Not a good month for the football team

Donate To GopherHole
Gold Rush

Gold Rush

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
1,875
Reaction score
1,219
Points
113
Brewster gets an E for effort and I do appreciate it - but the fact is our last commitment was on Dec. 21st over a month ago. There were a lot of close calls and we finished with a lot of seconds and thirds, but we just could not land anyone at all. That's kind of tough to take and a lot of rejections. For some reason I think Brewster found it a little tougher this January compared to last, even with the pending new stadium and a much better record and I am not sure why.
Maybe someone on here can shed some light on it.

Also, Roof leaving as DC and his replacement choice of Cosgrove was met by a wave of ridicule, especially by Nebraska fans who saw their defense get shredded when he was there. I will give him a fair chance, but he has a lot to prove if you ask me. If Brewster gets fired in 2-3 years, this might be one of the decisions that really comes back to bite him.

The offensive coordinator Dunbar also was replaced, and that might be a bright spot when all is said and done. He just did not get it done here, much the same as Withers didn't get it done here either. I think just about anyone would be an improvement, much the same as our defense this year compared to last.

Maybe the most discouraging news though was the defection of Brock -- we really need him and he was one of our best defensive players. Maybe we can still get him back.

All in all though - a very discouraging January for the football team and with recruiting in full swing that's a bad time to have a bad month. We could really use some good news around here in the worst way!!
 

Gold Rush said:
Maybe the most discouraging news though was the defection of Brock -- we really need him and he was one of our best defensive players. Maybe we can still get him back.
Click to expand...

When you say he "defected" do you mean he is with another team now?! Did I miss some news?
 

Gold Rush said:
For some reason I think Brewster found it a little tougher this January compared to last, even with the pending new stadium and a much better record and I am not sure why.

Maybe someone on here can shed some light on it.
Click to expand...

I don't want to blame it on one thing but I think you answered your own questioning by jumping to the departure of the DC/OC right after asking what may have been different. The OC was a big distraction because he had "his kill shot" committed to coming and then he backed out at the last minute. That sent Brewster on a two week search that cut in to recruiting.

The DC hiring was done quickly so that didn't seem to distract him too much.

Also, in fairness to the staff, they were successful in getting one commitment over that time period. It doesn't show up on the signing list but they got a commitment from Taikwon Paige. Unfortunately he had problems gaining admission and the Gophers had to pull his offer so it ends up as a failure even though the staff was successful in their recruiting efforts.

Aside from that they were aiming a little higher. You're going to win a lower percentage of those battles but coming away at 0% hurts.
 

actually we did pick up 2 verbals, they just aren't for this years class.
 



Gold Rush said:
Brewster gets an E for effort and I do appreciate it - but the fact is our last commitment was on Dec. 21st over a month ago. There were a lot of close calls and we finished with a lot of seconds and thirds, but we just could not land anyone at all. That's kind of tough to take and a lot of rejections. For some reason I think Brewster found it a little tougher this January compared to last, even with the pending new stadium and a much better record and I am not sure why.
Maybe someone on here can shed some light on it.

Also, Roof leaving as DC and his replacement choice of Cosgrove was met by a wave of ridicule, especially by Nebraska fans who saw their defense get shredded when he was there. I will give him a fair chance, but he has a lot to prove if you ask me. If Brewster gets fired in 2-3 years, this might be one of the decisions that really comes back to bite him.

The offensive coordinator Dunbar also was replaced, and that might be a bright spot when all is said and done. He just did not get it done here, much the same as Withers didn't get it done here either. I think just about anyone would be an improvement, much the same as our defense this year compared to last.

Maybe the most discouraging news though was the defection of Brock -- we really need him and he was one of our best defensive players. Maybe we can still get him back.

All in all though - a very discouraging January for the football team and with recruiting in full swing that's a bad time to have a bad month. We could really use some good news around here in the worst way!!
Click to expand...

I'm not as down as I once was. I think there are some major victories in this class- such as Rashede Hageman and esp. Bryant Allen. We also didn't lose a single legit recruit to Wisconsin. I never cared about McNeal so I didn't care where he went.

The biggest recruiting loss for me was Lewan. That one still is bugging the sh*t out of me.
 

This program has not had a positive thing happen since a Northwestern defender rolled up on Eric Decker's ankle. It's been bad after bad after bad after bad since this.
 

gopher7 said:
This program has not had a positive thing happen since a Northwestern defender rolled up on Eric Decker's ankle. It's been bad after bad after bad after bad since this.
Click to expand...

Not much has been good since then, but instead of remaining status quo we have made changes, new OC, also hired Davis...Lets forget about 2008 and move on to winning at least 8 in 2009.
 

gopher7 said:
This program has not had a positive thing happen since a Northwestern defender rolled up on Eric Decker's ankle. It's been bad after bad after bad after bad since this.
Click to expand...
Did that happen before, or after Monroe shanked a chip-shot field goal?
 



PlayHosea said:
Did that happen before, or after Monroe shanked a chip-shot field goal?
Click to expand...
If memory serves me correctly, Decker got a 1st down on about the 8 yard line when he got injured, He went out, we were unable to get the end zone, and then Monroe shanked about a 20 yarder.
 

gopher7 said:
If memory serves me correctly, Decker got a 1st down on about the 8 yard line when he got injured, He went out, we were unable to get the end zone, and then Monroe shanked about a 20 yarder.
Click to expand...

Wow. I remember that all to well. That was the begining of the end of the 2008 season. Hopefully '09 brings us back better.
 

Decker

If my memory serves me right Decker lost the Northwestern game by letting a completely catchable ball doink off of his hands and right into the hands of the Northwestern defender for the Touchdown. Thanks Decker. I turned to the guy next to me and said we would not win another game because the wheels just fell off the bus.
 

lawrence21 said:
If my memory serves me right Decker lost the Northwestern game by letting a completely catchable ball doink off of his hands and right into the hands of the Northwestern defender for the Touchdown. Thanks Decker. I turned to the guy next to me and said we would not win another game because the wheels just fell off the bus.
Click to expand...

You're right, one play lost the game and the season for us. Nothing else in that game affected the outcome.:rolleyes:
 



I think you guys pretty much pinpointed the exact second the downturn happened.
Oh well, I guess we should just be happy with the guys we got. Hopefully all verbals will sign next Wednesday -- we need every one of them!!
 

It seems like things are going poorly only from the perspective of Masonites(I supported coach Mason as OUR coach and Now I do the same for Coach Brewster) and Hawkeye and Badger flamers. We locked up many of our high priority targets so early it has allowed the coaching staff to pursue some long shots. They may not pan out but they are just the frosting on an already very good recruiting cake. We have seriously upgraded the talent on this football team. I am very happy with the changes we have made to the staff and I also like our group of recruits very much. Nothing tangible about Michigan makes them Michigan it is an idea, an attitude a swagger. As long as we as a fan base keep whining and complaining the old woe is me we will never get the swagger we need to elevate the perception of this program.
 


"Nothing tangible about Michigan makes them Michigan...." is not a statement that is either accurate or positive. Any efforts to improve our program must be based on reality, not just bravado.
 

manage expectations

1. 0 student/athlete arrests
2. plenty of kids committed to playing 09 at the U
3. Old coaches left and new coaches hired
4. student athletes got good grades.


all good.
 

Michigan gets kids based on reputation and swagger (lewan) not their performance on the field. By all accountes Goldy74 you are going to find some negative about the Gophers no matter what and that is part of the problem. Fans(if you really are a gopher fan) should emphasize the positive not point out every negative thng that happens.
 

bailee88 said:
Michigan gets kids based on reputation and swagger (lewan) not their performance on the field. By all accountes Goldy74 you are going to find some negative about the Gophers no matter what and that is part of the problem. Fans(if you really are a gopher fan) should emphasize the positive not point out every negative thng that happens.
Click to expand...

There are many tangible things Michigan has that we do not have and I do not see what could possibly be useful about ignoring reality when trying to improve our program. It is, for example, hard to ignore 110,000 fans sitting in their stadium when recruiting is partially based on what the recruits see with their own eyes. TCF will help if we, not Badger fans, fill that stadium every game. That is, or would be, a reality based improvement.
 

lawrence21 said:
If my memory serves me right Decker lost the Northwestern game by letting a completely catchable ball doink off of his hands and right into the hands of the Northwestern defender for the Touchdown. Thanks Decker.
Click to expand...

Idiotic. Nothing to do with a mismanaged final drive. Nothing to do with a kicker missing a 20 yard field goal in the fourth quarter. Nothing to do with a defense giving up 217 rushing yards to a back up quarterback.

You sure know a lot about college football.
 

Maybe we should drop football. I don't know how we can recover from being ridiculed by Nebraska fans.
 

Bo Darville said:
Maybe we should drop football. I don't know how we can recover from being ridiculed by Nebraska fans.
Click to expand...

Minnesota record vs. Nebraska. 29-20-2

Yes, they beat the crap out of us in one game but we still lead the series by a large margin.
 

grunkiejr said:
Minnesota record vs. Nebraska. 29-20-2

Yes, they beat the crap out of us in one game but we still lead the series by a large margin.
Click to expand...


True but we lost the last 14 to them and the last time we beat them was in 1960 and there have been plenty of bad losses in that time, not just the most famous one.

http://ericthrall.com/gophers/football/nebraska.html

I hope we can follow the success of Nebraska's walk-on program however. I see they took 30 walk on last year and are taking another 15 this year, I am curious how many walk ons do the gophers have right now?
 

You are laboring under the assumption that we have no silent verbals or any people switching commits at the last second. (See Keanon Cooper last season). I would wager that Brew will have this class filled out with quality players and we will see a flurry in the last few days of this recruiting season.
 

After reading some of these posts, I was thinking about what was really the most disappointing moment of the 2008 season and for me it was the Michigan game. We tend to remind ourselves about Mason's 2003 game in which the Gopher blew the big lead, but that was still a Michigan team that won the Big Ten and went to the Rose Bowl. In fact, I think it was their last Big Ten championship. Certainly a frustrating game and a disappointing moment, I won't disagree with that for a second.

But, to me the 2008 loss was more disappointing because we lost to a Michigan team that only won THREE games. If ever there was a year that the Little Brown Jug should be sitting in our trophy case, this was it. How many years is Michigan going to only win three games?

Thoughts...
 

maximus

Check out the replay, the ball was misplayed by Decker and because of that it got picked off and we lost. Under your logic Kucek dropping the punt against Wisconsin had nothing to do with the Wisconsin choke, It was Maroney's fault. If you don't think 1 play can affect the outcome of a game, you are the one who does not understand athletics. 1 fumble, 1 dropped pass, 1 failed 3rd down conversion is the difference between winning and losing.
 


lawrence21 said:
If you don't think 1 play can affect the outcome of a game, you are the one who does not understand athletics. 1 fumble, 1 dropped pass, 1 failed 3rd down conversion is the difference between winning and losing.
Click to expand...

Hmm...one fumble, one dropped pass, one failed conversion....aren't those three plays?
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom