Gopher The Roses

2008 Gopher Recruiting Class

I have not posted any information yet on those that have verbally committed, those who have visited, and those that will.

For the most part, I stay out of that all together and leave that the guys who know best. And in my opinion that is the guys who run GopherIllustrated.com, the Minnesota Rivals.com site. Well worth the monthly or yearly subscription.

Matt O’Connoll and Zach Johnson do a fantastic job reporting the news of the day. There will be many recruits at the Florida Atlantic game this weekend from the region.

Also, our home games against Purdue and Ohio State will be our primary fall weekends for recruiting. Many guys are lined up.

Dear Mother Nature, please cooperate.

After the Ohio State game I will put a list together.

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National Signing Day and ‘Sota Social

This is a big day for college football programs across the land and here at Minnesota it is no different. There have been a lot of rumors flying around about who is signing, who may not, who we wish would, and who decommits for and against us.

   

So much that I am not going to speculate at all here. Instead I give you this link to GopherIllustrated.com, a Rivals.com web site. It is well worth the paid subscription. Zach and Matt have done a great job keeping die-hard fans in the loop on the recruiting efforts of Coach Brewster and the staff.

   

I have sent Zach an invitation to do a regular post here on Gopher The Roses.

   

Yes I will be attending the ‘Sota Social sponsored by the Goal Line Club at the McNamara Alumni Center this evening. Click Goal Line Club Event Page for more information. The event is open to the public.

   

This is a big day for the Gopher football program and it looks the like work of Coach Brewster, his staff, and the players who were hosts is paying off.

   

Go Gophers

Recruiting Class May Be Starting To Crack

Tick, tick, tick. As we get closer to national signing day it seems that a few of our recruits are starting to have second thoughts.

   

Obviously I want the best coach possible but if a few more of the recruits get cold feet this could become costly.

   

A tip of the hat to Gordie Shaw and Luke Tressel for doing a good job staying in touch with the verbal commitments, Gophers trying to hang on to recruits.

Athletic Director Reaches Out To Minnesota High School Football Coaches

For years Minnesota high school football coaches have been frustrated with the lack of a relationship between them and the university.

   

Joel Maturi had a meeting with a committee of coaches yesterday and there are some amazing quotes from the meeting, Gopher football: AD reaches out to fix rift between U, football coaches.

"I think our coaches association is starving for a relationship with the University of Minnesota," said Albert Lea coach Clay Anderson, president of the High School Football Coaches Association. "We want it badly. We want to bleed maroon and gold, and for the last 10 years we felt nothing but frustration."

and

"I think that's up to the university to make that decision," Anderson said. "As an advisory group, we're more concerned with the lack of a relationship we had with the university for pretty much the whole Mason Era. What we're looking for is to open up the lines of communication and have a much better relationship."

While the high school programs will not produce the number of talented kids it did decades ago, the growth of hockey as near cult status and the lower number and quality of inner city school teams, but there have been many high profile kids leave the state for greener pastures (so to speak).

   

For the first time in many years this 2007 recruiting class, assuming it stays intact, has many Minnesota kids in it. Most of that work was done by an assistant coach or two, not Glen Mason.

   

The next coach really needs to make this one of his top priorities.