Laughingstock

[short ornery norwegian]

Does a running QB have anything to do with it? Is Smith "trying too hard" or something to that affect, to account for a running QB?

We did "better", in a sense, against Indiana and Iowa, which had more traditional QBs ... right? I can't recall now, off the top of my head. I think Maryland had a running QB too? Or maybe the wrinkle with them was their "jet sweep option" scheme on offense.


Maybe he (Smith) is just putting too much on his LB and DB's plates?? Taking wild stabs in the dark, here.

I think, in general, any offense is more effective, and harder to stop, when the QB is a viable running threat - because it gives the defense more to prepare for. In college FB, all things being equal, I would prefer to have a QB who is a real 2-way threat. Over the years, mobile QB's have always given the Gophers trouble.

I know some defenses will have a guy who "spies" on the QB and acts as a safety valve in case the QB runs. I don't claim to know how the Gophers handle those situations.

 

[atsgopher]

In the last two years the Gophers are among the leaders in the nation in fewest penalties and penalty yards per game. That’s kinda the epitome of discipline.

They have some issues on defense right now, particularly in the secondary, but team discipline is NOT something I would consider a major issue.

First off, my critique is limited to the D. They are not disciplined to their roles.

The worst teams in our conference have running games against us that resemble the 1998 vikings passing attack.

I have never seen a team miss simple assignments like this one. It's not like these are amazing confusing offensive scenarios. Illinois ran up the gut at will. Nebraska ran off tackle like they had Bo Jackson in TECMO Bowl.

Containment is exactly rocket science. Even bad high school coaches emphasize containment. This isn't new to the freshman. The defense is not disciplined to the schemes. Unless of course your saying that giving up big plays at will is a design flaw.... then of course we could just fire PJ for Cause right now and call it a day.

 

[Some Day...Maybe]

A lot of this goes back to expectations. Fleck came to MN off a 13-1 season at WMU. He was billed as one of the top young, up-and-coming coaching prospects in the country.

Right or wrong, fair or not, people had expectations that Fleck was coming in to take the program to a higher level.

Fleck apparently saw things differently. Instead of seeing an OK program that needed a boost to get to the next level, Fleck saw a program with systemic problems that needed to be torn down to the foundations and re-built.

If he would have come out and said that on Day 1, some people would have been upset at the time - but I think fewer people would be upset now.

If Fleck would have said this was a total re-build, and there was a good chance that it would take 4 years just to get the program back to a respectable level, again, people would have griped. ticket sales may have taken a hit. but the current season would have been placed in context.

Some of us thought we were hiring a guy to build an addition onto the house. He came in and tore the house down. That's not what some people expected, or thought we were paying for. Hence the disappointment and second-guessing.

Now, you can argue that the fans are the ones who made the mistake. That Fleck was signalling to us what to expect, and we missed those signals. I would say that those signals were not clear and loud enough to be easily understood - and got lost in all the verbiage, slogans and catch phrases.

Either way, there was clearly a huge disconnect between what some people expected, and what Fleck planned to do. That comes down to communications.

What concerns me is the DC. His resume is awful and it’s proving to be true hear as well. He had athletes at Arkansas and sucked. So Fleck saying we need athletes on D concerns me. He has a DC who appears to be terrible. I’m just wondering how his DC goes from terrible to very good when nothing in his history points to that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CharchyCharch]

Where is the 9-3 thread? Some of you posters are terrible at assessing a young team. Those who said 2 or 3 wins look like geniuses

 

[howilu]

Why can't the Gophers finally play a quality game in the Big Ten? Why why why why why why? This is turning into a broken record and a disgrace to Division I college football. I have lived in this state since 1972, coming from New Jersey and not once as Minnesota played in the Rose Bowl.

 

[howilu]

On another post, to me Gopher Football has become more predictable than Charlie Brown's baseball team. They play so well in the nonconference season but when the Big Ten season begins, they find ways to lose.