Official 2022 Gophers Football Recruiting Thread: Links, Tweets, Videos, Rumors

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noamfromm said:
Alabama went out and got OSU's 6th receiver who is now starting and playing really well for them, they went and get Henry To'oto'to from Tennessee who is starting for them. I think this will help the Alabama's more than it will help the Minnesota's
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That just means OSU is 6 times better. Wait, maybe not.
 

Gold Rush said:
The transfer portal has completely changed the face of recruiting. These days, it's very easy to either gain or lose massive amount of talent from your roster any given year. In recruiting, you can get some 18 year olds that can potentially help you a few years down the road. Fleck has shown you can get 20-21 year olds that can help you RIGHT NOW in a place of need. These aren't kids that couldn't make it at another programs, he added Wright from Texas A & M, Pinckney from Clemson and you grab an All conference kicker. For someone like an Alabama, you probably already are fairly deep at every position, but this is a revolutionary concept for many teams such as Minnesota. You can restock very quickly with kids that can help you immediately.

If I were PJ, with the luck that he is having with these transfer portal kids, he probably will always want to leave several spots open for them. You want to recruit some of the 18 year olds in the traditional sense, but only the ones who will be developing and growing in your program for the next 4-5 years. Recruiting could be very different 5 years from now than it is today.
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I don't think the portal changed that much. The temporary allowance to not sit out a year created a wave of transfers, but I believe transfers now will have to sit out a year unless they qualify for a waiver.
 

NIL will help those who can create revenue from their brand. U of Minnesota and Row the Boat together for a potentially recognizable national brand if we can string together a few winning seasons. This state needs a winner and the Fortune 500 companies in town will support it big time if is also something that uplifts academics and service.

Problem lies in we have 4 (5 if you could MLS) professional sports teams competing for the same dollars. Need longevity of message, solid winning and solid message to compete against professional teams.
 
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Gold Rush said:
I was unaware of that. I am sure Alabama will find some way to benefit, but you wonder with their roster how much they will really need to get!!! I guess even they have holes to fill. Regardless, you can see this is revolutionizing the recruiting game. And don't forget the NIL deals in place. I imagine in a few years recruits will be signing to the school that can give them the next NIL deal!!!
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Yeah I don't think the portal changes the fact that players want to play for the blue blood programs.
 

On the topic of 2022 recruiting, I was unaware things were quite this bad. In terms of average recruit ranking, Minnesota is tied with Purdue for 12th with just Illinois behind them. There's a significant difference between Minnesota's average recruit (85.71) and Indiana's (88.36), Rutgers (88.19) and Michigan State (87.19 but 20 commits compared to Minnesota's 13). To give you an idea of that, Minnesota's 3rd highest rated recruit falls below the average recruit of those 3 schools. Given that this is/was supposed to be a smaller class I am much more concerned with the average ratings and the number of 4 stars (Gophers trail there too) than where they rank when comparing full classes.
 


EG#9 said:
On the topic of 2022 recruiting, I was unaware things were quite this bad. In terms of average recruit ranking, Minnesota is tied with Purdue for 12th with just Illinois behind them. There's a significant difference between Minnesota's average recruit (85.71) and Indiana's (88.36), Rutgers (88.19) and Michigan State (87.19 but 20 commits compared to Minnesota's 13). To give you an idea of that, Minnesota's 3rd highest rated recruit falls below the average recruit of those 3 schools. Given that this is/was supposed to be a smaller class I am much more concerned with the average ratings and the number of 4 stars (Gophers trail there too) than where they rank when comparing full classes.
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beaker-muppets.gif
 

EG#9 said:
On the topic of 2022 recruiting, I was unaware things were quite this bad. In terms of average recruit ranking, Minnesota is tied with Purdue for 12th with just Illinois behind them. There's a significant difference between Minnesota's average recruit (85.71) and Indiana's (88.36), Rutgers (88.19) and Michigan State (87.19 but 20 commits compared to Minnesota's 13). To give you an idea of that, Minnesota's 3rd highest rated recruit falls below the average recruit of those 3 schools. Given that this is/was supposed to be a smaller class I am much more concerned with the average ratings and the number of 4 stars (Gophers trail there too) than where they rank when comparing full classes.
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It's bad this year.
 

EG#9 said:
On the topic of 2022 recruiting, I was unaware things were quite this bad. In terms of average recruit ranking, Minnesota is tied with Purdue for 12th with just Illinois behind them. There's a significant difference between Minnesota's average recruit (85.71) and Indiana's (88.36), Rutgers (88.19) and Michigan State (87.19 but 20 commits compared to Minnesota's 13). To give you an idea of that, Minnesota's 3rd highest rated recruit falls below the average recruit of those 3 schools. Given that this is/was supposed to be a smaller class I am much more concerned with the average ratings and the number of 4 stars (Gophers trail there too) than where they rank when comparing full classes.
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Is this an exciting class on paper.....no. But it is a class full of guys that have power 5 offers from other schools so it isn't like we are going after a bunch of MAC level players where we are clearly their best and only real power 5 option.

This isn't a class that is going to make the star chasers happy but doesn't mean it isn't a class with players in it that are going to help us down the line. Covid also needs to be factored into any evaluations because there is no way the sites are not way behind in their evals on guys in the 2022 class given they lost an entire year + of camps and game film to work from.
 




I too enjoy 247's recruiting page. But remember:
  • Antoine Winfield was rated .8285
  • Mo Ibrahim .8395
  • Boye Mafe .8247
There recruiting services, like the rest of us, have no idea how these kids will respond to power 5 coaching. Particularly the kids coming from smaller HS and not the Mater Dei's or IG Acadamy's. Still though, the rankings do give a general sense of how the overall class is doing in comparison to the other schools.

This does look to be a weak recruiting year. I saw some posters comment on how we move up based on "average individual player" score because of the teams ahead of us. However, there are teams currently ranked lower than the Gophs who have higher average scores. Wisconsin, Maryland and Iowa to name three.
 

Five for fighting said:
I too enjoy 247's recruiting page. But remember:
  • Antoine Winfield was rated .8285
  • Mo Ibrahim .8395
  • Boye Mafe .8247
There recruiting services, like the rest of us, have no idea how these kids will respond to power 5 coaching. Particularly the kids coming from smaller HS and not the Mater Dei's or IG Acadamy's. Still though, the rankings do give a general sense of how the overall class is doing in comparison to the other schools.

This does look to be a weak recruiting year. I saw some posters comment on how we move up based on "average individual player" score because of the teams ahead of us. However, there are teams currently ranked lower than the Gophs who have higher average scores. Wisconsin, Maryland and Iowa to name three.
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I was about to mention that AWJr is like a 5-Star to us. Mo is Mo. The rating sites missed these players' potential. That happens.

Being a down year in terms of available scholarships does seem to taint the ratings. I trust the Gophers talent evaluation.
 

EG#9 said:
On the topic of 2022 recruiting, I was unaware things were quite this bad. In terms of average recruit ranking, Minnesota is tied with Purdue for 12th with just Illinois behind them. There's a significant difference between Minnesota's average recruit (85.71) and Indiana's (88.36), Rutgers (88.19) and Michigan State (87.19 but 20 commits compared to Minnesota's 13). To give you an idea of that, Minnesota's 3rd highest rated recruit falls below the average recruit of those 3 schools. Given that this is/was supposed to be a smaller class I am much more concerned with the average ratings and the number of 4 stars (Gophers trail there too) than where they rank when comparing full classes.
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It’s only one class and a tiny one at that. 13 kids of an 85 man roster, so I’m not going to get to concerned about it. Have to kind of look at a five year span to get a good picture, and transfers can really skew the picture as well.
 

btowngopher said:
I don't think the portal changed that much. The temporary allowance to not sit out a year created a wave of transfers, but I believe transfers now will have to sit out a year unless they qualify for a waiver.
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As I understand it, everyone gets one "free" transfer with no loss of eligibility. If you wanted to transfer a second time, then you sit out without a waiver.

the question is this - 2021 was the first year for "free" transfers. so, those players are unlikely to be transferring again. I suspect that there will continue to be transfers every year, but probably not at the same level as the first year. it will be interesting to see what level it settles in at.

I do think that 'star' players are less likely to transfer. the people going into the portal will either be mid-major kids looking to move up, or disgruntled players from power schools who are looking for more playing time - in other words, probably not game-changing players.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
As I understand it, everyone gets one "free" transfer with no loss of eligibility. If you wanted to transfer a second time, then you sit out without a waiver.

the question is this - 2021 was the first year for "free" transfers. so, those players are unlikely to be transferring again. I suspect that there will continue to be transfers every year, but probably not at the same level as the first year. it will be interesting to see what level it settles in at.

I do think that 'star' players are less likely to transfer. the people going into the portal will either be mid-major kids looking to move up, or disgruntled players from power schools who are looking for more playing time - in other words, probably not game-changing players.
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Don't forget coaching changes can trigger transfers.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
As I understand it, everyone gets one "free" transfer with no loss of eligibility. If you wanted to transfer a second time, then you sit out without a waiver.

the question is this - 2021 was the first year for "free" transfers. so, those players are unlikely to be transferring again. I suspect that there will continue to be transfers every year, but probably not at the same level as the first year. it will be interesting to see what level it settles in at.

I do think that 'star' players are less likely to transfer. the people going into the portal will either be mid-major kids looking to move up, or disgruntled players from power schools who are looking for more playing time - in other words, probably not game-changing players.
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Does everyone still get a free transfer or was that only a temporary thing that was COVID related?
 

Five for fighting said:
I too enjoy 247's recruiting page. But remember:
  • Antoine Winfield was rated .8285
  • Mo Ibrahim .8395
  • Boye Mafe .8247
There recruiting services, like the rest of us, have no idea how these kids will respond to power 5 coaching. Particularly the kids coming from smaller HS and not the Mater Dei's or IG Acadamy's. Still though, the rankings do give a general sense of how the overall class is doing in comparison to the other schools.

This does look to be a weak recruiting year. I saw some posters comment on how we move up based on "average individual player" score because of the teams ahead of us. However, there are teams currently ranked lower than the Gophs who have higher average scores. Wisconsin, Maryland and Iowa to name three.
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Isn’t Clint Brewster one of their talent evaluators?
 


gophernut1 said:
NIL will help those who can create revenue from their brand. U of Minnesota and Row the Boat together for a potentially recognizable national brand if we can string together a few winning seasons. This state needs a winner and the Fortune 500 companies in town will support it big time if is also something that uplifts academics and service.

Problem lies in we have 4 (5 if you could MLS) professional sports teams competing for the same dollars. Need longevity of message, solid winning and solid message to compete against professional teams.
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Yes, and the Gophers long count, ball control, run-first style doesn't create much excitement in competition with all the pro team alternatives in entertainment. The entire Bowling Green game and the second half against Miami of Ohio were excruciating to watch. Both are 2-4 now.
 

btowngopher said:
Does everyone still get a free transfer or was that only a temporary thing that was COVID related?
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It should be only one year because it is making a mockery of attending an institution and having some loyalty to that institution for an education. It is a kind of anarchic recruiting tool, in which coaches can "recruit" veteran players at will from other schools. NIL doesn't help, either, as it favors the well known winning programs at the expense of the others. Greed will destroy college sports eventually at this rate.
 

btowngopher said:
Does everyone still get a free transfer or was that only a temporary thing that was COVID related?
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Last April, the NCAA Div I Board of Director’s approved the rule change that now all athletes will have one free transfer during their entire college playing years. This means if a grad transfer already used their one time transfer, they will have to sit a year with their new team.

The immediate eligibility for transfer players was already available for all non-revenue sports. The rule change basically brought the 5 revenue sports in line with the others, and clarified the grad transfer rule.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Because of where they're from, I think Knuth and Hoskins are very underrated in this class.
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I've followed recruiting pretty closely for years in the way that message board college football fans watch recruiting (used to be rivals and now it's 247). And the thing that I've learned is that ratings do matter when evaluating recruits but they really matter a lot less with the people who commit early.

It seems like when a kid gets offered early after camp or something similar, you can almost throw the ranking out the window. A group of coaches went, saw the person live, and said "we gotta lock this kid up". The coaches, at least at the U, have been pretty spot on. The guys who seem like much bigger gambles are the folks whose recruiting profiles seem iffy and we offer late.

I think the reason for this is pretty logical - - with the early guys, it's hard to argue we offered Tony Nelson in December of 2020 because we missed on other people. It's just too early. With some of the folks who commit later, I think many of them likely weren't plan A (so even the coaches probably aren't as confident in them as they are in the people who commit early).
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
Yes, and the Gophers long count, ball control, run-first style doesn't create much excitement in competition with all the pro team alternatives in entertainment. The entire Bowling Green game and the second half against Miami of Ohio were excruciating to watch. Both are 2-4 now.
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I really think winning is the only thing that matters. Alabama is more exciting now, but they were a massive draw for years with a boring offense. Georgia still runs an incredibly boring offense.

I think it's all about winning.
 


Five for fighting said:
I too enjoy 247's recruiting page. But remember:
  • Antoine Winfield was rated .8285
  • Mo Ibrahim .8395
  • Boye Mafe .8247
There recruiting services, like the rest of us, have no idea how these kids will respond to power 5 coaching. Particularly the kids coming from smaller HS and not the Mater Dei's or IG Acadamy's. Still though, the rankings do give a general sense of how the overall class is doing in comparison to the other schools.

This does look to be a weak recruiting year. I saw some posters comment on how we move up based on "average individual player" score because of the teams ahead of us. However, there are teams currently ranked lower than the Gophs who have higher average scores. Wisconsin, Maryland and Iowa to name three.
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It's actually the opposite our average individual player score is really weak only above Illinois and tied with Purdue for 12th/13th. Your comment about Antoine Winfield, Mo Ibrahim, Boye Mafe reminds me of years ago when posters would bring up "but Greg Eslinger" when people (including myself) would point out concerns with our recruiting under Mason. There will always be hits and misses, but every other school is going to have their "Antoine Winfield's" too...The Vikings Justin Jefferson was one of the lower rated kids taken by LSU as an example. It's also great that we have/had an Ibrahim or an Eslinger but the end result over a large sample size has been one really good year in 2019 and a whole lot of average at best to terrible at worst since the proliferation of recruiting rankings with sites like Rivals around 2000 or so. I'd like to be in a position to not try to be the outlier school that does much better on the field than our recruiting rankings because that's really tough to do.
 

EG#9 said:
It's actually the opposite our average individual player score is really weak only above Illinois and tied with Purdue for 12th/13th. Your comment about Antoine Winfield, Mo Ibrahim, Boye Mafe reminds me of years ago when posters would bring up "but Greg Eslinger" when people (including myself) would point out concerns with our recruiting under Mason. There will always be hits and misses, but every other school is going to have their "Antoine Winfield's" too...The Vikings Justin Jefferson was one of the lower rated kids taken by LSU as an example. It's also great that we have/had an Ibrahim or an Eslinger but the end result over a large sample size has been one really good year in 2019 and a whole lot of average at best to terrible at worst since the proliferation of recruiting rankings with sites like Rivals around 2000 or so. I'd like to be in a position to not try to be the outlier school that does much better on the field than our recruiting rankings because that's really tough to do.
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You hit on the point that is way more important than individual ratings in your post and that is hits/misses. The percentage of guys that make it and become contributors is way more important than whether a kid was a .87 or .85 guy in the eyes of the various recruiting sites. It is why a recruiting class really shouldn't be judged for about 3 years because that is when you start to have a sense for who is going to contribute and who isn't. But of course that doesn't work for people because we need that instant gratification of knowing if we got a star player or not and for a lot of fans the excitement level over a recruit is driven by the amount of stars next to their name.

The main difference in Fleck's recruiting vs. what was done under Mason and Kill is that Fleck is bringing in guys who for the most part have legit Power 5 level interest from other schools. Mason and Kill were bringing in guys where most of the time we were their only Power 5 or clearly their best Power 5 option. We were beating out the MAC for guys as opposed to beating out other Big Ten schools for players.

This 2022 group is not an exciting group on paper, but that doesn't mean it is a bad class. We also haven't seen who they are going to bring in through the transfer portal and I would bet we are going to see a decent number of transfer guys added to this group after the season.
 

It is perfectly fine to be disappointed in this years #'s for recruiting (concerning avg. rank). It seems we never got the bump that many of us though 2019 would bring (thanks Covid-19). While I still think Fleck out recruits his predecessors, my biggest concern is him out recruiting the rest of the West.

With a majority of our OL leaving, the fact PJ has developed a probable 1st round draft pick and our run heavy game would indicate our #'s would be better here. They are not and that is concerning.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Because of where they're from, I think Knuth and Hoskins are very underrated in this class.
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If an instate recruit commits early, sometimes the ratings sites' attention wanes. If the recruit is from a recruiting hotbed, it will be a different story.

I can live with that when these recruits really shine in their third and fourth year in the Gophers' developmental program.

We have lots of players who did just fine. Some are in the Pros.
 
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FredCoxRocks said:
Rivals and 247 think they only play 8-man football in South Dakota...and they're allowed to use Angus beef cattle in the offensive tackle positions.
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I mean, that is true out in the Dakota sticks.

Sioux Falls (and Fargo) are nothing more than overgrown Maple Grove/Plymouth 's.
 


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