Media coverage of Gopher football

[Gold Rush]

I think the Twin Cities media coverage has gotten much better this year but it still has a ways to go. Even Paul Allen on KFAN had a lot of positive coverage but sometimes I wonder if was kind of forced just because the Gophers were a major story this year. The major case in point I have is on National Signing Day he did his show from the Vikings complex and did not even mention the Gophers and it was all Vikings coverage. I mean COME ON!!! That is like draft day for the college teams and he completely missed a major story to talk about the Vikings for 3 hours. Sometimes I think he is so focused on being a Vikings cheerleader he sees the Gophers -and everything else- as competition. They dropped the ball on what should have been major coverage of this event.

In KFAN's defense, they did have the PJ Fleck show on for about an hour, but he talked mostly about the recruiting process and the psychology and philosophy behind it. This was interesting, but they could have done a segment like that on virtually any other day of the year. I wanted to hear about the recruits and how they would be fitting in, fortunately we have gopherhole for that but if we want to increase our numbers, we need attention drawn from various media outlets. We are getting there - people like Justin Gaard, Scott Korzenowski and Ryan Burns are huge fans and are a wealth of information. They are getting the information out there!

Us Gopher fans have played second fiddle to the Vikings for a long time and may never get to be the area's #1 football team but if you want to get more coverage on places like KFAN, you should probably flood the lines on Gopher football. When they have an open line, talk Gopher football and ask intelligent questions. They will get the message that they need to cover the Gophers more. I am not saying we should be confrontational or rude, but I think the programming directors will get the idea and they will need to have additional segments to fill the need.

I think the area can support BOTH teams and many of us on here are fans of both teams. I have a funny feeling that people like Paul Allen see us a rival, something that can draw attention away from the Vikings. His coverage on the Gophers during signing day stunk and I think it was intentional. Change the culture!!!

 

[short ornery norwegian]

The Vikings are #1 on KFAN. If the Gophers want to be #1, they need to choose a different station as the flagship.

As long as the Gophers are on KFAN, they will always play second fiddle. The other day, Gaard was filling in for Barreiro. He had Mike Grimm on - and led off the segment by announcing that KFAN had renewed its agreement to carry the Vikings for another 5 years.....before talking to the Gophers' play-by-play man.

If - and I say If - the Gophers were going to switch, the only two likely candidates would be WCCO and Skor North. On CCO, there could be conflicts with the Twins and T-Wolves. On Skor North, the Gophers would be the clear #1 attraction.

 

[BeerFueledFF]

I think anyone expecting PA to ever be truly invested in the Gopher's is asking for a lot. He freely admits that he tries to keep an eye on their games when he can, but often can't due to travel and prep getting in the way when he's calling Vikings games. The best people can do it keep pushing Gopher topics on phone calls/emails, and give feedback about how good a job the Gopher's experts like Burns, Grimm, Gaard, and Korzo do when they are on the air.