Sid says facilities should really boost Gophers’ ability to recruit elite athletes

Donate To GopherHole
BleedGopher

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
62,461
Reaction score
19,346
Points
113
per Sid:

Friday is a historic day for the University of Minnesota, as the Board of Regents will vote to approve an athletics facilities plan that would greatly improve the Gophers athletic department.

This should really boost the Gophers’ ability to recruit elite athletes, retain top-tier coaches and most of all produce winning teams, something they have not been able to do on a consistent basis.

The big question is if these facilities, budgeted for $166 million, will be able to create a winning culture for Gophers football and men’s basketball, something that has mostly eluded the university over the past 50 years.

There is simply no reason why this university can’t succeed and win Big Ten championships in football and men’s basketball. Minnesota is one of five states that features only one Division I athletics program. The others are Hawaii, Maine, Vermont and Wyoming. The combined population of those four states is still smaller than Minnesota’s population.

There has to be no other state in the country that is better suited to attract local talent to its top college program, but the Gophers have struggled to win despite what should be such a gigantic advantage in recruiting. Consider the number of Fortune 500 companies here — that alone should attract good athletes, because after competing in their respective sports there’s a better possibility for solid future employment.

http://www.startribune.com/facilities-will-provide-push-u-athletics-need/331495231/

Go Gophers!!
 


BleedGopher said:
per Sid:

Friday is a historic day for the University of Minnesota, as the Board of Regents will vote to approve an athletics facilities plan that would greatly improve the Gophers athletic department.

This should really boost the Gophers’ ability to recruit elite athletes, retain top-tier coaches and most of all produce winning teams, something they have not been able to do on a consistent basis.

The big question is if these facilities, budgeted for $166 million, will be able to create a winning culture for Gophers football and men’s basketball, something that has mostly eluded the university over the past 50 years.

There is simply no reason why this university can’t succeed and win Big Ten championships in football and men’s basketball. Minnesota is one of five states that features only one Division I athletics program. The others are Hawaii, Maine, Vermont and Wyoming. The combined population of those four states is still smaller than Minnesota’s population.

There has to be no other state in the country that is better suited to attract local talent to its top college program, but the Gophers have struggled to win despite what should be such a gigantic advantage in recruiting. Consider the number of Fortune 500 companies here — that alone should attract good athletes, because after competing in their respective sports there’s a better possibility for solid future employment.

http://www.startribune.com/facilities-will-provide-push-u-athletics-need/331495231/

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Huh?
 


Gopherdrummer said:
I think he is referring to the promise of brand new facilities. Maybe?
Click to expand...

No, Sid is saying that having so many Fortune 500 companies in town is the big advantage that apparently we're not taking advantage of. Apparently Sid thinks that 4-star recruits have visions of a career at SuperValu and 3M, enough so that it will sway their decision.

Go Gophers!!
 


Who wouldn't want to get into the sandpaper industry?
 


There will ALWAYS be something that's deemed missing at Minnesota in order to attract top recruits at all positions to Minnesota. This has been going on forever, long before athletic facilities became vogue. IMHO, if folks think that this is going to get us near the top of the division in football, they're going to be disappointed. I'm certainly glad we'll have the new facility, but not expecting a huge upgrade in talent as a result. A question I'd like answered is why do teams like N. Illinois, Ohio University and other non-Power 5 teams have better linemen and receivers than Minnesota? Outside of our D-Backs, Cobb and Maxx, we're not adequately identifying or developing enough talent.
 

BleedGopher said:
per Sid:


There is simply no reason why this university can’t succeed and win Big Ten championships in football and men’s basketball. Minnesota is one of five states that features only one Division I athletics program. The others are Hawaii, Maine, Vermont and Wyoming. The combined population of those four states is still smaller than Minnesota’s population.

There has to be no other state in the country that is better suited to attract local talent to its top college program, but the Gophers have struggled to win despite what should be such a gigantic advantage in recruiting. Consider the number of Fortune 500 companies here — that alone should attract good athletes, because after competing in their respective sports there’s a better possibility for solid future employment.

http://www.startribune.com/facilities-will-provide-push-u-athletics-need/331495231/

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Sid's comments in general and especially those about local talent apply far more to basketball then they do to football. There simply isn't enough local talent in Minnesota to build a championship caliber team in football without getting significant help from outside the state.

The facility upgrades were way overdue for the department and will certainly help, the problem with the facilities arms race is that by the time ours open in 2018 many of our competitors will also have made improvements or have them in the works. So we will always be fighting that battle but at least we won't be stuck in the stone ages with our facilities as we have been for quite some time now.

Sid loves the whole fortune 500 angle, but I wonder how much that really registers with most recruits or their families. Elite athletes are really only focused on going pro once they are done even if the reality is that a high percentage of them won't make it.
 



This will help us compete. I am not worried about elite athletes. If they don't change things in football which they seem to do every other year we will be about to compete with Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin. This is more important than recruiting the elite athlete. We should be able to be in the upper half of the Big Ten.

Go Gophers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

now would be good timing to dust off the clippings of Sid gushing over the prospects of the Metrodome and how it would attract the top southern high school football players to its climate controlled football wonderland.
 

Oh, Sidney, Sidney, Sidney...remember in the 1980s how you said the Dome would be such a huge advantage in recruiting? Don't you ever get tired of being wrong so often?
 

Gopher in Dixie said:
Oh, Sidney, Sidney, Sidney...remember in the 1980s how you said the Dome would be such a huge advantage in recruiting? Don't you ever get tired of being wrong so often?
Click to expand...

Not wrong this time! He was due for a correct statement.
 



Fancy shiny new facility's are nice and all and having prospects for employment are a good thing. Bells and whistles do catch people's eye's more than a beat up indoor facility or gym that smells like B.O. and has pieces of the roof falling in.

That said the two things top recruits and football and basketball players care about most, do you have a coaching staff that can prepare them to be a pro football or basketball player, because even the marginal players believe they are destined to be a professional player.
That and the party atmosphere with good looking women, that is pretty much what testosterone loaded males that can run fast, dunk a ball or tackle someone care about. Chasing tail and where can I get my free drinks. Not unlike a lot of college students, who start off thinking the good life will last a long time.
Those same guys that can barely find the energy to go to class care about play-station and accommodations and access to partying that is what they care about. The rare one's that have parents that understand that getting your degree matters, that can still play are the one's we need to find because were never going to be Madison, Lincoln or Iowa City, Ann Arbor, or any of those other college towns.
 

BleedGopher said:
per Sid:

Friday is a historic day for the University of Minnesota, as the Board of Regents will vote to approve an athletics facilities plan that would greatly improve the Gophers athletic department.

This should really boost the Gophers’ ability to recruit elite athletes, retain top-tier coaches and most of all produce winning teams, something they have not been able to do on a consistent basis.

The big question is if these facilities, budgeted for $166 million, will be able to create a winning culture for Gophers football and men’s basketball, something that has mostly eluded the university over the past 50 years.

There is simply no reason why this university can’t succeed and win Big Ten championships in football and men’s basketball. Minnesota is one of five states that features only one Division I athletics program. The others are Hawaii, Maine, Vermont and Wyoming. The combined population of those four states is still smaller than Minnesota’s population.

There has to be no other state in the country that is better suited to attract local talent to its top college program, but the Gophers have struggled to win despite what should be such a gigantic advantage in recruiting. Consider the number of Fortune 500 companies here — that alone should attract good athletes, because after competing in their respective sports there’s a better possibility for solid future employment.

http://www.startribune.com/facilities-will-provide-push-u-athletics-need/331495231/

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Uh......what? Other than a few of the smaller eastern states and the northern states to the west........Minnesota has a lack of high school football talent when compared to some of the southern states. I don't see how that is a gigantic advantage...........
 

BleedGopher said:
per Sid:

Minnesota is one of five states that features only one Division I athletics program. The others are Hawaii, Maine, Vermont and Wyoming. The combined population of those four states is still smaller than Minnesota’s population.!
Click to expand...

Someone showed Sid how to use the Googler machine!!
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom