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

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Tommyboy said:
What is new they do not go after a lot of the Minnesota kids, like NDSU they pursue lineman, TE, and linebackers. The top 10 to 15 players should all get offers from their home state every year. They would be better reaching out to the local kids, example is Boyd, he is a long way from home.
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Boyd is leaving to play with Ewers at UT, I'm almost certain of it. Top 15 players in Minnesota ain't getting you to a B1G Championship. We're doing the right thing trying to get some elite talent from out of state.
 

gopher8 said:
Boyd is leaving to play with Ewers at UT, I'm almost certain of it. Top 15 players in Minnesota ain't getting you to a B1G Championship. We're doing the right thing trying to get some elite talent from out of state.
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So are they both in the class of 2022? If not start a thread for people who care.
 



die hard gopher said:
I think Johnson is a good player and a nice get for them but with us only taking one RB this cycle and already having Evans committed, we didn’t have room for Johnson.
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Did Gophers offere him a PWO? He can still earn a scholarship by proving himself.

We have witnessed how intense the competition is in the RB room.

The Gophers are bound to miss on good instate players.
 


FullBanana said:
Penn State - 15
Ohio State - 14
Michigan - 7
Mich St - 5
Rutgers - 4
Indiana - 4
Minnesota - 2
Purdue - 2
Iowa - 2
NW - 2
Wis - 1
Maryland - 1
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Feels like we are usually in the 1-3 range.

I'm surprised by Iowa/Wisconsin, I thought they were usually in the 5+ range.

Just checked, Iowa had 7 last year and Wisconsin 6. In 2020 Iowa only had 1 and Wisconsin 5.
 

hungan1 said:
Did Gophers offere him a PWO? He can still earn a scholarship by proving himself.

We have witnessed how intense the competition is in the RB room.

The Gophers are bound to miss on good instate players.
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My mom, who knows nothing about football, sent me an article about him from the Strib a few weeks ago that made him sound like the second coming of Adrian Peterson or something. It was actually kinda fun to explain recruiting to her a bit, and just because a player at a smaller school is putting up video game numbers it doesn't mean they are a coveted college recruit and how "interest" does not equal "offers".
 

hungan1 said:
Did Gophers offere him a PWO? He can still earn a scholarship by proving himself.

We have witnessed how intense the competition is in the RB room.

The Gophers are bound to miss on good instate players.
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I'm sure the Gophers did. Personally, I would have offered him a scholarship but Kenny Burns is pretty damn good at evaluating RBs, so I trust him.

I just hope it wasn't a numbers thing. I think in the post-portal era, being strict on the number of players you have on scholarship per position is silly. There will be an element of musical chairs for the next few years until the COVID eligibility issue is resolved.
 

eker0016 said:
My mom, who knows nothing about football, sent me an article about him from the Strib a few weeks ago that made him sound like the second coming of Adrian Peterson or something. It was actually kinda fun to explain recruiting to her a bit, and just because a player at a smaller school is putting up video game numbers it doesn't mean they are a coveted college recruit and how "interest" does not equal "offers".
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The Gophers coaching staff evaluate players for program fit and concomitant talent. It can be tough, and they have missed on some good in-state players. The Gophers recruit nationally and internationally to elevate the football program. Minnesota high school kids have a lot more competition than realized.

The Gophers do get recruiting wins from small schools or rural in-state players. Blaise Andries was from Marshall. Sam Schlueter came from Mayer Lutheran High School with a small enrollment. Logan Richter from Perham was offered a scholarship almost on the spot because he is a specimen. Alexandria's Kristen Hoskin can run a 4.25 seconds/40.

If you are a running back or a wide receiver who can run 4.3, or a guy the size of Daniel Fa'alele with a twitch of football instincts, you will get noticed no matter where you go to school. These kids may be the BMOC in HS, but in college, everyone else is faster, bigger, or better.
 
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Tommyboy said:
What is new they do not go after a lot of the Minnesota kids, like NDSU they pursue lineman, TE, and linebackers. The top 10 to 15 players should all get offers from their home state every year. They would be better reaching out to the local kids, example is Boyd, he is a long way from home.
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We won't be very good but at least we'll be losing with hometown kids.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I'm sure the Gophers did. Personally, I would have offered him a scholarship but Kenny Burns is pretty damn good at evaluating RBs, so I trust him.

I just hope it wasn't a numbers thing. I think in the post-portal era, being strict on the number of players you have on scholarship per position is silly. There will be an element of musical chairs for the next few years until the COVID eligibility issue is resolved.
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But the numbers do still matter because you only have 85 total scholarships to work with. So you aren't just going to offer a scholarship to a kid you are not 100% sold on just because. Probably more a case of telling Evans he will be the only scholarship back in the class.

Fleck mentioned the roster management piece is more difficult now with the portal.
 

hungan1 said:
Did Gophers offere him a PWO? He can still earn a scholarship by proving himself.

We have witnessed how intense the competition is in the RB room.

The Gophers are bound to miss on good instate players.
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He’s not turning down a full ride to Nebraska to walk on here.
 




Bob_Loblaw said:
I'm sure the Gophers did. Personally, I would have offered him a scholarship but Kenny Burns is pretty damn good at evaluating RBs, so I trust him.

I just hope it wasn't a numbers thing. I think in the post-portal era, being strict on the number of players you have on scholarship per position is silly. There will be an element of musical chairs for the next few years until the COVID eligibility issue is resolved.
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of course its a numbers thing.....you have to always take that into account....
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I'm sure the Gophers did. Personally, I would have offered him a scholarship but Kenny Burns is pretty damn good at evaluating RBs, so I trust him.

I just hope it wasn't a numbers thing. I think in the post-portal era, being strict on the number of players you have on scholarship per position is silly. There will be an element of musical chairs for the next few years until the COVID eligibility issue is resolved.
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Didn't we just miss on a guy who's doing pretty well at Northwestern?
 

Gophs24 said:
of course its a numbers thing.....you have to always take that into account....
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Well, of course. Let me clarify, I hope it's not strictly because we have x amount of running backs.

Of course it needs to be factored in, but I don't think in the post-portal world being as strict to those breakdowns as you would have been before makes sense.
 


MNVCGUY said:
But the numbers do still matter because you only have 85 total scholarships to work with. So you aren't just going to offer a scholarship to a kid you are not 100% sold on just because. Probably more a case of telling Evans he will be the only scholarship back in the class.

Fleck mentioned the roster management piece is more difficult now with the portal.
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Of course the numbers still have an impact, but it's going to be musical chairs every year. There will be a number of walk-ons who get scholarships next year because of this. That's good too.

I'm just saying that if they like someone, especially someone who is local, I hope the idea that "we already have a RB in this class" isn't what is stopping them from offering.
 


btowngopher said:
Evan Hull from Maple Grove. He had a 1,000 yard season, but I don't consider him a miss. I don't think he is any better than multiple rbs we have.
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Agree. Hull is clearly a decent player but he wasn't a miss in recruiting.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
We took Wiley instead of him. I think it's a miss.
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We also took Potts and Williamson in that same class. Hull here would have been buried on the depth chart. Hindsight being 20/20 sure he would have been better to have on the roster than Wiley or Williamson given how things played out (especially this year). But there was no way of knowing that at the time, and it isn't like Hull tore it up in his first two years at Northwestern.

He had a solid 2021 which is great for him but it isn't like he is a superstar either.
 

Not going to argue that Wiley is better, but who knows how he would do if given the work load of Hull.
 


MNVCGUY said:
We also took Potts and Williamson in that same class. Hull here would have been buried on the depth chart. Hindsight being 20/20 sure he would have been better to have on the roster than Wiley or Williamson given how things played out (especially this year). But there was no way of knowing that at the time, and it isn't like Hull tore it up in his first two years at Northwestern.

He had a solid 2021 which is great for him but it isn't like he is a superstar either.
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Yeah, I'd call him a slight miss for the gophers, and probably a larger miss for some other teams as he received few offers. Looks like he only had a couple MAC offers before KSU and NW offered in January.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
You'd rather have Wiley than Hull?
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Fair question. Today, of course. In 2019....probably would have taken Wiley. Easy to say right now that it was a mistake to take Williamson, or Wiley instead of Hull.
 

btowngopher said:
Not going to argue that Wiley is better, but who knows how he would do if given the work load of Hull.
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I think we all saw that Wiley ran too upright and didn't have the vision necessary to be a reliable running back. He had enough carries to show his stuff, and he certainly didn't show an argument to become the main guy, or the main alternate for the main guy, hence why he chose to move along.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Fair question. Today, of course. In 2019....probably would have taken Wiley. Easy to say right now that it was a mistake to take Williamson, or Wiley instead of Hull.
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Yeah, I don't blame Burns or anyone. They are clearly good at evaluating players and even people who are really good at that will have misses.

I don't really count Williamson because there is no way anyone could have known he would have had injuries, but I do think it's pretty clear that Hull is a better football player than Wiley. IMO, we missed on him and that's 100% ok. It happens. It'll happen every year. It'll happen to the very best staffs in the country.
 

btowngopher said:
Not going to argue that Wiley is better, but who knows how he would do if given the work load of Hull.
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Sure, but then you'll never have hits or misses. Who knows if Mafe was a good recruit because he might have been crappy elsewhere.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Yeah, I don't blame Burns or anyone. They are clearly good at evaluating players and even people who are really good at that will have misses.

I don't really count Williamson because there is no way anyone could have known he would have had injuries, but I do think it's pretty clear that Hull is a better football player than Wiley. IMO, we missed on him and that's 100% ok. It happens. It'll happen every year. It'll happen to the very best staffs in the country.
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See but again....you are using 2021 information to say a decision in 2019 was wrong. Wiley had many power 5 offers from all over the country, Hull had barely any and they came in late in the process.

Today....yep 100% Hull is a better power 5 running back than Wiley. But in 2019 the people recruiting the two of them clearly felt Wiley was going to be the better player.
 

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