Awakening a sleeping giant

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AuEGO4

AuEGO4

Goldy is my Home Boy
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Earlier this year Pitino mentioned that he felt Minnesota was a sleeping giant. Do you guys feel this is true for football as well as basketball? Coach Kill wants TCF to host the biggest party in the state every Saturday. I think this weekend's game will give us a good read on how awake the Gopher fans are in the state. No traveling Nebraska, Iowa, or Wisconsin fans to fill those seats so IF it is a sell out (which I hope it is) it would be 85%+ Maroon and Gold.
BRING THE HEAT! BRICK BY BRICK!
 

AuEGO4 said:
Earlier this year Pitino mentioned that he felt Minnesota was a sleeping giant. Do you guys feel this is true for football as well as basketball? Coach Kill wants TCF to host the biggest party in the state every Saturday. I think this weekend's game will give us a good read on how awake the Gopher fans are in the state. No traveling Nebraska, Iowa, or Wisconsin fans to fill those seats so IF it is a sell out (which I hope it is) it would be 85%+ Maroon and Gold.
BRING THE HEAT! BRICK BY BRICK!
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honestly i don't think we'll ever be a giant in football. the issue with here is many kids from down south will always be opposed to coming up to a cold weather state to play. its just the nature of the beast now. unless the game changes back to running more heavily, we'll (hopefully) be able to contend for conference titles every 4-5 years or so and i'll be content with that.
 

Northern teams are VERY competitive in every other division of college football. It's odd that I-A is so different at the moment.
 

The giant died in the 60's. Kill and co. are building another one, #brickbybrick.
 

upnorthkid said:
honestly i don't think we'll ever be a giant in football. the issue with here is many kids from down south will always be opposed to coming up to a cold weather state to play. its just the nature of the beast now. unless the game changes back to running more heavily, we'll (hopefully) be able to contend for conference titles every 4-5 years or so and i'll be content with that.
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If I felt this way, I wouldn't be a Gopher fan. I'd move on to something else. MN, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, and others should all board up their football buildings. Is it a challenge to pull recruits out of football rich states? Sure it is. Under the right University backing and the right coaching, football can become powerful in strange places like Oregon, Boise State, Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Moscow. Yes, fewer recruits here, but not many big land grant Universities in power conferences with NO OTHER D1 in-state programs to contend with either. It is all a matter of perspective and if you can only see the negative, that is what you can expect.

I may not live to actually see it at MN, but if I felt that it wasn't possible I'd move on to one of my many other interests rather than Gopher football.
 


Basketball has a chance to become a giant but I don't know that football could ever get back there again like it was back in the 60's and before. The competitive landscape in football has changed too much. I think the high end for football here would be upper division finishes with the occasional run for the conference championship and a BCS bid. Not sure that is realistic on a year in and year out basis with the likes of Ohio State, Michigan and others hanging around with resources that are always going to be difficult for us to compete with.
 

Depends what your view of "Giant" is. I think we are capable of getting to Wisconsin's level.
 


Schnauzer said:
If I felt this way, I wouldn't be a Gopher fan. I'd move on to something else. MN, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, and others should all board up their football buildings. Is it a challenge to pull recruits out of football rich states? Sure it is. Under the right University backing and the right coaching, football can become powerful in strange places like Oregon, Boise State, Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Moscow. Yes, fewer recruits here, but not many big land grant Universities in power conferences with NO OTHER D1 in-state programs to contend with either. It is all a matter of perspective and if you can only see the negative, that is what you can expect.

I may not live to actually see it at MN, but if I felt that it wasn't possible I'd move on to one of my many other interests rather than Gopher football.
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Good God, we can't fill a 50,000 seat stadium with our own fans but people want to run true fans off for giving their honest opinion, whether it's about what level Gopher football will reach or whether or not we were lucky instead of fortunate last Saturday. Just enjoy this little streak and hope it continues. You handful of guys who won't settle for mediocrity aren't going to have any more influence on this program than those of us who are a bit more realistic. I would guess most of us support the program at about the same level with season tickets and not a whole lot of cash towards the program beyond that. Not you specifically, but some of the "won't settle for mediocrity" crowd is what makes GH a miserable place after a loss (or even during a game when things aren't going well).
 



I have never wanted to think of my team as a sleeping giant, rather a budding giant. If we are already a giant and just aren't getting it done, then why the heck are we sleeping?
 

Schnauzer said:
If I felt this way, I wouldn't be a Gopher fan. I'd move on to something else. MN, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, and others should all board up their football buildings. Is it a challenge to pull recruits out of football rich states? Sure it is. Under the right University backing and the right coaching, football can become powerful in strange places like Oregon, Boise State, Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Moscow. Yes, fewer recruits here, but not many big land grant Universities in power conferences with NO OTHER D1 in-state programs to contend with either. It is all a matter of perspective and if you can only see the negative, that is what you can expect.

I may not live to actually see it at MN, but if I felt that it wasn't possible I'd move on to one of my many other interests rather than Gopher football.
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i have no idea where you pulled that out my post but alright then.
 

I don't think we're a sleeping giant by any stretch but we should be able to have a level of competence within our programs to where we can compete for the conference championship from time-to-time. We need to tuck our egos at the door and agree that if we reached Wisconsin's level we'd all be dancing in the streets. I don't think we're poised to be the next tOSU, but we can certainly get our sh$t together enough to where we are in the upper half of the B1G year-to-year.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Depends what your view of "Giant" is. I think we are capable of getting to Wisconsin's level.
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I pretty much agree with this. I think the best football is played in the South, and I am not sure that will change.
 



I think our chances are better with the B1G going to East/West divisions. Our main rivals all have similar demographics meaning a limited amount of instate talent. If the program can develop to the point that it is regularly going to the Championship game it'll attract the necessary talent.
 

Mulligan said:
Good God, we can't fill a 50,000 seat stadium with our own fans but people want to run true fans off for giving their honest opinion, whether it's about what level Gopher football will reach or whether or not we were lucky instead of fortunate last Saturday. Just enjoy this little streak and hope it continues. You handful of guys who won't settle for mediocrity aren't going to have any more influence on this program than those of us who are a bit more realistic. I would guess most of us support the program at about the same level with season tickets and not a whole lot of cash towards the program beyond that. Not you specifically, but some of the "won't settle for mediocrity" crowd is what makes GH a miserable place after a loss (or even during a game when things aren't going well).
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I've been settling for mediocrity my whole life when it comes to Gopher football. If I thought that was all that it could ever be, I wouldn't be a fan. I'm a fan precisely because I am always hopeful of a great future. This is why I can endure the bad seasons (or decades). That was my point. You missed it completely. If you or anyone else think otherwise, enjoy the football program in any way you see fit.
 

upnorthkid said:
i have no idea where you pulled that out my post but alright then.
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Perhaps I read too quickly but I thought the point of your post was it would not be possible for MN to be a giant in football or attract top talent.
 

I second that it depends on what you mean by giant, but weather is really not as much an obstacle as many think. The weather really isn't much different than it is at other schools. We may not be likely to be as consistently good as Michigan and Ohio State have been, but there's no reason we can't do at well as Iowa or Wisconsin have done, they don't have any inherent advantages.
 

To many professional teams in town to become a sleeping giant. In 1960 and 61 we were
a football giant. Then came the Twinkies and the Queens; followed by the North Stars and later the
Timber Puppies. Lynx and Wild. Other than the Twinkies and the Lynx none of them have done jack
sh-t. Heck, I also remember the Minnesota Fighting Saints hockey team The Minnesota Pipers/ Muskies and the great Connie Hawkins. Hell, we even had a professional bowling team. A professional
Soccer team that played out at the old Met and drew 50,000 when Pele came in with the New York Cosmo's. Can't forget the old Minneapolis Lakers. As a 6 year old I saw the master of the yo-yo dribble and head fake. Elgin Baylor. I've seen it all boys and if you look at results, professional sports has been a giant bust in the Twin Cities after the early 60's.
 

Minesota can return to its glory years of yesteryear. Those glory days were intentionally terminated by the University in the person of President Malcolm Moos. Back in those days Minnesotans thought they were too cool for football. A barbarian sport. The U shouldn't be soiled by the sport.

Times change (after decades). Our new Presidnet has brought in an Athletic Director to build winning programs and by default (a misplay by Maturi in hiring) inherited a strong football coach and his entire staff. Keep telling the Regents you want to restore the Gophers as a sports powerhouse. Support Kaler and Teague. Get the new facilities funded and built. Sleeping giant, yes. But will the sleeping fans wake up? That starts with us. Bring a friend to the games. Fill TCF and the Barn. Get loud and have fun and winning will come to stay. We can compete with tOSU and Michigan year in and year out. You have to help make that happen. We all do.

We sucked on purpose for decades. We can win on purpose too.
 

I definitely think we could be a giant in basketball. The demographics are there, we're the only major program in a state that regularly produces solid (and sometimes, like this year, much better than solid) recruits. To be honest, the basketball team has been underperforming for as long as I've been a fan, a few of the Haskins years being the only exception.

Football is an entirely different story. If everything breaks right, the best we could reasonably hope for is something on the level of Wisconsin, which would obviously be great. But the true giants of football, i.e. Texas, OSU, Michigan, USC, a good chunk of the SEC, Florida State, even Penn State, have something that we just can't compete with...they're flagship programs in areas with so much available talent that scads of programs have been built on their leftovers. Many if not most of them also have large, passionate fan bases, often in areas with no real competing pro teams (the fan support is why teams like Nebraska and Iowa have an easier time sustaining success). That's something we could theoretically get, but it would be an uphill battle to say the least, and even then I think it's the less important of the two big pieces of the puzzle.

The third, outlier possibility, is the Oregon route...insanely deep pockets that try and buy a program. That kind of support is rare, unfortunately, and Oregon is the only program I can think of that has a chance of establishing itself as a true giant going that route.
 

diehard said:
Minesota can return to its glory years of yesteryear. Those glory days were intentionally terminated by the University in the person of President Malcolm Moos. Back in those days Minnesotans thought they were too cool for football. A barbarian sport. The U shouldn't be soiled by the sport.

Times change (after decades). Our new Presidnet has brought in an Athletic Director to build winning programs and by default (a misplay by Maturi in hiring) inherited a strong football coach and his entire staff. Keep telling the Regents you want to restore the Gophers as a sports powerhouse. Support Kaler and Teague. Get the new facilities funded and built. Sleeping giant, yes. But will the sleeping fans wake up? That starts with us. Bring a friend to the games. Fill TCF and the Barn. Get loud and have fun and winning will come to stay. We can compete with tOSU and Michigan year in and year out. You have to help make that happen. We all do.

We sucked on purpose for decades. We can win on purpose too.
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How sad is that part of our history. I feel the same way you do. Anybody can get to the top if they care enough to get there. I'm doing my small part.
 

anecdotal story: lot of my friends who havent gone to a game since their senior year are going this saturday. i have slowly converted them over from die hard vikings fans.
 

I agree with diehard. I know what he says is true. And I would add that anyone who thinks Minnesota can't become a national powerhouse is potentially part of the problem. Cry about how that insults those fans who only wish for mediocrity, but the fact of the matter is that only when the majority of fans want to win championships will we be able to do so. Only in recent times has the leadership at the U started to understand that winning in the big sports can enhance the overall mission. The problem is their predecessors created this situation. Other winning schools "get it", but it's hard to convince some Minnesotans why winning football games is important. Those same Minnesotans write disparaging newspaper articles and sports columns that consciously, or perhaps subconsciously, seek to undermine sports success. If you want mediocrity you need to examine your motivations. Think about it. Do you really want that? You'd really be happy with that? We all want to blame the weather and the location, but what we really need to do is look at ourselves and what we do to support winning. Minnesota is not the problem and Minnesotans can be the solution if they think like winners. We just have to want to improve as fans the same as the team wants to improve on the field.
 

I sense from the posts that some of our good Gopher fans have a feeling of unworthiness when it comes to having a dominant football program. It will take some time and some winning to get over that that. It has been beaten into us over decades.

In the meanwhile, leaders need to lead. Bring friends to games. Donate what you can. Contact the Regents, President, and AD with your support. Let's get these pratice facilities built.
 

You hit the nail on the head. I think I was looking for more support from the fans rather than being an NCAA powerhouse football team. I would just love to see the Bank full every weekend without having to deal with promotions and such. Getting to the point where it's the biggest party on a Saturday in MN and that students are fighting to get a chance to see the game and that would be good by me. Support the team, have a blast, and win baby win!!
 

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