Kill on expectations of next year, QB situation and more

Donate To GopherHole
short ornery norwegian said:
I can see both sides of the argument. On a gut level, I would have liked to see the Gophs try a little harder for points at the end of the 1st half.

But, I think (hope) we can agree that if Leidner drops back, gets hit, fumbles and MO gets the ball in Gopher Territory with about a minute left in the half, we're having a different debate. Yes, there might be people saying "I'm glad Kill had the guts to try and score points in the 1st half," but I'm 100% sure there would also be people criticizing the decision. Again, as I have said multiple times, it's easy to second-guess a decision that didn't work out. If the Cobb throw-back to Leidner goes for a TD, people would be on this board proclaiming it the greatest play-call of all time.
Click to expand...

Wait! What? A rational post on the topic. You can disagree with Kill's decision without think he is dumb, or somehow relating it to an unrelated onside kick that happened 20-minutes later. Hmmm, I didn't know.
 

Until this team learns to move down the field and score in tight time and pressure situations, it will not be atop level program.

We owned them in the first half physically. There was plenty of time. Throw the damn ball.
 

leftyslefty said:
Until this team learns to move down the field and score in tight time and pressure situations, it will not be atop level program.

We owned them in the first half physically. There was plenty of time. Throw the damn ball.
Click to expand...

We have an excellent defense against which to practice the 2 minute drill. As you stated there is no excuse, we were either too conservative or unprepared.
 

And to think Kill is getting trashed over a decision that happened over 17 minutes before we we stopped Missouri on 4th down, giving us the ball down two points with 13 to play. We then had the drop by Edwards and had to punt that resulted in Missouri starting at its own 10. We were down 2 with them pinned deep and under 12 to play. People are trying to pin a team loss on 1 decision.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

MaxyJR1 said:
And to think Kill is getting trashed over a decision that happened over 17 minutes before we we stopped Missouri on 4th down, giving us the ball down two points with 13 to play. We then had the drop by Edwards and had to punt that resulted in Missouri starting at its own 10. We were down 2 with them pinned deep and under 12 to play. People are trying to pin a team loss on 1 decision.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

#Logic
 


MaxyJR1 said:
And to think Kill is getting trashed over a decision that happened over 17 minutes before we we stopped Missouri on 4th down, giving us the ball down two points with 13 to play. We then had the drop by Edwards and had to punt that resulted in Missouri starting at its own 10. We were down 2 with them pinned deep and under 12 to play. People are trying to pin a team loss on 1 decision.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

It was a decision emblematic of the philosophy employed in the 2nd half of that game and the Wisconsin game. #playtowin
 

MaxyJR1 said:
And to think Kill is getting trashed over a decision that happened over 17 minutes before we we stopped Missouri on 4th down, giving us the ball down two points with 13 to play. We then had the drop by Edwards and had to punt that resulted in Missouri starting at its own 10. We were down 2 with them pinned deep and under 12 to play. People are trying to pin a team loss on 1 decision.
Click to expand...

What? Are a lot of people saying that decision cost the Gophers the game? The turnovers surely did that. Though maybe you're talking about the vehemence with which people are defending that call.

Kill wasn't even doing that. He just said he had been on both sides and went the safe way and looking at his record here that isn't a surprise. Whether he should have or not shouldn't be as scary a thought as many think it is. Though as some people have pointed out they didn't really need Mitch to stand back there and try and trow it 50 yards.

“I’ve been doing it for 31 years and I’ve been on two sides of that,” he said. “We’ve done something like that [try and score] and the ball went the other way and it cost us the game. On the other side of it, we’ve done it and been successful. …

“In my opinion, there are times to roll the dice. We had control. We had the ball 19 minutes to their 11 [in time of posseion]. They were not dominating us. I felt like we could get right back out and score and be smart.”

Kill said he wasn’t worried about Mitch Leidner throwing as interception as much as he was Leidner getting sacked and possibly fumbling the ball deep in their territory. Leidner lost one fumble on a sack in the first quarter. He lost another fumble in the second half.

Kill said he had a lot of respect for Missouri’s defensive ends, Shane Ray and Markus Golden. In studying the Tigers on film and talking to coaches who have faced them or scouted them, the coaching staff was concerned about taking shots down the field because it would force Leidner to hang onto the ball.

“We did some things protection-wise to help us,” Kill said. “You don’t want to hold onto the ball against those guys. Well, in the situation that we were in, you’re going to have to hold onto the ball because they knew you were going to throw it. …

“When you’re in that two-minute deal, you’ve got to go down the field even with the timeouts we had. It was more about them and us being in control the game. Even though we were down, I felt as a head coach, I felt good. I felt we controlled the game in the first h
 

Iceland12 said:
What? Are a lot of people saying that decision cost the Gophers the game? The turnovers surely did that. Though maybe you're talking about the vehemence with which people are defending that call.

Kill wasn't even doing that. He just said he had been on both sides and went the safe way and looking at his record here that isn't a surprise. Whether he should have or not shouldn't be as scary a thought as many think it is. Though as some people have pointed out they didn't really need Mitch to stand back there and try and trow it 50 yards.

“I’ve been doing it for 31 years and I’ve been on two sides of that,” he said. “We’ve done something like that [try and score] and the ball went the other way and it cost us the game. On the other side of it, we’ve done it and been successful. …

“In my opinion, there are times to roll the dice. We had control. We had the ball 19 minutes to their 11 [in time of posseion]. They were not dominating us. I felt like we could get right back out and score and be smart.”

Kill said he wasn’t worried about Mitch Leidner throwing as interception as much as he was Leidner getting sacked and possibly fumbling the ball deep in their territory. Leidner lost one fumble on a sack in the first quarter. He lost another fumble in the second half.

Kill said he had a lot of respect for Missouri’s defensive ends, Shane Ray and Markus Golden. In studying the Tigers on film and talking to coaches who have faced them or scouted them, the coaching staff was concerned about taking shots down the field because it would force Leidner to hang onto the ball.

“We did some things protection-wise to help us,” Kill said. “You don’t want to hold onto the ball against those guys. Well, in the situation that we were in, you’re going to have to hold onto the ball because they knew you were going to throw it. …

“When you’re in that two-minute deal, you’ve got to go down the field even with the timeouts we had. It was more about them and us being in control the game. Even though we were down, I felt as a head coach, I felt good. I felt we controlled the game in the first h
Click to expand...

I'm just not a fan of the they didn't play to win group. This is how they played all year. Did they look any better trying to play faster in the 4th quarter or late first half of any game? This is something that has to be addressed in the off season. They have to practice it and be better in 2015.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

The Goofy Gopher said:
Agreed. IMO, regardless of what he says, his actions show he doesn't trust our passing offense not to screw up in that situation, and so they played the conservative route. Hopefully next year he starts trusting the passing offense a lot more, but that's probably why he wants Mitch to take that "Connor Cook" step.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure Kill is not alone in this line of thinking. I can't say I agree with the decision and yes, I would have liked to see them take a different approach.

But good grief, if you've watched Leidner for the last 16-18 games or whatever, I don't know how you could think being conservative is NOT the high percentage play in that situation. I don't have any problem with people saying they didn't LIKE what happened, but I don't get how some don't understand why. This is a QB that has some limitations and has next to no weapons.
 



Ogee Oglethorpe said:
I'm pretty sure Kill is not alone in this line of thinking. I can't say I agree with the decision and yes, I would have liked to see them take a different approach.

But good grief, if you've watched Leidner for the last 16-18 games or whatever, I don't know how you could think being conservative is NOT the high percentage play in that situation. I don't have any problem with people saying they didn't LIKE what happened, but I don't get how some don't understand why. This is a QB that has some limitations and has next to no weapons.
Click to expand...

Isn't THAT the truth. The big however here is that with the completion to Fruechte, Mitch had completed 11 passes in a row.

Seriously. No kidding. Might have been a "go with the hot hand" moment. Or not

Who the hell knows.

http://espn.go.com/ncf/playbyplay?gameId=400610217&period=1
 

RolGnav said:
From Coach's comments, you have to wonder why they threw it all day when he was so scared of Missouri's defensive line? Why did he treat that last minute of the first half, like it was anything more special than the rest of the game? Doesn't make sense to me. Maybe Coach Kill was just too cocky in thinking they still controlled the game. Anyways, I'm over it.... When's Spring ?
Click to expand...

I ask the same thing. We had the ball and we were afraid to run our offense because something bad might happen? I seriously think this fear took the wind out of our sails. The players were quite upset when the coach decided to quit playing.

You can't have it both ways, either you are ready to lay it all on the line and go to war with your team or you are not. You can't turn it off and then expect to turn it back on again.
 

Will we open up the pass game next year and get to a 50-50 balance ! With Mitch being a junior will we open it up ! Losing Cobb and our top TE- time to spread it around with our young weapons ! Can this happen ?
 

play hard said:
Will we open up the pass game next year and get to a 50-50 balance ! With Mitch being a junior will we open it up ! Losing Cobb and our top TE- time to spread it around with our young weapons ! Can this happen ?
Click to expand...

That all depends on Mitch between now and late August, 2015.

I STILL don't for the life of me think that this staff WANTS to play as conservative as they have over the last few years. They are working with what they have. They were NOT this conservative at previous stops and I don't think they will be when they have a QB and some players around him with whom they have some trust. They are playing a calculated, high percentage, low risk game based on what they have to work with.
 



Ogee Oglethorpe said:
That all depends on Mitch between now and late August, 2015.

I STILL don't for the life of me think that this staff WANTS to play as conservative as they have over the last few years. They are working with what they have. They were NOT this conservative at previous stops and I don't think they will be when they have a QB and some players around him with whom they have some trust. They are playing a calculated, high percentage, low risk game based on what they have to work with.
Click to expand...

This. Couldn't have put it any better. Hopefully with the change in variables next year like WR ' S and Mitch with more experience his risk assessment will yield a different result when determining how to play. This year, he played for opposing O's to make a mistake, not for his to make a play. It got us to a Jan 1 Bowl game, ahead of (arguably?) more talented teams in our Conference. I think it worked out all right.
 

Honestly, I think some people feel some need to find A thing to blame losses on. Happens all the time. It is easier to feel smart or have outrage when you have A thing to thump your chest about. Despite every thread talking about it, play before halftime isn't what cost us this game. Somewhere around 37 on the list.

I don't agree with Kill's decision. However, I do get why he did it. Anyone who has read the comments about ML7 or our Off on this board throughout the year should. Who knows what would have happened had we gone the other way? People talk like it was guaranteed success. It isn't like our offense is high powered.

Fine to disagree, but time to find a new battle cry. This has been the wrong horse to back from the start.
 

Spoofin said:
Honestly, I think some people feel some need to find A thing to blame losses on. Happens all the time. It is easier to feel smart or have outrage when you have A thing to thump your chest about. Despite every thread talking about it, play before halftime isn't what cost us this game. Somewhere around 37 on the list.

I don't agree with Kill's decision. However, I do get why he did it. Anyone who has read the comments about ML7 or our Off on this board throughout the year should. Who knows what would have happened had we gone the other way? People talk like it was guaranteed success. It isn't like our offense is high powered.

Fine to disagree, but time to find a new battle cry. This has been the wrong horse to back from the start.
Click to expand...
Risks aren't just for the high powered, you don't have to be Oregon or Baylor to realize you've got to play differently against Wisconsin, TCU, and Mizzou than you would Nebraska or Iowa. A sitting duck is going to get nabbed, once you see that open door in the Wisconsin and Missouri games you've got to step on the gas or you're going to lose 9 times out of 10. To think another coach with Kill's level of ability would've made the same decisions is extremely presumptive and I believe incorrect. Recent history for both Kill and the Gophers back to Mason suggest the philosophy employed against superior opponents in Wusconsin and Missouri will result in a loss 90% of the time.
 

Kill plan for 2015 Campaign

run, run, run, run, run. it would be silly to expect otherwise.
 


BleedGopher said:
per Zulgad:

Publicly, Kill will say all the right things about Leidner's abilities as a quarterback. But the coach's thought process late in the first half in Orlando is yet another reason why privately Kill and company have a real decision to make about who is under center next season.

http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/...oldshooting_Hollins_to_focus_on_present010515

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Zulgad will always say the contrarian view to get a rise out of this readership/listenership. He is joining the ranks of Fat Pat and Soupcan in lazy "journalism" He is just guessing and has NO idea what Kills thought process is.
 

Old Cardinal said:
Zulgad will always say the contrarian view to get a rise out of this readership/listenership. He is joining the ranks of Fat Pat and Soupcan in lazy "journalism" He is just guessing and has NO idea what Kills thought process is.
Click to expand...

Great post! Pretty much sums it up.
 

Old Cardinal said:
Zulgad will always say the contrarian view to get a rise out of this readership/listenership. He is joining the ranks of Fat Pat and Soupcan in lazy "journalism" He is just guessing and has NO idea what Kills thought process is.
Click to expand...

I listen to Zulgad's radio show all the time. I like the show and I like Zulgad. But he just like many of the posters in GopherHole who believe information and facts are secondary to stating your opinion louder and more often than everyone else. I doubt if Zulgad spends much time worrying about how often his opinions are wrong.

The mistake far too many people make is thinking sport columnists and talk radio hosts are engaged in journalism. They are not. They are sports fans who are paid to do what they and many other sports fans would do for free. Occasionally a few of them might stumble upon a sports story that requires journalistic skills. But they are not paid to be journalists.
 

When it comes to Leidner, Kill should have Fox Mulder's poster in his office: "I want to believe." I want to believe, too, but he's going to have to prove he can be consistent. Blowing out Iowa with a near perfect performance doesn't do much good when you come back in subsequent games and completely stink.

Perra needs to be allowed to compete for the job. He's the type of passer a modern program needs. I was talking with the dad of one of my daughter's teammates, who's a friend of the Perra's. This guy claims he was trying to convince Mr. Perra to entertain the option of Jacques transferring so he can get some playing time. The family is convinced he'll be given an even shot at the job next year and beyond, so by all accounts he'll stay at Minnesota for the time being. At least that's the story I got second hand. I for one am not convinced he's going to get that even shot.
 

Bad Gopher said:
When it comes to Leidner, Kill should have Fox Mulder's poster in his office: "I want to believe." I want to believe, too, but he's going to have to prove he can be consistent. Blowing out Iowa with a near perfect performance doesn't do much good when you come back in subsequent games and completely stink.

Perra needs to be allowed to compete for the job. He's the type of passer a modern program needs. I was talking with the dad of one of my daughter's teammates, who's a friend of the Perra's. <b> This guy claims he was trying to convince Mr. Perra to entertain the option of Jacques transferring so he can get some playing time. </b> The family is convinced he'll be given an even shot at the job next year and beyond, so by all accounts he'll stay at Minnesota for the time being. At least that's the story I got second hand. <b> I for one am not convinced he's going to get that even shot.</b>
Click to expand...

Perra was a walk on true freshman who was #3 on the depth chart. What exactly did you and his friend want to see to prove he would be given an even shot??? Kill will play who he feels gives them the best chance of winning. Nothing in his time here would suggest any differently.
 

Bad Gopher said:
When it comes to Leidner, Kill should have Fox Mulder's poster in his office: "I want to believe." I want to believe, too, but he's going to have to prove he can be consistent. Blowing out Iowa with a near perfect performance doesn't do much good when you come back in subsequent games and completely stink.

Perra needs to be allowed to compete for the job. He's the type of passer a modern program needs. I was talking with the dad of one of my daughter's teammates, who's a friend of the Perra's. This guy claims he was trying to convince Mr. Perra to entertain the option of Jacques transferring so he can get some playing time. The family is convinced he'll be given an even shot at the job next year and beyond, so by all accounts he'll stay at Minnesota for the time being. At least that's the story I got second hand. I for one am not convinced he's going to get that even shot.
Click to expand...

Is this some sort of expert insider information? sort of like AJ's mom.....
 

Spoofin said:
Perra was a walk on true freshman who was #3 on the depth chart. What exactly did you and his friend want to see to prove he would be given an even shot??? Kill will play who he feels gives them the best chance of winning. Nothing in his time here would suggest any differently.
Click to expand...

Right on! Kill was a walk on himself and has always had a special appreciation for them. He has always said if you are the best player you will start. It is to bad some people here has chosen not to believe this but through Kill's whole career he has done exactly that.
 

Spoofin said:
Perra was a walk on true freshman who was #3 on the depth chart. What exactly did you and his friend want to see to prove he would be given an even shot??? Kill will play who he feels gives them the best chance of winning. Nothing in his time here would suggest any differently.
Click to expand...

Neither of us are convinced that Minnesota was the right place for him. I always note that Doug Flutie was the third stringer until #1 got hurt and #2 was ineffective. No telling if he'd ever gotten to play much if those things hadn't happened.

I apologize, but I'm a big booster of his. I saw him do some amazing things, and his HS team has dropped off big time without him. I think he's the best pure passer we have on the roster (albeit less seasoned than Leidner).
 

Bad Gopher said:
Neither of us are convinced that Minnesota was the right place for him. I always note that Doug Flutie was the third stringer until #1 got hurt and #2 was ineffective. No telling if he'd ever gotten to play much if those things hadn't happened.

I apologize, but I'm a big booster of his. I saw him do some amazing things, and his HS team has dropped off big time without him. I think he's the best pure passer we have on the roster (albeit less seasoned than Leidner).
Click to expand...

I like Perra too. Just saying moving up to #3 as a walk-on (true) freshman certainly indicates he is getting a shot. Waaaaaay too early to say he isn't.
 


Spoofin said:
I like Perra too. Just saying moving up to #3 as a walk-on (true) freshman certainly indicates he is getting a shot. Waaaaaay too early to say he isn't.
Click to expand...

Yep. And it would great if he proves Bad Gopher right. He just needs to do it on the field and not at the GopherHole.
 

South Dakota was the only program that offered Perra a scholarship, hardly a Division One prospect.
Everyone else passed including Western Michigan.
Kill gives everyone an equal chance. If Perra can prove everyone wrong, he will eventually be rewarded.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom