FanShot

Minnesota Gophers Football: How All-Big Ten team ranked as recruits

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I'm not posting this to make Gopher fans feel bad about the fact only one Gopher made the team (Troy Stoudermire as the KR). Nope, I am, in fact, doing so to point out how many of the guys who made the squad were not highly rated high school recruits. Or were not rated at all. Unranked: Mikel Leshoure (RB, Illinois), Gabe Carimi (OT, Wisconsin), John Moffitt (OG, Wisconsin) 1 star: J.J. Watt (DE, Wisconsin), Brian Rolle (OLB, Ohio State) 2 star: Dane Sanzenbacher (WR, Ohio State), Jeremy Ebert (WR, Northwestern), Ryan Kerrigan (DE, Purdue), Greg Jones (MLB, Michigan State), Chimdi Chekwa (CB, Ohio State), Tyler Sash (S, Iowa) Just look at that list. Some of the best players in the conference, if not THE best players in the conference, were afterthoughts in the recruiting process. This is not to say the recruiting rankings are meaningless: Ohio State has dominated the conference not because they only recruit 2 star kids, but because they're able to haul in highly ranking classes and have done an excellent job of developing their talent no matter where the recruiting experts had them ranked. I know we'd all love to see Jerry Kill and the Gophers bring in some four and five star recruits, but as this list shows, having a coaching staff who can properly develop and coach-up players more than makes up for not having a highly-ranked recruiting class. Tim Brewster brought in some highly ranked classes (by Minnesota Gophers standards, anyways), but did bubkis with most of them once they got here because he and his staff weren't able to develop them. Jerry Kill has developed players and won everywhere he's been despite not having highly ranked recruiting classes. Sure, I'd love to see some higher ranked prospects, but if he can maximize talent with the 3 star rated kids (and below) that he has in this year's class, then I'm going to be very excited for Gopher football each and every year. And look at that list again, and look at the teams who keep turning the low-ranked prospects into all-conference performers: They're the schools we're trying to catch in the standings like Wisconsin, Iowa, Northwestern, and Michigan State. They have built their reputations, and their programs, by unearthing gems year after year. You'll rarely see those schools in the top 25 recruiting rankings (although I know Michigan State is knocking on the door this year), yet we always seem to see them in the top 25 national rankings when they play the actual games. But no matter how successful Minnesota is on the field (and this goes for everyone in the conference not named Ohio State, Nebraska, Michigan and Penn State), they're never going to be hauling in top 10 or 15 or even 20 national recruiting classes. And this list of all-Big Ten performers and where they ranked proves they don't have to. The schools we're trying to catch like Wisconsin, Iowa, Northwestern and Michigan State prove that coaching kids up and developing them once they get on campus is more important than what they're ranked coming out of high school. Jerry Kill has proven he's had a track record of doing the same, and I'm hopeful and excited he and his long-time staff can do the same in the Big Ten.