I'd certainly be interested to hear from someone who was inside the program at that time. The way I have heard it told is that the players liked Gutey and felt that he would try to build on the foundation laid by Holtz before he bolted to South Bend. It wasn't that they disliked Ross, more that they wanted to try to maintain the momentum from the '85 season and bowl win over Clemson.
That’s the story I heard.
What happened is that AD Paul Giel wanted the Maryland coach or the Air Force coach (Fisher DeBerry, who was 11-1 that year). The Maryland coach, Bobby Ross, was interested and visited campus. The Air Force coach was also interested but wouldn't interview until the end of the season. But Giel was being undercut by a sports administrator who supported players who wanted Gutey, "the teams' choice" and "the people's choice." The administrator was black and in sympathy with many black players who wanted Gutekunst - and local media gave support. Giel was being both cut and undercut by a bureaucrat and when Ross visited the campus he felt the hostility and said "There is something wrong here." He went from Maryland to GA Tech where in 1990 he went 11-0-1, was co-national champion (coaches' poll) and was the national coach of the year. Almost everyone felt Gutey was a big come-down from Holtz, but Gutey got seven seasons to end up .441. Holtz had talked up Minnesota to his assistant, Barry Alvarez, as a place a coach good really win. If Gutey had been fired in '90 instead of '91, Alvarez might have done his 30-year thing here rather than at Wisconsin.
Gutey had three 6-5 seasons ('87, '89 & '90), playing generally pretty rugged non-conf games but still shut out of Bowl bids.
Right, but he was still below .500 over 7 seasons and in energy and enthusiasm he was dull compared to Holtz. His final season was 2-9. He was never a head coach again, despite being still in his forties.
I don't disagree that when he went 2-9 it was time to go. Just saying his tenure was not a disaster. When stacking up his resume against his successor, Gutey was way better (low bar). Better than Brewster as well. He also brought the Jug home once, beat Iowa a couple of times, and went 4-2 against Wisconsin before they were able to get rolling.
What about Detroit? If you're counting Boulder, you should count Ann Arbor. It's a little further out, but not much, and is actually closer to DTW airport than Boulder is to DIA.
Both Michigan and Michigan State have been aided by the Lions ability to win only 1 playoff game in what is approaching 7 decades now I believe.
I don't know about Washington and cheating, but they have been pretty consistently good over the years, winning conference championships in almost every decade, including before and after the 90s. They did go through a drought before Peterson's tenure.
Guty was the players choice.
I do not fully disagree with any of this. I still am a bit shocked that Colorado quit trying to cheat. Maybe they need to hire 80 year old Promise Keeper salesman McCartney to get it going again. They considered it a few years back. Maybe he can bring Lou with him.
This was a pretty well though out reply, but a couple of clarifications. Also, I was trying to stress how far away from any other population center U of Washington, Oregon and Colorado are, sure the "west coast" is in common with California, but the distance is huge. No LA based family is getting in the car and driving up to see their son play game in Eugene easily. As I wrote LA is as close to Seattle as Minneapolis is to Atlanta Ga.
They (the family) don't need to do that. The team comes to them. Minimum once a year, when they play USC or UCLA. Or Cal or Stanford, are more manageable drives.
It's not nearly like you're making it out. Would have to look at the actual climate information, but certainly in the winter the temps are not nearly as bad as here. Would say it's more about how brutal it is in the winter (off-season) that is a deterrent. Does it even snow in Seattle or Eugene?
Depending where in LA, there are plenty of Black people, but they aren't the dominant minority, like in the South, unless you're in very specific parts (Compton, etc.)
Personally, I don't think Air Raid is the answer. It wasn't for Texas Tech and WSU. Had a couple great seasons, but I think there's a reason the Iowa's, Wisconsin's, Ohio State's, Alabama's etc. of the college football world run a pro-style base scheme. Doesn't mean they can't tune it for the personnel that season, running more or passing more.
I hadn't considered Detroit to be honest, as historically, it was always a much larger market than the Twin Cities. As it is, it's now one spot below us. If we look at markets 11-16 based on most current DMA numbers:
Hmm ... this has Tampa two spots below MSP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area
In recent years, Marshawn Lynch, Jared Allen, David Bakhtiari, Davante Adams, and another guy you may have heard of named Tom Brady. All grew up in the Bay Area.
Five guys in the modern history of football, out of X total guys, and the Bay Area has a population of close to 8M.
I didn't even go back to OJ Simpson or Lynn Swann, and I'm certainly not going spend any more time looking at everyone who ever made an NFL team from every market, but that was a list of very well-known NFL stars in the current era.
You're injecting an extra variable of "caliber".
ninerswire.usatoday.com
Read the thread before making posts that were already made.Homegrown Legends: Bay Area's greatest products come home as virtual 49ers
What if Marshawn Lynch, Tom Brady and O.J. Simpson joined forces on a legendary lineup? Niners Wire unveils a roster for the ages.
Whatever. Did I miss the post about 351 NFL players from the Bay area in the last 35 years?
OK, Sparky.
Did you know that Fleck makes more than Zimmer?
I almost guarantee Fleck works harder than Zimmer too. Mason has talked about this on Barrerio's show. How if an NFL player screws up off-field, it's the player's fault. If a college player screws up, people blame the coach. Not to mention dealing with recruiting, NCAA rules etc.
Your exact statement was:
False. The actual statement was:
351 NFL players from the Bay area in the last 35 years