Question on our 2023 Recruiting Class: Should It Be Better Going Into PJ's 7th Year?

At this point in the Fleck era we are a top #45 recruiting team and a top #30 on the field program. I will take that over being at top #60 recruiting program with a top #50 football team. With Fleck constantly producing NFL level talent we will continue to recruit good, but not great. We will either need a differentiator (a playoff bound team or a great NIL partner) to take the next step in being a top #25 recruiting team/#20 team.
This is my thought as well. Taking guys that he had going to Western Michigan and putting them in the NFL shows that he can identify and develop talent. Fit is huge when that is the case and fit helps cut down on transfers. His recruiting will be judge on the next 2-3 seasons and if the on field product takes a dip or not.
 

Also, trying to differentiate to two places beyond the decimal point is insane. All of those are virtually identical.

Yes, teams like OSU and PSU with 92/93 classes are easier to tell the difference but not so much with the above group.

At this point, PJ is on par with his peers from a ranking/talent perspective. Now it's about fit, development, retention (to an extent in NIL era), filling gaps (big in NIL era), and coaching/preparation.
The last point has always been the key to me. Prior to Fleck there was a pretty clear talent gap between us and many of the teams we faced. Now that gap is only evident when we go up against the upper crust teams like Ohio State. The talent we are bringing in is on par with our peers, from there the rest of the things you mentioned kick in and it is all about retention and development of that talent.
 

I totally agree with you, and thank you for pointing out how close these teams are.

It only takes about 5 new difference makers each year to field a very good team. Do that and the wins will continue.
The emphasis has switched from just recruiting FR and a JUCO or two to the portal. Both are the name of the game.
 

It would always be nicer to have higher ranked players but at this point in the Fleck era, I'm a lot more interested in FIT than I am about star rankings.

This isn't Fleck's first go-around. I'm guessing he has a decent idea what kind of player they are looking for by now.

If he racks up a couple of consecutive 5-7 or 4-8 seasons, I'll start to get worried.
It will be awesome if he can land a bigger 4-star recruiting class.

The Gophers seem to fall short of the B1G West outright title. I can't complain about the Gophers' overall program success under his tutelage.
 

This is my thought as well. Taking guys that he had going to Western Michigan and putting them in the NFL shows that he can identify and develop talent. Fit is huge when that is the case and fit helps cut down on transfers. His recruiting will be judge on the next 2-3 seasons and if the on field product takes a dip or not.
JMS is the gold standard of what the Gopher Football program can do.
 


I'm mildly disappointed in Fleck's recruiting. It's not bad, but I was hoping for more. If 8 wins and a minor bowl do it for you, recruiting is fine. But We're not going to compete regularly at the highest level unless it improves.
 

I'm mildly disappointed in Fleck's recruiting. It's not bad, but I was hoping for more. If 8 wins and a minor bowl do it for you, recruiting is fine. But We're not going to compete regularly at the highest level unless it improves.
Good thing we’ve had 11/9/9 wins over 3 full seasons. Ending every season with a bowl victory.
 






Good thing we’ve had 11/9/9 wins over 3 full seasons. Ending every season with a bowl victory.
It's also a chicken and egg argument, we aren't going to magically start recruiting better without winning. The only way a school like MN competes at the highest levels is by progressing and that's usually a slow process.

We're already at a place where some fans complain about 9 or 10 win seasons. . .so we're on the right track.
 

I think Fleck and his staff are very organized. There is a clear vision for the type of players they want and they do a great job of communicating that vision to players. No message will resonate with 100% of your audience, but knowing who you are and communicating that effectively certainly helps you operate more efficiently. Depth chart management is also improved from Kill/Claeys and infinitely better than under Brewster.
 

I think Fleck and his staff are very organized. There is a clear vision for the type of players they want and they do a great job of communicating that vision to players. No message will resonate with 100% of your audience, but knowing who you are and communicating that effectively certainly helps you operate more efficiently. Depth chart management is also improved from Kill/Claeys and infinitely better than under Brewster.

Well said.

The results (see my post #39) say Fleck and staff are doing really well with the talent they are recruiting.

Once you're on the football field, it is all about wins and losses, not stars and dots.
 



I think Fleck and his staff are very organized. There is a clear vision for the type of players they want and they do a great job of communicating that vision to players. No message will resonate with 100% of your audience, but knowing who you are and communicating that effectively certainly helps you operate more efficiently. Depth chart management is also improved from Kill/Claeys and infinitely better than under Brewster.
His players trust him to look after their best interests. He is not afraid to have those difficult conversations or cut players that commit egregious violations.
 

Good thing we’ve had 11/9/9 wins over 3 full seasons. Ending every season with a bowl victory.
10 and a very nice bowl, 8 and a minor bowl, 8 and a minor bowl.

Thats the level he's recruiting at.

As I said.
 


It's also a chicken and egg argument, we aren't going to magically start recruiting better without winning. The only way a school like MN competes at the highest levels is by progressing and that's usually a slow process.

We're already at a place where some fans complain about 9 or 10 win seasons. . .so we're on the right track.
Correct, and and a 5-6 win season wipes out most of the recruiting momentum gained.
 

So... 11, 9 and 9. Without the editorializing, that is.

Right?

If there is still confusion, I'll be happy to post (yet again) post #39.
And I'm mildly disappointed in the recruiting. I was hoping by now we'd be landing top 20, top 15 level classes.

Instead, we seem to have plateau'd or even started to drop off slightly. I'm a Fleck fan, this is generally as good as it's been in a long time for Gopher football, but I can still recognize getting to higher levels won't be probable with classes in the 40s and few 4 stars, no 5 stars.

It's not a personal insult. Relax. Curb the insatiable need to defend to the death all things PJ.
 

Good thing we’ve had 11/9/9 wins over 3 full seasons. Ending every season with a bowl victory.

serious question - not trolling --

Is that the ceiling? are the Gophers - in their better years - going to be a good, but not great team that falls short of being a top-25 program?

because that ties into the recruiting question.

If the Gophers ever want to play in a conference title game or win a conference title, they need better talent. If they can't buy it, they need to recruit it. and classes in the #30 to #40 range are not going to get it done if they want to compete against the best teams in the conference.

hey, if this is the ceiling, fine. I can live with that. It's better than finishing 5-7 or 6-6. But it's still a rung below the top level of the conference.
 

And I'm mildly disappointed in the recruiting. I was hoping by now we'd be landing top 20, top 15 level classes.

Instead, we seem to have plateau'd or even started to drop off slightly. I'm a Fleck fan, this is generally as good as it's been in a long time for Gopher football, but I can still recognize getting to higher levels won't be probable with classes in the 40s and few 4 stars, no 5 stars.

It's not a personal insult. Relax. Curb the insatiable need to defend to the death all things PJ.
Expecting top 15-20 level classes on any kind of regular basis at a school like Minnesota is a pretty lofty expectation given our local recruiting base.

Those spots are occupied by the helmet programs and generally schools that are located in much for fruitful recruiting areas.

Not impossible for Minnesota to get to that level but would be extremely difficult to get there and stay there, no matter who the coach was.
 

If the Gophers ever want to play in a conference title game or win a conference title, they need better talent. If they can't buy it, they need to recruit it. and classes in the #30 to #40 range are not going to get it done if they want to compete against the best teams in the conference.
I don't get this line of thinking at all. Wisconsin and Iowa have had a lot of success with classes that rarely crack the top 25 in the rankings. You don't have to land a super highly rated class in order to compete, you have to find the right players who are talented enough to compete at the Big Ten Level.

The reality of the college football landscape is that we are always going to struggle to keep pace with the Ohio States and Michigans of the world in terms of raw talent. But that doesn't mean we can't compete against those teams and even beat them at times.
 

Nope. Outside the top 15 or so it’s a crapshoot and depends on getting players that fit in my opinion
This is kind of what I was getting at. Unless you expect Fleck to bring in top 20 classes consistently by now, there isn't really a concern with the ranking. For all the success Iowa and wisconsin have had, they never consistently get top 20 classes!
 

And I'm mildly disappointed in the recruiting. I was hoping by now we'd be landing top 20, top 15 level classes.

Instead, we seem to have plateau'd or even started to drop off slightly. I'm a Fleck fan, this is generally as good as it's been in a long time for Gopher football, but I can still recognize getting to higher levels won't be probable with classes in the 40s and few 4 stars, no 5 stars.

It's not a personal insult. Relax. Curb the insatiable need to defend to the death all things PJ.
Your expectations show your ignorance toward recruiting. That is basically where PSU recruits. Only OSU and Michigan recruit at a higher level in the B1G. Minnesota is located in one of the most talent deficient geographic areas of any P5 team, at least as far as ratings. Yes there is some room for improvement still with recruiting which I think can come with continued success. But we have never really seen consistently better recruiting than what Fleck has done. Brew had the one class that was a level up, but that was it, and he was touted by all experts for his recruiting prowess.
 

Your expectations show your ignorance toward recruiting. That is basically where PSU recruits. Only OSU and Michigan recruit at a higher level in the B1G. Minnesota is located in one of the most talent deficient geographic areas of any P5 team, at least as far as ratings. Yes there is some room for improvement still with recruiting which I think can come with continued success. But we have never really seen consistently better recruiting than what Fleck has done. Brew had the one class that was a level up, but that was it, and he was touted by all experts for his recruiting prowess.
Ignorance? LOL.

I remain mildly disappointed.
 

One way to help evaluate the rankings is the average rating for each team. For instance Nebraska needed 40 recruits to be 29th, while TCU needed only 24 commits to be seven spots ahead of the Huskers.

Here are are the teams you chose with the number of recruits and the average player ranking:

#21 Colorado 43, 87.96
#22 TCU 33, 88.91
#23 Mich St 28, 87.89
#29 Nebraska 40, 87.47
#31 Louisville 27, 88.60
#37 Wisconsin 28, 87.35
#40 Indiana 31, 86.91
#46 Minnesota 27, 87.07
#47 Iowa 28, 86.97
#48 Illinois 28, 86.47

Same group in order of average player ranking:
TCU 33, 88.91
Louisville 27, 88.60
Colorado 43, 87.96
Mich St 28, 87.89
Nebraska 40, 87.47
Wisconsin 28, 87.35
Minnesota 27, 87.07
Iowa 28, 86.97
Indiana 31, 86.91
Illinois 28, 86.47

Of course I’d like Fleck to recruit a little better, and I think that’s a general feeling towards almost any team. This year we only have 3 4-star players coming in (2 high schoolers and 1 transfer). I think we had 4 last year. However as another poster mentioned, fit is very important, and I would add that coaches evaluations are more important than the ranking websites. What they do provide is a general idea of how we compare to other teams.

Absolutely agree! Internet rankings of high school basketball players are imperfect measures but football rankings definitely are worse. Minnesota's highest ranking 247 football recruit since they started tracking this was a complete bust. Ortiz was our highest recruit a couple of years ago, never saw the field, and was reduced to transferring to U Mass. Almost every year we see guys playing as true freshmen who weren't among our top rated recruits.

I agree that average ranking of recruits is more helpful than overall team ranking but I wouldn't get too depressed or elated about those either. Fleck's teams are doing well on the field and that's all that matters. The Gophers have had 11 guys drafted in the past three years so that should say something too.
 

If the Gophers ever want to play in a conference title game or win a conference title, they need better talent. If they can't buy it, they need to recruit it. and classes in the #30 to #40 range are not going to get it done if they want to compete against the best teams in the conference.

What do you mean by "best teams in the conference?" If you mean Ohio State and Michigan, my answer is that the Gophers are unlikely to be competitive with them any time soon. You probably can add Penn State to that list although we are more likely to beat them in any given year.

I think we are competitive with all of the rest although we do have an Iowa problem but I don't think Iowa recruits significantly better than us (at least by widely published recruiting metrics). Also, if you look at the average recruit ranking per team (instead of the total team ranking) for 2023 on 247, there isn't a significant difference between ours and multiple teams that are ranked in the twenties. It's only when you get into the top twenty that the teams have significantly larger average rankings on a consistent basis.
 

I'm mildly disappointed in Fleck's recruiting. It's not bad, but I was hoping for more. If 8 wins and a minor bowl do it for you, recruiting is fine. But We're not going to compete regularly at the highest level unless it improves.
I'm kinda in the same boat to a degree. Would have thought the recruiting would be better at this point, especially after 2019. It isn't bad and rankings don't tell us everything but people would be lying if they say it isn't important to recruit talent.
 

What do you mean by "best teams in the conference?" If you mean Ohio State and Michigan, my answer is that the Gophers are unlikely to be competitive with them any time soon. You probably can add Penn State to that list although we are more likely to beat them in any given year.

I think we are competitive with all of the rest although we do have an Iowa problem but I don't think Iowa recruits significantly better than us (at least by widely published recruiting metrics). Also, if you look at the average recruit ranking per team (instead of the total team ranking) for 2023 on 247, there isn't a significant difference between ours and multiple teams that are ranked in the twenties. It's only when you get into the top twenty that the teams have significantly larger average rankings on a consistent basis.

it was right there in black and white: "If the Gophers ever want to play in a conference title game or win a conference title..." Because that is what the best teams in the conference do.

Yes, the Gophers are better under Fleck. so what is the ceiling of the program? what is the ultimate goal?

if the ultimate goal is to say "we're as good as most of the teams in the conference," then the Gophers are there. But if the goal is to actually play for a conference title, or win a conference title, the Gophers are not there yet. And the question is - can they get there?
 

The question is recruiting about the rankings or is recruiting about fielding a strong team? We have been fielding a strong team year after year with the big weaknesses being in recruiting WR (2020-2022 production). Which is the one place I would think he would excel considering his background and early success. While some of this could be Morgan, I truly believe there was a bigger gap at WR than with Morgan.

Either way we are getting people to the NFL year after year, we are competitive every year and we are surprisingly deep. Getting to the next level is not going to be easy, but I do think it is doable.
 

serious question - not trolling --

Is that the ceiling? are the Gophers - in their better years - going to be a good, but not great team that falls short of being a top-25 program?

because that ties into the recruiting question.

If the Gophers ever want to play in a conference title game or win a conference title, they need better talent. If they can't buy it, they need to recruit it. and classes in the #30 to #40 range are not going to get it done if they want to compete against the best teams in the conference.

hey, if this is the ceiling, fine. I can live with that. It's better than finishing 5-7 or 6-6. But it's still a rung below the top level of the conference.
Flip 1 game over the last three years and they were in Indy 3 times. Yes we can do better on and off the field.
 




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