Norwood Teague: “I’d love to play North Dakota State"

[everybody knows my name]

You sure talk about NDAC and Fargo a lot (on a Gophers message board) for being such a big Gophers fan.

Wait wait wait

I wondered for a moment whether you could be right, so I checked all my posts going back to April 18th. As far as I can tell I haven't mentioned NDSU for at least two months. Maybe my comments are just so amazing and memorable that you remember everything I post, or maybe you were just wrong.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

(1) Are people really saying that we should play them to regain the NW part of MN? Really? It's a fact, a kid who is raised in Moorhead (hell, even Fargo for that matter) would not pick a scholarship offer over the U over an offer from NDSU. It's NEVER happened and it NEVER will. I don't care about the excitement surrounding the Bison in the area, I don't care about what you think the people aspire to want when they grow up. . .if we offered and they offered. . . we'd get the recruit. It's just the way it is (this isn't a knock on the Bison).

(2) There is no need to play the Bison. I would never play them if I was the AD. It's actually a compliment to them, they are better that atrocious FCS schools, yet they still look like an FBS school on our SOS. That said, we played New Hampshire last year.

(3) The other issue is that we would be giving them a spotlight. This isn't AT ALL important in situations where we offer kids. They will always choose us over NDSU, every single time, without fail. However, if we continue to give NDSU publicity, they will have a better chance of getting a kid to choose a scholarship there over walking on here. We still get walk-ons with NDSU offers, but we'd get more if they had no spotlight. Let them play their games outside of the metro area.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

This is the only part of your post worthy of comment.

I've lived up here from '97 to '00 and again from '03 till now. I watch the local news, I read the local paper, and I socialize with the locals. Tell me not to believe my own eyes, I don't care. People up here, including Minnesotans within about 50 miles of the North Dakota border, couldn't care less about the U of M. They follow the Bison like Bostonians follow the Red Sox. For them it's about three things: first, proximity - they're far closer to NDSU than to the U. Second, recent success - they've seen NDSU win conference titles, national titles, and bragging rights against Minnesota. Third, their friends, families, and neighbors attended NDSU and not Minnesota.

I think I'll believe my eyes.

Ultimately, who cares? I don't mean this as an insult. I mean, most of the state doesn't follow the Gophers very well because we don't have much success. We don't need to schedule Northern Iowa to lock down the Albert Lea area. If these people are Bison fans, let them be Bison fans. It doesn't hurt us anymore than any other area that isn't super into Gopher football. If the Gophers had 1 good season, they'd all switch. And if they wouldn't switch, they wouldn't switch from a couple NDSU/Gopher games either.

 

[Fuzzy Rumpton]

Bob, stop making so much sense.

 

[DLguy]

This is the only part of your post worthy of comment.

I've lived up here from '97 to '00 and again from '03 till now. I watch the local news, I read the local paper, and I socialize with the locals. Tell me not to believe my own eyes, I don't care. People up here, including Minnesotans within about 50 miles of the North Dakota border, couldn't care less about the U of M. They follow the Bison like Bostonians follow the Red Sox. For them it's about three things: first, proximity - they're far closer to NDSU than to the U. Second, recent success - they've seen NDSU win conference titles, national titles, and bragging rights against Minnesota. Third, their friends, families, and neighbors attended NDSU and not Minnesota.

I think I'll believe my eyes.

Tell that to the 30+ people from Detroit Lakes that join our tailgate ever Gopher Football Saturday. And that doesnt even count all the ones that make it down for a game or two. And that is just the group I know. Don't tell me that Detroit Lakes residents as a whole care more about the Bison than the Gophers. A few in that group even went to NDSU, and they dont care about the Bison. Detroit Lakes is not Bison Country by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[everybody knows my name]

(1) Are people really saying that we should play them to regain the NW part of MN? Really? It's a fact, a kid who is raised in Moorhead (hell, even Fargo for that matter) would not pick a scholarship offer over the U over an offer from NDSU. It's NEVER happened and it NEVER will. I don't care about the excitement surrounding the Bison in the area, I don't care about what you think the people aspire to want when they grow up. . .if we offered and they offered. . . we'd get the recruit. It's just the way it is (this isn't a knock on the Bison).

(2) There is no need to play the Bison. I would never play them if I was the AD. It's actually a compliment to them, they are better that atrocious FCS schools, yet they still look like an FBS school on our SOS. That said, we played New Hampshire last year.

(3) The other issue is that we would be giving them a spotlight. This isn't AT ALL important in situations where we offer kids. They will always choose us over NDSU, every single time, without fail. However, if we continue to give NDSU publicity, they will have a better chance of getting a kid to choose a scholarship there over walking on here. We still get walk-ons with NDSU offers, but we'd get more if they had no spotlight. Let them play their games outside of the metro area.

-

Ultimately, who cares? I don't mean this as an insult. I mean, most of the state doesn't follow the Gophers very well because we don't have much success. We don't need to schedule Northern Iowa to lock down the Albert Lea area. If these people are Bison fans, let them be Bison fans. It doesn't hurt us anymore than any other area that isn't super into Gopher football. If the Gophers had 1 good season, they'd all switch. And if they wouldn't switch, they wouldn't switch from a couple NDSU/Gopher games either.

NO! My God, no. This is how rumors get started, LOL.

This is a conversation on a message board, not a planning meeting for the Minnesota Gophers football scheduling committee.

I talked about how crazy people in Fargo-Moorhead and surrounding communities are about NDSU football, and how I'd like the Gophers to play the Bison one more time, embarrass them, and then never schedule them again.

Pedoodle the compulsive nitpicker argued the point and tried to tell me I'm wrong. So I responded with a persuasive argument to show that I'm right that people in NW Minnesota generally speaking are not Gophers fans.

That's all that happened. I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone.

 

[HopherGole]

Much less riskier to schedule TCU.

TCU isn't a border state. TCU fans won't let us it for an entire year. TCU is a BCS opponent....not a risk

 

[Section2]

Simply do not believe it. And if this exceedingly unlikely scenario has any merit whatsoever, I would teach those kids to create some aspirations worth having.

Like sitting at a desk eating doughnuts all day?

There is an obvious distinction you are glossing over. A kid might aspire to play for ndsu, because that seems like an attainable goal. You rightly point out that a better player likely would choose a gopher scholarship over ndsu. But that doesn't mean his point is false.

Some kids may aspire to play for the gophers their whole life, but they would accept a scholarship to Alabama or ND if offered. Would you rip them for aiming low?

 

[dpodoll68]

Like sitting at a desk eating doughnuts all day?

What?

There is an obvious distinction you are glossing over. A kid might aspire to play for ndsu, because that seems like an attainable goal. You rightly point out that a better player likely would choose a gopher scholarship over ndsu. But that doesn't mean his point is false.

Some kids may aspire to play for the gophers their whole life, but they would accept a scholarship to Alabama or ND if offered. Would you rip them for aiming low?

False dichotomy. The Gophers play at the highest level of amateur football. NDAC doesn't. An offer to Alabama or Notre Dame would be seen by pretty much everyone as a "better" offer than Minnesota, but it is nonetheless equal in the sense that all are major college football offers. An NDAC offer to play JV football is inherently unequal to any Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, or even Sun Belt offer. When's the last time you heard about someone "aspiring" to play in the CFL?

 

[GopherVotary]

I understand your point and I agree with you.

However, the year that NDSU beat us, we were one of the worst teams in the country. We had a possession at the end of the fourth quarter to tie it and threw a pic 6 making the game appear much less close than it really was. I wouldn't put NDSU any higher than 75 in the FBS on their best day.

Was that NDSU's victory in 2007 or 2011?

 

[Section2]

What?



False dichotomy. The Gophers play at the highest level of amateur football. NDAC doesn't. An offer to Alabama or Notre Dame would be seen by pretty much everyone as a "better" offer than Minnesota, but it is nonetheless equal in the sense that all are major college football offers. An NDAC offer to play JV football is inherently unequal to any Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, or even Sun Belt offer. When's the last time you heard about someone "aspiring" to play in the CFL?

You are a grade A moron. I know kids who aspire to play for st Thomas or St. John's. stop being such a dope. No one said the U and ndsu were equal. That's what we call a straw man. What was said that kids in the area aspire to play for ndsu. I have no idea why that plausible assertion caused you to go on another boring rant.

It seems a little weak for you to rip on the aspirations of others as aiming Low. As I said, look in the mirror.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Was that NDSU's victory in 2007 or 2011?

2011. Their championship year.

 

[dpodoll68]

It seems a little weak for you to rip on the aspirations of others as aiming Low. As I said, look in the mirror.

How the fück would you know anything about me or my aspirations?

 

[everybody knows my name]

Nobody knows or understands you, Pedoodle. You're a mystery wrapped in an enema.

 

[Ole]

This is the only part of your post worthy of comment.

I've lived up here from '97 to '00 and again from '03 till now. I watch the local news, I read the local paper, and I socialize with the locals. Tell me not to believe my own eyes, I don't care. People up here, including Minnesotans within about 50 miles of the North Dakota border, couldn't care less about the U of M. They follow the Bison like Bostonians follow the Red Sox. For them it's about three things: first, proximity - they're far closer to NDSU than to the U. Second, recent success - they've seen NDSU win conference titles, national titles, and bragging rights against Minnesota. Third, their friends, families, and neighbors attended NDSU and not Minnesota.

I think I'll believe my eyes.

Dumb.

People in the St. Cloud area certainly support St. Johns and many kids around that area certainly grew up excited to play for St. Johns. Especially when they were winning alot.
It's still D3 football, just like NDSU is D2 football. It's not the same, and there are likely kids who are both St. Johns fans and Gopher fans.

The difference apparently is people who follow the bison, even Minnesotans who follow the bison, think they are on equal ground with Alabama, Michigan, or yes, in the same breath as those two, Minnesota. A D1 BCS program at the highest level of college competition.

The little bandwagon cult up there in Fargo has become something of a self deluded flea.
IMO Starve the parasite from media attention and the gopher walk ons they've won d2 championships with will start signing up to play with us. They'll go back to relative obscurity like they were when I graduated HS and couldn't have told you whether they played in the same conference as Bethel, St. Cloud St. Winona, or Macalaster.
I won't even address the stupid idea that a kid, even from Fargo would turn down a scholarship to the U to play for NDSU.

 

[everybody knows my name]

Ole, nobody here has said that kids would turn down a Gophers scholarship to play for NDSU. Nobody has said it. My only comment was that kids from the town in western Minnesota where I moved six months ago aspire to play for the Bison. The Gophers aren't on their radar.

I feel like lying down on the train tracks outside my office. Where have all the brain cells gone?

 

[Section2]

How the fück would you know anything about me or my aspirations?

Now now, calm down. You don't want to have a heart attack.

 

[John Galt]

Ole, nobody here has said that kids would turn down a Gophers scholarship to play for NDSU. Nobody has said it. My only comment was that kids from the town in western Minnesota where I moved six months ago aspire to play for the Bison. The Gophers aren't on their radar.

I feel like lying down on the train tracks outside my office. Where have all the brain cells gone?

You're getting ripped because you just claimed that all of NW Minnesota is full of Bison fans and doesn't care about the U.

 

[dpodoll68]

Now now, calm down. You don't want to have a heart attack.

I don't know what has given you the idea that I:

1) Have low aspirations
2) Sit at a desk all day
3) Eat doughnuts
4) Have heart trouble

Now, kindly go play a game of hide and go fist yourself.

 

[Ole]

Ole, nobody here has said that kids would turn down a Gophers scholarship to play for NDSU. Nobody has said it. My only comment was that kids from the town in western Minnesota where I moved six months ago aspire to play for the Bison. The Gophers aren't on their radar.

I feel like lying down on the train tracks outside my office. Where have all the brain cells gone?

Eastern Minnesota?

Seriously though, I'm saying it's irrelevant because the bison don't play at the same level the Gophers do, that divide is only going to grow now that FCS scheduling is off the table.
You say you don't know any gopher fans in you part of the state, well that's simply not true from several other posters' comments.
Local kids may follow a school because a former classmate plays there, but that is likely a short lived phenomenon. You see that type of thing all the time especially small towns.
One HS kid walks on to play for the gophers and the whole town will swing to maroon and gold.

 

[Gopherprof]

You're getting ripped because you just claimed that all of NW Minnesota is full of Bison fans and doesn't care about the U.

Actually he didn't really say that. He said kids in NW Minnesota grow up aspiring to play for NDSU. Given the absolute paucity of offers that ever go out to that region of the state from the U, I don't find that to be such a terribly unbelievable statement.

I knew a lot of kids from my hometown that grew up wanting to get a job for the railroad. This wasn't the best job they could possibly imagine, but it was the one that most of them knew they could realistically hope for.

 

[John Galt]

This is the only part of your post worthy of comment.

I've lived up here from '97 to '00 and again from '03 till now. I watch the local news, I read the local paper, and I socialize with the locals. Tell me not to believe my own eyes, I don't care. People up here, including Minnesotans within about 50 miles of the North Dakota border, couldn't care less about the U of M. They follow the Bison like Bostonians follow the Red Sox. For them it's about three things: first, proximity - they're far closer to NDSU than to the U. Second, recent success - they've seen NDSU win conference titles, national titles, and bragging rights against Minnesota. Third, their friends, families, and neighbors attended NDSU and not Minnesota.

I think I'll believe my eyes.

GopherProf, he added this nugget later on. I don't doubt that some kids in the area aspire to play for NDSU anymore than kids in Grand Marais aspire to play for UMD. For most kids, even playing division 2 football is a great accomplishment.

 

[everybody knows my name]

Eastern Minnesota?
You say you don't know any gopher fans in you part of the state, well that's simply not true from several other posters' comments.

Wrong again, friend. I never said that either. Speaking in general terms, I did say that people don't give a crap about the Gophers up here, but of course that isn't 100% true, because I'm up here and I care. But it's true enough.

 

[Fuzzy Rumpton]

 

[Ole]

Wrong again, friend. I never said that either. Speaking in general terms, I did say that people don't give a crap about the Gophers up here, but of course that isn't 100% true, because I'm up here and I care. But it's true enough.

potato = po ta'to

Whatever, like I said, if one kid from your town ends up playing for the gophers the place will be decked out in maroon and gold for about 5 years.
That doesn't mean the whole NW part of the state bleeds bison piss yellow.

 

[RodentRampage]

You're getting ripped because you just claimed that all of NW Minnesota is full of Bison fans and doesn't care about the U.

I get up to NW Minnesota fairly often, and I see little NDSU apparel. I was at a small town carnival, and I counted about a dozen University of Minnesota t-shirts (they were Maroon and Gold, not the Maroon and Silver of UM-Crookston), one Bemidji State shirt, 3 UND shirts, and one NDSU shirt.

 

[Maximus]

TCU isn't a border state. TCU fans won't let us it for an entire year. TCU is a BCS opponent....not a risk

Kinda contradicts your sig about toughness. Oh no, we'll hear about it.

You can't teach toughness, you recruit it.

(Sorry for the snark...the sig just caught my eye.)

 

[JoeDirt]

ndsu sucks and so does the conversation every time they're brought up on this board. I'm so glad we won't play them anymore just to avoid these sorts of mind-numbing, dumba$$ threads.

 

[everybody knows my name]

ndsu sucks and so does the conversation every time they're brought up on this board. I'm so glad we won't play them anymore just to avoid these sorts of mind-numbing, dumba$$ threads.

I have to agree with that. I'm sorry I let myself get sucked into it. Thing is, if you lived next door to hell you'd want to talk about it too.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Actually he didn't really say that. He said kids in NW Minnesota grow up aspiring to play for NDSU. Given the absolute paucity of offers that ever go out to that region of the state from the U, I don't find that to be such a terribly unbelievable statement.

I knew a lot of kids from my hometown that grew up wanting to get a job for the railroad. This wasn't the best job they could possibly imagine, but it was the one that most of them knew they could realistically hope for.

I agree with your take. However, most little kids shoot for the moon with their aspirations. You hear astronaut, pro athlete, etc.

As to your point about the railroad. . .I have no doubts. However, I think Dpo's point stands that those kids should have higher aspirations. There is no shame in working for the railroad, but I think it's kind of sad that is where someone's dreams (as a kid) would take them.


As to the kids growing up wanting to play D3 sports. . .it's entirely plausible but I think that's more of a rural thing. I don't remember anyone wanting to play anything but D1/FBS football. I've never heard someone (young) aspiring to play at St. Johns/St. Thomas or anything short of big time college football. Most of us who played HS football had chances of playing D3 football. I was a decent player (not more) in HS and I could have played football at St. Johns/St. Thomas and a couple other MIAC but growing up I thought of it as a touch more than intramural. Again, I'm not ripping on D3 football, but I think the phenomenon is a rural thing to have aspirations of playing D3 or even at NDSU.