STrib: P.J. Fleck calls this a 'very special' national signing day for Gophers

Donate To GopherHole
BleedGopher

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
60,763
Reaction score
16,153
Points
113
per Randy:

Gophers coach P.J. Fleck wasted no time Wednesday signing his recruiting Class of 2018, getting 25 future Minnesota players signed to national letters of intent by 9:30 a.m. He then held a news conference about a half-hour later. “A very special day for our program,’’ Fleck said.

Some highlights of the news conference:

** The Gophers ranked 26th nationally in the 247Sports.com’s composite ratings after signing the class, although that ranking will fluctuate during the signing period as other schools sign players. Minnesota ranked sixth among Big Ten teams but first among their competition in the conference’s West Division.

** The Gophers have their highest-ranked offensive line, defensive line and wide receiver classes during the Internet era.

** Seven players will enroll at Minnesota in January: preferred walk-on QB Zack Annexstad, QB Vic Viramontes, offensive guard Curtis Dunlap Jr., offensive tackle Daniel Faalele, defensive end Alex Reigelsperger, receiver Jornell Manns and linebacker Thomas Rush.

** Fleck on QB Vic Viramontes: “This guy commands the huddle. … His film makes you say, ‘wow.’’

http://m.startribune.com/gophers-co...our-program/465469813/?section=sports/gophers

Go Gophers!!
 






I have to say...I've been reserving judgement until he got some of these kids signed. But, Fleck has done an unbelievable job. Better than I thought he would do this year. I've been pretty critical of Fleck, but that doesn't mean I don't want him to succeed. I wanted him to show me he could back up the talk before I went full Johnnyboy or GopherWeatherGuy on it. I don't jump to conclusions based on faith, I need evidence.

Well, when it comes to recruiting, I'm sold. He's legit. He's now proven it in my eyes.

Now, I want him to show me he can do it on the field where it matters. Recruiting ranking are nice and all, but Minnesota fans have seen over the last decade that they can be misleading (Brewster underachieving with big recruits, Kill/Claeys having success with lower ranked kids). I get that those are statistical outliers, but it is what is. It happens.

Ski-U-Mah. RTB. Great day to be a Gopher fan. Let's go dethrone Becky in the B1G West, make Brian Ferentz go even more crazy, and make Frost wish he stayed in Florida.
 

Of course, now the next big step is to repeat / improve on this class for next year.

This whole class could end up being a dud just like NFL draft classes can be despite picks being highly rated at time of picks.
So the key at this point is to recruit another good class, then another, then another, then another.

After you get 4-5 years of steady athletes who rank high, then you have the high level of redundancy that withstands injuries during a season and creates the highest level of competition at the key "talent" positions.

Great step though at this point.
 


Heracles said:
Now, I want him to show me he can do it on the field where it matters. Recruiting ranking are nice and all, but Minnesota fans have seen over the last decade that they can be misleading (Brewster underachieving with big recruits, Kill/Claeys having success with lower ranked kids). I get that those are statistical outliers, but it is what is. It happens.
Click to expand...

Are they outliers though?? The claims of huge correlations always include all the data from helmet schools — schools that always get the best recruits and always win the games. So the correlation comes from that.

The actual, interesting thing to do would be to look at just the data of the lowest 25% of P5 teams by wins over last few years and see if higher rankings among those teams produces the same correlation with wins. Guessing: no chance in heck.
 



You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom