All time low for gopher football public sentiment?

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PlayHosea said:
It's always going to be a Vikings town, no matter what. It makes no sense to me, but that's the way it is. They haven't been to the Super Bowl in 20 years, have failed miserably each time in the past decade or so when they had the chance to elevate themselves to "elite" status, but for some reason, they are given a free pass each and every time by the media. This season certainly is taking shape as another in which the Vikings will fail to meet expectations, but the "we'll get them next year" attitude will be peppered all over tv, radio and print shortly after the season.
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30 years
 


buddylee853 said:
What kind of ammunition? Optimism? Aspiration? Just about the only thing in my mind that fuels the criticism-fire is the assumption that this coach promised the summit would be reached right away. If people are so damn patient with the Vikings, then why not with this team??
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Don't take that out of context. What I mean is that there are things you can point to if you want to objectively show that the Minnesota football program needs some improvement. For example, the South Dakota State game deserves some scrutiny, but you can discuss that WIN without making it sound like the worst loss in school history.

In answer to the original post, I have had my season tickets for two years, and wouldn't have bought them without Brewster's optimisim. I have heard more talk about and interest in the Gophers among my friends than ever. In my small section of the world, asking if this were an all-time low is ridiculous.
 

Agree with RodentRampage here. Admittedly, Gopher football hasn't gotten over the hump in more than 40 years and that's a really hard stigma to overcome at this point in time. However, to suggest that they're the least compelling team in the Twin Cities is a bit over the top. The Timberwolves take that honor easily. They can't even give away tickets to a game right now and for good reason; the product on the court is absolutely abysmal. Then again, it's not exactly a surprise that people are ragging on the Gophers. It's what the media in Minneapolis/St. Paul feed on.
 

co-worker from Indiana University seemed surprised at peoples malaise about the bowl game. I told him I am excited and alot of other people are too, they just don't have radio shows.
 



Here is the deal. People who think they are funny will always take cheap shots at easy targets. Look at Letterman and Palins whore of a daughter, even though he was cheating on his brand new wife he realized that she was an easy target and couldn't resist making fun of her.
 

Brew_recruit said:
Here is the deal. People who think they are funny will always take cheap shots at easy targets. Look at Letterman and Palins whore of a daughter, even though he was cheating on his brand new wife he realized that she was an easy target and couldn't resist making fun of her.
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strangely, this is somehow a very good point.
 

Hates Monikers said:
Don't take that out of context. What I mean is that there are things you can point to if you want to objectively show that the Minnesota football program needs some improvement. For example, the South Dakota State game deserves some scrutiny, but you can discuss that WIN without making it sound like the worst loss in school history.

In answer to the original post, I have had my season tickets for two years, and wouldn't have bought them without Brewster's optimisim. I have heard more talk about and interest in the Gophers among my friends than ever. In my small section of the world, asking if this were an all-time low is ridiculous.
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Sorry. I guess that's the futility of message boards; if a spoken message is understood 20% by what you say and 80% by how you say it, then how are we ever going to fully understand each other by just typing?
 



Ah BS this is not even close to the depths of Indifference

Everyone was ambivalent and could care less from about 1990 to 1994 Gopher Football, 1993 was a bad year for Gopher football after that crazy win against Syracuse the whole thing went pifft. This year is nothing, we struggled on offense but did well to win six games with all of the missed plays.

The media in this town for the most part get's there rock's off on belittling the Gophers and denegrating everything Gopher football related. There is a whole lot of jealousy by the media especially the KFAN types and Bob Sansevere who have there bobo's in the Vikings offices that pay the bills constantly whineing about no Vikings stadium and the fact that the Gophers got a stadium, news flash dinkuses like Paul Allen and Bob Sansever who "cares" about your opinion anyway's(never played a lick of ball and couldn't if he tried), the Vikings had a chance to share a stadium with the Gophers and took a giant sh!t all over the U so they can kiss it, for all I and most Gopher fans could care.

Once they get over there Charlie Brown pull the football away stupor for the Vikes Super Bowl chances and the Vikes go down in the first round they will move on and piss and moan all off season about missed opportunities to win the big one for the Purple, to much negativity to turn that thing right now.

We will have "Our" day in the sun under the Neon sign in that dump in Pasedena, with a whole lot of front running fans nonetheless who will "say they have always been there" but we will have our time I truly believe that. Without belief there is nothing, and I have to hang my hope on this staff. This coach and his staff are building the program the right way even if I, and everyone else are impaitent, bitch a little to much, they might sacrifice a little of the present for the future, the narrow minded media is too blind to see it because they are never there, don't care but will be cheerleading all the way,when it put's a few dollars in their coffers. The strength of the defense will be the start of the turn when they cannot score on us, next will come the running game, then we will finally click. Negativity about the Gophers is all they report on the local media, it is what they know and are comfortable with, like a blanky, the Gophers suck and have always sucked,nobody cares blah blah fricking blah.

They hate Brewster because he has the "Balls" to challenge the status quo in this town and actually believe that people should care about the Minnesota Gophers, and that the Gophers can be great at football again. People ,care more now than ever if they didn't they wouldn't bitch about how few tickets were sold and they would not be trying hard to run off this coach. There will be a lot of locals and casual fans that will watch the game, Iowa State is in for a shock as were going to roll, be excited we are just starting to get our fight back to start being good again. I love it when Badger fans mock Timmy, and celebrate that Brewster got an extension, because that gives me great resolve to know that we will have a little pay back against them in the years to come. Go Gophers
 

Minnesota Negativity

stevedave23 said:
I'm relatively young but I have been following gopher football for the better part of twenty years and I've never seen anything like this.

I certainly didn't expect any media or coffee talk about the gopher game to be overly positive but the past 24 hours have been a bit shocking to me.

This morning I flipped around between several different radio stations as each one absolutely trashed the bowl game tonight and gopher football in general. Bob Sansevere on KQRS said and I quote, "speaking of losing, the gopher football team plays Iowa St in the insight bowl tonight..." he went on to declare that gopher football is now the least compelling of all the teams in the Twin Cities. Even WCCO, the radio home of gopher football, took shots. When talking about the lack of ticket sales by the gopher fans vs. Iowa state one of the guys on the show remarked, "maybe all of the snow birds from Minnesota went to Arizona to get away from gopher football?"

Wow.

This most certainly isn't the worst gopher team or even the worst stretch of teams, but has public sentiment ever been worse?
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One thing you are beginning to understand is the incredible undercurrent negativity in Minnesota. I grew up there and didn't realize how bad it was until I moved around to other parts of the country. There is a constant black cloud in Minnesota about most things. A kind of cynical defeatism. The Twin Cities media is a major carrier of this mind set virus. I can hardly take it when I come back every summer.
 

wait!what? said:
co-worker from Indiana University seemed surprised at peoples malaise about the bowl game. I told him I am excited and alot of other people are too, they just don't have radio shows.
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You bring up a good point and it's kind of the heart of my OP. I'll bet anything that most people outside of MN (even some outside of the metro) would be shocked and confused if they sampled some the negative sentiment surrounding this game and this team in MN.

There was another post on this board late in the season that I think said it best. I apologize that I can't remember who posted it but they said something to the effect of in Minnesota we have a very passive aggressive culture. This constant vindictiveness and anger is punishment to coaches or teams who have "let us down." I'm not a psychologist but I have lived in Minnesota my whole life and that sounds right. I think in some backwards way people here think that being overly negative shows that "we're not going to accept mediocrity" and that somehow berating the program will, "whip them back into shape."

For the record I don't think anyone, media or otherwise, should have to stand outside waving maroon and gold pom poms tonight. The only thing I've ever hoped for regarding sentiment for the gopher football program is objectivity. You want to say the gophers haven't won a conference championship in 40 years? fine. You want to say that for the most part the offense this year stunk? fine. You want to say that Brewster hasn't won a big game yet? fine. But let's not treat a 6-6 football team like a 0-12 football team.
 

buddylee853 said:
this coach promised the summit would be reached right away
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No, he didn't. I take it from context that you are speaking in generalities and don't really believe this yourself, but the people that do are idiots.
 



frozengopher said:
All I can say is that from a general perspective, it's always darkest before the dawn.
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Thank-you....at least thats how I'm looking at it. All of us here on GH love the Goph's so F the rest. Someday soon we'll be able to say that we were here for them all along while we kick the bandwagon jumpers in gonads!
 

Like I tell anyone who talks about how 'great' the fans of tOSU, Michigan, Texas, Yankees, Lakers etc are; anyone can root for a winner. Its easy, fun, and cool. It is much harder to suffer through year after year of being as close as we have been for the last ten years. I keep telling myself that the reward will be that much sweeter. Anyone can root for a consistent winner, you need heart, and rolaids, to be a gopher fan.
 

Even though I detest Brewster, I'll be watching and rooting for the GoGos. Apologies if this has already been posted, but today's DM Register notes that "Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard said fans purchased 8,300 tickets from the Cyclones’ allotment of 10,500. Minnesota sold 1,900, according to Andrew Seeley of the Gophers’ media relations department."

Here's the link http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20091230/SPORTS020602/91230030/-1/INSIGHT_BOWL/Insight-Bowl-Cyclone-fans-flock-to-one-big-party

Not indicative of a healthy program.
 

BrewsterBooster said:
One thing you are beginning to understand is the incredible undercurrent negativity in Minnesota. I grew up there and didn't realize how bad it was until I moved around to other parts of the country. There is a constant black cloud in Minnesota about most things. A kind of cynical defeatism. The Twin Cities media is a major carrier of this mind set virus. I can hardly take it when I come back every summer.
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I used to dismiss this as a Minnesota stereo-type right along with the belief that it's -20 all year along. But I'm starting to think it's real. Being back over Christmas I did notice it a bit with regards to the Vikings. Here they are 11-3 and everyone was just ripping them to shreds, talking about how much they sucked, they wouldn't win another game. Hello, get a little prespective. I do think it's almost a self-defense mechanism so it won't hurt if they don't win the Super Bowl.

FWIW, no one said boo about Gopher football and dismissed Gopher basketball as not having beat anyone (which was somewhat hard to argue). Somehow people stay relatively upbeat about the Wild and Twins more then the others. I can't figure it out.
 

minimax said:
Even though I detest Brewster, I'll be watching and rooting for the GoGos. Apologies if this has already been posted, but today's DM Register notes that "Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard said fans purchased 8,300 tickets from the Cyclones’ allotment of 10,500. Minnesota sold 1,900, according to Andrew Seeley of the Gophers’ media relations department."

Here's the link http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20091230/SPORTS020602/91230030/-1/INSIGHT_BOWL/Insight-Bowl-Cyclone-fans-flock-to-one-big-party

Not indicative of a healthy program.
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what would how you feel about coach brewster have to do with anything? supporting a team that one claims to be a fan of has nothing to do with who is the coach. that is another very strange thing about minnesota sports fans........they let who a coach is determine in a large way whether or not they will support THEIR teams. just weird.....

and no, actually it is indicative of a team that is playing in tempe, az for the third time in four years and who is playing an opponent that many gophers fans are not very excited about. unfortunately, many gophers' fans are just "tempe'ed out". iowa state on the other hand has not been to a bowl in a while. and if you lived in iowa would you not take every opportunity that comes your way to get out of that God forsaken state for a few days?!

but you keep on going with the much more sinister angle of an unhealthy program, if you must. :rolleyes:
 

Ok, so what if we quit carping and actually did something about it. There's enough regular posters here where we could have some impact through a coordinated letter-writing campaign. I'm no expert in grassroots organization but I know that if we have 100 - 200 people who are dedicated and a Web site or Facebook page to keep letter templates, phone numbers and coordinate activity, it's definitely possible to make an impact.

I'm game to get something set up and am now done with school (forever, thankfully) so I'll have some time to dedicate to it if there's sufficient interest.

So what do you say? The alternative is to continue screaming into the ether and wait for change.
 

JoeDirt said:
Thank-you....at least thats how I'm looking at it. All of us here on GH love the Goph's so F the rest. Someday soon we'll be able to say that we were here for them all along while we kick the bandwagon jumpers in gonads!
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Agree
 

ruralgopher said:
Like I tell anyone who talks about how 'great' the fans of tOSU, Michigan, Texas, Yankees, Lakers etc are; anyone can root for a winner. Its easy, fun, and cool. It is much harder to suffer through year after year of being as close as we have been for the last ten years. I keep telling myself that the reward will be that much sweeter. Anyone can root for a consistent winner, you need heart, and rolaids, to be a gopher fan.
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Agree
 

minimax said:
Even though I detest Brewster, I'll be watching and rooting for the GoGos. Apologies if this has already been posted, but today's DM Register notes that "Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard said fans purchased 8,300 tickets from the Cyclones’ allotment of 10,500. Minnesota sold 1,900, according to Andrew Seeley of the Gophers’ media relations department."

Here's the link http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20091230/SPORTS020602/91230030/-1/INSIGHT_BOWL/Insight-Bowl-Cyclone-fans-flock-to-one-big-party

Not indicative of a healthy program.
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Don't agree
 

MBAGuy said:
Ok, so what if we quit carping and actually did something about it. There's enough regular posters here where we could have some impact through a coordinated letter-writing campaign. I'm no expert in grassroots organization but I know that if we have 100 - 200 people who are dedicated and a Web site or Facebook page to keep letter templates, phone numbers and coordinate activity, it's definitely possible to make an impact.

I'm game to get something set up and am now done with school (forever, thankfully) so I'll have some time to dedicate to it if there's sufficient interest.

So what do you say? The alternative is to continue screaming into the ether and wait for change.
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I'm down.
 

Bronko Nagurski Gopher said:
what would how you feel about coach brewster have to do with anything? supporting a team that one claims to be a fan of has nothing to do with who is the coach. that is another very strange thing about minnesota sports fans........they let who a coach is determine in a large way whether or not they will support THEIR teams. just weird.....

and no, actually it is indicative of a team that is playing in tempe, az for the third time in four years and who is playing an opponent that many gophers fans are not very excited about. unfortunately, many gophers' fans are just "tempe'ed out". iowa state on the other hand has not been to a bowl in a while. and if you lived in iowa would you not take every opportunity that comes your way to get out of that God forsaken state for a few days?!

but you keep on going with the much more sinister angle of an unhealthy program, if you must. :rolleyes:
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Butterscotch.
 

MBAGuy said:
Ok, so what if we quit carping and actually did something about it. There's enough regular posters here where we could have some impact through a coordinated letter-writing campaign. I'm no expert in grassroots organization but I know that if we have 100 - 200 people who are dedicated and a Web site or Facebook page to keep letter templates, phone numbers and coordinate activity, it's definitely possible to make an impact.

I'm game to get something set up and am now done with school (forever, thankfully) so I'll have some time to dedicate to it if there's sufficient interest.

So what do you say? The alternative is to continue screaming into the ether and wait for change.
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Count me in.
 

Bronko Nagurski Gopher said:
what would how you feel about coach brewster have to do with anything? supporting a team that one claims to be a fan of has nothing to do with who is the coach. that is another very strange thing about minnesota sports fans........they let who a coach is determine in a large way whether or not they will support THEIR teams. just weird.....

and no, actually it is indicative of a team that is playing in tempe, az for the third time in four years and who is playing an opponent that many gophers fans are not very excited about. unfortunately, many gophers' fans are just "tempe'ed out". iowa state on the other hand has not been to a bowl in a while. and if you lived in iowa would you not take every opportunity that comes your way to get out of that God forsaken state for a few days?!

but you keep on going with the much more sinister angle of an unhealthy program, if you must. :rolleyes:
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Sinister?

If I'm following you, you're suggesting that ticket sales are not an indicator of a healthy sports program. Hmmm.

Last I checked, it was Coach Brewster's job to get the the Gophers into better bowl games in order to keep what few fans he's been able to retain interested as the season goes on.
 

I feel like the team is being shellacked by the media and malcontents as an effigy for Brewster. I don't think that a stick in the mud like Mason would be suffering quite so much dirt slinging. But the fact is, for whatever reason, folks hate optimism. Brewster comes in here and tries to bring in a new attitude, and people are bashing him because he says he wants to get the team to the Rose bowl.

Would they rather he say, "nah, the Sun bowl, now there's a bowl game you can set your watch to! Or the Outback bowl, heck of a bowl game."?

As I said in another thread. It's not like the pros where the university could open its wallet and bring in a star quarterback. These things take time. If you fire Brewster now, good luck landing a decent coach. Coaching at the U is not like Notre Dame, where every coach wants to be there, and where the perks have the potential to outweigh a high degree of pressure. Minnesota is apparently a high pressure job, yet lacks prestige right now. Why would anyone want to coach at Minnesota if they're going to get the hook after posting a 6-6 record against a difficult schedule when there are probably better positions available where the pressure is in line with the prestige of the position? Particularly when a 6-6 record is really not particularly out of character for the position.

Minnesota needs to become a place where a good coach would want to come before we're going to be able to get anyone much better than Brewster.
 

yahoo/rivals named it as one of the top 3 bowls to stay away from and don't watch cuz it's so worthless. :/ One guy said are program was a complete mess all year long... yeah people are pretty down in the dumps right now...and I can't blame them.
 

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