Flip Flop: Middle Tennessee and South Dakota

[everybody knows my name]

Hypothetically, if the Gophers had lost to Middle Tennessee and then beaten South Dakota, would the yahoos be yelling for the coach's scalp? Or is the USD loss being used (as I think it is) as a pretext to call for his firing by a lot of people who already wanted him gone?

 

[Great Football Mind]

The gophers didn't "hypothetically" beat USD. They lost. This game will cost him his job, as it should.

 

[everybody knows my name]

Thanks for that enlightening commentary, dipwad.

But here's the point of the question: the Gophers have one win against a pretty good team and one loss against an inferior team. Had the results been reversed, I don't think there'd be such an outcry. I'm trying to get people to look at the Gophers' current situation in a different light than they've been doing.

Do you think I'm wrong, or are you going to try to short-circuit the topic?

 

[Art Vandelay]

Puh-lease. MTSU is not pretty darn good. Of the 120 D-I teams they are not even in the top half. Pretty darn good teams are those in the top 25 and those receiving more than a handful of votes.

 

[masonglen]

we didn't beat a pretty good team though.. had they had their QB they would have sliced and diced us.. people also could have handled a loss to MTSU as they were a 10-3 team last year.. USD is in early stages of D-1AA.. well below both South Dakota St and NDSU.. picked to finish 5th in a 6 team league.. SHOULD NEVER LOSE TO A TEAM LIKE THAT.

 

[hyaluronic]

Well, I certainly was not in the camp of wanting Brewster fired before the game. I'm leaning that direction now, though he still has ten games to change my mind. 4-8 and 5-7 could work for me if he beats some good teams, and it looks like an issue of consistency rather than just being bad. With our young defense, inconsistency is acceptable... losing to South Dakota was not.

 

[thailleagle]

Hypothetically if we had held that lead against Texas Tech...or Michigan...or Wisconsin...

But I understand...I expected them to lose to MTSU & beat USD...but who knows...

 

[Great Football Mind]

Yeah I think you're wrong.
I get the point of your question. You're trying to tip-toe around the fact that the Gophers just lost to a team that was Division II three years ago. And MTSU is not a good team without Dasher either. Don't you think it's time to rise our expectations a little bit? I do....dipwad

 

[GO4INLALALAND]

Hypotheticals have no use when dealing with reality. I deal with reality and the reality is that we lost to So Dak. That is inexcusable and shows that the program is not progressing. It certainly provides solid grounds for terminating Brewster.

 

[Formo]

we didn't beat a pretty good team though.. had they had their QB they would have sliced and diced us.. people also could have handled a loss to MTSU as they were a 10-3 team last year.. USD is in early stages of D-1AA.. well below both South Dakota St and NDSU.. picked to finish 5th in a 6 team league.. SHOULD NEVER LOSE TO A TEAM LIKE THAT.

Dasher (MTSU's starting QB) wouldn't of had the time to slice and dice us.. They held the ball for a mere 15 minutes. Moot point.

 

[rjbenny]

If they had Dasher, they would have had the ball longer than 15 minutes.

 

[Hindsight is 20/20]

Hypothetically, if the Gophers had lost to Middle Tennessee and then beaten South Dakota, would the yahoos be yelling for the coach's scalp? Or is the USD loss being used (as I think it is) as a pretext to call for his firing by a lot of people who already wanted him gone?

We don't want his scalp! We want his [rear] ran out of town on a hot rail!!

 

[Hindsight is 20/20]

Puh-lease. MTSU is not pretty darn good. Of the 120 D-I teams they are not even in the top half. Pretty darn good teams are those in the top 25 and those receiving more than a handful of votes.

Not to mention they gave up 33 points Saturday to something called Austion Peay. While we are on the topic, didn't South Central Florida score the same amount of points on the shut down Coyotes as our "vastely improved" offense did on Sat.?

 

[tato2001]

Thanks for that enlightening commentary, dipwad.

But here's the point of the question: the Gophers have one win against a pretty good team and one loss against an inferior team. Had the results been reversed, I don't think there'd be such an outcry. I'm trying to get people to look at the Gophers' current situation in a different light than they've been doing.

Do you think I'm wrong, or are you going to try to short-circuit the topic?

You're basically trying to paint the USD loss as a fluke because we beat a better team the week before. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold up.

The problem with your hypothetical situation is that the difference in your scenarios isn't dramatic enough to suggest that the USD loss was a fluke. If the Gophers had beaten a Top 25 team last week, and lost to USD, yeah, you are right: a flip-flop of those results and obviously no one is concerned. But because those results are SO different than reality people would have been less concerned either way. If the Gophers beat a very good team people probably wouldn't be as concerned with (what would then appear to be) a fluky loss to USD either: they would still be 1-1 which is what people would have expected, and hey, they pulled off a big upset to get there. And you would have a point.

However, the Gophers DIDN'T beat a Top 25 team last week. The Gophers beat a middling team that they should have beaten. That, and the trackrecord of this team in recent years makes it seem reasonable to folks that losing to ANY team is ACTUALLY a possibility on any given Saturday. So your hypothetical situation is moot.