Where our program's age is via ESPN

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Ole

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Minnesota has used 76 players through six games this season. Of those 76, 32 of them (42.1 percent) had never played a game for the Gophers before this year. Minnesota has used 10 true freshmen, 10 redshirt freshmen and 12 other players who have made their Gophers debut in 2012.

Add 10 true sophomores and it's up to 55% of the players are in their first or second year of the program.
 

So wait...are you saying we would be a young team? Why is this never brought up? Someone should be letting the fanbase know just how young this team is, it would significantly lower expectations. I would have expected Kill to be all over this point.

(Ole, not trying to be a dick to you, just tired of hearing stuff about how young this team is)

Actually it would be interesting to know how the other teams in the BIG breakdown age wise using a similar setup (only factoring guys that have seen the field)
 

MNVCGUY said:
So wait...are you saying we would be a young team? Why is this never brought up? Someone should be letting the fanbase know just how young this team is, it would significantly lower expectations. I would have expected Kill to be all over this point.

(Ole, not trying to be a dick to you, just tired of hearing stuff about how young this team is)

Actually it would be interesting to know how the other teams in the BIG breakdown age wise using a similar setup (only factoring guys that have seen the field)
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If figured this would be the response. The facts are more interesting when presented as stats IMO. Over half of the players on the field in the games weren't even gophers 2 years ago when Kill took over. That was my point.
You and others can be tired of hearing it, but it makes a difference, especially when the grind of the season kicks in and injuries stack up.
 

So in 2 yrs about 50% of our team will be experienced jrs and srs?
 

Ole said:
Minnesota has used 76 players through six games this season. Of those 76, 32 of them (42.1 percent) had never played a game for the Gophers before this year. Minnesota has used 10 true freshmen, 10 redshirt freshmen and 12 other players who have made their Gophers debut in 2012.

Add 10 true sophomores and it's up to 55% of the players are in their first or second year of the program.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the stats Ole.
 


lakesgopher said:
So in 2 yrs about 50% of our team will be experienced jrs and srs?
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and just think, a few years after that we will be able to play a lot of RS Jr.'s and Sr.'s like the peers we are striving to catch!
 

The problem is, it's not just the youth; it's where they're playing and how the playing time is being distributed.

In another thread, one poster showed the class distribution for Wisky and the Gophers to be virtually identical. A quick glance at the Wisky depth chart (on Rivals) shows they don't have a single player younger than a Junior starting on defense.

A lot of those class distributions don't reflect Redshirts either. I posted before the Northwestern game that, according to the Rivals depth chart, every single player on the NU defense had redshirted. That's every single player essentially being another year older, stronger, and more experienced. I'm sure I'm missing somebody but I can't recall a single player on the Gophers 2-deeps on defense that redshirted outside of Cockran (I guess Troy S technically counts).

The O-Line is where it's the most glaring. The Gophers won't likely field a "typical" BCS O-Line, in terms of experience and depth, until 2014. It'll be better next year, much better with everybody returning, but the fact is there will be MULTIPLE Freshmen and Sophs playing along the line throughout the rest of this season.

I know people get tired of hearing about it but they are young across the board, and apparently some people think that's going to change from week to week. This is the way it's going to be this year, throughout the season; get used to it.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
I'm sure I'm missing somebody but I can't recall a single player on the Gophers 2-deeps on defense that redshirted outside of Cockran (I guess Troy S technically counts).
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Wilhite
Perry
Botticelli
Hageman
Hill
Edwards
Reeves
Rallis
Beal
Stoudermire
 




Ogee Oglethorpe said:
The problem is, it's not just the youth; it's where they're playing and how the playing time is being distributed.

In another thread, one poster showed the class distribution for Wisky and the Gophers to be virtually identical. A quick glance at the Wisky depth chart (on Rivals) shows they don't have a single player younger than a Junior starting on defense.

A lot of those class distributions don't reflect Redshirts either. I posted before the Northwestern game that, according to the Rivals depth chart, every single player on the NU defense had redshirted. That's every single player essentially being another year older, stronger, and more experienced. I'm sure I'm missing somebody but I can't recall a single player on the Gophers 2-deeps on defense that redshirted outside of Cockran (I guess Troy S technically counts).

The O-Line is where it's the most glaring. The Gophers won't likely field a "typical" BCS O-Line, in terms of experience and depth, until 2014. It'll be better next year, much better with everybody returning, but the fact is there will be MULTIPLE Freshmen and Sophs playing along the line throughout the rest of this season.

I know people get tired of hearing about it but they are young across the board, and apparently some people think that's going to change from week to week. This is the way it's going to be this year, throughout the season; get used to it.[/QUOTE]


+1
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I agree we're young this year (obviously) and young at some key positions. However, I'm going to post a projected 2-deep next year and I'll bold the upperclassmen.. The excuse ends next year.

QB: Nelson/Shortell (might be Shortell/Nelson)
RB: Kirkwood/Williams or Maye
WR: Fruechte/Jones
WR: Barker/Harbison
WR: McDonald/Crawford-Tufts
TE: Goodger/KGM or Bisch
OL: Campion/Bush
OL: Epping/Hayes or Bak
OL: Mottla/Christensen
OL: T Olson/Bjorkland
OL: E Olson/Pirsig

DE: Amaefula/Perry
DE: Cockrun/Keith
DT: Hageman/Ekpe
DT: Botticelli/R Johnson
LB: Beal/Matilus
LB: Edwards/Hill
LB: Manual/Lynn
CB: Shabazz/Murray
CB: Baltazar/Boddy
S: Wells/Travis or A Johnson
S: Vereen/Thompson
 

I ran through a comparison of the two deeps on the offensive lines of Wisconsin and Minnesota last night (I used the game notes). Because Wisconsin doesn't give out birthdates on their roster I used last year of high school (not prep school) as my benchmark. What came out was Wisconsin's starting line averaged 2008.2 while ours was 2009.0, the back-ups were Wisconsin 2009.0 and Gophers 2009.6 so the Gophers are considerably younger. Wisconsin is likely considered relatively young as they have only two seniors (both fifth year) on their two deep and one of the two seniors is a back-up with not a heck of a lot of experience.

What I got out of it is how different (surprise, surprise) the programs were in building. All ten of the Badgers appear to be recruited scholarship players, while 4 of the Gophers ten were walk-ons (Mottla, Bak, Heifort, Christenson). So yes they are young, and their age is propped up by Campion who is going to be 24 by the time he is done, but more so a lot of them have over-achieved to get into the two deeps.

I am a big fan of walk-on success stories but when walk-ons are 40% of your two deep O-line, and two of the walk-ons are freshmen and one is a sophomore, you are likely in trouble.
 

In general experience wins out over youth, however there is more to it then just age. Don't get me wrong I would love to have a roster full of guys in their 3rd/4th/5th years but not having that is not a complete excuse for poor play either. Greg Eslinger and Mark Setterstrom both started on the O-Line as true freshman and were great for their entire careers. Those two may be the exception more than the rule but if you have the right players they can overcome youth and still be successful.
 



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