STrib: Stay patient with Gophers' Kill

Donate To GopherHole
BleedGopher

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
61,974
Reaction score
18,168
Points
113
per Sid:

Listen, Jerry Kill inherited a tough situation when he took over the Gophers football program. While a lot of people criticized former coach Tim Brewster, and he had his issues, Brewster had a hard time getting kids into school, and that was one of the reasons he didn’t win much.

It’s not easy to get the average kid into school at Minnesota, and when they cut out the General College at the university in 2005, it was a big blow of the ability of all major coaches at the university – football and basketball especially – to recruit kids who didn’t have strong academic record in high school. General College helped those students get started at the university.

Jerry Kill needs more time to recruit good players to put Minnesota in a position with Iowa and Wisconsin, similar programs.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/blogs/280539582.html

Go Gophers!!
 

When Sid says these things is drives the other journalists in the market CRAZY. But he is correct.
That said, there are other B1G schools that face similar challenges.

He neglects to Finnish the story, however.. The only SEC schools with any admission standards whatsoever is Vandy. And that's the REAL story behind the SEC's gradual ascension.
 

Goldmember said:
When Sid says these things is drives the other journalists in the market CRAZY. But he is correct.
That said, there are other B1G schools that face similar challenges.

He neglects to Finnish the story, however.. The only SEC schools with any admission standards whatsoever is Vandy. And that's the REAL story behind the SEC's gradual ascension.
Click to expand...

In addition to Vandy, A&M also has very high standards. What you fail to mention is that he also neglected the Swedes and Norwegians.
 


Sid (or his ghost writer) frames this all wrong. The question isn't whether or not Kill deserves patience from the fans or not (he most certainly does, given the progress he's made in 3.5 years). Given where Brewster left the program, only an idiot thinks its reasonable to demand perfection or even get worked up over the anomalous disappointing loss.

The real question is what are your expections of Kill here at the U. We've damn near returned to Mason-levels, that got us to 'respectable mid-pack Big Ten squad'. Some how get to 5-3 in conference this year, and we've essentially matched Mason's greatest accomplishment at the U (single season anyways). Are your expectations on Kill the same that they were when he was hired? Or have you recalibrated? Remember there were folks who basically pined for the Mason years after Brewster's tenure, and were ready to settle for that level of mediocrity again.

Now that we've seen the growth of the program under Kill, do you believe that's where we are headed again (Mason mediocrity)? Or are you really upset with the loss to the Illini, because you are starting to believe that Kill can take us beyond Mason's pinnacle years?

Personally, I think Country Jer' had the same people ready to settle for Mason mediocrity believing (at least for a stint) that the Gophers were ready to be something more. The loss to Illinois did not compute for them in their hopes and so patience was tested, and expectations plummeted. The failing with this mindset is that there is more to gain in winning against any of our final 4 opponents, than there was to lose by laying an egg vs. Illinois.
 


Let's also remember that the SEC schools sign and cut more kids than the Big Ten every year. Does anyone know if the Big 5 plans to set a uniform policy on signing and cutting players?

2014
B1G = 22 signings per team
SEC = 25 signings per team
 

Gopher Bandanna Guy said:
Sid (or his ghost writer) frames this all wrong. The question isn't whether or not Kill deserves patience from the fans or not (he most certainly does, given the progress he's made in 3.5 years). Given where Brewster left the program, only an idiot thinks its reasonable to demand perfection or even get worked up over the anomalous disappointing loss.

The real question is what are your expections of Kill here at the U. We've damn near returned to Mason-levels, that got us to 'respectable mid-pack Big Ten squad'. Some how get to 5-3 in conference this year, and we've essentially matched Mason's greatest accomplishment at the U (single season anyways). Are your expectations on Kill the same that they were when he was hired? Or have you recalibrated? Remember there were folks who basically pined for the Mason years after Brewster's tenure, and were ready to settle for that level of mediocrity again.

Now that we've seen the growth of the program under Kill, do you believe that's where we are headed again (Mason mediocrity)? Or are you really upset with the loss to the Illini, because you are starting to believe that Kill can take us beyond Mason's pinnacle years?

Personally, I think Country Jer' had the same people ready to settle for Mason mediocrity believing (at least for a stint) that the Gophers were ready to be something more. The loss to Illinois did not compute for them in their hopes and so patience was tested, and expectations plummeted. The failing with this mindset is that there is more to gain in winning against any of our final 4 opponents, than there was to lose by laying an egg vs. Illinois.
Click to expand...

My expectations, and I'm sure others as well, have changed not because of what Kill has done but because of what the rest of the conference hasn't done.

The conference is terrible compared to what Mason had to grind through. Iowa and Michigan weren't dumpster fires. Ohio State was playing in national championships. The middle of the conference was solid. The only perennial dumpster fire was Indiana. Rutgers and Maryland were not part of the conference.

So 5-3 is a good place to get back to, but a pretty mediocre team can go 5-3 in today's Big 10. Especially since Michigan, Ohio State, and MSU will not regularly be on the schedule. This year's Gophers were on the verge of doing it until Saturday.

Mason's 2003 team would have won the 2014 West Division title or finished 2nd because of a hard fought and close loss to Nebraska. My expectations for Kill are slightly higher because he doesn't have to play in the Hubert H. Dumpster Dome.

Fortunately, the schedule sets him up for a chance to win 6 conference games next year (Wisconsin, Illinois, @Iowa, Michigan, @Purdue, @Northwestern). 4-4 next year is a disappointment. 5-3 is expected. 6-2 is where a good Kill team should be (once every 4-5 years) in the easy division of a wretched conference. 3-5 for rebuilding years (once every 4-5 years) and somewhere in between for status quo years.
 

afurry91 said:
My expectations, and I'm sure others as well, have changed not because of what Kill has done but because of what the rest of the conference hasn't done.

The conference is terrible compared to what Mason had to grind through. Iowa and Michigan weren't dumpster fires. Ohio State was playing in national championships. The middle of the conference was solid. The only perennial dumpster fire was Indiana. Rutgers and Maryland were not part of the conference.

So 5-3 is a good place to get back to, but a pretty mediocre team can go 5-3 in today's Big 10. Especially since Michigan, Ohio State, and MSU will not regularly be on the schedule. This year's Gophers were on the verge of doing it until Saturday.

Mason's 2003 team would have won the 2014 West Division title or finished 2nd because of a hard fought and close loss to Nebraska. My expectations for Kill are slightly higher because he doesn't have to play in the Hubert H. Dumpster Dome.

Fortunately, the schedule sets him up for a chance to win 6 conference games next year.
Click to expand...

That 2003 team did not win a single game vs. a ranked team and never played a team ranked higher than 15. We played 4 absolute creampuffs in the non-conference and our Big Ten wins came against (all unranked) Penn St. (3-9), Northwestern (6-7), Illinois (1-11), Indiana (2-10), and Wisconsin (7-6). Talk about an easy schedule.
 

Word said:
That 2003 team did not win a single game vs. a ranked team and never played a team ranked higher than 15. We played 4 absolute creampuffs in the non-conference and our Big Ten wins came against (all unranked) Penn St. (3-9), Northwestern (6-7), Illinois (1-11), Indiana (2-10), and Wisconsin (7-6). Talk about an easy schedule.
Click to expand...

And they would have gone 6-2 or 7-1 in 2014.
 




I don't think I would term Mason's tenure as mediocre. Under Mason, the Gophers were more entertaining to watch, they produced some really good running backs, and they won some trophy games. Mason helped make the Gophers more relevant in the local sports scene. That is not mediocre to me.

Granted, the Gophers hit a plateau under Mason, and were not able to move to the next level. And, they had some well-publicized issues with closing out games. But, compared to what came before, Mason was an improvement.

That is where Kill is at right now. Compared to the previous Coach, Kill is an improvement. The $64,000 question remains - is Kill capable of doing what Mason could not, and taking the team to a level where it contends for conference or even national honors, and plays in major bowl games?

Magic 8-Ball says: cannot predict now. (by the way - did you know there were 20 possible answers for the magic 8-ball......?)
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I don't think I would term Mason's tenure as mediocre. Under Mason, the Gophers were more entertaining to watch, they produced some really good running backs, and they won some trophy games. Mason helped make the Gophers more relevant in the local sports scene. That is not mediocre to me.

Granted, the Gophers hit a plateau under Mason, and were not able to move to the next level. And, they had some well-publicized issues with closing out games. But, compared to what came before, Mason was an improvement.

That is where Kill is at right now. Compared to the previous Coach, Kill is an improvement. The $64,000 question remains - is Kill capable of doing what Mason could not, and taking the team to a level where it contends for conference or even national honors, and plays in major bowl games?

Magic 8-Ball says: cannot predict now. (by the way - did you know there were 20 possible answers for the magic 8-ball......?)
Click to expand...

In my opinion, hovering around .500 against your conference peers is pretty much the definition of mediocre. Consistently posting a winning record against them makes us a good B1G team, consistently posting a losing record makes us a poor B1G team.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom