Official 2021 Gophers Football Recruiting Updates Thread: Links, Tweets, Videos etc

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I am glad they are making the moves at OL. Iowa carries 20 OLs and Wiscy 18. The Gophers have to cover the uneven classes, unexpected injuries or medicals, and the looming prospects of guys on the line turning pro after the 2021 season.

This is both good and bad. We'd lost seasoned high caliber linemen. On the other hand, it is good PR for the program to put as many players in the pros. Linemen included. This certainly will help future recruiting. The Gophers recruiting wise, I'd like for them to be in the top 25 or better moving forward.

They've got to string together winning seasons and win a title soon. The Big Ten West is becoming more competitive.
 

btowngopher said:
Are most guys

Are most guys only suited for one position or the other? I don’t think size is necessarily a determining factor between playing guard vs tackle.
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No expert, but tackles are generally taller/longer so as to be better pass protectors. Typically get smaller as you move further inside. My guess is that they want length across the board because it’s conducive to the zone blocking scheme we run. My initial post wasn’t a complaint, just an observation. Seems like Fleck/Callahan know that want at the position and because the o-line has been pretty good, that’s enough for me.
 

SPEGOPHER said:
Haven’t done anything to substantiate this, but doesn’t it seem like the past few years all of our o-line recruits have been offensive tackles?

I know the staff likes bigger o-lineman, and obviously would be pumped to get Saia, but just seems weird we don’t recruit guys who played guard/center in HS.
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2021 - 3 OT - possible transfer OG
2020 - 2 OT, 1 OG
2019 - 1 OT, 1 OG
2018 - 4 OT, 2 OG
2017 - 2 OT, 1 OG, 1 C

So this would be the first class where at least one of the recruits wasn't a guard in high school. I would bet though that most high school teams put their best lineman at OT so just because a kid didn't play interior line in high school doesn't mean he couldn't be converted to one in college.
 

Class is ranked 24 now and is ahead of Iowa. Like I explained to people knocking this class earlier, it only took one more kid to leap Iowa. One more addition and we leap PSU as well and are all the way up to 6th in the conference.
 



btowngopher said:
Class is ranked 24 now and is ahead of Iowa. Like I explained to people knocking this class earlier, it only took one more kid to leap Iowa. One more addition and we leap PSU as well and are all the way up to 6th in the conference.
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It also underlines the point that many of the classes in the Big Ten were separated by a super slim margin so freaking out about being 8th just didn't make sense. There are a couple elite classes in the conference and the majority of the rest are very comparable on paper to each other. It all comes down to how well the coaches do at finding the right fit for their program and finding players that will pan out.
 

btowngopher said:
Class is ranked 24 now and is ahead of Iowa. Like I explained to people knocking this class earlier, it only took one more kid to leap Iowa. One more addition and we leap PSU as well and are all the way up to 6th in the conference.
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Sounds like PSU might be leader for Mpls North kid for B1G schools. Still a few weeks from signing.
 

MNVCGUY said:
It also underlines the point that many of the classes in the Big Ten were separated by a super slim margin so freaking out about being 8th just didn't make sense. There are a couple elite classes in the conference and the majority of the rest are very comparable on paper to each other. It all comes down to how well the coaches do at finding the right fit for their program and finding players that will pan out.
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Correct comparing the bottom 4* to top 3* is like comparing the last pick of a draft round to the first pick of the next round
 




btowngopher said:
Class is ranked 24 now and is ahead of Iowa. Like I explained to people knocking this class earlier, it only took one more kid to leap Iowa. One more addition and we leap PSU as well and are all the way up to 6th in the conference.
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Does this include Avante Dickerson?
 

MNVCGUY said:
It also underlines the point that many of the classes in the Big Ten were separated by a super slim margin so freaking out about being 8th just didn't make sense. There are a couple elite classes in the conference and the majority of the rest are very comparable on paper to each other. It all comes down to how well the coaches do at finding the right fit for their program and finding players that will pan out.
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Four Stars may really be Three Stars, vice versa. I agree about recruiting the right fit and development.

Do some programs recruit exclusively for high rankings?

Covid robbed teams like the Gophers that rely heavily on live evaluation and detail intelligence about prospects
 





I know townley has a crystal ball for arizona state, but if we picked him up we would jump ahead of penn state, but not quite enough to get ahead of nebraska.
 

MNVCGUY said:
2021 - 3 OT - possible transfer OG
2020 - 2 OT, 1 OG
2019 - 1 OT, 1 OG
2018 - 4 OT, 2 OG
2017 - 2 OT, 1 OG, 1 C

So this would be the first class where at least one of the recruits wasn't a guard in high school. I would bet though that most high school teams put their best lineman at OT so just because a kid didn't play interior line in high school doesn't mean he couldn't be converted to one in college.
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Really depends on scheme. A lot of teams out their best OL as the guy who pulls (could be guard, tackle, or in rare cases at HS center) in order to often have their best player at the point of attack.
Notre Dame kid from Edina basically played TE the second half of the year his senior year so opponents couldn’t chop him
 

swelna said:
I know townley has a crystal ball for arizona state, but if we picked him up we would jump ahead of penn state, but not quite enough to get ahead of nebraska.
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Doesn’t matter how high the cornhushers are ranked in recruiting. Frost will screw it up for them. He is in way over his head trying to coach at this level
 


swelna said:
I know townley has a crystal ball for arizona state, but if we picked him up we would jump ahead of penn state, but not quite enough to get ahead of nebraska.
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Which once again underscores how close the classes in the Big Ten are for the most part and why it is really kind of silly to get caught up in the team rankings or to view them as a truly accurate ranking of how good each class is.
 


swelna said:
I know townley has a crystal ball for arizona state, but if we picked him up we would jump ahead of penn state, but not quite enough to get ahead of nebraska.
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Sounds like the Townley ship has sailed
 

GopherNuts said:
Sounds like the Townley ship has sailed
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If that is his decision, then I wish him best of luck. It's always hard for me to blame any kid who grew up in Twin Cities their whole (or most of their) life, wanting to "get away" and see what the grass is like elsewhere.

Again, wonder how much impact it is that UMN is right there in the urban core, as opposed to being "away", even if it was just down in Rochester. Oh well
 



MplsGopher said:
If that is his decision, then I wish him best of luck. It's always hard for me to blame any kid who grew up in Twin Cities their whole (or most of their) life, wanting to "get away" and see what the grass is like elsewhere.

Again, wonder how much impact it is that UMN is right there in the urban core, as opposed to being "away", even if it was just down in Rochester. Oh well
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Hey, I resemble that remark!
 


Tip of the hat to Norm Crosby (for any of you old-timers)
 





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