Off-Tackle Empire's BIG 2012: Minnesota Cocktail Party Preview

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CrocShots

CrocShots

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They do this for every team, starting with Indiana last week. They have a post every day to preview various aspects of the team. OTE is a great blog to follow because it's both very informative and funny. It compiles writers from the various B1G sites if you like to read up on the rest of the conference.

Here is the kickoff article for the Gopher's preview: http://www.offtackleempire.com/2012...esota-gophers-football-cocktail-party-preview



Side note: EDSBS's NFL draft preview compares The Arizona Cardinals to us: http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2012/4/9/2934584/college-fans-guide-to-the-nfl-draft

Arizona Cardinals: Cool new stadium overshadowed by the fact that we're not sure anyone actually cares about this team. Most like: University of Minnesota.
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N/M - missed the "border" part of statement.
 

Hmmmmmmmm sounds like bulletin board challenge material.
 

Sorry! I was reading about Urban and posted the wrong one here.
 



From Part 1, Kicking game: "The bad news is...

Honestly, there isn't too much bad news at this point. The leading Kick Returner in the B1G is back, the punter is back, the kicker is back... this is actually an area of the team that has some good experience returning."

Did he WATCH our kicking game last year??? Our Punter was extremely inconsistent, our starting Kicker was extremely inconsistent, then got hurt. I wouldn't call either position a position of strength...
 

Lakeville Goldy said:
From Part 1, Kicking game: "The bad news is...

Honestly, there isn't too much bad news at this point. The leading Kick Returner in the B1G is back, the punter is back, the kicker is back... this is actually an area of the team that has some good experience returning."

Did he WATCH our kicking game last year??? Our Punter was extremely inconsistent, our starting Kicker was extremely inconsistent, then got hurt. I wouldn't call either position a position of strength...
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2 things. He doesn't specifically say "the Kicking game" he says special teams. Secondly, this post is for someone to learn really general stuff to talk about if you are not a fan of that team and need to talk about the team in a social environment for some reason. When talking socially, most people don't even mention kicking when they talk about special teams, they talk about the flashy returns.
 


zambam said:
2 things. He doesn't specifically say "the Kicking game" he says special teams. Secondly, this post is for someone to learn really general stuff to talk about if you are not a fan of that team and need to talk about the team in a social environment for some reason. When talking socially, most people don't even mention kicking when they talk about special teams, they talk about the flashy returns.
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The way I look at the article, it is written so you can convince someone you are reasonably knowledgeable regarding Gopher Football. Not an expert, but knowledgeable enough to appear that you follow the team. If someone said to me that there really isn't any bad news regarding our Special Teams, I'd know instantly they didn't really follow the team, they were just trying to talk smart, like someone who uses headlines they've read as an argument without understanding the underlying situations. There are a lot of question marks on this team, but punting and field goal kicking are amongst the big ones.
 



Lakeville Goldy said:
There are a lot of question marks on this team, but punting and field goal kicking are amongst the big ones.
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He made an oversight in punting for sure. But we were fine with FG's last year once Wettstein took over. He was 6-6, inc 3-3 from 20-29, 2-2 from 40-49, and 1-1 from 50 plus (long of 51) and is likely the returning starter. The only way you can look at the kicking game and be concerned is if you think too much about the USC/NMSU games. And those were Hawthorne not Wettstein. Hawthorne also settled down a lot after the USC game(1-3) and NMSU (0-1) by going 5-5 in the Miami, NDSU, and Purdue games before getting injured. In other words, from game 3 onward our kickers were 11-11. That's not a big question mark. Is it a position of extreme strength? I'd say no b/c the same size for both kickers is still small. But it's not something to be worried about.
 


"arguably Minnesota's biggest rival, Iowa"

People actually think someone other than Becky is the Gophers biggest rival? I had no idea.
 

zambam said:
"arguably Minnesota's biggest rival, Iowa"

People actually think someone other than Becky is the Gophers biggest rival? I had no idea.
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Travel back to the 80s and it would feel like it was Iowa. Alvarez changed everything. We have been awful against Wisconsin since and it digs at us mighty fierce.
 



GoAUpher said:
He made an oversight in punting for sure. But we were fine with FG's last year once Wettstein took over. He was 6-6, inc 3-3 from 20-29, 2-2 from 40-49, and 1-1 from 50 plus (long of 51) and is likely the returning starter. The only way you can look at the kicking game and be concerned is if you think too much about the USC/NMSU games. And those were Hawthorne not Wettstein. Hawthorne also settled down a lot after the USC game(1-3) and NMSU (0-1) by going 5-5 in the Miami, NDSU, and Purdue games before getting injured. In other words, from game 3 onward our kickers were 11-11. That's not a big question mark. Is it a position of extreme strength? I'd say no b/c the same size for both kickers is still small. But it's not something to be worried about.
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Even if you look at the entire season, we were 12 of 15 in field goals last year which is pretty darn good.
 


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