What do Cameron James, Logan Purcell, and Saia Mapakaitolo all have in common?
All three offensive linemen signed with the Minnesota Golden Gophers out of high school in 2020.
And all three are no longer
on the roster.
James lasted all of one season in Minneapolis before transferring to Jackson State. It’s the same story for Mapakaitolo, who transferred to Arizona after his first and only year here. And Purcell failed to crack the two-deep in three seasons with the Gophers before opting to enter the transfer portal.
An entire recruiting class for one position group gone before any of them could reach their senior season.
That is why head coach P.J. Fleck and offensive line coach Brian Callahan reached into the transfer portal this past offseason and pulled out four offensive linemen: UCF’s Marcellus Marshall, Washington’s Kahlee Tafai, Kentucky’s Dylan Ray, and Purdue’s Jaden Ball.
Unfortunately, six games into the season, they’ve done little to patch the holes in the boat.
The Gophers’ ground game has slowed to a stop, ranking 114th nationally in rushing offense. The team is averaging 112.3 rushing yards per game — the lowest of the entire Fleck era. Injuries to running backs Darius Taylor and A.J. Turner have not helped, but the issues start up front with the offensive line.
The offensive line has been a game of musical chairs the past two weeks, with only center Ashton Beers holding down the same spot week to week. Marshall, Ray, Greg Johnson, and Nathan Roy have all been shuffled around in what seems to be a desperate attempt to find the right combination that will unlock the running game.
I question whether the right combination even exists with these five offensive linemen.
Marshall, who has alternated between right guard and left guard, has allowed the most pressures, hurries, and quarterback hits of any offensive lineman in the Big Ten, according to Pro Football Focus. Ray, who started at right tackle before shifting to right guard, has surrendered the 5th-most pressures among Big Ten linemen.
As for the rest of the transfer class, Tafai and Ball have only seen action in one game, and that was when the second-string offensive line subbed in against Northwestern State.
If you’re going to whiff on an entire recruiting class, you can’t afford to also whiff on the transfers you bring in to replace them. But that appears to be the case for Minnesota at the moment.
The recruiting class that followed James, Purcell, and Mapakaitolo was far less disastrous but no less uninspiring. They signed Ashton Beers, Tony Nelson, Cade McConnell, and Spencer Alvarez the following year. Beers has been a two-year starter, but Nelson and Alvarez haven’t played meaningful snaps in four years with the program. McConnell transferred to Vanderbilt after two seasons with the Gophers.
It’s worth pointing out that the loss of offensive tackle Phillip Daniels to Ohio State did this program no favors. If Daniels and Roy were your starting tackles and Johnson was able to start at one of the guard spots, perhaps the offensive line would be better. But the loss of one offensive lineman shouldn’t be such a catastrophic setback.
So who is at fault here? That is for Fleck to decide. But whether the issue is evaluations in recruiting or development within the program, I don’t know how it could be anyone but Brian Callahan.
