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

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stocker08 said:
This. Nebraska had a top 25 class in 2018 followed by three straight top 20 classes. Unless the coaching staff is underperforming by a ton in comparison to the rest of the league.....we're splitting hairs. The very tippy top teams are pulling in talent and athletes on another level.....but most teams past that top ten or so are pulling in guys that are interchangeable. Recruiting services are throwing darts at the board on a lot of guys.....so a couple points in a class average doesn't mean all that much. Fleck and his staff have done a good job of identifying guys that they think can play. It's all about getting potential and coaching.
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The thing I will never understand from those that get so hung up on the numbers associated with players is how they think those recruiting sites can accurately rank players from different states playing at all different levels against each other with any sort of real accuracy.

The difference between a .89 and a .84 can be next to nothing. The best of the best players are one thing but after those handful of top flight sure fire stars....it is a lot of guesswork and projection on the part of the recruiting sites.

Coaches spend time getting to know the players, getting to know their families, really digging into what that player is going to bring to the program. The recruiting sites are based almost entirely on stats on camps, which have value but don't tell the whole story. Kid might be a great athlete but a total ahole as a person.

Are we getting players who are getting recruited by other teams to play at the power 5 level? If the answer is yes than who gives a crap what numbers are next to the kids name.
 

MNVCGUY said:
The thing I will never understand from those that get so hung up on the numbers associated with players is how they think those recruiting sites can accurately rank players from different states playing at all different levels against each other with any sort of real accuracy.

The difference between a .89 and a .84 can be next to nothing. The best of the best players are one thing but after those handful of top flight sure fire stars....it is a lot of guesswork and projection on the part of the recruiting sites.

Coaches spend time getting to know the players, getting to know their families, really digging into what that player is going to bring to the program. The recruiting sites are based almost entirely on stats on camps, which have value but don't tell the whole story. Kid might be a great athlete but a total ahole as a person.

Are we getting players who are getting recruited by other teams to play at the power 5 level? If the answer is yes than who gives a crap what numbers are next to the kids name.
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Correct. They cannot accurately rank players. Does that mean that lower ranked players will consistently outplay higher rated recruits? Absolutely not. But on a year to year basis.....there are going to be many unheralded recruits coming out of HS that end up playing like four and even five star guys. No reason not to trust Fleck's judgement. Morgan and Crab were brought along from WMU. Crab specifically had NO other offers.
 

stocker08 said:
Correct. They cannot accurately rank players. Does that mean that lower ranked players will consistently outplay higher rated recruits? Absolutely not. But on a year to year basis.....there are going to be many unheralded recruits coming out of HS that end up playing like four and even five star guys. No reason not to trust Fleck's judgement. Morgan and Crab were brought along from WMU. Crab specifically had NO other offers.
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CAB was offered by Georgia after he committed. He stood by his commitment to Minnesota.
 


Football is 25% god given athletic talent (measurable), 25% worth ethic, 25% competitiveness/drive and 25% luck (avoiding injuries). Only one of these is easily measured. The recruiting sites (247 is my favorite to peruse) can give you a broad based look at an overall class to gain a basic understanding of how that class will be but in no way is an accurate predictor of an individual kids future success.
 





Dakota2 said:
CAB was offered by Georgia after he committed. He stood by his commitment to Minnesota.
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As other said....that was Bateman. And that was after Fleck was already here. As I said in my post.....Crab and Morgan were WMU commits that came with Fleck to the U. According to 247...Crab had no other offers.
 



Five for fighting said:
Football is 25% god given athletic talent (measurable), 25% worth ethic, 25% competitiveness/drive and 25% luck (avoiding injuries). Only one of these is easily measured. The recruiting sites (247 is my favorite to peruse) can give you a broad based look at an overall class to gain a basic understanding of how that class will be but in no way is an accurate predictor of an individual kids future success.
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To be honest - when it comes to Division 1 athletes. Athleticism is 75% of the equation. Work Ethic, competitiveness and Luck make up the other 25%. If you are not a top 10% in the world athlete it doesn't matter. The key is finding those athlete's who want to get the most out of their natural abilities. Having a family member who trains professional athletes for a living help put this in perspective for me. Prior to then I would have said the same thing.

Still, an incredible athlete without those other things can only go so far. However, a person with those other traits doesn;t stand a chance without incredible God given talent.
 

gophernut1 said:
To be honest - when it comes to Division 1 athletes. Athleticism is 75% of the equation. Work Ethic, competitiveness and Luck make up the other 25%. If you are not a top 10% in the world athlete it doesn't matter. The key is finding those athlete's who want to get the most out of their natural abilities. Having a family member who trains professional athletes for a living help put this in perspective for me. Prior to then I would have said the same thing.

Still, an incredible athlete without those other things can only go so far. However, a person with those other traits doesn;t stand a chance without incredible God given talent.
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Coaching and opportunity are big too I would say.
 

stocker08 said:
As other said....that was Bateman. And that was after Fleck was already here. As I said in my post.....Crab and Morgan were WMU commits that came with Fleck to the U. According to 247...Crab had no other offers.
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Not sure what you mean by Fleck was already here. Fleck spotted him at a camp in Georgia and offered him right away. This was before he blew up. He committed to Fleck and the U later that summer and held his commitment even after a big push from Kirby and Georgia. Was all Fleck.
 

Fleck & Co having a down year in recruiting and more than a few GHers who touted his higher ranked classes now posting the sites can't really rate players accurately. Interesting.
 



PMWinSTP said:
Fleck & Co having a down year in recruiting and more than a few GHers who touted his higher ranked classes now posting the sites can't really rate players accurately. Interesting.
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Many of us accept it'll be odd year for ranking and are trusting Flecks judgement.

In end none of us know how class turns out
 

TNGophfan said:
Not sure what you mean by Fleck was already here. Fleck spotted him at a camp in Georgia and offered him right away. This was before he blew up. He committed to Fleck and the U later that summer and held his commitment even after a big push from Kirby and Georgia. Was all Fleck.
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My point was that Fleck was recruiting Bateman to the University of Minnesota. Crab was a WMU recruit with no other offers.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Fleck & Co having a down year in recruiting and more than a few GHers who touted his higher ranked classes now posting the sites can't really rate players accurately. Interesting.
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You're reaching for something that isn't there. Guess we should can Fleck and bring back Kill so that we can go back to recruiting guys who only have MAC offers.
 

salzie said:
Many of us accept it'll be odd year for ranking and are trusting Flecks judgement.

In end none of us know how class turns out
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In the end, we'll all know how the class turns out. 2022 class is not an odd year for ranking.
 



MNVCGUY said:
You're reaching for something that isn't there. Guess we should can Fleck and bring back Kill so that we can go back to recruiting guys who only have MAC offers.
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Totally miss the point. I have said from his hire I think Fleck is a good recruiter and in fact have stated he has exceeded my expectations recruiting. However you want to look at it, this class is currently in the bottom 25% in the B1G.
 


PMWinSTP said:
It's odd how?
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They're still playing catch up and missed out on current players junior years and camps.

Considering most our guys had legit p5 interest. It's going be smaller class, there will be transfers again.

Sure, I'd like see more 4star kids, but not going to hyperventilate over class rankings before class is done.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Totally miss the point. I have said from his hire I think Fleck is a good recruiter and in fact have stated he has exceeded my expectations recruiting. However you want to look at it, this class is currently in the bottom 25% in the B1G.
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Well just looking at the straight up class rankings, this class is ranked 10th, that’s not bottom 25%. It’s also better than Wisconsin and Iowa. I get that may likely change as we will have a small class, but no one in the big10 west is smashing us recruiting wise.
 

TNGophfan said:
Not sure what you mean by Fleck was already here. Fleck spotted him at a camp in Georgia and offered him right away. This was before he blew up. He committed to Fleck and the U later that summer and held his commitment even after a big push from Kirby and Georgia. Was all Fleck.
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As several have pointed out the subject was CAB, not Bateman. I made a mistake in my earliest response, somehow turning it into Bateman incorrectly.
 

btowngopher said:
Well just looking at the straight up class rankings, this class is ranked 10th, that’s not bottom 25%. It’s also better than Wisconsin and Iowa. I get that may likely change as we will have a small class, but no one in the big10 west is smashing us recruiting wise.
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It's 13th by average so I went in between. WI and IA have two fewer commits, and higher average.
 

salzie said:
They're still playing catch up and missed out on current players junior years and camps.

Considering most our guys had legit p5 interest. It's going be smaller class, there will be transfers again.

Sure, I'd like see more 4star kids, but not going to hyperventilate over class rankings before class is done.
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So that's unique to Fleck? Plenty of reports on how quickly he and staff took advantage and transitioned to virtual...ahead of a lot of other programs.
 

Can you land some 4* Stars, fill out the class with hidden gems and build a winning program with great culture? History says “yes”. I have supreme confidence that PJ can continue to make this program relevant.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Totally miss the point. I have said from his hire I think Fleck is a good recruiter and in fact have stated he has exceeded my expectations recruiting. However you want to look at it, this class is currently in the bottom 25% in the B1G.
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Look, if you want to believe that the individual rankings on recruits are totally correct in all cases then fine, this class ranks low in the conference and nobody is going to talk you out of your disappointment.

Nebraska is apparently bringing in top 20 classes according to the sites....how's that working out for them?

Are we bringing in guys with legit power 5 offers/interest? If the answer is yes on the majority of the recruits then the recruiting class is just fine, even if the recruiting sites give the kid a .84 instead of a .87.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Totally miss the point. I have said from his hire I think Fleck is a good recruiter and in fact have stated he has exceeded my expectations recruiting. However you want to look at it, this class is currently in the bottom 25% in the B1G.
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OK, how about we all move on by just conceding that Fleck, despite having the most desirable brand in the B1G (Minnesota!), just isn’t the recruiter that some GH’s think he should be—because, I guess, one not-yet-complete recruiting year, complicated by an out-of-the-ordinary number of super seniors (and perhaps a reserve for transfer portal opportunities) apparently defines his entire HC tenure. Let’s ignore the fact that some coaches, rather than repeatedly fighting often losing battles for highly-ranked prima donna teenagers, look for gems that are ranked a little lower and can be coached up. Instead, I propose that we judge our coach on his win/loss record after five complete seasons. Anybody up for something radical like that?
 
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MNVCGUY said:
The thing I will never understand from those that get so hung up on the numbers associated with players is how they think those recruiting sites can accurately rank players from different states playing at all different levels against each other with any sort of real accuracy.

The difference between a .89 and a .84 can be next to nothing. The best of the best players are one thing but after those handful of top flight sure fire stars....it is a lot of guesswork and projection on the part of the recruiting sites.

Coaches spend time getting to know the players, getting to know their families, really digging into what that player is going to bring to the program. The recruiting sites are based almost entirely on stats on camps, which have value but don't tell the whole story. Kid might be a great athlete but a total ahole as a person.

Are we getting players who are getting recruited by other teams to play at the power 5 level? If the answer is yes than who gives a crap what numbers are next to the kids name.
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For a program like the Minnesota Golden Gophers, it is all about paying attention to details. They want recruits that fit their program. They cannot afford too many recruiting mistakes. If all they do is rely on camp stats and recruiting ratings, there will be many misses.

High school football in Minnesota is not going to get the same level of scrutiny by the recruiting sites as the football hotbeds in other parts of the country unless there is an equivocally obvious talent. Hockey saps a lot of athletes away from football. To a certain extend basketball too. When was the last time that Minnesota got a 5-Star football player rated by the recruiting sites? Seantrel Henderson? With hockey and basketball, Minnesota gets a lot of attention.
 
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