Our Gopher Wrestlers have two road duals this weekend - tonight at Northwestern (7pm CT on BTN+) and Sunday at Wisconsin (12pm CT on BTN+). Both matches should be fairly easy wins as both opponents are winless in the B1G thus far.

Here's how things might go against the Cats:

125 - Skyler Petry -or- Steve Polakowski
Petry: Waterville, Minn. / RS Fr. / 11-13 / 4-7 duals
Polakowski: Libertyville, Ill. / RS Fr. / 11-5 overall / 2-1 duals

vs. Garrison White
Concord, N.H. / Senior
9-9 overall / 5-5 duals / 4 tech falls
(MN 0 - NW 4)

133 - Sam Brancale -or- Ben Morgan
Brancale: Eden Prairie, Minn. / RS Jr. / 15-14 overall / 5-8 duals
Morgan: Forest Lake, Minn. / RS Jr. / 4-2 overall / 1-0 duals

vs. No. 20 Dominick Malone
Granby, Conn. / Senior
17-6 overall / 7-3 duals / 8 pins / 4 tech falls
2x NCAA Qualifier (‘14, ‘15)
(MN 0 - NW 8)

141 - No. 7 Tommy Thorn
St. Michael, Minn. / RS Freshman 26-7 overall / 10-4 duals / 2 pins / 5 major decisions / 4 ranked wins

vs. Jameson Oster
Homer Glen, Ill. / Senior
9-2 overall / 5-2 duals / 2 pins / 2 major decisions
NCAA Qualifier (‘15)
(MN 4 - NW 8)

149 - No. 16 Jake Short
Inver Grove Heights, Minn. / RS Sophomore 10-6 overall / 3-4 duals / 2 pins / 3 ranked wins

vs. No. 4 Jason Tsirtsis
Crown Point, Ind. / RS Junior
7-4 overall / 3-3 duals / 2 tech falls
2x Big Ten Champ (‘14, ‘15) / 2x All-American (‘14, ‘15)
NCAA National Champion (‘14)
(MN 4 - NW 11)

157 - Brandon Kingsley
Kingsley: Apple Valley, Minn. / RS Jr. / 16-10 overall / 8-5 duals / 4 pins

vs. Anthony Petrone
Orlando, Fla. / Freshman
0-4 overall / 0-4 duals
(MN 8 - NW 11)

165 - Brandon Krone -or- Dylan Urbach
Krone: Anoka, Minn. / RS Fr. / 11-9 overall / 2-3 duals
Urbach: Lisbon, N.D. / RS Fr. / 5-11 overall / 2-6 duals

vs. Luke Norland
Okoboji, Iowa / Freshman
3-10 overall / 2-8 duals / 2 pins
(MN 12 - NW 11)

174 - Nick Wanzek
Inver Grove Heights, Minn. / RS Sophomore 13-9 overall / 6-6 duals / 3 major decisions

vs. Mitch Sliga
Fishers, Ind. / RS Sophomore
12-7 overall / 7-3 duals / 2 major decisions
(MN 15 - NW 11)

184 - Chris Pfarr
Le Sueur, Minn. / RS Sophomore 9-15 overall / 3-10 duals

vs. Regis Durbin
Lake Forest, Ill. / RS Freshman
4-12 overall / 2-8 duals
(MN 18 - NW 11)

197 - No. 3 Brett Pfarr
Le Sueur, Minn. / RS Junior 27-2 overall / 14-0 duals / 12 major decisions / 8 ranked wins
Big Ten Finalist at 184 (‘15) / NCAA Qualifier at 184 (‘15)

vs. Jacob Berkowitz
Scarsdale, N.Y. / RS Junior
3-8 overall / 0-5 duals
(MN 24 - NW 11)

285 - No. 9 Michael Kroells
Belle Plaine, Minn. / RS Junior 23-6 overall / 10-4 duals / 2 pins / 6 major decisions / 3 ranked wins
All American (‘15)

vs. Conan Jennings
Centerville, Ohio
5-13 overall / 1-9 duals
(MN 28 - NW 11)

Final score MN 28 - NW 11. So, this should be a match that will allow some of our guys to get a chance to beat on lesser wrestlers for easy/rare wins.

Polakowski and Krone were injured last week, both should be back this weekend. Brandon Eggum said that Petry / Polakowski still splitting time this weekend...not sure why, the latter has been much better!

Big match OSU at PSU tonight on BTN at 5pm CT. Most analysts say PSU wins fairly easily, and I agree. Need to run my dog out to a Vet appointment now, so I will post my predictions for this dual if I get time before then, and for MN vs. WI sometime tomorrow.

Go Gopher Wrestling!!
Let's kick some ass this weekend!!!

Press release:

Former University of Minnesota quarterback Tony Dungy was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday night.

He will be the seventh former Gopher enshrined, as he joins Bronko Nagurski (charter member in 1963), Leo Nomellini (1969), Bobby Bell (1983), Bud Grant (1994), Carl Eller (2004) and Charlie Sanders (2007).

Dungy played for the Gophers from 1973-76 and was the team captain in 1976. He completed 274 passes (11th all-time in program history) for 3,515 yards (tenth all-time) and 25 touchdowns (ninth all-time). Dungy also rushed 413 times for 1,165 yards (fourth all-time) and 16 scores (tied for fourth all-time).

Dungy, who was inducted into the M Club Hall of Fame in 1998, was named Minnesota's MVP in 1975 and 1976. He was also a two-time Academic All-Big Ten selection.

After his collegiate career, Dungy signed with the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers, where he played safety for two seasons. In 1978, he intercepted six passes, second-best in the AFC, and helped the Steelers defeat the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XIII.

Dungy was an assistant coach with the Steelers, Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings before being named head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers prior to the 1996 season. Dungy coached the Buccaneers until 2001 and led Tampa Bay to the 1999 NFC championship game.

After his time in Tampa Bay, Dungy was the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts from 2002-08. He led the Colts to their first Super Bowl title in 2007.

Dungy is one of three people - Mike Ditka and Tom Flores are the others - who have won a Super Bowl as a player and a head coach.

I'm thinking all 4 JUCO guys, Coughlin, and one or two of the DB's play this year. All else redshirt. Thoughts?

The U is tied with Michigan with 24 points, even up on games played. PSU is third with 18 (swept by Michigan last week).

BTN at 7PM tonight

This Staff has recruited these young men. I don't want to here how we have to wait for TC to get his guys!

I like our roster of players and this year is the year to produce a 9 - 11 game winner!

for the U to complete the sweep over a higher ranked Pairwise team and see if they again catch nothing but crap from the part timers supporters...

I am flipping to the MOH effective immediately . Thanks to all the liberals that recruited me but my decision is final.
Maybe we can be a package deal like the twins and snelson, what do ya say erassseeemmaan and slab??

I was in St. Cloud last night. (I live 25 miles away) As I was walking out of the restaurant a guy saw my Gopher coat and said "Gopher hockey sucks". I turned around mad going to defend my team and realized I couldn't. So I looked down at him and said "we've got the 5th best team in this state!" and walked away. He laughed. I showed him!

Lady Gophers on the BTN Sunday against Northwestern and Nia Coffey at 2:00. A win here would get them to 8-4 in conference play and also help their RPI rating. It looks like the B1G will get 6-7 teams in the dance. Of note,
Banham leads the B1G in scoring at 25.2 ppg.

That's how bad it has gotten for Johnny Football...

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on...sheen-has-some-life-advice-for-johnny-manziel

I was just checking the Gopher Roster at Gophersports.com. They have the 20 new NOI signees and the 4 PWOs included. Missing just since school started are Lincoln Plsek, Chris Wipson, and Walk Ons Tyler Hartmann and Cavonte Johnson.
I wonder if they plan to use Beebe at FB? Hartmann was the only player with any exprience. But now they'll probably need him at TE, with Plsek's departure. I wonder if Jay Johnson would consider using Johannesson as sort of a super FB and have plays for him beside short yardage dives? 8-10 carries and 3-4 passes per game, plus that weight lifters body handling the blocking might keep Johannesson interested.
This cuts the scholarship total to 80, including the new signees. Room for a couple of late qualifiers, a 5th year transfer or two, and perhaps a transfer who might have to sit out a year.
BTW: When did DeMarcus Williams become Mark Williams?

Looking at the Scholarship Chart this morning, specifically at RB/FB. With the departure of Hartmann, Beebe would now seem to be the heir apparent for that position. Beebe, with one player behind him listed at that position. One thing that does is probably discontinue any further talk of Beebe as a linebacker or a defensive lineman....you would think.
With the arrival of McCrary (listed at RB) you wonder how this is going to play out? Obviously you will want to use somebody like McCrary, but how? This is what is going to be fun as spring practice unfolds. McCrary on the field at the same time as Brooks? As more than a blocker? more feeds to the fullback position other than an occasional short yardage dive play? Is McCrary a pass catching threat? Claeys moves in coaches and scholarships tells us that he wants to dominate the line of scrimmage. That would indicate Beebe as a lead blocker. Personally, I am excited to see where this goes.

When will find out what tattoos the guys in the signing class have and what ones they're planning on getting? (It's why I subscribe to GI)

I caught up with Jon Christenson this afternoon and talked a lot about his time playing football for the U.

Here's the story ($): https://minnesota.n.rivals.com/news/christenson-a-model-student-athlete-while-a-gopher

something like this would be nice:

https://iowa.n.rivals.com/news/wallace-talks-2016-class-and-beyond

Ryan -

Can you talk about Minnesota's relationship with Gary Trent, Jr. and how they are progressing in his recruitment? Any chance we could see him in maroon and gold?

1. Carter coughlin is the best athlete we have recruited in some time, the 4.53 40 would've been the second fastest of all of the linebackers at the combine last year and he ran that as only a 17 year old before his senior year, he obviously has to add some weight but I think when its all said and done he will be a first team all big ten at least.... Just hope he can stay healthy and stay away from those concussions.

2. One of my favorite commits of this class that no one is talking about is Connor Olson, just watch the film he has a mean streak and pushed people backward every play and pancaked a lot of players, also he has grown a lot as he is already at 6'5 288 with good weight and looks strong too, I think Connor will be starting at gaurd sooner than we think, also he is a great student and is going into the medical field.

3. I think they should just make kamal Martin a DE, he reportably is already 238 and that's already the size of our biggest linebacker in jack Lynn, also at 238 he has 20 to 25 pounds on our other DE recruits and could play a lot earlier and we all know we need d ends as the only proven guys are ekpe and Elmore, nonetheless I see kamal making an impact pretty early in his career.

4. Not getting snelson will be a good thing in the long run, first off we didn't need 4 recievers this class and I think Tyler Johnson or Phillip Howard are just as talented and won't be a selfish nut case like snelson either, and I remember in interviews he said that the coaching staff wanted him to play the KJ maye role but I think that was Eric carters job to lose anyway and I think Carter is faster than snelson anyway, don't get me wrong he is talented but got plenty of young recievers to work with and I don't think he could have handled not starting out the gate.

5. I'm disappointed with the ending of this class and especially with losing out on watts, but I'm fine with only signing 20 this class, at this time we only have 11 scholarship players graduating next year and even if you add the possible transfers and early grads it will be a small class anyways and I think if we bank a scholarship or two it will help us balance out our classes, and I'm happy we didn't reach on any people at the end just to fill spots, I like the potential of all of these recruits and they're are no head scratchers in my eyes, I honestly couldn't tell you who my least favorite recruit is because I like something about all of them.

Overall I like this class and once again sawvel brought in a great group of d backs and I can't wait to see what those guys can do. On to 2017 recruiting...

Talked with Theo John today for a quick article. Nothing ground breaking other than wanting to check out some of the schools that are after him pretty hard.

https://minnesota.n.rivals.com/news/john-talks-junior-year-recruiting

Looked into which NCAA teams have the most NHL draft picks (including those drafted in rounds 1-3) and matched that up to the current pairwise rankings (as of games through Friday, Feb. 5th). Here are the stats, with the Gophers clearly underperforming their talent level:

1. Boston College -13 Draftees (8 in Rounds 1-3) -- PWR #4
2. Minnesota - 12 Draftees (5 in Rounds 1-3) -- PWR #17
3. Michigan - 12 Draftees (5 in Rounds 1-3) -- PWR #7
4. North Dakota - 12 Draftees (4 in Rounds 1-3) -- PWR #3
5. Boston University - 10 Draftees (6 in Rounds 1-3) -- PWR #8

Now that signing day is over. Any stories from recruiting this year you can share that you had to keep quiet about? I will hang up and read.

You'd think they would get their shit together one of these years. I won't know because I am done when my subscription runs out in January next year.

was recruited by Tom Sims, def line coach at Pitt.

Sims was here for some of Glen's best teams, was with Zook for his best teams at Illinois. Has been recruiting the core midwest for a long time.

He played at Pitt with Siragusa, played in the NFL, played and coached under Jack Harbaugh.

I'm guessing he can sell pretty well.

Narduzzi I'm guessing is a high energy recruiter who can sell his long time successes at multiple midwest schools well.

How do you feel about it? Personally I find it a joke.

The Gophers and Wildcats play tonight and based on the Wildcats losing streak and the Gophers playing better this is the trendy pick for Minnesota to get Big Ten win number one.

https://minnesota.n.rivals.com/news/northwestern-pregame-3

I was watching the Gopher hoopsters game last night with my wife and I was lamenting on the lack of good old Minnesota bred big men on the U roster of late I harkened back to the days of talented and physical posts over the last few decades....Olberding, McHale, Petersen, Pryz, Richert, ...on and on. Has the well dried up? I can't understand why the U decides to recruit Mali and Senegal to get average at best or maybe below average bigs? Can't we do better in our own back yard? I have seen Bertram play a few times and he is a legit 6'11" 270....I realize he isn't nearly as athletic as Konate', but wouldn't it be better to grab a kid out of the Midwest?Minnesota that you know can come off the bench to rebound, block shots and bang v taking these reaches that need so much time to develop even basic inside play? Kids that you can follow for years and know what you have? I really liked what I saw from Theo John at State last year and I understand that the U is all over his recruitment, but he is only a junior. However, wasn't there any better options for bigs over the last few years than Konate ' or especially Diedhiou? Looking forward to getting your expert opinion Ryan. Man, there just seems to have been this big void of good and local bigs. Go Gophers!