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The 12th Man

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Only 8 seniors on the travel roster! The Gophers have the depth and experience of an inexperienced high school team that lacks depth.

Seniors win football games, and depth takes time to fix. The team looks better than last year, and next year the team will look better than it does this year. Regardless of how many more games the team wins this year, I hope that people will remember where we are in the process.
 

I get it that we're in the process of building a winner. However, I always thought Coach Mason made a good point that Seniors don't want to hear the word "rebuilding" because they want to win now. Not that I expect us to run the table or anything near it, but I do think we can win on any given Saturday. Here's to be a winner now and an even bigger winner in the future.

Ski-U-Mah and Go Gophers!
 

You're only as good as your seniors. This is a fun, up and coming young team. I did not expect them to win at Iowa. I do expect 2-3 more wins.
 

MNGoldenGophers1 said:
Not that I expect us to run the table or anything near it, but I do think we can win on any given Saturday. Here's to be a winner now and an even bigger winner in the future.

Ski-U-Mah and Go Gophers!
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I agree completely, which is why I am excited about what Kill is doing. The team enters every game with a chance to win. It might not be a good chance, but there is a chance. I will forever be grateful to the seniors on the 2011 and 2012 teams, as their willingness to buy into the program helped and is helping lay the groundwork for what I think will be some long-term success.
 

I picked Iowa 17-14 assuming that the Gophers would play reasonably well on the road. They did not which didn't surprise me but was very disappointing. There were very few positives that we gained from this inept performance.

Coach Kill has said that this team has no room for error. I agree 100% with that assessment This is not a good team and will not be one this Fall as the youngsters will continue to make mistakes and not make plays we need. I still hope for 6 W's which will be tough to do. This squad needs to get healthy and stay that way.

Coach Kill has a huge task on his hands to get the Gophers to the point they can be competitive with the Iowa's, NWU, Purdue, etc. Only then can we hope to hang in there with the top 1/4 of the BIG. Thus far, we have beat the teams we should have which is an improvement over 2011.

With the bye week, lots of time to work on fundy's, etc and hopefully the return of some of our better players, I hope the team can do a better job across the board against NWU.
 


It's one thing to not have a lot of seniors; it's a completely different thing to not have them on the offensive and defensive lines.

On the Gophers 2-deep roster for both the Offensive and Defensive lines, there is ONE Senior. That is absolutely amazing.

Like it or not, the team is built for next year and beyond. Starting next year, the Gophers should routinely have a healthy mix of Seniors and Juniors along both Offensive and Defensive lines.
 

I posted a thread earlier in the year about our improved depth, which is better, but is young.

Kill seems to be working towards a day when the program can redshirt most of it's freshmen, start only very talented underclassmen, and be 2 deep with upperclassmen on the lines.

Until then we will remain a team that cannot make critical mistakes or we will lose.
It's as simple as that.
 

Ole said:
I posted a thread earlier in the year about our improved depth, which is better, but is young.

Kill seems to be working towards a day when the program can redshirt most of it's freshmen, start only very talented underclassmen, and be 2 deep with upperclassmen on the lines.

Until then we will remain a team that cannot make critical mistakes or we will lose.
It's as simple as that.
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+1.
 

Ole said:
I posted a thread earlier in the year about our improved depth, which is better, but is young.

Kill seems to be working towards a day when the program can redshirt most of it's freshmen, start only very talented underclassmen, and be 2 deep with upperclassmen on the lines.

Until then we will remain a team that cannot make critical mistakes or we will lose.
It's as simple as that.
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Every single coach in the country is working towards that goal. Remains to be seen if they can identify the talent to get there.
 



I'm confused about the number 8. Did that number come from Kill? I count 8 seniors who played on Saturday:
TE - John Rabe
DE - DL Wilhite
LB - Keanon Cooper
LB - Spencer Reeves
LB - Mike Rallis
CB - Michael Carter
CB - Troy Stoudermire
K - Jordan Wettstein

I'm presuming that Marquis Gray traveled with the team. (that makes 9).
I'm guessing that backup Kicker David Schwerman didn't travel.
What about senior WR Brandon Green? Dis he saty home? What's the story with Green? The stats I'm looking at say he has zero receptions for the year.
There are 4 more seniors that haven't really contributed this year that must've stayed home as well (DL-Curran Delaney, LB-Ryan Grant, WR-Matt Kloss & DB-Nathan Tow-Arnett)
At any rate, (not to pick nits) my guess is that we had 10 seniors travel (including Gray & Green).
 

Gray did not travel with the team. Brandon Green and Ryan Grant were there and played for sure.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Gray did not travel with the team. Brandon Green and Ryan Grant were there and played for sure.
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Has Kill addressed why Gray didn't travel with the team? Not saying it would have changed anything but most teams like to have their leader on the sideline even if he is injured.
 




play hard said:
Gray did not travel to Iowa since he was ruled out.
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Has to be more to it then that. Injured guys travel all the time especially when it is a team captain. My guess is it has to be something medical related but wondering if it has been addressed. Again I don't believe it would have changed the outcome but it is nice to have that calming presense on the sideline especially when you have an inexperienced QB under center.
 

He would have counted on the 70 man roster which they wanted to travel another player. I did see 3 punters on the bench so you have a good point. Would love to hear it. Maybe he was receiving treatment back in Mpls.
 



8 seniors?

And we wonder why this team took the field with wet diapers?
 

Go Gophers Rah said:
According to Phil Meyers Star Tribune Blog entry from Saturday morning: "MarQueis Gray was left behind in Minneapolis, in order to use his roster spot on someone healthy enough to play." (see http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/blogs/Gridiron_Gold.html)
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According to gophersports.com we played 37 players during the game. They are probably missing a few so let's say 40. So somewhere in the nearly 30 players that didn't see the field there was no room for your team leader and starting QB? Seems like Gray has enough experience that he could have served as a calming influence for Max or some of the other offensive players.

I don't know but the excuse of bringing along guys healthy enough to play just doesn't sound right to me when your team leader is one of the injured players. Probably nothing there but have been around college athletics long enough that something in this doesn't seem quite right.
 

play hard said:
He would have counted on the 70 man roster which they wanted to travel another player. I did see 3 punters on the bench so you have a good point. Would love to hear it. Maybe he was receiving treatment back in Mpls.
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Two of the three punters played:

Eldred punted, and Schwerman was the holder.
 

This I think shows how young our offense is right now. I looked at % of rush attempts and receptions, and OL starts and broke it down by class.

Rush Attempts: 21.3% SR, 10.9% JR, 61.1% SO, and 6.6% FR
Receptions: 11.7% SR, 36.4% JR, 45.5% SO, and 6.5% FR
OL starts: 0% SR, 28% JR, 48% SO, 24% FR

Average of the three: 11% SR, 25.1% JR, 51.5% SO, 12.4% FR

Gray's return will increase the number for rush attempts for seniors, but the other numbers should remain about the same the rest of the year. I'm not trying to make excuses, but rather show that if we can keep the team together, our offense should be pretty good in a year or two when most of these guys are seasoned veterans.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
It's one thing to not have a lot of seniors; it's a completely different thing to not have them on the offensive and defensive lines.

On the Gophers 2-deep roster for both the Offensive and Defensive lines, there is ONE Senior. That is absolutely amazing.

Like it or not, the team is built for next year and beyond. Starting next year, the Gophers should routinely have a healthy mix of Seniors and Juniors along both Offensive and Defensive lines.
Click to expand...

This is the big stat. It is one thing to have underclassmen starting, but when the backups are all fr and so it magnifies the depth issues on the OL and DL. Kill's 7 year deal shows the U is supporting his plan.
 

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