One Month and Counting!

Well, we are one month away today from the first practice. Some surprises will happen, of course, but here is what I think will be the starting lineup.

QB Adam Weber
RB Hasan Lipscomb
OT Matt Stommes
OT Jeff Wills
OG Matt Carufel
OG Dominic Alford
C Ryan Wynn
TE Nick Tow-Arnett
WR Eric Decker
WR Hayo Carpenter
WR Brandon Green

DE Anthony Jacobs
DE Cedric McKinley
DTGarrett Brown
DT Eric Small
LB Lee Campbell
LB Simoni Lawrence
LB Spencer Reeves
CB Traye Simmons
CB Marcus Sherels
DBKym Royston
DB Tim Dandridge

Pk Eric Ellestad
P Dan Oreske
KR Troy Stoudermire
PR Marcus Sherels

Recruit Rankings

I wanted to take a look at recruit rankings and see if they really mean anything or not. I know, this is an age old battle, but I wanted to pick a few players from past classes that have had a chance to make an impact on the team, therefore, I did not use the 2008 or 2009 class. Going back here is the rankings from rivals and Scout:

Year Name Rivals Stars Scout Stars
2002 Trumaine Banks 2 1
Bryan Cupito 2 1
Greg Eslinger 2 1
Matt Spaeth 2 1

2003 Laurence Maroney 4 2

2004 Dom Barber 3 3
Deon Hightower 2 2
Gary Russell 2 2
Willie Vandesteeg 2 2

2005 Steve Davis 3 3
Eric Decker 2 2

2006 Lee Campbell 2 2
Adam Weber 3 3

2007 Eric Small 2 2
Kyle Theret 2 2

If you consider the 4 from 2002 as major contributors, the ranking are way off. In 2003, Rivals seem to have Maroney pegged right, but Scout was way off. In 2004, Barber was probably rated right, but the other 3 were again quite off. in 2005, Davis is probably right, but Vandesteeeg was way off. Now in 2006, Campbell probably has played out to be a 3 star, and I think Weber's 3 stars is right on. In 2007, Small and Theret have both played out to about 3 star players.

Not listed here are many of the 4 and 5 star players (ok, mason didn't have many, but a few) that panned out to be busts for one reason or another. I see no evidence in these at all that would put any stock into the ratings whatsoever.

Your thoughts and opinions are quite welcome. Please, also sign up to be a follower of this blog.

Thanks much!

Season Preview

Here is a nice preview from Athalon sports, I think it is pretty good. Look back tonight or tomorrow morning, I should have another player interview posted.

http://www.athlonsports.com/college-football/16979/2009-minnesota-golden-gophers-preview

College Football Poll

For those of you who follow college football as much as I do, you love looking at all the preseason hype. One site that I always look at is: www.collegefootballpoll.com

What is interesting to note about these computer models is that in 9 of the last 15 years, the gophers ended with a better record than predicted. Over these same 15 years, the Gophers have 9 more wins than the computer predicted. This year, the computers have the Gophers picked to finish 5th in the Big Ten with a record of 7-5 (4-4 in conference). I say this becomes year 10 that the Gophers beat the computer predictions! 9-3 here we come!

Early Predictions

I thought I would send out an early prediction on wins and losses for the upcoming season. Please comment as you see fit.
Prediction: 9-3

Syracuse: win
Air Force: win
Cal: win
Northwestern: win
Wisconsin: win
Purdue: win
Penn State: loss
Ohio State loss
Michigan State: Win
Illinois: win
South Dakota State: win
Iowa: loss

Beau Allen

Beau Allen has apparently received a scholarship offer from Notre Dame following his attendance at their football camp. Allen has long been rumored to favor the Gophers, but will this latest offer change things? Notre Dame has historically come into Minnesota and taken away the states top talent. Brewster needs to work hard on this one as this kid can play. Stay tuned, hopefully he will commit to Brewster soon, if it drags out past the summer and into the season, that will be a bad sign for the Gophers.

An interview with Marqueis Gray

I had the great pleasure of interviewing what I believe to be the next great superstar in Gopher Football. Every time I have talked with Marqueis he has been great and is really a great guy. Here is my most recent interview with him.

Today at 1:06pm

1) How has the spring been and what do you look forward to once camp starts?
The Spring went really well I was pleased of how better i've gotten as a QB. I am looking forward to the meals during camp. hahaha

2) What has been the biggest adjustment moving from HS ball to college?
The biggest adjustment was by far the playbook. Nothing at all like high school ball

3) What would you say is your greatest strength?
My greatest strength is being a dual threat QB and my personality

4) What would you say you need to work on in your game?
I think I need to work on studying the game a lot more because its so much responsibility as a QB.

5) How cool will it be to play in TCF Bank Stadium?
I get chills every time I ride past it , I can hardly wait till that day comes

5) The Gophers have a lot of very good young talent, yourself included, what can fans expect to see out of the team this year?
I would say that the fans can expect to see a lot of playmakers that's gonna be around for a long time.

6) On a more personal note, what is on your ipod playlist?
My Ipod has all the latest hip-hop and R&B

7) Would you care to make a prediction for this upcoming season?
Lets just say that we are gonna have fun this season and take it one week at a time.

Thanks, MarQueis

TCF Bank Stadium and a special treat

In case you haven't see the stadium video yet, I thought I would post it on here for you to watch. Also, check back in the next day or so for a special post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib9IjzsjrCk

Help this blog grow and become better

Hello everyone. I would really like to grow this site and make it a great blog. The more attention we can get for Gopher Football, the better. Please share this site with everyone you know. Sign up to follow this site and please post comments. I am very interested in any ideas you have that could enhance this site.

Current recruits

Here is the link to Rivals to view the current commits, prospects, etc. I am also including the link to Sporting News site as Brian writes great information on the Recruitnick page as well. Follow Gopher recruiting year round.

www.minnesota.rivals.com

http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/TheRecruitnik

Recruiting Update.

Hello everyone. I am new to blogging and have a lot to learn, but hope to have this site up and looking good in a quick fashion. The purpose of this blog is to feed my insane appetite for Gopher Football. I hope you find the information and commentary interesting. I will post to this site once a day, please check in daily to read the posts and comment on them. Please keep posts and comments clean as I do not want this site to turn into a nasty site. This blog is for Gopher Football fans to have fun, not be rediculed and just plain treated nasty.

I also encourage you to check out the ads on the side of this site. Some very good deals and great information can be found. Why not look, it doesn't cost you anything to look.

For my first post, I thought I would just give everyone a quick recruiting update as it stands today! Brewster is off to a great start and I love how he is raiding WI! The recruits are sorted by rating and the rating can be either from rivals or Scout:
4 star recruits:
Jimme Gjere-OL out of New Brighton, MN
Lamonte Edwards ATH out of Woodbury, MN

3 star recruits
Kip Smith-K out of Bloomfield, CO
Tom Parish-QB out of Hartland, WI
Matt Eggen-OL out of LaCrosse, WI
Zac Epping-OL out of Kenosha, WI
Antoine Lewis-DB out of Maywood, IL
Donnell Kirkwood-RB out of Delary Beach, FL

Recruits not yet rated:
Mark Lenkiewicz-OL out of Tinley Park, IL
Allen Veazie-DB out of Houston, TX

The class is shaping up good already! Go Gophers!