“Most disappointing season in my time being a fan…” may be the saddest display of expectations induced GROUP depression recorded when rowing…

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I think many of us have a deep love for Floyd and just want to see The Pig in the Trophy Case instead of IC.

Winning this one was not a pipe dream before the game, and certainly was within reach during it. The frustration has been building and the dam broke last Saturday.

In the greater scheme of football things, yes, overreaction. On the micro-scale this one is a real test.

Next step to recovery is beating Indiana. Not a given with this team.
 

Totally understand the frustration with how this season has gone. But yeah, the reactions in the thread referenced by this one are way over the top in a lot of cases.

This team has a very small margin for error, when they don't play well they are going to get beat. They didn't play well against Illinois and they made too many mistakes to beat a good Iowa team on the road. Disappointing, yep, frustrating, yep, worth flipping out about.....nope.
 

This is the third game this year that the staff pissed away.

That's why fans feel like they do.

Completely understand that the players are giving their all. Now if the coaches would do the same, that would be great.
 


Boomtime said:
This is the third game this year that the staff pissed away.

That's why fans feel like they do.

Completely understand that the players are giving their all. Now if the coaches would do the same, that would be great.
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BS. Putting a lot of blame for the BG and Illinois loses on the coaches is fair. The players pissed away the Iowa game. They were in position to make plays and didn't, that isn't the coaches fault.

The bottom line though is that it is never just the coaches fault or just the players fault. When the team loses there is plenty of blame to go around.
 

MNVCGUY said:
BS. Putting a lot of blame for the BG and Illinois loses on the coaches is fair. The players pissed away the Iowa game. They were in position to make plays and didn't, that isn't the coaches fault.

The bottom line though is that it is never just the coaches fault or just the players fault. When the team loses there is plenty of blame to go around.
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The players pissed away the Iowa game???? Did the players decide to attempt a field goal from 50+?

Now you're trolling.
 

Boomtime said:
The players pissed away the Iowa game???? Did the players decide to attempt a field goal from 50+?

Now you're trolling.
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2 dropped INTs, missed tackle in the backfield with the player wrapped up for a loss that led to a TD, dropped passes and overthrows on offense....

The players didn't make the plays needed to win that game. In all those cases they were in position to make the play and didn't....it happens....but yeah the players are primarily to blame for the Iowa loss.

I didn't like the long field goal try, but that isn't what lost the game. The plays were there to be made, they just weren't. And those players would be the first to admit they didn't get it done on the field.

It is just lazy to try and blame the coaches for everything. They obviously share in the blame, but the players have to make the plays and our guys didn't on Saturday.
 

MNVCGUY said:
2 dropped INTs, missed tackle in the backfield with the player wrapped up for a loss that led to a TD, dropped passes and overthrows on offense....

The players didn't make the plays needed to win that game. In all those cases they were in position to make the play and didn't....it happens....but yeah the players are primarily to blame for the Iowa loss.

I didn't like the long field goal try, but that isn't what lost the game. The plays were there to be made, they just weren't. And those players would be the first to admit they didn't get it done on the field.

It is just lazy to try and blame the coaches for everything. They obviously share in the blame, but the players have to make the plays and our guys didn't on Saturday.
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As you likely realize, you're in the extreme minority excusing the coaches for the majority of bad decisions last Saturday.

To address your points about the players, perhaps some credit should be given to Iowa for making the necessary plays. The one dropped int was barely over the LOS and coming at him like a bullet. So I hardly fault him for dropping it. The freshman wr that avoided the tackle that turned into a td was simply a great effort by him.

We aren't going to agree and that's fine. Some of us expect more from the HC who's been here for nearly five years. Iowa couldn't stop the run game and suddenly we become "pass happy". Makes zero sense.

On to Indiana and hopefully we can discuss a victory a week from now.

Peace.
 



The thing that just kills me about this lost season is the unit that is most responsible for our demise is one that should have been counted on to be reliable. The passing game has just ruined the season.
 

Boomtime said:
As you likely realize, you're in the extreme minority excusing the coaches for the majority of bad decisions last Saturday.

To address your points about the players, perhaps some credit should be given to Iowa for making the necessary plays. The one dropped int was barely over the LOS and coming at him like a bullet. So I hardly fault him for dropping it. The freshman wr that avoided the tackle that turned into a td was simply a great effort by him.

We aren't going to agree and that's fine. Some of us expect more from the HC who's been here for nearly five years. Iowa couldn't stop the run game and suddenly we become "pass happy". Makes zero sense.

On to Indiana and hopefully we can discuss a victory a week from now.

Peace.
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Feel pretty confident that if we polled the board there would be more people who see things closer to the way I do then the way you do. Have never once said the coaches are blameless, just that they aren't fully to blame, the players share in it and in the case of Iowa the players deserve a large portion of it.

But yeah I agree that we aren't going to agree so may as well not waste more board space with a pointless argument. We do agree that we are will hopefully be discussing a victory after the Indiana game though I doubt you will be doing much of the discussing if things go well for the team.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Feel pretty confident that if we polled the board there would be more people who see things closer to the way I do then the way you do. Have never once said the coaches are blameless, just that they aren't fully to blame, the players share in it and in the case of Iowa the players deserve a large portion of it.

But yeah I agree that we aren't going to agree so may as well not waste more board space with a pointless argument. We do agree that we are will hopefully be discussing a victory after the Indiana game though I doubt you will be doing much of the discussing if things go well for the team.
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I am not sure you'd be right with this statement.

It's obviously both when you lose (and win), but I get the sense from reading the board that a lot of folks put more of the blame this week on the coaching staff.
 

MNVCGUY said:
2 dropped INTs, missed tackle in the backfield with the player wrapped up for a loss that led to a TD, dropped passes and overthrows on offense....

The players didn't make the plays needed to win that game. In all those cases they were in position to make the play and didn't....it happens....but yeah the players are primarily to blame for the Iowa loss.

I didn't like the long field goal try, but that isn't what lost the game. The plays were there to be made, they just weren't. And those players would be the first to admit they didn't get it done on the field.

It is just lazy to try and blame the coaches for everything. They obviously share in the blame, but the players have to make the plays and our guys didn't on Saturday.
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I don't think people are blaming the coaches for everything, but I do believe there is blame to go around.

As far as the dropped INTs and missed tackles, I think we all understand that those things happen and sometimes players make plays and sometimes they don't. These are great examples of things that have absolutely nothing to do with good or bad coaching.

As to the offense, people have been clamoring that Fleck needs to make a change for weeks. Do we know Kramer/ZA would have made those throws? No, of course not. Were we shocked that Morgan missed them? Unfortunately now, not at all. Playing Morgan at this state is on Fleck. He is either too stubborn to make a move or did such a bad job recruiting that he can't. Either way, it's on Fleck.

That decision took an EASY TD off the board. That decision took an EASY first down off the board when we were driving (momentum killer). Morgan, at his current state, is really hurting our offense. We are far enough along in Fleck's tenure that it's his fault if our QB play is consistently that bad.

When you couple all of that with things like the bizarre long FG and that we only throw the ball 30% of the time, I think some of the blame is on Fleck.
 



Boomtime said:
As you likely realize, you're in the extreme minority excusing the coaches for the majority of bad decisions last Saturday.

To address your points about the players, perhaps some credit should be given to Iowa for making the necessary plays. The one dropped int was barely over the LOS and coming at him like a bullet. So I hardly fault him for dropping it. The freshman wr that avoided the tackle that turned into a td was simply a great effort by him.

We aren't going to agree and that's fine. Some of us expect more from the HC who's been here for nearly five years. Iowa couldn't stop the run game and suddenly we become "pass happy". Makes zero sense.

On to Indiana and hopefully we can discuss a victory a week from now.

Peace.
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Minority? Possible. "Extreme" minority, nope. Players had just as much to do with the game in Iowa City.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Totally understand the frustration with how this season has gone. But yeah, the reactions in the thread referenced by this one are way over the top in a lot of cases.

This team has a very small margin for error, when they don't play well they are going to get beat. They didn't play well against Illinois and they made too many mistakes to beat a good Iowa team on the road. Disappointing, yep, frustrating, yep, worth flipping out about.....nope.
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I’m always mystified by people who post on a message board to say people posting on a message board are “over the top” or are “flipping out”.

Since you also appear to be into the majority is right mindset, I’d guess the majority of people thinking anyone posting/reading a college football message board has flipped out and/or is overreacting. I don’t think you are flipping out or are over the top, I just think you like what you like and are passionate about what you like.

Do I find it odd for someone with over 11k posts on a message board to say other posters are overacting? Yes. Holier than thou much?
 
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Boomtime said:
This is the third game this year that the staff pissed away.

That's why fans feel like they do.

Completely understand that the players are giving their all. Now if the coaches would do the same, that would be great.
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I think the Coach and his staff are doing their best too. Sometimes fan expectations are not based in the reality of competing in the Big Ten Conference. Fans really do not have the ability to EXPECT their opinion will be achieved six to 12 months in advance of the next season. There are too many variables at play in Big Ten Conference play. Just my humble, flawed opinion, of course. But injuries, loss of players who were huge contributors from success a couple of years ago, additions of players during the past couple of years ago on all BT teams and sometimes even the bounce of the ball all come into play.
Sure, we can have expectations to our hearts desires. But, if our expectations are not met, do we have the ability to do a damn thing about immediate changes that we think will fix all factors that we MAY think have kept our expectations from being met or exceeded?

Or, are my expectations fueled by my own myopic, flawed, over simplified and not totally accurate assumptions?

Beat Indiana, Gopher!
 
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MNVCGUY said:
2 dropped INTs, missed tackle in the backfield with the player wrapped up for a loss that led to a TD, dropped passes and overthrows on offense....

The players didn't make the plays needed to win that game. In all those cases they were in position to make the play and didn't....it happens....but yeah the players are primarily to blame for the Iowa loss.

I didn't like the long field goal try, but that isn't what lost the game. The plays were there to be made, they just weren't. And those players would be the first to admit they didn't get it done on the field.

It is just lazy to try and blame the coaches for everything. They obviously share in the blame, but the players have to make the plays and our guys didn't on Saturday.
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Refusal to try another QB when Morgan is struggling is letting the team down. Had to laugh when I heard Fleck talk about the challenge of having the Staff have to prepare for 2 QB's against Indiana ..... maybe we should try that sometime since our main guy doesn't have it this year. 2 QB's can be used.
 

It's basically in an exercise in asking, which of the following is worse:

- being a fan of a crappy team, that has another crappy year

- being a fan of a team with very high expectations, that then underperforms


I guess, the second ...
 

MNVCGUY said:
BS. Putting a lot of blame for the BG and Illinois loses on the coaches is fair. The players pissed away the Iowa game. They were in position to make plays and didn't, that isn't the coaches fault.
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Amen! We just seem to choke against Iowa in some of these games.
 

Triple D said:
Refusal to try another QB when Morgan is struggling is letting the team down. Had to laugh when I heard Fleck talk about the challenge of having the Staff have to prepare for 2 QB's against Indiana ..... maybe we should try that sometime since our main guy doesn't have it this year. 2 QB's can be used.
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Fleck is hyper loyal. Loyal to a fault.

He won't replace Morgan, unless Morgan gets hurt or quits.
 

MNVCGUY said:
BS. Putting a lot of blame for the BG and Illinois loses on the coaches is fair. The players pissed away the Iowa game. They were in position to make plays and didn't, that isn't the coaches fault.

The bottom line though is that it is never just the coaches fault or just the players fault. When the team loses there is plenty of blame to go around.
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The Durr mistackle ... just mind boggling. And maybe his only bad play of the game??

Of course, it's Minnesota, so for us, when a player randomly has a bad play, well then it's such that it lets the other team get a TD on that play and contributes to us losing the game.
 

MplsGopher said:
It's basically in an exercise in asking, which of the follow is worse:

- being a fan of a crappy team, that has another crappy year

- being a fan of a team with very high expectations, that then underperforms


I guess, the second ...
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You don't want to go back to the Wacker years where a 4 win season was amazing?
 

imthewalrus said:
I think the Coach and his staff are doing their best too. Sometimes fan expectations are not based in the reality of competing in the Big Ten Conference. Fans really do not have the ability to EXPECT their opinion will be achieved six to 12 months in advance of the next season. There are too many variables at play in Big Ten Conference play. Just my humble, flawed opinion, of course. But injuries, loss of players who were huge contributors from success a couple of years ago, additions of players during the past couple of years ago on all BT teams and sometimes even the bounce of the ball all come into play.
Sure, we can have expectations to our hearts desires. But, if our expectations are not met, do we have the ability to do a damn thing about immediate changes that we think will fix all factors that we MAY think have kept our expectations from being met or exceeded?

Or, are my expectations fueled by my own myopic, flawed, over simplified and not totally accurate assumptions?

Beat Indiana, Gopher!
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Win the Big Ten West once in my lifetime. You are correct, totally unrealistic - even with all of the experience and depth and facilities and competitive coach contracts.
 
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Hopefully the Big Ten "West" (and "East") go away, so it won't be a thing we have to worry about "winning".

Win the Big Ten, once in my lifetime. Hopefully that will mean going to the Rose Bowl, and may whatever additional connotations, real or voted upon, that go with winning that game, then happen.
 

Triple D said:
Refusal to try another QB when Morgan is struggling is letting the team down. Had to laugh when I heard Fleck talk about the challenge of having the Staff have to prepare for 2 QB's against Indiana ..... maybe we should try that sometime since our main guy doesn't have it this year. 2 QB's can be used.
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Define struggling. Yes it wasn't his best performance but he put plenty of balls on target had a few drops missed a few easy passes. That would have been a career day for Leidner. There probably isn't a Heisman level QB on our bench. QB play didn't lose that game. Struggling to the point you bench him? I don't think so. We were in the game until the end. Not the time to bench him in desperation.
 

"Hope is a good thing, may be the best of the things. And good thing never dies."

“There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret."

Hope is a dangerous thing. Drive a man insane.

Thus ends the reading for today.......
 

BroncoRedux said:
"Hope is a good thing, may be the best of the things. And good thing never dies."

“There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret."

Hope is a dangerous thing. Drive a man insane.

Thus ends the reading for today.......
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Terrible thing to live in fear. Brooks Hatlen knew it. Knew it all too well.
 

Boomtime said:
Completely understand that the players are giving their all. Now if the coaches would do the same, that would be great.
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It is completely asinine to think that the coaches are not giving their all.

This is their freaking livelihood.
 

Wren/Walrus -

I would make the case that a lot of the expectations were realistic. This team did have the potential to win the West Division. yes, injuries played a role and some players have not played as well as expected, but the initial expectations were valid. and except for Ohio State, every loss this season has been in a game where the Gophers had opportunities to win.

this team was close to being a 1-loss team going into the final two weeks.

Now, as to why the team did not meet those expectations, that is a much different and longer discussion.

but the initial expectations were valid, and it's understandable that fans are disappointed that the team did not live up to those expectations.

the only way to avoid being disappointed is to go into every season thinking "we're going to suck again this year."
 

MplsGopher said:
Terrible thing to live in fear. Brooks Hatlen knew it. Knew it all too well.
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BroncoRedux said:
"Hope is a good thing, may be the best of the things. And good thing never dies."

“There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret."

Hope is a dangerous thing. Drive a man insane.

Thus ends the reading for today.......
Click to expand...

I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living or get busy dying.
 

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