Official 2014 Recruiting Updates Thread: Links, Tweets, Videos, Stories, Rumors, etc.

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CB is the biggest need for the class of 2014 without a doubt!! I really hope that the performances of guys like Carter (especially he's just a great example) and Stoudemire help us land some high end shut down corners!
 

QB-Clayton Thorson and Dimonic McKinzy
RB-Jeff Jones, Donte Thomas-Williams, Dravon Henry
WR-Braxton Berrios, Trevion Thompson, Dorian Baker, Garrett Gray
TE-Brandon Fritts, Gaelin Elmore
OT-Frank Ragnow, Eric Shute, Phil Ford
C-Connor Mayes, J.C. Hassenauer
DE-Myles Garrett, Joe Henderson, Billy Hirschfield, Andrew Stetler
DT-Travonte Valentine, Daniel Cage
ILB-Tyrell Tomlin
OLB-Vincent Jackson, Rashaan Evans, Colton Moskal
CB-Step Durham, Kamren Lott, Ken Hike
S-Quentin Tartabull
ATH-Kevin Crosby, Jay Scheel

Only 29 offers so far and I looked at scout, rivals, espn and 247. Some of these guys have committed elsewhere and of course Jones is committed here.
 

Phil Ford is interesting. I was like why are we offering a juco tackle...I guess Kill offered him out of H.S., he was a teammate of Max Shortell. 6'6" 342 at that time. He didn't qualify with Kansas, went juco in iowa, red shirted, was going to sign with BYU, went on a mission instead.
 

Wouldn't You like to Know said:
CB is the biggest need for the class of 2014 without a doubt!! I really hope that the performances of guys like Carter (especially he's just a great example) and Stoudemire help us land some high end shut down corners!
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I'd be surprised if Kill doesn't pull one or two from the juco ranks.
 



Thorson would be a huge pick up, he makes everything look effortless and he can really run and make people miss in space.
 

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Gaelin Elmore, Somerset, WI
 





btowngopher said:
QB-Clayton Thorson and Dimonic McKinzy
RB-Jeff Jones, Donte Thomas-Williams, Dravon Henry
WR-Braxton Berrios, Trevion Thompson, Dorian Baker, Garrett Gray
TE-Brandon Fritts
OT-Frank Ragnow, Eric Shute, Phil Ford
DE-Myles Garrett, Joe Henderson, Billy Hirschfield, Andrew Stetler
DT-Travonte Valentine, Daniel Cage
ILB-Tyrell Tomlin
OLB-Vincent Jackson, Rashaan Evans, Colton Moskal
CB-Step Durham, Kamren Lott, Ken Hike
S-Quentin Tartabull
ATH-Kevin Crosby, Jay Scheel

Only 29 offers so far and I looked at scout, rivals, espn and 247. Some of these guys have committed elsewhere and of course Jones is committed here.
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Connor Mayes has an offer too.
 

btowngopher said:
QB-Clayton Thorson and Dimonic McKinzy
RB-Jeff Jones, Donte Thomas-Williams, Dravon Henry
WR-Braxton Berrios, Trevion Thompson, Dorian Baker, Garrett Gray
TE-Brandon Fritts
OT-Frank Ragnow, Eric Shute, Phil Ford
DE-Myles Garrett, Joe Henderson, Billy Hirschfield, Andrew Stetler
DT-Travonte Valentine, Daniel Cage
ILB-Tyrell Tomlin
OLB-Vincent Jackson, Rashaan Evans, Colton Moskal
CB-Step Durham, Kamren Lott, Ken Hike
S-Quentin Tartabull
ATH-Kevin Crosby, Jay Scheel

Only 29 offers so far and I looked at scout, rivals, espn and 247. Some of these guys have committed elsewhere and of course Jones is committed here.
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Only 3 MN kids.... not impressed.
 

HopherGole said:
Only 3 MN kids.... not impressed.
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Considering that Kill offered about 174 kids last year and dwindled it down to 19. How can one already have the 2014 class settled when 28 kids have been offered? Thinks will start to take shape in June camp time. We currently have 4 MN kids offered and a close by Summerset, WI offer. Gotta think that Kill will aim to have 25 % from MN each year if talent is there.

Something else to consider is the PWO program. If we sign 3-5 each year to a scholarship but the next year 2 of the MN PWO get a scholarship that # is now 5-7.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Considering that Kill offered about 174 kids last year and dwindled it down to 19. How can one already have the 2014 class settled when 28 kids have been offered? Thinks will start to take shape in June camp time. We currently have 4 MN kids offered and a close by Summerset, WI offer. Gotta think that Kill will aim to have 25 % from MN each year if talent is there.

Something else to consider is the PWO program. If we sign 3-5 each year to a scholarship but the next year 2 of the MN PWO get a scholarship that # is now 5-7.
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I think he was being sarcastic.

Echoing a previous comment, we need to develop the secondary considerably in this class, and that may have to come from the JUCOs. Unfortunately, while this seems to be a much stronger in-state class, it doesn't seem to fit our two of our biggest needs (secondary, wide receiver) so hopefully we can get some southern kids to fill the speed void. Everything else should be able to be met mostly at home, you would think.
 



Wouldn't You like to Know said:
CB is the biggest need for the class of 2014 without a doubt!! I really hope that the performances of guys like Carter (especially he's just a great example) and Stoudemire help us land some high end shut down corners!
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I tend to agree with you, but it can be so difficult to tell that sort of stuff right now.

I remember a couple of years ago, when C. Lewis and K. Royston graduated, it was scary how thin we were at S, then we moved settled with moving some guys around a bit and safety became our deepest position (emergence of Thompson and Wells, Vereen switch and Johnson and Travis playing well as FR).

If we get some emergence from this group (Murray, Boddy, Myrick, Daletavius (can't remember his last name) or move Johnson/Travis, CB won't be that thin of a position for us next season.

It's just so difficult to predict.

But generally, I agree with you, we need more corners.
 

Gopherprof said:
I think he was being sarcastic.

Echoing a previous comment, we need to develop the secondary considerably in this class, and that may have to come from the JUCOs. Unfortunately, while this seems to be a much stronger in-state class, it doesn't seem to fit our two of our biggest needs (secondary, wide receiver) so hopefully we can get some southern kids to fill the speed void. Everything else should be able to be met mostly at home, you would think.
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I might be way off, but you think WR is still one of our bigger needs next year?

After this year:
DCT, Jones, and Fruechte - SRs
McDonald and Maye (is he more of a slot or RB going forward?) - JRs
SO and FR (depending on RS's): Carter, Wolitarsky, Harbison, and possibly Jones

- That'll be 8/9 WRs on scholarship. I'm not saying that we don't need some more, but I don't think it's as dire as other years.
 

Tyroil Smoochie Wallace deserves an offer
 


@evan_flood: Waukesha (Wis.) Catholic Memorial 2014 Safety Alec Kocour getting interest from #Badgers #Spartans #Gophers #Yale #NIU

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
@evan_flood: Waukesha (Wis.) Catholic Memorial 2014 Safety Alec Kocour getting interest from #Badgers #Spartans #Gophers #Yale #NIU

Go Gophers!!
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Wisconsin, Michigan State, Yale, Minnesota and Northern Illinois University? Sounds like a bad Jeopardy question..
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I might be way off, but you think WR is still one of our bigger needs next year?

After this year:
DCT, Jones, and Fruechte - SRs
McDonald and Maye (is he more of a slot or RB going forward?) - JRs
SO and FR (depending on RS's): Carter, Wolitarsky, Harbison, and possibly Jones

- That'll be 8/9 WRs on scholarship. I'm not saying that we don't need some more, but I don't think it's as dire as other years.
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At this point we shouldn't be recruited to fill immediate needs, but rather to replace seniors; that way you aren't playing true freshman (or at least not relying on them in any significant way). Our numbers at that position are heavy on seniors and juniors next year and will need to be replenished.
 

Gopherprof said:
At this point we shouldn't be recruited to fill immediate needs, but rather to replace seniors; that way you aren't playing true freshman (or at least not relying on them in any significant way). Our numbers at that position are heavy on seniors and juniors next year and will need to be replenished.
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I totally agree with your point on replacing Seniors and Juniors, but I don't think we will have many seniors next season on scholarship at WR.

We have Engel and Kiese as the only WRs who are graduating. We can consider Engel a scholarship player, but Kiese doesn't really need to be replaced.

So if you're just replacing SRs, it'd be two WRs who are graduating (only 1 of them ever sees the field).

I just wouldn't consider that one of our bigger needs (replacing Engel and Kiese).
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I totally agree with your point on replacing Seniors and Juniors, but I don't think we will have many seniors next season on scholarship at WR.

We have Engel and Kiese as the only WRs who are graduating. We can consider Engel a scholarship player, but Kiese doesn't really need to be replaced.

So if you're just replacing SRs, it'd be two WRs who are graduating (only 1 of them ever sees the field).

I just wouldn't consider that one of our bigger needs (replacing Engel and Kiese).
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I'm also looking at the 5 junior WRs on scholarship next year and trying to balance the weight of that out so that we don't have 5 receivers in one class on scholarship ever again. But I hear you. Secondary is far and away our biggest need going into next recruiting season. Beyond that it's definitely up for debate.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I totally agree with your point on replacing Seniors and Juniors, but I don't think we will have many seniors next season on scholarship at WR.

We have Engel and Kiese as the only WRs who are graduating. We can consider Engel a scholarship player, but Kiese doesn't really need to be replaced.

So if you're just replacing SRs, it'd be two WRs who are graduating (only 1 of them ever sees the field).

I just wouldn't consider that one of our bigger needs (replacing Engel and Kiese).
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Bob - This coming fall we are likely to have two red shirt juniors WR on the roster. They are Logan Hutton and Cameron Wilson. Since they will be receiving their fourth scholarship year then and it doesn't seem likely that they will be very high on the depth chart, I doubt that they will be given a scholarship for a fifth year the following year. I am not sure how the coaches view these two scholarships but it will be nice to have them available for 2014 recruits since we are going to have a less than normal number of scholarships available again.
 

Hard to say what the coaches do about 5th year guys that they don't really want to have back. A few guys may have been gently nudged out the door this year (Kenny Watkins and Matt Garin come to mind), but Moses Alipate is apparently coming back and he literally hasn't played one snap in his 4 years here so far. You'd think if they were being picky about the 5th year guys they would have shown Moses the door.
 

During one of the interviews I listened to with Coach Claeys, he said that recruiting in the secondary and especially corner would be very important for the next class. I think they would have taken 4 in this class instead of 2 if they could have. I'm sure they get 4-5 total DBs for the 2014 class, with probably at least 1 JUCO.

As for WR, I'm probably in the minority but I'm not convinced that either Carter or Wolitarsky will be a top 5 receiver on the team next year. I think it's a priority again in the next class and we add 2-3 more WRs.
 


John Galt said:
During one of the interviews I listened to with Coach Claeys, he said that recruiting in the secondary and especially corner would be very important for the next class. I think they would have taken 4 in this class instead of 2 if they could have. I'm sure they get 4-5 total DBs for the 2014 class, with probably at least 1 JUCO.

As for WR, I'm probably in the minority but I'm not convinced that either Carter or Wolitarsky will be a top 5 receiver on the team next year. I think it's a priority again in the next class and we add 2-3 more WRs.
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Yeah, I'm not sure what we have with Carter and Wolitarsky. It's impossible for me to project WRs who aren't physical freaks. McDonald is big and fast, so you sorta of know that he has the physical tools to be effective. Harbison has a rare kind of athleticism/ability to make people miss, so it's easier to project.

Both Carter and Wolitarsky appear to be good route runners with good hands, decent speed and productive sort of guys. They could easily be really good college WRs, but I don't have an eye for judging that kind of talent.

However, to your point, the question is. . . would these 2-3 WRs be part of our immediate depth chart, they'd have to break past DCT, McDonald, Fruechte, Harbison, Carter, Wolitarsky, Maye, Jones on the depth chart.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Yeah, I'm not sure what we have with Carter and Wolitarsky. It's impossible for me to project WRs who aren't physical freaks. McDonald is big and fast, so you sorta of know that he has the physical tools to be effective. Harbison has a rare kind of athleticism/ability to make people miss, so it's easier to project.

Both Carter and Wolitarsky appear to be good route runners with good hands, decent speed and productive sort of guys. They could easily be really good college WRs, but I don't have an eye for judging that kind of talent.

However, to your point, the question is. . . would these 2-3 WRs be part of our immediate depth chart, they'd have to break past DCT, McDonald, Fruechte, Harbison, Carter, Wolitarsky, Maye, Jones on the depth chart.
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Bob, check your messages.
 


btowngopher said:
Core 6 Athletes ‏@core6athletes
Congrats again to Lake Zurich LB Colton Moskal getting his first Offer today. Fastest LB in our program #Minnesota #CORE6

I think that's where Jack Lynn went to school.
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Should have a good shot with this kid. We're his first offer and he probably knows Lynn. He is undersized, but really flies around.

 

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