Quick review of the 2009 class

[draftnik2]

Give me your most surprising, most disappointing, and sleeper heading into the 2010 season.



Most surprising: CB Michael Carter. This should be the consensus. We heard a few bitter WVU fans chirp about how he was "too small, they didn't want him anyway, etc." Turns out that Carter was everything and then some for us and will be our #1 CB for the next few years.



Runner-up: OT Jeff Wills (started every single game for us)



Most disappointing: WR Hayo Carpenter. Many of us (myself included) expected the 5-star to step in right away at WR and give us a dimension of speed we haven't seen around here in a long time. He ended up with 2 receptions for 43 yards as we saw Troy Stoudermire, DaJon McKnight, and Brandon Green get all the playing time.



Runner-up: RB Hasan Lipscomb (who never made it in)



Sleeper: DE/TE Ra'shede Hageman. Call me a homer (he is in my avatar) but the local product has the size/speed to be a major threat wherever he ends up. We are losing our starters at DE and TE, and if he is as good as his offers indicate, he will start somewhere.



Runner-up: P Dan Orseske (should be the favorite for the job next year)

 

[Schnoodler]

Great first post.

Here are a list of the 2009 recruits so no one has to look it up.

Hayo Carpenter
Hasaan Lipscomb
Michael Carter
Moses Alipate
Bryant Allen
Josh Campion
Matt Garin
Kendall Gregory-McGhee
Ra'shede Hageman
Kerry Lewis
Joey Searcy
Victor Kiese
Ed Olson
Brent Singleton
Kenneth Watkins
Eric Jacques
Brooks Michel
Jeff Wills
Nick Rengel
Dan Orseke



And a format for your cut and paste pleasure:

Most surprising:




Most disappointing:



Sleeper:

 

[Schnoodler]

Most surprising:
I'll go with Carter as well. You usually see many mistakes when freshmen have to play at the CB spot. And mostly he did a great job.



Most disappointing:
Again, I'll agree with the original and say Hayo. I thought maybe we were expecting too much when he got here, but I thought he'd be productive and he wasn't.


Sleeper: This is tough because so many haven't shown up on the field or are RS this year. Orseke is going to be very good, so I'm not sure he can be a sleeper for me, because I've seen enough already. Hageman I expect great things out of anyway too, so I won't choose him. I think I'll go with Rengel although we may have to wait another two years to see anything.


I'd like to see this same thing for the 2008 class and even the 2007 class. It's good football talk.

 

[EG#9]

Most Surprising: Michael Carter. Hard to call him a "surprise" since he's the rare out of state All American game participant to choose the Gophers. Not many freshman played, but Carter did and flashed some good ability. Obviously needs to get stronger, but the ability to play CB at a high level is clearly there.

Runner up: Bryant Allen. It might be a little thing to most, but I was amazed at so effortlessly a true freshman caught punts. I was nervous when I first saw him back there thinking of muffed punts by freshman in past seasons, but Bryant made it look easy all year long.

Most disappointing: Hayo Carpenter. I admit. I drank the Kool Aid on this one. I didn't see any way a JUCO WR who put up the numbers that Hayo did would not have an impact on this team. I am not giving up on the kid as sometimes the transition from JUCO ball to BCS conference ball can be a tough one to make. Hopefully Hayo has a breakout SR season.

Runner up: The DE's. This includes Garin, Gregory-McGhee, and to some extent Hageman. It's not an indictment on any of them as much as a "wouldn't it have been nice" type statement. The Gophers could not generate a pass rush from the front 4, with the DE's especially lacking. It would have been nice if one of the above would have been ready to at least play the role of a nickel rusher as a true freshman.

Sleeper: Joey Searcy. Last I heard, he was still going to be a part of the program as a grey shirt. He had some good offers coming out of high school and has not been one of our more talked about recruits.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I actually think this thread would be a little better for earlier seasons, it's just close to impossible to gauge how good some of these guys are. For instance, for the 2008 class, we knew nothing of Cooper after last season, whereas I would call him the best player out of that class now. But i'll still play....

Surprising....I am not going with Carter, because he was a big time recruit and Simmons was terrible, so I am not surprised he stepped in and was succesful. I will go with Allen. He never dropped a punt and I think will supplant Stoudamire at the slot next season (moving stoud to CB).

Disappointing.....I wish I could go with Carufel here, not because he was THAT bad, but because he wasn't nearly as good as I hoped he would be. However, he transfered here in 2008, so I will go with Hayo. He would seem like a no brainer, but after Pittman, I have been very skeptical of JuCo guys. I didn't expect him to do absolutely nothing, so I will go with him for the most dissappointing.

Sleeper.....Victor Kiese. I think a lot of us (myself included) have forgotten about Kiese. However, from what I hear, he has the best hands on the team and could definitely fight for playing time next season.

 

[magpie]

Most surprising: Carter. Simmons made some huge blunders, but also some huge plays. To come in and replace him (especially under Brewster's seemingly anti-freshman philosophy), and make essentially no mistakes is excellent. No growing pains evident here. If the receiver did make the catch, Carter had him immediately wrapped up -- something we don't see a lot of by the Gopher defense.

Most disappointing: JuCo's. Other than kickers and the secondary, we should probably avoid them from now on. They can't seem to adjust to the system quick enough to make them worthwhile. Carpenter (the so-called 5*) should've at least made the field as a starter, yet he had 2 catches for the year?? Wills has been talked about enough. Pittman still doesn't play in his 2nd year (granted he was hurt). Not a fan.

Sleeper: Who knows? Half-way thru the year I would've said Carter, but he proved the second half that he's ready to start. No one else showed me much from this class. I'll go with Orseke or Bryant, just because they seemed to be consistent.

 

[littlebigboy]

They had adequate players at most positions, and so I am glad that they redshirted as many as they could. Thats how you build a prg.