Yes, it is early, but this next class really does need.....

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ruppertflywheel

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a "Maroney" type RB. I think Gillum is a good addition to the North and South concept if he is durable. I was hoping Devon Wright was going to give us some of that "shake'n bake, hello, goodbye type runner. Kirkwood, Cobb, etc. are North and South runners as is the freshman from Texas. Some of you guys follow recruiting alot closer than I do. Are we going after anybody that gives us a Maroney type runner. I remember sitting at the Coyote Ugly Bar in Nashville for the Music City Bowl against Bama. The Alabama fans kept telling us what a great run defense they
had and Maroney/Barber wouldn't do jacksh-t against them. Finally, my son said. " Well, it pretty hard to tackle what you can't catch"
 

There isn't a program in this country that would turn down a "Maroney/Barber" type of college performer. Why stop there? This class could also use a Bobby Bell type, a Bronko type, a TC type, etc.

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
There isn't a program in this country that would turn down a "Maroney/Barber" type of college performer. Why stop there? This class could also use a Bobby Bell type, a Bronko type, a TC type, etc.

Go Gophers!!
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Bleed, the point of the topic is. Are we recruiting that type of back? Not a montage of we could use
this, this, and this. Bleed, I value your information and comments on this sight, but sometimes you jump the gun before digesting the topic all the way through.
 

ruppertflywheel said:
Bleed, the point of the topic is. Are we recruiting that type of back? Not a montage of we could use
this, this, and this. Bleed, I value your information and comments on this sight, but sometimes you jump the gun before digesting the topic all the way through.
Click to expand...

Good point on jumping the gun.

Though it's not easy to recruit that type of back without an established system. It's easy to tell a recruit that we hope to have a system, show a bit of video on the system run at Northern Illinois, etc., but we were able to recruit Maroney because we had a stable of RBs that were putting up gaudy numbers. We also ran the ball a crazy amount and the QB did not have the freedom in Mason's system to take off like the QB does in Kill's system, so that will take some carries away from the backfield.

Go Gophers!!
 

ruppertflywheel said:
Are we recruiting that type of back?
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Yes. But so is every other school. Maroney was a 4 star recruit who measured at 5'11" and 200 lbs. They listed his 40 time at 4.4. If I recall he was also the 18th rated RB in the country. So, yeah...we would be very happy with that, but an RB like that is few and far between.
 


Unregistered User said:
Yes. But so is every other school. Maroney was a 4 star recruit who measured at 5'11" and 200 lbs. They listed his 40 time at 4.4. If I recall he was also the 18th rated RB in the country. So, yeah...we would be very happy with that, but an RB like that is few and far between.
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Depends on who you looked at, I believe he was a 2 star, unranked kid on Scout. But as far as Kill recruiting that type of back, I think he's always doing that, considering the run game is the bread and butter of his offense. I don't know any specific names off the top of my head, but I feel like I recall them being in on some pretty highly regarded RBs. Whether they have ANY type of chance at all on them, I don't know, but it only takes one I suppose.
 

I am hoping for an under the radar type of back who can be coached up.
 

gophmeister said:
I am hoping for an under the radar type of back who can be coached up.
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Like a Brandon Jacobs :)

I'm not sure however on the extent Kill had on getting Jacobs at Southern Illinois, I know he took a long path their including a stop at Auburn, where he was buried on the depth chart. So not like he was flying under the radar.
 

Backs like Maroney don't come around that often. Berkley Edwards, Chris Davis, or Godwin Igwebuike are all guys that are being pursued and would be good commitments for us for the 2013 class. Keep in mind that we are in a strong position to land Jeff Jones for the 2014 class, and he could end up being one of the top 10 RBs in the country.
 



BleedGopher said:
Though it's not easy to recruit that type of back without an established system. It's easy to tell a recruit that we hope to have a system, show a bit of video on the system run at Northern Illinois, etc., but we were able to recruit Maroney because we had a stable of RBs that were putting up gaudy numbers. We also ran the ball a crazy amount and the QB did not have the freedom in Mason's system to take off like the QB does in Kill's system, so that will take some carries away from the backfield.

Go Gophers!!
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Mason (& his staff) also established a reputation of having an offensive line that most RB's would like to run behind. A lot of it was coaching kids up, as we weren't landing 4* OL recruits. A lot of it was also the cut blocking that Mason taught.

Still, we're going to struggle to land blue chip RB recruits until we've demonstrated on the field that we have an offensive line that can dominate the LoS. If you were a highly regarded RB coming out of HS, would you rather go to a school where no defender is going to touch you until you were 2-3 yards downfield, or someplace where you gotta make your own holes? That's how Wisky lands guys like Bell & White. It isn't because of Bulemia's charm.

I agree with your point that Mason's offense was very RB friendly. Partially out of necessity, since Glen never recruited a guy who could wing it all over the field. AAK had a pretty good set of wheels, though.
 

The O line has not presented the healthy RB many lanes the past few years.
 

Gillum fits the mold of alot of good Kill/Limegrover backs, somewhat underrated, JUCO/transfer, etc. If he can show production and the Oline begins to grow that will help bring top runningbacks attention to us.

Jeff Jones looks like he will be a seriously top recruit, if he can be won over by Kill and staff he could be the type of back that could define this program under Kill. He could be THE guy.
Remember what NIU's back/Oline did to us in 2010? This O-line with a top back like Jones/Edwards/etc could run over opponents week in and week out.
I also wouldn't sleep on Roderick Williams, he really reminds me of Iowa's Marcus Coker from last year, a guy who could be 250 lbs with good speed and cutting ability.

We need a bit of luck, a lot of hard work, and maybe some hometown pride, but we can get there.
 

ruppertflywheel said:
Bleed, the point of the topic is. Are we recruiting that type of back? Not a montage of we could use
this, this, and this. Bleed, I value your information and comments on this sight, but sometimes you jump the gun before digesting the topic all the way through.
Click to expand...

Site, as in location. Sight, as to see.
 




Unless we can get a guy who is worth having (Edwards), we don't have to have a RB in this class. Next year, we'll have Gillum as a Sr, Kirkland, Wright and Cobb as Jrs, and Williams as a RS Fr (hopefully). Getting Jones in 2014 would be huge, and it would be awesome to watch he and Williams share carries for the 3 years after that.
 


dpodoll68 said:
Unless we can get a guy who is worth having (Edwards), we don't have to have a RB in this class. Next year, we'll have Gillum as a Sr, Kirkland, Wright and Cobb as Jrs, and Williams as a RS Fr (hopefully). Getting Jones in 2014 would be huge, and it would be awesome to watch he and Williams share carries for the 3 years after that.
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Williams could very easily be a sophomore next year as well if he is as good as some folks think he will be. Iowa tried really hard to turn him last year.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Unless we can get a guy who is worth having (Edwards), we don't have to have a RB in this class. Next year, we'll have Gillum as a Sr, Kirkland, Wright and Cobb as Jrs, and Williams as a RS Fr (hopefully). Getting Jones in 2014 would be huge, and it would be awesome to watch he and Williams share carries for the 3 years after that.
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Ok, Sid.;)

kirkland-signature-diapers.jpg
 

I believe Maroney would have gone to Illinois if they would have offered. Neither of these guys was a consensus high level HS running back. I watched Barber in HS, and I thought he looked a lot better at DB than he did at RB. You really could see a burst when he was at DB. He closed to the ball like no one I had seen in Mn HS football, and basically beat my sons team with two interceptions that looked like he came out of no where to get.
 

corcoran1 said:
I believe Maroney would have gone to Illinois if they would have offered. Neither of these guys was a consensus high level HS running back. I watched Barber in HS, and I thought he looked a lot better at DB than he did at RB. You really could see a burst when he was at DB. He closed to the ball like no one I had seen in Mn HS football, and basically beat my sons team with two interceptions that looked like he came out of no where to get.
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We recruited Barber as a DB. He wanted to play running back, and Mason said he could try-out at running-back if he stayed in Minnesota. I think Tellis Redman was out a game, suspended or hurt, and they let him carry the ball. He was excellent, and the rest is history.

Sent from my PLAYSTATION PHONE using tapatalk
 

John Galt said:
Berkley Edwards, Chris Davis, or Godwin Igwebuike are all guys that are being pursued and would be good commitments for us for the 2013 class.
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Igwebuike committed to Northwestern today.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Unless we can get a guy who is worth having (Edwards), we don't have to have a RB in this class. Next year, we'll have Gillum as a Sr, Kirkland, Wright and Cobb as Jrs, and Williams as a RS Fr (hopefully). Getting Jones in 2014 would be huge, and it would be awesome to watch he and Williams share carries for the 3 years after that.
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Who is Kirkland? New transfer I have not heard of yet?
 


MinneStoa said:
Donnell Kirkwood. Redshirt Sophomore Running Back.

Edit: just saw the spelling error.
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Not a spelling error, an inside joke. He was called Kirkland for an entire game by a commentator once.
 

FreakyDeke said:
Not a spelling error, an inside joke. He was called Kirkland for an entire game by a commentator once.
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It was Anish Shroff calling him Kirkland all night during the game against Middle Tennessee State. Speaking of that game, is anyone else going to get Dwight Dasher a few chips at the casinos in Vegas?
 


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