Upgrading the D-Line

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Oneoldgopher

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Looks like recruiting is receiving a new look by quality recruits this year. Last year at this time, recruits were giving the U low marks for our offers. This year, it looks like recruits are giving the U a more serious look, even at the highest of rankings. Has anyone heard how recruiting is going and who might show up for camps? The offer list to defensive ends is large and deep in talent with the U going up against the helmet schools. I can see as many as 15 scholarships going to defense positions this year. If we are to build balance, a very strong class in defense seems to me to be an imperative.

Thoughts?
 

Oneoldgopher

I personally don’t believe that they will be focusing just on defense. Jerry Kill has always said that he is looking for more talent and lots of it. His definition of talent is athleticism and speed. So as far as to whether it is defensive or offensive talent it appears to be pretty well across the board. Per Rivals the Gophers have put out 106 offers. The breakdown of these offers by position are: 10 athletes, 19 defensive backs, 15 defensive ends, 8 defensive tackles, 13, linebackers, 11 offensive linemen, 2 quarterbacks, 13 running backs, 2 tight ends, 11 wide receivers, and a partridge in a pear tree.

It is difficult to analyze these numbers without understanding what the thought process was behind these selections. From spring practice Jerry has indicated he would like to particularly see greater talent and numbers in the defensive backs, defensive ends, and the wide receivers.

They are also clearly casting a wide net with 2 offers in Alabama, 21 in Florida, 2 in Georgia, 13 in Illinois, 4 in Indiana, 1 in Iowa, 1 in Kansas, 3 in Louisiana, 1 Maryland, 1 in Michigan, 7 in Minnesota, 4 in Missouri, 2 in New Jersey, 9 in North Carolina, 8 in Ohio, 3 in Pennsylvania, 6 in South Carolina, and 4 in Texas.

Hopefully you are right about them creating some buzz out there. I am also confident that they won’t be outworked in recruiting. What they do need to do though is establish their credibility. I expect a lot of these recruits will be watching how the Gophers perform this fall and what people say about the program. It should be interesting.
 

How about we get them on the team.

I love the recruiting talk and all but in the end its about who is actually going to be Gophers. We have seen coaches give offers out to great players just to be turned down or have those great athletes sign with other schools. I dont think we can say anything good or bad about Kill's recruiting at this point until he starts getting verbals and then signatures from those great players. Even more props if he can get those great athletes to step up and be great players. I am not trying to down play anything Kill is doing to this point but I sure cant get to excited over 3 verbals at this point in the process. He appears to have gotten 3 nice verbals but lets see what he can get done by the end of the process.
 

Recruiting

WolfontheProwl said:
I love the recruiting talk and all but in the end its about who is actually going to be Gophers. We have seen coaches give offers out to great players just to be turned down or have those great athletes sign with other schools. I dont think we can say anything good or bad about Kill's recruiting at this point until he starts getting verbals and then signatures from those great players. Even more props if he can get those great athletes to step up and be great players. I am not trying to down play anything Kill is doing to this point but I sure cant get to excited over 3 verbals at this point in the process. He appears to have gotten 3 nice verbals but lets see what he can get done by the end of the process.
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I understand your point but I don't think anybody is saying anything good or bad about Kill's recruiting other than they are working hard. It seems that we are all still suffering from the Brewster era. The reality is that there isn't much going on now so people are going to gravitate towards discussing recruiting. The other option is to continue to discuss Brewster's recruiting violations with wren, but again point well taken.
 

Oneoldgopher said:
Looks like recruiting is receiving a new look by quality recruits this year. Last year at this time, recruits were giving the U low marks for our offers. This year, it looks like recruits are giving the U a more serious look, even at the highest of rankings.
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Actually, at this time last year the U was getting high marks from recruits. Things began going downhill when the season started (and we were losing) and hit the wall when Brewster was fired.
 


Any word on how we're doing with recruiting the partridge in the pear tree?
 


Redbeard said:
Any word on how we're doing with recruiting the partridge in the pear tree?
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The odds are about the same as finding the diamond in the rough. So many pear trees, so few partridges. However, we might find a pair of partridges when they are together with a pair of pears.
 




Our needs certainly are on D right now, and team speed in general.

I'm hopeful that one or two impact caliber defenders are in this class, along with a bunch of athletes that could project to multiple positions. Kill's said this is really his recruiting strategy, like Patterson does at TCU.
Interior Dlinemen can be found here in state in fair quality and quantity, I'd hope we try to get some prospects to walk on. You can find MN HS defensive ends and linebackers, bulk them up and see how they do in the trenches.

Kill's targets on the recruiting websites right now are mostly longshots, guys with big time offers and 20+ BCS schools that want them. One or two kids from this early group would be a huge coup.

He'll offer up in staters and outstate targets who camp here this summer, I think we'll see quite a few, seems like that's the idea anyway.
Guys like Rallis, Larson, Hebert, Bungum, Harden, Anyanwu, Montero, Arends, Brewster, Ford, Lee, Dunbar, Webb, Johnson, Roullier etc will be able to show what they've got and possibly earn an offer or a walk on offer.
 

Oneoldgopher said:
Looks like recruiting is receiving a new look by quality recruits this year. Last year at this time, recruits were giving the U low marks for our offers. This year, it looks like recruits are giving the U a more serious look, even at the highest of rankings. Has anyone heard how recruiting is going and who might show up for camps? The offer list to defensive ends is large and deep in talent with the U going up against the helmet schools. I can see as many as 15 scholarships going to defense positions this year. If we are to build balance, a very strong class in defense seems to me to be an imperative.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

The scholarship grid on FBT shows on 16 to 17 total scholarships, with three commitments, that means there are only 13-14 more available so there is no way 15 go to D players, maybe 10. Unless there is more attrition than it look like at this point, the offers will only be to kids they are really confident in on every dimension. If they take a late qualifier, that is one less scholarship for Feb.
We don't have a lack of bodies, we have a lack of bodies that can play BigTen football, especially at WR and DB in 2012. I don't see the DTs for 2012 either, but I have never heard Coach Kill mention that as a concern.
 

I agree that defense as a whole is the biggest need, but finding a quality Big Ten RB is the single biggest position of need. We haven't had a good, solid RB since Pinnix left. It's been an endless procession of mediocre (to put it kindly) runners since. QB, OL, TE and WR (to a lesser extent) look pretty well-stocked for the next 3-4 years, but RB is a group full of question marks.
 

dpodoll68 said:
I agree that defense as a whole is the biggest need, but finding a quality Big Ten RB is the single biggest position of need. We haven't had a good, solid RB since Pinnix left. It's been an endless procession of mediocre (to put it kindly) runners since. QB, OL, TE and WR (to a lesser extent) look pretty well-stocked for the next 3-4 years, but RB is a group full of question marks.
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Gotta hope one of the 4 Kirkwood, Wright, Edwards, or Cobb(if he plays RB) work out.
OL, TE, QB are all stocked with at least well thought of prospects, that will help the running game too.
#1 need IMO is pass rushers, 2-4 Dlinemen/LBers that can get to the QB, we have none.
 



Killjoy said:
I personally don’t believe that they will be focusing just on defense. Jerry Kill has always said that he is looking for more talent and lots of it. His definition of talent is athleticism and speed. So as far as to whether it is defensive or offensive talent it appears to be pretty well across the board. Per Rivals the Gophers have put out 106 offers. The breakdown of these offers by position are: 10 athletes, 19 defensive backs, 15 defensive ends, 8 defensive tackles, 13, linebackers, 11 offensive linemen, 2 quarterbacks, 13 running backs, 2 tight ends, 11 wide receivers, and a partridge in a pear tree.

It is difficult to analyze these numbers without understanding what the thought process was behind these selections. From spring practice Jerry has indicated he would like to particularly see greater talent and numbers in the defensive backs, defensive ends, and the wide receivers.

They are also clearly casting a wide net with 2 offers in Alabama, 21 in Florida, 2 in Georgia, 13 in Illinois, 4 in Indiana, 1 in Iowa, 1 in Kansas, 3 in Louisiana, 1 Maryland, 1 in Michigan, 7 in Minnesota, 4 in Missouri, 2 in New Jersey, 9 in North Carolina, 8 in Ohio, 3 in Pennsylvania, 6 in South Carolina, and 4 in Texas.

Hopefully you are right about them creating some buzz out there. I am also confident that they won’t be outworked in recruiting. What they do need to do though is establish their credibility. I expect a lot of these recruits will be watching how the Gophers perform this fall and what people say about the program. It should be interesting.
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Talk about warming the heart...
 

Dr.Don said:
The odds are about the same as finding the diamond in the rough. So many pear trees, so few partridges. However, we might find a pair of partridges when they are together with a pair of pears.
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There is only one Partridge.................Laurie.:)
 


Killjoy said:
What they do need to do though is establish their credibility. I expect a lot of these recruits will be watching how the Gophers perform this fall and what people say about the program. It should be interesting.
Click to expand...

Jerry Kill has been recruiting many high schools in his long career in my opinion he already has credibility with the high school coaches. Many times they direct the kids in direction of past relationships. I don't have a problem with his credibility. He needs to show improvement on the field and the kids will follow the coaching staffs lead.
 

4four4 said:
Jerry Kill has been recruiting many high schools in his long career in my opinion he already has credibility with the high school coaches. Many times they direct the kids in direction of past relationships. I don't have a problem with his credibility. He needs to show improvement on the field and the kids will follow the coaching staffs lead.
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You stated it much better than I did. I agree that he already has credibility with a lot coaches but the kids are going to look at how this program is doing under Jerry Kill. Especially kids like Jonah Pirsig.
 

It is strange how Michigan has 9 of 14 recruits on the defensive side of the ball. We are barely into June.
 

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