Final breakdown of Cal film

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upchurch

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After thoroughly breaking down the film, one thing has stood out: We could have easily won that game. There was a pass that Royston broke up but Theret would have intercepted had he just turned around. There was the Dandridge "interception" right in his hands that had he just looked down at the ball he would have caught (and Spielman said he'd still be running had he caught it). Then there was the qb sack and fumble that we didn't get. And there was Hayo's fumble (which just seemed to fall out of his hands without being hit). Add in the qb sack that was called back cuz of a false start, a false start by Cal that wasn't called, the bloop kickoff which didn't go deep enough, and take away the key int. that we threw and we win that game. That's a lot of ifs but we actually were in the game with a very good team that played a solid game.
 

upchurch said:
After thoroughly breaking down the film, one thing has stood out: We could have easily won that game. There was a pass that Royston broke up but Theret would have intercepted had he just turned around. There was the Dandridge "interception" right in his hands that had he just looked down at the ball he would have caught (and Spielman said he'd still be running had he caught it). Then there was the qb sack and fumble that we didn't get. And there was Hayo's fumble (which just seemed to fall out of his hands without being hit). Add in the qb sack that was called back cuz of a false start, a false start by Cal that wasn't called, the bloop kickoff which didn't go deep enough, and take away the key int. that we threw and we win that game. That's a lot of ifs but we actually were in the game with a very good team that played a solid game.
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Agreed

I keep wondering, if we scored more points than them, we would have had a really good shot to win. Stuff's been keeping me up all night.
 

Woulda, shoulda, coulda, the next game will show us how Brewster is able to bring the team back from defeat. These next three games are winnable so Brewster needs to take advantage of that. We said that about the games coming up after we went 7-1 last year, and we did not win a game the rest of the season. Hopefully this year is a different story.
 

Teams that aren't ready for prime time make mistakes. This team is still a work in progress. It's the middle stages of building a program. You have the talent and ability but lack the consistent execution that you need to get to the next level. Unfortunately it's not something that usually corrects itself over night. Frustrating for sure, but for me it's a sure sign of growth. Playing tough competition and coming away feeling like we should have won. Compare that to the last couple of years.

At some point we become more consistent, stop making the silly mistakes, start capitalizing on ops and the next thing you know we're a ranked team shooting for a B10 title. It's coming, we're just not there yet.
 

gold04 said:
Woulda, shoulda, coulda, the next game will show us how Brewster is able to bring the team back from defeat. These next three games are winnable so Brewster needs to take advantage of that. We said that about the games coming up after we went 7-1 last year, and we did not win a game the rest of the season. Hopefully this year is a different story.
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This is what I'm concerned about. Obvisouly Brewster is an emotional guy and I think that rubs off on this team. We came out completely flat against michigan and iowa after some emotional losses to NU & wisky last year. Hopefully they come out ready to play this Saturday. I'll be disappointed if we don't win our next 3 games.

Regarding the Cal game, we left some plays out there for sure. IIRC, we were driving for the lead when Hayo fumbled. That was tough to take. But there's no excuse for not stopping them on 3rd and 16 with them coming out of the student section. The air went out of the stadium with that completion.
 


The issue becomes how long do you wait in becoming a good football team. The Masonites thought 10 years was not long enough for Mason. I see the Brewsterites starting to fall in that same kind of trap. 3 years becomes 4 then 4 becomes 5 and so on and so forth. My philosphy is if a coach can't win the Big Ten in his first five years he never will. When was the last time a coach won his first Big Ten title after he'd been coaching 5 years in the Big Ten? It's been a long time. People point to Zook or Fitzgerald who might break that Philosphy but if they win this year or next they will fall in line with that Philosphy.
 

for me without signs of failure you're looking at a six year run. If the program collapses anytime in there you make a change. But as long as the actual program is building you ignore wins and losses until about the 4th year then you see what the coach can do with what he's built. That takes a couple of years. If he hasn't achieved the outcomes you expect from the program and it's stagnating, you seek someone with the skills to move it forward. Really the fifth year should be tell tale, and the 6th for confirmation.
 

I'm Big Ten Champions or bust by the end of 5 years. People rip on that Philosphy but it's held true for a while now.
 

i don't disagree with you gold, but you know vying for a championship would be such a huge improvement I'm not sure we'd throw that away if we did get a competitive program going, even if we came up short.
 



I agree Schnoodler with your take about coming up barely short but I think after this year we'll know. I think year five will be the best chance to win the title. Next year we lose way too many players on defense. I do like Brewster taking responsibility in teams wins and losses and making no excuses. Even against Cal he was that way. Mason never wanted to take any responsibility.
 

gold04 said:
Woulda, shoulda, coulda, the next game will show us how Brewster is able to bring the team back from defeat. These next three games are winnable so Brewster needs to take advantage of that. We said that about the games coming up after we went 7-1 last year, and we did not win a game the rest of the season. Hopefully this year is a different story.
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hijack.gif
 

We had opportunities, now we need to take advantage of those opportunities. It's cold comfort to know that you could have won a game, but that gives you something to build on for next time. We've had a lot of dropped potential interceptions, if we can hang on to those opportunities when they come our way, that would be a big step up.
 

gold04 said:
My philosphy is if a coach can't win the Big Ten in his first five years he never will. When was the last time a coach won his first Big Ten title after he'd been coaching 5 years in the Big Ten?
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Stu Holcomb's first Big Ten title was in his 6th year at Purdue (1952)
Murray Warmath's first Big Ten title was in his 7th year at Minnesota (1960)
Bump Elliott's first Big Ten title was in his 6th year at Michigan (1964)
Duffy Daugherty's first Big Ten title was in his 12th year at MSU (1965)
Jack Mollenkopf's first Big Ten title was in his 12th year at Purdue (1967)
John Cooper's first Big Ten title was in his 6th year at OSU (1993)

You may want to consider a new philosophy.
 



dpodoll68 said:
Stu Holcomb's first Big Ten title was in his 6th year at Purdue (1952)
Murray Warmath's first Big Ten title was in his 7th year at Minnesota (1960)
Bump Elliott's first Big Ten title was in his 6th year at Michigan (1964)
Duffy Daugherty's first Big Ten title was in his 12th year at MSU (1965)
Jack Mollenkopf's first Big Ten title was in his 12th year at Purdue (1967)
John Cooper's first Big Ten title was in his 6th year at OSU (1993)

You may want to consider a new philosophy.
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Ouch lol
 

How Long Do We Wait?

gold04 said:
The issue becomes how long do you wait in becoming a good football team. The Masonites thought 10 years was not long enough for Mason. I see the Brewsterites starting to fall in that same kind of trap. 3 years becomes 4 then 4 becomes 5 and so on and so forth. My philosphy is if a coach can't win the Big Ten in his first five years he never will. When was the last time a coach won his first Big Ten title after he'd been coaching 5 years in the Big Ten? It's been a long time. People point to Zook or Fitzgerald who might break that Philosphy but if they win this year or next they will fall in line with that Philosphy.
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I have been saying this for a long time here and I still believe it is realistic. When Brew's first real recruiting class (Feb. 2008.......Feb. 2007 was a Mase class) reaches their senior year in 2011, then we will know. Until then, assuming no major collapse, I will withhold judgement. Unless the program is imploding, a coach deserves a shot at getting his full complement of players in there running his systems. This is a monumental job that requires enormous energy. I think Brew has Gopher football moving in a positive direction.
 

Concerning Hayo's fumble, I thought his arm got nailed by a defender's helmet.
 

gold04 said:
I'm Big Ten Champions or bust by the end of 5 years. People rip on that Philosphy but it's held true for a while now.
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yep it's 5, not less, not more unless there are big time results(Jan 1 bowl, Rose Bowl, Big Ten Champs)
 

Two words, development and patience. There have been teams that have had success relatively quickly, but most take some development to be established for the long haul.
 

Why change the Philosphy?

In 40 years only one time has a coach broken that philosphy. FORTY YEARS! FORTY YEARS! FORTY YEARS! Thats a heck of a long time. No reason to break that Philosphy. You guys are acting like it's been broken every other year, not ONCE in FORTY years.
 

gold04 said:
In 40 years only one time has a coach broken that philosphy. FORTY YEARS! FORTY YEARS! FORTY YEARS! Thats a heck of a long time. No reason to break that Philosphy. You guys are acting like it's been broken every other year, not ONCE in FORTY years.
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Actually, it's been 6 in 57 years, but that's far less amenable to your hypothesis.

I love when people only see the stats that are in their favor.

It's kind of like saying that our 6 NCs are irrelevant because they're all 40+ years ago.
 



dpodoll68 said:
Stu Holcomb's first Big Ten title was in his 6th year at Purdue (1952)
Murray Warmath's first Big Ten title was in his 7th year at Minnesota (1960)
Bump Elliott's first Big Ten title was in his 6th year at Michigan (1964)
Duffy Daugherty's first Big Ten title was in his 12th year at MSU (1965)
Jack Mollenkopf's first Big Ten title was in his 12th year at Purdue (1967)
John Cooper's first Big Ten title was in his 6th year at OSU (1993)

You may want to consider a new philosophy.
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And that's the ballgame folks........
 

gold04 said:
I'm Big Ten Champions or bust by the end of 5 years. People rip on that Philosphy but it's held true for a while now.
Click to expand...

So you're saying that if in year 5, the Gophers go 7-1 in the Big Ten, but don't win the Championship, you'll fire Brewster?

Or how about they go 6-2, have a top 20 recruiting class coming in, and sign the top 5 Minnesota kids; you're still going to fire him?

Or how about, they go 4-4, but Reusse, Barreiro, PA, Loon and Wren are all on board? You'd still fire him? You gotta admit if that happened you'd have to keep him around one more year just to enjoy the harmony.
 

gold04 said:
The issue becomes how long do you wait in becoming a good football team. The Masonites thought 10 years was not long enough for Mason. I see the Brewsterites starting to fall in that same kind of trap. 3 years becomes 4 then 4 becomes 5 and so on and so forth. My philosphy is if a coach can't win the Big Ten in his first five years he never will. When was the last time a coach won his first Big Ten title after he'd been coaching 5 years in the Big Ten? It's been a long time. People point to Zook or Fitzgerald who might break that Philosphy but if they win this year or next they will fall in line with that Philosphy.
Click to expand...

It's not about the number of years, it's about the direction of the program. Rich Brooks won 22 games is his first 7 years at Oregon and is recognized as having turned around the program. Murray Warmath was hung in effigy after his 6th season at Minnesota and many/most Gopher fans wanted him fired. Of course, he won a national championship the following year followed by 2 more years in the top 10.

What really matters is the overall direction of the program, and that is not measured by constant success. Vey few success curves go up constantly. There are generally some ups and downs along the way. A good AD will figure it out and stick with a coach that is worthy. Frankly, I see no reason not to trust the Maturi/Bruininks evaluation of the program and will go along with whatever they decide.

Personally, I think Coach Brewster, his staff, and our team are all developing and we need to support them in every way we can.

Go Gophers...RAH!
 

upchurch said:
After thoroughly breaking down the film, one thing has stood out: We could have easily won that game. There was a pass that Royston broke up but Theret would have intercepted had he just turned around. There was the Dandridge "interception" right in his hands that had he just looked down at the ball he would have caught (and Spielman said he'd still be running had he caught it). Then there was the qb sack and fumble that we didn't get. And there was Hayo's fumble (which just seemed to fall out of his hands without being hit). Add in the qb sack that was called back cuz of a false start, a false start by Cal that wasn't called, the bloop kickoff which didn't go deep enough, and take away the key int. that we threw and we win that game. That's a lot of ifs but we actually were in the game with a very good team that played a solid game.
Click to expand...

Honest brokers would say Cal had just as much wouldas, couldas, and shouldas to put Minnesota away early, but they didn't and let an underdog hang around, with the usual consequences of such follies. The bottom line is good teams turn it on when they must; when the Gophers could do that on the road, in hostile stadiums, with momentum clearly against them, then they will have "arrived."

Minnesota's a good team and should make noises in the Big-10. Good luck rest of the way. Let's hope for a rematch in Pasadena!
 

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