Gopher preview from TheOzone.net

[cduff]

This one is pretty entertaining!


http://www.the-ozone.net/football/2009/Bigtencountdown/No8Minnesota.htm

 

[16FeetUnder]

This quote is awesome:

"Road Schedule. There aren’t many surer bets out there than Minnesota not going undefeated at Penn State, Ohio State and Iowa. About the only surer bet is that a Hawkeye will be arrested this season and Kirk Ferentz will get a two-year contract extension for it."

 

[JPIIGopher]

Tony Gerdeman does a fantastic job previewing teams. I think he knows more about my team than I do, I hate that.

 

[Donovan]

Yea, that was good. Any links to the other Big Ten teams?

 

[GophenGolder]

michigan:
http://www.the-ozone.net/football/2009/Bigtencountdown/no9Michigan.htm

purdue:
http://www.the-ozone.net/football/2009/Bigtencountdown/No10Purdue.htm

indiana
http://www.the-ozone.net/football/2009/Bigtencountdown/No11Indiana.htm

 

[calminnfan]

I kinda thought he had a cynical attitude toward the Gophers in his writing. Though his main points I basically agree with, he seemed to be condescending toward Brew and giving kudos to Mason when talking about the type of offense. Personally getting a little tired of the comparisons, especially since it is comparing apples and oranges.

Brew is going for much better athletes, not mid major wannabes and has put together a much tougher schedule. He has been willing to make changes immediately when something does not work.

Sorry, but though he makes some points, he sounds like a more researched arm chair coach.

 

[dpodoll68]

he seemed to be condescending toward Brew and giving kudos to Mason when talking about the type of offense. Personally getting a little tired of the comparisons, especially since it is comparing apples and oranges.

Sorry, I couldn't disagree with you more here. Mason no doubt had his problems, but there were certainly two things he could do:

1. Employ a hell of a running attack
2. Squeeze the most talent out of what he had

Those abilities were largely outweighed by his unimaginative and simplistic passing game, his defenses that were absolutely putrid almost every year, his horrible PR abilities, and his inability (laziness?) to consistenly recruit players who could be coached up from "starter" to "all-conference", usually settling instead for players who could be coached up from "contributor" to "serviceable starter".

Brewster is well on his way to becoming a much better all-around coach than Mason, but to say that Mason ran a much better offense than Brew, especially in the running game, is certainly a fair criticism at this time.

 

[Ski U Master]

Sorry, I couldn't disagree with you more here. Mason no doubt had his problems, but there were certainly two things he could do:

1. Employ a hell of a running attack
2. Squeeze the most talent out of what he had

Those abilities were largely outweighed by his unimaginative and simplistic passing game, his defenses that were absolutely putrid almost every year, his horrible PR abilities, and his inability (laziness?) to consistenly recruit players who could be coached up from "starter" to "all-conference", usually settling instead for players who could be coached up from "contributor" to "serviceable starter".

Brewster is well on his way to becoming a much better all-around coach than Mason, but to say that Mason ran a much better offense than Brew, especially in the running game, is certainly a fair criticism at this time.

+1

 

[Schnoodler]

I wasn't that excited by the read either. It seemed a little more snide than informative.

 

[pdxgopher]

Historically, Navy has also had a "hell of a running attack", but that is not exactly a program that I strive for the Gopher's to emulate. The one dimensional offense could only take us so far against decent teams, and it seems like the "so far" was about half-time. Having said that, I would have loved the old one dimensional offense last year. I'm very excited to see the new direction of the offense combined with some experience.

Although I think Brewster's initial direction of running a true spread was a mis-step, in Brewster and Dunbar's defense I don't think we had the talent in 2007 or 2008 to run much of any offense. It's tough to have a running game with no healthly running backs and relying on true freshman.

 

[calminnfan]

I don't argue that Mason had the running attack and OL to go with it, and I think Dunbar's spread is badly outdated and needed major adjustments which he was just not willing to do. My point in that regard was that Brewster tried it, seen the problem and made changes which made sense. To me that makes him an even better HC. Mason never made any changes, especially on Defense, that would push the team to improve.

Also, with Mason's refusal to even attempt to put in the effort for the better talent, he left the cupboard pretty bare for Brewster and he needs more then the two years he has had so far. This year is not even a fair indicator since the difficulty of schedule has been so dramatically increased, we are not sure how the year will turn out.

BTW - Russell's leaving early along with another RB who had visions of grandeur and left for the draft did not help Brew's depth at running back when he first came in.

 

[dpodoll68]

Historically, Navy has also had a "hell of a running attack", but that is not exactly a program that I strive for the Gopher's to emulate.

They're not the greatest, but you could certainly do worse. They are 51-25 since 2003.

Also, it's not really a relevant comparison, because the service academies all run variations of the triple option, while Mason ran a pretty conventional zone power scheme.

I don't understand how you can rip on Mason by picking the one thing at which he was actually world-class. There is plenty of low-hanging fruit to be had - I don't see the point in trying to run him down for something that was his (and this program's) trademark for a decade.

 

[GopherGod]

Historically, Navy has also had a "hell of a running attack", but that is not exactly a program that I strive for the Gopher's to emulate. The one dimensional offense could only take us so far against decent teams, and it seems like the "so far" was about half-time. Having said that, I would have loved the old one dimensional offense last year. I'm very excited to see the new direction of the offense combined with some experience.

Although I think Brewster's initial direction of running a true spread was a mis-step, in Brewster and Dunbar's defense I don't think we had the talent in 2007 or 2008 to run much of any offense. It's tough to have a running game with no healthly running backs and relying on true freshman.

I think the Nebraska teams of the 90's and those teams that played them then would disagree with you. If you have good athletes, good coaching, and execute your scheme well you can beat anyone with nearly any offense. I would say that 3 national championships and one runner-up in the 90's shows you can beat decent teams running a "one-dimensional offense."