The 2012 Minnesota Gopher recruiting class has a local theme, and a Defensive Backfield theme, and a JUCO theme.
There are 10 kids FROM Minnesota that were given scholarships and at least another 3 joining the team as a “preferred walk-ons”. IN the past 10 years Minnesota players staying home have had a lot of success at Minnesota, so here’s to that trend continuing. Marion Barber, Eric Decker, Matt Spaeth, Mark Setterstrom, Ben Utecht, Thomas Tapeh, Adam Weber, Dom Barber & Marcus Sherrels are kids raised in the Gopher state who have gone on to the NFL. Looking back at recruiting classes, I couldn’t find any Gopher classes with more local kids. NDSU just won the FCS National title and beat the Gophers with a bunch of kids who were not good enough to be offered by Tim Brewster & Co. (or as I like to refer to them as Gopher rejects). In fact, no other BSC team in the country kept as many top 10 (rivals) recruits as the Gophers did in their home state with 7 of 10. They really only lost out on 1 of the 10, as 1 kid had just moved here, and 1 (#10) wasn’t offered.
Here are a few Top 10 lists to sum up the 2011 Minnesota Gophers football season.
Instead of previewing the final game of the year vs. Illinois, I decided to spend my time on this year’s senior class highlighting Du’ane Bennett. A quick note about the Illinois game….if the Gophers can pull the upset, I think we’ll see Ron Zook be fired no later than Monday. Also, MarQueis Gray needs just 46 rushing yards to break Ricky Foggie’s single season record for QB rushing yards. Da’Jon McKnight would need a monster day of 153 receiving yards to become the 7th Gopher to catch for 2,000 yards.
The Gophers played in front an announced 26,000 fans on Saturday. I’m not going to look, but that may be the lowest attended Big10 Gopher game in my lifetime. I think even Madison had at least 30k at their games pre-Alveraz.
The last time Minnesota won a game away from the state of Minnesota was last November in Illinois. It also marks Jerry Kill & his staff’s first game back in Illinois where they spent the past 10 seasons coaching Southern & Northern Illinois. The Gophers have 2 games to finish 2011 that will go a long ways toward the mood of the offseason. If they get blown out the next 2 weeks, fans will be questioning the Kill hire all offseason. If they’re competitive and lose, its still going to be a long offseason. IF they could pull out a couple of upsets, I think fans will jump on the Kill bandwagon with optimism for 2012.
The Gophers lost the Axe for the 8th consecutive time, in a game that was not very competitive. The Gophers 1st defensive possession had a great chance to set the tone never did. Here is the recap:
The Gophers and Badgers square off for the 121st time, more than any two schools in the nation. The Badgers trial the series by 6 wins, but are currently on a 7 game winning streak. The winning streak is the longest ever by Wisconsin in the sereis history. Minnesota once won 9 in a row . As terrible as the Gohpers have been in my lifetime, Wisconsin has struggled with the Gophers in Minneapolis. In fact, not since 1983 have the Badgers won by my more than 7pts. The Gophers were 1-11 in 2007 but played to a close loss. In 99 the Badgers went to the rose bowl but the Gophers took them to overtime. In 97 the Gophers were a terrible 1-7 but lost just 22-21. 95 they were 1-7 and lost by just 1 score. In 1993 the Gophers were 4-7 overall but were the only team that beat Wisconsin preventing them from winning the National title. In fact the Badgers have only beaten the Gophers by more than 1 score once since 1951 and this will be the 30th game in Minneapolis since that year.
The Gophers gave us a great show on Saturday with a well battle over the #17 Michigan State Spartans. Even though they came up short, we are beginning to see progress from this team. Here is a recap of the 24-31 loss.
Minnesota and Michigan State will square off for the 44th. Minnesota has only played Penn State fewer times of the 11 Big10 opponents. Minnesota has a .395 winning percentage vs. Sparty, only Ohio State, Michigan & Penn State have a better percentage against Minnesota.
22-21 VICTORY over Iowa recap Positives: THEY WON A FOOTBALL GAME Running the football MarQuis Gray’s QB play is improving Put pressure on the QB Effort level looked great! Special Teams Crawford-Tufts looks legit for a Freshman WR Floyd is safe Negatives: Allowed Coker to go for 252 yards and 2TD’s Defensive front was allowing [ Read More ]
