Badgers kicking off 2015 schedule at Cowboys Stadium vs Alabama

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I agree with the people who say we shouldn't criticize a team for scheduling someone stronger than they are. There are so many other reasons to hate the Badgers, and I try to take advantage of all of them. However, do we think that New Hampshire was arrogant for scheduling us last year? This makes me even more upset about running away from North Carolina (a team who, in the last four years, has finished with an ACC record of .500 or better as many times as Alabama has won the national championship).
 

Firejumper said:
By the end of the Michigan game it was easier to count which Michigan players had been injured during the game than had a significant impact on the outcome. They lost their starting cornerback for the season. Lost their starting tight end. Lewan was injured. Should I go on? Check your facts.

As for Brewster, he scheduled USC for recruiting reasons and stated as much. Trying to stand out on the recruiting trail. As for Wisconsin, they're just plain arrogant. Don't believe it, just spend 1 minutes talking to any one of their fans. Anyone.
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You don't think Wisconsin and Alabama both aren't doing this for recruiting reasons as well? They are playing the game in DFW, one of the best recruiting regions in the country.
 

I really like these non-conference games. I would rather see it be a home and home series and see Alabama in Camp Randall in November, but I know an SEC school isn't likely to do that.

WI is in a position where they should step up and schedule really tough games. If MN gets to that level in a few years, I hope we add a really tough opponent.

Roll Tide.
 

badgergopher said:
Bronco Nagurski once scored a fourth quarter TD to beat Wisconsin wearing a truss to take pressure off of his cracked vertebrae. This is a proud program with seven national championships. Fear of injury should not be cited as a valid reason for not scheduling someone. Not for the Gophers or for the Badgers.
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Again, the point is not being afraid of injuries. The point is this - go ask Michigan if they thought playing Alabama in the first game was a good idea this year and would do it again.

There is a difference between scheduling a 'tough' non-conference opponent (which i agree with) and scheduling Alabama. Did you watch the NC game? Do you think ANYONE is at Alabama's level right now? I'm pretty sure the Badgers think they can give them a game. Arrogance.
 

Firejumper said:
Again, the point is not being afraid of injuries. The point is this - go ask Michigan if they thought playing Alabama in the first game was a good idea this year and would do it again.

There is a difference between scheduling a 'tough' non-conference opponent (which i agree with) and scheduling Alabama. Did you watch the NC game? Do you think ANYONE is at Alabama's level right now? I'm pretty sure the Badgers think they can give them a game. Arrogance.
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If no one is at Alabama's level, then should no one schedule them? Just leave Alabama to play their SEC schedule with no OOC games?
 


Firejumper said:
Again, the point is not being afraid of injuries. The point is this - go ask Michigan if they thought playing Alabama in the first game was a good idea this year and would do it again.

There is a difference between scheduling a 'tough' non-conference opponent (which i agree with) and scheduling Alabama. Did you watch the NC game? Do you think ANYONE is at Alabama's level right now? I'm pretty sure the Badgers think they can give them a game. Arrogance.
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You may view that as Arrogance, to me that comes across as Confidence. Not calling you a loser but it is a loser mentality to think there is no way your squad can compete. Yeah Alabama is the top dog in college football right now but in 2015 their hold on the top might not be as strong as it is right now. Bottom line Wisconsin wants to play the best, and they want to do it in a recruiting hotbed where they will be seen in person and on national tv. And you can bet when they take the field it will be with the belief that they deserve to be on the field with Alabama.

Now if you don't mind I am going to go take a shower and try to wash off the stench of spending as much time as I have in this thread sticking up for the actions of our neighbors to the East....I feel dirty.
 

Firejumper said:
Again, the point is not being afraid of injuries. The point is this - go ask Michigan if they thought playing Alabama in the first game was a good idea this year and would do it again.

There is a difference between scheduling a 'tough' non-conference opponent (which i agree with) and scheduling Alabama. Did you watch the NC game? Do you think ANYONE is at Alabama's level right now? I'm pretty sure the Badgers think they can give them a game. Arrogance.
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Alabama steamrolled ND, but it's not like they crushed everyone to get there. LSU gave them all they could handle, they got beat at home by A&M and they were incredibly lucky to even be playing in the championship game, thanks to some head-scratching clock management from the Bulldogs. It is three seasons away, Little Nicky may get bit by the NFL bug again by that time. Who knows?
 

LesBolstad said:
Two words:

North Carolina
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^^^ Thats what came to my mind, bucky plays Alabama, Gophs won't even play North Carolina, the USC losses were not bad for the Gophers, the Badgers play tough agains Alabama and lose it won't be a negative.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I agree with the people who say we shouldn't criticize a team for scheduling someone stronger than they are. There are so many other reasons to hate the Badgers, and I try to take advantage of all of them. However, do we think that New Hampshire was arrogant for scheduling us last year? This makes me even more upset about running away from North Carolina (a team who, in the last four years, has finished with an ACC record of .500 or better as many times as Alabama has won the national championship).
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+100
 



MNVCGUY said:
You may view that as Arrogance, to me that comes across as Confidence. Not calling you a loser but it is a loser mentality to think there is no way your squad can compete. Yeah Alabama is the top dog in college football right now but in 2015 their hold on the top might not be as strong as it is right now. Bottom line Wisconsin wants to play the best, and they want to do it in a recruiting hotbed where they will be seen in person and on national tv. And you can bet when they take the field it will be with the belief that they deserve to be on the field with Alabama.

Now if you don't mind I am going to go take a shower and try to wash off the stench of spending as much time as I have in this thread sticking up for the actions of our neighbors to the East....I feel dirty.
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You think the Gophers can compete with Alabama? If not, is that a loser's mentality? No it's not, it's being grounded in an understanding of who you are and where you're at. We now know where Bucky thinks they're at.
 

Firejumper said:
You think the Gophers can compete with Alabama? If not, is that a loser's mentality? No it's not, it's being grounded in an understanding of who you are and where you're at. We now know where Bucky thinks they're at.
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Wow way to twist that into a totally different statement. Of course I don't think we should be scheduling Alabama right now but we absolutely have a loser mentality when it comes to scheduling. We have a coach that does not believe we can compete with North Carolina so much so that he gets the administration to pay to get out of the game and replace the game with a ROAD game against New Mexico State.

But that topic has been beat to death. To the bolded part of your quote, why shouldn't they think they can compete with the best? They have been to 3 straight Rose Bowls, they have won Big Ten Championships. Is Alabama a great program right now, hell yeah, but that doesn't mean teams should run and hide from them or just assume there is no way they can beat them. Sports is about having confidence and even a certain level of arrogance....you want to be the best you have to compete with and beat the best. Hopefully someday we will have that mindset around here again. For all his faults as a head coach, Brewster believed in that principal.
 

Firejumper said:
By the end of the Michigan game it was easier to count which Michigan players had been injured during the game than had a significant impact on the outcome. They lost their starting cornerback for the season. Lost their starting tight end. Lewan was injured. Should I go on? Check your facts.
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Checking my facts on the internets, Lewan was fine for the next week, and the TE (who was a new starter) was just out a few weeks. So the major loss was one CB to season-ending knee injury. Would this have been avoided if they didn't play Bama, and played UNLV instead? The Gophers lost Harbison to a season-ending knee injury in that opening game as well. With the Gophers' scathing OOC schedule there were still many bad injuries, so your argument doesn't hold up.
 

I think this game will be good for the Gophers program. If Becky loses,and they probably will, the Gophers are still the last Big Ten team to beat Bama. If they somehow pull off a victory, it shows that teams from the B1G can beat anybody.

Sent from my PLAYSTATION PHONE using tapatalk
 



Firejumper said:
You think the Gophers can compete with Alabama? If not, is that a loser's mentality? No it's not, it's being grounded in an understanding of who you are and where you're at. We now know where Bucky thinks they're at.
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The out of conference season is absolutely full of mismatches. Does that mean that everyone team who is playing against a team much better than them thinks they are at the higher team's level? If so, just about every small conference team is delusional, using your logic.
 

Whether you like it or not (and I don't), the Gophers official scheduling policy under Jerry Kill for non-conference games is "We don't want to face anyone who might have a reasonable chance of beating us." I hate Wisconsin, but I give them credit for having the balls to want to play the #1 team in the country.

I hope that, if the Gopher program shows improvement over the next 3-4 years, that Kill and Teague are willing to try and schedule one major-conference opponent for non-conference. But, if the B1G goes to a 9-game schedule, I'm afraid that the marquee non-conference games are going to be fewer and fewer among all the B1G teams.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Whether you like it or not (and I don't), the Gophers official scheduling policy under Jerry Kill for non-conference games is "We don't want to face anyone who might have a reasonable chance of beating us." I hate Wisconsin, but I give them credit for having the balls to want to play the #1 team in the country.

I hope that, if the Gopher program shows improvement over the next 3-4 years, that Kill and Teague are willing to try and schedule one major-conference opponent for non-conference. But, if the B1G goes to a 9-game schedule, I'm afraid that the marquee non-conference games are going to be fewer and fewer among all the B1G teams.
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Good for you for stating what you hope. Personally, I hope that sooner, rather than later we have 10...11...or even 12 conference games and totally ditch this foolish scheduling of out of conference games. It is a waste of games as far as I am concerned. More money will be generated for all of the Gopher sports programs and this silly bickering about "cupcakes" and "having one major conference opponent" and all the stupid stuff trying to discredit our team getting invited to lower-tier bowl games only because of the ooc schedule by our own fans can stop. Heck: our fans just look for excuses to NOT attend a bowl game. So, IF we quit having them waste their funds traveling to early season o.o.c. games MAYBE they might have more money to travel to places like El Paso to watch us play Oregon...or Nashville to watch us play Arkansas, Alabama or Virginia...or Texas OR Florida in the winter. And, if more of our fair-weathered fans bought tickets to bowl games when we are invited...the next time we might NOT be passed over for what some would call a better bowl because our fans don't put butts in the seats and bods in the beads of bowl game cities as well as wisky...or iowa...or MSU...or Purdue.

As far as I am concerned: early season o.o.c. games are pretty much not too interesting compared to conference games. o.o.c games are a real crap-shoot and pretty much have the potential to be no-win situations. And, unless you open in Jerry's new palace in the Dallas area, they certainly are NOT too financially rewarding...

I know short...you passionately disagree...but...I guess I'd have to say that I passionately disagree with your take on things too. I guess it's a wash if we only count our own points of view. I just want to see EXACTLY where we rank in our conference year in and year out. And, since you want to schedule the Big Boys in o.o.c action, I'm afraid that I will have to weigh in saying I think what Jerry Kill KNOWS about Godlen Gopher Football at the moment dictates that it is crucial to win games, work to become MORE competitive within the conference AND be invited to bowl games...at this point in Golden Gopher Football. I've got a heck of a lot more faith in Jerry Kill's assessment of the situation than I do in any Norwegian's point of view. (I can say that because I am 100% Norwegian heritage...so...in case you miss the humor...I'm saying I put more faith in Jerry Kill's assessment of the situation than in EITHER of our assessments...)

; 0 )
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I hate Wisconsin, but I give them credit for having the balls to want UTEP, South Dakota, Austin Peay, Wofford, et al.
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Fixed it.

Not picking on you SON, but people are acting like they're scheduling the toughest games they can find OOC with regularity, and the reality is that they have scheduled a ton of crap teams, and teams with bigger names, and middling success.
 

Unregistered User said:
Fixed it.

Not picking on you SON, but people are acting like they're scheduling the toughest games they can find OOC with regularity, and the reality is that they have scheduled a ton of crap teams, and teams with bigger names, and middling success.
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You forgot Minnesota
 


Let me try and express this a different way. The 1st Gopher game I attended in person was in 1968. The Gophers were playing USC, who had a running back named OJ Simpson (before he killed anyone.)
Think about that - the 1st Gopher game I saw featured one of the top-ranked teams in the country, with a Heisman Trophy running back. The Gophers lost the game, but it was a day I'll never forget.

In future years, do you think any grown-up Gopher fans will look back with fond memories as they wax nostalgic: "I remember the 1st Gopher game I went to, against New Mexico State," or any of the other forgettable non-conference opponents the Gophs play these days?

Hey, I'm realistic. I don't expect the entire non-conf schedule to be against Alabama, Texas and LSU. I would just like to see one team from a BCS conference - it doesn't have to be a top-25 team - just a team that people have actually heard of. Maybe even a team where someone could name one of their players without having to google the team roster. Say a team like North Carolina..............oops, I guess that's not going to happen.

The fact is that Wisconsin has made a statement. They are willing to play a challenging opponent in non-conference action. Minnesota is willing to cough up $800K to avoid playing a far less challenging opponent. I hate the stinkin' Badgers, but I will give credit where credit is due.

And to the Sage from Winona - say hi to Jerry Papenfuss if you run into him.
 


UW's schedule has been pretty bad the last 6 years or so but that is changing beyond the Bama game.
Next year they play BYU and Ari St.
2014 @Wash St (which is not very good) but two dates still need to be filled for 14 so we'll see.
15 Bama, Wash St
16 @Va Tech
17 Va Tech, @BYU
18 Wash, BYU

According to Barry the days of UW playing 1-AA teams like Wofford and Austin Peay are over but we'll see. I think they'll be off the sched for the next couple years at least.
 

bigdsrip said:
According to Barry the days of UW playing 1-AA teams like Wofford and Austin Peay are over but we'll see. I think they'll be off the sched for the next couple years at least.
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Not UW, all Big Ten. link

It's a shame because if the Gophers were actually able to beat a FCS team, they could claim another championship.
 

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