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John Galt

John Galt

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Keelon Brookins committed back on Feb. 26. It's now been over 3 months since we've had a commitment, one of the longest stretches I can remember. No matter how you spin it, not a good sign. I would have thought that Rucker and Hendrick Ekpe would be "in" by this time.

On my wish list, it would be nice to pick-up Berkley Edwards or Chris Davis as a RB for this class, and to follow it up next year with Jeffrey Jones. Marquez North, teammate of Jamel Harbison's, would be a huge pick-up for us at WR, but is probably a long shot as he's been offered by almost the entire SEC. Alex Mayes, the OT from Texas, has been here for a visit and said we were his leader at one point, but I haven't heard anything new lately. Hopefully the pieces will start to come together over the summer...
 



Yes, lets be worried given the fact that there are a limited number of schollies available and that the in state class is not as deep as last year. Those conditions scream for us to be signing a lot of kids...especially since the staff has apparently been handing out offers sparingly.

In other words, it shouldn't surprise anyone that if the staff hands out offers to more highly regarded guys and not many others (thus far) that those guys might still be waiting to decide. If the staff were handing out offers like Ol' Miss and we still weren't getting commits then we'd have a bigger issue.
 

I think Kill and the Gophs could be in a bit of a bind, because they don't have a lot of scholarships available for next year.

On the one hand, they don't want just start handing them out, because then they might use up their allotment, and not have one available for a blue-chip player who doesn't commit early.

On the other hand, if they try to save too many scholarships for later in the process, they might get caught if players they like commit early, and the Gophs could wind up having to make offers to second-tier candidates.

Kill and the staff are going to have to be VERY smart as they go through the recruiting process. They literally cannot afford to "swing and miss" on any scholarships - they have to get value for everyone they sign. That, IMHO, is the real difference between a program like the Gophs, and the "big boys." If Ohio State or Michigan misses on a recruit, they have other 4* and 5* recuits to make up the difference. If the Gophs miss on a recruit, it's like throwing a scholarship down the drain. They don't have the depth or quality of recruits (yet) to just write off kids.
 


nsmike said:
You can bet with only a limited number of scholarships the coaches want to be sure. Things will pick up as soon as the camps start next month.
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So only one offer has been extended? The one that has been accepted? Don't quite understand the "small class" argument for it being June with one commit? If anything, that should spur those with offers to be accepting sooner before the class fills, no? Unless just one offer has been extended?
 

My concern isn't how are we going to fill up the roster, it's that if the Gophers are going to become a good team, they will need to get to the point where they have more than 1 commitment come June 1. It's only the best players that have offers this time of year. Iowa currently has 8 commits, all but one are 3/4 stars including the #8 rated DE in the country. Wisconsin will also have a small class this year and they have 6 commits.
 

OutHouseGopher said:
So only one offer has been extended? The one that has been accepted? Don't quite understand the "small class" argument for it being June with one commit? If anything, that should spur those with offers to be accepting sooner before the class fills, no? Unless just one offer has been extended?
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If you extend a limited number of offers thus far and those offers are to players who don't commit early (because they are being recruited by many BCS programs) then not having a lot of early verbals is to be expected. Are you saying we should be expecting the unexpected?
 

John Galt said:
My concern isn't how are we going to fill up the roster, it's that if the Gophers are going to become a good team, they will need to get to the point where they have more than 1 commitment come June 1. It's only the best players that have offers this time of year. Iowa currently has 8 commits, all but one are 3/4 stars including the #8 rated DE in the country. Wisconsin will also have a small class this year and they have 6 commits.
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Wisconsin just went to back to back Rose Bowls. The Gophers are not on their level as a program right now. That sucks but it is what it is. As for Iowa, the devil is in the details. What were the offer sheets on those players? Any previous relationships to Iowa? Etc. And sadly, two wins in row aside, their program is also still at a higher point than MN.

If this were a year when the staff wasn't being so tight with the offers then I might be more concerned. But what you're basically saying is that we should be concerned because players who aren't as likely to commit early have followed the expected pattern and because border programs with more prestige have more early signees.
 



Just last year Maxx committed on 2/23 and we didn't get a commitment until Isaac Fruechte committed on 6/9. Gopher camps don't start until 6/10, which is when we started hearing about Eric Murray last year. It is a marathon.
 

go4rube said:
Just last year Maxx committed on 2/23 and we didn't get a commitment until Isaac Fruechte committed on 6/9. Gopher camps don't start until 6/10, which is when we started hearing about Eric Murray last year. It is a marathon.
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Fair enough, but he was the 3rd commit and we knew that we were in the running for several other big-name prospects: Pirsig, Hayes, Harbison.
 

GoAUpher said:
Wisconsin just went to back to back Rose Bowls. The Gophers are not on their level as a program right now. That sucks but it is what it is. As for Iowa, the devil is in the details. What were the offer sheets on those players? Any previous relationships to Iowa? Etc. And sadly, two wins in row aside, their program is also still at a higher point than MN.

If this were a year when the staff wasn't being so tight with the offers then I might be more concerned. But what you're basically saying is that we should be concerned because players who aren't as likely to commit early have followed the expected pattern and because border programs with more prestige have more early signees.
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Good post. What I'm saying is that the best players stand out so much during their junior years that they already have scholarship offers at this point. Are we at the point yet where we can expect to have 6-10 of these type of players locked up by the end of May? No. Do we need to be in that position if we are going to be a top 25 team? Probably.
 

It is a bit concerning. But then you have to relax, trust the coaches, and realize it is only May.
 



John Galt said:
Good post. What I'm saying is that the best players stand out so much during their junior years that they already have scholarship offers at this point. Are we at the point yet where we can expect to have 6-10 of these type of players locked up by the end of May? No. Do we need to be in that position if we are going to be a top 25 team? Probably.
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All fair enough, but totally missing from the OP that everyone jumped on you for. :) Your OP had more of a "we should be there right now" feel to it, which wouldn't have been a reasonable expectation at this point given the whole the program is digging out of.
 

Don't get me wrong, it's still disappointing to have 1 commit at this point. We should all expect more, even for this year, but especially for the future.
 

John Galt said:
Don't get me wrong, it's still disappointing to have 1 commit at this point. We should all expect more, even for this year, but especially for the future.
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Agree to disagree then. It just seems silly to me that you're using an arbitrary commitment goal by a time period of no actual significance to set expectations irrespective of all the related factors (i.e. small class and limited offers handed out thus far).
 

GoAUpher said:
Agree to disagree then. It just seems silly to me that you're using an arbitrary commitment goal by a time period of no actual significance to set expectations irrespective of all the related factors (i.e. small class and limited offers handed out thus far).
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I'll ask again, how many "offers have been handed out thus far?" 3? 4? More than 5?

Indiana and Iowa State must not have extended any yet since both have 0 commits?
 

OutHouseGopher said:
I'll ask again, how many "offers have been handed out thus far?" 3? 4? More than 5?

Indiana and Iowa State must not have extended any yet since both have 0 commits?
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Don't know. I don't pay money to the recruiting services. I follow the work of others (like MV over at FBT) who do and who have noted the limited way in which Kill has handed out offers thus far.

Since you're all aflutter about this, perhaps you'd care to let me know how many offers have been extended and why having 1 commit versus that number of offers at this random instant in time when there are a limited number of schollies available and we're coming off a 3-9 season should be concerning? Ya know, maybe make an actual argument instead of throwing out specious junk like "they must not have extended any offers" like it means something.
 

GoAUpher said:
Agree to disagree then. It just seems silly to me that you're using an arbitrary commitment goal by a time period of no actual significance to set expectations irrespective of all the related factors (i.e. small class and limited offers handed out thus far).
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Ultimately, anything is an arbitrary date except for signing day. When should I have started the thread, July 1? October 1? From glancing at Rivals, we've probably offered 100-150 players. It's not quite the 250+ that Ole Miss has handed out, but it's not like we've only offered 5-star prospects.
 

GoAUpher said:
Don't know. I don't pay money to the recruiting services. I follow the work of others (like MV over at FBT) who do and who have noted the limited way in which Kill has handed out offers thus far.

Since you're all aflutter about this, perhaps you'd care to let me know how many offers have been extended and why having 1 commit versus that number of offers at this random instant in time when there are a limited number of schollies available and we're coming off a 3-9 season should be concerning? Ya know, maybe make an actual argument instead of throwing out specious junk like "they must not have extended any offers" like it means something.
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FWIW, according to Rivals we have 131 offers out. Given that we are exactly where we were last year at this time (with around half the number of scholarships available), it is hardly time to panic.
 

John Galt said:
Ultimately, anything is an arbitrary date except for signing day. When should I have started the thread, July 1? October 1? From glancing at Rivals, we've probably offered 100-150 players. It's not quite the 250+ that Ole Miss has handed out, but it's not like we've only offered 5-star prospects.
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Well, given that the approach of the staff is to hold a lot of offers until the summer camps it might make sense to pick a timeframe after those camps. Certainly any date then would be arbitrary compared to NSD, but it would at least be tied to how the staff operates.
 

According to Rivals free information:

Minnesota:
131 Offers (39 Committed)
1 Commitment
1/39= 2.56% success

Wisconsin
69 Offers (37 Committed)
6 Commitments
6/37= 16.22% success

Iowa
87 Offers (45 Committed)
8 Commitments
8/45= 17.8% success
 

Let's be honest, unless a player is from Minnesota, we aren't anyone's destination school for football. Nobody grows up in Texas and Florida hoping specifically to play for Minnesota.

I talked about this a few months ago, and it shouldn't be a big surprise. Look at Gopher recruiting over the last 10 years and you'll see that it's exceedingly rare for a player to commit to us in the Spring of their Junior year unless they are from Minnesota. Almost everyone else is going to hold out at least a few more months to see what else they can get. It's perfectly understandable, quite frankly.

The fact that we've only offered 3 in-state kids is the #1 reason why we only have one commit so far, and I'm sure the coaching staff knows that. They have been working on guys like Alex Mayes, who look good right now, and also laying the groundwork for that second tier of recruits come summer time.

We need to pick up about 4-5 commits over the summer. Once the kids start camping, I think we'll see that happen.
 

Gold Vision said:
According to Rivals free information:

Minnesota:
131 Offers (39 Committed)
1 Commitment
1/39= 2.56% success

Wisconsin
69 Offers (37 Committed)
6 Commitments
6/37= 16.22% success

Iowa
87 Offers (45 Committed)
8 Commitments
8/45= 17.8% success
Click to expand...
We aren't Wisconsin and Iowa. This isn't news. Right now, with this staff, we're in the Purdue and Indiana range. Purdue has 1 commit. Indiana has 0.
 

It's important to just relax. I remember last year, there was some wide receiver from Florida named Clive Georges (thread) who the staff really liked. They would have offered him, but we only had a few scholarships remaining. It seems like we tend to find diamonds in the rough like Clive towards the end of the recruiting cycle.
 

Gopherprof said:
Let's be honest, unless a player is from Minnesota, we aren't anyone's destination school for football.

I talked about this a few months ago, and it shouldn't be a big surprise. Look at Gopher recruiting over the last 10 years, and you'll see that it's exceedingly rare for a player to commit to us in the Spring of their Junior year unless they are from Minnesota. Almost everyone else is going to hold out at least a few more months to see what else they can get. It's perfectly understandable, quite frankly.

The fact that we've only offered 3 in-state kids is the #1 reason why we only have one commit so far, and I'm sure the coaching staff knows that. They have been working on guys like Alex Mayes, who look good right now, and also laying the groundwork for that second tier of recruits come summer time.

We need to pick up about 4-5 commits over the summer. Once the kids start camping, I think we'll see that happen.
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This ^^^^^
 

Gopherprof said:
We aren't Wisconsin and Iowa. This isn't news. Right now, with this staff, we're in the Purdue and Indiana range. Purdue has 1 commit. Indiana has 0.
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Just answering Outhouse's question. No opinion stated in that post.
 

GoAUpher said:
Well, given that the approach of the staff is to hold a lot of offers until the summer camps it might make sense to pick a timeframe after those camps. Certainly any date then would be arbitrary compared to NSD, but it would at least be tied to how the staff operates.
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But that's not how the staff operates. To my knowledge they offered 2 players based on what they saw in camp last year (Rallis and Murray). The staff would be thrilled if they currently had 10 commitments from the players they have already offered. And we'd be a much better team down the road if that was the case. Summer camps will allow them to find a few diamonds in the rough, but we would be in a much better position talent-wise if we could lock up guys earlier. That's been my point throughout the entire thread.
 

Gold Vision said:
Just answering Outhouse's question. No opinion stated in that post.
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Fair enough. It's useful information either way.

It also illustrates that Brewster + staff had some great salesmen because they often won those recruiting battles against Iowa and Wisconsin. The problem was that he had no idea how to be a head football coach. Kill is going to have to do more with less, because as of yet there's nobody on his staff who has proven to be that ace recruiter (Bill Miller is really the only one with that experience). Their ability to find those diamonds in the rough and to develop them is going to be crucial.
 

John Galt said:
But that's not how the staff operates. To my knowledge they offered 2 players based on what they saw in camp last year (Rallis and Murray). The staff would be thrilled if they currently had 10 commitments from the players they have already offered. And we'd be a much better team down the road if that was the case. Summer camps will allow them to find a few diamonds in the rough, but we would be in a much better position talent-wise if we could lock up guys earlier. That's been my point throughout the entire thread.
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Wrong team. Wrong staff.

Mitch Leider got an offer based on his 7-on-7 stuff, which is basically the same (in-person evaluation). I'm sure there are more like that.
 

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