Things people are discounting and/or ignoring:

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unlvrebelx said:
Realize this...I've seen UNLV (in the past 10 years or so) destroy a favored Arkansas team in the LV Bowl, and beat Wisconsin at Camp Randall, beat #15 Arizona State (at ASU), beat Iowa State in overtime at home, and so on.....so, even without a good program, and a not very good football team (I believe the bowl victory against Arkansas was the only year we had a winning record out of the games I've listed), you're #1 point is valid. We have D1 talent at UNLV, and on any given Satur...errrrrr....Thursday, anything can happen. Don't think for a second we don't have, at least, a few guys that couldn't start at most Big 10 schools......

Also realize that even though UNLV has a mediocre/bad football program (at best), we've also produced players like Keenan McCardell and Randall Cunningham.....we have a city of 2 million people with over 40 high schools of under recruited talent....the best usually sign somewhere else (Demarco Murray, Steven Jackson, etc...) but the guys that are on that first team, all-state with the best players, can be top notch collegiate talent but are under recruited and many of them end up at UNLV....

Good luck the rest of the year......
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Add to your list the Gophers very own Brock Vereen's dad was a UNLV standout. IMHO UNLV and The University of Minnesota are both programs that are trying to get their legs under them again. Though last nights game answered some questions, I think we as fans will have to witness a few more games to get other questions answered.

I saw talent on both sides of the ball and think that both teams could still have a good season if some things are corrected.

Best of luck to the Rebels!
 

The thing that seperates a good team from a bad team is that a good team can still find a way to win even when they are having a off day.

This is just what the gophers did. From all the posts i have read everyone knows the gophers did not play up to their potential but they overcame all of their mistakes and still found a way to win the game
 

dpodoll68 said:
1. UNLV, while they are not a good Division I-A team, is still one of the 200 best football teams on the planet out of thousands and thousands.
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I'm not going to read the entire thread, but I just want to say that this made me laugh out loud. You are, of course, absolutely right. Again. Why do we keep playing these damn top-200 teams? The powerhouses among the many thousands and thousands of other options we have on the planet? Perhaps next year we can get Twin Cities Central H.S., Shattuck, Carlton and Grinnell back on the schedule and make a push for national championship number 8.
 

mcrow said:
I think I know that since I have not missed either going to a game or watching it on TV since probably 2006.

My point is my expectations are better than that and people seem all too happy to accept these sorts of outcomes and use the "we're not at that stage yet" excuse. Seems like we've been at that stage for a good 4 years or more.
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What are your expectations? We lost to worse teams that than at home last year. Yes, we'd all like to beat UNLV on the road by 30. Being that the Gophers haven't been doing that for a long time, why would you expect it to change in one game?
 

Total Yards:

Gophers - 478
UNLV - 275

There were definitely some concerning areas, but bottom line, if Gray hits a few more passes and we don't kill ourself with penalties, we would have won going away. We'll see if these areas improve next week......
 


mcrow said:
You totally misunderstood what I said. I was agreeing that if you are the coach you have to look at every team as being a solid threat.



I didn't say that they win because of the conference is better. Look, do we agree or disagree that the SEC and Big 10 are the best conferences? If so, why? That should clear this up.



Well since my mother wasn't born until 1960, no.

2006:
Kent State 44-0
Temple 62-0

2005:
Tulsa 41-10
Florida Atlantic 46-7

2004:
Toledp 63-21
Illinios State 37-21

2003:
Tulsa 49-10
Troy 48-7
Ohio 42-20
L-L 48-14

2002:
Texas State 42-0
L-L 35-11
Toledo 31-21
Buffalo 41-17


As you can see, up until Brewster we destroyed teams like UNLV. I think something similar isn't unrealistic to expect IF this team is a bowl team.
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Good points - Mason's teams blew such opponents away more often than not.
 

Frustrating watching a game, but they did win...a lot of correcting to happen.
 

John Galt said:
Total Yards:

Gophers - 478
UNLV - 275

There were definitely some concerning areas, but bottom line, if Gray hits a few more passes and we don't kill ourself with penalties, we would have won going away. We'll see if these areas improve next week......
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UNLV could say the same thing.....In fact, every team could say this just about every game.
 




dpodoll68 said:
I thought this was self-evident. Refute the point. Name 200 better. I'll be waiting.
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Saying UNLV is one of the top 200 football teams on the planet is like saying Marquies Gray is one of the top 500 QB's on the planet.

It reminds me of a joke my boss throws out at us on occassion. He tells one of us we're one of the top 10 sales people at the company......and we only have 10 sales reps...

Your OP is not ridiculous because it's inaccurate - it's ridiculous because you're intent was to make us think last night's win/effort was monumental, because they beat "one of the top 200 team on the planet" when in fact, it was distrurbing given UNLV is the worst team on the schedule this year and any B10 team outside of Indiana would destroy UNLV.
 

Art Vandelay said:
UNLV could say the same thing.....In fact, every team could say this just about every game.
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Anyone can say whatever they want to say. You can say up is down and left is right. What matters is the accuracy of those statements. For instance, we were totally dominated by NDSU last year and we got soundly beaten by NMSU. Furthermore, I didn't think that we soundly beat Miami (OH).

However, the UNLV game, we outplayed them in almost every phase of the game. The entire game felt like a "how are we letting these guys stay in the game" feel to it. Now, all of that means absolutely nothing because the only thing that matters is W/L. Which is weird, because we won but you seem to be playing both sides of that coin. . . we won but by not enough.

I'd rather completely outgain another team and squeek out a win than not completely outgain and squeek out a win only because it makes the statement "a bounce here or there and it'd been a blowout" a much truer statement.
 

Art Vandelay said:
Saying UNLV is one of the top 200 football teams on the planet is like saying Marquies Gray is one of the top 500 QB's on the planet.

It reminds me of a joke my boss throws out at us on occassion. He tells one of us we're one of the top 10 sales people at the company......and we only have 10 sales reps...

Your OP is not ridiculous because it's inaccurate - it's ridiculous because you're intent was to make us think last night's win/effort was monumental, because they beat "one of the top 200 team on the planet" when in fact, it was distrurbing given UNLV is the worst team on the schedule this year and any B10 team outside of Indiana would destroy UNLV.
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I really don't think Dpo thought the win was monumental.

I think he was just trying to a point that a program in our position should feel ok after beating any FBS school on the road. We were favored by less than a TD and we won by less than a TD. We didn't cover the spread but we won by a relatively similar amount that any reasonable person would assume.

I never took you for someone to overestimate the Gophers, but I suppose that's the only way you can carry on your schtick.
 

Art Vandelay said:
It reminds me of a joke my boss throws out at us on occassion. He tells one of us we're one of the top 10 sales people at the company......and we only have 10 sales reps...
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Given your avatar, I always assumed you
were the boss.
 



I would also add that both the coordinators were new this year. A lot of unknowns similar to the USC game last year i.e. film being marginally helpful at best.
 

I will add to the list:

For the first time in a while, the Gophers were CLEARLY the better team on the field. Anyone who watched will tell you that the score does not reflect the talent gap between the two teams. That alone makes me excited for the rest of the season and even more excited about the years beyond. It has been a few years since that was the case.
 

Success in life is 90% mental. How many of our players do you think went to Las Vegas with exactly the mindset that many people on this board have. That is: "We are going to destroy UNLV. We have improved so much." We march down the field but we throw an interception. Doubt creeps in. We are behind 3-0. The whole game was like this. We do good. We doubt ourselves or sabotage ourselves. Back and forth like a tennis match. We are better. No doubt. We just don't know how to destroy lesser teams yet. The mindset was fine going in. The experience, the unshakable confidence to prevail is tenative. But, We did win. The coaches will have their attention all week. New Hampshire is as good or better than UNLV. How much better we play in game two will be a very good indicator of how our season will go. Perspective is all dpo is trying to get you to see. It is the key to being successful. Panic and the sky is falling...you all can make those come true too.
 

dpodoll68 said:
1. UNLV, while they are not a good Division I-A team, is still one of the 200 best football teams on the planet out of thousands and thousands.

2. All other things being equal, it is far more dificult to win on the road than at home. This is statistically inarguable.

3. It was our first game of the year with a team playing far more freshmen and sophomores than the average Division I-A team, and far, far more than the average Big Ten team.
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Oh boy. Can only handle thinking about a few of these.

1) Uhh, OK. That's an interesting way to sugar coat the fact that Minnesota was a heavy favorite with good reason.

2) I agree, but I'd also note that the game was officiated by Big Ten guys and Minnesota's fans showed very well compared to the uninterested UNLV followers. Not your typical road game and I'm not sure that the advantage for UNLV was a great as the average home game.

3) I'm not sure I understand the comparison to other teams, but no mention of how that compares to the team the Gophers actually played. How does this compare to UNLV? I know at a fairly important position - QB - Minnesota had a senior, while the Rebs played a freshman.
 

Art Vandelay said:
UNLV could say the same thing.....In fact, every team could say this just about every game.
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LOL - And yet you say the same negative thing about every time you post but you don't recognize it.
 

Gopher Warrior said:
Oh boy. Can only handle thinking about a few of these.

1) Uhh, OK. That's an interesting way to sugar coat the fact that Minnesota was a heavy favorite with good reason.

2) I agree, but I'd also note that the game was officiated by Big Ten guys and Minnesota's fans showed very well compared to the uninterested UNLV followers. Not your typical road game and I'm not sure that the advantage for UNLV was a great as the average home game.

3) I'm not sure I understand the comparison to other teams, but no mention of how that compares to the team the Gophers actually played. How does this compare to UNLV? I know at a fairly important position - QB - Minnesota had a senior, while the Rebs played a freshman.
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#1. I would hardly consider 8 points as being a heavy favorite.

#2. Senior or not it was his first game of his second season starting, hardly a ton of experience compared to their QB. More experience? Yes. BTW he did outplay their QB so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.
 

We were scheduled this past Thursday to open the season on the road. As week one ends we are 1-0. When the season ends and all the wins are added up little time will spent on the UNLV game. Its in the books. Forget about it, and look at New Hampshire the only team we are scheduled to play next Saturday. Can we play better yes, will we is the question.
 

Arbogast said:
#1. I would hardly consider 8 points as being a heavy favorite.

#2. Senior or not it was his first game of his second season starting, hardly a ton of experience compared to their QB. More experience? Yes. BTW he did outplay their QB so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.
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1) You're right - it was essentially a pick 'em!

2) Huh? You don't know what point I'm trying to make? Look at the OP - it explains away Minnesota's rough performance as being partly due to the Gophers playing a lot of freshman and sophomores as compared to the universe of D1 teams and Big Ten teams (but not to UNLV). I was asking a question - how did MN's youth compare to UNLV's - as this is more meaningful to last night's contest. You're reading things that aren't there.
 

Gopher Warrior said:
Oh boy. Can only handle thinking about a few of these.

1) Uhh, OK. That's an interesting way to sugar coat the fact that Minnesota was a heavy favorite with good reason.

2) I agree, but I'd also note that the game was officiated by Big Ten guys and Minnesota's fans showed very well compared to the uninterested UNLV followers. Not your typical road game and I'm not sure that the advantage for UNLV was a great as the average home game.

3) I'm not sure I understand the comparison to other teams, but no mention of how that compares to the team the Gophers actually played. How does this compare to UNLV? I know at a fairly important position - QB - Minnesota had a senior, while the Rebs played a freshman.
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I should have been more clear in the OP. When I said "people", what I meant was "Gopher football fans". I don't much care what a Marquette hoops fan thinks of our football team. Sorry for the misunderstanding. That was my fault.
 

All I know is, out of the literally thousands upon thousands of American cities in which one could watch theater, Des Moines has got to rank in the Top 200 in terms of overall quality.
 

The Gophers won this game. Last year's team would have lost. Last year's team lost to a bad NMSU team at home. IT's a little early to start rending out garments over this win.
 

It's the first game. A lot can change. Take a look at Purdue last year. They played MTSU...at home. Purdue won by 3 points. They scored a TD to go up by 3 with less than one minute on the clock and then needed to block a field goal at with time running out. Purdue went on to finish 7-6. MTSU, well they won two games.
 

The Pioneer Press headline was pretty good and overlooked. Thursday proved that MN is not a one-man team. Many people (myself included) were thinking that the team needed Gray to be all Big Ten in order to win some games. On Thursday it was the other way around, Gray struggled and the rest of the team bailed him out and won it. When it's put in that light I have a more favorable outlook than I had on Thursday. Gray is still our biggest threat and if he comes around this could be a really fun season with how improved we look at some other spots.
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
The Pioneer Press headline was pretty good and overlooked. Thursday proved that MN is not a one-man team. Many people (myself included) were thinking that the team needed Gray to be all Big Ten in order to win some games. On Thursday it was the other way around, Gray struggled and the rest of the team bailed him out and won it. When it's put in that light I have a more favorable outlook than I had on Thursday. Gray is still our biggest threat and if he comes around this could be a really fun season with how improved we look at some other spots.
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+1 Very insigtful. It puts the game and the upcoming season in a very different perspective.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
It's the first game. A lot can change. Take a look at Purdue last year. They played MTSU...at home. Purdue won by 3 points. They scored a TD to go up by 3 with less than one minute on the clock and then needed to block a field goal at with time running out. Purdue went on to finish 7-6. MTSU, well they won two games.
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Then lost to a 4-8 Rice team on the road. Rice gave up 73 points to Houston later in the year.
 

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