Gold Rush
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The 1983 Gopher team actually had some good players on it but it set the benchmark as one of the worst teams in Gopher history. It was led by LB Pete Najarian and LB Mark Dusbabek on defense and RBs Valdez Baylor and Tony Hunter on offense with JUCO recruit Greg Murphy at QB. It had a pretty good OL heading into the season. It started the season with a promising 21-17 on the road at Rice. Could this be the year we head to the Rose Bowl??
Unfortunately this was not the case. Nebraska rolled into town and edged the Gophers 84-13 and things unravelled fairly quickly after that. As the season went on I have never seen so many injuries to one team in any sport - ever. It was so bad midway through the season there was an ad in the Minnesota Daily newspaper calling for students with football experience to sign up and help out. Against Michigan there was no betting line as the oddsmakers did not believe Minnesota could field a competitive team. They went on to lose to Ohio St. 69-18, Wisconsin 56-17, Illinois 50-23, Michigan 58-10 and in coach Joe Salem's last game, they lost to Iowa 61-10. They went on an extensive search committee for the next coach and offered the job to Les Steckel - who turned it down. They went all the way to December 20th with absolutely no clue who the next coach would be and announced they were starting the search all over again - with signing day less than 2 months away........this was an extreme low point in Gopher football history.
But things got better. Miraculously, Lou Holtz was fired at Arkansas and strolled into town, accepted the job with a LOT of work to do. The recruiting list had only 10 names on it and he had to work from scratch to put together a recruiting class in less than 2 months while many teams already had their full allotment. He inherited one of the worst teams in history and a year later filled up the Dome with 60,000 fans a game, upset Iowa in the last game and finished 4-7. The next year, they almost beat #2 Oklahoma team, losing 13-7. Ohio St. narrowly escaped after QB Foggie was injured late in the game 23-19. They finished 6-5, went to a Bowl game and would have gone a lot further the next few years had Holtz stayed. To date, those were my favorite 2 years of Gopher football even though they weren't the most successful. We went from the absolute abyss to having a ray of hope, and then just a small taste of success with hopes and expectations for a lot more.
I am not sure if PJ Fleck can be as successful as Lou Holtz was who went on to coach Notre Dame to a national championship a few years later. Right now he sure looks more like Tim Brewster than anything. Maybe the most discouraging thing about this year is that we don't look like we are getting better and our defense looks like it is getting worse. But things are never as bad or as good as they seem and you never know - maybe PJ Fleck can get this ship righted again and we can start moving back up. I may be an optimist but I think things will get turned around here. The defense simply has got to get a lot better though and this does fall directly on the coaches. We will really need to do some soul searching and find a way to get better but it can be done! And that is the whole point of revisiting the nightmare 1983 season here.
Unfortunately this was not the case. Nebraska rolled into town and edged the Gophers 84-13 and things unravelled fairly quickly after that. As the season went on I have never seen so many injuries to one team in any sport - ever. It was so bad midway through the season there was an ad in the Minnesota Daily newspaper calling for students with football experience to sign up and help out. Against Michigan there was no betting line as the oddsmakers did not believe Minnesota could field a competitive team. They went on to lose to Ohio St. 69-18, Wisconsin 56-17, Illinois 50-23, Michigan 58-10 and in coach Joe Salem's last game, they lost to Iowa 61-10. They went on an extensive search committee for the next coach and offered the job to Les Steckel - who turned it down. They went all the way to December 20th with absolutely no clue who the next coach would be and announced they were starting the search all over again - with signing day less than 2 months away........this was an extreme low point in Gopher football history.
But things got better. Miraculously, Lou Holtz was fired at Arkansas and strolled into town, accepted the job with a LOT of work to do. The recruiting list had only 10 names on it and he had to work from scratch to put together a recruiting class in less than 2 months while many teams already had their full allotment. He inherited one of the worst teams in history and a year later filled up the Dome with 60,000 fans a game, upset Iowa in the last game and finished 4-7. The next year, they almost beat #2 Oklahoma team, losing 13-7. Ohio St. narrowly escaped after QB Foggie was injured late in the game 23-19. They finished 6-5, went to a Bowl game and would have gone a lot further the next few years had Holtz stayed. To date, those were my favorite 2 years of Gopher football even though they weren't the most successful. We went from the absolute abyss to having a ray of hope, and then just a small taste of success with hopes and expectations for a lot more.
I am not sure if PJ Fleck can be as successful as Lou Holtz was who went on to coach Notre Dame to a national championship a few years later. Right now he sure looks more like Tim Brewster than anything. Maybe the most discouraging thing about this year is that we don't look like we are getting better and our defense looks like it is getting worse. But things are never as bad or as good as they seem and you never know - maybe PJ Fleck can get this ship righted again and we can start moving back up. I may be an optimist but I think things will get turned around here. The defense simply has got to get a lot better though and this does fall directly on the coaches. We will really need to do some soul searching and find a way to get better but it can be done! And that is the whole point of revisiting the nightmare 1983 season here.
