Judd Zulgad: If Kill's team is ever going to show us something, now is the time.

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There simply are no college sports centric sports personalities in the TC media market.

All the talk shows/lead writers are pro sports guys. The are completely and fully stupid when it comes to college sports. Pro sports CANNOT be compared apples to apple with college sports, especially college football where a developmental program like Coach Kill runs takes a few years to get up and running and where the big payoff isn't seen immediately. Jerry can't draft Anthony Barr and Teddy Bridgewater in year one, and he can't sign Parise and Suter to lifetime contracts.
He's shown more than any coach currently in the twin cities with talent he himself has uncovered and developed from basically the leftovers of the 2011 recruiting pool, the remnants of Brewster's worst recruiting class, and a 2012 class he was forced to play early and often.
I find it hard to believe Judd has watched anything but a few minutes of gopher football this season.
His opinions on Kill's program either purposefully troll knowledgeable college football fans or are purposefully snarky to discount the program in favor of the pro teams he is familiar with and prefers.
 

GopherLady said:
You guys are brutal. Feel free to disagree with the piece, and argue his points....I can can assure you, Judd is the furthest thing from an A-hole. I'm all about a good discussion with valid points, but no need for name calling.
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He stood lock step and piled on and then openly defended his co-worker after he mocked a man for having a disease. He chastised Gopher fans, calling them selfish and cold for not wanting to force a coach to resign due to health concerns. He's an a-hole in my book. It isn't my place to determine if Kill is/was healthy enough to do his job, and it sure as hell isn't his place either.
 

My gosh, the only guy I thought was a total jerk was Souhan (who still wins the prize), but who is the Judd dude? I don't live in Minnesota anymore. We haven't beaten anyone who is "good". Good is a relative team. There are about 120 teams that play D1…so that would mean the top 40 are "good", the middle 40 are "average" and the bottom 40 are "bad". Iowa was "good" as they received votes in the polls. It is not the "time to show it" as we are in a rebuilding mode. We are ahead of schedule IMO. Now is a time we "can" show we are great by winning but I don't think anyone believes that is a realistic expectation at this point. It is a hopeful dream. This year if we win one of the 3 remaining games I think everyone would say that was an awesome year. Next year the expectation might be to win a couple of them. The year following that we might expect to be in the B1G championship conversation from the start of the year until the end. This guy is an idiot to think that the gophers have to prove something now. They've already proven they are quickly going in the right direction with 3 of the 4 trophies in our trophy case. Not reading this dude anymore…no more clicks from me.
 

Ole said:
There simply are no college sports centric sports personalities in the TC media market.

All the talk shows/lead writers are pro sports guys. The are completely and fully stupid when it comes to college sports. Pro sports CANNOT be compared apples to apple with college sports, especially college football where a developmental program like Coach Kill runs takes a few years to get up and running and where the big payoff isn't seen immediately. Jerry can't draft Anthony Barr and Teddy Bridgewater in year one, and he can't sign Parise and Suter to lifetime contracts.
He's shown more than any coach currently in the twin cities with talent he himself has uncovered and developed from basically the leftovers of the 2011 recruiting pool, the remnants of Brewster's worst recruiting class, and a 2012 class he was forced to play early and often.
I find it hard to believe Judd has watched anything but a few minutes of gopher football this season.
His opinions on Kill's program either purposefully troll knowledgeable college football fans or are purposefully snarky to discount the program in favor of the pro teams he is familiar with and prefers.
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CoMn said:
My gosh, the only guy I thought was a total jerk was Souhan (who still wins the prize), but who is the Judd dude? I don't live in Minnesota anymore. We haven't beaten anyone who is "good". Good is a relative team. There are about 120 teams that play D1…so that would mean the top 40 are "good", the middle 40 are "average" and the bottom 40 are "bad". Iowa was "good" as they received votes in the polls. It is not the "time to show it" as we are in a rebuilding mode. We are ahead of schedule IMO. Now is a time we "can" show we are great by winning but I don't think anyone believes that is a realistic expectation at this point. It is a hopeful dream. This year if we win one of the 3 remaining games I think everyone would say that was an awesome year. Next year the expectation might be to win a couple of them. The year following that we might expect to be in the B1G championship conversation from the start of the year until the end. This guy is an idiot to think that the gophers have to prove something now. They've already proven they are quickly going in the right direction with 3 of the 4 trophies in our trophy case. Not reading this dude anymore…no more clicks from me.
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+Rep
 

When Teague was looking for a basketball coach, Judd would whine constantly about not getting updates on the search, like Teague should hold a media briefing every 15 minutes.
 


If you really look closely, the overwhelming majority of those in sports media have no more knowledge than the average fan sitting on a bar stool. Some have even less.
 

Ole said:
There simply are no college sports centric sports personalities in the TC media market. All the talk shows/lead writers are pro sports guys. The are completely and fully stupid when it comes to college sports. Pro sports CANNOT be compared apples to apple with college sports, especially college football where a developmental program like Coach Kill runs takes a few years to get up and running and where the big payoff isn't seen immediately. Jerry can't draft Anthony Barr and Teddy Bridgewater in year one, and he can't sign Parise and Suter to lifetime contracts. He's shown more than any coach currently in the twin cities with talent he himself has uncovered and developed from basically the leftovers of the 2011 recruiting pool, the remnants of Brewster's worst recruiting class, and a 2012 class he was forced to play early and often. I find it hard to believe Judd has watched anything but a few minutes of gopher football this season. His opinions on Kill's program either purposefully troll knowledgeable college football fans or are purposefully snarky to discount the program in favor of the pro teams he is familiar with and prefers.
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I have seen Judd at multiple gopher games this year and sitting there and watching the whole game, including against Iowa.
 

CoMn said:
Iowa was "good" as they received votes in the polls.... Not reading this dude anymore…no more clicks from me.
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It would be nice if our media held themselves to the same level of accountability they -- because they have a forum to do so -- hold our coaches and athletes to. The win at Michigan was big for this program in context. It's possible Michigan would have benefited from momentum had it beaten us, but, instead, went into a tailspin. The Hawkeyes were riding momentum and we derailed them. If we beat OSU will he diminish the win because the Buckeyes were flat after the MSU win? If OSU loses the rest of its games, people like Zulgad will in hindsight diminish the achievement and say they were overrated.
Breakin' The Plane said:
He stood lock step and piled on and then openly defended his co-worker after he mocked a man for having a disease. He chastised Gopher fans, calling them selfish and cold for not wanting to force a coach to resign due to health concerns. He's an a-hole in my book. It isn't my place to determine if Kill is/was healthy enough to do his job, and it sure as hell isn't his place either.
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Can you share a link? I don't recall this, but it certainly is a bold statement, and if true, puts a spin on Zulgad that I need to consider. I guess I want to know what the sTrib writers are saying, but prefer to take a stand and not click. I actually believe if all of us refrained from giving them any attention, we could make a difference.
 

Terrible column. But who's surprised by awful writing by our Twin Cities media? Souhan is a national joke, Reusse is about the laziest writer of all time as well as just plain mean-spirited, and the rest of the Twin Cities media is a mix of incompetence and ill-will. If we didn't have such a great blogging community, it'd be pretty galling. Thankfully, the Strib and the Pioneer Press and KFAN and 1500 are all part of a dying media model, and we won't have to worry about putting up with them for much longer.
 



GopherGod said:
I have seen Judd at multiple gopher games this year and sitting there and watching the whole game, including against Iowa.
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If that's true then my two statements are too, he's either trolling fans or purposefully writing things to downplay Kill's success. Yeah Zimmer deserves coach of the year votes, feel sorry for the wolves, but F the gophers for losing a bad game, they haven't beaten anyone.
Is it possible the 1500 crew are bitter about the national scorn Souhan's brought them over the Kill article? I've seen in multiple national articles now Souhan being the poster child for epilepsy intolerance and ignorance. Is Judd that petty to hold the negative clipping on Souhan against Kill and the gophers?
 

LOL. TC media is hilarious. Either cheerleaders or low-rent local yokel versions of Skip Bayless. With similar results; literally nobody on earth respects Bayless as anything but a trained monkey, but his monkey act is profitable so he's cool with it. Same goes here. Smaller checks to cash for our monkey acts, but same deal. And same critics wondering why the monkey doesn't do Shakespeare.

Shakespeare is hard. Chip, JC, Russo, those dudes put in a ton of work. Zulgad trolls in sweat pants and probably gets paid more.
 

killme said:
It would be nice if our media held themselves to the same level of accountability they -- because they have a forum to do so -- hold our coaches and athletes to. The win at Michigan was big for this program in context. It's possible Michigan would have benefited from momentum had it beaten us, but, instead, went into a tailspin. The Hawkeyes were riding momentum and we derailed them. If we beat OSU will he diminish the win because the Buckeyes were flat after the MSU win? If OSU loses the rest of its games, people like Zulgad will in hindsight diminish the achievement and say they were overrated.

Can you share a link? I don't recall this, but it certainly is a bold statement, and if true, puts a spin on Zulgad that I need to consider. I guess I want to know what the sTrib writers are saying, but prefer to take a stand and not click. I actually believe if all of us refrained from giving them any attention, we could make a difference.
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Don't have a link. It was on the radio the week after Kill missed Michigan last year. Dubay did it too, which floored me.
 




golden boy said:
LOL. TC media is hilarious. Either cheerleaders or low-rent local yokel versions of Skip Bayless. With similar results; literally nobody on earth respects Bayless as anything but a trained monkey, but his monkey act is profitable so he's cool with it. Same goes here. Smaller checks to cash for our monkey acts, but same deal. And same critics wondering why the monkey doesn't do Shakespeare.

Shakespeare is hard. Chip, JC, Russo, those dudes put in a ton of work. Zulgad trolls in sweat pants and probably gets paid more.
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Good point, actually. I always rip on TC media but forget to mention that the beat writers are actually pretty good. Marcus and Amelia definitely work hard (even though the latter is not always great with the proofreading, and doesn't really seem like she wants to be here), and I've really got no problem with any beat writer in town (except for a certain T-Wolves beat writer who is terrible). It's just the columnists who are hot garbage.
 


jmag21 said:
Good point, actually. I always rip on TC media but forget to mention that the beat writers are actually pretty good. Marcus and Amelia definitely work hard (even though the latter is not always great with the proofreading, and doesn't really seem like she wants to be here), and I've really got no problem with any beat writer in town (except for a certain T-Wolves beat writer who is terrible). It's just the columnists who are hot garbage.
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For what it's worth, I was referring not to their reporting (which is good) but their special columns when praising the analysis and general professional leg-work of JC/Chip/Russo. Amelia writes some really nice special features but I also get the sense that she sees this as an interim job. She's right to see it that way, her good stuff is fantastic, but it's frustrating as a reader to see a writer "looking ahead" of the current gig/topic.

Also, a side benefit of the clown show that passes for analysis here is that it has spawned some outstanding new media stuff. Aaron Gleeman is top class, and his career is a result of a market vacuum for his type of analysis and also the fan's perspective. Ditto MV before real life took over. Those guys betray the pervasive fallacy in MN sports media (I call it the Barriero-ization of sports talk) that their intended goal of objectivity is easily accomplished by being the opposite of Sid or PA, in other words that trolling and playing devil's advocate are actually objective positions since Sid is exactly not-objective and that is the opposite of Sid. Which any sane person knows is wrong-objectivity is the middle ground between the haters and the cheerleaders. Way too many with a mic in this town fall on the fringes of the cheerleader-----------objective------------troll scale.
 

The hilarious thing about this column is that I actually agree with Zulgad. I mean, I think he's a troll and I can't stand what his shtick represents about sports fans, but that doesn't mean I have to disagree by default. Reading it carefully it appears that his "now is the time" means the next 3 weeks. I couldn't agree more. If we go 0-3 to finish the season, I'll probably still feel good about the direction of the program (unless we get whitewashed by everyone and it is clear we don't belong on the field with any of the best 4 teams we played all year), but this season won't have shown us anything. It will represent no real progress over last year. That will be disappointing. We get 4 shots at what I'd call darn good teams this year. Going 0-4 would suck and I'm not sorry at all to say it.
 

Way too many posts on this tool. Well, now 1 more too many.
 

golden boy said:
The hilarious thing about this column is that I actually agree with Zulgad. I mean, I think he's a troll and I can't stand what his shtick represents about sports fans, but that doesn't mean I have to disagree by default. Reading it carefully it appears that his "now is the time" means the next 3 weeks. I couldn't agree more. If we go 0-3 to finish the season, I'll probably still feel good about the direction of the program (unless we get whitewashed by everyone and it is clear we don't belong on the field with any of the best 4 teams we played all year), but this season won't have shown us anything. It will represent no real progress over last year. That will be disappointing. We get 4 shots at what I'd call darn good teams this year. Going 0-4 would suck and I'm not sorry at all to say it.
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I agree that the games mean a lot, but if they are your gauge, that is pretty narrow.

1. Brought home the jug, only happens every 10-15 years.
2. Might have the single season rushing record holder.
3. Have pig and jug at same time. (1967)
4. Winning with defense


I hope for 2 of the next 4 and we might be over the hump. We are going to be double digit underdogs in the next three to ranked teams and two on the road. I would support a lifetime contract for Kill if the win 2-3 more.
 

golden boy said:
The hilarious thing about this column is that I actually agree with Zulgad. I mean, I think he's a troll and I can't stand what his shtick represents about sports fans, but that doesn't mean I have to disagree by default. Reading it carefully it appears that his "now is the time" means the next 3 weeks. I couldn't agree more. If we go 0-3 to finish the season, I'll probably still feel good about the direction of the program (unless we get whitewashed by everyone and it is clear we don't belong on the field with any of the best 4 teams we played all year), but this season won't have shown us anything. It will represent no real progress over last year. That will be disappointing. We get 4 shots at what I'd call darn good teams this year. Going 0-4 would suck and I'm not sorry at all to say it.
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He lost me with "now is the time". No......it's "a potential time". We get the best team in the Big Ten at home before traveling to a couple of the other power conference teams in Nebraska and Wisconsin. If we don't win any of these games.....in which we'll likely be underdogs assuming we don't shock OSU this weekend......why would that signal anything? Look where we were four years ago. It takes time to rebuild a power conference team. Not the same as tanking a season and drafting an Andrew Luck. If anything........the Gophers have been over-achieving.
 

stocker08 said:
He lost me with "now is the time". No......it's "a potential time". We get the best team in the Big Ten at home before traveling to a couple of the other power conference teams in Nebraska and Wisconsin. If we don't win any of these games.....in which we'll likely be underdogs assuming we don't shock OSU this weekend......why would that signal anything? Look where we were four years ago. It takes time to rebuild a power conference team. Not the same as tanking a season and drafting an Andrew Luck. If anything........the Gophers have been over-achieving.
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Your last words: that is something Zulgad would never think of.
 

Dr.Don said:
Your last words: that is something Zulgad would never think of.
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Zulgad wouldn't think of it because a 7-2 team that has been the favorite in 6 out of their 9 games hasn't over achieved.
 

I have a problem with the argument about teams not getting any credit for beating teams that are "worse" than them. In college football, it's not the games themselves, as much as it is getting your program/team in a position to be better than your peers. Kill gets no credit for the Michigan game because Michigan wasn't as good as us. Yet, he also gets no credit for getting his program in a position to be better than Michigan. Think about that. If I told you in 2010 that in 2014 Minnesota's program would be in better shape than Michigan's, what would you have said? With regards to Wisconsin's win streak against us, I don't diminish it because we were not very good for most of those years. I give them credit for having a program better than ours. Kill has had his program as good or better than his peers in 8 of the last 11 Big Ten games. I'd say that's showing me something.

Maybe someone could provide us with a list for the next ten seasons so we will know in advance who will be a good enough win.
 

GopherLady said:
You guys are brutal. Feel free to disagree with the piece, and argue his points....I can can assure you, Judd is the furthest thing from an A-hole. I'm all about a good discussion with valid points, but no need for name calling.
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The anti-media sentiment on this site is too personal and way over the top. Yes there are some poor articles and weak arguments, but the personal attacks are quite sad.
 

station19 said:
The anti-media sentiment on this site is too personal and way over the top. Yes there are some poor articles and weak arguments, but the personal attacks are quite sad.
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I don't think that many people are calling them bad people. And I know GL is friends with many of these writers and personalities, but I don't think that has anything to do with whether columnists in this city are good at their jobs. I have no idea if Souhan is a good person. I do know that he's a terrible writer. And personally, just from hearing guys on the radio and in print, I do think it's also possible to form an opinion as to some of these writers as people too (I personally think Souhan, PMac and Corey Cove are guys I wouldn't get along with, while Reusse and Doogie, though not people whose work I always enjoy, seem like entertaining, enjoyable fellows). I just don't think that's what's going on here. I think the criticism has mostly been leveled, quite reasonably, at another cookie-cutter negative column by a Twin Cities sports columnist.
 

station19 said:
The anti-media sentiment on this site is too personal and way over the top. Yes there are some poor articles and weak arguments, but the personal attacks are quite sad.
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You got that right. I wish Souhan and his ilk would knock it off.
 

jmag21 said:
I have no idea if Souhan is a good person. I do know that he's a terrible writer.
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This is the damnedest thing about Souhan. He is (was) a very talented writer. He very well may still be, when properly motivated. However, I think he is the laziest local writer I can recall. Think about it; how hard is it to be negative? You never really back any of your arguments up, you just get to keep repeating "well...they suck". "what have they done". There is never any animated thought to his process. He has taken the path of least resistance for far too long.

I haven't clicked on one of his articles in so long I can't remember when it was. But I would not be surprised if you looked at his "work" the past years and seen the same pattern that he had worn out years ago:

First "paragraph" consists of 1 sentence, which is typically snarky.
Second "paragraph" consists of 1 sentence that mentions something about the outcome.
Third "paragraph" consists of 1 sentence, and he's back to snarky or taking a shot.
Fourth "paragraph" consists 1 sentence about how the game was played...may actually contain some measure of reporting.

The rest of the article is filler that a bot could fill in. He is lazy and under informed.
 

scools12 said:
Zulgad wouldn't think of it because a 7-2 team that has been the favorite in 6 out of their 9 games hasn't over achieved.
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I can't tell if you're being serious or sarcastic. A 7-2 team that is supposed to be 6-3 encompasses the very definition of overachieve.
 

fryguy22 said:
I can't tell if you're being serious or sarcastic. A 7-2 team that is supposed to be 6-3 encompasses the very definition of overachieve.
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The point I was making, that you obviously let go over your head, was that Zulgad did not put much thinking into what he said and how he said it.

Lazy writing.
 

station19 said:
The anti-media sentiment on this site is too personal and way over the top. Yes there are some poor articles and weak arguments, but the personal attacks are quite sad.
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These guys go out of their way to get any sort of reaction from fans, and then you think the reaction is "way over the top"? Your use of the word "some" shows your pro-media bias because you should have used the word "amy." I might add that we get that type of stuff from them either because they are too lazy or too untalented to come up with something interesting and thought-provoking. Just like the little loser back in school who would bug people just so he would be noticed, someone like Judd or Souhan bugs Gopher fans so they get noticed with clicks or ratings. At least Reusse recognizes when he does this and even laughs about it.
 

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