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

Am I reading it correctly that his Crystal Ball is trending to Rutgers after Schiano's in home visit?

I don’t see any Rutgers crystal balls. Am I missing something? I see four of them on 12/6...two for us and two VIP, but probably for us.
 



Dakota Thomas appears to still be rowing the boat.

 

Dakota Thomas appears to still be rowing the boat.

He looks taller than 6 foot. Or maybe that’s just his Afro. So does this mean he’s a DB? Meeting with Fleck and Chance.
 



It will be interesting to see if Thomas signs Wednesday, if we hold a spot for him to sign later, or if we end up gray-shirting him. Things are still fluid with his recruitment based on what I've seen from Burns.
 

It will be interesting to see if Thomas signs Wednesday, if we hold a spot for him to sign later, or if we end up gray-shirting him. Things are still fluid with his recruitment based on what I've seen from Burns.

I doubt Fleck would spend his time this week visiting people he doesn't want on the team (we are in the home stretch).

I have no idea what is going on with Burns, but I think sometimes it seems like he pawns off deduction as a "scoop". Dakota Thomas is lower ranked, plays a position(s) of potential depth, it makes sense to drop these little nuggets (nuggets that don't commit your take one way or the other). I could certainly be wrong and maybe there are things going on with this guy's recruiting.
 




How we fit all these recruits into our 85 slots is going to be really interesting.
 

How we fit all these recruits into our 85 slots is going to be really interesting.
Per The Daily Gopher:

How many can they take:
By rule, up to 25. But that also means you have to have 25 leaving. Currently we have 22 verbal commitments. All 22 are expected to sign at this point and possibly a couple more after this weekend. Here is who we know are leaving

Seniors - 12
Early NFL - 1 (Winfield)
Transfer Portal - 4 (currently)
So you see how this math has to work. 22 coming in and currently 17 on their way out. So even if nobody new is added to the list there have to be 5 more names who are going to transfer out.
 

Per The Daily Gopher:

How many can they take:
By rule, up to 25. But that also means you have to have 25 leaving. Currently we have 22 verbal commitments. All 22 are expected to sign at this point and possibly a couple more after this weekend. Here is who we know are leaving

Seniors - 12
Early NFL - 1 (Winfield)
Transfer Portal - 4 (currently)
So you see how this math has to work. 22 coming in and currently 17 on their way out. So even if nobody new is added to the list there have to be 5 more names who are going to transfer out.

A message to the 2021 class is "commit early or the class will be full". That seems to be Fleck's approach. Fill the class early, with only a few slots left open for surprises. I still say they should get rid of National Signing Day. A cruit should have the ability to sign anytime they want to during their senior year. That way the commitment is solid from both sides.
 

A message to the 2021 class is "commit early or the class will be full". That seems to be Fleck's approach. Fill the class early, with only a few slots left open for surprises. I still say they should get rid of National Signing Day. A cruit should have the ability to sign anytime they want to during their senior year. That way the commitment is solid from both sides.
Would definitely lead to less shotgun offerings where we offer 100+ players.
 



Per The Daily Gopher:

How many can they take:
By rule, up to 25. But that also means you have to have 25 leaving. Currently we have 22 verbal commitments. All 22 are expected to sign at this point and possibly a couple more after this weekend. Here is who we know are leaving

Seniors - 12
Early NFL - 1 (Winfield)
Transfer Portal - 4 (currently)
So you see how this math has to work. 22 coming in and currently 17 on their way out. So even if nobody new is added to the list there have to be 5 more names who are going to transfer out.
This also assumes we were at the full 85 this year. Not saying we weren't, but technically could've been 83 or something like that. Though for marketing purposes if we have extras it seems like Fleck likes to award them to walk-ons in those big reveals.
 

A message to the 2021 class is "commit early or the class will be full". That seems to be Fleck's approach. Fill the class early, with only a few slots left open for surprises. I still say they should get rid of National Signing Day. A cruit should have the ability to sign anytime they want to during their senior year. That way the commitment is solid from both sides.
Perfectly valid.

But what recruit will do that? Some will yeah, the ones who don't think they'll do any better or for whom the U is their dream school. But that's probably like 5%.

What incentive will there be for the others to sign right away? Why wouldn't they just hold off and wait to see what happens? Sure, Fleck (and every other coach) can say "this offer is only good for two days, you have that much time to think about it and sign, or we rescind it". But the recruits hold the power. If they all refuse to sign early, there really isn't anything the schools can do about it.
 

It will be interesting to see if Thomas signs Wednesday, if we hold a spot for him to sign later, or if we end up gray-shirting him. Things are still fluid with his recruitment based on what I've seen from Burns.

Didn’t someone post on here that Thomas wouldn’t be signing here or with any D1 team? Was that just complete BS?
 


Per The Daily Gopher:

How many can they take:
By rule, up to 25. But that also means you have to have 25 leaving. Currently we have 22 verbal commitments. All 22 are expected to sign at this point and possibly a couple more after this weekend. Here is who we know are leaving

Seniors - 12
Early NFL - 1 (Winfield)
Transfer Portal - 4 (currently)
So you see how this math has to work. 22 coming in and currently 17 on their way out. So even if nobody new is added to the list there have to be 5 more names who are going to transfer out.
I believe that there are some players ready to enter the Transfer Portal but are holding off so that they can travel to the bowl game and participate in the festivities.
 

Didn’t someone post on here that Thomas wouldn’t be signing here or with any D1 team? Was that just complete BS?
There has been rumors that he might end up having to go the JuCo route, but I haven't seen anything state that was 100% going to happen.
 

Interesting. They list a "mystery OL" who's possibly committed to a school whose coach was fired. Quick scan of the FSU, MIssouri, Arkansas, and Rutgers commits shows two OL the Gophers have offered:
Nice work! Taking a wild guess it's the guy from STL. That's a reasonably easy drive up to the Twin Cities for his folks. Other STL guy in the class as well.
 

Looks like at this time it is expected that 5 of our current commits will be enroll early:

Ky Thomas - RB
Gage Keys - SDE
Justin Bellido - WR
Cody Lindenberg - LB
Melle Kreuder - SDE

The clock icon next to their name indicates early enrollment

 

Interesting. They list a "mystery OL" who's possibly committed to a school whose coach was fired. Quick scan of the FSU, MIssouri, Arkansas, and Rutgers commits shows two OL the Gophers have offered:


I would bet on it being Walters. We recruit Saint Louis pretty heavily and there was a report awhile back they were reaching out to kids committed to Mizzou (and BC).
 

I would bet on it being Walters. We recruit Saint Louis pretty heavily and there was a report awhile back they were reaching out to kids committed to Mizzou (and BC).
I forgot about BC, but I just checked and there are no reported MN offers for committed OL. They have a couple 4* tho...would be nice.
 

Interesting. They list a "mystery OL" who's possibly committed to a school whose coach was fired. Quick scan of the FSU, MIssouri, Arkansas, and Rutgers commits shows two OL the Gophers have offered:

I've been hearing the mystery player is a DE, not OL.
 

Gophers, defensive end from Florida appear to part ways in 2020 class

A Florida defensive end appears to have quietly exited the Gophers football program’s 2020 recruiting class this week.

Claude Larkins Jr., has removed mentions of Minnesota from his Twitter profile and is no longer included on a list of the U’s commitments by 247sports.com


Go Gophers!!
 

Gophers targeting Boston College defensive end pledge

The Gophers football program is targeting Connecticut defensive end Jah Joyner for its 2020 recruiting class.

“I’m coming,” Joyner tweeted Thursday in reference to a visit to Minnesota. Some fans interpreted that as a commitment, with Joyner clarifying in another tweet: “… Never said I was committing.”

Joyner pledged Boston College in June, but the Golden Eagles fired head coach Steve Addazio after seven seasons on Dec. 2.

Since then, Gophers defensive line coach Jim Panagos has been to Danbury, Conn., to visit Joyner, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound player given three stars by recruiting services. He also has received a visit from new Rutgers coach Greg Schiano.


Go Gophers!!
 

Glad to hear we are placing a lot of emphasis on getting explosive pass rushers. Need to be able to pressure the QB with 4 for our defense to be middle of the pack - top tier in the B1G. I feel like that’s been a sore spot for us for quite some time. In fairness, that and elite O-Linemen are probably the hardest positions to recruit/identify at the college level.
 

Glad to hear we are placing a lot of emphasis on getting explosive pass rushers. Need to be able to pressure the QB with 4 for our defense to be middle of the pack - top tier in the B1G. I feel like that’s been a sore spot for us for quite some time. In fairness, that and elite O-Linemen are probably the hardest positions to recruit/identify at the college level.

Definite "need" for us.
 

I don’t see any Rutgers crystal balls. Am I missing something? I see four of them on 12/6...two for us and two VIP, but probably for us.

I really want to see this young man sign here. Needs a little help with his tackling technique, but I believe he would fill out to be an absolute beast.
 

To me, getting commitments from Burns, Joyner and Walters would be great end to return. Getting a player from IMG carries more weight to me than getting players from Clearwater.
 




Top Bottom