Michael Brown-Stephens News - MinnesotaSportsFan https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/tag/michael-brown-stephens/ Minnesota sports, but different Mon, 13 Mar 2023 20:30:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=32,height=32,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/cropped-cropped-MSF-favicon-1.jpg Michael Brown-Stephens News - MinnesotaSportsFan https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/tag/michael-brown-stephens/ 32 32 Gophers’ Trey Potts, Michael Brown-Stephens Enter Transfer Portal https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/gophers-football/trey-potts-michael-brown-stephens-enter-transfer-portal/ Mon, 13 Mar 2023 20:30:04 +0000 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/?p=42040 The transfer portal giveth and the transfer portal taketh away. On Monday, according to On3.com, it took (RB) Trey Potts and (WR) Michael Brown-Stephens from the Minnesota Gophers.

Goodbye Trey Potts

Trey Potts served as a backup for Mohamed Ibrahim during most of his career in Dinkytown. But when Ibrahim went down with an achilles injury in 2021, Potts grabbed his moment and ran with it… for 552 yards and 6 touchdowns on 112 carries (4.9 YPC).

Unfortunately, his career was plagued by injuries as well. Potts only got to play 5 sensational games in 2021 because he suffered a career threatening injury vs Purdue. Against all odds, he came back to rejoin the team in 2022. Once again, Trey found himself behind Mo on the depth chart but he stayed healthy, finishing with 471 yards on 101 carries (4.7 YPC). Potts has one season of eligibility left.

Goodbye Michael Brown-Stephens

Michael Brown-Stephens had an up and down career in maroon and gold, as well. He got a lot of playing time over the last two seasons as a sophomore and junior. Problem was, he didn’t produce much.

For a lot of his career, MBS has served as the main deep threat on roster for PJ Fleck, mostly out of necessity because Chris Autman-Bell was dealt with injuries for most of the past two seasons. Unfortunately, he didn’t fair as well as PJ Fleck had hoped. In the last two seasons combined, Brown-Stephens caught less than 50 total passes for less than 1,000 yards and just 1 touchdown.

Writing was on the wall

Both Trey Potts and Michael Brown-Stephens saw the writing on the wall. With incoming transfer talents (RB) Sean Tyler and (WR) Corey Crooms entering the fold and youngsters already on roster ready to step up, playing time was going to be hard to come by.

Some transfer portal losses hurt more than others and, while the portal entries of Potts and Brown-Stephens certainly may hurt at some points, this seems to be one of those scenarios where the Minnesota Gophers upgraded more than they downgraded through the portal at both positions.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

]]> Mon, 13 Mar 2023 15:30:07 +0000 Minnesota Gophers Football Fleck and Gopher Football Get Commitment from Underrated Ohio Wide Receiver https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/gophers-football/fleck-and-gopher-football-get-commitment-from-underrated-ohio-wide-receiver/ https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/gophers-football/fleck-and-gopher-football-get-commitment-from-underrated-ohio-wide-receiver/#respond Sun, 29 Jul 2018 00:36:47 +0000 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/?p=10412

PJ Fleck brought in his 21st commitment for 2019 Saturday evening. A wide receiver out of Springfield Ohio, Michael Brown-Stephens isn’t a top target for many power-5 schools around the country. Most of his 8 offers were from mid-level schools like Bowling Green and Toledo. He’s an undersized guy, standing at just 5-10 and 175 pounds according to 247Sports. He didn’t receive his offer from Fleck until the end of June, after attending a camp where Fleck got to see him live.

Brown-Stephens doesn’t have the stars in his rating that people like to see and that’s the first thing I’ll hear about after posting this. However, stars only go so far and these kids are yet to even play their senior year of high school. I started following Michael on Twitter last month (I don’t do that with every recruit). Why, you ask? Because, unlike a lot of kids his age, who are looking for a spot on a big time college football roster, Brown-Stephens likes to work.

And, he’s smart enough to use the tools he has at his disposal to show both his work ethic and his skills to those who may be interested. And, these don’t look like 3-star hands…

Look, I’m all for grabbing as many 4 and 5 star prospects as possible but kids who are willing to be this professional at an amateur level are already a few steps ahead of most they play with. If Brown-Stephens can stay motivated and continue to show the work ethic that got him the scholarship offer, I think we might see him on the field more than some of those who were recruited ahead of him, and possibly even earlier than we can see now.

Only time will tell. Time continues to tell us that PJ Fleck still has a top-25 national recruiting class for 2019…. and we’re in August…

Eric Strack
Minnesota Sports Fan

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