A critical part of our strategy is to play annually in bowl games. It is important for three reasons. First, it is fun, both for our players and for our fans. Second, it is appealing to recruits. Finally, it offers and opportunity to further develop the players in the program through bowl preparation practices.
In 2011, Minnesota was favored in only x? games. Before the 2012 season began, we could be expected to be favored in x? of our games. To put ourself in a position to achieve our goals, we believe that as we begin each season, we'd like to be considered the favorite in at least half of the games on our schedule.
Our annual schedule will always include Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Northwestern, and will on average, include either Ohio State, Penn State, or occasionally both. All of these teams have either a winning conference record over the last 15 years or have won multiple conference championships in that period. We aspire to be in thier midst on an annual basis - this is the plan.
I believe that you schedule with the team that you have, not the team that you'd like to have or aspire to be. This change aligns with that strategy. The move comes with a cost. It is not uncommon when building a program to make short term sacrifices in favor of long term gains. We see this on the field in the form of playing younger players and resisting the urge to remove the redshirts from our true freshman. This is such a sacrifice.
Coach Kill has a strong record for turning around struggling programs. He has an exacting view of what it takes to get the job done. I trust his judgment and I'm going to support him any way I can to help us achieve our goals.
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Thanks & Go Gophers
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If he'd said that, I think I'd have understood. Instead he seemed like he was apologizing the whole time.
