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Gopher Wrestling Wraps Up Season at Awards Banquet

Gopher Wrestling Wraps Up Season at Awards Banquet

Program celebrates the outstanding individual accomplishments of the previous season and the careers of its senior class
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Team co-captain Michael Kroells earned the team's leadership award for his outstanding performance on the mat (All-American season) and in the classroom (Aerospace Engineering major).

Gophersports.com
April 25, 2016


Coaches, donors, fans and student-athletes came together on Sunday night in northeast Minneapolis to celebrate highlights from the 2015-16 Gopher wrestling season and honor the four-man senior class departing from the program next month.

Every Gopher coach spoke at the event, with Dustin Schlatter, Luke Becker and Brandon Eggum announcing award winners, and head coach J Robinson introducing each of the four graduating Gophers – Josh Shupe, Jordan Kinglsey, Brad Dolezal and Josh Mora – and welcoming them to the dais to speak to the crowd.

In addition to honoring its senior class, the team handed out 10 individual awards and recognized its nine first-year letterwinners from the past season. A full list of awards and recognitions are listed below.
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DRAFT DAY???

Are bars giving away free beers off the tap, across the US????? Are people gonna be forced to join the military?? Is this a marketing plot from the housing industry to add insulation to your homes and businesses to keep the wind and cold out?? What is going on?? I am so confused.

Ohio Family Murders

Anybody else following this story? Very strange. 8 killed at 4 different residences, but everyone was part of the same extended family. Small children were left alive but everyone else was shot execution style. Doesn't sound like the police know who did it. Some stories today that there was marijuana growing operations at a couple of the residences. Maybe the family got involved in growing pot and ran afoul of the wrong people?

Anyways, wanted to see if anyone else was following. Bizarre.

Gophers in 2016 NFL draft

Here's what NFL experts had to say about four players from Minnesota expected to hear their name called during the draft. Three players, De'Vondre Campbell, Brien-Boddy Calhoun and Eric Murray, were invited to the NFL combine.

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De'Vondre Campbell: Wiry and strong, Campbell is just scratching the surface of his potential. Though you'd expect a linebacker of that size to be purely a pass rusher, the Hutchinson Community College transfer moves better than expected in the open field.
STRENGTHS
NFL-caliber athleticism. Looks the part on the hoof with thickness through bubble and thighs with tapered calves. Has the quick-twitch to respond suddenly and explode towards the ball.
WEAKNESSES
Linebacker instincts missing badly. Too many snaps where he does the offensive lineman’s job for him by running himself out of position and becoming an easily blockable target. Is slow to diagnose what is happening and is consistently behind on the play relying on athleticism too often. You can read more about Campbell's draft review here

Brien Boddy-Calhoun: The Gophers lined up two of the top corners in the country the past couple of seasons with Eric Murray and Boddy-Calhoun, a junior college transfer (Coffeyville) who was tabbed for All-Big Ten accolades each of the last two seasons.
STRENGTHS
Smooth hips that open easily. Confident in his feet out of press and rarely gets turned around by a shifty release. Can bail from press coverage with little to no delay.
WEAKNESSES
Small in stature and lacking a “dog mentality” to make up for his lack of size. Marginal athleticism for the position and unable to carry long speed down the field. Gives away too much space in off-man coverage. The full analysis on BCC is here

KJ Maye: ...coaches utilized his quickness a bit more in his junior campaign (five starts; 23-144, TD rushing; 16-298, TD receiving). That taste of production caused Maye to double his efforts last season, leading to consensus honorable mention All-Big Ten honors (73-773, five TD receiving; 9-46, TD rushing). And though his experience as a kick (18-313) and punt (4-56) returner for Minnesota were limited, Maye will likely get his shot there at the next level.
STRENGTHS
Will not be outworked in practice. Mentally tough and extremely resilient overcoming obstacles from junior high up to college. Consistent in his play speed in and out of his breaks.
WEAKNESSES
Expected to measure at under 5-foot-10. Doesn't have the length to protect the ball against intrusive, tight coverage. Willing blocker but teams may not trust the size. You can read the complete breakdown on Maye here

Eric Murray: Murray's size, durability (started 39 straight games) and physical nature should land him near the top of NFL teams' cornerback wish list. The 2014 second-team and 2015 third-team All-Big Ten selection's experience in press man coverage is extensive, and his ball skills are good enough to make plays (two interceptions, 24 pass break-ups) when given the opportunity.
STRENGTHS
Plays with excellent technique when running vertically with wideouts. Maintains good positioning and crowds receiver's chest forcing him against the sideline. Looks to smother any and every route underneath from press man coverage.
WEAKNESSES
Tight in his hips with a labored transition from press coverage. Tightness causes momentary stalling when changing directions laterally putting him behind in his coverage. You can read the complete analysis here

Theiren Cockran: This tall, lean defensive end split his time between football and basketball until late in his high school career. His coach, Bobby McCray, recognized his potential since Cockran had the same build as his son, Bobby, who played defensive end at Florida and in the NFL. Since Cockran's focused primarily on football, he has been a thorn in the side of offensive lines both in high school and the Big Ten.
Strengths
Has rushed the passer with a hand in the ground and standing up. Has relatively long arms for his size. Shows more upfield burst as a pass rusher standing than with a hand in the ground. Uses a chop combined with inside spin move as his most effective rush move.
Weaknesses
Lacking in body control and necessary quickness. Gets knocked off course too easily -- even by tight ends at times -- during his pass rush. Hip tightness for days. Needs to play with better bend for leverage setting the edge. Below average change of direction quickness and is slow to accelerate down the line and close down running lanes. You can find the full review here

Aranda - where does it all stop?

When Steele left LSU he was making $1,000,000/yr as a defensive coordinator. He had to pay back $500,000 as his buyout. No problem for either Auburn or Steele! Either Auburn is paying him a ton more, or they paid the buyout for him, or most likely both.

Aranda was making some $500,000 plus at Wisconsin as their defensive coordinator. Now he is making $1,200,000 at LSU for the same job.

Claeys is making $1,400,000 as the Gopher's head coach, which as of the end of last year was 4th lowest in the Big Ten. Bill Cubit was the lowest but of course he has been replaced by someone making a heck a lot more than that. Jimmy is making over $7,000,000 with the Wolverines.

Are we going to play the game some day? Hopefully, Claeys will Kill it this year (pun intended), and we will step up. $320,000,000 for a new stadium (if I remember correctly) and $190,000,000 for a new sports complex. We are playing that game. What is next for 'amateur' college athletics?

Prospect Watch: Mario Haskett

Mario is a guy who has a video from his junior year that looks a lot like what Nate Mason did at that point in his career. That said Mario has had a terrible April. No other way to say it and because of that mids and lows are trying to jump in hard. Had a nice group of offers after a strong 16U year and his high school year was fantastic.

https://minnesota.n.rivals.com/news/prospect-watch-mario-haskett

Todd McShay's Top 300

ESPN's Todd McShay released his top 300 NFL draft prospects yesterday. Boddy-Calhoun and Eric Murray are rated as third round bubble guys, as the 104th and 108th rated prospects, respectively. That's good but when you realize they are McShay's second and third highest rated corner backs from the BIG10 that's pretty impressive and speaks to Sawvel's ability to coach guys up that come to Minnesota! Only Eli Apple from Ohio State at #25 is rated higher. De'Vondre Campbell rounds out the Gophers at #161.
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