Deadspin "what if" question regarding the Gophers

[Boof]

http://deadspin.com/5961828/does-football-really-need-a-halftime-break

Someone asked Deadspin,

Let's say you combined two mediocre, middle of the pack BCS conference football teams. Could they contend for a national championship, or even a BCS bowl game? Let's say Minnesota and Tennessee for example.

Drew Magery responds,

Is Nick Saban coaching them? No? 0-12.

Seriously though, you're consolidating a middling talent pool with a decent but not great one (Spencer Hall says: "I don't think there's one guy on Minnesota's roster you'd take at TN"), essentially getting quantity over quality. AND you're combining two mediocre coaching staffs. Wait, not mediocre. DOG*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#. Dog*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!# coaching staffs. I don't even know who coaches the Golden Gophers...

/does Google search

Holy *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#, this guy? This is the guy they have in charge of the whole enterprise? I wouldn't hire that guy to shovel my driveway. Put him together with Derek Dooley and Tennesota would be STOPPABLE.

Anyway, this team of Golden Volungophers would be deeper, but its best players and coaches won't magically get any better just because they've been blended together. You're only as good as your best players. They can obviously compete for a BCS bowl game, especially if they compete in a *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!# conference like the Big Ten (B1G!!!). But they're still not Alabama.

The pros would be a whole other matter. If you cobbled together a roster of the Bills and Jets, it's a guaranteed playoff team. And then we could all watch Mark Sanchez and Ryan Fitzpatrick alternate series throwing picks while losing the AFC title game.

Of course it's all tongue-in-cheek but kinda interesting.

 

[Go Gophers Rah]

It might not be as tounge-in-cheek as you are assuming.

As someone who talks a lot of college football with people all over the country, I can tell you that Minnesota has zero credibility outside B1G Ten Country. People generally equate us with Non-AQ "state name" universities, such as New Mexico or Idaho. If they're being generous, they might consider Virginia or Maryland to be our peers. That is if they consider us at all. For most fans, they only have any respect for 26 teams: the Top-25 and their own.

Can we really blame anyone in other parts of the country for being dismissive, if not downright disrespectful, to Minnesota's football program? What other major conference school hasn't won their conference championship for 45 years? Eliminate those teams that have name recognition because they are asketball powerhouses (UNC, Duke, Indiana, Kentucky, Syracuse, UConn) and who's left? Its lonely at the bottom :-(

I'm normally a Rah! Rah! kind of guy; this might be my first negative posting since we hired Brewster, but something in the condescention of the cited article just got my ire up and as I thought about it, I couldn't help but agree a little.

 

[dpodoll68]

The funny thing is that Magary is a MN native and is an enormous Vikings fan. Obviously he doesn't care about the Gophers one iota.

Sadly, I think he's right. With the exception of Kentucky and maybe Ole Miss, the Gophers would get run out of the stadium by every SEC team 95 times out of 100.

 

[Gopher07]

I dunno, I'd like to think we'd split 50/50 with Auburn in their 2012 form.

And yes, the sentiments posted above are correct and make me sad captain of awesome when I think about them. Being consistently reminded of how generally awful your team is if you try to make conversation about college football is not a fun place.

Frack, I need a drink now.

 

[Great Plains Gopher]

TheVikings hurt with the public, but as schools like Nebraska were going big time with facilities and stadium improvements, we did not keep up - and went to the Dome, besides. Also we had three disastrous coaches (Salem, Wacker and Brewster) and several mediocre ones. It adds up.