On this day in Gopher football history…



Where my psyche was after that game as a long-time Gopher fan and alum: this quote from Hal Holbrook’s character, Lou Mannheim, from the movie Wall Street, rattled around in my head . . . .

“Just remember something. Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss.”

Guess we all had to hit our fandom bottom, and that was it. Couldn’t imagine at that point that things could - or would - be so much better in less than 10 years.
 

Where my psyche was after that game as a long-time Gopher fan and alum: this quote from Hal Holbrook’s character, Lou Mannheim, from the movie Wall Street, rattled around in my head . . . .

“Just remember something. Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss.”

Guess we all had to hit our fandom bottom, and that was it. Couldn’t imagine at that point that things could - or would - be so much better in less than 10 years.
2010 was probably my low point too.
  • That game: This wasn't even NDSU or SDSU. This was the 'Yotes.
  • Getting absolutely whipped by Jerry Kill's NIU team: I will confess that I was one of the last aboard the Fire Brew train as I'm not a fire the coach by nature guy, but this was the moment that I felt it was time for a change.
  • OSU game: For me, this was the low point. Not that OSU completely killed the Gophers, but there was like 8,000 people in the stadium at the end of the game (I'm ashamed to admit that I was one of them). It seemed like there was absolutely no hope.
I will admit that the last two weeks of Jeff Horton with the ILL & IA wins kind of at least raise that low floor feeling a tad. Felt good for Weber & a few others that had stuck through it all, gave their heart for the program, and could go out with at least a happy feeling.
 

That has to be the worst Gophers game I've ever seen.

It was one thing to lose to NDSU in 2007. Brewster's first year as head coach, new system, culture change, roster adjustments. Not that it makes it any easier to see, but those factors were there, plus, NDSU finished that season 10-1.

In 2010, it's a different situation. It's Brewster's fourth year. At that point, he's had four years to recruit the players he wants and build a team with plenty of upper class-men, the team should have an identity and culture in place, there's a senior quarterback on the roster, and this game is a home opener after a win on the road.

The result? A South Dakota team that finished 4-7 shredding the Minnesota defense like it had a Big 12 offense. Their quarterback threw for 352 yards, their running back rushed for 156, against a Big Ten defense.

  • Getting absolutely whipped by Jerry Kill's NIU team: I will confess that I was one of the last aboard the Fire Brew train as I'm not a fire the coach by nature guy, but this was the moment that I felt it was time for a change.
Yeah, that was rough, too. Northern Illinois looked like the Big Ten team that night the way they were running the ball.
 


2010 was probably my low point too.
  • That game: This wasn't even NDSU or SDSU. This was the 'Yotes.
  • Getting absolutely whipped by Jerry Kill's NIU team: I will confess that I was one of the last aboard the Fire Brew train as I'm not a fire the coach by nature guy, but this was the moment that I felt it was time for a change.
  • OSU game: For me, this was the low point. Not that OSU completely killed the Gophers, but there was like 8,000 people in the stadium at the end of the game (I'm ashamed to admit that I was one of them). It seemed like there was absolutely no hope.
I will admit that the last two weeks of Jeff Horton with the ILL & IA wins kind of at least raise that low floor feeling a tad. Felt good for Weber & a few others that had stuck through it all, gave their heart for the program, and could go out with at least a happy feeling.

I'm not a "fire the coach" guy either, even though I wasn't thrilled with this hire, but my biggest issue with Brewster was his teams never had an identity. You had no more clue about the goal identity of the program in is 4th year as the 1st year. He was all over the place. That could have been the lack of head coaching experience.
 

I thought he had something with Ted Roof.....and I did like Jeff Horton and if that was given more time, I think could have been OK. But yeah, just too much turnover.
 

Tim was not a very good HC, but otherwise I had no problem with him and his enthusiasm.
 

Worst Gopher game I ever saw. Never saw a worse mess of defensive assignment breakdowns.

3 or 4 of the South Dakota touchdowns could have been scored by any okay junior high player.
 



My alma mater beating the team I grew up rooting for and still is my number one today. That was a bad USD team, as an aside. They were great in the 80’s and had moments when Caruso was their O coordinator and when Streveler was there, otherwise it’s been a struggle hard to recruit D1 kids to Vermillion.

The 10 Yotes that I hosted that weekend and went to the game with were thrilled.
 

Worst Gopher game I ever saw. Never saw a worse mess of defensive assignment breakdowns.

3 or 4 of the South Dakota touchdowns could have been scored by any okay junior high player.
Weren't they getting tons of pressure on Weber only rushing 3 guys? It was embarrassing.
 




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