Official 2022 Gophers Football Recruiting Thread: Links, Tweets, Videos, Rumors

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caliGopher said:
Disappointing end to 2022 recruiting.

when Fleck was hired to improve recruiting, if someone told you that the 2022 class would rank behind the 2017 class in terms of rank relative to the results of Big Ten teams, would you have believed it?

2017: 12th ranked class, 12 average rating
2022: 13 ranked class, 13 average rating

Disappointing.
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Last 2 full Big Ten seasons (non Pandemic shortened)
7-2, 6-3
We aren't winning the recruiting site rankings but they seem to be bringing in players that can play. So maybe.....just maybe.....there are more important factors to consider than just what the recruiting sites say.....maybe.
 

caliGopher said:
Disappointing end to 2022 recruiting.

when Fleck was hired to improve recruiting, if someone told you that the 2022 class would rank behind the 2017 class in terms of rank relative to the results of Big Ten teams, would you have believed it?

2017: 12th ranked class, 12 average rating
2022: 13 ranked class, 13 average rating

Disappointing.
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What are the national ranks for each of those years? Ranking relative to the B1G could be deceiving if the rest of the B1G also took a step forward with recruiting nationally.
 

caliGopher said:
Disappointing end to 2022 recruiting.

when Fleck was hired to improve recruiting, if someone told you that the 2022 class would rank behind the 2017 class in terms of rank relative to the results of Big Ten teams, would you have believed it?

2017: 12th ranked class, 12 average rating
2022: 13 ranked class, 13 average rating

Disappointing.
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Per 247 sports the 2017 class was ranked 59th in the nation with an average star rating of .8324. The 2022 class is ranked 47th nationally with an average star rating of .8578. Cheer up.
 

caliGopher said:
Disappointing end to 2022 recruiting.

when Fleck was hired to improve recruiting, if someone told you that the 2022 class would rank behind the 2017 class in terms of rank relative to the results of Big Ten teams, would you have believed it?

2017: 12th ranked class, 12 average rating
2022: 13 ranked class, 13 average rating

Disappointing.
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Some of us understand that there are only 18 HS commits in this year’s class because of (1) super senior overload in 2021 and (2) the fact that we have taken seven quality players for 2022 from the transfer portal. The transfer players don’t count in the class ranking—but they damn well count on the field. More to the point, if you place HS recruit rankings above player development, the product on the field and wins-losses, you will continue to be disappointed.

If you can dig below the superficial just a bit, you will see that the 18 HS players that count in our 2022 recruiting class are ranked better on a per capita basis than the 25 HS players in our 2017 class. And if you add the seven mostly highly ranked transfers, the 2022 class simply blows away the 2017 class.

Final comment: Fleck was hired to improve winning, period. Third party recruiting rankings are a part of that—but not the ultimate goal. If you judge a coach by his third-party recruiting rankings rather than by his win/loss history and product on the field, you are in a very small minority of football fans.
 
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caliGopher said:
Disappointing end to 2022 recruiting.

when Fleck was hired to improve recruiting, if someone told you that the 2022 class would rank behind the 2017 class in terms of rank relative to the results of Big Ten teams, would you have believed it?

2017: 12th ranked class, 12 average rating
2022: 13 ranked class, 13 average rating

Disappointing.
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You have to factor in the transfers as well. Not much better as far as Big Ten comparison ranking, but a tad better with the transfers. Not as highly ranked as the last 4 years though. On the bright side, we got Ciarocca back, that's a big recruiting win.
 





caliGopher said:
Disappointing end to 2022 recruiting.

when Fleck was hired to improve recruiting, if someone told you that the 2022 class would rank behind the 2017 class in terms of rank relative to the results of Big Ten teams, would you have believed it?

2017: 12th ranked class, 12 average rating
2022: 13 ranked class, 13 average rating

Disappointing.
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Nobody on the planet can look at the No.4 ranked class in the BIG and the No. 13 ranked class and tell the difference. These rankings are meaningless.
 




boofbonser said:
Per 247 sports the 2017 class was ranked 59th in the nation with an average star rating of .8324. The 2022 class is ranked 47th nationally with an average star rating of .8578. Cheer up.
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Yup nailed it, the whole conference has improved. But it wouldn’t be at all surprising for a coach to recruit better in his first couple years and then tail off, that happens all the time. But yeah this class is fine, we’re in the same ball park as the rest of the west.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
As others have said, a lot has changed in those 5 years. Class size is important. Extra year of eligibility is a factor, and transfer portal is important. Nebraska and MN are bringing in a lot of portal transfers and that will affect your class size. Recruiting the portal is also a data point for evaluating recruiting. Seeing those numbers is disappointing, but it's like saying Harbaugh is interviewing on Signing Day, when we all know 99% of players signed in December.

Keep winning Fleck and it will mean you know how to recruit, develop and coach players.
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This.

Guys like JMS were MAC-level recruits. Now a top college center. Those are the types of guys, from high school and the portal, that we're going to win with.
 

WriterGoph said:
Wins going in the right direction. Only coach with 6+ wins (or more than a game above .500 for those who wanna cry about Mase only having 8 conference games) in the Big Ten TWICE in 50+ years!
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Guess it depends on who is doing the ranking:
www.echopress.com

Gophers football pegged with a top-25 group of transfers

247sports.com pegged Minnesota at No. 23 in the nation and fourth in the Big Ten; Michigan State, Nebraska and Indiana came in ahead of the U in the conference.
www.echopress.com www.echopress.com
 




Players like AWJr developed IMHO into 5-Star players. The Gophers need to continue to develop scholarship and walk-on players. The foundation and strength of Gopher Football come from developing players while simultaneously augmenting areas of need from transfers.

The Gophers do a good job of evaluating talent and recruiting good players that the recruiting services may have missed.

Sooner or later, they will attract more 4-Star players and march toward a consistent Top 25 recruiting class. At least, that is the goal.
 

Terron Kellman to Northern Illinois.

 

Some guy said:
Interesting to see how the recruiting services will adjust their rating systems to the transfer portal.
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The transfer rankings are interesting and I am sure something they will expand on. Still a lot of guesswork in there but maybe not quite as much as with high school players since with the transfer rankings they will at least have some college film to evaluate whether or not a guy can actually cut it at the college level.
 

MNVCGUY said:
The transfer rankings are interesting and I am sure something they will expand on. Still a lot of guesswork in there but maybe not quite as much as with high school players since with the transfer rankings they will at least have some college film to evaluate whether or not a guy can actually cut it at the college level.
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Yeah and they are so important. So if they only rank recruiting classes of incoming freshmen and the results on the field match the recruiting rankings half as much…their business takes a hit

they need to be able to predict winners somewhat or they lose credibility
 

I don't know if its already been said, but I am shocked that we are behind Nebraska/Frost in any ranking of recruiting. He has proven he is unable to develop and win, it is evident with his inability to change (Martinez) and constantly having his recruits leave after their first year.

So why are players still going to Nebraska?
 

Gopher Fitz said:
I don't know if its already been said, but I am shocked that we are behind Nebraska/Frost in any ranking of recruiting. He has proven he is unable to develop and win, it is evident with his inability to change (Martinez) and constantly having his recruits leave after their first year.

So why are players still going to Nebraska?
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The helmet stuff doesn't matter as much as it used to but it still matters.

I'd also be curious about Nebraska with NIL $$$.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
The helmet stuff doesn't matter as much as it used to but it still matters.

I'd also be curious about Nebraska with NIL $$$.
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Lower academic standards too.
 

Gopher Fitz said:
I don't know if its already been said, but I am shocked that we are behind Nebraska/Frost in any ranking of recruiting. He has proven he is unable to develop and win, it is evident with his inability to change (Martinez) and constantly having his recruits leave after their first year.

So why are players still going to Nebraska?
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It's a bad class by Nebraska standards. I guess it ranks ahead of us, but they took 2 guys from MN that Fleck didn't even offer. And a ton of transfers and 3 jucos, seems like a recipe for the mess to continue, but Frost is probably desperate at this point.
 

btowngopher said:
It's a bad class by Nebraska standards. I guess it ranks ahead of us, but they took 2 guys from MN that Fleck didn't even offer. And a ton of transfers and 3 jucos, seems like a recipe for the mess to continue, but Frost is probably desperate at this point.
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This is a great point, someone else made the point that the difference between 4th and 12th in the big ten is nearly indistinguishable. I guess I was hearing they had a "really good" class from my nebraska friends, in reality they are only like 7 ranks ahead of us and thats really nothing. But I trust fleck that he is choosing the best fit for our program.
 

btowngopher said:
It's a bad class by Nebraska standards. I guess it ranks ahead of us, but they took 2 guys from MN that Fleck didn't even offer. And a ton of transfers and 3 jucos, seems like a recipe for the mess to continue, but Frost is probably desperate at this point.
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i mean, the middle of the pack in recruiting rankings is legitimately a crap shoot. on top of that, 247 has now started grading juco kids, and we've clearly seen that's an even worse shit show on them playing and/or maintaining eligibility (the south and schools like Nebraska of course will have advantage here). In all honesty, teams 30-70 probably doesn't make a lick of difference as the variation between players who are 3 stars is probably moot. the difference between 2 and 4 stars will show some trend over time and the 4 and 5 star guys weigh far more heavily on your end class ranking (as they probably generally should for just that).
 

Gopher Fitz said:
I don't know if its already been said, but I am shocked that we are behind Nebraska/Frost in any ranking of recruiting. He has proven he is unable to develop and win, it is evident with his inability to change (Martinez) and constantly having his recruits leave after their first year.

So why are players still going to Nebraska?
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Your post completely underscores what is so frustrating to some of us about recruiting rankings and the obsession people have with them.

According to the recruiting sites Nebraska has been kicking our a$$ in recruiting....and not just ours but pretty much everyone in the Big Ten outside of Michigan, Penn State, and Ohio State.

So fans look at this and can't figure out how Nebraska is doing so much better than we are in recruiting....yet the answer is obvious.....they AREN'T doing better than us in recruiting.

They are signing flashier recruits that the recruiting sites claim are significantly better players than the guys we are bringing in. But there is so much that the recruiting sites just simply can't judge in their evaluations. They can look at stats and some highlights, but they don't meet most of the players in person, they don't talk to their coaches, they don't meet with their families.

They look at a RB from Minnesota and tell us he is a .8454 and some other RB from California is apparently a .8788, and yet another RB from Louisiana .9287.....these 3 kids have never set foot on the same field, they play against completely different levels of competition in completely different systems, yet somehow people still believe that what the recruiting site says has to be right.

Are you bringing in players that can compete at the Power 5 level....if the answer to that is yes then the rest is just window dressing for the most part. There are the handful of schools at the top that are pulling high end, top level talent, year in and year out, but once you move past those top end schools it all becomes a crap shoot and it really comes down to finding the right players, not the highest rated players.

2022 rankings
Iowa - #6 - 2 four star, 16 three star - #30 overall
Minnesota - #13 - 2 four star, 16 three star - #48 overall

And there are still some that will look at that and assume Iowa is kicking our butt in recruiting because 247 says their class is 18 spots better than ours even though they are basically identical in makeup and it is all based on some percentage points assigned to the players based on how good those guys are in the opinion of the recruiting sites.

It is what it is....but it is so frustrating to see how hung up people get on the recruiting site rankings every year.
 
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MNVCGUY said:
Your post completely underscores what is so frustrating to some of us about recruiting rankings and the obsession people have with them.

According to the recruiting sites Nebraska has been kicking our a$$ in recruiting....and not just ours but pretty much everyone in the Big Ten outside of Michigan, Penn State, and Ohio State.

So fans look at this and can't figure out how Nebraska is doing so much better than we are in recruiting....yet the answer is obvious.....they AREN'T doing better than us in recruiting.

They are signing flashier recruits that the recruiting sites claim are significantly better players than the guys we are bringing in. But there is so much that the recruiting sites just simply can't judge in their evaluations. They can look at stats and some highlights, but they don't meet most of the players in person, they don't talk to their coaches, they don't meet with their families.

They look at a RB from Minnesota and tell us he is a .8454 and some other RB from California is apparently a .8788, and yet another RB from Louisiana .9287.....these 3 kids have never set foot on the same field, they play against completely different levels of competition in completely different systems, yet somehow people still believe that what the recruiting site says has to be right.

Are you bringing in players that can compete at the Power 5 level....if the answer to that is yes then the rest is just window dressing for the most part. There are the handful of schools at the top that are pulling high end, top level talent, year in and year out, but once you move past those top end schools it all becomes a crap shoot and it really comes down to finding the right players, not the highest rated players.

2022 rankings
Iowa - #6 - 2 four star, 16 three star - #30 overall
Minnesota - #13 - 2 four star, 16 three star - #48 overall

And there are still some that will look at that and assume Iowa is kicking our butt in recruiting because 247 says their class is 18 spots better than ours even though they are basically identical in makeup and it is all based on some percentage points assigned to the players based on how good those guys are in the opinion of the recruiting sites.

It is what it is....but it is so frustrating to see how hung up people get on the recruiting site rankings every year.
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it doesn't help when our AD specifically mentioned this
 


There's a difference between a .876 3* and a .832 3* the 3* nebby gets are higher rated... That's why they are ranked higher... Why is that a shock?
 

Off-GridTNgopher said:
There's a difference between a .876 3* and a .832 3* the 3* nebby gets are higher rated... That's why they are ranked higher... Why is that a shock?
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The only shock is how many people truly believe these sites can accurately grade all the prospects to that level with any sort of true accuracy.
 

MNVCGUY said:
The only shock is how many people truly believe these sites can accurately grade all the prospects to that level with any sort of true accuracy.
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Didn’t you know they get an extra.006 if their 40 is electronic timed and a full.02 of their spiral is tight? It’s science
 

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