As far as Monday's go, the Monday prior to Christmas is usually pretty good. Traffic is generally light, work is usually less stressful, unfortunately we had to watch the Vikings get dominated Sunday night but at least we have some good things to talk about in Gopher Nation.
Buck noted late last week the Gophers received a commit from Devon Wright, a RB out of Coral Spring, FL. Wright is a three-star recruit according to Rivals, but according to ESPN he is our highest rated player.
We like his lateral quickness and burst at the 2nd level of defense. This guy can make people miss showing very good balance and re-start acceleration when in a crowd; when in the open this player is very seldom caught from behind.
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This is a very good all purpose player with the skills necessary to be on the field in all situations. Wright has big game potential at the BCS level of competition. We see a guy capable of big game production very early in his career.
Nice pick up on the offensive side of the ball but then the Gophers received some good news on the defensive side as CB, Brock Vereen committed over the weekend. Vereen is a 5-9 corner out of Valencia, CA. He chose the Gophers over Stanford and this from his ESPN evaluation...
Has the speed to run with receivers on underneath crossing routes or vs. the deep ball; can flip his hips and locate the deep throw. Demonstrates the ability to plant and close on the short / medium balls; can hit and separate the receiver from the ball.
Vereen becomes the sixth DB in this current class (2 are JUCOs).
- If you are looking for some consensus Bowl picks here is the collective wisdom from the SBN college bloggers.
- DWG weighs in on the Royce White situation. I haven't commented much because at no point have I had a problem with how anything was handled by the U. I agree that Tubby HAD to recruit him, then I had no problem with White being suspended and at this point it is pretty clear that he should not have been near the team until he matures a bit.
- Check out this guy's journey to the Barn. Be sure to head over to stadium journey and give them your Barn experiences. The Barn is underrated nationally and the best ticket in town when the Gophers are playing well.
- Ping Baseball has come out with their early NCAA baseball rankings (I know, it's still December!). The Gophers sneak in at #30, Ohio State is the only other Big Ten team in the rankings at #24.