2024 Gopher Football is a watershed moment.

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disco said:
Accepting what college football is (a dirty, money driven business) and wanting the team to win at the highest level does not equate to constantly complaining.
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I would love to see the U be in a position to compete for National Titles in college football but the reality is that there are a ton of factors working against us that make that highly unlikely to happen in the current college football landscape.

So I can accept that and be fine with the team not being in that upper tier or I can be upset about it and let it ruin my enjoyment of college football. For me, with the way things are right now, I'm good with the team winning around 9 games every year and hopefully competing well against the vast majority of other teams in the exact same boat that we are.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I would love to see the U be in a position to compete for National Titles in college football but the reality is that there are a ton of factors working against us that make that highly unlikely to happen in the current college football landscape.

So I can accept that and be fine with the team not being in that upper tier or I can be upset about it and let it ruin my enjoyment of college football. For me, with the way things are right now, I'm good with the team winning around 9 games every year and hopefully competing well against the vast majority of other teams in the exact same boat that we are.
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Why do you insist on being so calm and rational?
 

disco said:
We get it. You're a typical happy go lucky Minnesota sports fan.

"Oh shucks, the guys played their hearts out. Moral victory. Get em next time boys."

I stress* again. This is big business and big time entertainment. The name of the game is winning, and is increasingly how much a team can pay to do so. I could not care less about the old timey attitudes of the threadbare sweater wearing Washburn-McReavy crowd.
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I don't understand....How can any of this be fun for you?

* Appropriate word choice, I guess.
 




disco said:
Winning = Fun
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Totally agree.....winning is fun and it is way more fun than losing. Ideally the teams you follow never lose, but we all know that isn't going to happen. There are going to be ups and downs and in the case of college football there are going to be factors that keep most teams from being in the upper echelon of the sport.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Totally agree.....winning is fun and it is way more fun than losing. Ideally the teams you follow never lose, but we all know that isn't going to happen. There are going to be ups and downs and in the case of college football there are going to be factors that keep most teams from being in the upper echelon of the sport.
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Exactly. We all love winning. Maybe we all have different ideas about how we define winning.

Over the last 3 seasons, this program has finished: 9-4, 9-4, 5-7 (bowl pending).

Does that represent winning, or is that really losing?

Is that record acceptable, is it mediocre, is it somewhat better than average, is it better than most Gopher three-year records, or is it disappointing? Who/what are we comparing this record to? Do we choose to compare that record to Michigan and Ohio State? Or Iowa and Wisconsin? Or, should we compare that record to previous Gopher coaching regimes?
 

What got me going in this thread was this post from Walrus Wren. It is 100% about settling for mediocrity, or at least not caring how the team does.
I am taking the stand that I am proud enough of my team that is a member of the B1G conference. That means that my team will play a schedule that is damn tough every season. It means that not many teams in the country will have week in and week out solid to great football teams to play every conference game. That is good enough for me.
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So just being in the conference is important? Playing great teams means nothing if you don't beat them more often than not. Vanderbilt plays in the SEC. They play great teams every week and they get throttled. Why is that something to enjoy?

I would think that would be awfully good for any young person talented enough to get a scholarship to a B1G school to be motivated to play their best against GREAT competition and show-case their talent.
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Someone out of touch would think that. Most guys wouldn't really care about the competition. They want playing time, want to win, and want to get paid. In any order.

I would guess that the pay scale for head and assistant coaches would attract some of the really good coaches. I would think that there would be great interest locally and regionally and even nationally that the games would receive high viewer interest.
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You'd guess wrong. As of October, PJ is in the lower half of the conference in salary and the assistants are paid less than most major schools. Remember how hard it was to find a head coach when we hired Jerry Kill? People are not attracted to coach here. National interest? What? Nobody is seeking out Minnesota football games unless they're a fan of the Gophers or their opponents.

Most any kid who is talented, loves football and wants to play at a high level and sees the value of a B1G level education could be motivated for every conference game they play to do their best, leave it all out there on the field and have great pride to be a Minnesota Gopher Football player and be a member of the B1G conference and a student at a really good to great academic institution.
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Until they're lured away by a bag of money, or a school with more success on the field, or both.
 



RememberMurray said:
Is that record acceptable, is it mediocre, is it somewhat better than average, is it better than most Gopher three-year records, or is it disappointing? Who/what are we comparing this record to? Do we choose to compare that record to Michigan and Ohio State? Or Iowa and Wisconsin? Or, should we compare that record to previous Gopher coaching regimes?
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Read my post above for my explanation of what got me going. The Fleck era has been very good, and I'm generally a supporter of him. This season's record was disappointing less because of the record, but HOW they lost and WHO they lost to.
 

disco said:
Read my post above for my explanation of what got me going. The Fleck era has been very good, and I'm generally a supporter of him. This season's record was disappointing less because of the record, but HOW they lost and WHO they lost to.
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I understand. I wasn't necessarily addressing you specifically.
I agree with you that this season was a huge disappointment.

But it is only one season. Overall, the record under Fleck has been pretty good, at least in my judgement. My criteria: I compare Fleck's record to our main rivals (Iowa and Wisconsin) and to previous Gopher coaches.

What are others comparing Fleck's 7-year record at Minnesota to, I wonder?
 

disco said:
Read my post above for my explanation of what got me going. The Fleck era has been very good, and I'm generally a supporter of him. This season's record was disappointing less because of the record, but HOW they lost and WHO they lost to.
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Being in theB1G conference for athletics is the best way athletics programs at the U raise money. 50 to 70 million a year if estimates I have read here are correct. Being in the B1G conference is HUGE! Why on earth do you think UCLA, USC, Washington and Oregon jumped at the chance to join the B1G? It will help those schools in their quest to be entertaining. Provide them with big$$$$$ to run their athletic teams with and to attract players who want to be featured pn national tv by an organization that has put together a hell of a great promotion scheme: THE B1G NETWORK. B1G markets to Fox and other major outlets to stream and broadcast on outlets across the nation and sells the B1G sports broadcasts for TOP money.

Being a member of the B1G makes the U of M one of 18 SPECIAL football programs and adds greatly to the stature of mens' and womens' basketball, hockey, baseball, softball, volleyball, wrestling and all of the sports under the B1G umbrella...brand...and sports entertainment juggernaut.

So, I stand by my belief that being in the B1G conference is the greatest thing bout U of M sports and Gopher football.

So, disco, you had best believe that being in the B1G is the greatest thing Gopher has going for it. It has been for as long as the charter member schools in the Big Ten Conference have been members of that conference. Think about that as you do your disco round boogie, disco.



Or will you and I top that with our with donations to DTA? It all helps, but, my donations to DTA are of the mom and pop variety. How are your contributions to DTA helping? Between the two of us I'm guessing we don't really lift the needle to get in bidding wars for big time portal transfers...but, at least we try to help. Right disco?
 
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RememberMurray said:
I understand. I wasn't necessarily addressing you specifically.
I agree with you that this season was a huge disappointment.

But it is only one season. Overall, the record under Fleck has been pretty good, at least in my judgement. My criteria: I compare Fleck's record to our main rivals (Iowa and Wisconsin) and to previous Gopher coaches.

What are others comparing Fleck's 7-year record at Minnesota to, I wonder?
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You can now throw out three-year and seven-year records. Rosters are now on year-to-year free agency basis for all but the helmet schools who still recruit the best available and replace them with better experienced players when the the young guys enter the portal in search of playing time.

For Minnesota and all the rest, the age of development programs and trending program trajectories are gone. PJ and most coaches will now be judged on their abilities to scramble to assemble a new team every year. The 11-2 year and the later nine win years are acient history.
 



walrus said:
Being in theB1G conference for athletics is the best way athletics programs at the U raise money. 50 to 70 million a year if estimates I have read here are correct. Being in the B1G conference is HUGE! Why on earth do you think UCLA, USC, Washington and Oregon jumped at the chance to join the B1G? It will help those schools in their quest to be entertaining. Provide them with big$$$$$ to run their athletic teams with and to attract players who want to be featured pn national tv by an organization that has put together a hell of a great promotion scheme: THE B1G NETWORK. B1G markets to Fox and other major outlets to stream and broadcast on outlets across the nation and sells the B1G sports broadcasts for TOP money.

Being a member of the B1G makes the U of M one of 18 SPECIAL football programs and adds greatly to the stature of mens' and womens' basketball, hockey, baseball, softball, volleyball, wrestling and all of the sports under the B1G umbrella...brand...and sports entertainment juggernaut.

So, I stand by my belief that being in the B1G conference is the greatest thing bout U of M sports and Gopher football.

So, disco, you had best believe that being in the B1G is the greatest thing Gopher has going for it. It has been for as long as the charter member schools in the Big Ten Conference have been members of that conference. Think about that as you do your disco round boogie, disco.



Or will you and I top that with our with donations to DTA? It all helps, but, my donations to DTA are of the mom and pop variety. How are your contributions to DTA helping? Between the two of us I'm guessing we don't really lift the needle to get in bidding wars for big time portal transfers...but, at least we try to help. Right disco?
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1. I thought you were done with me.
2. Everyone here knows that being in the B1G is a huge deal financially. Post 99 was the one picking apart your misguided opinions.
 

disco said:
Read my post above for my explanation of what got me going. The Fleck era has been very good, and I'm generally a supporter of him. This season's record was disappointing less because of the record, but HOW they lost and WHO they lost to.
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disco said:
Read my post above for my explanation of what got me going. The Fleck era has been very good, and I'm generally a supporter of him. This season's record was disappointing less because of the record, but HOW they lost and WHO they lost to.
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disco said:
1. I thought you were done with me.
2. Everyone here knows that being in the B1G is a huge deal financially. Post 99 was the one picking apart your misguided opinions.
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It is not only a big deal financially. It is a big deal on every level.

It was a big deal to bring Floyd back home.

It really doesn’t matter to me that you would throw a nasty little tantrum because of a year that wasn’t as good as some of the past few years. Some seasons happen to be not as good as others, but that would be no reason for me to call for wholesale changes, especially ina period of time when college football is being totally revamped and some things are creating some chaos.

Gopher football because of the B1G membership is more stable than many teams
 

walrus said:
It means that not many teams in the country will have week in and week out solid to great football teams to play every conference game. That is good enough for me.
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So you're okay with losing as long is there is tough competition? This is literally what you are saying.
 




disco said:
Geography:
How so? Both are large metro areas that are relatively isolated in the Northern US. The notion that Seattle being on the west coast so they can recruit SoCal doesn't hold water unless you say that Minnesota being in the central US means we can recruit Texas. After all Dallas is closer to Minneapolis than LA is to Seattle.

Climate:
Both cities have nice summer and unpleasant winter climates, just in different ways.

Conference: (changing next year, but up to this point):
Somewhat true, but both conferences had the big two (OSU, Michigan, USC, Oregon) and the rest.
Utah has been very good recently as well. It's not C-USA.
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Lots of schools between Dallas and us, not so many between Washington and Cali talent.
 

Dakota2 said:
You can now throw out three-year and seven-year records. Rosters are now on year-to-year free agency basis for all but the helmet schools who still recruit the best available and replace them with better experienced players when the the young guys enter the portal in search of playing time.

For Minnesota and all the rest, the age of development programs and trending program trajectories are gone. PJ and most coaches will now be judged on their abilities to scramble to assemble a new team every year. The 11-2 year and the later nine win years are acient history.
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Two years ago is "ancient history"?

Sheer nonsense. Laughable.
 

disco said:
So you're okay with losing as long is there is tough competition? This is literally what you are saying.
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Where did I say I am ok with losing, dizzy disco dancer? I just know that sometimes losses happen, and if a loss happens, I don’t get all pi$$ed off, go off the deep end, call to fire everybody and say that’s all I can take and say I’m done with the team that I have been knowing is my team ever since my dad and I listened to the Gopher games on the radio when I was six years old seventy years ago.

I keep things in perspective.

dirty disco dancer, you need to grow up a little, get some anger management start realizing that sometimes life deals some short term disappointment in the results of a sporting event.

Grow up little disco dude or dudette which ever kind of disco number you may be.


;0)
 
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RememberMurray said:
Two years ago is "ancient history"?

Sheer nonsense. Laughable.
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It is now because the player/program development model is no longer workable. Most teams are now in a one year, each year is different mode.
 

RememberMurray said:
Two years ago is "ancient history"?

Sheer nonsense. Laughable.
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In fact, In fact, last year’s 5-7 record is meaningless because we will have a reworked roster depending heavily on transfers. Coach has to do it every year and his portal success will determine how long he stays.
 

Dakota2 said:
In fact, In fact, last year’s 5-7 record is meaningless because we will have a reworked roster depending heavily on transfers. Coach has to do it every year and his portal success will determine how long he stays.
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Okay, I see what you're saying. Interesting points.

Has the landscape changed? Absolutely. No question.
Will adaptability and flexibility be at a premium? Certainly.

But I'm not sure you're correct about developmental programs.

It may be that a developmental program will continue to develop lower-ranked high school players, as before, but maybe they'll be doing so with the expectation that the players who are the biggest developmental success stories will probably be poached by blue bloods late in their college careers.

On the other side of that coin might be the Quinn Carroll types — highly-ranked high school players who go originally to a helmet school, find disappointment there (for lack of playing time or whatever reason) and then transfer to a highly-regarded developmental program in order to polish their college football resume.

It will be fascinating to see how this all plays out.
 

RememberMurray said:
Two years ago is "ancient history"?

Sheer nonsense. Laughable.
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I think it's somewhere in-between. It's not nonsense. The portal has changed the game and I think we can all recognize that. But there will still be guys with loyalty to a program or will maybe be late bloomers and be appreciative for the chance. And there will be guys who will stay in a program because they don't want to leave their friends and teammates.

If anything, I think coaching will be more important than ever. You're going to have to do a lot more plug and play a lot more often, but you have to find guys to build a base with too. It's an interesting time.
 

DarthGopher said:
From that recruiting page, he was a program-transforming kind of player, and had we lost him to a decommittment or transfer portal, the usual suspects would be on here lamenting the total shittiness and demise of our football program.

Flunked out of here. Basically screwed up JUCO and ended up in jail. Guy has Michigan State written all over him - those are the kinds of players they want!!
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He’s currently in jail too. Weapons charge at a homeless encampment
 

walrus said:
The old WAC’s implosion? Howmuch income did the ol’ WAC generate for conference member schools? The B1G and SEC pay their members pretty well. $$$ is more cohesive than most bonds that hold conferences together.
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Always follow the 💰
 

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