Gophers/Northwestern Post-Game Rant Thread

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Just a really, really disgusting performance all the way around. This can't just be blamed on "injuries" on the offensive line as the issue with that group is also talent. We are in year 5 with this staff and there should be some depth on the offensive line. Once again, I will point out that the passing game has ranged from below average to terrible all four seasons with this staff and year 5 is no different. After all the talk about Gentry, Holland, and Gant...it's still KJ Maye, Drew Wolitarskly, and Eric Carter getting the vast majority of the playing time/targets on the outside...that's not good. The quarterback position is a disaster and we've yet to see any evidence that this staff can develop a Quarterback or a passing game at this level.

The defense was not good today either. They never came close to forcing a turnover from a freshman quarterback of an offensively challenged team on a very windy day and way too many 3rd down conversions were completed on easy passes. Part of the reason the Gophers defense was tired, was they couldn't get off the field on 3rd down.

Next year this team loses its entire defensive backfield, Cockran, and Campbell. Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Michigan will all be in year two under their new regimes. This was a year to make a leap forward and things are certainly going backwards. Kirk Ferentz (who gets mocked by Gopher fans despite accomplishing much, much more than any Gopher coach in my lifetime) just went in to Camp Randall and beat Wisconsin. It looks like Iowa, with the coach who a large section of their fan base wanted gone, is going to take advantage of things while Minnesota, with a coach with almost universal popularity will not.
 

EG#9 said:
Just a really, really disgusting performance all the way around. This can't just be blamed on "injuries" on the offensive line as the issue with that group is also talent. We are in year 5 with this staff and there should be some depth on the offensive line. Once again, I will point out that the passing game has ranged from below average to terrible all four seasons with this staff and year 5 is no different. After all the talk about Gentry, Holland, and Gant...it's still KJ Maye, Drew Wolitarskly, and Eric Carter getting the vast majority of the playing time/targets on the outside...that's not good. The quarterback position is a disaster and we've yet to see any evidence that this staff can develop a Quarterback or a passing game at this level.

The defense was not good today either. They never came close to forcing a turnover from a freshman quarterback of an offensively challenged team on a very windy day and way too many 3rd down conversions were completed on easy passes. Part of the reason the Gophers defense was tired, was they couldn't get off the field on 3rd down.

Next year this team loses its entire defensive backfield, Cockran, and Campbell. Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Michigan will all be in year two under their new regimes. This was a year to make a leap forward and things are certainly going backwards. Kirk Ferentz (who gets mocked by Gopher fans despite accomplishing much, much more than any Gopher coach in my lifetime) just went in to Camp Randall and beat Wisconsin. It looks like Iowa, with the coach who a large section of their fan base wanted gone, is going to take advantage of things while Minnesota, with a coach with almost universal popularity will not.
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Best post of the day- couldn't agree more. This was our year to make advances on the teams with new coaches. Yet you ask people around here and if we changed coaches we are set back 4 years.
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
Some posters have suggested that Limegrover is on a short leash. He's called some imaginative games in the past (Nebraska, '13, e.g.); is Kill the problem?
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Interesting question. Is it my imagination or did Claeys open up the offense when he was filling in for Kill?
 

Bad game. Things to correct. Would help to get healed up. Need a break. Need a spark. At least the haters will have a happy week.
 


So did Limegrover open up the playbook today or is he waiting for Purdue next week?
 

killme said:
Bad game. Things to correct. Would help to get healed up. Need a break. Need a spark. At least the haters will have a happy week.
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Recap of Kill's post game press conference?
 

GopherHole Staff said:
Instead of multiple rant threads, we are going to consolidate into this thread. We may leave some post-game threads on their own if they aren't just ranting.
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Strongly dislike this. Who defines what is and isn't a rant? If goal is traffic on the site, you'd think you'd let things develop organically. Seems posts have dropped after threads were combined.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
Dude was playing against prevent defense, it wasn't even close to the same game. Comparing the two's play today is stupid as all get out.
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That was not a prevent defense. They were blitzing LB's and still playing man to man. Croft looked more composed and threw a better ball in a very small sample size. We know what we got with Leidner and it's not good enough. Croft should get a full week of work with first team this week and if he's even remotely comparable to Leidner, he should be the QB1.
 



If the minions on this site had a job performance like Limegrover they would be.....

[FIRED!
 

All the pre-season hype was speculation. What offensive player is average for the Big?

QB- nope.
RB- nope though at least they are young.
OL- Nope and they are not young though perhaps beat up.
TE- Definitely nope.
WRs- see tight end.

How many offensive players will go to an NFL camp at some point?

Answer: I think Campion, Pirsig and maybe Brooks. I think none of the players will play a regular season down in the league (too early on Brooks but it is a guess). This is the worst level of O talent the Gophers have had in a long, long time (this includes Brewster era).
 

RolGnav said:
Calm down buddy, I didn't say Kill was mean for throwing him in there in that situation. I just stated that Croft did decent given those circumstances. Calm down. Breathe.
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I was responding to RiverGopher's post. I had no anger when writing my post, frustration yes. So many fans want Croft for change sake, and it's ridiculous. Leidner hasn't been great but he has been good. Chances are, if all things being equal, Croft performs way worse than Leidner with a beat to sh!t OL, a horrible play calling OC, 2 freshman RB's, a TE group that looks like an ER ward, and 4-5 freshman WR's. There is so much going against us right now it's unfair to blame it all on one player (Leidner) who, we forget, has already led us to two game winning drives.
 

The defense has not generated turnovers and the maligned Nw qb made good decisions and converted on third down.
Our offense played with a long field and after a few short drives punted.
The defense eventually wore down.
The play calling got worse as the game progressed. I get the coaches were trying to give the defense a breather, but the pass plays that were called and the protection were bad.
Kill showed that he will bench upper classmen when they don't take care of the football. They benched Rodrick and now today Leidner after his fumble and bad interception.
Somehow the team needs to get some confidence back and play looser. Maybe this loss will somehow cause them to play like they have nothing to lose.
 



For all the angst we put into this team, sometimes we have to remember that it's just a game. Yeah, it stinks when they lose, but, unless you bet your mortgage on the game, it's not the end of the world. There are a lot worse things in life than some team losing a football game.

I went out and mowed the grass after the game, then I went over to the neighborhood court and shot some hoops, just for something to do. (and because I didn't want to read all the negative threads on this board.)

Life goes on. kick back, enjoy the day on Sunday, and get ready to start a new week on Monday.
Things could be worse.
 

Looks like the Gophers have scored less points than every team in FBS except for 3.
 


Here is my two cents, it may be extreme but our offense has been extremely terrible so I feel it makes sense. First) Limegrover needs to get out of minnesota. His offense is so old that no other teams in college football run the scheme. His playcalling is predictable, his "play action" is not anything that a team fears because all we do is throw the ball into the flat for 5 yards and the defense can easily swarm them for ten yards if we even complete the pass. He was still calling play action inside hand offs when we were down 27-0 and EVERYONE knew we were going to throw. Why? It gives the defense more time to get a good push on our O-line. Also, why in the world do we use the jumbo package with three tight ends, a fullback, and a HB on anything more than 3 yards to gain. It is a damn joke and they playbook should be goalline offense only. It's obvious we will never pass out of it, and if we do it will be shut down easy because all of the routes are to the flat where the defense can easily cover it and shut it down. Next. Our O-line play has been horrendous. No push in the running game, nopass protecting in the passing game. However, given the fact that the defense continually has 7-9 players stacking the box and knowing we are going to run doesn't help our passing game or play action because defenses bring the heat on every play. EVERY SINGLE PLAY. It is not fair to our offensive line to have to continually pick up 5-6 guys on every play. So once again limegrover has a huge part to blame in this. Third.) Mitch Leidner should not play college football as we all know. Now, it all is definitely not his fault.. But his throwing mechanics are a joke. Constantly throwing off his back foot when he has time to step up into the pass and make a nice hard throw. He has happy feet all day in the pocket. He cannot throw a clean spiral and cannot hit an open man at all. He should never have been recruited as a qb here. Move him to TE and he could have a good couple last two years. 4.) Why on earth are our wide receivers running the same routes on every single play. Every play is a comeback for about 10 yards or less and the defense knows it. Why do you think demry almost had three picks in a quarter? Because the play calling and our routes that are in our playbook are an absolute joke. Nothing over the middle where any college qb should be able to hit an open receiver. Nothing deep to open up space for another receiver so slip into the zone left by the safety and CB taking away the deep ball. It is an honest to god joke. Throw the ball the wide receivers that Jerry Kill RAVED about all offseason. KJ Maye should not be a #1 option. Well, I've finished up with my rant. Have a great day Gopherholers and GO GOPHERS!
 

Dradke13 said:
Here is my two cents, it may be extreme but our offense has been extremely terrible so I feel it makes sense. First) Limegrover needs to get out of minnesota. His offense is so old that no other teams in college football run the scheme. His playcalling is predictable, his "play action" is not anything that a team fears because all we do is throw the ball into the flat for 5 yards and the defense can easily swarm them for ten yards if we even complete the pass. He was still calling play action inside hand offs when we were down 27-0 and EVERYONE knew we were going to throw. Why? It gives the defense more time to get a good push on our O-line. Also, why in the world do we use the jumbo package with three tight ends, a fullback, and a HB on anything more than 3 yards to gain. It is a damn joke and they playbook should be goalline offense only. It's obvious we will never pass out of it, and if we do it will be shut down easy because all of the routes are to the flat where the defense can easily cover it and shut it down. Next. Our O-line play has been horrendous. No push in the running game, nopass protecting in the passing game. However, given the fact that the defense continually has 7-9 players stacking the box and knowing we are going to run doesn't help our passing game or play action because defenses bring the heat on every play. EVERY SINGLE PLAY. It is not fair to our offensive line to have to continually pick up 5-6 guys on every play. So once again limegrover has a huge part to blame in this. Third.) Mitch Leidner should not play college football as we all know. Now, it all is definitely not his fault.. But his throwing mechanics are a joke. Constantly throwing off his back foot when he has time to step up into the pass and make a nice hard throw. He has happy feet all day in the pocket. He cannot throw a clean spiral and cannot hit an open man at all. He should never have been recruited as a qb here. Move him to TE and he could have a good couple last two years. 4.) Why on earth are our wide receivers running the same routes on every single play. Every play is a comeback for about 10 yards or less and the defense knows it. Why do you think demry almost had three picks in a quarter? Because the play calling and our routes that are in our playbook are an absolute joke. Nothing over the middle where any college qb should be able to hit an open receiver. Nothing deep to open up space for another receiver so slip into the zone left by the safety and CB taking away the deep ball. It is an honest to god joke. Throw the ball the wide receivers that Jerry Kill RAVED about all offseason. KJ Maye should not be a #1 option. Well, I've finished up with my rant. Have a great day Gopherholers and GO GOPHERS!
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BarnBoy throws Dradke13 a towel...

Hit the showers man... That was a good rant.
 

Dradke13 said:
Here is my two centsQUOTE]

As BarnBoy already said, good rant. Just want to touch on a few things.

However, given the fact that the defense continually has 7-9 players stacking the box and knowing we are going to run doesn't help our passing game or play action because defenses bring the heat on every play. EVERY SINGLE PLAY. It is not fair to our offensive line to have to continually pick up 5-6 guys on every play.
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This has always been the case. The difference is the past two years we've been able to still run the ball. We've nearly run the ball as much as we've passed it this year. The offense should be able to exploit this but the receivers aren't getting much seperation and the QB hasn't been able to deliver under pressure. We have no deep threat at all.

Why on earth are our wide receivers running the same routes on every single play. Every play is a comeback for about 10 yards or less and the defense knows it. Why do you think demry almost had three picks in a quarter? Because the play calling and our routes that are in our playbook are an absolute joke. Nothing over the middle where any college qb should be able to hit an open receiver. Nothing deep to open up space for another receiver so slip into the zone left by the safety and CB taking away the deep ball. It is an honest to god joke. Throw the ball the wide receivers that Jerry Kill RAVED about all offseason. KJ Maye should not be a #1 option. Well, I've finished up with my rant.
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Maybe you're right but my guess is there are other receivers running different routes. On most plays there are receivers running a variety of routes, including someone going deep. I think the QB's are just focussing in on one guy too much. Maybe I'm wrong but that would be guess. Would have to see the wide shot of the game footage to know for sure though.
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Sure glad I was out in the duck blind rather than watching the disaster unfold in Evanston.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
For all the angst we put into this team, sometimes we have to remember that it's just a game. Yeah, it stinks when they lose, but, unless you bet your mortgage on the game, it's not the end of the world. There are a lot worse things in life than some team losing a football game.

I went out and mowed the grass after the game, then I went over to the neighborhood court and shot some hoops, just for something to do. (and because I didn't want to read all the negative threads on this board.)

Life goes on. kick back, enjoy the day on Sunday, and get ready to start a new week on Monday.
Things could be worse.
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Is this Limey trolling us?
 

GophersInIowa said:
Here is my two centsQUOTE]

-This has always been the case. The difference is the past two years we've been able to still run the ball. We've nearly run the ball as much as we've passed it this year. The offense should be able to exploit this but the receivers aren't getting much seperation and the QB hasn't been able to deliver under pressure. We have no deep threat at all.

-Maybe you're right but my guess is there are other receivers running different routes. On most plays there are receivers running a variety of routes, including someone going deep. I think the QB's are just focussing in on one guy too much. Maybe I'm wrong but that would be guess. Would have to see the wide shot of the game footage to know for sure though.
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Huge difference this year is in the past one facet of the Running Game has been the ability of the QB to run the ball. Last year Mitch ran for 615 yards. The year before that Smith ran for 498 and Nelson ran for 484. That was 982 yards from QBs! This year that threat is gone. Cobb did a GREAT job last year but teams had to keep an eye on the QB too. Not this year and if Darrell Thompson was right and now Leidner is wearing braces on both knees that is not gonna change. Could be why Mitch has just looked so damn slow.

The Gophers have won a number of games because the QB could take-off and get some yards. Now with more and more teams having their back 7 focus on the receiver and not looking for the ball or glancing back to check on the QB, running Quarterbacks can save a lot of bad situations.

As Gopher Fans, we've seen a lot of those type of guys kill our Defense for years now. Problem is for now at least, we have none of that when we're on Offense.
 


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