Thoughts on my first Gopher game The Bank

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SJUgopher

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I had a great time at my first Gopher game at the Bank. It was overwhelmingly good, but here are some observations of mine:

Gameday Experience

The Victory walk is great. I wish they would march down University Ave though. The band was good when you could hear them. It was hard to hear at times, especially after scoring.

The stadium is gorgeous. It is very simple, but it is exactly what we need. Wilf take note, you don't have to spend a lot of money to get something nice (pay for it yourself, you greedy bastard). You don't need a roof.

There were hardly any lines anywhere, except bathrooms. The concessions were quick.

I am personally biased, but if you want a better experience in MN, go to a MIAC rivalry game at St. John's - (vs. Bethel sucks or UST). You will see passionate fans there, I didn't see much of that at The Bank. At SJU, you get 2-3,000 students from two schools (SJU and College of St. Benedict) with a combined enrollment of ~4,000, but you can't get 10,000 students from an enrollment of 50,000?

I saw a lot of casual fans who have tickets just because they can brag to their friends that they were there for the inaugural season (some of them, my co-workers).

Fans

I was thoroughly embarrassed when some clown yelled, "You dumb N-word!" in section 219, when Troy Stoudermire dropped the easy catch along the Gopher sideline. I've never been more ashamed to be a Gopher fan.

The students were disappointing. Too many of them left at halftime. The 'U' needs to take a section or two away from them - upper corners of upper deck. Until they can prove Gopher football is more important than going to a bar or a house party on Halloween, they shouldn't be allowed that many tickets.

I believe the 'U' shouldn't allow students to re-sell their tickets. The ID should match the name on the ticket. The 'U' ticket office should refund student's single game tickets and they should re-sell them. There are too many students trying to sell tickets on Craig's List looking to make a buck. They shouldn't be allowed to profit from tickets when not every student has the option to buy tickets. It should be a privilege to go to Gopher football games.

The 'U' should oversell the student section - which has often been mentioned on this site. Students are obviously going to cram the seats closer to the field. Having the whole upper deck student section empty for the 3rd and 4th quarter in a close game makes the school look bad.

We need to make The Bank a place where teams come and lose on a regular basis.

I loved the booing and the "Zebras suck" chant.

There were some good costumes. My personal favorite was Lego man. He had the hands and everything.

Defense

The defense played well (well, about as well as you can giving up that many points), especially pass coverage, except for a few screw ups by Traye Simmons. They made enough plays to preserve the win.

Michael Carter looked solid out there after Simmons benching, he's going to be a stud. He was a split second too late on a couple of plays, but with more experience, he will be making those plays. He also isn't afraid to stick his head in there and make a tackle, unlike Simmons, who just ducks his head and tackles grass.

Keanon Cooper will be great. He has 1st team All-Big Ten written all over him. I think the U linebackers will be just fine next year, my worry is our DL, we have a few decent underclassmen, but we will be thin there next yr. I look forward to see him playing next to Maresh

Offense

There was a good mix of Gray and Webber. The OL pass blocked well.

There needs to be more than one dimension to Marquise Gray's game (it's play calling, give him a pass play with 2 reads and an option to run). Everyone in the stadium knows when he comes in, we are going to run the spread option and he's going to keep it. Run a fake and let him throw it. I think he only threw it once, a long pass to the corner of the end zone.

We are still struggling to find a running game. We couldn't convert a 3rd and 1 to win the game - actually lost a yard. We got bailed out by running in to the kicker.

Special Teams

Special teams coverage was bad, returns were good - not punts, because we don't return punts. Why did Brewster have Gray covering a punt? He got smoked (albeit illegally) and was down on the turf for a few minutes. He doesn't know to keep his head on a swivel, he probably hasn't played ST since he was a freshman in high school - if ever.

Team Play

We got in to too many 3rd and a mile last night. I remember 3 or 4 times where it was 3rd and 20-something. We actually did a nice job on those downs however, I think we scored 2 TDs, our 2nd TD and Bennett's 2nd TD reception.

The Gophers have as much talent in the conference except maybe tOSU and PSU. We are super athletic, all over the field, except RB. We have good, young WRs that got open and Webber found them.

We commit too many dumb penalties. I think this has been a recurring theme last 4 or 5 years.


Great win for Brew and the Gophers! I look forward to going to more games. I believe we are in good shape two win the next two games and possibly pull off the upset at Iowa. We need to beat Illinois first.
 

Pretty sure that isn't Gray covering punts, not sure who it is possibly Johnson. Doubling up of the numbers which we are doing a lot of lately.
 

SJUgopher said:
Special Teams

Special teams coverage was bad, returns were good - not punts, because we don't return punts. Why did Brewster have Gray covering a punt? He got smoked (albeit illegally) and was down on the turf for a few minutes. He doesn't know to keep his head on a swivel, he probably hasn't played ST since he was a freshman in high school - if ever.
Click to expand...

Just FYI, that was Johnny Johnson (#5) that was in on that play.
 

My bad. Everyone in our section thought it was Gray, too.
 



I am personally biased, but if you want a better experience in MN, go to a MIAC rivalry game at St. John's - (vs. Bethel sucks or UST). You will see passionate fans there, I didn't see much of that at The Bank. At SJU, you get 2-3,000 students from two schools (SJU and College of St. Benedict) with a combined enrollment of ~4,000, but you can't get 10,000 students from an enrollment of 50,000?

How can i say this without sounding rude. You simply can't compare the big ten to the miac. There's no better football experience in the state than watching a game at the Bank and you know it. No doubt, there's tons of "fans" that need to be won over yet. But you still can't compare D-1 football to the miac. There's high school teams that draw more fans and have bigger fields than sju. Actually I would put the prep bowl ahead of any miac game; there's more D-1 talent there than a miac rivalry game.
 

Thanks for sharing that.

I understand your frustration with the student section. I say "cut them some slack" - the team hasn't been on campus since 1981. There's really no 'on campus' tradition of going to the games and it'll take time to build.

Another way to address the "student cram down" is to give the students "regular" tickets in the student section instead of general admission. It'll cost more - students will have to come to the stadium each week to pick up their tickets - but it'll do a couple of things I think you'd like: #1, the students would be spread out more because they'd have specific assigned seats; and, #2, with a "pick up" requirement you also get a deadline after which unclaimed tickets can be sold to the general public.

Like you, I like that the Gophers are giving Gray some plays. What they aren't doing, though, is running the offense that takes best advantage of his skills. Time & time again, they set up to run what is pretty much play #1 in the spread option (the read option on the Defensive End) but they didn't run it - they left the DE unblocked, which is what you're supposed to do, but the "belly" to the running back was so far away from the DE that he never had to make a choice of "who do I go after?"

The read works off the DE - if he stays with the QB, then the ball goes to the RB who cuts it up inside the DE, but if he crashes on the RB, then the QB pulls it out and takes it upfield in the space he vacates.

With a QB like Gray, the Gophers have a weapon that can make the spread go.

(Yes, I know the Gophers are going away from the spread - based on the formations they're in, though, they've not trashed it).
 

SJUgopher said:
I had a great time at my first Gopher game at the Bank. It was overwhelmingly good, but here are some observations of mine:

Gameday Experience

The Victory walk is great. I wish they would march down University Ave though. The band was good when you could hear them. It was hard to hear at times, especially after scoring.

The stadium is gorgeous. It is very simple, but it is exactly what we need. Wilf take note, you don't have to spend a lot of money to get something nice (pay for it yourself, you greedy bastard). You don't need a roof.

There were hardly any lines anywhere, except bathrooms. The concessions were quick.

I am personally biased, but if you want a better experience in MN, go to a MIAC rivalry game at St. John's - (vs. Bethel sucks or UST). You will see passionate fans there, I didn't see much of that at The Bank. At SJU, you get 2-3,000 students from two schools (SJU and College of St. Benedict) with a combined enrollment of ~4,000, but you can't get 10,000 students from an enrollment of 50,000?

I saw a lot of casual fans who have tickets just because they can brag to their friends that they were there for the inaugural season (some of them, my co-workers).
Click to expand...

Was my first time there as well and I agree with a lot of this. The victory walk was pretty cool. You can all thank me for Weber's great game as I gave him a five and said "Go get'em Adam!"

I also didn't encounter long lines. We came into the stadium about 40 minutes before the game, no problem there. The concession lines were not long. I can see why some complain about them using calculators. Some seem to have trouble with that. Even at halftime, the wait for the bathrooms was only about 3 minutes. My dad went with about five minutes left in halftime and he said he walked right in.

The fans in my section were pretty good. Pretty much everyone was standing on big plays/3rd downs, especially late in the game. Had some very vocal fans behind us and in front of us that made it entertaining. Was a little disappointed when there was a lot of booing when we let the clock run out at the end of the half. I thought it was the right move.

I had a great time. So did my dad who you could say is a "casual" fan. After the game he even talked about how fun it would be to get the family together to go to a game next year. Even though I live 350 miles away, I'm seriously considering getting season tix next year.
 

Your roof comment in regards to the Vikings is not smart. Unlike the Gophers, the Vikings have to play past November
 



SJUgopher said:
I was thoroughly embarrassed when some clown yelled, "You dumb N-word!" in section 219, when Troy Stoudermire dropped the easy catch along the Gopher sideline. I've never been more ashamed to be a Gopher fan.
Click to expand...
I can only hope that fan got hit by a bus after the game.
 

As per the students, they pay fees to help build and support the stadium (whether they buy tickets or not), so I think it would be unwise for the University to jerk them around too much. They are the sole reason college football exists in Minnesota after all. No college, no team.
 


Gopherprof said:
As per the students, they pay fees to help build and support the stadium (whether they buy tickets or not), so I think it would be unwise for the University to jerk them around too much. They are the sole reason college football exists in Minnesota after all. No college, no team.
Click to expand...

No Alumni, No College.
 




SJUgopher said:
I had a great time at my first Gopher game at the Bank. It was overwhelmingly good, but here are some observations of mine:

Gameday Experience

The Victory walk is great. I wish they would march down University Ave though. The band was good when you could hear them. It was hard to hear at times, especially after scoring.

The stadium is gorgeous. It is very simple, but it is exactly what we need. Wilf take note, you don't have to spend a lot of money to get something nice (pay for it yourself, you greedy bastard). You don't need a roof.

There were hardly any lines anywhere, except bathrooms. The concessions were quick.

I am personally biased, but if you want a better experience in MN, go to a MIAC rivalry game at St. John's - (vs. Bethel sucks or UST). You will see passionate fans there, I didn't see much of that at The Bank. At SJU, you get 2-3,000 students from two schools (SJU and College of St. Benedict) with a combined enrollment of ~4,000, but you can't get 10,000 students from an enrollment of 50,000?

I saw a lot of casual fans who have tickets just because they can brag to their friends that they were there for the inaugural season (some of them, my co-workers).

Fans

I was thoroughly embarrassed when some clown yelled, "You dumb N-word!" in section 219, when Troy Stoudermire dropped the easy catch along the Gopher sideline. I've never been more ashamed to be a Gopher fan.

The students were disappointing. Too many of them left at halftime. The 'U' needs to take a section or two away from them - upper corners of upper deck. Until they can prove Gopher football is more important than going to a bar or a house party on Halloween, they shouldn't be allowed that many tickets.

I believe the 'U' shouldn't allow students to re-sell their tickets. The ID should match the name on the ticket. The 'U' ticket office should refund student's single game tickets and they should re-sell them. There are too many students trying to sell tickets on Craig's List looking to make a buck. They shouldn't be allowed to profit from tickets when not every student has the option to buy tickets. It should be a privilege to go to Gopher football games.

The 'U' should oversell the student section - which has often been mentioned on this site. Students are obviously going to cram the seats closer to the field. Having the whole upper deck student section empty for the 3rd and 4th quarter in a close game makes the school look bad.

We need to make The Bank a place where teams come and lose on a regular basis.

I loved the booing and the "Zebras suck" chant.

There were some good costumes. My personal favorite was Lego man. He had the hands and everything.

Defense

The defense played well (well, about as well as you can giving up that many points), especially pass coverage, except for a few screw ups by Traye Simmons. They made enough plays to preserve the win.

Michael Carter looked solid out there after Simmons benching, he's going to be a stud. He was a split second too late on a couple of plays, but with more experience, he will be making those plays. He also isn't afraid to stick his head in there and make a tackle, unlike Simmons, who just ducks his head and tackles grass.

Keanon Cooper will be great. He has 1st team All-Big Ten written all over him. I think the U linebackers will be just fine next year, my worry is our DL, we have a few decent underclassmen, but we will be thin there next yr. I look forward to see him playing next to Maresh

Offense

There was a good mix of Gray and Webber. The OL pass blocked well.

There needs to be more than one dimension to Marquise Gray's game (it's play calling, give him a pass play with 2 reads and an option to run). Everyone in the stadium knows when he comes in, we are going to run the spread option and he's going to keep it. Run a fake and let him throw it. I think he only threw it once, a long pass to the corner of the end zone.

We are still struggling to find a running game. We couldn't convert a 3rd and 1 to win the game - actually lost a yard. We got bailed out by running in to the kicker.

Special Teams

Special teams coverage was bad, returns were good - not punts, because we don't return punts. Why did Brewster have Gray covering a punt? He got smoked (albeit illegally) and was down on the turf for a few minutes. He doesn't know to keep his head on a swivel, he probably hasn't played ST since he was a freshman in high school - if ever.

Team Play

We got in to too many 3rd and a mile last night. I remember 3 or 4 times where it was 3rd and 20-something. We actually did a nice job on those downs however, I think we scored 2 TDs, our 2nd TD and Bennett's 2nd TD reception.

The Gophers have as much talent in the conference except maybe tOSU and PSU. We are super athletic, all over the field, except RB. We have good, young WRs that got open and Webber found them.

We commit too many dumb penalties. I think this has been a recurring theme last 4 or 5 years.


Great win for Brew and the Gophers! I look forward to going to more games. I believe we are in good shape two win the next two games and possibly pull off the upset at Iowa. We need to beat Illinois first.
Click to expand...

as someone who graduated from st. john's university (and who also attended many football games there) i can honestly say that you are dead wrong here. it is not even close. don't get me wrong, i love sju football, but sju football saturday's do not compare to the U of M and the new stadium environment on campus.
 

APEC 2003 said:
I am personally biased, but if you want a better experience in MN, go to a MIAC rivalry game at St. John's - (vs. Bethel sucks or UST). You will see passionate fans there, I didn't see much of that at The Bank. At SJU, you get 2-3,000 students from two schools (SJU and College of St. Benedict) with a combined enrollment of ~4,000, but you can't get 10,000 students from an enrollment of 50,000?

How can i say this without sounding rude. You simply can't compare the big ten to the miac. There's no better football experience in the state than watching a game at the Bank and you know it. No doubt, there's tons of "fans" that need to be won over yet. But you still can't compare D-1 football to the miac. There's high school teams that draw more fans and have bigger fields than sju. Actually I would put the prep bowl ahead of any miac game; there's more D-1 talent there than a miac rivalry game.
Click to expand...

I should hope there's more talent there...if there was more D-I talent at a D-III FB game there's something wrong.
 


TubbytownUSA said:
Your roof comment in regards to the Vikings is not smart. Unlike the Gophers, the Vikings have to play past November
Click to expand...

They somehow survived 20+ years outside...I'm sure they can do it again.
 



Bronko Nagurski Gopher said:
as someone who graduated from st. john's university (and who also attended many football games there) i can honestly say that you are dead wrong here. it is not even close. don't get me wrong, i love sju football, but sju football saturday's do not compare to the U of M and the new stadium environment on campus.
Click to expand...

Well when the 'U' is called one of the Top 10 Destinations to watch college football (by SI) and has books written about the football experience, I might buy that. Until then, I won't hold my breath.
 

Saint Johns being a better place than a D1 school to watch football is laughable. Saint Johns is glorified High School ball
 

bankonit said:
Saint Johns being a better place than a D1 school to watch football is laughable. Saint Johns is glorified High School ball
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you never played ball past high school, if at all. Just because the talent level is lower doesn't mean it can't be exciting. There are some very good players that play at D-II and D-III.
 

Guys that play D2 and D3 are guys that never made it in my my mind, its like playing minor league baseball or Intramural football, its just for fun.
 

bankonit said:
Guys that play D2 and D3 are guys that never made it in my my mind, its like playing minor league baseball or Intramural football, its just for fun.
Click to expand...

This is silly. Guys play D-II and D-III for all sorts of reasons. The talent level certainly isn't the same overall, but there is good ball being played at these levels and the guys playing it certainly aren't doing it "just for fun".
 

Are they playing it for that .000000000000000000000000001% chance they will make it to the NFL?
and I may have left out some 0's
 

bankonit said:
Are they playing it for that .000000000000000000000000001% chance they will make it to the NFL?
and I may have left out some 0's
Click to expand...

NFL or NBA has nothing to do with it. A majority of D-1 athletes won't make it to the big time either. Do you think they're playing "just for fun"?
 


Bronko Nagurski Gopher said:
as someone who graduated from st. john's university (and who also attended many football games there) i can honestly say that you are dead wrong here. it is not even close. don't get me wrong, i love sju football, but sju football saturday's do not compare to the U of M and the new stadium environment on campus.
Click to expand...

So having a 50k seat stadium that has 40k people (student section half full, upper corners of open end half full, section behind Gopher's bench on the 30 yd line half full, and about 3 or 4 suites with absolutely no one in them) is a better experience than a 7k seat stadium with 8 or 9k there?

Just because the stadium is bigger doesn't mean the environment is better.
 

SJUgopher said:
So having a 50k seat stadium that has 40k people (student section half full, upper corners of open end half full, section behind Gopher's bench on the 30 yd line half full, and about 3 or 4 suites with absolutely no one in them) is a better experience than a 7k seat stadium with 8 or 9k there?

Just because the stadium is bigger doesn't mean the environment is better.
Click to expand...

whoa.....chill out there bud. :rolleyes:

first, i was at the gophers game last night and your estimation of fans that were not there are completely over-blown and frankly, way off.

second, i have been to the gopher's new stadium when it is completely full (try and remember that last night's game was halloween night so any stadium -- especially a college one -- is going to have some no-shows) and YES the environment IS better than sju. it is just a fact.

finally, just because i went to sju doesn't mean i am going to sit here and lie to myself and the board that the environment there is better than a big ten stadium (maybe indiana & northwestern). i will say loud and clear that sju is a fine place for football, but what you say in comparison to the U of M just isn't true. it just isn't.
 

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