I posted in the another tread that Snelson did not go to Maryland today because of the weather. He's been at UCF this afternoon, which is where he took an official visit this past weekend.

Obviously have to wait until the end of the season to see, but I think the Big 12 takes at least 6 to the NCAA... Out of the 10 conference teams, it could be a real possibility that 9 of the teams make post season somewhere.. I doubt TCU but everyone else yes... The NCAA may take 7 depending how many upsets Texas Tech, Kansas State, or Oklahoma State have this year.. I am figuring Texas, Baylor, Oklahoma, Kansas, West Virginia, and Iowa State will make the tournament.

As a side note on perspective, we better be able to teach the next generation some history and nostalgia.. Otherwise, kids are going to ask what the heck is wrong with the NCAA in learning how to count.. The Big TEN has FOURTEEN teams and the Big TWELVE has TEN teams.. And here we think common core is bad.

Behind Gopher bench first row. No recruits with. Spots normally for recruits saved for hoops alumni. Must be introducing at half.

Link: With Signing Day approaching, Arkeem Byrd has options

I spoke to Arkeem earlier this week. Right now, it's between Georgia Tech, Louisville, Minnesota, and Missouri. He's visiting Georgia Tech this weekend, and here's the text I got from their Rivals writer: "The offer is committable. I'm hearing he will commit to GT this weekend." If that offer turns out not to be committable, I think the Gophers have the best shot.

Not the strip joint.

A top Minny high school QB will transfer to a top southern H.S. program. 2018 QB Zach Annexstad of Kato West is going to IMG. Will he start as a Junior later this year? Kline the WR went there, he will sign with Army.

Looking for 2 good tix to the Illinois game tonight. Would meet before game.

The Gophers will be hosting two official visitors, both on the defensive side of the ball, that are currently committed to other Power 5 schools. One is committed to an SEC school, the other committed to an ACC school.

Both recruits would easily result in a massive amount of Applebee's fist pumps throughout the metro area.

Also checking out the campus this weekend will be Kobe McCrary and Tyrez Lyndsay, along with Eastern Illinois offensive line transfer Jimmy Lowery.

#Boom

The former 5 star #1 running back from the 2013 class is leaving Michigan, don't know for sure but he probably got the boot by harbaugh saying he would never play here.

I'm saying Kasl from Forest Lake.

You?

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Love the alum who bleed Maroon and Gold leading the new players.

Per ESPN Insider, Best Recruiters in the Game:

#2:
Audible: "If I needed to land somebody and had only one choice on who to send in his home to get the commitment, I would send !@#$%^&*!@#$%^. He's that good. He's the best in the business. I know it sounds like a cliché, but he probably could really sell ice to an Eskimo." -- an SEC recruiting coordinator

#7:
Audible: "He's one of the most intelligent offensive coaching minds in our league, but he's also an outstanding recruiter that makes a nice compliment to !@#$%^&* !@#$%^&*'s intensity. When he walks into the living rooms, he speaks in a clear and concise way that moms and dads respect and admire. He has a way of making them feel at ease and they want to send their kids to play for him." -- a Big Ten assistant

As Zach hinted at earlier, there are two mystery official visitors this weekend. Those are Parkview (Ga.) defensive end Stephen Moye, a Virginia commit, and Wayne (Ohio) cornerback Tobias Gilliam, a Kentucky commit. Gilliam received a lot of attention from the staff this summer, but when I called him just a week ago, he told me that he hadn't heard from Minnesota "at all" but gave me the names of a couple other schools he had heard from. Moye was on my radar at the start of last contact period, but kept telling me he hadn't heard from Minnesota, including as recently as last week. So both have had Minnesota interested a long time but nothing has come of it until very recently. By the way, I received permission from my sources to reveal these names now, so I promise I'm not hurting Gopher football (nor would I want to).

We appear to have a defeatist attitude. We complain that we don't get any respect each fall when the "experts" give their predictions but yet every time a guy looks at or mentions another college we assume he's gone. We disrespect ourselves more than anyone else does. I know the coaches have a better handle on who's going where and are more positive they are going to keep guys. If Claeys is going to be successful he and the staff are going to have to demonstrate an ability to keep committed guys in January and Febuary. I think they can

from the scoop:

Arkansas State: Per source, Parks Frazier is leaving Middle Tennessee to go to A-State as an offensive GA.

Iowa: Seth Wallace has been announced as linebackers coach.

He was recruiting coordinator, Iowa kid, Coe College.

Mississippi State: The hirings of Peter Sirmon and Terrell Buckley have been formally announced.

Sirmon was at USC. Buckley was with Louisville. Titans hired away Mullen's cornerback coach, Canes hired away his DC, another coach took a head coach job at a small school.

Wisconsin: Paul Chryst’s contract has been extended through Jan. 31, 2021.

California: Offensive coordinator Tony Franklin has resigned to become the offensive coordinator at Middle Tennessee. Read more here.

Michigan: Connecticut AD Warde Manuel is the favorite to take over as Michigan’s full-time athletics director according Mark Blaudschun, formerly of the Boston Globe.

Jacksonville Jaguars: Tony Sorrentino will be Jacksonville’s assistant wide receivers coach, and Aaron Whitecotton will be the club’s assistant defensive line coach.

Sorrentino was a ga here with Fisch.

MJH - Would be interesting to hear weather or not Durr's and Snelson's trips to VA Tech and Maryland respectively get canceled because of the huge storm about to hit that area. Even Watts might have issues getting to Pitt because of the flight issues caused by the storm. When was the last time we could thank winter weather for possibly helping our recruiting?

MJH, will we have a story on him soon? He would be a big get for a PWO and would add some nice depth on the D-line. I think he is a more talented version of Justin Carr, a current 6-2 walk on DT who played against Wisconsin.

Link: Durr "committed to Minnesota for a reason" but looking at all options

Virginia Tech is providing a little bit of a last second scare, but I do think Durr will be a Gopher. For more of my thoughts on Durr, you can read this thread.

On January 9, Arrowhead (Wis.) kicker tweeted out that he was offered a preferred walk-on spot by Minnesota.

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He's a five-star kicker and the #12 kicker in the nation according to Kohl's Kicking. You can watch his Hudl here.

Wanted to give our users a heads up about some changes scheduled to take place within the Rivals.com network, which will include Gopher Illustrated. The switch-over will happen very soon, likely this afternoon.


When the change kicks in, the front page of GopherIllustrated.com and all content pages (stories and features) will be completely different. As I’m sure you guys have seen, we’ve been using some of the new content pages already. Here's a quick FAQ about the upcoming changes:


Why are the changes being made?

#1 - The Rivals network has essentially been unchanged for 15 years. Because the coding is so antiquated it's coming apart at the seams and was in desperate need of an update. As many probably remember, Signing Day two years ago was an absolute disaster when the network crashed for several hours. That was a result of underlying problems with the network and having few people that could maintain antiquated code and software. The network has been held together by tape and string since then and it's a daily challenge to keep it up and running.

#2 - Mobile! When Rivals was launched around 15 years ago there was no such thing as reading online content on a smartphone or tablet. Now, over 50% of people that are online are doing so from a mobile device! The old configuration (content and front page) was never designed for mobile and doesn't play nicely with it. The new network is 100% mobile responsive and optimized for all devices.

What will the changes mean for Gopher Illustrated users?

• For content pages, there will be a slightly different look but more importantly they will be optimized for mobile. Everything should be much easier to read on smartphones and tablets, and they should load faster. There will be no need to scroll from side to side or to increase the size of the page in order to read it. And because it's compatible with all devices and operating systems, every page should look fine whether you are using an iPhone, Android, Windows, etc.
• The front page of Gopher Illustrated will look very different. Because there was a priority to make everything mobile friendly, we had to sacrifice some features that have been mainstays on the front page - Twitter feed, a video module, links to quick updates, and the look will be more streamlined (you will need to scroll down more to find recent features and stories). However, Rivals is working with us to get creative and find ways to have things like a Twitter feed on GI.

What does this mean going forward?

• Rivals is now away from the constraints of being on Yahoo's servers, and will no longer be constrained by having to go through 20 layers of bureaucracy to get an upgrade or something needed done. As a result, a lot of cool features and needed changes will come quickly over the coming months.
• John Talman, the director of Rivals, is putting more of an emphasis on listening to the publishers which means we have more of say in the direction of the network. It also means we have a lot of input on needed changes.
• Yes, there will be some bugs. The new network been essentially running in the background for over a month to weed out as many bugs as possible. But with any major technological change/upgrade bugs, glitches and unforeseen setbacks are inevitable. We will work as quickly as possible to get through these problems so please be patient.

Questions, comments, suggestions and criticisms:

• This thread will be left open for a while to get feedback on the changes. We'll do what we can to answer any questions you might have and to consider any suggestions. However, if your goal is to troll, stir the pot or just or just complain about the new look without offering anything constructive your post will be removed. You are always welcomed to email me at howar599@umn.edu.

I can't thank all of our loyal subscribers enough! We realize the technological side of Rivals has been behind the times for a long time, and now we should have among the best technology in the business.

And when did he get his fourth star?

I'm sure many of you that followed hoops recruiting noticed that Minnesota was listed as showing interest in this big from Canada. If you want more information on him read the following:

https://indiana.n.rivals.com/news/center-on-the-rise-is-getting-attention-from-indiana

My take is that Minnesota is just doing what they should do and calling to check on how good he is, what he is thinking about college, etc, you know, finding out the basics about him. In today's world of recruiting a handler or coach or player will use any call to build their resume so we end up hearing about it.

I have put my messages in to find out more info on it, hope to have more soon.

Also, I have asked those that have seen him how good he is. Is he the real deal or is he a spring recruit who is getting looked at because few are left? The answer is the second one. In fact, both people I checked with said he is not good enough to help a quality team next year but this year is really a dry year for spring recruits so everybody is checking on him.

Right now he just has offers from Pitt, Providence, LMU, and St. Bonnie but all in America who want a big have called and every time somebody calls about him it ends up on Twitter.

Ryan, I haven't see what the injury is to Gilbert's hand, is it a broken or dislocated finger? When is he expected back?

Keon Howard will no longer visit this upcoming weekend, which means I don't think he'll be involved going forward because Jay Johnson likes DeMarcus Williams better.

Rob Cassidy reported DeMarcus' offer, which I confirmed and I can also report that he'll be taking an official visit next weekend, as well. I'll recap the offer with him tomorrow, but here's what he texted me this morning with regards to the rest of his recruitment: "Minnesota is coming to my house today -- Jay Johnson and the new HC. East Tennessee State is coming when they leave. Missouri called me and said they love my film and are highly interested. Georgia Tech is coming by early next week to see me. Tulane came by yesterday and saw me and loved my film and is highly interested. Georgia Southern came by today and wants me but hasn't offered yet. They'll let me know by next Sunday."

I'm anticipating Williams will be a Gopher following his visit.