Golden Nugz 07-01-09

by GopherNation on Jul 1, 2009 3:00 AM CDT in Golden Nuggets Comment 10 comments

The recruits are rolling in this week. The Gophers have received a couple verbals in the last couple days.

Today the Gophers received a verbal from a kicker out of Colorado. Kip Smith accepted our scholarship offer and plans to be a Gopher next fall. According to Gopher Illustrated...

Smith is rated as one of the top ten kickers in the country by every reputable kicking service. Smith hit a career long field goal of 56 yards as a sophomore. During his junior season Smith had touchbacks on 47 of his 50 kick offs and one of the misses was an onside kick.

Zac Epping is another OT out of the state of Wisconsin to commit. The Kenosha native is a three-star recruit and after attending camp last week he recevied an offer. Epping has canceled his trip to a Badger camp since he has accepted our scholarship. Epping becomes the third verbal commitment out of the Badger state. Tom Parrish and Matt Eggen also plan to cross the border and play for the Gophers. Badger fans will tell you that it isn't a big deal as they did not have scholarship offers from the Badgers. But these guys are likely to be three of the top 5 or 6 players to come out of Wisconsin this year so to get them to come to the dark side is significant.

Brew Crew Report has a few pictures of the captains in the new locker room for promo pictures. They are all impressed with their new home.
I'll link to it again in case you don't scroll down. The Quad Blog has finally gotten around to ranking the Gophers this year but unfortunately we don't make the top 62 in the country. Our schedule is pretty tough and the record could be fairly ugly but I think we are one of the top 50 teams in the country at the very least.
The MN Daily has a nice article on the generosity of President Bruinicks and Maturi.

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Bits and bobs

Offer lists are hard to gauge on kickers since schools normally offer only one scholarship per four years. This was Kip Smith’s first offer. But, that really means little. He’s a little short, but I hope he works out well.

As for Epping, well, he went to a rival (Kenosha Tremper) high school in SE Wisconsin (I went to the same high school as the NBA’s Caron Butler, Wisconsin’s (and later, the Wisconsin Penal System’s) Brent Moss, Packers OL Kevin Barry, and current Wisconsin RB John Clay. I wish him marginal success.

Brewster needs more four star recruits to improve the talent stock. Mason pulled three star players regularly and sometimes got the marquee player. Brewster needs to keep upgrading the talent. He’s here because he can recruit. Locking down Wisconsin’s finest means little.

And I must say, he now has a couple middling O-linemen in next year’s class (2 or 3). He needs to get the big fish to commit. With Seantrel taking lots of unofficial visits elsewhere, it seems to me he’s looking out of state. I wouldn’t be concerned about it if he were only taking his five officials in other places, but the unofficial ones are more than a little troubling. The Epping kid canceled a summer camp after accepting an offer. Seantrel doesn’t need to camp anywhere – he’s number 1. The fact he’s camping elsewhere means to me he’s looking to move on.

by JG2112 on Jul 1, 2009 7:52 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Then again....

…it could mean Seantrel has made up his mind on Minnesota and is just doing some last minute “comparison shopping.”

by COJOMAY on Jul 1, 2009 8:14 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

....

…on his own dime?

by JG2112 on Jul 1, 2009 8:27 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

4-stars are important

and Brewster has brought in more 4-stars in two years than Mason did in six years. 2002 – 07 Mason brought in a total of four 4-star recruits. And to be honest he made his living on 2-star kids, not three. Including the current verbals Brewster has 11 4-stars in 2.5 classes.

I get what you are saying, but considering he his home state produces just two or three 4-star kids per year it is a challenge to rack up the big time recruits. Michigan isn’t anywhere near states like Flor/Tex/Cal/etc and they had 11 4-star kids or better last year. Brewster has to keep the big in-state talents home, get a couple more highly ranked kids from Texas or wherever and then he has to do his homework and hit home runs with 3-star kids.

The funny thing is that a few years ago the current list of verbals would have us drooling as a potential great class. Now Brewster needs to bring in a few more big fish or we’ll be disappointed.

what you say here can, and will, be used against you

by GopherNation on Jul 1, 2009 9:34 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

We are all getting the itch

for more success and better players. For that, I credit Brewster.

by JG2112 on Jul 1, 2009 11:10 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

The unspoken question

which we can ask and discuss without heckling each other is:

What in the Hell is wrong with Wisky? I don’t ever remember so many players being allowed to escape their cheese-lined borders before.

by Bama Hawkeye on Jul 1, 2009 11:18 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree

like I said above, they will argue that these players were never offered scholarships but of the 6 players receiving any stars from Rivals, four of them are heading to Minn (3) or Iowa (1). That hasn’t happened in years as far as I can tell.

what you say here can, and will, be used against you

by GopherNation on Jul 1, 2009 11:37 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Bielema would claim

that Wisconsin either doesn’t need them, or is looking elsewhere for better kids. Don’t believe either comment. Wisconsin used to keep the best kids home. if they’re going elsewhere, Camp Randall will not only be old and decrepit, but will also be the home to crummy football again in the coming years.

by JG2112 on Jul 1, 2009 12:47 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I hope so

what you say here can, and will, be used against you

by GopherNation on Jul 1, 2009 1:22 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

#9

Mark Lenkiewicz

Photo Gallery

Offensive tackle
Tinley Park (IL) Andrew

Ht: 6-foot-5
Wt: 250 lbs
Class: 2010 (High School)

Rivals just put this up, make it recruit #9. 6’5" OT is a little light, but has a big frame to put weight on. The interesting thing is that he was recruited by Cosgrove, possible switch to DE if he hs the speed.

by Narby on Jul 1, 2009 11:54 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs