Mitch Leidner Update. Still working with Rich Gannon

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There is no logical reason why the fans should feel indentured to root for a guy and never point out the fact that he wasn't any good just because he played here and "gave it his all".
 

Former Goofer said:
There is no logical reason why the fans should feel indentured to root for a guy and never point out the fact that he wasn't any good just because he played here and "gave it his all".
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For his career, he played in 47 games, won 29 games (most of any QB in school history), and leaves the school with most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with 33; fourth among all players (all time). He is also third in passing yards, fifth in passing touchdowns, and is also the only Minnesota quarterback ever to pass and rush for 30 career touchdowns. The bar isn't real high but as a Gopher QB, he was pretty good.
 

Former Goofer said:
There is no logical reason why the fans should feel indentured to root for a guy and never point out the fact that he wasn't any good just because he played here and "gave it his all".
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Bingo. I know it's hard for some to believe but this is major D1 football. It is ok to say when Mitch or any other player isn't performing too well. It comes with the territory of being a D1 athlete in a revenue sport. If you're gonna be praised and put on a pedestal when things are going well, you're also going to get criticism from rubes when you aren't playing well. That's just reality.
 

I think it's a reasonable assumption to make that as a fan of a Power 5 D-1 school my QB can throw a football accurately and in some sort of spiral rotation

Look Mitch was a competitor, I'll give him that. It's not all on him, Jerry Kill could not recruit QBs to save his life. Fortunately we don't have to worry about that now because the current staff has proven their ability to find talent that can compete in high level bowl games.
 


JZsportswhiz said:
I think it's a reasonable assumption to make that as a fan of a Power 5 D-1 school my QB can throw a football accurately and in some sort of spiral rotation

Look Mitch was a competitor, I'll give him that. It's not all on him, Jerry Kill could not recruit QBs to save his life. Fortunately we don't have to worry about that now because the current staff has proven their ability to find talent that can compete in high level bowl games.
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I'm hopeful for PJ and all but ... we've still got Jerry & Co's guys, and how many QBs did PJ use at WMU that did well?
 

60's Guy said:
For his career, he played in 47 games, won 29 games (most of any QB in school history), and leaves the school with most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with 33; fourth among all players (all time). He is also third in passing yards, fifth in passing touchdowns, and is also the only Minnesota quarterback ever to pass and rush for 30 career touchdowns. The bar isn't real high but as a Gopher QB, he was pretty good.
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One of my favorite writers over at the Daily Gopher, Gopher Nation (and a fine bourbon connoisseur - those google chats during the Kill years were the best) compiled probably the best rundown of Gopher QBs I have ever seen back in 2011. He runs through many of the QB-specific stats. This is pre-Mitch so I'll post his numbers later for comparison.

In a nutshell, one can make an argument for "best" or "good" QB but the unfortunate fact is we haven't had a great QB or passing attacke when compared to the good and elite on a national level. We've had some good and some bad and oftentimes the old eye test comes into play. Who can forget Weber throwing fastballs into the deck, Mitch throwing a ball into the cheap seats for an intentional grounding? OTOH, these guys had some pretty incredible games and moments that we will never forget. In recent years Mitch willed us to victory over Neb/CSU, Nelson with that ridiculous TD pass on 4th down to help defeat Nebraska, etc and I'm sure we can all remember some good moments.

Before I get too carried away, the excellent must-read article from Gopher Nation at TDG:


Straight win% is certainly important when discussing your great QBs. It is sad that so many of our productive QBs had such poor W/L records. Being the guy under center has it's advantages and it's disadvantages. You are often the guy who gets put up in front of the media after a game regardless of the outcome and regardless of fault. As mentioned, Abdul-Khaliq had the luxury of some great running backs and he was a pretty good threat on the ground as well. Billy Cockerham was the starter for 2 years, his first was Mason's second year where the Gophers got to 5-6 and then his second was the 1999 season that was arguably the best Gopher team we have seen since the 70s (that year we won at Penn State, nearly beat Big Ten champ Wisconsin and finished 5-3 in the league).

Guys like Weber and Sauter were saddled with two of the worst coaches in memory. While they obviously existed together I don't think it is totally fair to marry Tim Brewster and Adam Weber together (same for Sauter/Wacker, Fleetwood/Gutekunst). Yes they basically led the Gophers over the same four-year span, but many of the decisions made by Tim Brewster that negatively affected the entire Gopher team should not be on Adam Weber's shoulders. Changing coodinators yearly and producing some awful defenses did very little to help his team's chances of winning. Certainly Weber lost games for us as well so he isn't off the hook (Florida Atlantic-07, Northwestern-07 and 08 come to mind very quickly), but this is why you have to look at win % with a grain of salt and consider coaching, defense, offensive lines, etc.

https://www.thedailygopher.com/2011...t-some-of-the-greatest-of-gopher-quarterbacks
 

JZsportswhiz said:
I think it's a reasonable assumption to make that as a fan of a Power 5 D-1 school my QB can throw a football accurately and in some sort of spiral rotation

Look Mitch was a competitor, I'll give him that. It's not all on him, Jerry Kill could not recruit QBs to save his life. Fortunately we don't have to worry about that now because the current staff has proven their ability to find talent that can compete in high level bowl games.
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Spiral Talk!


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Mitch's career totals at Gopher sports.com:

Total att: 1,029
comp: 580
INT: 32
TD: 36
Yards:7,287

That gives:
Comp %. 56.37
INT rate 3.11%
TD rate 3.50%

He won 23 of the 41 games he played the majority of the snaps (he did not start vs Western Illinois or Syracuse but he played majority of snaps). Good for a 56.1% win percentage.
 



It should be pointed out some Gopher QBs, including Mitch contributed as much with their feet as with their arms at times. That article didn't really focus on that. In totality Mitch won some games, he lost some games, and he'll be talked about here forever both for the good and the bad. Just like most people realize they aren't going to be tops in the world in their given profession, Mitch understands his limitations but should be proud of what he accomplished. All of us are limited in different ways.
 


PMWinSTP said:
They fit Fleck's offense better than ML would have...
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200.webp
 

Former Goofer said:
There is no logical reason why the fans should feel indentured to root for a guy and never point out the fact that he wasn't any good just because he played here and "gave it his all".
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No problem with criticizing him when its warranted. I get that. It's the people that go out of their way to constantly rip him all the time. Someone posts something positive about him, and you'll always get the snarky comments about his inaccuracy.

I guess if that makes some people feel better about themselves, by all means. I think that says more about them than Leidner.
 




GophersInIowa said:
No problem with criticizing him when its warranted. I get that. It's the people that go out of their way to constantly rip him all the time. Someone posts something positive about him, and you'll always get the snarky comments about his inaccuracy.

I guess if that makes some people feel better about themselves, by all means. I think that says more about them than Leidner.
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+1. If someone asks me if I thought ML7 was good, I don't feel the need to say positives. If someone mentions he is working with Rich Gannon, I don't feel the need to rip him.


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Former Goofer said:
There is no logical reason why the fans should feel indentured to root for a guy and never point out the fact that he wasn't any good just because he played here and "gave it his all".
Click to expand...

we've had awful qb's
 

Wish him luck. Maybe Gannon can find where the "Good Mitch" went. He disappeared during the 2016 season.

Probably the last good thrower we had at QB was Cory Sauter. They tried turning him into an Option QB for his Senior Year.

Mason often said that decision was one of his biggest mistakes.
 

GophersInIowa said:
No problem with criticizing him when its warranted. I get that. It's the people that go out of their way to constantly rip him all the time. Someone posts something positive about him, and you'll always get the snarky comments about his inaccuracy.

I guess if that makes some people feel better about themselves, by all means. I think that says more about them than Leidner.
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Yep...many who now see QB spot as a huge question mark.
 

Ok, how are some of you going to discuss or argue about which QB, or any player, is best without bringing up pros and cons of each person? I think sometimes there is a need to rip on perceived "haters" rather than actually thinking Mitch's feelings are hurt which is preposterous. If that were possible he'd have never made it to and stayed at his position as starter. You think opposing players and fans weren't chattering at him?
 

It's fair and valid to discuss how well - or not well - a particular player is performing. But, with Leidner, IMHO, it got way too personal. People weren't just criticizing his play, they were attacking him as a person. you would have thought Dahmer or Gacy was playing QB for the Gophers the way some people went after him.

I admit that I stuck up for Leidner - precisely because I felt the criticism was unfair and too personal. I felt someone had to defend the guy. So I stuck up for Leidner on this board even when he wasn't playing well. I just hate to see people gang up on someone and kick them when they're down. I watched the games, and I literally prayed that Leidner would have a good game, so that I would not have to come on Gopher Hole and see 8 different threads of people ripping Leidner.

yes, he wasn't the greatest QB in Gopher history. But, the Leidner haters never gave him any credit when he played well.

For me, it was an era of Gopher FB that I will always remember with a lot of sadness - specificially because of the way a number of so-called Gopher "fans" treated one of their own players. I felt it was shameful then, and I still feel it was shameful now.
 

CentralGopher said:
Whatever makes you feel like a big man.


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It doesn't make me feel any better about myself. I would actually feel like a bigger man if we had a dependable QB. Mitch had a decent winning percentage as a MN QB but he always faltered in big games. That's a fact, it's not even like I am mocking him individually, it's his skills as a QB. His time as a QB is over. Let's not kid ourselves, Rich Gannon isn't making Mitch into a NFL QB. He's a worse version of Tebow.

It's not like Mitch gives a damn about my opinion anyway. He's in the limelight, he is going to face criticism. People have said worse things to him at Blarneys than I said on the internet so give it a rest.
 

JZsportswhiz said:
It doesn't make me feel any better about myself. I would actually feel like a bigger man if we had a dependable QB. Mitch had a decent winning percentage as a MN QB but he always faltered in big games. That's a fact, it's not even like I am mocking him individually, it's his skills as a QB. His time as a QB is over. Let's not kid ourselves, Rich Gannon isn't making Mitch into a NFL QB. He's a worse version of Tebow.

It's not like Mitch gives a damn about my opinion anyway. He's in the limelight, he is going to face criticism. People have said worse things to him at Blarneys than I said on the internet so give it a rest.
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Interesting...
 

GophersInIowa said:
No problem with criticizing him when its warranted. I get that. It's the people that go out of their way to constantly rip him all the time. Someone posts something positive about him, and you'll always get the snarky comments about his inaccuracy.

I guess if that makes some people feel better about themselves, by all means. I think that says more about them than Leidner.
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Correct. The shame is that ML showed glimpses of having the right stuff, just not consistent enough. Hopefully the new staff can develop QB's, I blame a good portion of ML problems on the old staff.


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PMWinSTP said:
Interesting...
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Like you wouldn't enjoy puffing your chest a little bit if the Gopher Football program became relevant again. The last 5 years were nice, imagine if the passing game was actually effective.
 

JZsportswhiz said:
Like you wouldn't enjoy puffing your chest a little bit if the Gopher Football program became relevant again. The last 5 years were nice, imagine if the passing game was actually effective.
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I'd feel great, proud, excited. Big? Sounds pretty self absorbed to me.
 

This has gone into a strange place. We recently had many players that were actually character-assassinated. The worst I've heard about Mitch is he was frustratingly inconsistent as a QB. We did have a few that crucified him for the boycott and then again for calling out the administration for the way that and the firing went down, an unforgivable sin in some eyes. That's far more egregious than anything I've seen here.

Mitch, stats-wise was probably a top 3 or top 5 QB depending how one looks at it. There's absolutely no question that he, along with every successful person uses criticism as fuel to get better. He doesnt cry in a corner. If people like Wait What say he's bad simply refute it with all his rushing TDs, his first downs, his leadership, his durability.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
This has gone into a strange place. We recently had many players that were actually character-assassinated. The worst I've heard about Mitch is he was frustratingly inconsistent as a QB. We did have a few that crucified him for the boycott and then again for calling out the administration for the way that and the firing went down, an unforgivable sin in some eyes. That's far more egregious than anything I've seen here.

Mitch, stats-wise was probably a top 3 or top 5 QB depending how one looks at it. There's absolutely no question that he, along with every successful person uses criticism as fuel to get better. He doesnt cry in a corner. If people like Wait What say he's bad simply refute it with all his rushing TDs, his first downs, his leadership, his durability.
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Don't forget that he didn't come to my birthday party...
 




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