The choke againist Michigan

[gophersfan]

It playing on Big ten network now. 2003 game was a horrible way to choke it. flipping back and fourth.

 

[imthewalrus]

It was a heck of a lot better than chocking 58 to 0...or 47 to 7...

It playing on Big ten network now. 2003 game was a horrible way to choke it. flipping back and fourth.

Sometimes it makes you wonder about this fan base. They HATE it when we could compete and they talk giddy and out of their heads about the future of the program when we get BLOWN out of the stadium.

In 2003, 2004 and 2005 we were pretty much right there with a pretty decent Michigan program and our fans HATED it. Our fans still HATED the Gophers being able to compete with a pretty decent Michigan Program...one that was going toe to tow with a NC Texas Longhorn team in the Rose Bowl. Walking into the BIG HOUSE in 2004 Michigan Fans were pretty worried about playing the Gophers. They did beat us in a heart breaker at their house in 2004
I went back to Ann Arbor the next year again since we played back to back games in AA. In 2005 The Gophers came right back at 'em and silenced all those CornBlue people with that win that some Gopher Fans also seem to have hated. I really think some Gopher fans are happiest when we are in the first year or two of a new coaching situation and they can see NOTHING but promise and pie in the sky fantasy thoughts about what will happen after the new coach has had time to get "HIS" players in place and experienced. The reality is that very few of the new coaches ever last longer than the five years that any new coach should be given to "turn the program around..."

The way I look at things, we ONLY are what we are. We ONLY have what we have. I think it's better to play the other team close, compete with them and sometimes lose in the end than it EVER is to get beat by 58 to 6 scores or 49 to 7 scores and never really even compete in a game. To me, the total blowout losses are MUCH more painful than a loss late in the game. IF the other program has more depth...more experience and more talent than we do...but we gave 'em a hell of a good game it is MUCH better than to have been beaten up one side and down the other. Sorry people, I can't live on fantasy...the world I live in says that I'd rather compete well and lose some games that I really could have won than to lose by a ton every time we go up against a team that is probably much more talented than my team. I think a LOT of people owe those players from the 2003, 2004 and 2005 ERA a BIG apology. I was damn proud of those kids all three of those seasons. Afraid I still am not too proud of the way entirely too many Gopher Fans acted and STILL do act about being in a competitive situation with a good team and not quite being able to pull it off though... Too many Gopher Fans are NOT ready for this program to truly compete...because sometimes when you can compete: you LOSE a game you could have...should have...would have won and it hurts like hell. No, I guess many Gopher Fans are still in the stage where fantasy football is safer and doesn't hurt EVEN if the team loses by scores of 58 to 6 to good teams...Go figure?
; 0 )

 

[Rosemountian]

Spot on.
I thought mason has topped out. I thought it was time to move on. But the 2003 Michigan game wasn't nearly as painful as kill going 0-2 losing 93-13 and brew going 0-2 and losing 63-13.

That 58-0 game was the most embarrassed I've ever been to be a gopher fan. They were calling off the dogs in the early 2nd quarter.

 

[ruppertflywheel]

You win by having a coach and 7 ass't coaches who live,eat, and breath recruiting. Mason's last 3 years his recruiting marginal at best. If you're a head coach and you get tired of getting on a airplane renting cars, and kissing a 17 teen year old ass as Mason did. Then you better have 6-7 ass't coaches to cover your ass. Mason didn't. He had two top recruiters in his final years. Carey Bailey and Mitch Browning. Gordie Shaw was a good in-state recruiter, but that was it. I played in a golf outing in Alexandria with Carey Bailey and the consensus was that he was working his ass off while some of the others were doing lip service. Eventually the lack of good players, especially on defense will come back and haunt you. It caught up with Mason and that's why he got the ax.
Mason was a good coach and I enjoyed his company. He loved a good cigar and a martini. We had a mutual liking for Winston Churchill. A couple of times on his football show he quoted Churchill off the book I gave him. " The Wit and Wisdom of Winston Churchill " I have no doubt had Mason kept
up on recruiting and with the addition of TCF Stadium he would have got us to the Rose Bowl.

 

[imthewalrus]

You win by having a coach and 7 ass't coaches who live,eat, and breath recruiting. Mason's last 3 years his recruiting marginal at best. If you're a head coach and you get tired of getting on a airplane renting cars, and kissing a 17 teen year old ass as Mason did. Then you better have 6-7 ass't coaches to cover your ass. Mason didn't. He had two top recruiters in his final years. Carey Bailey and Mitch Browning. Gordie Shaw was a good in-state recruiter, but that was it. I played in a golf outing in Alexandria with Carey Bailey and the consensus was that he was working his ass off while some of the others were doing lip service. Eventually the lack of good players, especially on defense will come back and haunt you. It caught up with Mason and that's why he got the ax.
Mason was a good coach and I enjoyed his company. He loved a good cigar and a martini. We had a mutual liking for Winston Churchill. A couple of times on his football show he quoted Churchill off the book I gave him. " The Wit and Wisdom of Winston Churchill " I have no doubt had Mason kept
up on recruiting and with the addition of TCF Stadium he would have got us to the Rose Bowl.

Don't make this about Mason...don't make it about coaches. Don't make it about recruiting. I am p.o'd at the fans who continually bring up that 2003 Michigan game and complain that they can't take their pain that they LOVE to wallow in to this day. Not me. I was damn proud of that group of Gopher Players who during that 3 year stretch made me so proud of them and walking into the Big House in 2004 and 2005 I KNEW that my Gophers belonged on the same playing field as the mighty Michigan CornBlues. Heck, a lot of these fans hate Mason. I could care less about Mason's fondness of stogies and fancy drinks and the people hob-nobbing and living what may be the "good life..." Just another "fancy country club living" tale of the haves and the have nots.... Good stories...but...not much more. He got paid millions. He was a big boy. So what if he liked the good life.

But what I am talking about Ruppert are the lads who were out there on the field going at it against a pretty fair Michigan team. (Recall that shoot-out they got into with Texas when Young could not be stopped...but...Michigan kept coming at them?) That was the same team our Gopher Players were going toe to toe with.

And all I EVER see around here are supposedly grown men talking about how that 2003 game still makes them physically ill. How disgusted they were by that game.

It is NOT right. I was so proud of those kids. Sure, I wish to hell we could have won that one. But...the kids who returned the next year...and...they just kept the COMING AT those CornBlues in the BIG HOUSE in Ann Arbor until they got 'em in front of their own fans in 2005.

EVERY time some fan whines about that 2003 game it makes me feel that pride that I felt for those kids all over again and it makes me realize that too many Gopher Fans are just not ready for prime time and for having the presence of mind to realize our Golden Gopher Players had left it ALL out there on the field in 2003 in that game against Michigan.

I hope they realize just how PROUD they made at least one long time Golden Gopher Fan feel that night...and for the next two years at the games in the Big House in Ann Arbor.
And I will personally apologize to EVERY Gopher Player on that 2003 team for the way so MANY Gopher Fans have treated them and bashed them and that game...even TEN YEARS AFTER.
It is the PLAYERS I think of. It is the PLAYERS who have been the MOST mistreated by this fan base. The coaches be damned...they get paid too much and get too much credit...but the players...they live it...they give everything they have got on that playing field...win or lose. And the fans just do NOT get it... They are still dissing that team ten years after the fact.

I don't like the way our fans still treat those players Ruppert. I don't like it at all...

; 0 (

 

[ruppertflywheel]

You have to remember IATW, this was a Friday night game that was the proverbial signature game to recapture Gopher football to the minions in the State. It was the largest walkup crowd in the history of the Dome ( over 10,000 fans ) The loyal Gopher fans I don't think thought of it as a choke job. It was the first timers who came away with the WTF attitude of " same old Gophers "
The game against State the following weekend had the same old 25-30,000 Gopher fans. The coaches could not get the team back up for a marginal MSU team. The coaches and players were accountable for the Michigan meltdown. The coaches and players were accountable for the lack luster performance against MSU. What the Michigan loss did was lose potential new Gopher fans
( 30,000 or so ) What you're not seeing about the Michigan game IATW is the " players " lost their
composure. If you have it on tape, you can see it. You can say you're proud of the players which is fine, but you cannot bury the fact that they lost composure. To many, that is considered choking.
It is an individual thing IATW, and this team on a important night to change the mindset of the people in this state failed.

 

[e.bigelow]

Well, this thread escalated quickly.

 

[imthewalrus]

You have to remember IATW, this was a Friday night game that was the proverbial signature game to recapture Gopher football to the minions in the State. It was the largest walkup crowd in the history of the Dome ( over 10,000 fans ) The loyal Gopher fans I don't think thought of it as a choke job. It was the first timers who came away with the WTF attitude of " same old Gophers "
The game against State the following weekend had the same old 25-30,000 Gopher fans. The coaches could not get the team back up for a marginal MSU team. The coaches and players were accountable for the Michigan meltdown. The coaches and players were accountable for the lack luster performance against MSU. What the Michigan loss did was lose potential new Gopher fans
( 30,000 or so ) What you're not seeing about the Michigan game IATW is the " players " lost their
composure. If you have it on tape, you can see it. You can say you're proud of the players which is fine, but you cannot bury the fact that they lost composure. To many, that is considered choking.
It is an individual thing IATW, and this team on a important night to change the mindset of the people in this state failed.

I was proud of them in 2003. I was proud of them and their effort in 2004 in Ann Arbor. And, I was damn proud of them in 2005 in the Big House once again when they got the job done. That was three successive games against the CornBlues that made me very proud of those Gopher Players.

They never did have the depth of talent at all positions that Michigan had...but...they would NOT back down and they lost two heart breakers and won one in which they broke Michigan's hearts.

I was damn proud of them Ruppert, and don't try to tell me that I shouldn't have been proud of them. They showed me all they had to show me to make me remember that 3 year stretch of games with Michigan as much MORE than ordinary Brown Jug Games that we have all become so accustomed to. Murray had a good run against Michigan back when Michigan was pretty far down for them back in the 50's and up until the time Bo took over their program. But, there has not been a three year period of competition between Michigan and Minnesota from the mid-1960's through the current time that could rival that 2003, 2004 and 2005 period of time. And THAT is a LONG time Ruppert. I will always be damn proud of that team and those kids. They made the Brown Jug Game meaningful for a few brief years...that meant a LOT to me...

; 0 )

 

[GopherinPhilly]

That 2003 game against scUM was the day I became a true Gopher fan. Heartbroken, discouraged and knowing that no matter what, we will never win the Rose Bowl again but living in a delusional state of constant hope and disappointment.

 

[mplsbadger]

That 2003 game against scUM was the day I became a true Gopher fan. Heartbroken, discouraged and knowing that no matter what, we will never win the Rose Bowl again but living in a delusional state of constant hope and disappointment.

Me too. Kind of. It was the day I decided to buy season tickets. That was a long time ago.