2012 and beyond...

[Big Ten Mind]

A huge Gopher fan at my office brought up a great question when a bunch of us were shooting the bull about Coach Kill etc. at a company lunch/grill out last week That question was "What's the payoff"?

As obvious as that seems it really clarified things for me regarding future expectations of this program in the next 5 years. Do I believe Kill & staff are good? Yes
Do I believe they will ever have a 10-3 season like Mase did in '03? Well, that is going to be diffucult given the following:
-new regime @ Michigan is recruiting very very well
-Dantonio and his thug-like teams have been on the upswing
-NE recruits nationally although their head coach is no genius
-Wisconsin will always be a tough beat
-Iowa had been down for two years but have some decent yougn talent coming up

I haven't even mentioned Penn State or tOSU and their new staffs

Hopefully there will be a window of opportunity between 2013-2016 where the Gophs can jump up once and win the Legends. If not, hopefully the payoff can be an Outback or Cap 1 bowl.

What do you believe the payoff will be?

 

[Gopher07]

What do you believe the payoff will be?

 

[BleedGopher]

Perfect reply, great video and why not us?!

Go Gophers!!

 

[John Galt]

It's impossible to predict right now what the ceiling is for this team. 20 years ago, no one in Wisconsin was ever drunk enough to believe they would be in as many Rose Bowls as they've seen the last 20 years. I will always believe that if Wisky can get to 5 Rose Bowls in 20 years, there is no reason we can't get to 10.

We still have such a young team that the whole process will take some time. One thing I've learned over the past 5 years with following this team is to never place high expecations on a new player, whether its a JuCo transfer or other player that has yet to see the field in the Big Ten. Games are won with upperclassmen that have game experience, not when you are starting 5-6 new players. By new players I mean guys that are brand new to the program, as opposed to a 4th year junior who has been through the grind of numerous seasons and seen the field. The stability with players and the coaching staff alone should be the difference between the 3 win seasons we've experienced and being a mediocre 6 win team.

The next step, to move from mediocre to good will be due primarily to 2 factors: out-state recruiting and the high school talent level in Minnesota. The 2012 recruiting class showed us that a lot of MN guys want to be Gophers. If the state talent level could improve so that we are consistently getting 8-10 Minnesota players each year, that would be huge and worth a few victories in itself as the staff would have more time and fewer spots that would need to be filled with out-of-state players. The out-state recruiting will come over time if we can show improvement. If we have another 3 win season, it will be hard to convince someone in Texas that we are moving in the right direction. If we win 5-6 games, the sell becomes easier.

After that, it really comes down to consistency and being good year after year. One year, the schedule lines up right, we get a few breaks, and we all all get to celebrate Jan. 1 in Pasadena...

 

[GopherHomer]

A huge Gopher fan at my office brought up a great question when a bunch of us were shooting the bull about Coach Kill etc. at a company lunch/grill out last week That question was "What's the payoff"?

As obvious as that seems it really clarified things for me regarding future expectations of this program in the next 5 years. Do I believe Kill & staff are good? Yes
Do I believe they will ever have a 10-3 season like Mase did in '03? Well, that is going to be diffucult given the following:
-new regime @ Michigan is recruiting very very well
-Dantonio and his thug-like teams have been on the upswing
-NE recruits nationally although their head coach is no genius
-Wisconsin will always be a tough beat
-Iowa had been down for two years but have some decent yougn talent coming up

I haven't even mentioned Penn State or tOSU and their new staffs

Hopefully there will be a window of opportunity between 2013-2016 where the Gophs can jump up once and win the Legends. If not, hopefully the payoff can be an Outback or Cap 1 bowl.

What do you believe the payoff will be?

Good topic. Being a 31 year old fan of all Minnesota sports, I haven't exactly seen very many of my teams reach the mountain top. There were the two Twins teams when I was a child and a couple Gopher hockey championships. Despite of this, I don't really feel like I've been wasting my time (o.k. lately it's been a little tough to justify, I admit). The 'payoff' to me does not have the ultimate success. A competitive team is always the goal, but it's mostly just about the memories.

From a pure Gopher football perspective, realistically we probably will never consistently be better than michigan, osu and nebraska. I believe we can, however, get the program to a point were we can consistently compete with everyone else. Conference championships obviously would be amazing, but if we can just get to a point where our games against wisconsin and iowa are fun, winnable, and memorable matchups I'll be happy (obviously wisconsin's program is at a very high level right now, but I would anticipate that they'll soon come back to the pack a little).