Adam Rittenberg: "I think there's a nice foundation at Minnesota."

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Rittenberg's Chat:

Tom (Twin Cities)
Do you think Minnesota can keep it up? I enjoyed the game with Sparty because I feel like Gophers and Spartans are the future of a strong conference - schools with a lot of football history who are finally waking up.

Adam Rittenberg
Tom, I think there's a nice foundation at Minnesota. The defense has actually been very good the past two seasons. I really like the staff on that side of the ball, beginning with Tracy Claeys. Minnesota clearly has to improve at wide receiver and at quarterback. Philip Nelson still is a young guy, although he'll enter 2014 as one of the league's more experienced QBs. There's some young talent at wideout with guys like Jones and Wolitarsky. Their development will be critical for Minnesota next fall.

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/49557/ncaa-fb-with-rittenberg

Go Gophers!!
 


dinkything said:
How many years/decades have we been getting these patronizing pats on the head?
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What more would you like for him to have said? He complimented the defense and pointed out the obvious areas where we need to improve on offense in order to take the next step. We won't be a serious contender until our offense improves.
 

MNVCGUY said:
What more would you like for him to have said? He complimented the defense and pointed out the obvious areas where we need to improve on offense in order to take the next step. We won't be a serious contender until our offense improves.
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Yeah...maybe you're right...the best the gopher football program can probably expect is a pat on the head from a journalist.
 

dinkything said:
Yeah...maybe you're right...the best the gopher football program can probably expect is a pat on the head from a journalist.
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This is hardly a pat on the head. It's an accurate assessment of the program and the season. It would be hard to say anything else in that format (a chat, where responses are often short and quick).
 


When was the last time a pat on the head included a claim we had a very good defense?
Pre Mason?
 

Not counting the bowl game, the 2012 Gopher scored 256 points, and gave up 287. The 2013 Gophers scored 317 points and gave up 268. We went giving up 31 more points than we scored, to scoring 49 more points than we gave up - that's a total swing of 80 points.

If we just look at Big Ten games, the 2012 Gophers scored 137 points, and gave up 220, while the 2013 Gophers in Big Ten play scored 150 and gave up 188. In 7 of 8 Big Ten games last year, the Gophers scored 17 points or less and scored 13 or less in 5 out of 8 games. While the 2013 Gophers did have three Big Ten games with less than 10 points scored, there were also four games with more than 20 points scored.

I don't think anyone would say that the offense is where we want it to be, but there was improvement both on offense and defense this season.
 

dinkything said:
Yeah...maybe you're right...the best the gopher football program can probably expect is a pat on the head from a journalist.
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so an 8-4 team should be proclaimed as the greatest bestest thing of all time? he said it how it is. nothing more, nothing less.
 

Curious about our very good defense, I went back and looked at points allowed per game. Doesn't take out the offense surrendering points (pick 6s) or garbage points at the end of a game:
2013 23.3
2012 26.2
2011 31.2
2010 32.3
2009 24.7
2008 24.9
2007 37.5
2006 27.4
2005 29.0
2004 22.9
2003 21.9
2002 26.6

Probably speaks more to the value of having an excellent ground game on offense. When we hit number 12 in the rankings in 2003 I remember thinking that our program had finally made it.

Remember when we used to score enough points to even have major collapses?

Regardless, liking the current trend
 



RodentRampage said:
Not counting the bowl game, the 2012 Gopher scored 256 points, and gave up 287. The 2013 Gophers scored 317 points and gave up 268. We went giving up 31 more points than we scored, to scoring 49 more points than we gave up - that's a total swing of 80 points.

If we just look at Big Ten games, the 2012 Gophers scored 137 points, and gave up 220, while the 2013 Gophers in Big Ten play scored 150 and gave up 188. In 7 of 8 Big Ten games last year, the Gophers scored 17 points or less and scored 13 or less in 5 out of 8 games. While the 2013 Gophers did have three Big Ten games with less than 10 points scored, there were also four games with more than 20 points scored.

I don't think anyone would say that the offense is where we want it to be, but there was improvement both on offense and defense this season.
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Great comparison. I also liked the fact that a increased number of points in 2013 came from Defense and Special Teams. In some games we found a way to get the job done.
 

The last two years have gotten me "re-interested" (Openly admit I'm a bit of a fair weather when it comes to College Football, but its not like I'm cheering for someone else just focus on Basketball a lot more). Since my freshmen year and being in the front row at the dreaded Michigan Collapse game, my interest in Gopher football has never been higher. I got excited when Brewster showed up because I thought he would recruit some talented kids, I drank the cool-aid and fell hard! Admittedly wasn't wild with the Kill hire, as I thought he was too boring and would struggle to connect with the kids. I always watched games leisurely on Saturday, but never went out of my way to view them. After the first non conference games this year, I've watched every Gopher B1G conference game something I probably couldn't say since my college days, I'm back on the bandwagon.

Being from and living in Wisconsin makes it a lot of fun being a UofM fan when we are competitive, was very excited to watch the Axe game with my friends with expectations to win, ever since Kucek dropped that punt my friends have made it unbearable to watch those games (I talked a lot of trash leading up to that punt!).

Long story longer, I'll accept that pat on the head and realize next year we will be standing tall and playing classic B1G 10 Football, with a legitimate chance to take Bucky down at Bucky and chop down their goal posts. It's a great time to be in Gopher Nation with Kill and the promise that Young Pitino is showing.
 

It's right there, Reg. Look at that. Yeah!
Adam Rittenberg wrote this. It's gotta be true. Fantastic!
 

We are the Milwaukee Bucks of the Big Ten.

Do you have strong opinions on the Bucks and their recent history?

I thought so.
 




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