Don't look now, but...

Donate To GopherHole
T

tjgopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 21, 2008
Messages
5,487
Reaction score
1,527
Points
113
we are probably going to go to our best bowl game in 40+ years.

I hate to interrupt all the hating going on here, but I like our chances to go to the Alamo Bowl. With Michigan State absolutely laying down in the 2nd half today and getting pounded, I like the Alamo to take us over them. MSU totally QUIT today. We beat them head-to-head. And, most importantly, the Alamo is still pissed from the last time MSU promised to sell all kinds of tickets in 2003, and then didn't sell many at all. That game had poor attendance by Alamo standards. I'm saying we're going to Alamo, which would be our best bowl game since the Rose Bowl.

Rose - Ohio State (10-2)
Fiesta - Iowa (10-2)
Cap One - Penn State (10-2)
Outback - Wisconsin (9-3)
Champs - Northwestern (8-4)
Alamo - Minnesota (6-6)
Insight - Michigan State (6-6)

So, while we're all frustrated, let's look at this realistically. Brewster inherited a 6-7 Insight Bowl team with not a lot of talent returning. Now, in year three, he has a 6-6 team in a slighly better bowl game with undoubtedly much more talent on the roster.

I don't think the situation is as dire as many are making it out to be. Frustrating? Yes. Everything hunky dory? Not really. Dire? No way.
 

tjgopher said:
we are probably going to go to our best bowl game in 40+ years.

I hate to interrupt all the hating going on here, but I like our chances to go to the Alamo Bowl. With Michigan State absolutely laying down in the 2nd half today and getting pounded, I like the Alamo to take us over them. MSU totally QUIT today. We beat them head-to-head. And, most importantly, the Alamo is still pissed from the last time MSU promised to sell all kinds of tickets in 2003, and then didn't sell many at all. That game had poor attendance by Alamo standards. I'm saying we're going to Alamo, which would be our best bowl game since the Rose Bowl.

Rose - Ohio State (10-2)
Fiesta - Iowa (10-2)
Cap One - Penn State (10-2)
Outback - Wisconsin (9-3)
Champs - Northwestern (8-4)
Alamo - Minnesota (6-6)
Insight - Michigan State (6-6)

So, while we're all frustrated, let's look at this realistically. Brewster inherited a 6-7 Insight Bowl team with not a lot of talent returning. Now, in year three, he has a 6-6 team in a slighly better bowl game with undoubtedly much more talent on the roster.

I don't think the situation is as dire as many are making it out to be. Frustrating? Yes. Everything hunky dory? Not really. Dire? No way.
Click to expand...

Yes, but three years ago we had a good, sometimes great offense and no defense. Now we have zero offense and a below average/average defense.

And backing into the best bowl we've been into for a while isn't an accomplishment.

And sending nobody to follow this team will continue to hurt us in future years with the bowls -- and the reason we got passed over by so many bowls in the past was the fact that our fans won't support the team.

Not trying to be negative, but these are the facts.
 

I'm sorry but none of those opinions you just spewed caliGopher were facts.

Back to the subject. It looks like Oklahoma was projected to play in the Alamo bowl before they got anal raindanced by Texas Tech today. The Alamo bowl takes the big 10 4th or 5th team versus the big 12 4th, so since losing today didn't hurt OK's standings they are still going.
 

How are you getting Alamo Bowl? Best bet is Insight and it will probably be Little Caesars Bowl...Michigan State finished ahead of us in the Big Ten Standings and will travel more fans than we would. Even if we would have finished in a tie with them we would get bumped down.
 

With the big 10 sending two BCS teams that moves everyone else up a slot. Us possibly two spots because as tj gopher said mich state really screwed the pooch the last time they went to the alamo and didn't travel well.
 


At least twice we were supposed to go to the Alamo Bowl under Mason, but were passed over for another team. What would stop the Alamo Bowl from doing the same this year?
 

I'm sure the boys in San Antone would love a 35% qb and his great offensive guru Fisch to come to town with 100 fans.
 

gophergrad said:
I'm sorry but none of those opinions you just spewed caliGopher were facts.
Click to expand...

The Alamo Bowl passed us over when we had competitive teams for a couple of reasons, one was the perceived lack of fan support, and given how poorly the team has played the past three weeks and the thousands of empty seats in the stadium (yes a huge chunk of that was students) for the MSU, Illinois and SDSU game, fan support is a concern and for the bowls the only concern. Bowls are not for what teams deserve, they are for the butts teams put in seats and the dollars those fans bring to the local economy. That is the only concern of the bowl committees.

Also, I might add that statistically, my opinions about the offense and defense over the past several years is supported, but stats, I grant you don't always tell the story.

Finally, if there were eight teams in the conference that were Bowl eligible, we wouldn't be talking about the Alamo Bowl at this point, hence the back into "our best bowl in years" comment.

Just some rationale for my comments.
 

caliGopher said:
Finally, if there were eight teams in the conference that were Bowl eligible, we wouldn't be talking about the Alamo Bowl at this point, hence the back into "our best bowl in years" comment.
Click to expand...

I agree, there are certain dynamics that have allowed us to be in the discussion for the Alamo. My intent was not to say we're the greatest team ever. Just trying to shine a little sunshine on what was an otherwise horrid day. We are not a very good team, I know. But, we weren't very good in several of the bowl games we've been to. And, at the end of the day, given the circumstances, it appears to me we have a great shot at being in our best bowl game in 40+ years. And, again because of circumstances, it is even a "January" bowl game. San Antonio is a great place to visit. To me, there is at least something to be happy about.
 



Sid Hartman said:
How are you getting Alamo Bowl? Best bet is Insight and it will probably be Little Caesars Bowl...Michigan State finished ahead of us in the Big Ten Standings and will travel more fans than we would. Even if we would have finished in a tie with them we would get bumped down.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I could have laid it out any clearer. Did you read the post? How am I getting the Alamo Bowl?? OSU to Rose, Iowa to Fiesta, PSU to Cap One, Wisky to Outback, Northwestern to Champs, and that leaves MSU and MN for Alamo and Insight. I think we get the Alamo bid over MSU.
 

charlesbenjamin7 said:
At least twice we were supposed to go to the Alamo Bowl under Mason, but were passed over for another team. What would stop the Alamo Bowl from doing the same this year?
Click to expand...

Because MSU will travel WORSE than we will. They were a preseason pick to contend for the Big Ten title. They are now 6-6 with a humiliating loss at home today in a game where they absolutely laid down for their head coach. Those fans are not excited at all about their team, even less excited than we are right now. They WILL NOT travel to this bowl game. Alamo got burned once by MSU.

That leaves us. They will begrudgingly give us the nod, IMHO.
 

tjgopher said:
Because MSU will travel WORSE than we will. They were a preseason pick to contend for the Big Ten title. They are now 6-6 with a humiliating loss at home today in a game where they absolutely laid down for their head coach. Those fans are not excited at all about their team, even less excited than we are right now. They WILL NOT travel to this bowl game. Alamo got burned once by MSU.

That leaves us. They will begrudgingly give us the nod, IMHO.
Click to expand...


I also think the Insight will blow a gasket with us for the third time in 4 years and that will put pressure on the Alamo bowl to take us, too.
 

tjgopher said:
Because MSU will travel WORSE than we will. They were a preseason pick to contend for the Big Ten title. They are now 6-6 with a humiliating loss at home today in a game where they absolutely laid down for their head coach. Those fans are not excited at all about their team, even less excited than we are right now. They WILL NOT travel to this bowl game. Alamo got burned once by MSU.

That leaves us. They will begrudgingly give us the nod, IMHO.
Click to expand...


Okay. I buy your argument. However, if we sneak into the Alamo Bowl, this should be in no way translated into any belief that this program is on the up-tick or on the right track track. We have had far better teams under Mason that were bypassed by 'better' bowls because of our fanbase.
 



charlesbenjamin7 said:
Okay. I buy your argument. However, if we sneak into the Alamo Bowl, this should be in no way translated into any belief that this program is on the up-tick or on the right track track. We have had far better teams under Mason that were bypassed by 'better' bowls because of our fanbase.
Click to expand...

I can't argue with that. Although, I don't think the situation is as dire as some think, I certainly recognize we have tons of room for improvement and certainly things are not all great in Gopher Nation.

Fact of the matter is, we are roughly where we were when Mase was fired with the difference being there is some more talent and depth on the roster. Anyone who watched Tinsley and Kirksey and Edwards (all backups) play on defense today can see that. The real question now becomes whether this staff can develop some of that talent into winning football. I'm afraid I'm not sure myself.
 

I'm sure the Alamo Bowl is very intrigued by our brand new, sparkling campus stadium filled to 80% capacity thanks to some proud SDSU fans. I don't think they take a flier on a team that put up 7pts combined against PSU, OSU, and Iowa, and hasn't scored an offensive TD in 3 weeks. The Alamo Bowl better be careful because the Fiesta Bowl might steal us before they get the chance to out-manuever Dominoes Pizza for the honor of hosting Gopher Nation.
 

akgopher said:
I'm sure the Alamo Bowl is very intrigued by our brand new, sparkling campus stadium filled to 80% capacity thanks to some proud SDSU fans. I don't think they take a flier on a team that put up 7pts combined against PSU, OSU, and Iowa, and hasn't scored an offensive TD in 3 weeks. The Alamo Bowl better be careful because the Fiesta Bowl might steal us before they get the chance to out-manuever Dominoes Pizza for the honor of hosting Gopher Nation.
Click to expand...

You understand that the only options the Alamo Bowl have are two bad ones, right? It is either 6-6 MN or 6-6 MSU. They took MSU on 2003 with not so good results. So, there's a shot they choose our way this year. Is it a sure thing? No. Is there a shot? Yes.
 


Sid Hartman said:
How are you getting Alamo Bowl? Best bet is Insight and it will probably be Little Caesars Bowl...Michigan State finished ahead of us in the Big Ten Standings and will travel more fans than we would. Even if we would have finished in a tie with them we would get bumped down.
Click to expand...


Big Ten won't have enough teams to fill the Little Caesar's Bowl. Only 7 Bowl elegible teams. 7 Bowl tie-ins plus an at large berth for Iowa. Insight will probably take us. However, I agree with original poster that there is a chance the head to head over Michigan State helps us. The fact is Sparty does not travel well either. And no, if there had been a tie with Sparty there would be no question the Gophers would get the nod cause Sparty ain't Michigan or another team with a giant traveling fanbase.

Also, incidentally, did you forget 2004? Gophers went 9-4, including 5-3 in the conference and beat Oregon in the Sun Bowl
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom