How Gophs stack up

[GopherKISS]

Facts don't lie

You do realize, Troll, that you can't judge the current state of the Minnesota Gophers football team by this year's draft. That draft reflects the players that Brewster inherited, in a few years, you can look at the draft to see the talent level that Brewster recruited.

Furthermore, you can't judge the talent level of a state's FB talent by looking at how many players were drafted from colleges in the state. You may not have noticed, but colleges often recruit from outside of the state. If you really want to assess the talent that Minnesota HS football teams produce, you could have to look at what high school the drafted players went to, not which college they went to. Also, it should be noted that in past years, the best talent in this state has slipped through the fingers of the Gophers, but lately the Gophers have been retaining more in-state talent.

And onto the stadium, no one is saying that TCF is going to be a magic wand. But it does have many benefits. The Gophers moved to the Metrodome under political pressure. Memorial Stadium was in need of renovation, and the Vikings were threatening to leave unless they got a new stadium. There was going to be no money for renovation, everything was being put toward keeping the Vikings here in Minnesota. Of course the U put the best possible face on it, but the move wasn't a real choice. The Gophers were served up as another revenue stream for the Vikings.

Some of the benefits of the dome are increased revenues - this one is huge. Playing on campus in a stadium which looks like a Gophers stadium, as opposed to a generic stadium with a few cheap plastic temporary banners, will make a better gameday experience, as well as being better for recruiting.

Again not a TROLL- Just have done thorough research and KNOW THE FACTS!!

EVERY state has talent slip thru its fingers. There are great ones out of Ohio (Desmond Howard) who go to Michigan or elsewhere. There are great ones from Virginia (Percy Harvin) who go to Florida, there are great ones from Texas (Adrian Peterson) who go to Oklahoma, on and on and on. Or how about Adrian Arrington, an Iowa boy who played for the Wolverines?The Hawkeyes, who must compete with Iowa State and Northern Iowa are able to dodge these (lost recruit) excuses. The Hawkeyes were able to knock off Southern Carolina 31-10 in the Outback Bowl. How come the Gophers never win games like this against the South? The only state that has done a good job locking borders is Nebraska, other than of course letting Gale Sayers (Omaha) go to Kansas. Though Nebraska has struggled the last 5 or 6 years its philosophy worked at least three decades prior.

Minnesota could have been like a Nebraska, or even better with bigger population. But Minnesota as a state chooses not to have an "All eggs in the basket football culture" like Nebraska. They'd rather put focus into hockey and build women's hockey arenas, etc. Can I question or judge how Minnesotan's want to live? NOPE! But then don't come bitching at me or the coach when Gopher FB struggles.

If Minnesota had the culture of Nebraska, focussing more on high school and DI football, rather than hockey, Gopher FB would rub shoulders more with contenders. No, they wouldn't contend year-in and year-out with USC, Texas, Florida, Georgia, but they wouldn't be the joke they've been the last 46 years.

Also, if the Gophers have been retaining more in-state talent, why last year did they lose 55-0 to Iowa, why couldn't they beat Northwestern w/o FOUR regular starters, and why couldn't they beat Michigan in the Wolverine's most vulnerable season of all time? They not only lost 29-6 to Michigan, but didn't score a touchdown and all three losses at the Metrodome? In addition, the Gophers ended 2008 with a five-game losing streak.

Maybe you're talking this year for talent, but I hear that every year. Every year it's a gimmick. Next three years will be the new stadium hype.

Anyway, it's great to get your opinions w/o personal attacks. I'm not always right, but my facts are usually right. That fact I gave out on 20 states with colleges of how many made 2009 draft is accurate. With the Gophers registering zero, you can look at the glass half full instead of half empty, as many other colleges got shutout too. However, the pattern for Gopher football hasn't changed in the last 46 years and I think ZERO in NFL draft reflects that.

As far as the new outdoor stadium, the cold November night games will put an end to that glamour in a hurry!

 

[Gold Vision]

I love this entertainment brought on quarterly by the famous Bobby Knows. Check out my favorite thread when he claims the Gophers BBall team won't beat Wisconsin mid game this year in Wisconsin:

Kfan Link

And the same topic posted earlier over and over again...

Kfan link 2

And Finally, Mr. DROFDARB from our very own Hole:

DROFDARB

 

[GopherGod]

Interesting thought. I did my best to see what that would look like.

The personnel on offense is ridiculous and allows for versatility in formations (I-formation, 3 WR, 2 TE, etc). I think every player on the offense either made it to the NFL, has a good chance to make it to the NFL, or likely would have if not for MLB. The talent at TE is particularly good and deep; I left John Carlson and Dominique Byrd off the list. We also have great talent at WR but we wouldn't have the depth that we have at TE. The defense doesn't look as strong but it has 4 NFL players.

QB: Mauer
RB: Barber
FB: Tapeh
WR: Fitzgerald
WR: Decker
WR: Floyd
TE: Spaeth
TE: Utecht
OT: Henderson
OG: Setterstrom
C: Hamilton (was he from MN?)
OG: Gjere (tackle but can play OG)
OT: Murtha? Brinkhaus?

DT: Ashley? Binns?
DT: Laws
DE: Van De Steeg
DE: Mobley
LB: Triplett
LB: Maresh
LB: Lauranitis
CB: Lehan
CB: Barber
S: Royston
S: Move Shady Salamon over here? Play Sherels at CB and move Barber here?

Good list but I would at this point in time as far as collegiate production in total put Nate Swift slightly ahead of Eric Decker, also for LB you would have to replace Maresh with Jay Foreman, he was a stud at LB in college who had a very solid pro career. I would also put Chris Weinke above Mauer because he actually played at the college level and was a star.

 

[dpodoll68]

Good list but I would at this point in time as far as collegiate production in total put Nate Swift slightly ahead of Eric Decker.

I somewhat agree with you on your other two points, but you are dead wrong on this one.

Their career stats are more or less identical right now, and Decker still has an entire season to play. His numbers, especially yardage and catches, will dwarf Swift's after this season. Plus, Swift was undrafted. Decker will certainly be drafted, possibly even the first day.

If you're going to go off collegiate production, why wouldn't you substitute Swift for Floyd?

 

[GopherGod]

I somewhat agree with you on your other two points, but you are dead wrong on this one.

Their career stats are more or less identical right now, and Decker still has an entire season to play. His numbers, especially yardage and catches, will dwarf Swift's after this season. Plus, Swift was undrafted. Decker will certainly be drafted, possibly even the first day.

If you're going to go off collegiate production, why wouldn't you substitute Swift for Floyd?

You really couldn't go wrong with either of them, I am just a big fan of Swift and the way he played but they are all solid WR's.

 

[dpodoll68]

I love stuff like this. Grunkie, your list is good, but you have way too many guys who have never even played a down of college football. Outside of Henderson (who I think most of us would agree is a guy that is a surefire stud and doesn't come around very often) the rest of these (and others who just aren't that good) have to be removed. My list is below (changes in bold):

QB: Mauer
RB: Barber
FB: Tapeh
WR: Fitzgerald
WR: Decker
WR: Floyd
TE: Spaeth
TE: Utecht
OT: Henderson
OG: Setterstrom
C: Birk
OG: Hamilton (plays G in NFL)
OT: (Ryan) Harris

DT: Schlecht
DT: Laws
DE: Van De Steeg
DE: (Derreck) Robinson
LB: (Brandon) Archer
LB: Foreman
LB: Lauranitis
CB: Lehan
CB: Barber
S: Royston
S: (Craig) Dahl

Honorable Mention:

Todd Bouman
Adam Haayer
Mark LeVoir
Steve Heiden
Chris Kern
Derek Rackley

 

[MinnMarchDTF]

If we were to add a special teams player, I would add:

K Dan Nystrom

 

[Gold Vision]

If we were to add a special teams player, I would add:

K Dan Nystrom

That way we could have Utecht and Nystrom sing a Backstreet Boy style version duet of the national anthem before the game.

 

[GophersInIowa]

Are you seriously going to brag about having 7500 people at the spring game, when the schools we are competing against have significantly more. I see somewhat what he is talking about when he talks about the Minnesota Mentality, fans are largely fair-weather here and wait for a team to win first before supporting the team. It happened with the Vikings when all of the games used to be blacked out before 1998, then they started winning and everyone came out, then they had some down years recently and a lot of the fans disappeared again. The same can be said about how no one goes to Timberwolves games currently as well because they are not winning. You can also use as a reference how attendance dropped off during the last few years of the Monson era. Minnesota unfortunately does not have a history of supporting their teams through the bad times, they wait to jump on board the bandwagon. Heck, when was the last time the Gophers even sold out half of their games in a season.

Not disagreeing with you there; there are a lot of bandwagon fans. But where isn't there? The Timberwolves have been one of the worst teams the past few years. Even in places like Boston, LA, or NY, attendance goes down when the team is losing. People tend to forget that when the Yankees were not very good in the late 80's and early 90's they were sometimes averaging under 25,000 a game. That's pretty bad in a city that huge. Guess what, they starting winning and attendance went up. Boston even had years of averaging under 30,000. There are bandwagon fans everywhere. I think it just shows more in smaller markets.

 

[GopherKISS]

I don't understand the logic in the post either.

1) I don't need someone to tell me that our recruiting fell off the last few years under Mason. This is neither new information nor relevant to what is happening in the program today because we have a new coach. In three years when freshman that Brewster recruited get to be seniors we can make a final determination about his recruiting/player development. An analysis of Mason's recruits with 2-3 years of Mason coaching and 2 years of Brewster coaching doesn't tell us anything definitively about either coach.

2) By looking solely at what the universities from different states sent to the draft doesn't tell us anything definitively about the local state. Players can go elsewhere so all that it really tells us is the ability of universities in any given state to recruit and develop players.

For instance, should we expect Iowa univerisities or Minnesota universities to put more players in to the NFL?

By looking at percentages we can tell that most NFL players came from DI schools. Minnesota has 1 DI program in the state with 85 scholarship players. Iowa has 2 DI programs in the state (I'll ignore that Northern Iowa is DI-AA). The state of Iowa has 170 scholarships for DI versus Minnesota's 85. Minnesota has a larger population than Iowa but Iowa has more DI scholarships. My thoughts are that based on population the state of Minnesota should produce more NFL players than Iowa. However, because universities are not bound by recruiting only within their borders, and players can leave the state, the 2 universities in Iowa should probably cumulatively produce more NFL players than the 1 university in Minnesota if all three programs are run with the same competence. Minnesota probably has a slight advantage of either indiviual university because in recruiting there is a home town advantage to recruiting and Minnesota has a better HS player to DI program ratio than Iowa but 170 scholarships filled from all over the country trumps 85 scholarships in terms of likelihood of developing NFL players.

Well, until MN wins something, like an outright Big 10 Championship, or goes to BCS Final Four, your logic is wrong.
Iowa and Nebraska also dwarf Minnesota PER CAPITA when it comes to homegrown talent.
Don't forget Northern Iowa in 2007 beat Iowa State who beat Iowa who beat Minnesota. If Iowa only had one DI FB team, they probably beat the Gophers 49 out of 50 times.

 

[GopherKISS]

What a stupid post. I can't believe I'm going to waste my time responding to it, but here goes.

Based on your rationale Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas should just take their helmets and pads and go home. In fact, we should probably all go Division II. None of these programs stand a chance of competing in Division I based on your reasoning when you compare them to the states of Florida, Texas, California, Georgia, Ohio, and Virginia. For God's sake, there are small cities that have produced more players in the NFL than the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska combined.

Yes, it's been an extremely long time since we've been to the Rose Bowl or any other major bowl - TOO LONG. However, there is a new commitment from our administration to football, we'll see where it goes before we decide to join the MIAC. In fact, we don't have to look that far for some hope that good things can happen. Before Alvarez took Wisconsin to the Rose Bowl following the 1993 season Wisconsin had not been to any major bowl for 31 years. In addition, in 1989 the average attendance at Camp Randall was only 41,700. In the book "Tales from the Wisconsin Badgers" it was stated, "By the late 1980s, the Badger football program had dipped to one of the true low points in its history" (p. 41). I also remember a quote from Barry Alvarez that when he drove to Camp Randall for his first game he could have shot a cannon in any direction and not feared hitting anyone.

Yes, it's been a long time. It had been a long time for Wisconsin too. You've had a nice run since Barry brought you back from the dead. It took a lot of commitment from administration to make that happen, and as much as I hate the Badgers they did turn it around. However, you do not have a history anything like Nebraska so don't try to compare yourself to them as you did in your original post and a couple since. You do not have more than twenty years of success like you stated, but pretty consistent, decent success since 1993. It has been ten years though since a conference championship, with momentum now going in the wrong direction. So, is that why you are here? You need to try to kick someone while they are still "below" you?

Wisconsin has created a decent program in the past fifteen years, in football and basketball, but it's fans like you who make it so easy to hate Wisconsin rather than be able to admire anything that has been accomplished. You are what you are though, you'll have a good year every now and then - just like other programs that are not one of the top ten programs that have all kinds of built in advantages. You are not Ohio State, Michigan, or Penn State - get over it.

Based on your rationale Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas should just take their helmets and pads and go home — how did you twist that around? I never said that.

The football atmosphere on the Univ of MN campus is a joke compared to WI, IA, NEB, Missouri & Kansas — even when the Goofs played outdoors in the 1970s and early 1980s. And after the two or three years blow over with TCF Stadium, it will only go back to being a joke, that's if the Gophers will ever make progress?

As far as Alvarez changing the Badgers around, that's because a state like WI eventually does something about it (to make DI FB better). The Gophers don't. Minnesotan's could wait for ever and they don't care.

Where did this hate come up for ME hating Wisconsin? I laugh my ass off when they rip the Gophers because that's what Minnesotan's like you deserve! And I will continue to laugh. Badgers win 12 of last 14 vs. Gophers! HA HA HA. HO HO HO. HE HE HE.

It's you who hates facts and refuses to admit it. Don't kill the messenger. Funny, I don't see big seasons from Gopher hoops, Gopher FB, Vikings, Wild, North Stars, T-Wolves, whatever, at least in last 46 years, and you like to call my email, "stupid." Whatever, good luck to your teams in the future, because they're going nowhere. MN is too lackadaisical to ever be a FB or hoops.

 

[GophersInIowa]

Just wanted to point out a few things. You are correct with your facts, but a few you're not really showing the whole story.

"FACT 5: Camp Randall Stadium sits 80,000 compared to the measly 50,000 that will be at TCF. That is an indicator that FB is more important in WI than MN.

FACT 7: Badgers beat Gophers 12 of last 14."

What about the years before Alvarez came to town? YOu forget that not that long ago Wisconsin football was not that important in Wisconsin. Attendance was below 50,000 per game then as well. All of a sudden, the team starts winning and the people show up. Wisconsin fans are not that much different than MN fans. If we go to a few Rose Bowls and are consistantly at top 3 or 4team in the Big Ten, I really don't think we would have much of a problem filling up an 80,000 seat stadium.

There are advantages and disadvantages of the U of MN being in a large metro area. Certainly it helps in recruiting some who want to live in a big city. However, the Twins Cities always has been and always will be a "pro sports town." Big cities always are. It is not a "college town" like Madison, Iowa City, or Champaign. Many fans who grew up in MN (like myself) go to many different sporting events (Twins, Vikings, Wild, Gophers) because they are all in the same location. Therefore, we don't always invest most or all their effort on one team. If you grew up in the Iowa City area or Madison area, more than likely you attend a lot more Hawkeyes or Badgers games than anything else. Therefore, they will probably have more "hardcore" fans than MN.

Being in Iowa now for a year and a half, it's amazing how much the Hawkeyes are everywhere. That's all these people have to cheer for. There are a few Iowa St. fans, and some cheer for the Cubs or Cardinals in baseball, but the only events anyone would have season tickets for are Iowa football or basketball.

 

[GopherGod]

Not disagreeing with you there; there are a lot of bandwagon fans. But where isn't there? The Timberwolves have been one of the worst teams the past few years. Even in places like Boston, LA, or NY, attendance goes down when the team is losing. People tend to forget that when the Yankees were not very good in the late 80's and early 90's they were sometimes averaging under 25,000 a game. That's pretty bad in a city that huge. Guess what, they starting winning and attendance went up. Boston even had years of averaging under 30,000. There are bandwagon fans everywhere. I think it just shows more in smaller markets.

I just think that when you look at our fan support as a state in particular for the university and its athletics that we have a long ways to go to rivals our fellow midwest schools. I think that the fan support is especially crucial at the collegiate level because alot of that plays into the ability to impress and recruit a kid as it does not have a draft like pro sports where the athletes are going wherever they are drafted regardless of whether the stands are empty or not. I believe this lack of fan support has played a major contributing factor to our lack of success on the football field in particular because the more revenue and buzz you can create the easier it is to upgrade your facilities, which is another huge factor in recruiting. I think that TCF will help but based on what I have seen of the typical Minnesota fan, at the first sign of trouble or losing people will jump off the bandwagon.

 

[gopheraschells]

the reason nebraska fans are so nuts and into husker football is THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO DO IN NEBRASKA!!!!!!! beside watching the corn grow. Kiss you should send me a link with the HS scores between the states, what i have always noticed is minnesota teams play up against wisconsin teams. Also, hold on to you alvarez memories because they will be all you have to hold onto for years to come. In the the late 90's till around now wisconsin didnt have much competition on its boarders in basketball or football. Minnesota is rising in both, michigan in basketball, msu in football, and purdue in basketball. your time is done go crack a miller light and let that sink in

 

[gopheraschells]

also....i dont care if Mauer never played a down in college he would have been a stud

 

[GopherGod]

the reason nebraska fans are so nuts and into husker football is THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO DO IN NEBRASKA!!!!!!! beside watching the corn grow. Kiss you should send me a link with the HS scores between the states, what i have always noticed is minnesota teams play up against wisconsin teams. Also, hold on to you alvarez memories because they will be all you have to hold onto for years to come. In the the late 90's till around now wisconsin didnt have much competition on its boarders in basketball or football. Minnesota is rising in both, michigan in basketball, msu in football, and purdue in basketball. your time is done go crack a miller light and let that sink in

That may be true about Nebraska but the fact still remains that they have significantly better fan support and that is what has allowed them to have far superior facilities to Minnesota and in turn be able to pretty much cherry pick recruits from Minnesota, which I am afraid may start to increase again as they appear to be rising again with Osborne as A.D. and Pelini there as coach now. We traditionally have lost more recruits to them than Minnesota has taken from them. I think that they will start to do the same to Wisconsin and Iowa since they are all going after a lot of the same recruits in the midwest. I think they are the ones the gophers should be worrying about competing against as far as recruits in the midwest because I see them as the bigger threat.

 

[GoAUpher]

That may be true about Nebraska but the fact still remains that they have significantly better fan support and that is what has allowed them to have far superior facilities to Minnesota and in turn be able to pretty much cherry pick recruits from Minnesota, which I am afraid may start to increase again as they appear to be rising again with Osborne as A.D. and Pelini there as coach now. We traditionally have lost more recruits to them than Minnesota has taken from them. I think that they will start to do the same to Wisconsin and Iowa since they are all going after a lot of the same recruits in the midwest.

While I don't disagree that we've lost recruits to them, it is hard to take from them what they typically don't have.

 

[GopherGod]

While I don't disagree that we've lost recruits to them, it is hard to take from them what they typically don't have.

for clarification, what I meant was that traditionally when you had a Minnesota kid with offers from both, they usually chose Nebraska. This year will be a good litmus test to see if things have changed or if it is the status quo as both schools have offered and are actively pursuing Beau Allen and Tobi Obuyemi(sp?)

 

[GoAUpher]

for clarification, what I meant was that traditionally when you had a Minnesota kid with offers from both, they usually chose Nebraska. This year will be a good litmus test to see if things have changed or if it is the status quo as both schools have offered and are actively pursuing Beau Allen and Tobi Obuyemi(sp?)

Makes more sense, though I'd argue against the idea that this one year is any sort of litmus test. If it starts happening to Brewster every year (like it did to other Gopher coaches) then you've got your pattern.

 

[MRJ]

I wouldn't take anything this troll says too seriously. The last time he showed up, he was proposing that we institute mandatory football classes for students because that's how they do it in the south while phasing out the sport of hockey altogether. When called out for such a ridiculous proposal, he then backpedaled and claimed that he was never advocating getting rid of hockey, but rather was frustrated that athletes leave the football field to pursue other sports, which basically indicated the tendency towards being sour about football not being the end all, be all for high school athletes around the state. Essentially, it came down to him wanting to force kids to play football at the high school level to the detriment of other sports (which now also apparently includes having baseball).

And then when his argument completely broke down the last time, he resorted to the "well then don't complain when the Gophers aren't winning" rationale. In other words, this person is a complete tool who only uses certain opportunities to advance a ludicrous agenda to complain about Gopher football and the "football atmosphere" in the state, whatever that means.

 

[RailBaronYarr]

Wow

I have read too much...

1) You ARE a troll. Your first (ever on GH) post's sole purpose was to insult our school, state, athletic department and more. You ended it with a sarcastic jab at us. The only reason to do so wasn't to "present facts." The "facts" you presented were obviously to get a rise out of people, not engage in friendly discussion with rival fans (which CAN happen, if you aren't a major toolbox).

2) You use convenient stats to prove whatever your point is. Single year snapshots (whether it be this year's NFL class, the 1990 HS football WI sweep of MN HS football, or anything else) don't paint a full picture. I am SURE we can all go and find some other examples in our favor.

3) You continue to flip between what type of support/greatness you talk about. Is it HS sports? Collegiate? Pro? What sport are we focusing on here? Your latest post laughs at Gopher BB (sweep WI this year, better overall record), Vikings, Wild (where exactly is your pro ice hockey team?), North Stars (again...), TWolves (are the Bucks seriously any better?). You fail to mention the Twins, then. The Brewers have 1 pennant compared to the Twin's 2 WS titles and multiple pennants. But I don't laugh or jest because I have been to Brewers games - they can be quite fun and the stadium is nice (though I'm not a fan of the roof). My point is you are completely all over the place in how you place MN's fault in sports. No cohesion makes for a really crappy point.

3) Wisconsin is NOT Mich, Nebraska, Florida, etc etc. You can think you are all you want, but you're not. 50k is measly? Do you consider 80k measly compared to Mich/PSU/OSU's 103k+ stadiums? You do not, nor will you ever, have the prestige or history associated with those schools. I have been to Madison several times, and actually found it quite lame. One of them was on Homecoming weekend. The stadium didn't fill until the end of the 3rd quarter (mostly the student section's fault - this is a trend that has continued for several years). Imagine what would happen if your team starts to lose. You know, for like 20 years.

4) Is the Gopher football team, atmosphere, following, etc where we want it to be? By all means, no! Having a stadium will help, but not cure our problems. Winning will. As someone else posted, winning cures ALL. Except for a very very few exceptions, fan bases are built and maintained by winning. I guarantee 100% that if your team went 10 years with losing records your ticket sales would drop, and fan interest would severely wane (case in point, YOUR TEAM IN THE 1980s!). Yes, your administration fixed it. So is ours. We built a brand new stadium, have Tubby Smith at the basketball helm, are playing top notch competition (USC and Cal come to mind), and are investing more money in to athletics AND academics. Who the hell said we Minnesotans are too laxidaisical to make things happen???

5) I seriously wouldn't be so cocky about your team. Take a look at the last 6 years. We have only won once, but 3 of your wins came by the hair of your chin. Last year your team went 7-6 (the same as guess who? US!). With losses to those same teams you made fun of US for (Mich, Iowa) and a really impressive win against Cal Poly to close out the regular season. Kudos. Oh yeah and your less than impressive display against FSU than ours against Kansas. Howcome we never beat teams like South(ern?) Carolina from the South? Does beating Alabama in the 2004 Music City Bowl count? Or how about beating Oregon in the 2003 Sun Bowl? Aren't both of those teams national powerhouses every year?

6) Again with the weather comments... Seriously? SERIOUSLY? You think weather will be something that keeps people out? It will be if the team is worth watching. Our average daily high/low for Nov 15 is 41/25. Madison's is 45/25. I really can't tell the difference between 41 and 45. Or 25 and... 25 for that matter. Can you?

Like someone else said, I applaud Wisconsin's recent success in football - 3 Rose Bowls is a lot to be proud of. You have been to a few other good bowls and have had some decent seasons beyond the RB ones. And their fans show up in great numbers today and the games are fairly fun to be at. But tools like you who think that it's so much fun to come here and point out how crappy MN fans, sports, etc are just make it really hard to respect Wisconsin athletics.

 

[gopheraschells]

snap

 

[Tucker32]

GopherKISS - just keep responding. Each one just reveals a deeper level of ignorance on your part, as well as the reality that there is something you are fearful of. If we are so irrelevant, why do you feel the need to come over here and post? My guess, you are beginning to finally realize that you are not in the same league as OSU, PSU, Michigan, etc, so you have to try to kick us while you think we're still down.

The good news for many of us, we're hopeful that it will get better. I, along with most of those on the Hole are going to enjoy Saturdays at the new stadium. Just because we haven't been to a Rose Bowl since 1961 doesn't make us any less of a fan for MN than you are for WI. In fact, I think most of us who are on GopherHole are pretty huge fans as we've stuck by our club for a lot of years. How do you criticize that? You're barking up the wrong tree yelling at those of us on here about the attendance -we're the ones at the game!! By the way, Oregon, Miami, Boston College, and Colorado (I'm sure there are others) are examples of programs that have been pretty successful in the past without huge attendance numbers. On the other hand, South Carolina is a program that has averaged HUGE attendance numbers for many years, but they still haven't been very successful. Attendance is not an indicator of success by itself.

By the way, quit with the stupid high school comparisons - Wisconsin and Minnesota are about as similar as you can get when it comes to prep sports. And the "per capita" stuff about Iowa and Nebraska - who cares?

Finally, you can respond but you won't get any more responses from me - there is no point as you are totally unwilling to have any kind of dialogue. Instead, you just spew your twisted and ridiculous "facts" - which they really are not.

 

[harrys ghost]

for clarification, what I meant was that traditionally when you had a Minnesota kid with offers from both, they usually chose Nebraska. This year will be a good litmus test to see if things have changed or if it is the status quo as both schools have offered and are actively pursuing Beau Allen and Tobi Obuyemi(sp?)

Well, according to Rivals, in 2008, three Minnesota commits listed Nebraska offers. No Nebraska commits listed Minnesota offers. In 2009, two Minnesota commits listed Nebraska offers. No Nebraska commits listed Minnesota offers. None either way yet in 2010.

 

[GopherGod]

Well, according to Rivals, in 2008, three Minnesota commits listed Nebraska offers. No Nebraska commits listed Minnesota offers. In 2009, two Minnesota commits listed Nebraska offers. No Nebraska commits listed Minnesota offers. None either way yet in 2010.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out as Brewster is in his 3rd season and Pelini in his 2nd and the two coaches are very different from one another. Brewster a better schmoozer and PR guy, Pelini more of a hard edged straight shooter who is definitely not a PR guy but probably a better gameday coach with more experience and a stronger coaching staff in place with him, both doing relatively well at recruiting this early however.

 

[GopherKISS]

GopherKISS - just keep responding. Each one just reveals a deeper level of ignorance on your part, as well as the reality that there is something you are fearful of. If we are so irrelevant, why do you feel the need to come over here and post? My guess, you are beginning to finally realize that you are not in the same league as OSU, PSU, Michigan, etc, so you have to try to kick us while you think we're still down.

The good news for many of us, we're hopeful that it will get better. I, along with most of those on the Hole are going to enjoy Saturdays at the new stadium. Just because we haven't been to a Rose Bowl since 1961 doesn't make us any less of a fan for MN than you are for WI. In fact, I think most of us who are on GopherHole are pretty huge fans as we've stuck by our club for a lot of years. How do you criticize that? You're barking up the wrong tree yelling at those of us on here about the attendance -we're the ones at the game!! By the way, Oregon, Miami, Boston College, and Colorado (I'm sure there are others) are examples of programs that have been pretty successful in the past without huge attendance numbers. On the other hand, South Carolina is a program that has averaged HUGE attendance numbers for many years, but they still haven't been very successful. Attendance is not an indicator of success by itself.

By the way, quit with the stupid high school comparisons - Wisconsin and Minnesota are about as similar as you can get when it comes to prep sports. And the "per capita" stuff about Iowa and Nebraska - who cares?

Finally, you can respond but you won't get any more responses from me - there is no point as you are totally unwilling to have any kind of dialogue. Instead, you just spew your twisted and ridiculous "facts" - which they really are not.

If Wis and MN are as similar as you can get, then how come the Gopher assistant coach agrees with me and disagrees with you?

You can just keep on wishing and pretending, because MN Gopher FB will never change

 

[GoldenHerbs]

WTF, are you that sad and lonely that you have to come start some BS on this board about how superior Wisconsin is, ha lmfao at you LAME PATHETIC LIL GIRL. Lets see, sure you squeked by us in college football last season but in basketball I believe we swept you correct?? And the Vikes who you say will suck were the NFC North Champs and beat the FudgePack in their last meeting. Are you still butt hurt about that?? Are you that depressed that you cousin isnt giving any up or what?? Get a life please.

 

[Goldmember]

I don't know if anybody else remembers this or not, but a certain troll came over here railing about the exact same thing in regards to "football culture" as it relates to Lincoln and Madison and how "building youth hockey arenas is not how you build d1 powerhouses" and was successfully laughed off this board some while back.

Seems this person has returned. This should be fun to watch. Have at him Gopherholers!!!!

FACT 10: This is definitely the same guy that wrote all those long, meaningless posts about tearing down ice arenas and having youth football indoctrination academies throughout Minnesota.

 

[Goldmember]

Are you seriously going to brag about having 7500 people at the spring game, when the schools we are competing against have significantly more.

I'm not bragging. And the second part of the sentence is wrong. You've been mislead by the media you consume if you think that is a bad attendance figure. It is in the top THIRD of all D-1 A schools. Only 20 schools drew more than 20,000.

I wouldn't be surprised if Minnesota cracks the Top 20 list for Spring Game attendance in the next few years. That would be amazing when you consider that almost all of the Top 20 have a long tradition of having a huge Spring Game event.

Sure Nebraska and Ohio State put on a freak show. But you've obviously been led to belive that high-attendance for spring scrimmages is the rule. It's not. It's the exception.

 

[GopherKISS]

I have read too much...

1) You ARE a troll. Your first (ever on GH) post's sole purpose was to insult our school, state, athletic department and more. You ended it with a sarcastic jab at us. The only reason to do so wasn't to "present facts." The "facts" you presented were obviously to get a rise out of people, not engage in friendly discussion with rival fans (which CAN happen, if you aren't a major toolbox).

2) You use convenient stats to prove whatever your point is. Single year snapshots (whether it be this year's NFL class, the 1990 HS football WI sweep of MN HS football, or anything else) don't paint a full picture. I am SURE we can all go and find some other examples in our favor.

3) You continue to flip between what type of support/greatness you talk about. Is it HS sports? Collegiate? Pro? What sport are we focusing on here? Your latest post laughs at Gopher BB (sweep WI this year, better overall record), Vikings, Wild (where exactly is your pro ice hockey team?), North Stars (again...), TWolves (are the Bucks seriously any better?). You fail to mention the Twins, then. The Brewers have 1 pennant compared to the Twin's 2 WS titles and multiple pennants. But I don't laugh or jest because I have been to Brewers games - they can be quite fun and the stadium is nice (though I'm not a fan of the roof). My point is you are completely all over the place in how you place MN's fault in sports. No cohesion makes for a really crappy point.

3) Wisconsin is NOT Mich, Nebraska, Florida, etc etc. You can think you are all you want, but you're not. 50k is measly? Do you consider 80k measly compared to Mich/PSU/OSU's 103k+ stadiums? You do not, nor will you ever, have the prestige or history associated with those schools. I have been to Madison several times, and actually found it quite lame. One of them was on Homecoming weekend. The stadium didn't fill until the end of the 3rd quarter (mostly the student section's fault - this is a trend that has continued for several years). Imagine what would happen if your team starts to lose. You know, for like 20 years.

4) Is the Gopher football team, atmosphere, following, etc where we want it to be? By all means, no! Having a stadium will help, but not cure our problems. Winning will. As someone else posted, winning cures ALL. Except for a very very few exceptions, fan bases are built and maintained by winning. I guarantee 100% that if your team went 10 years with losing records your ticket sales would drop, and fan interest would severely wane (case in point, YOUR TEAM IN THE 1980s!). Yes, your administration fixed it. So is ours. We built a brand new stadium, have Tubby Smith at the basketball helm, are playing top notch competition (USC and Cal come to mind), and are investing more money in to athletics AND academics. Who the hell said we Minnesotans are too laxidaisical to make things happen???

5) I seriously wouldn't be so cocky about your team. Take a look at the last 6 years. We have only won once, but 3 of your wins came by the hair of your chin. Last year your team went 7-6 (the same as guess who? US!). With losses to those same teams you made fun of US for (Mich, Iowa) and a really impressive win against Cal Poly to close out the regular season. Kudos. Oh yeah and your less than impressive display against FSU than ours against Kansas. Howcome we never beat teams like South(ern?) Carolina from the South? Does beating Alabama in the 2004 Music City Bowl count? Or how about beating Oregon in the 2003 Sun Bowl? Aren't both of those teams national powerhouses every year?

6) Again with the weather comments... Seriously? SERIOUSLY? You think weather will be something that keeps people out? It will be if the team is worth watching. Our average daily high/low for Nov 15 is 41/25. Madison's is 45/25. I really can't tell the difference between 41 and 45. Or 25 and... 25 for that matter. Can you?

Like someone else said, I applaud Wisconsin's recent success in football - 3 Rose Bowls is a lot to be proud of. You have been to a few other good bowls and have had some decent seasons beyond the RB ones. And their fans show up in great numbers today and the games are fairly fun to be at. But tools like you who think that it's so much fun to come here and point out how crappy MN fans, sports, etc are just make it really hard to respect Wisconsin athletics.

Packers 3 Super Bowl titles, Vikings ZERO
Super Bowl trophy named after Packer head coach!
Bucks one NBA title, T-Wolves ZERO
Badgers & Marquette recent Final Four and Gophers ZERO legally. Marquette 1977 NCAA Champion!
Pro hockey don't have, but Badgers more NCAA puck titles than Gophers (6-5)!
Tubby and Gophs still haven't won an NCAA Tournament game
Never said Wis was Michiga, Fla, etc., but way ahead of Gophers!
Between 1993 to 2007, Badgers 66-42-3 in Big 10 compared to Gophers 38-82.
Badgers FOUR top-10 AP rankings since 1993, while Gophers ZERO top-15 AP rankings since 1993.
Wis much closer to MICH/PSU/OSU than Gophers will ever be.

Gophers beat Alabama in a meaningless bowl that didn't even fill half the stadium, like Alabama cared? Alabama's used to big bowls and will win more national championships before Gophers ever do.

Badgers THREE Rose Bowl victories since 1990. If Gophers even got to one Rose Bowl since 1990, whether won or lost, fans like you will ride that feat for another half century.

Weather? Wisconsin is more into sports than MN, so it won't affect WI fans like MN fans. Your pro football fans can't even beat the first deadline for an indoor playoff game (vs. Eagles).

YES, Minnesotan's are too lackadaisacal to make things happen. Have to improve culture of your H.S. football, then Gophers will get better. Building new stadiums and facilities won't get it done. Even 'Homer' Sid Hartman admits Minnesota ranks last almost every year for producing DI football players in Big 10 states. Maybe that's why the Gophers lead the Big 10 in most last-place finishes since 1980?

NOPE, WI high school football being better than MN high school football doesn't paint the entire picture, but it's a plus on Wisconsin's side.

So you've been a lifelong fan, what is your favorite top-20 accomplishment in last 48 years?
1. Never beating Ohio State (0-11) or Michigan (0-12) at Metrodome. That's O-for-23!
2. 17 consecutive losses to Michigan State from 1977 to 1997.
3. Losing last seven meetings to Nebraska by a combined score of 377-27 for an average 54-4 loss.
4. The 1982 loss to Northwestern that broke a five-year Big 10 losing streak — longest national losing streak in country for conference play! Streak so embarrassing for Northwestern that head coach Denny Green and athletic director Doug Single were going to quit UNTIL GOPHERS LET THEM OFF THE HOOK!
5. Nebraska 84, Minnesota 13 (1983)
6. Oklahoma 63, Minnesota 0 (1986)
7. Probably my favorite, Pacific drops football nine years after beating Gophers 24-20 at Metrodome. (1986)
8. Blow 31-0 homefield lead for eventual 41-37 loss to Ohio State, biggest regular season collapse in NCAA DI history.
9. Colorado 58, Minnesota 0 (1991)
10. Northwestern overcomes 21-point deficit in final 17 minutes for biggest comeback in program history! Wildcats five-of-five in 4th downs that include four touchdowns. (2000)
11. Ohio University first win against Big 10 opponent in 27 years with 23-17 triumph at Metrodome (2001)
12. Visiting Purdue on its three down by three and no time outs in final 19 seconds drives 66 yards in three plays for tying 48-yard field goal. Purdue wins in OT.
13. Blow 24-0 lead in loss to NC State in Micronpc Bowl (2000).
14. 17-point lead in closing 10 minutes vanishes into 38-35 loss to visiting Michigan, costing Gophers trip to Rose Bowl. (2003).
15. Blow 34-24 lead to Wisconsin in final 3:27 at Metrodome. Badgers block punt for winning TD in final 30 seconds. (2005)
16. Blow 38-7 lead to Texas Tech in Insight Bowl. Biggest bowl collapse in NCAA history. (2006)
17. Lose to North Dakota State and Florida Atlantic, programs that only combine 10-year DI existence. (2007)
18. 2008 — Lose five consecutive after 7-1 start. Woes start vs. visiting Northwestern who are minus four starters. Reserve QB rushes Big 10 record 217 yards.
19. All-time Big 10 record in Metrodome 41-66-2 for .376 home winning percentage (1982 thru 2008).
20. Gophers can't penetrate inside 38-yard line in 55-0 loss to Iowa in their last game-ever at Metrodome (2008).

Good luck in the future!