Shooter: Gophers football team boasts 57 freshmen or redshirt freshmen. Iowa has 56

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Not exactly an apples to apples comparison. A much better comparison is to compare how much our freshman are playing vs. Iowa.

For example,

Team A: 10 Freshman that rarely play.
Team B: 10 freshman that play all the time.

They both have a lot of freshman but one team is clearly relying more on unproven and young players. This is why it's kinda useless to use "average age" without looking at who is getting the most reps.

Having said that, I haven't taken any time to dig into all the freshman contributors on the Gophers and Iowa!
 

Former Goofer said:
Not exactly an apples to apples comparison. A much better comparison is to compare how much our freshman are playing vs. Iowa.

For example,

Team A: 10 Freshman that rarely play.
Team B: 10 freshman that play all the time.

They both have a lot of freshman but one team is clearly relying more on unproven and young players. This is why it's kinda useless to use "average age" without looking at who is getting the most reps.

Having said that, I haven't taken any time to dig into all the freshman contributors on the Gophers and Iowa!
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I don't care but swingman had a post showing it was basically even with the ages of players for Gophers and Iowa.
 

The quick check I found showed Iowa having one RS FR starting on either offense or defense. One, RS FR.

Not exactly apples to apples
 


"By golly, we're the only program that has to deal with four year eligibility rules and having to play young players."

Go to the U.S. pro sport monopoly stadium extortion racket if you want a 10-year rebuild project. You always have the built in rebuilding excuse then.

I hear the Pohlad procket protectors need a new manager in the stickball.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
The quick check I found showed Iowa having one RS FR starting on either offense or defense. One, RS FR.

Not exactly apples to apples
Click to expand...

Iowa has only 7 seniors who are in the 2-deeps. Gophers have more freshmen playing key roles, but Iowa is not an old team. Iowa has a ton of guys in the sophomore/junior classes who are playing key roles.

2 corners were both true freshmen. The normal starters were out.
Starting WLB is a redshirt freshman
DL has several seniors in the 8-man rotation. Nelson, the guy who had 3 sacks today, is a junior. The best of the bunch, Epenesa, is a sophomore.
OL started 2 seniors and 3 sophomores
QB is a junior
RB Iowa has 3 sophomores
TE's are a junior and sophomore
The 3 top WR are a senior and 2 sophomores.
 

Oh, is this the weekly thread about "even though the team is young and starting freshman at key positions like QB, we pretend other teams are as young and inexperienced as us" while the opposing team starts a junior QB?

Meanwhile the same people who applaud our record two seasons again fail to respond to threads inquiring where our O-line and D-line depth is in our Junior and Senior classes.

It kind of sounds like it is, but I could be wrong.
 

bfast said:
"By golly, we're the only program that has to deal with four year eligibility rules and having to play young players."

Go to the U.S. pro sport monopoly stadium extortion racket if you want a 10-year rebuild project. You always have the built in rebuilding excuse then.

I hear the Pohlad procket protectors need a new manager in the stickball.
Click to expand...

It's math.
If you only get about 20-25 players per class, and you only have 7 seniors and maybe 4 juniors left from the 2014 and 2015 recruiting classes, by default you end up playing younger guys.

We already know PJ is at fault for driving off all of the seniors and juniors who would be leading us to 9 win seasons, so we'll just continue to believe that it's PJ's fault.
In the end, he's still going to be coaching for 31 more games here before he's at risk of being fired.
 



DodgerHawki said:
Iowa has only 7 seniors who are in the 2-deeps. Gophers have more freshmen playing key roles, but Iowa is not an old team. Iowa has a ton of guys in the sophomore/junior classes who are playing key roles.

2 corners were both true freshmen. The normal starters were out.
Starting WLB is a redshirt freshman
DL has several seniors in the 8-man rotation. Nelson, the guy who had 3 sacks today, is a junior. The best of the bunch, Epenesa, is a sophomore.
OL started 2 seniors and 3 sophomores
QB is a junior
RB Iowa has 3 sophomores
TE's are a junior and sophomore
The 3 top WR are a senior and 2 sophomores.
Click to expand...

Iowa’s not old (no college team is) and may not have a lot of seniors but even comparing this to the Gophers shows a MAHturity gap. Across the board on offense the Gophers are playing guys a year younger...junior and freshmen at WR, freshmen RBs, etc. And, of course a Junior QB with a full year starting vs a true frosh.

Of course, the injuries the Gophers have had to their few experienced stars have hurt a ton too.

Iowa’s experience profile this year looks a lot like next year’s Gophers. That team will likely still have 50+ freshmen (especially with the new RS rule) but not so many NCAA beginners playing major roles.
 

Face The Facts said:
Oh, is this the weekly thread about "even though the team is young and starting freshman at key positions like QB, we pretend other teams are as young and inexperienced as us" while the opposing team starts a junior QB?

Meanwhile the same people who applaud our record two seasons again fail to respond to threads inquiring where our O-line and D-line depth is in our Junior and Senior classes.

It kind of sounds like it is, but I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

No, this is the weekly thread where we hear how the Gophers have more starting freshman at key positions than any other team in Power 5 Conference schools, so we should be patient with their development and be fortunate that we didn’t lose by more points.
 

Based on recruiting commit #s more older players will be nudged out the door and the team will stay perennially young. This team really will be like the Cullen clan. The Cold Ones would be a nice nickname.
 

Blitzkrieg said:
No, this is the weekly thread where we hear how the Gophers have more starting freshman at key positions than any other team in Power 5 Conference schools, so we should be patient with their development and be fortunate that we didn’t lose by more points.
Click to expand...

Glad people are starting to understand the facts around this situation.
Maybe we can move to a bi-weekly or monthly thread soon.
 



If PJ would stop constantly talking about how young we are it would stop coming up on GH.

Sent from my RS988 using Tapatalk
 

Word said:
If PJ would stop constantly talking about how young we are it would stop coming up on GH.

Sent from my RS988 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

PJ gets blamed for everything.
 

A more interesting and semi- related topic

I counted 58 players on Iowa roster from the state of Iowa
Many are contributing at key positions OL, DL, TE. One of the Fr DBs was local kid

We have 38 players from Minnesota

How can a state with nearly double the population produce that many fewer players?

Even more amazing when you consider Iowa has another D1 Power 5 football team in the state







Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

WHB Brewer said:
A more interesting and semi- related topic

I counted 58 players on Iowa roster from the state of Iowa
Many are contributing at key positions OL, DL, TE. One of the Fr DBs was local kid

We have 38 players from Minnesota

How can a state with nearly double the population produce that many fewer players?

Even more amazing when you consider Iowa has another D1 Power 5 football team in the state







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

How many potential skill position Iowa athletes direct their development towards D1 hockey throughout their youth?
 

Vandy said:
How many potential skill position Iowa athletes direct their development towards D1 hockey throughout their youth?
Click to expand...

Iowa gets next to zero skill position players from Iowa. Few and far between. On the current roster, the WR Easley is from Newton, IA, by way of Iowa Western CC. The TE Hockenson is from Iowa as well. That's it on offense for the guys who play.
Defense, the true freshman corner was a original walk-on from Ankeny. One starting safety is a senior former walk-on from Davenport. That's it.

Most of the Iowa kids on the roster are TE, OL, DL and LB. Both the punter and place-kicker are as well on this year's team.
 

Let’s not forget that the Gophers had such a poor strength and conditioning area for 5 years (Klein) that we are losing the individual battles. We are slowly catching up but can’t gain everything in 2 years.
 

Vandy said:
How many potential skill position Iowa athletes direct their development towards D1 hockey throughout their youth?
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Yes, and I would venture to guess participation in high school football is at a higher rate in Iowa than here.
 

#2Gopher said:
PJ gets blamed for everything.
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Yeah - usually the boss does. But that's why he's making $3.55 million. He's making as much money as the CEO of a decent sized company. It's his job to make this team successful.
 

Vandy said:
How many potential skill position Iowa athletes direct their development towards D1 hockey throughout their youth?
Click to expand...

How many hockey players are 6 ft 4in 230+ in high school?




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

NotAFanOfBecky said:
I don't care but swingman had a post showing it was basically even with the ages of players for Gophers and Iowa.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but swingman is one of the biggest tools on this board.

Word said:
Yes, and I would venture to guess participation in high school football is at a higher rate in Iowa than here.
Click to expand...

Due to the absolute fact that HS hockey has ruined HS football.
 

DodgerHawki said:
Iowa gets next to zero skill position players from Iowa. Few and far between. On the current roster, the WR Easley is from Newton, IA, by way of Iowa Western CC. The TE Hockenson is from Iowa as well. That's it on offense for the guys who play.
Defense, the true freshman corner was a original walk-on from Ankeny. One starting safety is a senior former walk-on from Davenport. That's it.

Most of the Iowa kids on the roster are TE, OL, DL and LB. Both the punter and place-kicker are as well on this year's team.
Click to expand...

There's QBs, WRs, DBs along with the TEs and LBs you mentioned. Next to zero, huh?
 

highwayman said:
Yeah, but swingman is one of the biggest tools on this board.



Due to the absolute fact that HS hockey has ruined HS football.
Click to expand...
Hockey is a pretty awesome sport so I don't mind it's popular here.

Sent from my RS988 using Tapatalk
 

Word said:
Hockey is a pretty awesome sport so I don't mind it's popular here.

Sent from my RS988 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

+1

I don't understand fans who seem to have animosity against other sports for being other sports. As I watched the Vikes and Gophs lose to Buffalo and Maryland, the start of hockey season was the only thing that kept my sports enthusiasm going.
 

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