In case anybody was wondering about the rose bowl turf...

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Maverick

Maverick

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This tidbit from Charlie Walters yesterday...



"To prevent it from dying, the Gophers have shipped the section of actual Rose Bowl turf that previous football coach Tim Brewster had imported from Pasadena for motivation for players in their locker room to the university's forestry-agricultural department for rejuvenation.
It's unlikely that Brewster's successor, Jerry Kill, who isn't big on gimmicks, will be concerned with the turf's whereabouts or health."



This cracks me up! Was this turf supposed to be like a basketball team cutting down the nets on the first day of practice or something? LOL
 

Let it die. Bring back our own piece of turf whenever we go back to the Rose Bowl. Then keep that turf alive until the next trip.
 

Maverick said:
This tidbit from Charlie Walters yesterday...



"To prevent it from dying, the Gophers have shipped the section of actual Rose Bowl turf that previous football coach Tim Brewster had imported from Pasadena for motivation for players in their locker room to the university's forestry-agricultural department for rejuvenation.
It's unlikely that Brewster's successor, Jerry Kill, who isn't big on gimmicks, will be concerned with the turf's whereabouts or health."



This cracks me up! Was this turf supposed to be like a basketball team cutting down the nets on the first day of practice or something? LOL
Click to expand...
It's the most symbolically hilarious thing ever.
 

Bo S at Michigan did something where he put a rose in a locked box with many locks around it. Every player on the team had a key and the exercise was to show that everyone was important to achieving the goal and getting the rose.

I would have hated Bo as a coach though cause I hate gimmicks.


Saying you aren't big on gimmicks is a gimmick in itself.
 

Tubtastic said:
Let it die. Bring back our own piece of turf whenever we go back to the Rose Bowl. Then keep that turf alive until the next trip.
Click to expand...

I say we 'give' it to Wisconsin since they were the Big 10 champs this year. Of course this is only after appropriately rigging it with the best Trojan Horse we can come up with for our friend Bert Beilema.
 


It's embarrassing that we're even talking about this on the fan website of a Big Ten football team.
 

Full disclaimer: I always thought the turf thing was a cool stunt. Hindsight is for losers, at the time Brew was trying to make some noise for the program. Remember that during the beginning of the Brew tenure the Vikings were unpopular under Chilly and Gopher football was actually getting as much press as the Vikes.

That being said, the U ag dept should let it seed out, replant a bunch of newturf with the occasional blade of original grass mixed in and sell it as Game Used Rose Bowl Turf on eBay.
 

I'm glad the current coach isn't big on gimmicks, now on to those brown shirts that certain players at practice have to wear...

It is a fine line between tool to motivate and gimmick.
 

Gimmicks are a form of motivation. Different strokes for different folks. Sometimes a light-hearted method of negative reinforcement can do wonders as a motivation factor. We shouldn't all get trophies for participation.

I would like Doogie, Chris, GopherLady, Bleed, Blizzard, or anyone else to interview one of the guys in early morning workouts who is wearing one of the shirts and put the interview here on the Hole.
 



If we had gone to the Rose Bowl, that piece of turf would have been a sacred relic. Rockne's "win one for the Gipper" speech was a gimmick, he most likely made it up.
 

So what is the forrestry/ag department going to do with it once it's "rejuvenated"? What a waste of money. Give it to a sod farm or let it die.

I guess I'd rather have seen a map showing the "road to Pasadena" or picture of a rose, or something other than the turf. Always seemed like a silly idea to try to keep a living hunk of turf around that no one could positively distinguish as actually being from the Rose Bowl without a DNA test. For all we know, someone at the Rose Bowl just went to a local sod farm and sent a chunk to Brew. How would he ever know the difference??? Assuming he even got it from someone at the Rose Bowl and not his own lawn...
 

A map of Pasedena, or a picture of a rose would be no less of a gimick. I doubt keeping some turf alive is costing money, it's just one more plant on a shelf. Maybe a few ounces of extra water in the watering can.
 

Maybe they should try to grow enough of it, so that if we were to ever go to the rose bowl, instead of roses, each player could celebrate with a chunk of sod.
 



Lakeville Goldy said:
Always seemed like a silly idea to try to keep a living hunk of turf around that no one could positively distinguish as actually being from the Rose Bowl without a DNA test. For all we know, someone at the Rose Bowl just went to a local sod farm and sent a chunk to Brew. How would he ever know the difference??? Assuming he even got it from someone at the Rose Bowl and not his own lawn...
Click to expand...

It doesn't seem like it, but the Gopher's have had that piece of Rose Bowl turf for 4 years this month. And it's an official hunk of sod that came with an official letter and a picture of the sod being dug up from the Rose Bowl turf.

Gopher Sports article link:
http://www.gophersports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=8400&ATCLID=822766

I don't have anything against these 'gimmicks' because each person gets motivated in a different way and as long as there's no harm being done, there's nothing wrong with trying some out. I'm sure coach Kill will be using a number of his tried and true motivational gimmicks just like every other coach does.
 

Besides, the forestry/ag department working on this is right up their alley, hands-on research. After all, the med school has dead human bodies, and no one complains about that.
 

Of all the complaints against Coach Brewster, this is not one I have. I'll confess, I thought it was a good idea.
 



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