Bemidji State’s Jake Krause outperforms Gophers offensive linemen at pro day

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per Greder:

When Jake Krause bench-pressed 225 pounds an impressive 33 times at the Gophers’ pro day March 28, it was more reps than 11 former University of Minnesota players managed in front of NFL scouts.

And you’d better believe Gophers coach P.J. Fleck took notice.

When the unknown 6-foot-3, 305-pound guard backed that up with a vertical jump of 30 inches, the Gophers head coach started asking questions.

Where did Krause go to school? Bemidji State, a Division II program.

Is he from Minnesota? Yes, Wadena, about 160 miles northwest of Dinkytown.

This is parcel to what’s become a rite of spring as Fleck continues to mention a glaring hole in the program he inherited in January 2017: No U offensive linemen has been selected in the NFL Draft in 11 years and counting. Center Greg Eslinger and guard Mark Setterstrom were the last to be drafted, in 2006.

“This is the University of Minnesota,” Fleck said incredulously after a March 20 spring practice . “We need to rebuild that whole thing, and that takes a little while. You can’t fix a lot of problems with one class, or a lot of depth issues or attrition with one class.”

https://www.twincities.com/2018/04/...erforms-gophers-offensive-linemen-at-pro-day/

Go Gophers!!
 

Man, that's depressing. But explains oh, so much.
 

zman said:
Man, that's depressing. But explains oh, so much.
Click to expand...

To be fair, these are pretty impressive numbers for linemen and no one saw this kid coming. It is completely unrealistic to expect any coach to find the 235 LBS small town FB/TE that could blossom into a 300 LBS athletic freak. If he would have been offered a scholarship, the collective GH reaction would have been "Huh?".

There are only two OL with more than 33 reps.
Four/five years from today, there will be a handful of really good football players who PJ missed on. It's an inexact science.

The biggest takeaway from the article in terms the issues with our program is this one line "No U offensive linemen has been selected in the NFL Draft in 11 years and counting."
 

While these are some impressive numbers, he will have an uphill climb at 6'3" as an OL. If he is able to adjust to DL, he has a shot.
 

The context in which our local media puts these types of stories is always so obnoxious. Instead of "Bemidji St. offensive lineman performs well at pro day", it's "Bemidji St. offensive lineman outperforms Gophers offensive linemen at pro day". Who cares? Why does it matter that he outperformed the Gophers offensive linemen? How is that relevant? Because the Gophers missed him in recruiting? Guess what - so did every other Division I school. Why are the Gophers singled out?

Would the Dallas paper ever put out an article stating "Tarleton St. offensive lineman outperforms Horned Frogs offensive linemen at pro day"? No - because they don't go out of their way to smear the local major college team for no reason. It's so annoying.
 


dpodoll68 said:
The context in which our local media puts these types of stories is always so obnoxious. Instead of "Bemidji St. offensive lineman performs well at pro day", it's "Bemidji St. offensive lineman outperforms Gophers offensive linemen at pro day". Who cares? Why does it matter that he outperformed the Gophers offensive linemen? How is that relevant? Because the Gophers missed him in recruiting? Guess what - so did every other Division I school. Why are the Gophers singled out?

Would the Dallas paper ever put out an article stating "Tarleton St. offensive lineman outperforms Horned Frogs offensive linemen at pro day"? No - because they don't go out of their way to smear the local major college team for no reason. It's so annoying.
Click to expand...

Well said.
 

dpodoll68 said:
The context in which our local media puts these types of stories is always so obnoxious. Instead of "Bemidji St. offensive lineman performs well at pro day", it's "Bemidji St. offensive lineman outperforms Gophers offensive linemen at pro day". Who cares? Why does it matter that he outperformed the Gophers offensive linemen? How is that relevant? Because the Gophers missed him in recruiting? Guess what - so did every other Division I school. Why are the Gophers singled out?

Would the Dallas paper ever put out an article stating "Tarleton St. offensive lineman outperforms Horned Frogs offensive linemen at pro day"? No - because they don't go out of their way to smear the local major college team for no reason. It's so annoying.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
 


It’s almost as if our offensive line sucks


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He had a great bench and vertical jump.
Can he play OL well?


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Spoofin said:
He had a great bench and vertical jump.
Can he play OL well?


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

No kidding. There are lots of workout warriors. Bob Sapp anyone?

I'm happy for the kid, and I hope nothing but the best for him. However, reading the article and some comments makes it sounds like his pro day vaulted him into the draft.

smh
 

I went to college with a guy who went to a regional combine and put up 37 bench press. Great numbers. Only thing was he was a backup lineman at an NAIA school...he wasn't good at football, which is kinda important.
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
While these are some impressive numbers, he will have an uphill climb at 6'3" as an OL. If he is able to adjust to DL, he has a shot.
Click to expand...

I would say his small school status is a bigger issue. Of the commonly top mentioned guards and centers Will Hernandez is 6'2", Isaiah Wynn is 6'2", James Daniels is 6'3". Pat Elflein who the Vikes drafted in the third round last year who proved more than capable is also 6'3". But in general I would agree the players are taller certainly than they used to be.
 




Word said:
But his bench presses prove the Gophers have a bad OL!!!!
Click to expand...

And that we missed out on elite local talent.... again.


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To me its about relationships between the head coach of the U whoever it may be at the time and all the head coaches of high schools. I would think that they would have an open line with the head coach of the Gophers to communicate with him of anyone who may be very athletic. We get hung up on time runs, vertical leaps etc., wouldn't we want to hear of someone who has some potential? Let the head coach decide whether or not he is worthy of a visit to the U.

So it goes back to relationships with the coaches. I would think Fleck in particularly would welcome any communications. Perhaps Fleck will expand on that in the future. Yes I agree, there is going to be those diamonds in the rough that are tough to find due to late growth spurt etc.
 

This is further proof that the Strenght and Conditioning at the U needs not only to improve but publish records at the U. If there is no one who cannot rep 225 for 30 times this is a source of of our failures.
 

husker70 said:
This is further proof that the Strenght and Conditioning at the U needs not only to improve but publish records at the U. If there is no one who cannot rep 225 for 30 times this is a source of of our failures.
Click to expand...

Significant failure only winning 9 games in '16.
 

husker70 said:
This is further proof that the Strenght and Conditioning at the U needs not only to improve but publish records at the U. If there is no one who cannot rep 225 for 30 times this is a source of of our failures.
Click to expand...

There were only 10 guys at the entire combine with more than 30 reps. That's a lot.

The previous staff also had multiple people who looked awesome at the combine.
Maxx Williams - led TEs in 40 yard dash, 20 yard shuttle, vertical jump, broad jump
Jalen Myrick - 2nd fastest 40
Hageman - performed great (led DL in bench press reps with 32)

My point isn't that this is proof that our previous strength and conditioning team at the U was good, I am just saying that you can't look at one off freakish displays of athleticism as any kind of litmus test on your strength and conditioning program.

Another thing you probably shouldn't hold against your strength and conditioning program is if a 235 lbs kid from a nearby town grows into a 300 lbs freak athlete at a nearby D2 college.
 

Where is Pete Smith to tell us how terrible our strength and conditioning program was?


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dpodoll68 said:
The context in which our local media puts these types of stories is always so obnoxious. Instead of "Bemidji St. offensive lineman performs well at pro day", it's "Bemidji St. offensive lineman outperforms Gophers offensive linemen at pro day". Who cares? Why does it matter that he outperformed the Gophers offensive linemen? How is that relevant? Because the Gophers missed him in recruiting? Guess what - so did every other Division I school. Why are the Gophers singled out?

Would the Dallas paper ever put out an article stating "Tarleton St. offensive lineman outperforms Horned Frogs offensive linemen at pro day"? No - because they don't go out of their way to smear the local major college team for no reason. It's so annoying.
Click to expand...

Agree, but it also shows how important it is to keep those pipelines open to all of the small HS in the state. We want those small town studs to walk-on at the U and find that diamond in the rough.
 

The premise of the article is a little unfair, but there's something to both the dominance of area FCS and smaller school football, along with the wasteland of Gopher draft outcomes that does lead someone to wonder.
 

dpodoll68 said:
The context in which our local media puts these types of stories is always so obnoxious. Instead of "Bemidji St. offensive lineman performs well at pro day", it's "Bemidji St. offensive lineman outperforms Gophers offensive linemen at pro day". Who cares? Why does it matter that he outperformed the Gophers offensive linemen? How is that relevant? Because the Gophers missed him in recruiting? Guess what - so did every other Division I school. Why are the Gophers singled out?

Would the Dallas paper ever put out an article stating "Tarleton St. offensive lineman outperforms Horned Frogs offensive linemen at pro day"? No - because they don't go out of their way to smear the local major college team for no reason. It's so annoying.
Click to expand...

Totally, 100% agree.

I found a couple sites that still had 2012 Wadena-Deer Creek rosters on them and Krause was listed as a RB/FB in high school. The information on MaxPreps showed him as the 262nd best player in the state as a senior. But somehow the Gopher staff was supposed to realize he would turn into a pretty good offensive lineman that would be able to out perform some Gopher players at a pro-day workout.

Obnoxious is the perfect word for it.
 

alchemy2u said:
Agree, but it also shows how important it is to keep those pipelines open to all of the small HS in the state. We want those small town studs to walk-on at the U and find that diamond in the rough.
Click to expand...

The kid wasn't even an all-conference performer in high school. He was small for even a D2 OL at the time, there isn't any way to project he was going to turn that size of a player in his years at BSU. Even FCS teams "missed" on him. It's going to happen from time to time.
 

Can someone transfer from DII (or DIII) to DI (I still don't like the names FBS and FCS) without having to sit out a year?
And if so, can they transfer at any time during the year?
And if so, is getting a transfer like this guy would have been a way to sign a "free agent" during the season to back fill for injuries in a position like our OL?
 

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