Official 2023 Gophers Football Recruiting Thread: Links, Tweets, Videos, Rumors

Donate To GopherHole

USAF said:
Adjust your sarcasmeter.
Click to expand...
Not sure I follow. Seriously. Some people tend to think that some things in life are hopeless to achieve. I'm thinking that by planting seeds, building bridges, etc. we can make progress. Can you elaborate?
 





#2Gopher said:
Not sure I follow. Seriously. Some people tend to think that some things in life are hopeless to achieve. I'm thinking that by planting seeds, building bridges, etc. we can make progress. Can you elaborate?
Click to expand...

They are making a joke based on the terminology. Usually players are "blessed" or "beyond blessed" or some other ridiculous phrase to describe their offer. "Appreciative" is pretty weak in comparison.
 


btowngopher said:
Yeah I don’t get it. They have like nine guys already rated. We have three.
Click to expand...
Kind of mind blowing to me also. I think we have like 2 million more people? I wonder what the reason is we typically don't produce as much talent as Iowa and Wisconsin..Nebraska is honestly probably comparable for prep football talent off the top of my head.
 

MinnGopher said:
Kind of mind blowing to me also. I think we have like 2 million more people? I wonder what the reason is we typically don't produce as much talent as Iowa and Wisconsin..Nebraska is honestly probably comparable for prep football talent off the top of my head.
Click to expand...
How many NHL players do Iowa and Nebraska produce?
 



MinnGopher said:
Kind of mind blowing to me also. I think we have like 2 million more people? I wonder what the reason is we typically don't produce as much talent as Iowa and Wisconsin..Nebraska is honestly probably comparable for prep football talent off the top of my head.
Click to expand...
Hockey and basketball probably divert talent away from football.
 

hungan1 said:
Hockey and basketball probably divert talent away from football.
Click to expand...
I agree, but dont necessarily think its an apples to apples comparison. Lot of multi sport athletes that would still show up in the rankings if they were talented enough to be high end football recruits. I think that might also assume that they are only playing one sport too? Obviously tough to gauge where they spend their time/focus
 

Word said:
How many NHL players do Iowa and Nebraska produce?
Click to expand...
Not sure, youd have to google or ask on the hockey board. How many hockey recruits profile as high end football recruits? Not sure the parallel is as similar as basketball, track, wrestling athletes, but there is definitely some.
 

MinnGopher said:
Not sure, youd have to google or ask on the hockey board. How many hockey recruits profile as high end football recruits? Not sure the parallel is as similar as basketball, track, wrestling athletes, but there is definitely some.
Click to expand...
Ratzlaff from Rosemount is the one recent example that comes to mind. But can't think of many other situations where a guy had to pick between football and hockey.

Have been a few guys that had to choose between basketball and football in recent years.
 



MNVCGUY said:
Ratzlaff from Rosemount is the one recent example that comes to mind. But can't think of many other situations where a guy had to pick between football and hockey.

Have been a few guys that had to choose between basketball and football in recent years.
Click to expand...
Yeah Ratzlaff was the only one I could think of too, but definitely are some I am missing. Admittedly I dont follow hockey a ton, so I could be off. But from what I do know I haven't saw a ton of hockey players that profile as guys that would be top notch football players. Blanket statement a little and is an Incredibly skilled game but not sure that means they are pulling tons of kids away from football.
 

Specialization happens earlier now. More and more top kids from MN don’t even play JV football so there’s never a chance for them to see what they would have become on the field
 






247sports.com

Ravon Johnson, The Citadel Bulldogs, Edge

2021: Georgia Region 7-AAAAAAA second-team selection. Worked off the edge for a Meadowcreek team that went 5-6. Totaled 8.5 sacks.
247sports.com 247sports.com

Listed as “warmer”, he has apparently named the gophers as his leader. Hopefully this is a Bateman type scenario, lock him up early before the attention blows up. Fleck seems to have a knack of finding talent early in the process before it has blown up. I feel like Kill took more of an approach of finding guys that blew up late and didn’t have the time to garner attention. I much prefer the Fleck approach as it at least gives you a shot to keep the high end talent when it blows like Bateman. It’s tough to consistently find unnoticed talent like that late in the process.
 

btowngopher said:
It doesn’t seem like hockey specialization would be enough of a factor to erase a 2 million population advantage though.
Click to expand...
Hockey specialization might not account for it all but there are a lot of quality athletes getting pulled out of the mix due to hockey in this state. Between the Gophers and Wisconsin there are 31 MN kids and only 8 from Wisconsin.

Now granted, some of those guys aren't going to be big enough to play football, but a quick glance at the U roster shows 2 guys that are from MN and are 6'4" and 230 lbs. That is LB territory right there.

Combine that with the number of quality basketball players from MN as well and you can see where the football numbers could take a pretty good hit.

Another way of looking at it would be if you could only make your team out of instate recruits. You could build championship level hockey and basketball teams, the same can not be said for football.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Hockey specialization might not account for it all but there are a lot of quality athletes getting pulled out of the mix due to hockey in this state. Between the Gophers and Wisconsin there are 31 MN kids and only 8 from Wisconsin.

Now granted, some of those guys aren't going to be big enough to play football, but a quick glance at the U roster shows 2 guys that are from MN and are 6'4" and 230 lbs. That is LB territory right there.

Combine that with the number of quality basketball players from MN as well and you can see where the football numbers could take a pretty good hit.

Another way of looking at it would be if you could only make your team out of instate recruits. You could build championship level hockey and basketball teams, the same can not be said for football.
Click to expand...
I think the basketball part is sort of irrelevant. So many kids play football and basketball. I get hockey takes specialization, but football and basketball do not really. It's not like Iowa only has football, they produce good basketball players as well. I assume wrestling is huge there too.
 


MinnGopher said:
Not sure, youd have to google or ask on the hockey board. How many hockey recruits profile as high end football recruits? Not sure the parallel is as similar as basketball, track, wrestling athletes, but there is definitely some.
Click to expand...
I think the devotion at a young age of many Minnesota kids to hockey keeps them from playing football later. Hockey players' 2nd sport is more likely to be soccer, lacrosse, or baseball, if they play a 2nd sport at all. I also just think the focus on hockey here has just taken away some of the appeal or priority that people in Minnesota place on football (high school football just isn't the "thing to do" here like it is other places).

That brings me to another question - does lacrosse hurt us too? Seems more popular here than in Iowa or Wiscy.
utah.laxallstars.com

Home

HEADLINES FEATURED VIDEOS College Lacrosse News College Lacrosse News |
utah.laxallstars.com utah.laxallstars.com
 
Last edited:

From the Jaxon Howard thread (assume this was for Juniors day):

So how about the other three he is with?

John Barrow - Cooper - no 247 rating - no shown offers
247sports.com

John Barrow, Robbinsdale Cooper , Defensive Line

John Barrow is a 6-2, 270-pound Defensive Line from Minneapolis, MN.
247sports.com 247sports.com

Keenan Wilson - Eagan - no 247 rating - no shown offers
247sports.com

Keenan Wilson, Eagan Senior , Defensive Line

Keenan Wilson is a 6-1, 280-pound Defensive Line from Saint Paul, MN.
247sports.com 247sports.com

Martin Owusu - Prior Lake - no 247 rating - shows Northern Iowa, Wyoming, Illinois State, and C Michigan offers
247sports.com

Martin Owusu, Minnesota Golden Gophers, Defensive Line

Martin Owusu is a 6-3, 290-pound Defensive Tackle from Prior Lake, MN.
247sports.com 247sports.com


Particular the last guy, his twitter also shows some Nebraska recruiting pictures for whatever that is worth.
 


WriterGoph said:
Hopefully it's just Ohio State being arrogant, but that makes it sound like Brown's recruitment is still open.
Click to expand...
Have never felt like Brown was a lock....didn't he post a pic in a Cincinnati uniform not all that long ago? It will be a battle to hang onto him for sure.

The arrogance of the article is on full display with the feeling Ohio State can get pretty much anyone they want, but at the same time it is kind of tough to dispute it because it often seems like they can.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Have never felt like Brown was a lock....didn't he post a pic in a Cincinnati uniform not all that long ago? It will be a battle to hang onto him for sure.

The arrogance of the article is on full display with the feeling Ohio State can get pretty much anyone they want, but at the same time it is kind of tough to dispute it because it often seems like they can.
Click to expand...

I'm sure if we can update our offense and throw more this next season, that can't hurt either.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Hockey specialization might not account for it all but there are a lot of quality athletes getting pulled out of the mix due to hockey in this state. Between the Gophers and Wisconsin there are 31 MN kids and only 8 from Wisconsin.

Now granted, some of those guys aren't going to be big enough to play football, but a quick glance at the U roster shows 2 guys that are from MN and are 6'4" and 230 lbs. That is LB territory right there.

Combine that with the number of quality basketball players from MN as well and you can see where the football numbers could take a pretty good hit.

Another way of looking at it would be if you could only make your team out of instate recruits. You could build championship level hockey and basketball teams, the same can not be said for football.
Click to expand...
Minnesota could field a competitive olympic hockey team and compete just fine as its own nation. Not saying we'd win the gold, but we'd compete with lots of countries.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom