Adam Rittenberg: MN hasn't turned the corner, MN reminds him of NW prior to bowl wins

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What a stupid thing to say. We've improved year after year since Kill has been here. Instant gratification? Really? We didn't turn the corner (championship) quite yet....let's tear it down and rebuild. Clearly it's not working. Give it a rest. This is lazy reporting at best.
 

TheBulldog said:
I tend to disagree. The bowl game doesn't mean anything to me as far as "turning the corner." It would have been a huge coup, as far as recruiting and national exposure.....but this team has turned a corner. Relative to 2010, this team has fully gone around the racetrack.

I still feel that the Gophers could have, if not should have, won that game. They are a few stupid mistakes (mental, not a talent issue) from the national media talking about how this program has arrived, and how they just beat an SEC division champ (one of the most overrated things to ever be rated, I think that became clear this bowl season).

If that onside kick had bounced the Gophers way, and totally changed the complexion of that game, possibly leading to a Gopher TD and maybe a Gopher win, would the program have "turned a corner?" That may be how thin the line is.

If Kill would have been more aggressive going into halftime, and someone broke a touchdown (or at the very least, kicked a FG), negating Mizzou's momentum, completely changing the complexion of the game, and possibly leading to a Gopher win, would the program have "turned a corner?"

Would he be saying the saying the same thing if they Gophers had been selected to the Holiday bowl and beaten USC? That's a very real possibility. Would he then view them as "turned the corner," even though it would be the exact same team? If BBC hadn't stripped that ball and Nebraska (a very good team, and ranked at the time) won the game in the regular season, the Gophers get selected to the Music City Bowl and beat Tennessee, did the team "turn a corner?"

I think it says a lot more that they were selected to a Jan 1 bowl, and showed that they belong. I'll take that over some rinky dink bowl win any day.

Also, saying they only beat a couple teams over .500 (or whatever was commented above).....How about the losses?: A team that got snubbed for the playoffs, and could be the number 1 team to open 2015 (TCU). Lost to the possible national champ, that just beat Alabama, by a slim margin (Ohio State). Lost to another Jan 1 bowl participant, and perennial B1G power (Wisconsin). Finally, in the posteason, on Jan 1, lost to the runner up of the SEC. Not to mention, they were in all of those games will realistic chances to win, with the exception of TCU. Pretty impressive.
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Thanks for a refreshing report. People like to be negative in this world we live in.
 

I think there must be an official party line on the Gophers on GH emerging, little of which makes sense to me. Bulldog makes the case that we are close to being a powerful football team. Yet, we lost 5 times this season. Close only counts in certain situations and these losses can't be made victories by counting how many plays broke down. What impresses me is victories. Ohio State finds a way to win. Minnesota finds a way to prevent mistakes and still makes them. We pretend to have arrived and yet we are not there yet.

I have noticed the two camps of thought and they are incompatible. Makes sense to me. If Bulldog says we have arrived, then I agree.
 




Studwell55 said:
If you could press a button and we'd finish 5-3 every year forever and ever....would you press it?

I would.
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Absolutely not. We've made some strides, but we still have a ways to go, and I think we can get to yet another level. To do that, though, I think we need to see an even greater commitment to the program. It would be wonderful if more of our local Fortune 500 and other companies dug deep to support Gopher sports, and I think they should, but us fans have to be willing to contribute more as well.
 

gopherfield said:
I've seen this comment a number of times since the NE game. While it was a great play by BBC to seal the game, it was 99% certain we would have won had BBC not made a play. If you recall, the receiver had gone out of bounds on his own and came back into play to make that catch. The flag had been thrown and the penalty correctly called. That "touchdown" without BBC's play would have been negated and NE would have had likely one last play from approx the 35 yard line.
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Actually it would have been 3rd and 14 after the penalty with 1:19 left from the 35 so they would have had at least two more plays to try and score. It was still very possible they convert on 3rd or 4th down and eventually score a TD.
 

In auto racing, if you "turn the corner" four times, you wind up back where you started..........

The problem with this thread is that everyone defines "turning the corner" differently.
Are the Gophers a better team then the teams that lost to Iowa 55-0, or lost to Michigan 58-0? Obviously, they're better. Some would call that "turning the corner."

Other people want to see a breakthrough/historic season before they say the Gophers have turned the corner.

On one level, I'm happy to see the Gophers field a competitive team. Sure, I'd love to see the Gophs roll off a 10-win or 11-win season, win a conference title, or even contend for national honors. But, the bottom line for me is that when I watch a game, I believe the Gophs have a chance to win. There have been plenty of seasons and Gopher teams when I did not believe the team had a chance to win.

Just to put this in perspective: The Cubs have not won a world series in over 100 years. There are no guarantees in sports. It's possible the Gophers could win the B1G title in my lifetime, but it's also possible they might not win a title. I suspect that, on my deathbed, the last words out of my mouth are NOT going to be: "my life is meaningless because the Gophers FB team didn't win a B1G title."
 

Adding some perspective in here. How good is 5-3 for us?

The 1st time we've done this in the past 11 seasons
The 3rd time we've done this in the past 16 seasons
The 5th time we've done this in the past 41 seasons

Even if we haven't "turned the corner", it was a great season by our standards. Hopefully we will continue to build.
 



MaxyJR1 said:
This team in on the verge of being the clear second to WI in the division. Having MICH and OSU on the schedule next year will not help though.
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Even with the coaching change I don't think you can discount Nebraska as a factor in the division. Pelini had them at 9+ wins every year. We are firmly in the top half/division contender group for our division which is where you want to be. The West has the look of a very balanced division for the future with a bunch of good teams (MN, Wis, NE, IA) and no really dominant teams (like Ohio State).
 

Who cares if we've turned some mythical corner... Wheres the ****ing corner? I don't see no ****ing corner /Georgecarlin

I think the team has done pretty damn well for not having an offensive superstar to speak of. Sure David Cobb was really fun to watch and just set our rushing record, but he wasn't a headline grabbing super star. He was more of a lunch pail type back. We are a playmaker or two away from being really really good. Keep building the defense and continue adding pieces on the offense. Brick by Brick doesn't get thrown out the window the day you get into a New Years day bowl. The first brick was get there, next brick is win one. If we could have placed two bricks at once would it have been cool? Hell yeah, but we didn't, so lets keep going. And maybe, some day down the line, the next brick is a different coach or a different offensive scheme... But I don't think that's the next brick today.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
To be fair, they did win or share 3 big ten chamionships from 1995 to 2000. They have had a pretty poor bowl game record though...
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I was talking more about the Fitzgerald era. Northwestern under Barnett and Allen schemed differently. That said, I think Northwestern will be improved in 2015. Don't know if they will contend for the West title, but they have a couple of QB prospects that fit more of what Fitzgerald has tried to do on offense than Siemian did.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Actually it would have been 3rd and 14 after the penalty with 1:19 left from the 35 so they would have had at least two more plays to try and score. It was still very possible they convert on 3rd or 4th down and eventually score a TD.
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No. Since multiple people are trying to correct each other on this, let's get it right.

Illegal touching in the NCAA (unlike the NFL) is simply loss of down. So if BBC doesn't make the play, Minnesota accepts the penalty and Nebraska faces 4th and 9 from the 30 with 1:19 to play. Still a very dangerous situation for us.

See number 6
 



Studwell55 said:
If you could press a button and we'd finish 5-3 every year forever and ever....would you press it?

I would.
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Winning 5 of 8 is a 62.5% winning record.

Just for kicks can anyone guess Jo Pa's BIG record? Or Barry's?

Give up??

JoPa was 63.7% and BA was a meager 50.8%. Both had some very miserable seasons mixed in with being at the top of the heap.

5-3 is nothing to sneeze at but I want a BIG championship someday.
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
Winning 5 of 8 is a 62.5% winning record.

Just for kicks can anyone guess Jo Pa's BIG record? Or Barry's?

Give up??

JoPa was 63.7% and BA was a meager 50.8%. Both had some very miserable seasons mixed in with being at the top of the heap.

5-3 is nothing to sneeze at but I want a BIG championship someday.
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If both of those guys wen't 63.7 or 50.8 every year for their entire careers they wouldn't be remembered the way they are today.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Even with the coaching change I don't think you can discount Nebraska as a factor in the division. Pelini had them at 9+ wins every year. We are firmly in the top half/division contender group for our division which is where you want to be. The West has the look of a very balanced division for the future with a bunch of good teams (MN, Wis, NE, IA) and no really dominant teams (like Ohio State).
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I just think Nebraska will continue to go in reverse with no connections to the recruiting in Texas and west coast in the conference. They are in the middle of nowhere and that will continue to hurt them. I think recruits will look to different places imo. I think that Northwestern, MN, and WI have a large advantage over other teams in the division going forward.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

WanderingGopher said:
No. Since multiple people are trying to correct each other on this, let's get it right.

Illegal touching in the NCAA (unlike the NFL) is simply loss of down. So if BBC doesn't make the play, Minnesota accepts the penalty and Nebraska faces 4th and 9 from the 30 with 1:19 to play. Still a very dangerous situation for us.

See number 6
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Good catch, thanks. I was thinking of the NFL rules.
 

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