BREAKING: ATHAN IN THE PORTAL

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Gophergrandpa said:
Maybe Athan realized that he regressed this year because, just maybe, we don't have a decent QB coach? Try to move somewhere where he can develop under good position coaching?
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I wondered about that myself. With Votto also entering the portal, it may be an indication that the current QBs don't have confidence in either the scheme or the coaching.

WRs didn't help him this year and I've been disappointed in Fleck's inability to recruit top-drawer WRs (I thought he would) or develop the three-star guys into B1G-level players. Neither has really happened.

I think it just goes to show that the 2nd-string QB is the most popular guy for the fan base until he becomes the starter and passes the mantle to the next guy.

My fear here is that Fleck will go full-on Brewster and get impatient and blow things up to the extent we'll be scrambling to get our feet back underneath us. There needs to be a change in the offensive mindset, but that won't happen overnight. Need more speed on defense as well.

I'm 70 and have bigger things to worry about, but I think this is the most disappointed I've been in a Gopher season. I wasn't expecting 9-3 or 10-2, but I thought 8-4 was doable. As it turned out, a couple of things to the good and they are 7-5, but a couple of things to the bad and they are 3-9. And it's not just that they lost, it's how they lost that became maddening.
 

50PoundHead said:
I wondered about that myself. With Votto also entering the portal, it may be an indication that the current QBs don't have confidence in either the scheme or the coaching.

WRs didn't help him this year and I've been disappointed in Fleck's inability to recruit top-drawer WRs (I thought he would) or develop the three-star guys into B1G-level players. Neither has really happened.

I think it just goes to show that the 2nd-string QB is the most popular guy for the fan base until he becomes the starter and passes the mantle to the next guy.

My fear here is that Fleck will go full-on Brewster and get impatient and blow things up to the extent we'll be scrambling to get our feet back underneath us. There needs to be a change in the offensive mindset, but that won't happen overnight. Need more speed on defense as well.

I'm 70 and have bigger things to worry about, but I think this is the most disappointed I've been in a Gopher season. I wasn't expecting 9-3 or 10-2, but I thought 8-4 was doable. As it turned out, a couple of things to the good and they are 7-5, but a couple of things to the bad and they are 3-9. And it's not just that they lost, it's how they lost that became maddening.
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I also think there is a sense that the staff doesn't think you're the guy. Our QB play last year was awful and the solution to that problem has never really been Viotto (at least from fans or seemingly from the coach).

We get that Viotto is young and PJ will almost always stick with his guys, but to Viotto he may have questioned the staff's confidence in him. We have a glaring weakness, he was brought in to do that very thing and we never really thought about using him. It could easily be a situation similar to Marquise Williams.

Then again, he could just hate our offense and not want his career tied to it.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I also think there is a sense that the staff doesn't think you're the guy. Our QB play last year was awful and the solution to that problem has never really been Viotto (at least from fans or seemingly from the coach).

We get that Viotto is young and PJ will almost always stick with his guys, but to Viotto he may have questioned the staff's confidence in him. We have a glaring weakness, he was brought in to do that very thing and we never really thought about using him. It could easily be a situation similar to Marquise Williams.

Then again, he could just hate our offense and not want his career tied to it.
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Agree and I got Drew Viotto and Joey Votto mixed up in terms of spelling. I think the thing with Williams is that if there's less than four games left in the season and his red-shirt isn't in danger and he's watching a walk-on get 20-plus carries in a game, he probably has to wonder what the future is going to look like for him. I have nothing against Jordan Nubin. Great story. But if he's carrying the mail for 20 times a game, you've got issues at the RB position.
 




NoelarBear said:
Athan’s Dad tweeted this out today.
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OMG please Tweet more Athan’s dad, lol!

giphy.gif
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
The anytime transfer has to go. That would be the first step toward bringing back sanity to college football. Reducing or ending NIL will require court action, which will take some time. As PJ said, every kid is a free agent with no salary caps. That is totally, almost insanely unfair, and creates chaos. Contrast with the NFL.
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Not to get too far off track, but I think this...if a kid wants to get paid to play that is 100% their right, they should be able to do that. BUT there are things that come with that, IE a contract. Hey kid you got your NIL but you're here for all 4 years unless we release you. Not hopping from school to school every year. And if you want freedom to do that cool, then the NIL won't be there.
 

Is Dino leaving too?

He is still listed on the Gopher's roster.
 

Dad should spill all or say nothing at all. This "setting the record straight" did no such thing and it does disservice to his son, who by all accounts is still searching for a landing spot.
 









disco said:
This is so passive aggressive you'd think they were native Minnesotans.
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The addition of "mythical" to the comment is soooooo perfectly passive aggressive Minnesotan, I can just hear him speaking the sentence, saying that word with a sneer and an emphasis native to only our most Scandinavian (or southeastern European?) of residents😂
 

Some guy said:
AK leaving could be as simple as AK played in a spread in high school…committed here to run a spread and all of a sudden this year the gophers were 35-40% under center.

He may not like playing under center.
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As a fan I questioned it as well.
 

Some guy said:
AK leaving could be as simple as AK played in a spread in high school…committed here to run a spread and all of a sudden this year the gophers were 35-40% under center.

He may not like playing under center.
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I feel like if that was the reason, there wouldn't be a reason to "not comment on the program" cause that's entirely reasonable. My bet is that either Athan was not meshing with Harbaugh or he was asked to go above and beyond to improve and it didn't match the "work-life" balance he wants.
 

swelna said:
I feel like if that was the reason, there wouldn't be a reason to "not comment on the program" cause that's entirely reasonable. My bet is that either Athan was not meshing with Harbaugh or he was asked to go above and beyond to improve and it didn't match the "work-life" balance he wants.
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You just disagreed with my reason because you think he maybe didn’t like the offensive philosophy?

Isn’t that the same thing?
 

swelna said:
I feel like if that was the reason, there wouldn't be a reason to "not comment on the program" cause that's entirely reasonable. My bet is that either Athan was not meshing with Harbaugh or he was asked to go above and beyond to improve and it didn't match the "work-life" balance he wants.
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Or, Kaliakmanis didn't want to have to compete with a grad transfer/portal QB.
 
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Texan Gopher said:
Go look at the quarterback thread. See my post from a couple days ago. It looks like a tough conversation over breakfast was had. I guarantee you this decision was not started by AK.
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That is quite a guarantee. I think it is just as likely Athan saw his lack of development and the offense and he initiated it. But I couldn’t guarantee that.
 

WoodburyTim said:
That is quite a guarantee. I think it is just as likely Athan saw his lack of development and the offense and he initiated it. But I couldn’t guarantee that.
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Oh, yeah... Kaliakmanis took a hard look at his own lack of development, blamed the coach for it, decided to leave and then he waited to announce his departure until the day after Fleck offered a roster spot to the New Hampshire kid.

That makes perfect sense.
 

Some guy said:
You just disagreed with my reason because you think he maybe didn’t like the offensive philosophy?

Isn’t that the same thing?
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When I said "not meshing with Harbaugh" I meant personality wise. My main point was if it was something like "Athan wants to be in a spread offense" you could just say that directly, it's not a controversial statement. Makes me believe there is something deeper behind it, like the amount of time the coaching staff was asking Athan to spend outside of practice doing workouts/film studies or a personality clash.
 

Some guy said:
AK leaving could be as simple as AK played in a spread in high school…committed here to run a spread and all of a sudden this year the gophers were 35-40% under center.

He may not like playing under center.
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Kaliakmanis knew he wasn't going to school running the Mississippi State offense, but he probably never thought he'd end up at a school running the Iowa offense.
 

RememberMurray said:
Oh, yeah... Kaliakmanis took a hard look at his own lack of development, blamed the coach for it, decided to leave and then he waited to announce his departure until the day after Fleck offered a roster spot to the New Hampshire kid.

That makes perfect sense.
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QB’s always leave when a quarterback is offered a scholarship? The whole Fleck ran him him out relies on the belief that PJ knows what he is doing when it comes to offense and quarterback play. I’m skeptical.
 

WoodburyTim said:
QB’s always leave when a quarterback is offered a scholarship? The whole Fleck ran him him out relies on the belief that PJ knows what he is doing when it comes to offense and quarterback play. I’m skeptical.
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How many times did it happen in Flecks tenure? Even if Fleck doesn't know what he's doing, you felt comfortable with Athan starting next year? He shouldn't try to do better?
 

RememberMurray said:
I don't want a QB who is afraid of competition.
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I agree. However, if a kid is choosing a school and it's basically a coin flip between 2-3 schools and one of them is telling you the job is yours to lose, I'm guessing the kid is usually choosing that option.
 

A new QB transfer will getting the lion's hare of NIL money which takes money out of AK's pocket. Therefore, AK goes on a roadshow shopping for some of his own NIL money. Good luck.
 

Panthadad2 said:
A new QB transfer will getting the lion's hare of NIL money which takes money out of AK's pocket. Therefore, AK goes on a roadshow shopping for some of his own NIL money. Good luck.
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I doubt Truman State has much NIL to pay.
 




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