Minnesota Gopher Football: some quick thoughts on "closing up the borders"

by JDMill on Jan 27, 2012 1:12 PM CST in Recruiting - Football

A Twitter-ese response to yesterday's recruiting news might look something like this: "Glen Mason << Tim Brewster <<<<< Jerry Kill"

Remember how much of a priority Tim Brewster said closing up Minnesota's borders and keeping the states best players at home was? And we were ecstatic because it looked like he was doing it. His first full recruiting class locked up 4 of the top 10 recruits in Minnesota, followed by a 7 out of the top 10 class, and then a complete drop-off locking up only 2 of the top 10 in 2010.

Closing up the border is important because it means that your program makes a difference to the youngsters of the state. But it's not the full story. While Brewster landed 7 of 10 in 2009, only one of those, Ed Olson, has had a real and consistent impact. Ra'shede Hageman began to have in impact on the defensive side of the ball in 2011, despite being recruited as a TE.

Here we are again with the Golden Gopher program getting 7 of the top 10 in the state. This is huge for obvious reasons, but it also shuts everyone up who said that Kill couldn't recruit. As FrothyGopher so eloquently stated on Twitter last night by quoting Glengarry Glen Ross...

@FrothyGopher
Jerry Kill gets coffee today. #CoffeeIsForClosers

But here's what's different about this class of 7 Minnesota recruits that we couldn't say about the 2009 class... these guys actually fit what Jerry Kill is trying to do.

I'm not going to break each of these guys down, you'll get plenty of that next week, but the way this group of youngsters fits what we need is almost uncanny.

You want an athletic QB with good feet and a strong arm? The 3rd best recruit in the state fits that description.

You need a physical WR who can bang in the middle but also has the ability to stretch the field? Sounds like the guy who did some flip-flopping, but announced last night he's staying home.

You need maulers to make sure we can back-fill the O-line when the current group starts graduating? We've got one, two of those guys in our top 10.

How about a linebacker who has a nose for the ball? Yep, we got one of those too.

Coach Kill and Staff got a group of really good, home-grown players who fit the needs of the team. Hopefully this is a sign of continued good things to come.

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This is a notworthy accomplishment

but I’d hardly say it “shuts everyone up.”

Kill was able to pull in 3 in-state guys with offers from other BCS programs (Pirsig, Hayes, McDonald). Perhaps Philip and Maxx would have received offers had they not committed so early, but we don’t know that.

Also, while the in-state haul is impressive, the out-of-state haul is considerably less so. For a coaching staff with ties to the Chicago/St.Louis/Kansas City markets, they did a poor job compared to their peers, losing every single player they went after who had offers from any other BCS program. We offered 14 Chicago-area kids and received one commit (Jack Lynn) who had only MAC offers. We offered 24 kids in Missouri/Indiana/Ohio and received two comitts, again, kids who had no other BCS offers.

These aren’t selective numbers; this pattern holds up across the country.

So, yeah, it is impressive they were able to keep most of the Minnesota kids home, but they need to do a much better job across the country if they hope to be competitive within the Big Ten. This remains a question mark, and the commitment of one kid is not going to change that. I find it funny that everyone is so quick to take McDonald’s commitment to squash any criticisms of Kill, when those same people seem to be the ones who criticize his detractors for overreacting.

by Gophermike on Jan 28, 2012 2:40 PM CST reply actions

Uh-oh, better hope jimipig doesn't see that comment.

lol jk

You do make a really good point. I’ve always believed that the key to turning around a program is to recruit the players you can actually get, and then develop the players you have. Kill was able to win at NIU—and by “win” I mean “put together a really talented team, talented enough to whip Minnesota”—by recruiting the players who not only fit his program but were actually interested.

This is why establishing a regional foothold is so important. There would be serious criticism of Kill if all of his recruits came from Illinois (a region where he previously coached) and none came from Minnesota (a region he inherited). Minnesota is not good enough to recruit on a truly national scale or challenge the Big Ten for the best recruits. The fact that Kill made such a statement in the state of Minnesota is a testament to work he did to unite the state, by getting high school coaches on board and the best recruits (relatively speaking) to stay home. That’s, I think, why we keep harping on this as an accomplishment. In any rebuilding job, when you take over, it is crucial to establish a recruiting base within your own state.

I also don’t knock a kid for only having MAC offers. There is enough talent in the country that even the left-overs from major conferences have some decent talent and, with the right coaching, can be very successful. The key for Kill was to use his conference as leverage to lure those best MAC recruits away from Toledo, NIU, Ohio U., etc.

True, Minnesota and Jerry Kill have a long way to go before they’re competing for Big Ten championships. But getting to be as good as the best MAC team is a pretty decent start in my book.

by Meager Reader on Jan 28, 2012 3:05 PM CST up reply actions

I won't knock the MAC either...

…recruiting kids with multiple MAC offers is not a bad thing, and you can win in the Big 10 by doing so. Sure, it’s great when you land a guy who shared offers with OSU…but those won’t come until you start winning…so the chicken/egg theory…take guys who are MAC or lower tiered who fit your system and win…then you get interest.

And I am here, Gophermike, to absolutely tell everybody they have no reason at this point to be critical of anything Kill has done. Guy took over a dogshit program and is in year 2. Really has had a single year of recruiting. He beat 2 bowl teams in his first season once his guys found out where the bathroom was.

Are people still holding a grudge about calling bad plays on the goal line in the third game of the season? Seriously…what has Kill done that has been justifiably deficient?

I find he’s done plenty to be complementary of. That’s why I tire of negativity about the guy, or typical Gopher fans who choose to tell everybody else not to get excited because we haven’t seen enough yet. Removing pleasure and happiness from a positive development (like McDonald). The constant “father” in the room reminding everybody “you ain’t there yet kid, people are still better than you” after a game you just won…

by jimipig on Jan 30, 2012 2:58 PM CST up reply actions

I'm in my 20s

I’m only a father to my wife chihuahuas.

by Gophermike on Jan 31, 2012 9:00 AM CST up reply actions

And by that, I meant my "wife's"

my wife is not named “chihuahuas”

by Gophermike on Jan 31, 2012 9:00 AM CST up reply actions

Ok Mike.

Note to self…it’s year 1 of recruiting. Take all your facts and attach it to, it is the first full year. FIRST.

So with that, I just think we are a bit ahead of schedule from where people thought we may be as far as recruiting goal #1, locking up the borders and showing SOME ability to recruit. I can’t count the number of posts/blogs/etc. that blasted Kill/staff, saying “they won’t be able to recruit”, or “they can’t recruit”.

So that’s why I think this is a win. Not saying your points aren’t valid, but it is year 1.

If he went out and landed everybody we wanted in all 50 states…we’d know it was illegally done.

by jimipig on Jan 30, 2012 9:58 AM CST up reply actions

The first year of recruiting is usually the best.

New coach, fresh start, opportunity to play, etc.

by Gophermike on Jan 31, 2012 8:59 AM CST up reply actions

I promise that I'm not being a Kill apologist here

What we know about the entire process (who we offer, how hard we recruit, why we land or miss on a kid, how good they are or are not, etc) is SOOO limited that it is really hard to judge until we see how they end up.

I think we can do a little bit of analysis on the kids we land. Where do they fit in the depth chart, their star ranking, did they have a lot of other big offers, etc. But considering there are hundreds of kids that we offer it is really hard to say who we really wanted, who we actually had a shot at and what was our true success rate.

You might be right that we stunk outside of Minnesota, but I don’t know if we have enough information to make that assessment fairly and accurately yet.

what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher

by GopherNation on Jan 30, 2012 2:48 PM CST up reply actions

Ok fair enough

But do you honestly think we’d rather have Alex Keith than Faith Ekakitie? Or Duke Anyanwu over Maurice Fleming? I’d say the fact that we offered them over a year ago, and just offered our guys in the last few months, is a pretty strong indication that they were second options.

And that’s a natural consequence of recruiting, especially when you’re Minnesota. It just needs to be minimized going forward.

by Gophermike on Jan 31, 2012 9:02 AM CST up reply actions

Perfect examples, GMike and MR

why TDG is my number one, and usually only Gopher read. Those are two well thought out, well written posts.

by Texas Gopher on Jan 28, 2012 4:41 PM CST reply actions

There's going to be detractors on both sides...

And there always will be. If Kill went out and got a bunch of kids from other states, but didn’t do well in Minnesota, everyone would be on his ass for not being able to close the borders and recruit his own back yard. But when he does recruit well in his own back yard, everybody says that Minnesota isn’t a hotbed for college football talent anyway, so who cares?

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by JDMill on Jan 30, 2012 8:56 AM CST reply actions