Official 2020 Gophers Football Recruiting Thread: Links, Tweets, Videos, Rumors

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PJ planning on plugging the holes with some 4 stars I hope
 

Did move Gophs from 13th to 12th in B1G based on AVG rating...
 

Not sure if anyone has posted this, but Iowa has wrapped up the top 4 players in their state in the 247 composite rankings in addition to adding the number 4 player in Wisconsin. Wisconsin has wrapped up the top 3 in players in their stated in the 247 composite rankings as well as the 5th and 7th highest rated players in their state. By contrast, Minnesota has wrapped up only the 4th and 8th highest rated players in their state in the 247 composite while Iowa State (who couldn't dent Iowa in it's own state) has the 3rd, 6th, and 7th highest rated Minnesota players committed to them. Now in fairness to the Gophers 2 of the 3 players Iowa State pulled out of Minnesota did not have Gopher offers and the player Minnesota pulled out of Wisconsin (Finnessy) had more/better offers than the kid Iowa got (though that could be due to commitment date). This also is the second year in a row where the talent in both Iowa and Wisconsin appears to be deeper (by composite ranking) than it is in Minnesota. To say I am skeptical of that (especially in the case of the state of Iowa) would be an understatement.

Bottom line is that this simply is not a formula for success. While not every kid will stay home, you can't see your two biggest border rivals lock down the top of their states and not respond by doing the same. You certainly can't then lose an in state kid like McDonald to the secondary school in a border state that can't win it's own instate battles. Ky Thomas is an excellent commitment and I think we will be worried about holding on to Casey Collier eventually too (meaning he was a good get and will continue to get offers). Fleck and staff's ability to identify out of state talent that eventually blows up has been very encouraging (see both LB's that will be enrolling this fall) and this isn't meant to overly critical of him or his staff. It's just kind of pointing out the obvious that winning battles for a Kaeden Johnson this year or last year for a Quinn Carroll or a Bryce Benhart is at the same time both huge for the program and merely holding serve to what our border rivals are doing. We have so much ground to cover in that regard...imagine if we had the top 3 Minnesota kids locked up in May? It's just not part of the culture of the state right now in large part to the lack of success the program has had had for generations. That said, it's still on PJ (or whoever the coach is/was) to get the results and not allow past failures to excuse poor results.
 



EG#9 said:
Not sure if anyone has posted this, but Iowa has wrapped up the top 4 players in their state in the 247 composite rankings in addition to adding the number 4 player in Wisconsin. Wisconsin has wrapped up the top 3 in players in their stated in the 247 composite rankings as well as the 5th and 7th highest rated players in their state. By contrast, Minnesota has wrapped up only the 4th and 8th highest rated players in their state in the 247 composite while Iowa State (who couldn't dent Iowa in it's own state) has the 3rd, 6th, and 7th highest rated Minnesota players committed to them. Now in fairness to the Gophers 2 of the 3 players Iowa State pulled out of Minnesota did not have Gopher offers and the player Minnesota pulled out of Wisconsin (Finnessy) had more/better offers than the kid Iowa got (though that could be due to commitment date). This also is the second year in a row where the talent in both Iowa and Wisconsin appears to be deeper (by composite ranking) than it is in Minnesota. To say I am skeptical of that (especially in the case of the state of Iowa) would be an understatement.

Bottom line is that this simply is not a formula for success. While not every kid will stay home, you can't see your two biggest border rivals lock down the top of their states and not respond by doing the same. You certainly can't then lose an in state kid like McDonald to the secondary school in a border state that can't win it's own instate battles. Ky Thomas is an excellent commitment and I think we will be worried about holding on to Casey Collier eventually too (meaning he was a good get and will continue to get offers). Fleck and staff's ability to identify out of state talent that eventually blows up has been very encouraging (see both LB's that will be enrolling this fall) and this isn't meant to overly critical of him or his staff. It's just kind of pointing out the obvious that winning battles for a Kaeden Johnson this year or last year for a Quinn Carroll or a Bryce Benhart is at the same time both huge for the program and merely holding serve to what our border rivals are doing. We have so much ground to cover in that regard...imagine if we had the top 3 Minnesota kids locked up in May? It's just not part of the culture of the state right now in large part to the lack of success the program has had had for generations. That said, it's still on PJ (or whoever the coach is/was) to get the results and not allow past failures to excuse poor results.
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To your last point, I think Minnesota has been bad enough for long enough, that the kids in high school now grew up not wanting anything to do with the Gophers. We need sustained, reasonable success for more than a flash here, glimmer here, for people to care more than 15 seconds. Iowa and Wisconsin have had quite a lot of success over the past 10+ years and they sell out 7x/8x thousand stadiums for every home game.

So Fleck I'm sure tries with locals, but they aren't always receptive, is my guess.

As to the first part, my guess is that he and his staff are good about getting in early on kids ... then bigger schools wait and offer kids after the fact. Sometimes, those kids get big eyes when they start seeing who else is now offering. Other times, the kids stick to their commitments. That is Fleck's game right now ... try to get in early, and try to get the kids to stick to their word. Tell them that we're pulling the offer if you want to go visit elsewhere, and you'll have to reopen your recruitment and take that chance.

We've unfortunately just had a fair number of kids this year who haven't stuck to their word.


And we'll always be battling geography. It's 7/8 hrs drive to Chicago, and that's really the western edge of the main Big Ten recruiting grounds. There are kids in MN, Iowa, and Wisc, but the latter two are tough to get past the local schools, and we've already gone over why MN kids might not be interested in the Gophers right now.


These things can change. But it takes sustained success.
 

Been rather quiet on the recruiting front. Which is pretty unusual for this staff. We've had more decommits then commits the past month. Will be interesting to see when things start to get hot again...
 

Sparlimb said:
Been rather quiet on the recruiting front. Which is pretty unusual for this staff. We've had more decommits then commits the past month. Will be interesting to see when things start to get hot again...
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Heard Fleck was in Cali last weekend playing Pebble Beach.
 



Sparlimb said:
Been rather quiet on the recruiting front. Which is pretty unusual for this staff. We've had more decommits then commits the past month. Will be interesting to see when things start to get hot again...
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It'll also be interesting to see how many players they actually take in this class with only 11 scholarship Seniors.
 

I’d say we get a lot of guys in June. There’s a couple big recruiting weekends coming up
 







There is a whole lot of dynamics that go into recruiting. Minnesota is geographically challenged which might be a hinderance to some recruits.

Bottom line - PJ Fleck's Gophers have to win in order to improve recruiting ratings. It can be a catch 22. You'd have to have all the right pieces to win. You can't win many games otherwise. But, you'd have to have the recruits now that will bring victories. This year IMHO is crucial.
 
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zman said:
Please shoot me if I stop doing anything at all productive just to check Gopherhole.
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How do you get through a workday?

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk
 

Urbandale said:
Are you riding a lawn mower?
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I drive it about every two months. 7 hours is about right. Always takes us a hour just to get from O’Hare to the loop. We leave from a Western suburb
 

dlw4gophers said:
I drive it about every two months. 7 hours is about right. Always takes us a hour just to get from O’Hare to the loop. We leave from a Western suburb
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There was a movie about an old guy who went to visit a friend and rode a lawnmower.
 

Yes, it was really good. It's called "The Straight Story". Sometimes I'm on that mower.
 

zman said:
Please shoot me if I stop doing anything at all productive just to check Gopherhole.
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99.999999% of life is more productive than checking GH so which one of us gets to shoot you?
 

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