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bailee88

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Can anyone supply some specifics as to why we dislike to Cosgrove hiring so much? He seems to have pretty decent credentials. I am anxious to see what a guy with his experience can do with a much improved talent pool like the one we will have on the defensive side of the ball next year. Someone mentioned that they couldn't believe that we hired a coach that had received death threats at his last job. Is that true? Provide a link. Even if it is true, what does it matter? I believe the people of the great state of Kentucky made a few threats against Tubby yet he has worked out pretty well so far. I am very disappointed in the reaction of the gopher nation. Give the guy a chance. We have enough entities trying to tear down our program without us doing it ourselves.
 

See Gophergod...He'll tell you exactly why he should not be hired.
 



This is the last thing I will ever say re: Kevin Cosgrove on this message board. My feeling (and I think many others share my opinion) is that I'm not so much down on Cosgrove, but on Brewster for hiring him. The guy was a volunteer assistant HS coach during the 2008 season. That tells you that he's not in demand.

Let's look at this a different way:

There are 120 DI-A teams in the country. Presumably, each has a DC, DL coach, LB coach, and DB coach. That means there are 480 of them in the country. Now, if you take away from that number the coaches that we would realistically have no shot at getting, and replace them with NFL/DI-AA/DII/DIII/HS/AFL/CFL/WLAF/out of work coaches that we could've considered, and I would place that number somewhere around 500.

So that means we had a total pool of somewhere around 500 candidates to choose from, and the best we can do is Kevin F'ing Cosgrove? I refuse to believe that this is anything other than blatant cronyism, and it hurts me as a fan and alumnus of the University of Minnesota. I thought Brewster was better than to play that game. I am very disappointed in our head football coach today.
 


Let me say, Welcome Coach Cosgrove

I don't know if he's a good choice or not, I'm not the "EXPERT" that so many on here apparently are (what the hell, I only played 4 years of college ball and made All-American), but I do know one thing:

He's our defensive coordinator and I'm going to give him all of my support. He's forgotten more about the game than anybody on here will CUMULATIVELY ever know, so I'll wait to see the product on the field. The guy's been coaching longer than most of his most ardent detractors on this board have been ALIVE (ahhhh, youth), so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt until he proves otherwise.

GO GOPHERS!!!
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
He's forgotten more about the game than anybody on here will CUMULATIVELY ever know, so I'll wait to see the product on the field.
Click to expand...

A. He's paid 6 figures to know more about football than anybody on this board.

B. Apparently the part of the game that he has forgotten is how to stop the opponent's offense from scoring a lot of points.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
I don't know if he's a good choice or not, I'm not the "EXPERT" that so many on here apparently are (what the hell, I only played 4 years of college ball and made All-American), but I do know one thing:

He's our defensive coordinator and I'm going to give him all of my support. He's forgotten more about the game than anybody on here will CUMULATIVELY ever know, so I'll wait to see the product on the field. The guy's been coaching longer than most of his most ardent detractors on this board have been ALIVE (ahhhh, youth), so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt until he proves otherwise.

GO GOPHERS!!!
Click to expand...

The most level headed response yet today.
 

Good post above...Cosgrove will be fine as long as our talent continues to improve...It's basically that simple, the guy has been a coach at quite a few good schools and obviously has a clue as to what he's doing. With the experience coming back and the look of more talent on the way, we will be a better defense next year.
 



I wonder what UNC boards looked like when they hired Withers. I might be wrong, but I think Withers is doing ok in UNC.
 

In the last three games he was a defensive coordinator at the Division I A level, his defense gave up 76 points, 31 points and 65 points.
 

Many love to talk about recruiting and if you look at Nebraska you will notice that Callahan was handed the 40th and 42nd best classed in 02 and 03. Callahan recruited the 27, 5, 20, and 13th best classes in his four years. Guess what, Pelini is now reaping the benefits of it. I'm some of this shows why Callahan and Cosgrove failed and Pelini is now turning it around.
 

Good point Btowngopher...What did Withers give up his last 3 games at Minnesota, Maximus? 10 of the 12 games in 2007 Withers gave up over 30 points. How did he do at NC, Maximus? If you don't like the hire, sell your season tickets, don't turn on the Big Ten Network, and start backing a good defensive team. There are tons of them like Oklahoma, nope, they were ranked #63. How about Michigan State, oops, they were ranked #61. Or, you could root for a Roof led defense, his club was, oops, rated #75. Maximus, I just did some research on those Nebraska games and guess what...those losses were against teams like Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, USC...How do you think Roof or Withers or Buddy Ryan would have done against those teams with our defense last year?
 



In Roof's last 3 games as the Minnesota DC opponents scored 35, 55, and 42 points, yet many on this board were sorry to see him go and Auburn clearly saw past that.

Cosgrove put together some solid defenses for Big Ten champion teams at Wisconsin in the 1990s. They had some great talent come through during that time. I would be interested to know if he was in on the recruiting of guys like Jamar Fletcher, Aaron Gibson, Wendell Bryant, etc. that might be telling.

I'm on the fence about him personally, but I think he has had enough past success to be given a fair shot. The opinions of Nebraska fans have no credibility with me.

What do people think about the promotion of Lee to do-defensive coordinator? That may speak volumes about Brewsters confidence in him.
 

I agree GopherMac. He also lost to an Auburn team in there. Our Defense will be fine if the Offense improves.
 

GopherMac said:
Maximus, I just did some research on those Nebraska games and guess what...those losses were against teams like Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, USC...How do you think Roof or Withers or Buddy Ryan would have done against those teams with our defense last year?
Click to expand...

Sorry to burst your bubble....because it was a spirited and quality rant....76 against an outstanding Kansas team.....31 to a 5-7 Kansas State team.....65 to a 6-7 Colorado team that averaged 23 points a per game.
 

I think Lee is the guy and Cosgrove may be simply a mentor. It will be interesting to see how much we will pay Cosgrove. If we are paying Dunbar, this might just be a bandaid for a year or two and Lee is the successor
 

Maximus- You are correct, but was Nebraska playing a bunch of Freshman and Sophomores that year? It may have been similar to what the Gophers have been dealing with the last two years.
 

Maximus said:
In the last three games he was a defensive coordinator at the Division I A level, his defense gave up 76 points, 31 points and 65 points.
Click to expand...

There is no doubt that you can tell how good or bad someone is from three games. Who cares what the person did the 13 previous seasons.

Now that I look back, I should have been a 1st round draft pick of the Twins after my senior year of high school baseball. Even though I was hitting .200 going into the last few games, I hit a whopping .800 in the last three games. Seriously, I could have been a stud! :rolleyes:
 

Since I know how much all of you LOVE recruiting rankings and rivals stars, these are the types of players that Cosgrove was working with at Nebraska.

Starting on Defense in 2007:
Ndamukong Suh ****
Bo Ruud ****
Steve Octavien ****
Ty Steinkuhler ***
Zach Potter ****
Tierre Green **
Corey McKeon ***
Zack Bowman *****
Barry Turner ***
Larry Asante ****
Armando Murillo ****

And he had Andre Jones ***** coming off the bench.
 


We get it NateDawg, his defense was really bad in 2007. Does one really bad season out of 14 make him a bad coach? You, of course, fail to mention 2006 when they averaged 18.3 against (ranked 24th in the nation), or in 2005 when they allowed 21 points/gm (ranked 25th in the nation). It's easy to make someone look good or bad when you only look at one season.
 

dpodoll68 said:
The guy was a volunteer assistant HS coach during the 2008 season. That tells you that he's not in demand.
Click to expand...

Or maybe he wanted to take a year off? I know that if I was getting death threats I might not want to jump right back into the fray. Is Bill Cower no longer a good NFL coach b/c he wants to take a break, wait for his daughter to graduate HS, and then look for a job he wants? I'm pretty sure Cosgrove isn't hurting for cash and could likely afford to take a year off if he so chose.

I'm not saying this guy is highly pursued b/c I don't know...but I wager that my conjecture is as good as yours.
 

You're not seriously comparing Bill Cowher to Kevin Cosgrove, are you? That may be the biggest stretch I've seen yet on this board.

Cosgrove = fired
Cowher = resigned

And his wasn't a "resignation" like Dunbar's was a "resignation." He probably was worn out after 23 years of working 80-100 hour weeks and wanted a couple years off before coming back to close out his career with another team. He could've had any job he wanted this offseason, but he wisely waited until an opportunity more suited to him came along. Of course a guy who has already reached the pinnacle of his profession (and then some) can afford to take a year off, because he knows he's automatically the #1 candidate for any job he pursues when he does decide to come back. A 53-year-old who has never ascended higher than a D-I DC doesn't have that luxury. Unless, of course, his desire isn't to reach the pinnacle of his profession...in which case, why do we want him?

Look, I've never said that I hate Kevin Cosgrove, that he's unqualified, or that he's an abomination to the human race. I just think we could've done much, much better with this hire.
 

GophersInIowa said:
We get it NateDawg, his defense was really bad in 2007. Does one really bad season out of 14 make him a bad coach? You, of course, fail to mention 2006 when they averaged 18.3 against (ranked 24th in the nation), or in 2005 when they allowed 21 points/gm (ranked 25th in the nation). It's easy to make someone look good or bad when you only look at one season.
Click to expand...

Please look at the OVERALL defensive rankings and not just one stat please. Here are the overall rankings for more than one season, I know I am beating a dead horse but cannot stand to see you misrepresent his success by looking at one stat. Sorry I would include his stats from 1995-1998 to be fair if I had them but the NCAA site does not go back that far. This being said I will support the gopher program and wish them well.

Wisconsin
1999 15th
2000 79th
2001 58th
2002 56th
2003 43rd
Nebraska
2004 56th
2005 26th
2006 56th
2007 112th

Avg. of 50.1
 

GopherGod said:
Please look at the OVERALL defensive rankings and not just one stat please. Here are the overall rankings for more than one season, I know I am beating a dead horse but cannot stand to see you misrepresent his success by looking at one stat. Sorry I would include his stats from 1995-1998 to be fair if I had them but the NCAA site does not go back that far. This being said I will support the gopher program and wish them well.

Wisconsin
1999 15th
2000 79th
2001 58th
2002 56th
2003 43rd
Nebraska
2004 56th
2005 26th
2006 56th
2007 112th

Avg. of 50.1
Click to expand...


Gophers were 80th this year. Someone else posted that 1998 was also a top 15 defense.
 

dpodoll68 said:
You're not seriously comparing Bill Cowher to Kevin Cosgrove, are you? That may be the biggest stretch I've seen yet on this board.

Cosgrove = fired
Cowher = resigned

And his wasn't a "resignation" like Dunbar's was a "resignation." He probably was worn out after 23 years of working 80-100 hour weeks and wanted a couple years off before coming back to close out his career with another team. He could've had any job he wanted this offseason, but he wisely waited until an opportunity more suited to him came along. Of course a guy who has already reached the pinnacle of his profession (and then some) can afford to take a year off, because he knows he's automatically the #1 candidate for any job he pursues when he does decide to come back. A 53-year-old who has never ascended higher than a D-I DC doesn't have that luxury. Unless, of course, his desire isn't to reach the pinnacle of his profession...in which case, why do we want him?

Look, I've never said that I hate Kevin Cosgrove, that he's unqualified, or that he's an abomination to the human race. I just think we could've done much, much better with this hire.
Click to expand...


I didn't get that he was comparing Cosgrove to Cowher. I think your reading might be a little selective there. Only that coaches take a year off for a variety of reasons and that because he isn't working doesn't mean there is a lack of demand for his skills. He's not looking for an assistant position, he's looking for a DC position which involves much more of a committment (Roof withstanding). The right job is more important than 'a' job.
 

dpodoll68 said:
You're not seriously comparing Bill Cowher to Kevin Cosgrove, are you? That may be the biggest stretch I've seen yet on this board.

Cosgrove = fired
Cowher = resigned

And his wasn't a "resignation" like Dunbar's was a "resignation." He probably was worn out after 23 years of working 80-100 hour weeks and wanted a couple years off before coming back to close out his career with another team. He could've had any job he wanted this offseason, but he wisely waited until an opportunity more suited to him came along. Of course a guy who has already reached the pinnacle of his profession (and then some) can afford to take a year off, because he knows he's automatically the #1 candidate for any job he pursues when he does decide to come back. A 53-year-old who has never ascended higher than a D-I DC doesn't have that luxury. Unless, of course, his desire isn't to reach the pinnacle of his profession...in which case, why do we want him?

Look, I've never said that I hate Kevin Cosgrove, that he's unqualified, or that he's an abomination to the human race. I just think we could've done much, much better with this hire.
Click to expand...


dpodoll68, 2 things.

First, you never said you "hate Kevin Cosgrove" but you did call him "Kevin F'ing Cosgrove"

Second, 3 hours ago you said "This is the last thing I will ever say re: Kevin Cosgrove on this message board"

Care to keep that promise this time?
 

TheDinkytowner said:
Gophers were 80th this year. Someone else posted that 1998 was also a top 15 defense.
Click to expand...

I would love to have the documented rankings from 1995-1998 if anyone has them. I could not find them anywhere and I wish that the NCAA website went back farther. I guess I need to go to Borders and invest in the college football encyclopedia or whatever it is called as they are probably in there.
 

GopherGod said:
Please look at the OVERALL defensive rankings and not just one stat please. Here are the overall rankings for more than one season, I know I am beating a dead horse but cannot stand to see you misrepresent his success by looking at one stat. Sorry I would include his stats from 1995-1998 to be fair if I had them but the NCAA site does not go back that far. This being said I will support the gopher program and wish them well.

Wisconsin
1999 15th
2000 79th
2001 58th
2002 56th
2003 43rd
Nebraska
2004 56th
2005 26th
2006 56th
2007 112th

Avg. of 50.1
Click to expand...

What are you talking about when you say one stat? "Overall defense" is one stat as well; it's yards allowed. Isn't scoring all that really matters anyways? The rankings you're giving is yardage allowed while I was providing points allowed. Points are what really matter. Which would you rather have: 1) defense allow only 250 yards/gm but 25 points/gm or 2) defense allow 350 yards/gm but only 20 points/gm? BTW, do you know what the Gophers were ranked this year? 80th. Those rankings are starting to look pretty descent compared to 80th.
 

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