Reusse: Wise Boomer willing to share Gophers perspective with curious youth

[BleedGopher]

per Pat:

There were some contrary responses to a couple of extremely clever Tweets offered by me coming out of the Gophers’ 23-19 loss to Iowa on Saturday. This included a Gophers fan stating that Phil Fleck already has proven himself to be the finest University of Minnesota football coach in the 115 seasons dating to 1905.

This theory was based on the 2019 team becoming the first collection of Gophers to start a season at 9-0 since 1904.

Coach Henry L. Williams (as in Williams Arena) coached those Gophers to 13 straight victories, in order: Central High School, South Dakota, Shattuck, Carleton, St. Thomas, North Dakota, Iowa State, Grinnell, Nebraska, Lawrence, Wisconsin, Northwestern and Iowa.

Those last three were Western Conference games, allowing the Gophers to claim the title at 3-0. And, while the earlier portion of the 1904 schedule was very similar to that played by the 2019 Gophers prior to the Penn State visit, I’m required to offer some perspective to downplay the claim that it had been 115 years since our beloved rodents had matched the excellence provided by the 9-0 start from Fleck’s lads.

For instance: Following the 10-1 record in 1905, the Gophers played from 5-to-7 games per season from 1906 to 1917. They played eight games in 1918, then returned to seven games from 1919 to 1923.

Wise Boomer willing to share Gophers perspective with curious youth

There are a couple of notations required in the Gophers' best start (9-0) since 1904 narrative -- including Bernie Bierman's four national champions that only played eight games.

www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[bonin21]

Ok boomer

 

[Doc1001]

Debbie Downer

 

[Hotdish]

Oh you, Patrick! Belittling the monumental success of this season by comparing it to the standards of 1904. You showed us!

 

[WriterGoph]

Honestly, I cannot believe this dude is actually getting paid to write columns or blogs about how he is trolling people on Twitter and jocking himself for how much he got under their skin. This is content not even fit for a British tabloid. Patrick makes HIMSELF the story wayyy too much.

 

[Taji34]

Ok Boomer

 

[GoldenRodents]

cantankerous old fart

 

[short ornery norwegian]

at the same time, he does have a point. I see fans and writers talking about "first 9-0 start in X # of years" without putting that in context. Some of the best teams in Gopher history did not start 9-0 because they only played 8 games....and won National Championships.

does anyone really believe that this year's Gopher team is equivalent to the teams of the 30's and 40's that won National Titles? I sure don't.

Yes, the Gophers are having a very good year. There is no need to try and make it out to be something else. that is the point of the column.

 

[WHB Brewer]

at the same time, he does have a point. I see fans and writers talking about "first 9-0 start in X # of years" without putting that in context. Some of the best teams in Gopher history did not start 9-0 because they only played 8 games....and won National Championships.

does anyone really believe that this year's Gopher team is equivalent to the teams of the 30's and 40's that won National Titles? I sure don't.

Yes, the Gophers are having a very good year. There is no need to try and make it out to be something else. that is the point of the column.

Exactly.

Patrick is just as thrilled as most on this board that the Gophers may be on the upswing and are starting to gather attention. He just may not have the same unbridled enthusiasm as many who post on this board looking ahead to B10 title games, Rose Bowl and or CFP.


Plus his "boomerism" doesn't fit well with PJ's personality, along with many others on this board.

 

[Golden_Sloth]

Ok boomer

 

[GophersInIowa]

at the same time, he does have a point. I see fans and writers talking about "first 9-0 start in X # of years" without putting that in context. Some of the best teams in Gopher history did not start 9-0 because they only played 8 games....and won National Championships.

does anyone really believe that this year's Gopher team is equivalent to the teams of the 30's and 40's that won National Titles? I sure don't.

Yes, the Gophers are having a very good year. There is no need to try and make it out to be something else. that is the point of the column.

Probably because saying "first 9-0 start since 1904" is a lot easier than "first 9-0 start since 1904, however between 1906 and 1941 they played less than 9 games".