Colorado > Minnesota?

Donate To GopherHole
G

GG07

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
384
Reaction score
0
Points
16
I don't really see how coaches would rather coach at Colorado than at Minnesota...

Can someone tell me why??
 


Most people will likely cite recent success as the main reason.
 


Silvio said:
Most people will likely cite recent success as the main reason.
Click to expand...

Other reasons I can see:
- Pac 10 (Pac 12) could be seen as easier to win
- easier inroads to recruiting hotbeds

Other than that I'm drawing a blank. Potential negatives:
- Financial: Can't pay as much b/c of money woes and overall athletic budget is hurting.
- Level of support from University. If I'm not mistaken, Colorado is also seen as having had University community that isn't super supportive of athletics (feel free to correct me, this is something I thought I've read).
 


While Colorado is stated to have budget woes I think this will be partially eliminated with the move to the PAC10. I would guess this was the main reason for the move. It won't be solved next year, but it will be fixed a couple years down the road and boosters can make up the gap for a couple years.
 



CU has crappy fans, and they don't have a latent fan base waiting for a few winning years like Minnesota. They don't show up win they're winning.

Further, it's not that easy to recruit to Boulder. It's a white bread, affluent, liberal town. The students are either hippy pot heads or ski bums. Not exactly the favored peer groups for your typical elite athlete.

There's a reason they've gone downhill (pun intended) now that the recruits aren't given sex and booze on their trips.

I'm not even sure half the dumb southern recruits even understand how much better the weather is in Boulder than Minneapolis. Colorado = cold, snow and mountains!
 



Ron Johnson Super Fan said:
No way man. The Buffalo was easily driven to the brink of extinction. Gophers are much harder to eliminate. Just ask Carl Spackler.
Click to expand...

Very true. Gophers are very dogged and persistent little beasties. They are born prey, which forces them to be wily and very, very quick if they want to survive. Buffaloes on the other hand are large, lumbering behemoths, not terribly bright and pretty darn easy to kill.

In my opinion the whole Colorado-Minnesota thing is entirely subjective and a matter of personal opinion. If you like mountains and Alpine skiing, then probably Colorado is the place. Or if you love tons of lakes and some world-class fishing, then maybe Minnesota is the place. If 'lifestyle' is a criteria, then both places in my opinion offer a very good quality of life. It just depends on what you like.

I don't think it would come down to an issue of money, because Bruinink's and Maturi have both indicated they're willing to pony up in order to get the right guy, and they continue to indicate that, so I'm assuming they're being straight-up and honest about that. It sounds like they're willing to pay a guy enough to where he would be within the top 15 of all college coaches in pay, which is very fair rate and should be a real draw to almost anyone. I'm not sure what Colorado is willing to pay or whether they'd be able to meet or top what we are allegedly prepared to offer the right guy, but either way it shouldn't matter. They're not going to significantly outspend us, and that's pretty much all that matters.

And as far as Big Ten-Pac Ten, again I think that's just a matter of personal preference as to which conference it might be better to coach in. Personally I prefer the Big 10 and see it as being a much more prestigious conference, but that's just me and there are plenty of other people who would say the same thing about the Pac 10.
 

Colorado assistants are dead last in pay in the Big 12 and they will be dead last in the Pac. State law prohibits multi-year deals for any of the assistants as well.
 

If anything...at least we aren't known as Buff Nation.
 

Years ago, they tried to revamp Goldy to give him a more "fearsome" look. It looked stupid. Mascots don't inspire fear anyway. Is anyone at all afraid of Brutus? Besides, let Goldy have that goofy grin. He can do that knowing that an armada of gophers are tunneling away underneath the enemies feet.
 



RodentRampage said:
Years ago, they tried to revamp Goldy to give him a more "fearsome" look. It looked stupid. Mascots don't inspire fear anyway. Is anyone at all afraid of Brutus? Besides, let Goldy have that goofy grin. He can do that knowing that an armada of gophers are tunneling away underneath the enemies feet.
Click to expand...

Fearsome, or "Mean" Goldy was a Lou Holtz initiative as I recall. I think it lasted one or two seasons before it was softened into our current Goldy logo. So it actually resulted in the Goldy most Gopherholers have known. Last season I saw a female fan with a "mean Goldy" T-shirt at a game and was impressed she still had one after 25 years.

Note the claws and angry eyes.

http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/goldy.php

goldy_5.gif


That could scare a buffalo.
 

Navin said:
Fearsome, or "Mean" Goldy was a Lou Holtz initiative as I recall. I think it lasted one or two seasons before it was softened into our current Goldy logo. So it actually resulted in the Goldy most Gopherholers have known. Last season I saw a female fan with a "mean Goldy" T-shirt at a game and was impressed she still had one after 25 years.
Click to expand...

I was thinking more the Goldy Gopher costume rather than of the drawn Goldy Gopher. The fierce Goldy Gopher mask really didn't work. What the Goldy Gopher mask look like before Holtz came here? I know the State Fair's gopher mascot looks an awful lot like Goldy.

I can't recall seeing Goldy before Holtz, games weren't on TV much. I remember in a 57-3 rout of Ohio U in 1982, Goldy Gopher was doing his pushups on his back against the air because he couldn't do any more pushup. But I listened to the game on the radio.
 

I believe "Mean Goldy" went away after the Mitch Lee "incident" in Madison in Feb 1986.
 

goldy_2.gif



Wow, this one was new and surprising to me.
 

RodentRampage said:
Years ago, they tried to revamp Goldy to give him a more "fearsome" look. It looked stupid. Mascots don't inspire fear anyway. Is anyone at all afraid of Brutus? Besides, let Goldy have that goofy grin. He can do that knowing that an armada of gophers are tunneling away underneath the enemies feet.
Click to expand...

Brutus is a NUT for god's sake. At least we have a mascot from the animal kingdom.
 

GG07 said:
I don't really see how coaches would rather coach at Colorado than at Minnesota...

Can someone tell me why??
Click to expand...

Climate and location for recruiting purposes are the only things I can think of. It really is one of the truly beautiful locations in this country.
 

GG07 said:
I don't really see how coaches would rather coach at Colorado than at Minnesota...

Can someone tell me why??
Click to expand...

Have you ever been there? I lived in Golden for 2 years after college. It is beautiful. I don't know about it being easier to win in the pac12 though. while there may be more movement from top to bottom cyclically as compared to the entrenched powers in the Big10(+2), the competition is fierce, and the travel is brutal. you can go from 100degree game in tuscon to a snow game in pullman or corvallis, to freezing rain in seattle in successive weeks.

It doesn't get alot of cred in big10 country...but i think the pac10 is probably a stronger conference top to bottom. colorado will not be able to compete for a long while. every year they will play:
USC
UCLA
Arizona
ASU
Utah

Oregon/Oregon State

+ plus two of Cal/Stanford/UDub/Wazzu every year.

they suck now, and i don't see them suddenly being competitive w/ this conference.
 

MNWolfman said:
Have you ever been there? I lived in Golden for 2 years after college. It is beautiful.
Click to expand...

I lived in Denver for a year, and the climate is worlds better than Minnesota. I love the outdoor scene, too.

I'm not sure how much that impacts the desirability of the job. Certainly, if the coach is looking for fly fishing and skiing, then great, that helps.

It is probably also easier to recruit there as the temperatures and weather is more mild in Boulder than in Minneapolis.

I love Minneapolis and the outdoors opportunities that Minnesota affords, but I also laugh when people scoff at Colorado (or call it half desert, call the mountains just piles of rocks, etc.). It's gorgeous and I plan on returning there eventually, when my wife is done with school.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom