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

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The 2018 Recruiting Class is pretty solid. Let's hope that the current commitments stay intact and that most or all of them opt for early signing in December.

The Gophers have pretty decent offensive line recruits. JCs will make sense to me. There are no Seniors or Sophomores and Greene is the only Junior. I hate to say it, the Gophers are pretty young at OT. This explains why the Gophers are reaching out to a few JC players even though PJ Fleck stated he believes in recruiting HS players. Blue Earth 6'7" 275-lb 2* PWO Trevor Oppedal helps the cause.

Coach Ed Warinner is an absolute coup getting him from tOSU. The building of a power base Offensive Line is beyond critical to the success of the PJ Fleck era.

https://247sports.com/college/minnesota/Season/2018-Football/ScholarshipDistribution

https://www.thedailygopher.com/pages/gopher-football-scholarship-grid
 

hungan1 said:
The 2018 Recruiting Class is pretty solid. Let's hope that the current commitments stay intact and that most or all of them opt for early signing in December.

The Gophers have pretty decent offensive line recruits. JCs will make sense to me. There are no Seniors or Sophomores and Greene is the only Junior. I hate to say it, the Gophers are pretty young at OT. This explains why the Gophers are reaching out to a few JC players even though PJ Fleck stated he believes in recruiting HS players. Blue Earth 6'7" 275-lb 2* PWO Trevor Oppedal helps the cause.

Coach Ed Warinner is an absolute coup getting him from tOSU. The building of a power base Offensive Line is beyond critical to the success of the PJ Fleck era.

https://247sports.com/college/minnesota/Season/2018-Football/ScholarshipDistribution

https://www.thedailygopher.com/pages/gopher-football-scholarship-grid
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I'm not following this. There are two seniors (Calhoun and Wright) and two sophomores (Dovich and Oseland). Weyler is a JR.
 


I am talking about OTs next season. These guys will be gone and we can sure use a few more upper class men other than Greene who will be the lone Senior OT. But, it will be nice to replenish the 315/330-pound OTs & OGs we are losing in Connelly (career ending injuries) Calhoun and Wright.

What is the story on Blaise Andries, is he red-shirted? Has anybody seen him play this year? Gophersports lists him as a True Freshman.
 


hungan1 said:
JC QBs are a gamble as we all know from recent experience. If the option is for Viramontes in case we lost Armstrong, it is worth the chance.

The Gophers ended up with Neil McLauron over Jordan Ta'mu. According to 247Sports, McLaurin was recruited by both Jay Johnson and Kirk Ciarrocca.

McLaurin disappeared from the Gophers and never played a down.
Ta'amu is a Junior backup QB for Ole Miss who played four games. He backs up Shea Patterson who is a five star player from IMG Academy.

What happened there? Would have Ta'amu been in the starting QB conversation if he had become a Gopher?

Does anybody know the full story we ended up with McLaurin instead of Ta'amu?

https://247sports.com/player/jordan-taamu-46035515

https://247sports.com/Player/Neil-McLaurin-46037453
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Ta'amu would be our starter this year. He started for Ole Miss on Saturday against Kentucky and went 31-40 for 382 yards, including a TD pass to win it on the last play of the game. He's throwing to better receivers for sure. But if Claeys saw something in McLaurin -- now a WR in JUCO -- that he liked more than Ta'amu, that's a black mark against Claeys.
 

hungan1 said:
What is the story on Blaise Andries, is he red-shirted? Has anybody seen him play this year? Gophersports lists him as a True Freshman.
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Fleck is planning on RedShirting unless there is an in-game depth emergency at Oline (I.E 2 more injuries).
 

AtTheLibrary said:
Fleck is planning on RedShirting unless there is an in-game depth emergency at Oline (I.E 2 more injuries).
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I will happily take the field for one play (I estimate that's how long it will take me to get injured) in order to prevent some of these guys from losing a year of eligibility.
 

AtTheLibrary said:
Fleck is planning on RedShirting unless there is an in-game depth emergency at Oline (I.E 2 more injuries).
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If he plays on any of these remaining games does he still keep his redshirt status?
 




Anyone feel like digging into how many JUCOs Fleck recruited at WMU each year? We know he's philosophically against it (he's said it numerous times), but is now in on a JUCO QB and (I think) two JUCO OL. Just wondering how this jibes with what he's done in the past.
 

MGGopher said:
Anyone feel like digging into how many JUCOs Fleck recruited at WMU each year? We know he's philosophically against it (he's said it numerous times), but is now in on a JUCO QB and (I think) two JUCO OL. Just wondering how this jibes with what he's done in the past.
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I don’t think JUCOs are a part of his philosophy long term but he currently has some serious roster issues that need to be addressed ASAP. Generally speaking JUCOs are more capable of contributing immediately.
 

cjcarter8 said:
I don’t think JUCOs are a part of his philosophy long term but he currently has some serious roster issues that need to be addressed ASAP. Generally speaking JUCOs are more capable of contributing immediately.
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No, I get that part. I'm guessing he also had some huge roster holes at WMU during and after a 1-11 season. I'm wondering if he recruited a few JUCOs to fill those (and continued doing so) or if he just said, "hey, I'll take my lumps with what we've got." I guess ultimately I'm wondering if he's starting to realize he can't have another season like this at MN, whereas perhaps the fans could've accepted another subpar season at WMU.
 



MGGopher said:
No, I get that part. I'm guessing he also had some huge roster holes at WMU during and after a 1-11 season. I'm wondering if he recruited a few JUCOs to fill those (and continued doing so) or if he just said, "hey, I'll take my lumps with what we've got." I guess ultimately I'm wondering if he's starting to realize he can't have another season like this at MN, whereas perhaps the fans could've accepted another subpar season at WMU.
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Just looked at their signing classes from '13 - '15. They didn't sign a single JUCO in that time. So, it appears PJ is changing his thinking and going after JUCO's so he doesn't have a repeat of this year.
 

On his podcast, Ryan Burns mentioned that Fleck is on the recruiting trail the past few days and alluded to seeing some clarity on who the future Gopher QB will be very soon. Hopefully that will put all this McLauren/Ta'amu alternate universe talk to bed.
 



hungan1 said:
If he plays on any of these remaining games does he still keep his redshirt status?
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Like Croft, if he plays the red shirt designation would still be available, it just would not be this year. He is a true Freshman this year. If he does not play, he would be a RS freshman in 2018.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Like Croft, if he plays the red shirt designation would still be available, it just would not be this year. He is a true Freshman this year. If he does not play, he would be a RS freshman in 2018.
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Exactly. You have 5 years to play 4. Doesn't matter when you redshirt. But if you play one play, you can't redshirt that year (unless the medical RS comes into play).
 



Regarding JC's, I think Fleck is seeing how close he is to burning redshirts on guys he doesn't want to, so I'm guessing he's looking at getting some JC "buffer" for next year so he's not in a similar situation with some other freshman he sees as talented but not ready for 2019.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I'm not following this. There are two seniors (Calhoun and Wright) and two sophomores (Dovich and Oseland). Weyler is a JR.
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Hungan in his enthusiasm makes occasional errors of omission but his hearts in the right place.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


cjcarter8 said:
I don’t think JUCOs are a part of his philosophy long term but he currently has some serious roster issues that need to be addressed ASAP. Generally speaking JUCOs are more capable of contributing immediately.
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Aaron Rogers, Brandon Jacobs, LeGarrette Blount, Bryant McKinnie, Phil Loadholt, Pat Williams, Julian Edelman and OJ were JUCOs. What's wrong with them?
 

Halsey Hall said:
Aaron Rogers, Brandon Jacobs, LeGarrette Blount, Bryant McKinnie, Phil Loadholt, Pat Williams, Julian Edelman and OJ were JUCOs. What's wrong with them?
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Nothing, no one said anything was wrong with them. He said he doesn't think Fleck likes to go that route very often. I personally think a heavy dose of jucos could be very helpful at a place like Minnesota.
 

btowngopher said:
Nothing, no one said anything was wrong with them. He said he doesn't think Fleck likes to go that route very often. I personally think a heavy dose of jucos could be very helpful at a place like Minnesota.
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Especially on the O and D lines
 

Halsey Hall said:
Aaron Rogers, Brandon Jacobs, LeGarrette Blount, Bryant McKinnie, Phil Loadholt, Pat Williams, Julian Edelman and OJ were JUCOs. What's wrong with them?
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I never said there was anything wrong with JUCOs. Fleck has made it quite clear he prefers to build his roster using HS recruits.

However, as I previously stated, the current status of the roster requires an infusion in talent that is ready to play immediately. Thus, Fleck is scouring the JUCO ranks.
 

cjcarter8 said:
I don’t think JUCOs are a part of his philosophy long term but he currently has some serious roster issues that need to be addressed ASAP. Generally speaking JUCOs are more capable of contributing immediately.
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I'm guessing there is a pretty big downside to having a lot of JUCOs. Do I have this right??
-- You can sign 25 recruits each year.
-- If you sign a JUCO, that recruit can only play 2 years (maybe 3).
-- So, if you sign a lot of JUCOs, you'd start having issues keeping 85 schollys.
 

Livingat45north said:
I'm guessing there is a pretty big downside to having a lot of JUCOs. Do I have this right??
-- You can sign 25 recruits each year.
-- If you sign a JUCO, that recruit can only play 2 years (maybe 3).
-- So, if you sign a lot of JUCOs, you'd start having issues keeping 85 schollys.
Click to expand...

Perhaps we should check with Bill Snyder at K. State as they lead the nation in JUCO football players signed. They seem to do ok each year.
 

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