Do you think the program is headed in the right direction or the wrong direction?

Do you think the program is headed in the right direction or the wrong direction?

  • Wrong Direction

    Votes: 43 43.0%

  • Right Direction

    Votes: 57 57.0%
  • Total voters
    100
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No Direction

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Being left in the dust by the Wisconsin program is getting more and more depressing every year
 

It is not going in any direction. It just lays in a pool of mediocrity. It is waiting desperately for someone to throw a life jacket. It will just continue to wade through the murky water with no end in sight.
 


It is going in the right direction. It may be going in fits and sputters, but it's going in the right direction.
We are not, and never will be, Ohio State or Michigan. We will be the thorn that sometimes stings and sometimes gets removed.
 


The football program since the 60's has been like a French tank with only 2 gears: neutral and reverse.

Since Mason, we have been stuck in neutral with a spurt up and a spurt down. No long-term up trend can be detected.
 

Heading in the right direction. It's easy to over react after letting one slip away. Nebraska is a decent team. Say what you want about Claeys, but he had them in position to win. The best player on the field was Armstrong and that was the difference. Yet if we can make a tackle on the two screen plays that went for touchdowns we probably still win.
 



Agree with those who infer no direction positive or negative. The team plays hard but isn't overly athletic. Leidner has taken a huge step backwards this season. Not optimistic things will get better next year with someone at QB who has taken few or no competitive snaps.
 

Depends on your goal. If it is respectability, the Kill/Claeys regimes have done the job. If it is championship readiness, they have failed. I benchmark our program against our two border-war programs - Iowa and Wisconsin. We are not in that conversation.
 

Give Claeys a chance to build the program up. It all boils down to recruiting and coaching. The new facilities will help. If he can recruit a difference maker or two like Tommy Armstrong, he will have moved the program to another level. Success won't happen overnight.

It is not like you push a button, and out comes success immediately. It takes hard work and dedication by a lot of people to reverse decades of mediocrity. Jerry Kill built the foundation.

I think we have the infrastructure and administrative support (& hopefully cultural change) under Kaler & Coyle to give us the best chance of bringing Gopher Football to the next level.

There is not a single person in GH Land who do not wish to see the Gophers go to a Rose Bowl or win a B1G Title.
 

It is in the worst possible situation because it is clear that it is not trending up or down. Very difficult decision for the AD to make a coaching change because you could easily argue both ways for Claeys. I don't think anyone can say the Gophers are passing the eye tests throughout this season.
 



The kids are giving 100% effort every night, and Claeys seems like he's becoming a bigger factor in each game.

If we just wait it out for 3-5 years, Claeys will like get his head around this and these kids will be successful.

Give him time to learn the ropes and he'll turn into a fine college coach.

He already has the team going to a good December bowl game even if we don't win another game this year.
I think we'll have a good chance against Boston College in a Detroit Bowl Game.

If you would have asked people before the season if we were going Bowling, the consensus would have been yes, and that's what we're doing.
 

The program has stalled. We are firmly in the average category. We've got a window in time where we either will make a jump up to the next level or regress backwards and have to start over again.

1 of the next 2-3 years has to be a step forwards, IMO.
 

Face The Facts said:
The kids are giving 100% effort every night, and Claeys seems like he's becoming a bigger factor in each game.

If we just wait it out for 3-5 years, Claeys will like get his head around this and these kids will be successful.

Give him time to learn the ropes and he'll turn into a fine college coach.

He already has the team going to a good December bowl game even if we don't win another game this year.
I think we'll have a good chance against Boston College in a Detroit Bowl Game.

If you would have asked people before the season if we were going Bowling, the consensus would have been yes, and that's what we're doing.
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The flip side is we could easily be 7-7 after the bowl game with the easiest schedule we have seen for a few years.
 


Absolutely heading in the right direction! Gophers should have at least 8 wins this season. Next year, O-line only graduates Pirsig, and will be mostly Jr's and Sr's starting. RS1 and Brooks will be back, but we lose ML7 and Wolitarski. On D, we lose the Epke bros, but Richardson, Stelter, Elmore are bavk (and this year's frosh DEs will be better next year). We lose Travis (and Myrick, meh) and that will hurt, but I have confidence that Hardin, Buford, Winfield, MaGhee, Huff will be more than adequate. Then there is our deep LB crew. So overall, Gophers will just reload and will be playing at a high level again. Wildcard is the QB spot, but the more experienced OL and RBs should be able to compensate for the loss of ML7 and Wolitarski.

So yeah, the future looks bright. We are absolutely heading in the right direction!
 

John Galt said:
What's the starting point?
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Since Kill had to step down.

I say it is headed in the wrong direction. It's regressing. Kill did everything he could before succumbing to his heath issues. He almost killed himself beating his head against an inept bureaucracy to get those facilities. 2014 was obviously his pinnacle. Coyle needs to show he's actually a big time AD and not squander all of Kill's work.


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No. The off the field issues along with the penalties that speak to lack of discipline.
We basically have a MAC level d coordinator as a head coach and a Sunday Belt guy running the offense. Our o-line is again one of the worse in the B1G and out qb is average at best. We still can't get a pass rush along with not tackling make this a crapfest.
 

I think were heading in the right direction. We just went into Lincoln and went toe to toe with Nebraska, the only turnover in the game was the pick at the end. Both teams played a good not great game and in the end Nebraska made one more play than we did, it's how it goes sometimes. Had we played like that vs Iowa and Penn State, we probably win those games. As one poster said above, we have a lot coming back next year, will have a decent schedule again. Lets play out the season before we reach code red.
 

bemidjigopher said:
I think were heading in the right direction. We just went into Lincoln and went toe to toe with Nebraska, the only turnover in the game was the pick at the end. Both teams played a good not great game and in the end Nebraska made one more play than we did, it's how it goes sometimes. Had we played like that vs Iowa and Penn State, we probably win those games. As one poster said above, we have a lot coming back next year, will have a decent schedule again. Lets play out the season before we reach code red.
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I respect what you're saying but I also think this is a very dangerous sentiment. This is the exact sentiment communicated every year when we have these completely predictable outcomes. We have to hold the staff and team accountable for the reality of losing and not ramify the possibilities of what could have happened.
 

Will Claeys & Johnson consider grad transfers in addition to JCs? Balancing the classes is one thing. We need for most of our O Line to have a redshirt year to mature & develop and not be prematurely playing as true freshmen. We can sure use a battle tested grad transfer QB (like a Russell Wilson) and a grad transfer very good WR who can be a difference maker & also teach the young pups.

It seems like Claeys and coaching staff are more proactive at shoring up the personnel deficits starting with the signings JC OL & DL. I expect this trend to continue until they have depth and stability. I would think they realize that to be a championship caliber team, they have to pull all the stops to put the best team out there. If they can eke out two more victories with these moves, they certainly will be attracting better players down the road and even be in B1G title contention.
 

TruDat said:
No. The off the field issues along with the penalties that speak to lack of discipline.
We basically have a MAC level d coordinator as a head coach and a Sunday Belt guy running the offense. Our o-line is again one of the worse in the B1G and out qb is average at best. We still can't get a pass rush along with not tackling make this a crapfest.
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Has anyone noticed that the penalties, especially on the offense, have been much, much improved compared to the 1st half of the season? This shows me that Jay Johnson has been making adjustments to improve the offense.
 

hungan1 said:
Will Claeys & Johnson consider grad transfers in addition to JCs? Balancing the classes is one thing. We need for most of our O Line to have a redshirt year to mature & develop and not be prematurely playing as true freshmen. We can sure use a battle tested grad transfer QB (like a Russell Wilson) and a grad transfer very good WR who can be a difference maker & also teach the young pups.

It seems like Claeys and coaching staff are more proactive at shoring up the personnel deficits starting with the signings JC OL & DL. I expect this trend to continue until they have depth and stability. I would think they realize that to be a championship caliber team, they have to pull all the stops to put the best team out there. If they can eke out two more victories with these moves, they certainly will be attracting better players down the road and even be in B1G title contention.
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Right now we have the 14th ranked recruiting class, and it's not by a sliver. Purdue, Rutgers, Illinois all ahead of us and we're not even close to WI, IA, NE, and NW.


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Not going up or down. All thought is would be an 8 win season. No one was expecting a division championship this year. AD is now in place. Unfortunately, the U is in a holding pattern until TC gets a contract extension in order to continue to make strides forward. It has been demonstrated that a proven coach will not come here, and taking a flyer on an up and comer would mean starting over again with a staff and philosophy that have not worked together before. Win 1 more TC, get an extension, and put your people in place.
 

Wrong direction. With the easy schedule we have, we have proceeded to lose to all the decent teams we have played (PSU, Iowa, and now Neb). None of these are the elite of the Big10 and with the talent we were returning we were expected to at least beat 1 or 2 of these. Off field issues, mental mistakes, poor fundamentals, lack of discipline all were things I had hoped for the most part were in our past with Kill in charge. All of this seems to have changed when Kill stepped down. Currently this is not a fun team to watch because of the way they piss away plays, quarters, halves, and games. They better step up at the end of the year and beat somebody or Claeys will be gone.
 

This makes me think of my high school band director. he used to tell me "You're not getting better - you're just treading water!" (In all honesty, he was probably right......)

That is my mental image of the Gopher FB program - treading water. They are able to keep their heads above water (win 7, 8 games and make it to a bowl), but they're not moving forward. They're not making progress as a program.

And, the coaches are part of the issue. Anyone - (or almost anyone) can be a good coach with superior talent. But, if you have average talent, you have to be a smarter coach in order to put that average talent in a position to succeed. Emphasize their strengths and hide their weaknesses.

Sorry, but I just don't see this coaching staff as being able to pull that off.

I think this coaching staff could be successful - IF they have better talent to work with. But, I don't see a recruiting philosophy in place that will bring in better talent.

To win at MN, you need to be a superior recruiting, or a superior X's & O's staff. The Gophers staff (IMHO) is neither. Average recruiters, average at X's & O's = average team.

So, unless the current coaches can somehow find a way to recruit better talent, then the U needs to bring in coaches who can supply an advantage - either in recruiting or in schemes and strategy.
 

Standing room only for Northwestern. The Bank will be hopping next Saturday.

Go Gophers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

The best days of this Gophers program are ahead of them. The current best players on this squad are all Juniors, quite a few Sophomores, and the most recent Freshman class(much talent). These guy's play more physical, work harder in the off-season, and work much harder in practice then any of the most recent previous regimes combined. I have seen it with my own eyes, we have gone from a lazy program that expected results to a program that busts there butts and competes hard just about everyday. There are better and more competitive athletes at just about all positions on the football field for the Gophers than I have seen in 20 years of having season tickets(I will be back next year). Only game I missed this year was Rutgers. The losses have been tough but they have all been to top 25 programs with the exception of Iowa, and they beat Michigan so you can see they have underachieved even more.

We are still playing catch up a little bit in the offensive line and receiving corps group. What we do lack is a little bit more elite speed, and a few more standouts on defense.
Yeah the Gophers are not there yet, and progress has been slow, but in my opinion if we change horses in mid stream, we will set ourselves back to the Wacker years of football of scoring a lot of points but not being able to play any defense. People want more entertainment I guess.
I like the Gophers style of play, it is how we mitigate not having the best of the best athletes that other states produce. I like the direction and coaching that is happening for our players, there are still mistakes but they are starting to clean those up. Like I said I still think the best days are ahead for the Gophers with this group and these coaches. We need to see this thing through, and break down that wall. We have not seen the Gophers stall out, they can push this thing to a higher level. Yes it has been 50 years since the Gophers have won anything of significance, but don't pin all of that baggage on this group. To me we finally have a group that can make a breakthrough.
 

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