Gophers Hope History Doesn't Repeat Itself
Special to the Star Tribune, by Josh087
October 22nd, 2014
The Golden Gopher football program has been here before.
With just four games remaining in the regular season, Minnesota has a chance once again to turn doubters into believers, knowing that with a strong finish to the season a top-tier bowl game and even a possible conference title are still very much within reach. This is Minnesota's third realistic chance at this exact scenario since 2002 - surprising from a program relegated near the bottom of the Big Ten during the last 40 years.
Flash back to 2002, when the Gophers took advantage of a relatively easy first part of the conference schedule by beating Illinois, Northwestern, and Michigan State (teams that would combine for an overall record of 12-24) to start out 7-1. They found themselves ranked in the top 25, only to see that momentum crushed by losing its last four regular season games by a combined 169-79 to the top teams in the Conference, including losses in three trophy games to Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Again, in 2008 the Gophers sprinted out to a 7-1 start and a top 20 national ranking thanks to a softer first part of the conference schedule, beating Indiana, Illinois, and Purdue - who again combined for an overall record of 12-24. The Gophers were riding high again, until it all fell apart at the seams. They gave up a last-second touchdown to underdog Northwestern and never recovered, slumping to five straight losses by a combined 184-76, including a program-regressing 55-0 setback at the hands of rival Iowa.
Well, here we are in 2014, and the Gophers once again have taken advantage of a favorable early schedule with wins over Michigan, Northwestern, Purdue, and Illinois (teams currently a combined 12-19 overall) to move to 7-1 overall and find themselves once again in the top 25 and part of the conference title discussion. They now must face two of their chief rivals in the final four games in Iowa and Wisconsin, and two other teams in Nebraska and Ohio State who are ranked in the top 15 in the country.
Sound familiar?
Coach Jerry Kill isn't too worried about the past. "Shoot, none of these guys were a part of those teams," Kill quipped during his weekly press conference. "We're just trying to work our tail ends off to get better each and every day and we don't let that outside talk bother us."
However, some of the veterans on the team have already made it clear that they are looking ahead and that the Big Ten title is one of the key goals this season. "All of our goals are still out in front of us," senior Cedric Thompson said. We feel like we don't have a lot of respect from the media and are just trying to prove the doubters wrong."
Sophomore quarterback Mitch Leidner feels like the team has the right attitude to compete in the tough part of the Big Ten schedule. "We know each week is a challenge," Leidner said during Thursday's practice. "In this league we can't take anyone for granted and we just need to trust the coaches and the gameplan to give us the best chance to win. It's been a bumpy process so far. We're trying to build a program one brick at a time, and now we're faced with another challenge that we need to work to overcome. And it starts this week with Iowa and the battle for the pig."
The "brick by brick" mantra has worked so far for coach Kill and his team. The question remains to be answered - is there enough of a foundation set by those bricks to build upon the failures of the past?
Josh087 can be reached during Gopher football games in the pressbox during the first half of games, and in section 135 row 11 during the second half of games.
