Gopher Football
Dan Barreiro, KFAN Radio host: For those who long for that campus feel, that outdoor feel, that Ski-u-mah feel, ramifications will be more than one year. For those fans, they have missed those concepts so much that the honeymoon will last a while. If nothing else, even if the football doesn’t improve much, you have a Saturday on-campus outing, and for alumni, a wave of nostalgia to ride in a beautiful setting. Face it: Nobody looked at a trip to the Dome for a college football game as an outing. It just happened to be where the Gophers played.
However, for more casual observers, the song remains the same. After a honeymoon period of a couple years, they will expect an upgrade in the football. Eventually, for this group, the buzz will be nullified by the better part of 40 years of pretty awful to mediocre football, at least during the Big Ten season. Those memories are still strong enough that the outdoor atmosphere will not be enough to carry them home beyond the first couple of seasons. Clearly, if Brewster is the recruiting maven he is given credit for, the new stadium should help. But in the end, what helps to recruit to schools off the beaten track is winning, far more than even new football stadiums. In fact, if Brewster does not make serious in-rounds, folks will be harder on him — and should be — because one more excuse (bad facilities situation) would have been taken away. That actually ratchets up the pressure on Coach Brew.
On the other hand, if he gets something going, it clearly could become a fashionable venue, a place to be.
By the way, I already figured out that complicated sign language Gophers are going to use to call in offensive plays includes one signal that means: “Slow down…we don’t want on our defense on field more than we have to.”
Joe Schmit, longtime Sports Director at KSTP TV CH 5: College football is all about atmosphere and unless the Gophers were playing Wisconsin or Iowa, the vibe at the Metrodome was as about as exciting as a shuffleboard game at the old folks game. (Unless Sid was playing, it wasn’t much to see.) I have been to games at Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Notre Dame. Now that is what college football is all about. I believe that with an outdoor stadium back on campus, going to a Gopher football game will be the place to be this fall and in the next few years. It will help recruiting and make the Gophers more competitive. Since I don’t cover the games anymore, I could have a cold beer at the game….oops”¦maybe not. That’s another story.
Paul Allen, KFAN Radio host: There will be a love affair with outside football for a few years, no doubt. and the diehards will buy seats anywhere, but a couple of top-three performances in the big 10 will be needed to change the culture.
Matt Thomas, AM-1500 KSTP Radio host: There will be pressure immediately on Brewster and his team to win immediately. The fan base that was accustomed to paying Metrodome prices have been asked to step up and pay higher prices for the school’s new palace. The boo birds will be out a lot earlier. If the team loses to second tier opponents and continues to play in minor bowl games, seat selection won’t be a big issue in 2010.
Tomorrow’s article: GopherHole talks to another key figure in administration about TCF Bank Stadium, and the impact it will have on the entire athletics department.
Talk about Golden Gopher football and TCF Bank Stadium on Brew’s Crew message board.