Official 2020 Gophers Football Recruiting Thread: Links, Tweets, Videos, Rumors

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Jeshurun said:
No way we’ll ever have a top 20 class though.
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Umm we’re 31st and given the lack of commits to teams below us we’ll be lucky to be top 35-40. Not that this is bad- certainly continued improvement- but nothing suggests we are close to getting a top 20 team AT THE END SIGNING DAYS. Our rankings are certainly biased by early commits and somehow always having room for 25 signees. Remember when we used to hammer SEC teams for that practice??
 

Oregon Gopher said:
Umm we’re 31st and given the lack of commits to teams below us we’ll be lucky to be top 35-40. Not that this is bad- certainly continued improvement- but nothing suggests we are close to getting a top 20 team AT THE END SIGNING DAYS. Our rankings are certainly biased by early commits and somehow always having room for 25 signees. Remember when we used to hammer SEC teams for that practice??
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I'm surprised we have a full class again.
 

Guessing when the dust settles, Gophs class will rank right around 40. Still would slightly exceed my expectations.

Next year a class right around 40 would meet expectations for me, as Fleck & Co set a higher "new normal" for recruiting class rankings. I think they can get the talent needed having classes consistently in the low 30s to low 40s range.
 

Maybe somebody who's been involved with high school football recruiting can kick in here. I'm wondering how involved the Minnesota high school football scene is in the whole recruit ranking process? At least compared to states that are heavily recruited (like SEC country)?

Getting a high recruiting ranking doesn't usually happen without the athlete being proactive. In the south, there are scores of camps etc. to get seen and measured and athletes (and parents and coaches) take it seriously. I'm wondering what level of importance local athletes place on getting seen and ranked; or if that's even available in some places that aren't in the city.

Secondly, I'm not sure how much I trust the ranking service analysts to rank a high school offensive lineman from Timbuktu MN - meaning they could be under ranked. Skilled positions and defensive players can pop pretty easily on film. It seems like it would be a lot harder to grade an offensive lineman's ability without seeing the kid play or do drills in person.
 


Panthadad2 said:
Secondly, I'm not sure how much I trust the ranking service analysts to rank a high school offensive lineman from Timbuktu MN - meaning they could be under ranked. Skilled positions and defensive players can pop pretty easily on film. It seems like it would be a lot harder to grade an offensive lineman's ability without seeing the kid play or do drills in person.
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I have to think of all positions, O-Line is the hardest to project from a recruiting standpoint. Sure there are the obvious can't miss guys but for the majority of these guys you really have no clue how they are going to develop and there is a lot of guess work involved.

For most of these guys, when they get to college it is the first time that they have had access to high quality weight training and nutritional resources.
 

btowngopher said:
Not sure why you are so confident we will. Fleck hasn't landed a top 30 class yet. I think Iowa has landed one top 20 (shockingly it was number 6 in the country) in the "recruiting sites era". I don't think Wisconsin ever has. So it's going to take more than a couple 10 wins seasons to attract that kind of high end talent to this area in my opinion, and we don't even have that at this point.
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This is an interesting one. I mostly agree that so long as MN maintains Iowa or Wisconsin levels of success it's likely Wisc and Iowa levels of recruiting will follow. That said, I could see a scenario in which MN surpasses both schools in recruiting even with similar results on the field based on the updated facilities, new'ish stadium, big metro area, and PJ factor. This is especially true in the near-term as the MN brand is in its infancy nationally but has the potential to explode if they, for example, win 10+ games again, host CGD again, make a push for (or are selected to) the CFP, etc.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I have to think of all positions, O-Line is the hardest to project from a recruiting standpoint. Sure there are the obvious can't miss guys but for the majority of these guys you really have no clue how they are going to develop and there is a lot of guess work involved.

For most of these guys, when they get to college it is the first time that they have had access to high quality weight training and nutritional resources.
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With that in mind, I don't know if Minnesota (nor Iowa or Wisconsin) will ever be at the top of the official recruit ranking lists. It doesn't mean they won't have quality athletes, but if OL types from smaller schools fill the roster at no better than 3 stars (rating services are admittedly conservative on players they don't know well), that will always pull down the composite team ranking. I can't prove it, but that might be why Iowa and Wisconsin rank in the teens in getting players to the NFL, but are usually much lower in recruiting rankings.

If Minnesota can eventually become an NFL pipeline like Fleck wants, that will be the real recruiting/developing test.
 

Oregon Gopher said:
Umm we’re 31st and given the lack of commits to teams below us we’ll be lucky to be top 35-40. Not that this is bad- certainly continued improvement- but nothing suggests we are close to getting a top 20 team AT THE END SIGNING DAYS. Our rankings are certainly biased by early commits and somehow always having room for 25 signees. Remember when we used to hammer SEC teams for that practice??
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We hammered SEC teams for signing like 35 guys a year.
 



I am sure it has been said one thousand times or more on this site alone, but the star recruiting rankings are statistically not accurate at all. On AVERAGE a five star is better than a four star, but that does NOT mean a 3.3 is better than a 3.1 for a class.

Additionally, as we all know, if Notre Dame, Ohio State, Alabama offers a guy, he then gets extra, MAGIC, stars. He goes from a three star guy to a four star guy as his interest from such schools becomes manifest.

So let us not worry about 34th vs 31st, etc. It is silly. The program matters, not the decimal places in a particular class.
 


Goldteam said:
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What is going on with Jah Joyner? Don't we have a scholie for him? Is he moving on to Rutgers?

It's too bad, the Gophers completely missed on Yahya Black, a 6' 6" 250-lb SDE from Marshall MN rated at 0.8674. He's almost as big as Epenesa. How can the Gophers miss on him?

I thought the Gophers staff were on top of instate recruiting. This kid out of the blue committed to Iowa last June.


I hope we can get Jah Joyner.

Can you imagine Jah Joyner and Yahya Black on the same team. They'd have to think of a Jah-Yahya defensive package.
 

Jah seems to think he’s coming here, but the fact we haven’t seen a commitment leads me to believe there might not be room at the moment.
 



PitinoFan said:
Jah seems to think he’s coming here, but the fact we haven’t seen a commitment leads me to believe there might not be room at the moment.
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He's debating if he wants to sign Wednesday or keep his recruiting open. He likely doesn't sign here if he doesn't sign Wednesday, as we will likely leave that scholarship open for a transfer to be named later.
 

Unless there are players that are graduating early after the end of the semester. They are waiting until after January 1st to officially announce their intentions in order to be able to play in the Outback Bowl. Maybe Jah may be a late NSD signee in February.
 
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Veritas said:
I am sure it has been said one thousand times or more on this site alone, but the star recruiting rankings are statistically not accurate at all. On AVERAGE a five star is better than a four star, but that does NOT mean a 3.3 is better than a 3.1 for a class.

Additionally, as we all know, if Notre Dame, Ohio State, Alabama offers a guy, he then gets extra, MAGIC, stars. He goes from a three star guy to a four star guy as his interest from such schools becomes manifest.

So let us not worry about 34th vs 31st, etc. It is silly. The program matters, not the decimal places in a particular class.
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The rankings from online public sites (e.g., 247) are mostly based on the offers the recruit has generated. Recruits with offers from what they consider to be the top schools will get the top rankings. If you get an offer from Alabama, then you get that extra star.
 

BeerFueledFF said:
Can't tell if this is sarcasm or not... It is definitely within our reach to get a top 20 class if we keep this boat rowing the next few years.
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Unlikely this year but maybe in the future. Our class will likely drop in rank slightly leading up to the 2nd signing day.
 

hungan1 said:
What is going on with Jah Joyner? Don't we have a scholie for him? Is he moving on to Rutgers?

It's too bad, the Gophers completely missed on Yahya Black, a 6' 6" 250-lb SDE from Marshall MN rated at 0.8674. He's almost as big as Epenesa. How can the Gophers miss on him?

I thought the Gophers staff were on top of instate recruiting. This kid out of the blue committed to Iowa last June.


I hope we can get Jah Joyner.

Can you imagine Jah Joyner and Yahya Black on the same team. They'd have to think of a Jah-Yahya defensive package.
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How do you know we missed on Black? Just because he is big doesn’t mean he is going to be great.
 

BeerFueledFF said:
He's debating if he wants to sign Wednesday or keep his recruiting open. He likely doesn't sign here if he doesn't sign Wednesday, as we will likely leave that scholarship open for a transfer to be named later.
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How will we have an opening, whether it’s Joyner or a transfer. I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around the numbers. LOL. Are we going to see several players enter the transfer portal in the next few days?
 

Livingat45north said:
The rankings from online public sites (e.g., 247) are mostly based on the offers the recruit has generated. Recruits with offers from what they consider to be the top schools will get the top rankings. If you get an offer from Alabama, then you get that extra star.
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So Bama is full of three stars masquerading as four stars? Amazing they keep making the CFP with these players that are only highly rated because they picked Bama.
 

btowngopher said:
We hammered SEC teams for signing like 35 guys a year.
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They never signed 35 a year- the NCAA isn’t so blind to allow that but there were, and probable still are, teams signing 28 a year 5 years in a rows effectively cutting players free under the guise of Medical issues.
 

PitinoFan said:
How will we have an opening, whether it’s Joyner or a transfer. I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around the numbers. LOL. Are we going to see several players enter the transfer portal in the next few days?
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At least two currently committed players aren't going to be signing on Wednesday due to academic issues.
 


Panthadad2 said:
Maybe somebody who's been involved with high school football recruiting can kick in here. I'm wondering how involved the Minnesota high school football scene is in the whole recruit ranking process? At least compared to states that are heavily recruited (like SEC country)?

Getting a high recruiting ranking doesn't usually happen without the athlete being proactive. In the south, there are scores of camps etc. to get seen and measured and athletes (and parents and coaches) take it seriously. I'm wondering what level of importance local athletes place on getting seen and ranked; or if that's even available in some places that aren't in the city.

Secondly, I'm not sure how much I trust the ranking service analysts to rank a high school offensive lineman from Timbuktu MN - meaning they could be under ranked. Skilled positions and defensive players can pop pretty easily on film. It seems like it would be a lot harder to grade an offensive lineman's ability without seeing the kid play or do drills in person.
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I think most all Minnesota kids who want to play DI football drive to camps to be evaluated. They have opportunities to be evaluated.
I know this more so for basketball. There kids who hope to get DI scholarships playing in AAU tournaments. They also can go to individual group evaluations that get mailed out to college coaches or they observe.
Reality hits and the same process puts them in front of D2 and D3 coaches. Ultimately, they just wanna play.
 

This is a great detailed read on the 2020 class. These kids are coming here because of PJ and the culture. The best part is, all of Ky Thomas’ little brothers and sisters have already decided they want to be Gophers too! His sister is actually a 2022 basketball recruit. I didn’t check further, so I don’t know how good she is, or whether we’re actually recruiting her. She’s the all-state place kicker on the football team too.

247sports.com

Gopher Football Recruiting: The stories behind the 2020 class

The inside story on the building of the Minnesota 2020 recruiting class.
247sports.com 247sports.com
 

Oregon Gopher said:
They never signed 35 a year- the NCAA isn’t so blind to allow that but there were, and probable still are, teams signing 28 a year 5 years in a rows effectively cutting players free under the guise of Medical issues.
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The SEC created a rule in 2011 limiting teams to 28 signees. The rule also known as the Houston Nutt rule was created following Nutt signing 37 kids while at Ole Miss in 2009.
 



hungan1 said:
What is going on with Jah Joyner? Don't we have a scholie for him? Is he moving on to Rutgers?

It's too bad, the Gophers completely missed on Yahya Black, a 6' 6" 250-lb SDE from Marshall MN rated at 0.8674. He's almost as big as Epenesa. How can the Gophers miss on him?

I thought the Gophers staff were on top of instate recruiting. This kid out of the blue committed to Iowa last June.


I hope we can get Jah Joyner.

Can you imagine Jah Joyner and Yahya Black on the same team. They'd have to think of a Jah-Yahya defensive package.
Click to expand...
Black is interesting. No buzz. I believe he may have shut down recruitment after committing. I saw a game this year where an Iowa coach was in attendance and he dominated both sides all night and never took a play off.
 

hungan1 said:
What is going on with Jah Joyner? Don't we have a scholie for him? Is he moving on to Rutgers?

It's too bad, the Gophers completely missed on Yahya Black, a 6' 6" 250-lb SDE from Marshall MN rated at 0.8674. He's almost as big as Epenesa. How can the Gophers miss on him?

I thought the Gophers staff were on top of instate recruiting. This kid out of the blue committed to Iowa last June.


I hope we can get Jah Joyner.

Can you imagine Jah Joyner and Yahya Black on the same team. They'd have to think of a Jah-Yahya defensive package.
Click to expand...

We offered Black.
 

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