Mike Sanford Fired

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Unproven conspiracy warning...

The offense had enough subtle changes post-Illinois that I've been wondering if PJ hired an offensive consultant. Any chance of that? Either that or the Illinois loss just lit a fire underneath some people.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
Isn't that how you'd almost always answer those kind of questions?

Like if I asked "who is the fastest guy on the team?", you'd reply with your opinion, right?
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If I asked you, who ran the ball on

you can’t say, I feel like it was _____

If I asked you which ref threw the flag you can’t say
I feel like it was _______


well you can say whatever you want but it’s pretty dumb to think your feeling is right. It either is right or isn’t right. And it isn’t because of something you felt
 


Sanford's departure is by definition "addition by subtraction". The losses against BGU and Illinois were were terrible on the offensive side of the ball, simply unwatchable. That Illinois game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I became very blah about Gopher football, my give-a-shitter was on a very low level, but the win over Wisconsin and now the departure from Sanford has ignited my passion again.

My guess is that MS will be given the opportunity to take the reigns of this offense and that may have played a small part in TM's decision to return.
 









GopherFanatic19 said:
If Simon takes over I think we good! He called a hell of a game against Auburn! And if it was him calling past two games we will be in good hands
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I'd be all on board with Simon, or whoever Fleck chooses, and Simon may very well be a great selection in the long run... but the love for a guy that spent a month putting together the game plan against Auburn always puzzled me.

Whoever Fleck goes with, I'm all on board!
 


I've been kinda checked out since Saturday with fam in town. I LOVE all the recent happenings. Shocked Sanford is gone. Its the right move, but I'm genuinely shocked it actually happened. My outlook on 2022 just went up. With his (Sanford) documented ability to destroy good to great quarterbacks, I'm now pumped that Tanner is coming back to see what he can do
 



I would be surprised if Simon is the new OC, but I could be wrong. If he was not involved very much in the play-calling at any point in this season, I think it would be quite a stretch for Fleck to go with an almost entirely unproven play-caller. The absolutely last thing this program can do is take a step back next year.

Also guessing an announcement could be made awfully soon because I doubt this process just started in the last couple days. I would imagine conversations have taken place, privately, with a number of potential candidates.

I think the smart thing would be a proven guy that has a history at a slightly lower level program of calling plays and running the entire show on the offensive side of the ball. If I were a betting man, this is what I think happens.
 





Nebraska Football coaches get fired around Thanksgiving after losing to Minnesota. Nebraska fired Bo Pellini after the loss to Minnesota 28-24 on November 22, 2014. Nebraska fired Mike Riley after the loss to Minnesota 54-21 on November 11, 2017.

Nebraska lost to Minnesota 30-23 on October 16, 2021. Since the Nebraska game was on October 16, Scott Frost got partial credit and got a reprieve. He gets to fire most of his coaching staff instead.

Losing to Illinois is the watermark for Coordinators to get fired in Minnesota. Minnesota fired Robb Smith after the Gophers lost to the Fighting Illini 31-55. PJ Fleck then promoted Joe Rossi to Defensive Coordinator. The Gophers won three out of the last four games.

The Gophers lost to the Fighting Illini 6-14 on November 6, 2021. PJ Fleck should have fired Mike Sanford, Jr. after the Illinois game. The Gophers could have beaten Iowa and would have been going to Indianapolis.

The margins are so tight with a virtual four-way tie in the Big Ten West. The Gophers lost the chance to win the Big Ten West title outright with Mike Sanford, Jr. as the Offensive Coordinator.

Losing to Minnesota close to Thanksgiving is hazardous to Nebraska coaches. Losing to Illinois close to Thanksgiving is hazardous to Gopher coordinators.
 
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HoustonTXGopher said:
Sanford's departure is by definition "addition by subtraction". The losses against BGU and Illinois were were terrible on the offensive side of the ball, simply unwatchable. That Illinois game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I became very blah about Gopher football, my give-a-shitter was on a very low level, but the win over Wisconsin and now the departure from Sanford has ignited my passion again.

My guess is that MS will be given the opportunity to take the reigns of this offense and that may have played a small part in TM's decision to return.
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Yeah, absolute abominations and fireable offenses. I wouldn’t have given him another game after BG but I’m just a schlub on Gopherhole.
 



Not that anybody cares, but where does Sanford go from here? A quality program would be stupid to hire him. I think his Power 5 decent program days are over, at least as an OC. Amazing how Fleck missed on that hire and didn’t know.
 

SanDiegoGopherFan said:
It wouldnt surprise me if PJ is trying to get Tanner in the NFL. It would explain the departures of Clark, Zac and Sanford.

PJ sees Tanner as his son.
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I’m sure Fleck would love it if all of his players made it to the NFL.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Wow, not surprised but the timing seems kind of unusual. It definitely felt like someone else was calling the offense the last couple games and this confirms it in my mind.
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How is the timing unusual? The season is over aside from a bowl game that may be a month away. Unless they fired him sooner, it had to be now
 

Some Day...Maybe said:
Not that anybody cares, but where does Sanford go from here? A quality program would be stupid to hire him. I think his Power 5 decent program days are over, at least as an OC. Amazing how Fleck missed on that hire and didn’t know.
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He’s 39. Plenty of time to rehab his career and get back to a P5 school.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
How is the timing unusual? The season is over aside from a bowl game that may be a month away. Unless they fired him sooner, it had to be now
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It should have been sooner. I assumed he was going to stick around until next year after he wasn’t fired post-IL which was an absolute disaster of a game for him, the second in one season amid some other average output. Why keep him then and fire now?

In reality, it looks like he was internally demoted at that time and this has been a long goodbye. I suppose it could be looked at in different ways from a recruiting standpoint.
 



To those that want Simon to take over, and I'm not saying I'm opposed to that if he did call the last couple of games because I agree something was different and we looked better.........but what qualifies him to coach the QB's? He's always been in charge of the WR's and that's an entirely different ballgame. This assumes that we don't hire an additional QB coach and keep it a dual role OC/QB Coach position.
 

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