FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[AO]

  The gophers don't lose recruiting battles with NDSU or Northern Iowa when they offer scholarships, but they don't often get walk-ons who have good FCS offers.

We have heard from other Gopher coaches in the past but I haven't heard Claeys say he is going to "build a wall" around the state of Minnesota and get every recruit that they (Gophers) want to play at Minnesota.
AO, I know your cousin was a key player for NDSU so the Gophers never offered a scholarship?
How do the Gophers start winning the recruiting battles against other FBS schools? The talent drain (not saying Minnesota is a football hotbed) going to other FBS schools is maddening - in football as well as basketball.

No, the Gophers under Brewster didn't offer Grant.  Same thing with Billy Turner and Marcus Williams.  I think the Gophers have been doing better recently with getting the in-state talent.  Carter Coughlin, Seth Green, and Tyler Johnson are coming in next year.  Gopher hoops is also starting to get everyone from Minnesota they want as well.

[SJUrube]

Ambrasas?

Yes. U of M transfer, no?

I got the name.  I don't recall if he was a Gopher transfer.

He's listed in the 98' roster.  No idea if he was a walk-on or scholarship player.  Calling Perra a FBS QB transfer is a bit misleading as no FCS or FBS program wanted to give him a scholarship to play QB.  The gophers don't lose recruiting battles with NDSU or Northern Iowa when they offer scholarships, but they don't often get walk-ons who have good FCS offers.

http://www.tommiesports.com/sports/fball/2001-02/releases/05-18-2002-2002-fb-bios.html

From his 2002 UST bio:
2000 transfer from University of Minnesota, where he was recruited walk-on and traveled one season as third-team QB.

I'll go to my grave wondering how those early 2000s UST teams never broke through. They had talent AND Bench.

[Tom Thumb]

Rumor on Gopher Chat boards that Perra is transferring to UST, bad news for rest of MIAC.  If I were SJU I would be contacting him, but probably wants to stay near girlfriend.

Do you have a link to that? I wasn't able to find anything on their boards. I just saw rumors that he may go play FCS ball.

That's all I found as well...interested to see how it shakes out, as UST is already an easy MIAC favorite next year w/ Roberts returning.

Yeah, it will be interesting to see what happens. I was already interested in seeing how the QB battle would shake out with Thomas O'Neil returning from injury. UST seems to be pretty high on him (he reminds me of Matt O'Connell). If Perra does transfer, that would make the QB battle a little more interesting.

Any word on Trey Anderson? Do you think he will be ready in time for next season?

I'm surprised you wouldn't consider him the leading candidate right away?  I'd assume he's been playing (practicing) more football and more involved in workouts than any of the QB's on UST's roster?  Maybe I'm wrong...

I don't know anything about Trey Anderson's status.  My days of having direct connections to anyone on campus who would be in the know are in the past.  Since he got hurt in November, and I've always heard 6-9 months for ACL surgery recovery, if he had November or December surgery August would be in the 8 or 9 month window so who knows.

I guess I'm just a little leery of Perra because I haven't seen him play and I don't know what to expect. It sounds like Perra received FCS offers, but decided he wanted to walk on at Minnesota. Is he talented? I'm sure he is. I just have a few reservations is all. Sometimes there is a little too much excitement with transfers.

With respect to the current QB situation, Thomas O'Neil, at least according to Rivals (http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Thomas-O'Neil-155792), also generated some FBS/FCS interest. He could be a guy that surprises some folks. I still do not know where O'Neil sits on the QB depth chart, as he was behind Gould in 2014, but was injured this year. On the other hand, Fenske was injured in 2014, but played behind Gould this year.

If the rumors are true, I think it will be interesting to see how everything unfolds.

The interest column on Rivals is from the player's perspective, not the schools'.  The only offer I could find for O'Neil was from Moorhead State.

I was not aware of that. So I guess teams that are "interested" could be used pretty loosely by players.

Do you know who determines if someone is a three star or four star recruit? That's also on those Rivals pages.

[AO]

The interest column on Rivals is from the player's perspective, not the schools'.  The only offer I could find for O'Neil was from Moorhead State.

I was not aware of that. So I guess teams that are "interested" could be used pretty loosely by players.

Do you know who determines if someone is a three star or four star recruit? That's also on those Rivals pages.

Each site has their own writers and experts who create and adjust the stars and rankings.  The major sites don't offer rankings or evaluations for the D2 or D3 recruits.  You'll have to go to northstarfootballnews.com (and pay) if you're interested in full coverage of our state's recruits.

[sjusection105]

Happy New Year everybody. Be safe!

[USTBench]

Ambrasas?

Yes. U of M transfer, no?

I got the name.  I don't recall if he was a Gopher transfer.

He's listed in the 98' roster.  No idea if he was a walk-on or scholarship player.  Calling Perra a FBS QB transfer is a bit misleading as no FCS or FBS program wanted to give him a scholarship to play QB.  The gophers don't lose recruiting battles with NDSU or Northern Iowa when they offer scholarships, but they don't often get walk-ons who have good FCS offers.

http://www.tommiesports.com/sports/fball/2001-02/releases/05-18-2002-2002-fb-bios.html

From his 2002 UST bio:
2000 transfer from University of Minnesota, where he was recruited walk-on and traveled one season as third-team QB.

I'll go to my grave wondering how those early 2000s UST teams never broke through. They had talent AND Bench.

Nick is a good friend of mine and was a great QB. Not that it matters but I'll give you a few reasons why we couldn't get over the hump in 2001 and 2002 and make a push for the playoffs with those guys.

1) No faith in the 2-deeps
It was probably more Hilliard and Hall wanting to gut it out, but there were clearly games (at SJU 2001 was the worst with Hall's broken foot) where they should have been sat. Hall couldn't even walk, let alone run and we're in a tight game in Collegeville in 2001, and a perfectly healthy Ryan Galindo is just sitting there watching Hall literally limp (very slowly) his way through the 4th quarter. In 2002, when Hilliard's ankle was so completely messed up, they had no choice but to let Mitch Nelson start against St. Olaf (who was getting about as much PT as yours truly) and he went 8 catches for 155 yards and 3 TDs. We had a phenomenal WR coach in Tom Flood, who turned bad players into average players, average players into good players and good players into great players. But we had an  OC who really only trusted about 12 guys on O and it hurt us. There were a lot of good football players that could have helped us had they been given more opportunities: Nick Whitehead, Phil Remes, Mitch Nelson, Ryan Galindo, Shawn Harrington (DT - Why he didn't play more will confuse me forever), and the list goes on and on

2) Players out of position. In 2001 we got a pretty talented freshman center in Brock Norman. Only one problem, we had an All-American type center in McLaughlin that transferred from the U of M in 2000, coming off a 2000 season where he helped Jake Barkley completely dominate the MIAC. Seriously, Barkley's breakout game was a 15 carry, 275 yard, 3 TD performance against Concordia. Well, they move McLaughlin to DT, where failing to flourish was putting it mildly and I think we honestly took a  step back on our o-line. Not saying Brock wasn't good enough to play right away, he was. Also, Brock BECAME a great center in his own right, but I think it was a mistake to take the best player at his position, probably in the country, and simply move him because the consensus was he was a good enough football player he could play anywhere. This was just the most glaring example but there are plenty of others. On the flip side, there were some guys that got frustrated with losing their spot or having to switch positions that just quit and I think they could have really helped. Jaden a mobile and effective QB, lost his job to Ambrasas, but I think he would have been an outstanding PR and safety.

3) It didn't feel like Coach Roney called the shots. George Wemeier did. I get it, he is a Minnesota coaching legend, but I think by that point, he was just an angry old guy. He knew nobody's name but Barkley, Ambrasas and Hilliard. He would dress coaches down in front of players, send players over to the scout team randomly, and his offense, while effective, was needlessly complicated and no longer innovative. It was your standard pro-style, QB under center, I-formation, with an X, and a Z to the TE side 90% of the time. But it might as well been in Mandarin Chinese. Our personnel rarely changed, and if it did, it was a two TE set inside the 5 (sometimes using an H back along with a FB and RB) or we'd introduce a third WR in Brian Branberg. But the most egregious problems were the delay of games. I think we took about three in a homecoming game against GAC at crucial times because he didn't get the play calls in on time. I think we lost that game 25 to 24. My roommate at the time was super depressed that he shanked a punt late in that game, but man, we should have never been in that position to begin with. I think Roney should have promoted Tom Flood years earlier or took over play calling himself, which, he was actually pretty good at. By that time, we no longer needed Wemeier, and I think it hurt us in some big games.

4) One full time assistant and recruiter, Tom Flood. Our DC wasn't full time and our OC was probably playing bridge or watching Matlock all day. Flood did it all and should have been rewarded because he was our best, and hardest working coach by far. He would have been an outstanding OC or HC in the MIAC. He may have not put us in the same stratosphere as what Caruso has been able to accomplish, but he demanded excellence, coached with purpose, had the respect of every player he coached, believed every player he coached could contribute if called upon, and always had his players prepared.

5) Our D was inconsistent. Especially in 2002. We had some studs in the Kaisers, O'Leary and Sommerstadt. But our last two games of 2002 I think we gave up nearly 1400 yards of offense. That should have been the writing on the wall. Coach had lost a lot of hearts and minds at that point.

We came in actually ranked decently in some preseason polls in 2002. We came off a good 2001 where our losses were tight ones to DII Bemidji State and SJU, and one anomaly blowout to Bethel in the Metrodome. Barkley had injured his groin pretty bad the week before we played UW-Stout in 2002 and wasn't himself all year. Hilliard was playing on a sprained ankle all year. And we really got to appreciate how great of a player Andy Kaiser was, because we were nowhere near the same team after he graduated in 2001. His leadership, I felt, was paramount, because a lot of guys looked to him even more than the coaches, not-to-mention his ability on the field was unreal. He was quite literally our JJ Watt, he even had a few (4, I believe) TDs as a TE. He always commanded two, sometimes 3, blockers and was not afraid to call players out, even when it felt like they were in danger of resting on their laurels when playing well (telling O'Leary to pull his head out of his a** after celebrating his 4th sack against Hamline comes to mind) I feel like he was the best player that's ever gone through UST.

Oh yeah. And if I got more PT we would have won like 4 Stagg Bowls in a row. 

[bennie]

Happy New!! Good luck with all of your resolutions! No partying tonight for me, I agreed to meet friends at sunrise tomorrow to greet the New Year with a morning walk! Why did I do that...

[OzJohnnie]

[SJUrube]

What's 2016 like, Oz?

[OzJohnnie]

I'm actually in Santa Monica.  You'll know before I do.

[faunch]

Geez...SJU isn't working on any D1 or D2 transfers?   
Give up the ghost right now I guess!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

[retagent]

HAPPY FREAKIN' NEW YEAR1

[57Johnnie]

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all posters.
My resolution for 2016 is the same as 2015.
NEVER read a post over 8 lines long or one that is quoted more than once.
Worked for me last year and I didn't miss a thing 

[miac952]

Ambrasas?

Yes. U of M transfer, no?

I got the name.  I don't recall if he was a Gopher transfer.

He's listed in the 98' roster.  No idea if he was a walk-on or scholarship player.  Calling Perra a FBS QB transfer is a bit misleading as no FCS or FBS program wanted to give him a scholarship to play QB.  The gophers don't lose recruiting battles with NDSU or Northern Iowa when they offer scholarships, but they don't often get walk-ons who have good FCS offers.

Ambrasas gave it a whirl at the U. Was non scholarship as well. His HS receiving target was one of a few MN high school kids to give it a go playing college football at MOunt Union too I think.

We'll have to wait and see what happens. Transfers seem to be 50/50 propositions. Some become great players like a Harry Pitera or Roberts, while others you never hear from again. Perra did dominate the State run Roseville had his SR year, looking like a supreme athlete.

There are a few open QB jobs in the MIAC next year that have been owned by one guy for the last few years. WIll be curious to see there replacements and how offenses transition. Gustavus, UST, SJU, Augsburg all come to mind.

[miac952]

  The gophers don't lose recruiting battles with NDSU or Northern Iowa when they offer scholarships, but they don't often get walk-ons who have good FCS offers.

We have heard from other Gopher coaches in the past but I haven't heard Claeys say he is going to "build a wall" around the state of Minnesota and get every recruit that they (Gophers) want to play at Minnesota.
AO, I know your cousin was a key player for NDSU so the Gophers never offered a scholarship?
How do the Gophers start winning the recruiting battles against other FBS schools? The talent drain (not saying Minnesota is a football hotbed) going to other FBS schools is maddening - in football as well as basketball.

Wonder what Clayes thinks of Bollinger getting the Cretin job? Wisconsin starting QB. While they are a shell of the dominant program they used to be there are still D1 talents in the program every year.