Evidence of Renewed Optimism

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Thunderstruck

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Like many of us, my 70+ year old Dad has spent countless years always hoping the next Gopher football season would finally be the "one". Over the years, as much as he has complained and acted like he was about to throw in the towel, he's invested too much emotional energy and time to ever completely let go. At the same time, due to years of disappointment, he's never allowed himself to be completely "all in". Then, out of nowhere, I get a text from him today with the letters "R T B" and the below picture. The man can barely text, let alone send a picture and I'm sure it took him all morning to cut out PJ from the newspaper, position him in that rowboat and strategically place it on his fireplace mantle. Yes, for my dad and many others, it really is time to row the boat.

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Thunderstruck said:
Like many of us, my 70+ year old Dad has spent countless years always hoping the next Gopher football season would finally be the "one". Over the years, as much as he has complained and acted like he was about to throw in the towel, he's invested too much emotional energy and time to ever completely let go. At the same time, due to years of disappointment, he's never allowed himself to be completely "all in". Then, out of nowhere, I get a text from him today with the letters "R T B" and the below picture. The man can barely text, let alone send a picture and I'm sure it took him all morning to cut out PJ from the newspaper, position him in that rowboat and strategically place it on his fireplace mantle. Yes, for my dad and many others, it really is time to row the boat.

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Your Dad is an elite hipster
 

I am unreasonably hopeful myself but let's keep in mind... PJ hasn't won a game here yet.

Hope is a wonderful thing, but Gopher pessimism, fatalism and such is just waiting under the surface.
 

For us that remember ( 60-61) Fleck is renewed hope. Still, we need that 24-50 crowd to get in the boat.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I am unreasonably hopeful myself but let's keep in mind... PJ hasn't won a game here yet.

Hope is a wonderful thing, but Gopher pessimism, fatalism and such is just waiting under the surface.
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Most know I was a pretty vocal critic of Kill and never truly bought into him being capable of taking the program to the promised land so it has surprised me some just how on board I have been with Fleck. I can't really explain it but he has that "it" factor that I think will play really well in today's athletics.

Obviously there are no guarantees but there is something about the way Fleck conducts himself that makes me think he might actually be the guy that can finally take things to the next level around here. This town has been waiting to get behind Gopher football again, maybe he will be the guy that can make that happen.
 




MNVCGUY said:
Most know I was a pretty vocal critic of Kill and never truly bought into him being capable of taking the program to the promised land so it has surprised me some just how on board I have been with Fleck. I can't really explain it but he has that "it" factor that I think will play really well in today's athletics.

Obviously there are no guarantees but there is something about the way Fleck conducts himself that makes me think he might actually be the guy that can finally take things to the next level around here. This town has been waiting to get behind Gopher football again, maybe he will be the guy that can make that happen.
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The Kill / PJ comparisons, even if PJ does well, will be kinda impossible considering the state of the program when each took over.
 

Thunderstruck said:
Like many of us, my 70+ year old Dad has spent countless years always hoping the next Gopher football season would finally be the "one". Over the years, as much as he has complained and acted like he was about to throw in the towel, he's invested too much emotional energy and time to ever completely let go. At the same time, due to years of disappointment, he's never allowed himself to be completely "all in". Then, out of nowhere, I get a text from him today with the letters "R T B" and the below picture. The man can barely text, let alone send a picture and I'm sure it took him all morning to cut out PJ from the newspaper, position him in that rowboat and strategically place it on his fireplace mantle. Yes, for my dad and many others, it really is time to row the boat.

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That is fantastic! Tell him we're all in the boat with him!
 



Blah blah Blah...same as when Kill was hired, when Brewster was hired, when mason was hired, when Gutie was hired and so on. There is always renewed optimism by some fans when we get a new coach. In the end, we are 50+ years removed from relevance and until I see it I won't believe it.

New coach same as the old coach until he proves otherwise.
 

GopherinPhilly said:
Blah blah Blah...same as when Kill was hired, when Brewster was hired, when mason was hired, when Gutie was hired and so on. There is always renewed optimism by some fans when we get a new coach. In the end, we are 50+ years removed from relevance and until I see it I won't believe it.

New coach same as the old coach until he proves otherwise.
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I don't recall Mason bringing this level of excitement, certainly not Brewster or Kill.... all didn't for obvious reasons.
 


A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I don't recall Mason bringing this level of excitement, certainly not Brewster or Kill.... all didn't for obvious reasons.
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There was no optimism when Brewster or Kill were hired? There wasn't a mad rush of newspaper articles when Gutie got the nod? Mason wasn't pegged to restore relevance to our program? Go back and read the news...same sh!t different coach.
 



GopherinPhilly said:
There was no optimism when Brewster or Kill were hired? There wasn't a mad rush of newspaper articles when Gutie got the nod? Mason wasn't pegged to restore relevance to our program? Go back and read the news...same sh!t different coach.
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"this level of excitement" /= "no optimism" for the other coaches.
 


GopherinPhilly said:
There was no optimism when Brewster or Kill were hired? There wasn't a mad rush of newspaper articles when Gutie got the nod? Mason wasn't pegged to restore relevance to our program? Go back and read the news...same sh!t different coach.
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There is no way there was this level of excitement for Mason or Kill. Of course there's always a hope that the next coach is the one. But in both those cases it was well known neither was the first choice or second, etc., and they were basically the best we could get. Brew's personality got a lot of people excited, but when he was first hired it was a huge "Huh?". In this case if you never saw or heard him speak and just saw his results it's exciting. If you only saw him speak and didn't see his results it's exciting. If you consider he was the first choice and the U went out and got him it's exciting. When you combine the three? This is WAY above and beyond the excitement behind every coach this school has hired combined. I haven't seen casual to non Gopher fans this excited by a hire in my life.
 

Thunder- your Dad is one of the All Time greats! LOVE when he joins us in C58. GH'ers, if Thunders Dad is on board the boat, you better be too. He was a true insider when Mase was running the show and knows the program. Tell him that Mitch and the former Jane Grey are always still welcome also. Haha! RTB!

Side note: Maybe we can get Sherman to get us back on the donor and cheer team bus again. Maybe this time you will avoid the Madison PD. Time for us to look at a suite again...
 

Lakeville Goldy said:
There is no way there was this level of excitement for Mason or Kill. Of course there's always a hope that the next coach is the one. But in both those cases it was well known neither was the first choice or second, etc., and they were basically the best we could get. Brew's personality got a lot of people excited, but when he was first hired it was a huge "Huh?". In this case if you never saw or heard him speak and just saw his results it's exciting. If you only saw him speak and didn't see his results it's exciting. If you consider he was the first choice and the U went out and got him it's exciting. When you combine the three? This is WAY above and beyond the excitement behind every coach this school has hired combined. I haven't seen casual to non Gopher fans this excited by a hire in my life.
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I think that is the key to it for a lot of people. Brew was a complete unknown who nobody had heard of before he started getting mentioned for the job. Kill was a guy they could have gone and hired on day one but instead went through a National search and got turned down by everyone else first. Neither one of those guys were a hot commodity on the coaching market when we hired them. Obviously one of them worked out far better then the other but outside of the usual optimism of getting a new coach there was never a sense of we got "the guy" that could make things happen. Instead it was a case of having to settle for someone who was well down the list of targets when the process started, if they were even on the list at all.

In Fleck it is clear we landed our first choice for the job. Time will tell if it works out but this definitely wasn't the case of feeling like we had to settle for the best available option, or who could we get cheap, the way we have in the past.
 


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