How would you grade the Gophers 2017 football recruiting class?

How would you grade the Gophers 2017 football recruiting class?

  • Elite

    Votes: 18 13.5%

  • A

    Votes: 6 4.5%

  • B

    Votes: 59 44.4%

  • C

    Votes: 43 32.3%

  • D

    Votes: 7 5.3%

  • F

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    133
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TC was able to coach-up 2* and 3* recruits into a top 25 defense. I hope PJF can maintain that and do the same on offense. If so, all good. If not, 9 wins will seem like an amazing season until at least 2020.
 

37score said:
Well, this is the dumbest thing I read all day today.[/QUOTHo


How so? Explain to me how Fleck doesn't have more downside risk then upside risk? He will be compared to a 9 win season next year, recruiting has a ton of momentum to it and as soon as you lose that momentum it becomes much harder. Also this class is barely ranked in the top 60 so he has to coach these guys up. Not sure if he can do that or not at a Big 10 level.
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It's a tough one to grade because I am not sure on what to base my grade on. On one hand, I do think Fleck finished this class stronger than Claeys would have and a lot of Claeys out of state commitments/targets proved to be very borderline (Kitrell ended up at Ohio, Cherelus at UMass, Holmes at Louisiana-Monroe, and Croslen hasn't signed yet). The Quarterback we were rumored to have settled on, Ryan Glover, ended up at Penn. On the other hand, this class still looks like it's pretty solidly 12th in the conference which just is not acceptable finishing only ahead of 2 programs that also changed coaches in Indiana and Purdue.

In the end I went with a C- because I felt like this class really ended with a whimper. It would have been nice to land an Armstrong or the DT who reportedly didn't have the grades or even land Warren at RB even though it's not a huge position of need. Instead we don't land any of the 3 and lose two recruits I would have put in the top half of our class (Chambers and Abojei) to grades. It doesn't bother me as much as the other ones because of the quality of player involved but it would have been nice to keep Creamer or Marsette if for no other reason than to have one more body at CB or just to keep them out of Iowa.

I am pretty encouraged about recruiting in the short term with Fleck and think the 2018 class will be a significant upgrade (in ranking, obviously can't guarantee performance), but after 2018 it will be important to be able to show some on field results or the Fleck Brand won't be the same level of draw.
 

Gave a B. I don't think we regressed, so given the circumstances a B is warranted.

Like many have said, time will tell...just like 10 years ago and 5 years ago...
 

Well, I was going to give us a B, but we really need to need 90 percent Minnesota Kids only, so I am going with an F now. NDSU is the model! Go Fighting Sioux!
 


Dontbeadumbamerican said:
37score said:
Well, this is the dumbest thing I read all day today.[/QUOTHo


How so? Explain to me how Fleck doesn't have more downside risk then upside risk? He will be compared to a 9 win season next year, recruiting has a ton of momentum to it and as soon as you lose that momentum it becomes much harder. Also this class is barely ranked in the top 60 so he has to coach these guys up. Not sure if he can do that or not at a Big 10 level.
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He will only be graded vs a 9
Win season by those who can't let go. The Claeys/Kill era is over. Time for many to move on. The schedule is much tougher and the challenges far greater than 2016. Anyone pretending otherwise needs a major reality check. And anyone naive enough to compare the 2016 and 2017 recruiting classes head to head should start watching a different sport.
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Smash em Gophs! said:
Dontbeadumbamerican said:
He will only be graded vs a 9
Win season by those who can't let go. The Claeys/Kill era is over. Time for many to move on. The schedule is much tougher and the challenges far greater than 2016. Anyone pretending otherwise needs a major reality check. And anyone naive enough to compare the 2016 and 2017 recruiting classes head to head should start watching a different sport.
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He expects to win 9 games himself. Clearly stated this is not a rebuild. The schedule is moderately tougher. IA and NEB are clearly in the toss-up category, and Gophs have 5 home B1G games. I'm bullish on wins this year. Plenty of proven talent on this team already, and talent waiting to step up as well.

Those who feel they have to accept less this year are the naive ones in my book. It just seems so silly.
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PMWinSTP said:
He expects to win 9 games himself. Clearly stated this is not a rebuild. The schedule is moderately tougher. IA and NEB are clearly in the toss-up category, and Gophs have 5 home B1G games. I'm bullish on wins this year. Plenty of proven talent on this team already, and talent waiting to step up as well.

Those who feel they have to accept less this year are the naive ones in my book. It just seems so silly.
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There has to be more context than just the final win total. If we win seven regular season games instead of eight but beat wisconsin, is that a failure because it was a lesser win total? Is eight with all the trophies back in town no different than the 2016 season?
 

joshvanklomp said:
There has to be more context than just the final win total. If we win seven regular season games instead of eight but beat wisconsin, is that a failure because it was a lesser win total? Is eight with all the trophies back in town no different than the 2016 season?
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Never said it would be a failure, but I can certainly be disappointed. Why can't we have an expectation for both?

IA and NEB are toss ups in my estimation. If we actually win all the trophy games and don't have 8 regular season wins, I would be really surprised because that would mean we lost a couple games we should have won, based on the progress made and talent developed in the past few years.
 



PMWinSTP said:
Never said it would be a failure, but I can certainly be disappointed. Why can't we have an expectation for both?

IA and NEB are toss ups in my estimation. If we actually win all the trophy games and don't have 8 regular season wins, I would be really surprised because that would mean we lost a couple games we should have won, based on the progress made and talent developed in the past few years.
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Why are we now considering IA and Nebraska toss-ups?

Iowa has won 4 of the last 5. 7 out of the last 10, or 12 out of the last 16. 17 of the last 24.

Nebraska we were outscored 72-42 over the last two years.
We beat them twice in the last 20 games.

Based on any historical evidence, both teams would appear to be favored to win at this point over the Gophers.
 

EG#9 said:
It's a tough one to grade because I am not sure on what to base my grade on. On one hand, I do think Fleck finished this class stronger than Claeys would have and a lot of Claeys out of state commitments/targets proved to be very borderline (Kitrell ended up at Ohio, Cherelus at UMass, Holmes at Louisiana-Monroe, and Croslen hasn't signed yet). The Quarterback we were rumored to have settled on, Ryan Glover, ended up at Penn. On the other hand, this class still looks like it's pretty solidly 12th in the conference which just is not acceptable finishing only ahead of 2 programs that also changed coaches in Indiana and Purdue.

In the end I went with a C- because I felt like this class really ended with a whimper. It would have been nice to land an Armstrong or the DT who reportedly didn't have the grades or even land Warren at RB even though it's not a huge position of need. Instead we don't land any of the 3 and lose two recruits I would have put in the top half of our class (Chambers and Abojei) to grades. It doesn't bother me as much as the other ones because of the quality of player involved but it would have been nice to keep Creamer or Marsette if for no other reason than to have one more body at CB or just to keep them out of Iowa.

I am pretty encouraged about recruiting in the short term with Fleck and think the 2018 class will be a significant upgrade (in ranking, obviously can't guarantee performance), but after 2018 it will be important to be able to show some on field results or the Fleck Brand won't be the same level of draw.
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Those schools we lost the recruits to aren't exactly football hotbeds! Pilphering recruits from a 13-1 team is more impressive than losing recruits to Penn, Louisiana-Munroe, and Ohio.

Kill-Claeys were good at improving players beyond their ratings. Fleck must be able to do this as well to go undefeated at Western. I see the team winning at least 8 games next year with a shot at double digits.

I think Fleck did well in a short amount of time and give him a solid B for the recruiting class. Now he needs to get the keepers of the group of ten back on the team and prove he can coach up the young defensive backs as well as Claeys & co.
 

Face The Facts said:
Why are we now considering IA and Nebraska toss-ups?

Iowa has won 4 of the last 5. 7 out of the last 10, or 12 out of the last 16. 17 of the last 24.

Nebraska we were outscored 72-42 over the last two years.
We beat them twice in the last 20 games.

Based on any historical evidence, both teams would appear to be favored to win at this point over the Gophers.
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Man, you are really good at cherry-picking stats.

You could say that we were outscored by Nebraska 72-42 over the last two years. Or you could say we were outscored 24-17 over the last year, or even 119-104 over the past four years. In the past four years we've had two games with in a TD or less, and each team has one a game by double-digits.

You could say that we beat them twice in the last 20 games. Or you could say that we beat them twice in the last four.

Nebraska was a team that was out of our sights for most of our lifetime. That's no longer the case.
 

Pulled in some recruits Claeys and Co may or may not have gotten: Douglas, Handey-Holley, Paulson. I don't think Beck was on their radar and he looks like a nice prospect.

On the other hand and of concern, lost Creamer and Marsette to Iowa.

I don't want to get into the Claeys class arguments because they were fighting an uphill battle without a contract, etc.

It's not a great class, not a terrible class on paper and in about 4 years we'll know what it was. I'm more concerned if these coaches can develop and compete on the Big Ten stage.
 



Face The Facts said:
Why are we now considering IA and Nebraska toss-ups?

Iowa has won 4 of the last 5. 7 out of the last 10, or 12 out of the last 16. 17 of the last 24.

Nebraska we were outscored 72-42 over the last two years.
We beat them twice in the last 20 games.

Based on any historical evidence, both teams would appear to be favored to win at this point over the Gophers.
Click to expand...

Go look at who is replacing Tommy Armstrong. Not your typical NEB QB. Think Mitch but with zero ability to run. IA lost almost all it's skill position starters on offense.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Go look at who is replacing Tommy Armstrong. Not your typical NEB QB. Think Mitch but with zero ability to run. IA lost almost all it's skill position starters on offense.
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Tanner Lee - he's a typical Riley QB though. He also started 19 games at Tulane before he transferred. If he doesn't work out they have two 4* guys to choose from. A little different than what the Gophers are choosing from.

Nebraska is always top 5 in recruiting in the B1G. They have plenty of talent to fill their departures.
 


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