Pat Reusse Blog: Moral victories must end for Gophers

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I do read Pat's column regularly. I know a lot of people on Gopherhole can't stand him, but he is usually spot on. He was very negative on the Brewster hire and anything that had to do with the Gophers during that time period. If I would have looked outside of my maroon and gold glasses, I would have understood what he was saying. He is generally very complimentary towards Kill, or Country Jer as he calls him. The way I read the article was the Gophers are finally good enough that there are no more moral victories. Of course, you can spin that and say he is ripping on the Gophers.
 

MNfootballfan said:
I do read Pat's column regularly. I know a lot of people on Gopherhole can't stand him, but he is usually spot on. He was very negative on the Brewster hire and anything that had to do with the Gophers during that time period. If I would have looked outside of my maroon and gold glasses, I would have understood what he was saying. He is generally very complimentary towards Kill, or Country Jer as he calls him. The way I read the article was the Gophers are finally good enough that there are no more moral victories. Of course, you can spin that and say he is ripping on the Gophers.
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I would agree with that assessment - based on the limited amount I listen to him. Two weeks ago, he referred to Coach Kill as "Kill" or "Kill & Company" and spoke very highly of Tracy Claeys. He said something on the lines of "I really hope Claeys gets looked at for a HC position. He has done a good job here and adjusts well at half time". Not exact quote but I do remember thinking he came across as complimentary to the job that was done this year by a number of people in the program.
 

Buck_Buchanan said:
I would agree with that assessment - based on the limited amount I listen to him. Two weeks ago, he referred to Coach Kill as "Kill" or "Kill & Company" and spoke very highly of Tracy Claeys. He said something on the lines of "I really hope Claeys gets looked at for a HC position. He has done a good job here and adjusts well at half time". Not exact quote but I do remember thinking he came across as complimentary to the job that was done this year by a number of people in the program.
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He often does.
 

I love when Pat says, "the gophers should win this game" and then I see according to the Vegas spread they are double digit underdogs. What world is he living in?

Before the TCU game Pat said, "the gophers should be favored" because TCU's record the year before wasn't great. Well, the spread was double digits so apparently the rest of the world disagreed with Pat.

There are no moral victories but saying, "the gophers should win this game" just because you feel like it is nonsensical.
 

There may not be moral victories but there are losses and then there are program deflating beat downs like 59-donut. It's okay when looking at a season as a whole to state that other than the TCU game we really were in every game that we lost.
 


stevedave23 said:
I love when Pat says, "the gophers should win this game" and then I see according to the Vegas spread they are double digit underdogs. What world is he living in?
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We are 5 1/2 to 7 1/2 point dogs, but your point remains. People whose livelihood depends upon predicting the outcomes of games do not think that we "should" win. Pat does not have better information or wisdom than they do.
 

People realize that he plays these angle's to sell newspapers right? Just like a lot of professional sports writers or tv personalities. It gets people talking and that is all that matters. As for moral victories, I might look back on a game like TCU and think that the loss wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was on game day, but I'm not claiming a moral victory. I think that is ok. I think one of the biggest hurdles this program/fans have to get over is expectations and perception. Ruesse didn't use much tact in the way he said it (on purpose) but what he is getting at is if we want to be a big time program we need to act like one. I can guarantee that if tOSU loses to Alabama, they won't be claiming a "moral victory." They will expect to be able to win that game, even though they are the underdogs per the sports betting public. They expect to be able to win every game. Not that the Gophers should have that attitude yet, but he is also right, Missouri isn't Alabama. Missouri is probably an overrated team. I happen to think that we should win this game. If we lose that doesn't mean the team in general are losers, but it will mean they are the losers of that game. Accepting a loss for what it is allows a program(and person) to grow and improve from it. I hope to see the Gophers one day not accept an underdog role. Right now as a program we still have a bit of an us against the world attitude. We can beat Missouri, just because sports betters think we are 5pt underdogs means nothing to me, that is probably just SEC bias.
 

Who honestly celebrates moral victories? I can understand being satisfied with the effort and quality of game despite a loss, but I can't possibly imagine anyone actually celebrating a loss. So by moral victories Reusse literally means people celebrating a loss? I ask because I have a hard time believing that this is actually a thing.
 

I like some of Reusse's stuff, but I'd bet a lot of money that he hasn't watched Missouri play.
 



i wonder if reusse celebrates not having his radio station in last place in a given week. if they can get within 10-15 spots of wcco or kfan, its a moral victory.
 

Kuato Lives! said:
Who honestly celebrates moral victories? I can understand being satisfied with the effort and quality of game despite a loss, but I can't possibly imagine anyone actually celebrating a loss. So by moral victories Reusse literally means people celebrating a loss? I ask because I have a hard time believing that this is actually a thing.
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This. Just because people react differently when a team loses to a good team by 7 compared to when they lose by 30 doesn't mean they are celebrating the loss. It is possible to not be pissed off after a loss.
 

^^^ completely agree GII (as usual). What Reusse is missing here (or purposefully neglects to mention) is that there's a big difference between someone saying "I feel good about that loss, it was a moral victory!" and someone saying "it sucks that we lost, but it was a hard fought game vs. a very good team, so I would not consider it a 'bad loss'".
 

When Reusse retires, traffic on GH will drop 50-75%.:rolleyes:
 



bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I don't want to reopen the whole seat license increase argument here, but the U has made it clear that to have a good football team we should expect to pay more. If that's the case, and we are going to run it like a business, then we should expect to get more for what we are paying. With regard to the amateur competitors, my understanding is that the increase is to fund the athletes directly through the scholarship fund. So our increased money is paying the tuition, room, board, and even a paycheck (they are getting a stipend now right? straight cash?). When I want to appreciate honest effort, I pay $5 to watch a high school hockey game (which I have a lot of fun doing); my expectations are more for the hundreds of dollars I pay for my seat at college games.
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What a sack of cowflop. Sports fans can't buy wins and every game, no matter how closely contested, has a winner and a loser. Anybody who has ever competed at a high level understands perfectly the difference between celebrating victory, hating loss and ultimately appreciating the effort required to wage the battle. Some of you are exactly like Reusse, setting the stage now to justify a week-long whining session if the Gophs don't win, regardless of the quality of the contest.
 

maxwellsmart said:
What a sack of cowflop. Sports fans can't buy wins and every game, no matter how closely contested, has a winner and a loser. Anybody who has ever competed at a high level understands perfectly the difference between celebrating victory, hating loss and ultimately appreciating the effort required to wage the battle. Some of you are exactly like Reusse, setting the stage now to justify a week-long whining session if the Gophs don't win, regardless of the quality of the contest.
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I don't need to set the stage to justify my whining session if we lose. I'm not trying to hide the ball: I will be upset and complain if we lose. I understand there is a professional head coach and a team full of talented players on Missouri also seeking to win the game, and I'm sure their fans will be upset and complain if they lose.

I also understand that sports fans can't buy guaranteed wins, but they do expect to buy wins. That is why professional and collegiate sports coaches are fired all of the time, despite a good solid effort to wage the battle. Pelini wasn't fired because of a recording of his rant about fans (thought it admittedly didn't endear him to them), and he wasn't fired because people felt him and his players weren't trying hard. He was fired because nine wins and third place in the division isn't good enough. Regardless of them trying to dress it up, Hoke wasn't fired because of Shane Morris, he was fired because the paying Michigan fans expected more wins for their money. Ron Gardenhire is a nice guy, who gave us a lot of solid years of fundamentally sound baseball (heaven knows what happened at the end), and I liked him, but he was fired for not winning enough.

I'm not saying I don't appreciate the quality of the season the Gophers had regardless of whether we win or lose the bowl game. I think this was a good year, I expect to see us continue to improve next year. I do think that whatever happens in the bowl game, we had a good year. But that evaluation is based on what we put up in the win column (specifically in the conference standings and in trophy games), and will continue to be that way for me going forward.
 

I always liked this:

"For when the One Great Scorer comes
To mark against your name,
He writes – not that you won or lost –
But how you played the Game."
(Grantland Rice from the 1908 poem "Alumnus Football")

I learned this concept as a youth and believed the concept was simple to understand: play hard always and when the game is over you can feel satisfied you've given your best. The outcome often is determined by the bounce of a funny-shaped ball, an official's judgment of a spot, hold or other infraction, and sometimes whether we pass or run, go left or right, punt or go for it.
 

I have to say I agree with Reusse. There are fans on this board who come on after virtually every loss and offer excuses or rationalizations. I understand where they're coming from - but it helps perpetuate a stereotype of SOME Gopher Fans as "expect nothing - demand nothing." Reusse may be stating the matter a bit bluntly, but he's right. if the Gophs want to be considered a top team, then a game like this is one they (and the fans) should expect to win, and be very unhappy if they lose.

I've said before that I consider the bowl game virtually a must-win situation. Kill has never won a bowl game; until that changes, the media will keep throwing that back in his face. The Gophs had a good (but, IMHO, not a great) season. A win in the bowl game continues the positive momentum. A loss in the bowl game, and everyone is left with a sour taste in their mouths for the entire off-season.

And - re the play-calling. The Gophers are what they are. Good play-calling is meant to capitalize on the team's strengths, and minimize the weaknesses. The coaches are calling the plays that they believe have the best chance of resulting in a victory. if a team runs play "x" in practice, and they muck it up every time, the coaches are not going to call that play in a game. They're going to call plays that the team runs well. If that is too "boring" for some fans, go watch arena football.
 


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