Ryan Burns on Kaden Johnson

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I've heard from more than a few people much smarter than I am about football, that Kaden Johnson's senior film was less than stellar. That is the main reason teams fell off, including in part why the Gophers moved on. He just didn't play that well and did not have the impact on the games that a guy with his ranking should have.

I think a few fans have even posted about how unimpressive he was in games they saw him play. I have never watched him play personally, so this I have no opinion on his skill level. But, from people who I would consider in the know, his senior season was a drop-off and his film not great.

Sounds like Wisconsin did re-introduce itself late in the process after it appeared Nebraska was the absolute front-runner in the days leading up to signing day.
 


Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
So perhaps Chryst did it to spite Frost. This brings Chryst up a notch in my book as Frost is a colossal d-bag!
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With Johnson and the gophers it came down to all the other studs that signed up . . . .Similar players like Brown, Joyner, Burns etc.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Refute what exactly?

Refute ... nothing?
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I don't know if you know this Mr. Bacon, but a lot of the people who follow Burns consider the nonsense he spews to be gospel.

Burns says some story that serves his purpose. This story would explain his gigantic swing and a miss about KJ not having a comittable offer from the Badgers. The story makes absolutely zero logical sense.

However, it's on us to prove the negative. Prove something didn't happen! They literally take his word as gospel.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
I don't know if you know this Mr. Bacon, but a lot of the people who follow Burns consider the nonsense he spews to be gospel.

Burns says some story that serves his purpose. This story would explain his gigantic swing and a miss about KJ not having a comittable offer from the Badgers. The story makes absolutely zero logical sense.

However, it's on us to prove the negative. Prove something didn't happen! They literally take his word as gospel.
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His business model is to sell he has inside information.

I follow up for updates, but like anything take with a grain of salt.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Thank you for sharing and I know it's not your story, but that makes zero sense.

WI took a player they didn't want to spite us? That seems strange.

To me, this feels like Burns BS. I don't think it's to save the staff, it's because he was the one spouting nonsense about him not having a commitable offer from the Badgers. What changed? It would have been spiteful towards us regardless of when he committed. What changed two days before signing day?

Could you imagine the exchange?

Paul Chryst: "Hey everyone, I know we didn't really want to allocate additional spots for a LBer, even one of the best in the country, but let's sign Kaden Johnson."
LBer Coach: "I'm ecstatic, he's one of the best LB recruits in the country, but I have to ask, what changed?"
Paul Chryst: "Well, he's from MN and this will tick them off."
LBer Coach: "Hasn't he always been from MN?"
Paul Chryst: "Yeah . . . "
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We actually don’t know whether that story came from Burns. Galt didn’t specify where he got that from.
 

PitinoFan said:
We actually don’t know whether that story came from Burns. Galt didn’t specify where he got that from.
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That's true, maybe it didn't. If so, it's just an illogical take and not an illogical take in an attempt to cover up another illogical take.
 

This is my own guess on what happened.

We were interested when he was a junior and probably wanted him.
Kaden slow played it. Wanted to get a lot of attention. Hold out for best option.
We continued recruiting to fill out our class.
A couple weeks prior to signing day, it sounds like there was some communication. Probably a "decide now or we're moving on".
Kaden wasn't ready or was still milking for other options.
We pulled the offer and filled the class elsewhere..

Nebraska and OR St seemed to be the last offers.

I watched the prep bowl, and he was not impressive at all in my opinion. That would go in line with his senior film per rumors. Perhaps he was playing injured or something.

I think there are a fair number of recruits from Minnesota that we want really bad, who go other places.
I think there are a fair number we might offer who we would take but aren't dying to get.

I feel at the point at the end of our season he fit the latter more than the former.
 



Think this is all a combination of a few things
- Kaden being a solid P5 prospect but not quite as good as his initial rankings which changed fan perception of how important he was as a recruit
- Him wanting bigger offers
- Him not actually knowing where he wanted to go
- Teams being willing to move off of him because again, they didn't have him as highly rated as the websites
 

Cody Lindenberg supposedly had a much better year than Johnson. I like his development trajectory plus hes always been a gopher fan. I dont want a soft, wishy washy, private school linebacker on our team anyways. If Kaden had any maroon and gold pumping through his veins he would not be wearing red next year. FOR SHAME!!
 

TurfGopher said:
Cody Lindenberg supposedly had a much better year than Johnson. I like his development trajectory plus hes always been a gopher fan. I dont want a soft, wishy washy, private school linebacker on our team anyways. If Kaden had any maroon and gold pumping through his veins he would not be wearing red next year. FOR SHAME!!
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Do you not want MJ Anderson on the team as well? He was a private school wishy washy DL that originally decommitted from us. Mafe was pretty wishy washy as well, had an offer for a while and didn’t commit until last minute.

There are plenty of reasons to not want a kid but taking a while to make up your mind is not one of them IMO.
 

Face The Facts said:
This is my own guess on what happened.

We were interested when he was a junior and probably wanted him.
Kaden slow played it. Wanted to get a lot of attention. Hold out for best option.
We continued recruiting to fill out our class.
A couple weeks prior to signing day, it sounds like there was some communication. Probably a "decide now or we're moving on".
Kaden wasn't ready or was still milking for other options.
We pulled the offer and filled the class elsewhere..

Nebraska and OR St seemed to be the last offers.

I watched the prep bowl, and he was not impressive at all in my opinion. That would go in line with his senior film per rumors. Perhaps he was playing injured or something.

I think there are a fair number of recruits from Minnesota that we want really bad, who go other places.
I think there are a fair number we might offer who we would take but aren't dying to get.

I feel at the point at the end of our season he fit the latter more than the former.
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THIS.
 



Have watched a decent bit of KJ's tape and agree with others saying senior tape was not impressive. I think his 4star rating was likely a product of him being a nice size/speed prospect starting early in his high school career who had decent production against low level competition, with projection for improvement and added weight. Probably also stood out well at camps where everything is in done in underwear and allows guys like that to appear very good.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like he really improved much his senior year. Looks slow on tape, has decent straight line speed but not very sudden at all, doesn't have great physicality or motor. Did make some nice stops in the run game with chase-down tackles and behind the LOS when the offense left him totally unblocked (sometimes by design on option plays) but rarely saw him shed a block or set the edge nicely. Really didn't stand out much all in all, which is concerning when evaluating a supposed 4 star recruit who is playing against 2A competition. Maybe he was battling a nagging injury or something but you would think if that were the case, somebody would've heard about it.

Overall based on size/speed and tape, he is probably more of a mid-range 3 star player than the mid-high 4 stars he ended up on recruiting services. Of course you would always take a guy like that on your team, especially if he's a guy who wants to be there and buys into the culture. However I think he would've been a poor fit on the Gophers with what they ask their LBs to do. Has a much better chance for success playing in a system like UW.

I like the LBs the Gophers ended up with in this class, so not all that disappointed that Johnson went to UW.
 

Cody Lindenburg dreamed of becoming a Gopher. Period.

Kaden Johnson to me appeared tentative. If he really wanted to be a Gopher, he would have committed early in the season.

The other angle is fit. I don't think the staff placed a higher value on Kaden Johnson as a potential Gopher as compared to Joqwondis Burns, Jalen Logan-Redding, Lucas Finnessy, or Itayvion Brown given his skill set and close evaluations by the Gopher coaches.

He may be ranked higher on paper, but I like and trust the Gopher coaches' evaluations.
 

hungan1 said:
Cody Lindenburg dreamed of becoming a Gopher. Period.

Kaden Johnson to me appeared tentative. If he really wanted to be a Gopher, he would have committed early in the season.

The other angle is fit. I don't think the staff placed a higher value on Kaden Johnson as a potential Gopher as compared to Joqwondis Burns, Jalen Logan-Redding, Lucas Finnessy, or Itayvion Brown given his skill set and close evaluations by the Gopher coaches.

He may be ranked higher on paper, but I like and trust the Gopher coaches' evaluations.
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How did this become a Lindenburg vs. Kaden Johnson thread? LOL.
 


Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
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Illogical Take #1: WI signed Kaden Johnson would of spite to the Gophers.
Illogical Take #2: KJ did not have a commitable offer from the Badgers.

So if if Ryan Burns is the source of the rumor: He was trying to use one illogical take (the Badgers signed him last minute out of spite) to cover up a previous illogical take (KJ didn't have a commitable offer).

If not Ryan Burns, someone else has a horrendous take (WI only signed him out of spite).

Get this - - no one wanted him anymore, YET, the Badgers thought it would piss us off if they signed him.
 



Kaden Johnson does not like the physicality of football. What if he doesn't really even like football.
 

No doubt Wisconsin has made mistakes in offering scholarships but I don't think that many. They seem to graduate a lot of seniors each year even with early departures. Kaden Johnson was not a toss away scholarship, Wisconsin believes he will be a good linebacker. They've had some success with Minnesota kids at linebacker. I'm thinking the speculation to the contrary is BS.
 

Goldteam said:
Kaden Johnson does not like the physicality of football. What if he doesn't really even like football.
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Wait until he gets asked to line up and drop trou for his steroid injection.
 



PitinoFan said:
I’m curious why he waited until 2 days before signing day to make up his mind. At what point did the Wisconsin offer dry up?

Anyway...I’d rather take the mid 3-star MN kid, with potential, and who wants to be here over the one who clearly thinks he’s too good for the program. I hope he rides the bench for 4 years.
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This x1000.

If he doesn’t want to be at Minnesota, I don’t want him.

Who knows, maybe he wanted the Gophers to get down on their hands and knees begging him to stay home, and Fleck wouldn’t do it?
 



die hard gopher said:
Do you not want MJ Anderson on the team as well? He was a private school wishy washy DL that originally decommitted from us. Mafe was pretty wishy washy as well, had an offer for a while and didn’t commit until last minute.

There are plenty of reasons to not want a kid but taking a while to make up your mind is not one of them IMO.
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Private school kids are soft!

Give me the public school kid from Ampipe, who puts in a full-shift at the mill six days a week and smokes a pack a day!

:cool:
 


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