Official 2018 Recruiting Updates Thread: Links, Tweets, Videos, Stories, Rumors, etc.

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per Dane:

Less than 10 minutes into his introductory press conference in January, an animated P.J. Fleck hammered home the importance of locking down the borders as far as recruiting was concerned.

“You know where we’re going to build walls up around?” the 36-year-old head coach asked. “Our elite state of Minnesota. We’re going to draw a circle around six to seven hours around the Twin Cities area, and then we’re going to go to work.”

Since then, Fleck has made good on his promise, and the Gophers already have commitments from handful of in-state players. Yet with the high school football season only days away, perhaps the state’s best prospect not accepted a scholarship from the Gophers, he hasn’t even been offered one.

“They haven’t extended an offer yet,” Woodbury three-star defensive end David Alston confirmed. “There has been interest, though, and I think P.J. Fleck is doing really good things with the program.”

According to Rivals, Alston is the top prospect in Minnesota, and fourth best according to Scout. His near 30 scholarship offers, including offers from Power 5 schools such as Wisconsin and Nebraska, support those rankings.

“He is very explosive,” said Matt Jessen-Howard, a Gophers recruiting analyst for Rivals. “He has the look of a Power 5 player, for sure.”

So, why haven’t the Gophers offered?

http://www.twincities.com/2017/08/2...p-prospect-so-why-havent-the-gophers-offered/

Go Gophers!!
 

Any thoughts? I hate to see him go to Wiscy or Neb.
 

Maybe it is something where Fleck would rather not answer. Can't imagine him saying publicly "He dosn't fit our system." ETC.
 




hungan1 said:
Any thoughts? I hate to see him go to Wiscy or Neb.
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Hungan, I know you're big on the Alston topic so I'll say what my thoughts are on the situation. Am I by any means an actual scout? No but as someone who has followed recruiting long enough now, I think this is essentially what's unfolded

First, as it's been said, he's a total tweener. Now no matter where he goes, he'll fill out but it's tough to project how much. None of us really know what the plan for our defense is long term. Will it be a true 43? Will it be more of a 34? Is the rush end hybrid kind of thing going to last? Who knows but if hes going to play in a 43, he has to add weight and he better be a really good pass rusher because he's never going to be someone you can put out there on run downs. As a OLB in a 34, is he able to play in space, get sideline to sideline and even cover guys in some areas? He has to be able to do those things.

We're also in a position where our class is essentially full. The class from here out is most likely going to be figuring how many spots they'll really have, shooting for a star or two and if there are any decommits, finding a replacement for that spot. They aren't scrambling and are going to be very selective the rest of the way.

As for the Wisconsin and Nebraska offers, what I really think is they were "force Minnesota to make a decision offers." I have absolutely no way of proving that and it doesn't happen with every prospect but it does happen. Two kids out of Wisconsin actually (I'd have to look up their names - I'm blanking on them) are guys we offered (Iowa actually landed one that I'm thinking of) that Wisconsin most likely wanted to wait until summer camps to really make a decision on but once they got offers from neighbor schools, they jumped in the boat and offered too. I'm blanking on his name but the guy that committed to us from Madison about 7-8 years ago now and essentially used his commitment to us to leverage an offer from Wisconsin is an example. No inside knowledge but I think neither one of those schools actually ever intended to accept a commitment from Alston.

Essentially, I think neither one of those offers is commitable anymore (maybe they were at that time but I highly doubt it at this point). We didn't bite on offerning him early in the spring, waited to see him at camp knowing those both probably aren't actual options and he showed up and either didn't impress enough and/or is such a tweeter that he didn't get an offer here. They also knew then that if neither of those options are legit and they had other targets on the board, our staff could go after guys higher on the board and watch Alston play his senior season out and see what happens. Maybe he just blows up. But I'm betting the staff knows that he won't be committed by the end of the season or if he is committed somewhere else, it's not going to be to one of those two and they maybe could offer him and get a flip at that time if things fall through with our other options.

JMO but that's what I see reading between the lines
 

Thanks RGB.

We'll see how things play out for the rest of the 2018 Recruiting Class between now and NSD.

Nothing is certain until the NLIs are inked.
 

Sparlimb said:
He can say it round about. There are some athletes that just don't fit our system. They reside all over this state and others.
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He has said multiple times that they're going to recruit players who fit their system, and that they aren't going to recruit players who aren't a fit.
 



RatherBeGolfing said:
Hungan, I know you're big on the Alston topic so I'll say what my thoughts are on the situation. Am I by any means an actual scout? No but as someone who has followed recruiting long enough now, I think this is essentially what's unfolded

First, as it's been said, he's a total tweener. Now no matter where he goes, he'll fill out but it's tough to project how much. None of us really know what the plan for our defense is long term. Will it be a true 43? Will it be more of a 34? Is the rush end hybrid kind of thing going to last? Who knows but if hes going to play in a 43, he has to add weight and he better be a really good pass rusher because he's never going to be someone you can put out there on run downs. As a OLB in a 34, is he able to play in space, get sideline to sideline and even cover guys in some areas? He has to be able to do those things.

We're also in a position where our class is essentially full. The class from here out is most likely going to be figuring how many spots they'll really have, shooting for a star or two and if there are any decommits, finding a replacement for that spot. They aren't scrambling and are going to be very selective the rest of the way.

As for the Wisconsin and Nebraska offers, what I really think is they were "force Minnesota to make a decision offers." I have absolutely no way of proving that and it doesn't happen with every prospect but it does happen. Two kids out of Wisconsin actually (I'd have to look up their names - I'm blanking on them) are guys we offered (Iowa actually landed one that I'm thinking of) that Wisconsin most likely wanted to wait until summer camps to really make a decision on but once they got offers from neighbor schools, they jumped in the boat and offered too. I'm blanking on his name but the guy that committed to us from Madison about 7-8 years ago now and essentially used his commitment to us to leverage an offer from Wisconsin is an example. No inside knowledge but I think neither one of those schools actually ever intended to accept a commitment from Alston.

Essentially, I think neither one of those offers is commitable anymore (maybe they were at that time but I highly doubt it at this point). We didn't bite on offerning him early in the spring, waited to see him at camp knowing those both probably aren't actual options and he showed up and either didn't impress enough and/or is such a tweeter that he didn't get an offer here. They also knew then that if neither of those options are legit and they had other targets on the board, our staff could go after guys higher on the board and watch Alston play his senior season out and see what happens. Maybe he just blows up. But I'm betting the staff knows that he won't be committed by the end of the season or if he is committed somewhere else, it's not going to be to one of those two and they maybe could offer him and get a flip at that time if things fall through with our other options.

JMO but that's what I see reading between the lines
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You know an awful lot about Wisconsin��
 


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Go Gophers!!
 

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Go Gophers!!
 



RatherBeGolfing said:
As for the Wisconsin and Nebraska offers, what I really think is they were "force Minnesota to make a decision offers." I have absolutely no way of proving that and it doesn't happen with every prospect but it does happen. Two kids out of Wisconsin actually (I'd have to look up their names - I'm blanking on them) are guys we offered (Iowa actually landed one that I'm thinking of) that Wisconsin most likely wanted to wait until summer camps to really make a decision on but once they got offers from neighbor schools, they jumped in the boat and offered too. I'm blanking on his name but the guy that committed to us from Madison about 7-8 years ago now and essentially used his commitment to us to leverage an offer from Wisconsin is an example. No inside knowledge but I think neither one of those schools actually ever intended to accept a commitment from Alston.
Click to expand...
Believe you are thinking of Konrad Zagzebski...
 

Sparlimb said:
He can say it round about. There are some athletes that just don't fit our system. They reside all over this state and others.
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Can't mention cruits by name. He has stated before that prospective cruits have to fit his system and culture. He's not going to recruit someone because they're from here
 

BleedGopher said:
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Go Gophers!!
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At a school where you have like 200 kids tryout for football, you have your best player playing both ways and returning punts after coming off two acl tears. That doesn't make me feel very comfortable.
 

Nice grab by Brevyn Spann-Ford.
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BleedGopher said:
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Go Gophers!!
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Now this twitter video plays on my iPad. How come PJ and the U can't figure that out! None of their twitter videos play on an iPad.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

alchemy2u said:
Now this twitter video plays on my iPad. How come PJ and the U can't figure that out! None of their twitter videos play on an iPad.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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I don't know how twitter works, but maybe if they do any editing to the video on twitter it gets put on the snappytv? Could also be size or quality of the video as well.
 

According to 247 - only Purdue, Rutgers, & Illinois have a worse avg player ranking for 2018. I found that surprising.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Spoofin said:
According to Scout - only Purdue, Rutgers, & Illinois have a worse avg player ranking for 2018. I found that surprising.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Huh?
 

Spoofin said:
According to Scout - only Purdue, Rutgers, & Illinois have a worse avg player ranking for 2018. I found that surprising.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Also Indiana, and Mich State.
 


LB and O-line recruiting are weak spots in this class that lower our ranking significantly. Most of the other positions appear to be better than what we have typically seen. Especially given that there wasn't much in-state talent this class.

When is the last time we got an out of state QB with offers like Armstrong? Or a d-lineman with offers like Teague and Ahanotu? Or a receiver like Manns?
 

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Go Gophers!!
 

John Galt said:
LB and O-line recruiting are weak spots in this class that lower our ranking significantly.
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Hopefully Fleck and Warriner can change this quickly, since the O-line appears to be one of our weakest areas!
 

Tlsbhansen said:
Hopefully Fleck and Warriner can change this quickly, since the O-line appears to be one of our weakest areas!
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I know ratings wise the OL doesn't look great, but we already had Michigan poach one commit and now Ohio St may be after another. It seems like Fleck has had a good track record of getting in on guys early before they blow up. That was similar to Orkoafor at Western Michigan.

Fleck and staff developed Beavers and Moton into NFL draft picks, and Orkafor will be another. Getting an OL drafted every year would be a nice change of pace.
 

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