(*Editor’s note…What the heck does “Commitment to Eight” mean? It is our new recurring title for recruit commitments referencing a commitment to work towards the Gopher’s Eighth National Championship. A little bit tongue in cheek, but why not right? )

Last night the Gophers received their 6th verbal commitment for the 2017 Class and the 5th from an in-state prospect.  Nathan Bursch is a tight end from Woodbury who earned himself a scholarship offer after a couple good camp performances and once offered he was very excited to pull the trigger.

SKI U 〽️AH pic.twitter.com/cnWNqbNUqT

— Nathan Bursch (@termaNATEr15) June 20, 2016

Quotables

Ryan Burns of GopherDigest ($) talked with one of Bursh’s high school coaches who had a lot of very good things to say about the new Gopher commit.  The kid is a hard worker and has some tenacity.

“Nate has incredible feet, long arms, and a really strong base. He has an innate ability to shoot his hands into the defenders chest plate and lock on. When he was a sophomore, we had to hold him back during practice. He was putting our senior linebackers on their back over and over again during practice. As a collective unit, they didn’t really like him at first because he practiced so hard. After a while, they started to respect his effort and it really changed the culture of our team.”

Much more in that article above that is a really good read.

GopherIllustrated article upon getting his offer last week.

“It means a lot,” he told Gopher Illustrated. “I grew up a Gopher fan. I’ve watched them my whole life with my dad and almost every year we’ve made it to at least one game. Even in the Metrodome I remember going with family. The Big Ten in my opinion is the best conference in college football, and definitely the best conference to play in if you’re from the Midwest. They’re very exciting to watch and it’s crazy to think about the opportunity that I could do that and represent the state.”

But the kid is excited to be a Gopher. That’s a good thing because you want kids who want to be here.

I realized how much I love home and the people here, and how I want to play for them. There are so many connections here, even just in Woodbury. There’s no place I’d rather be than Minnesota.

(Likely Fraudulent) Measurables**

** The section title is intentionally facetious regarding how recruiting sites (and even some college coaches) notoriously exaggerate traditional combine measures — especially the 40. No offense is meant.

Height: 6′ 5″
Weight: 235 lbs.
Fake 40 Time: unknown

Big 4 Ratings:

Highlights

Junior year highlights:

TDG Analysis

In Two Words – if you have to remember just two things about this player…

• Physical
• Tough

Absurd Comparisons

Bursh played every down for Woodbury at DE and on offense played mostly TE but moved to LT when the team needed help at the position.  I see him as more of a John Rabe than a Maxx Williams, but he is capable of being more effective in the passing game than Rabe who had 14 catches and 4 TDs as a senior.  But in terms of strength and toughness and effectiveness in the running game, I think this is an apt comparison.

The trick with the comparisons is to try to remain at least a little bit realistic.  Not every TE the Gophers sign is comparable to Williams and not becoming an early-round draft pick because athleticism and pass-catching ability as a TE isn’t a bad thing.  Bursch, I believe, is going to be a very good Gopher TE who helps in all phases.

Scheme Fit

The kid is very physical plays with some tenacity.  You are going to get a kid who is athletic enough (not going to blow you away with athleticism) to get out in pass patterns and tough enough to be a very good blocking TE.  This fits the scheme here where springing backs for nice gains is more of the priority over picking apart defenses through the air.  Busch will be able to get his catches over the middle, but he will be a complete TE.

Impact on Other Prospects?

There will be another TE taken in this class.  If you look at the scholarship grid, there are 3 junior TEs on the roster so adding a couple in this class is going to be important.  Adding three might be a bit much, but 2 is almost a guarantee.

2017 Recruiting Map

Syracuse University released a 42-page campus framework document on Monday, which detailed all of the changes that will be coming to campus in the near future. You can read John Cassillo’s article on some of the renderings directly related to the Carrier Dome and the athletics’ department here.

Among the changes was a new set of renderings for the renovated Carrier Dome. While these images have been met with much excitement from SU fans, the university has stressed that no final decisions have been made and that the design of the new Dome remains in progress.

Syracuse Vice President and Chief Facilities Officer Pete Sala commented on the new renderings, discussing the university’s desires for the re-design, as well as what decisions are still being looked at.

On The Roof:

“That’s great but we’re still in some early design phase. We have a lot of different looks like that and a lot of different options for what the roof could be. I’d never say, ‘Yeah that’s it.’ Not at this point. That’s not the way it goes at this point in the project.”

On the potentially more-transparent look into the Dome (which is apparently a priority for Chancellor Kent Syverud):

“Well, what we’ve done is we’ve looked at the curtain walls around the building. The Chancellor wanted the Dome to be able to be part of the campus community. When we do tours, you can’t see in the Dome. We’re trying to open the Dome to the campus…We’re selling Syracuse University 24-7, 365. Students will be able to see into the building, they’ll be able to be in Arch and see into the Carrier Dome.”

On the new renderings showing the entire Dome being rimmed with glass walls (previous renderings showed glass walls being limited to certain sections of the building):

“We’re working with Populous on those different facade options. We’ve talked about using ETFE in some of the wall panels. It’s challenging with the building, but it’s definitely something we’re looking into.”

On the decision making process of the university (meeting twice a week) and one amenity-related top priority:

“We’re getting there. It’s a long process. We’re doing it right. As we go forward, we have a budget and we need to be flexible. We may need to move this programming to do others. One thing we’ve always talked about is arm-chair seating. That’s something that’s important to fans. That’s something we heard through the feedback.”

The campus framework released on Monday also showed that the university plans to transition students away from living on South Campus, a move that would free up a significant amount of land for SUA and the Syracuse Orange teams to potentially use.

Former University of Louisville Cardinals Gary Barnidge and Breno Giacomini are giving back to the Louisville community this weekend by hosting a free football camp at the Trager center for middle school boys and girls. The camp will be held this Saturday. The two run the non-profit organization American Football Without Barriers. They have hosted these camps in both of their hometowns, but primarily host them in foreign countries around the world. The primary focus of the camps are to help youth achieve higher levels of fitness, wellness, and education while promoting the sport around the world.

Registration for the camps for kids entering grades 6-8 can be found here.

The AFWB camp won’t be the only thing that Barnidge and Giacomini will be doing while in town. On Thursday, they will be hosting a bowling fundraiser at Sports and Social Club on 4th Street. Then on Friday, they will visit Kids Cancer Alliance Indian Summer Sibling  camp along with local orphanages.

Some of the different countries that they have held camps in include China, Brazil, Turkey, and Egypt. Some countries that they plan on making trips to are Nigeria, Panama, Finland, Japan, Australia, and Columbia. AFWB has estimated that the camps and programs they’ve held have allowed them to interact with over 10,000 kids.

Very cool stuff.

Florida Gators head coach Jim McElwain checks in at No. 30 in a new Athlon Sports rankings of the 128 coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision published on Tuesday.

Steven Lassan writes this about McElwain:

30. Jim McElwain, Florida

An argument could be made for McElwain to rank higher on this list after leading the Gators to a SEC East title and a 10-4 record in his first season in Gainesville. McElwain’s first year came with its share of obstacles, as Florida lost starting quarterback Will Grier to a midseason suspension and struggled on offense in the second half of 2015. Despite the offensive woes, the Gators still managed to hold onto the East title and head into 2016 as a projected top 25 team. Prior to Florida, McElwain went 22-16 at Colorado State, increasing his win total each year after a 4-8 debut in 2012. One area for McElwain to work on – recruiting. Florida has ranked No. 13 (2016) and No. 21 (2015) after three top-10 finishes from 2012-14.

To start at the bottom: Lassan has a point about recruiting. Florida’s started slow on the trail under McElwain, with the momentum of a ferocious close to the 2015 cycle and a fast start to the 2015 season dashed by that Grier suspension and the subsequent cratering of the Gators offense, and a pair of (so far) mostly underwhelming hauls on defense leaving legitimate worries about depth beyond the players brought in by Will Muschamp.

Florida’s recruiting isn’t awful, except compared to the high standard of recent precedent, but it’s certainly closer to a range occupied by coaches thought of as good but not great, as Thomas Goldkamp wrote earlier this week. And I get docking McElwain points for that in a rankings exercise like this one.

What I don’t get is McElwain this low.

Two of the coaches ahead of him are Mike Leach and David Cutcliffe, whose teams combined have two more 10-win seasons than McElwain’s teams do, despite Leach and Cutcliffe coaching a combined 28 full seasons to McElwain’s four. Butch Jones, Hugh Freeze, and Mark Richt are all ahead of McElwain, too, despite McElwain’s Gators beating all three coaches’ teams in 2015. Bret Bielema, whose Arkansas program has yet to post nine wins, is in the top 20, as is Dan Mullen, who has as many 10-win seasons in seven tries in the SEC as McElwain has in one.

I can’t argue for McElwain to be among the top 10 coaches in the game at this point, and I would stop short of putting him in the top 15. It’s also hard to rank this many coaches without some real head-scratchers, as Lassan demonstrates by inexplicably slotting Les Miles at No. 25, behind more than a dozen coaches without a national title, and putting Mark Helfrich at No. 34.

But I don’t think McElwain is worse than 29 coaches in college football, especially given who some of the 29 coaches in this specific rankings were.

Maybe I’m wrong? Let me know in the comments.

Cal has their seventh commit of the 2017 recruiting class, and their second of hopefully many linebacking commits. Da’Quan Patton joins Jaylen Griffin as a Golden Bear! Patton took his official visit to Berkeley and immediately committed afterwards. The Trinity Valley Community College prospect from Austin will bring the Bears needed stability up front.

Blessed to say that I’ve committed to The University of California !! #GoGoldenBears #BlueCollardGoldSwagger pic.twitter.com/L4yr1QG74l

— Jugg Quan^TM (@IamkingKurt) June 21, 2016

At 6’2 and 215 pounds, Patton plays the stud linebacker position in the junior college ranks.  Here’s more from Ryan Gorcey.

Patton more than takes care of business. Since he was young, growing up in Topeka, Kan., he’s had a knack for service. Every Sunday growing up in Topeka, he would help to feed the homeless.

When he spoke with BearTerritory on Monday, he had just gotten off work.

“I’m helping at the nursing home, cleaning dishes and serving food,” Patton said. “I was looking for something, and I figured, hey, I might as well do that. They were in need of people, so I went up there and they said, ‘Yep, we can use you.'”

And now, so can the Bears.

“They see me as a rusher, a big-time playmaker, using my speed,” he said.

Take a look at his tape. Let us know what you think of Patton’s potential in the comments!

If Cal is expecting to have any long-term success in the Pac-12, they need to upgrade their linebacking stable, fast. The Bears are out of bodies due to transfers (Michael Barton and Hardy Nickerson), graduation (Jalen Jefferson) or retirement (Jake Kearney). Only Ray Davison and Devante Downs can be counted on from last year’s rotation, with many young and new faces expected to join the fray this year.  Patton will hopefully be one of those players who can help stabilize things up front.

Welcome to Cal Da’Quan! Go Bears!

On Tuesday morning, Matt Porter from the Palm Beach Post reported that Miami had dismissed S James King from the Football Program.

Miami dismisses sophomore S James King. Will have more in a moment.

— Matt Porter (@mattyports) June 21, 2016

This was confirmed by Barrett Sallee of Bleacher/Report

Miami announces LB James King has been granted a full and unconditional release.

— Barrett Sallee (@BarrettSallee) June 21, 2016

The reason for this action was not immediately known. The initial reports from a UM spokesperson said that King was granted a full and complete release to transfer.

UPDATE: per Christy Cabrera-Chirinos of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, here is the UM statement regarding James King leaving the program

Miami’s statement on linebacker James King leaving the program: pic.twitter.com/t4tN9eyIHs

— Christy Chirinos (@ChristyChirinos) June 21, 2016

Obviously electing to transfer and being dismissed are different things, but the resultant effect is the same: King is no longer on the Miami Hurricanes team.

We will update this piece as information is available.