop at different times so getting all those potential diamonds in the rough type players is really important for a strong program. I also like that we are seeing more kids who really want to be gophers, i think that gives them a little extra drive to turn this thing around.
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Is it just me or are the PWO getting more attention the last 2-3 years? Has to help in recruiting them that there is more attention paid to it. I like the Leidner commit. A kid that fits a need in short-snapping, but could develop into a contributer on the line.
 

t-docious said:
reallllllllllllly diggin' this walk on class. I think having really good walk ons will be most crucial to long term success. Kids develop at different times so getting all those potential diamonds in the rough type players is really important for a strong program. I also like that we are seeing more kids who really want to be gophers, i think that gives them a little extra drive to turn this thing around.
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Agree. During Nebraska week I could see that Jerry had a man crush on the Cornhusker program (why wouldn't you) but Nebraska has a bunch of instate kids that dreamed of being Huskers got their chance and ran with it. I think Jerry is trying to do that here. Also Jerry said we need numbers, getting these kids to stay in the TC's adds numbers and depth.
 

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