Athlons: Ranking the Big Ten's Football Rosters for 2015 (MN #13; "More With Less")

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Athlons: Ranking the Big Ten's Football Rosters for 2015 (MN #13; "More With Less")

Athlons looks at each Big Ten roster with the recruiting rankings since 2011 on the roster and our roster is ranked 13th in the Big Ten.

Per Athlons:

More with less

Jerry Kill wins the “more with less” award in the Big Ten as he clearly gets more out of his talent than anyone else in the league. With the 13th-best roster in the league, Kill had the Gophers a couple of touchdowns away from a division title and playing in the Big Ten Championship Game. Like Bill Snyder in the Big 12 or Gary Pinkel in the SEC, Kill works minor miracles in the Big Ten.

http://athlonsports.com/college-football/ranking-big-tens-football-rosters-2015

Go Gophers!!
 

at what point does it become we just have talent? Not buying the more with less garbage anymore. We have some legit talent. Sick of this same old song and dance by the media. I am sure we will be predicted to finish last in the conference again. Just crap
 

Last year Minnesota had more fist team All Big Ten media selections than any other school. Just saying....
 

Jerry Kill would disagree. At the recruiting social he said something to the effect (not an exact quote) that he was tired of hearing how the Gopher victories were due to good coaching. He said the victories were due to the Gophers having better players than the other teams.

For what it is worth, I half agree. While it is true the roster has improved talent it is also true that last year both Michigan and Nebraska had better talent than the Gophers and those victories were due to better coaching.

To rank the Gophers 13 in talent however is ignorant. Athlon is beclowning (I have wanted to use this word for a long time. Thanks Athlon for giving me the chance) themselves.
 

diefirma said:
For what it is worth, I half agree. While it is true the roster has improved talent it is also true that last year both Michigan and Nebraska had better talent than the Gophers and those victories were due to better coaching.
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I partially disagree on Michigan, they had some talent but not in the right places, to some degree that's recruiting.
 


t-docious said:
at what point does it become we just have talent? Not buying the more with less garbage anymore. We have some legit talent. Sick of this same old song and dance by the media. I am sure we will be predicted to finish last in the conference again. Just crap
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Exactly. Or how about "Our recruiting ratings aren't all that accurate?" That wouldn't sell.
 

So - what do folks around here think of recruiting rankings? Sounds like a fun subject to discuss on GH. Looking forward to the discussion...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


Spoofin said:
So - what do folks around here think of recruiting rankings? Sounds like a fun subject to discuss on GH. Looking forward to the discussion...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Finally! Something new to talk about!
 



I don't get the pat on the back for "more with less" when the coach has recruited the roster in question. Recruiting is a crucial component to the job of head coach at the D-1 level, arguably as important as any other component of the job. Gophers had a nice season last year and Kill should get credit for that and not extra credit for overcoming his own recruiting (in Athlon's view).
 

Kill is only doing more with less, IF the recruiting rankings are 100% accurate. They obviously are not. The reality is closer to what we all know to be true, and what many in the press have said about Kill and his staff, that they are very good at evaluating talent and finding diamonds in the rough.
 


EG#9 said:
I don't get the pat on the back for "more with less" when the coach has recruited the roster in question. Recruiting is a crucial component to the job of head coach at the D-1 level, arguably as important as any other component of the job. Gophers had a nice season last year and Kill should get credit for that and not extra credit for overcoming his own recruiting (in Athlon's view).
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Doesn't Kill get at least a partial pass for it not being an equal playing field? It shouldn't be held against him that the Gophers have been in the toilet for 50 years and have terrible practice facilities.

Now in year five and beyond, we can start to change expectations a bit, but for those first three or four years, he had to recruit "less" because he had less to sell.

"Less" in this case: the "quality" of recruits as defined by the so-called expert services.
 



t-docious said:
at what point does it become we just have talent? Not buying the more with less garbage anymore. We have some legit talent. Sick of this same old song and dance by the media. I am sure we will be predicted to finish last in the conference again. Just crap
Click to expand...

Totally agree!!!! Early in Kill's tenure (first spring ball…I think), I read somewhere where a reporter asked him how he was able to come in to TCF and beat the Gophs with his NIU team. He simply said, "We had better players." That was after he'd seen the crop of players he'd inherited.

He said it multiple times on signing day about the Michigan and Nebraska wins. Paraphrasing…we have better players.

This article is all about rankings. This staff has proven they can evaluate talent as well as anyone.
 

I look at the roster now from 2011 and yes there was a lot less talent and there were also a lot more losses that were not close. I think over time Kill and staff have recruited well enough to make better matchups on the field and with this class and beyond are starting to bring in the 'next' phase of recruits. Getting the players fast enough to catch the top end speed ohio state throws out there and players that make game changing plays in crtitical moments and with those players this program can be a top tier program and I trust Kill and staff to continue the trend. It so far has been fun to watch
 

diefirma said:
Jerry Kill would disagree. At the recruiting social he said something to the effect (not an exact quote) that he was tired of hearing how the Gopher victories were due to good coaching. He said the victories were due to the Gophers having better players than the other teams.

For what it is worth, I half agree. While it is true the roster has improved talent it is also true that last year both Michigan and Nebraska had better talent than the Gophers and those victories were due to better coaching.

To rank the Gophers 13 in talent however is ignorant. Athlon is beclowning (I have wanted to use this word for a long time. Thanks Athlon for giving me the chance) themselves.
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You may want to read the article. Athlon isn't "ranking" anything. They are extremely clear in the article that this is based solely on 247 composite recruiting rankings in each year. Basically, the classes on our roster in the coming year were on average the 13th best in the B1G. That is literally all the 13 means.

Edit: didn't mean to imply just you diefirma, more of a general comment for anyone complaining in this thread about "lack of respect from the media" due to this article.
 

Wasn't it Barry Switzer that said, "You don't win with X's and O's but with better Johnnys and Joes." I agree with Coach Kill. Coaching is important, but you win with better players.
 

In aggregate, recruiting matters across all of college football. However, there are so many exceptions to the rule it isn't even worth talking about. Play the damn games. What happens on the fold and in the W/L column is what matters.

How has Florida, USC been doing. I can cherry pick examples too. If we are defined by what fallible scouts think of our recruits we might as well take our ball and go home with out thumb in our mouth.
 

snackeru said:
Wasn't it Barry Switzer that said, "You don't win with X's and O's but with better Johnnys and Joes." I agree with Coach Kill. Coaching is important, but you win with better players.
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Tim Brewster, too.
 

diefirma said:
For what it is worth, I half agree. While it is true the roster has improved talent it is also true that last year both Michigan and Nebraska had better talent than the Gophers and those victories were due to better coaching.

To rank the Gophers 13 in talent however is ignorant. Athlon is beclowning (I have wanted to use this word for a long time. Thanks Athlon for giving me the chance) themselves.
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Yes this is a cool word http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/beclown I also think that a part of a good coach is their psychological impact on the team. My HS coach was a complete idiot during games. He had no confidence in what he was doing and we picked up and that, and played with no confidence. Good coaches make inspire confidence in their players. I think that Kill has that part down - Go Gophers!
 

My thinking on how we matched up last year against out opponents. I am rating them the following: (-3 to +3 where the -3 is much worse, +3 is much better and 0 is even up). I realize some had bad days, some good days; but as far as talent from what I could see:

Eastern Illinois +2
Middle Tennessee +2
TCU -2
San Jose State +2
Michigan 0
Northwestern 0
Purdue +1
Illinois +1
Iowa +1
Ohio State -2
Nebraska -1
Wisconsin -1
Missouri -1

Feel free to correct me or discuss. TCU and tOSU were the only ones that we weren't close to on talent. We were very close in talent to NW and Michigan. We out coached them. Iowa was not that bad really; they just quit.
 

Rescooter said:
My thinking on how we matched up last year against out opponents. I am rating them the following: (-3 to +3 where the -3 is much worse, +3 is much better and 0 is even up). I realize some had bad days, some good days; but as far as talent from what I could see:

Eastern Illinois +2
Middle Tennessee +2
TCU -2
San Jose State +2
Michigan 0
Northwestern 0
Purdue +1
Illinois +1
Iowa +1
Ohio State -2
Nebraska -1
Wisconsin -1
Missouri -1

Feel free to correct me or discuss. TCU and tOSU were the only ones that we weren't close to on talent. We were very close in talent to NW and Michigan. We out coached them. Iowa was not that bad really; they just quit.
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I would shift TCU and OSU to -3. I know we played somewhat close with OSU but had we gotten a rematch against them in Indy I honestly believe the result would have been similar to what happened to the Badgers when they played them. Probably would put us at +2 over Purdue and would bump us to a +3 over Eastern Illinois and San Jose State.

If you took our roster and OSU's roster and assembled the best starting lineup that you could even the biggest homer on the planet wearing the thickest pair of Maroon and Gold colored glasses would be hard pressed to put more then a couple of our guys in that starting lineup. Do this for the 2015 versions of the teams and I bet there would be even fewer of our guys in there. And before anyone gets bent out of shape, saying we don't stack up great against the defending National Champion and most likely pre-season #1 or #2 team is not meant as a shot at the Gophers. Ohio State is playing on a different level then the rest of the conference right now and based on what they have coming back probably will be for the next few years.
 

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