West Virginia Fans React to Minnesota Loss

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hungan1

hungan1

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This is a little late but is still interesting to listen to.

"Coos" (?, I can't decipher his accent) commented that the Gophers took away WVU's bread and butter play which is the screenplays. He seems to insinuate from a WV talk show that the GOphers had inside info about personnel issues. He seems to think that Kirk Ciarrrocca leaked that information to the Gophers Coaching Staff. He talked about a play where they have extra Offensive Linemen plus TEs, and the Gophers were able to sack their quarterback with just three Defensive Linemen rushers. I think he was talking about the Boe Mafe sack. Interesting perspective from the Mountaineers' side.

 
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Why wouldn’t KC tell the Gophers staff everything he knows? NCAA football isn’t all sunshine and rainbows; it’s big business. You take all the (allowable) advantages you can.

Of course, that’s not why the Gophers won, but if that’s what WV fans need to tell themselves, they can have it.
 



I mean, not sure what game he was watching but WVU did not show up ready for that game and didn't really play well enough to win. I haven't seen the Gophers get that much pressure on a QB under PJ and they were doing it with three guys. KC wouldn't have been able to engineer that even if he shared all the inside info, which I doubt he did given PJ's whole 'he won't coach this game' spiel.

If Gophers were even a little bit lucky, they would have put up 35. WVU caught all the breaks and still couldn't get it done.

Other posters are right though. They can believe whatever they need to believe
 
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hello-world said:
I mean, not sure what game he was watching but WVU did not show up ready for that game and didn't really play well enough to win. I haven't seen the Gophers get that much pressure on a QB under PJ and they were doing it with three guys. KC wouldn't have been able to engineer that even if he shared all the inside info, which I doubt he did give PJ's whole 'he won't coach this game' spiel.

If Gophers were even a little bit lucky, they would have put up 35. WVU caught all the breaks and still couldn't get it done.
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They would have it if weren't for the slippery turf.
 


You have to be careful when saying things like: "Here's the reaction of West Virginia fans." That's an oversimplification.

I perused a few of their post-game threads and commentaries. Yes, I read that message but I also read some like:

"Minnesota was a bad matchup for us."

"They kind of got screwed by getting a lesser bowl and opponent than they deserved and we got screwed by getting a better opponent than we should have."

"We looked like the 6-6 team and they looked like the 8-4 team."

"Well, they were a Top10 defense."

Perhaps the majority of homers of almost any fan base are going to concentrate their post-game anguish on attacking their own coaches and/or players or on claims of being screwed in one way or another. Only a minority are actually going to credit the other team. A lot of true homers don't really watch the opposing team so they don't have much good to say about them.
 

Their coach Brown made a comment in the post-game presser that it seemed like we had extra knowledge on them or similar, but really an excuse for the poor execution on their side.

Spent time on their 247 site before and after the game and got a good feel for where they are. This was Year 3 under Coach Brown and they are very similar to GT (also in Year 3) and even Nebraska...where the coaching change was promising but is not producing even modest results. They need some coaching changes on the offensive side, and now that Doege is moving on, may get some new blood at QB. The Portal is a revolving exit door for them right now that is not helping either.

Anywho, I did come to recognize again for a big chunk of fans in other conferences across the land Minnesota means little to nothing to them as a FB program...and many think that because they don't know about us we must be bad. Obviously some truth to that over the modern football period, but that is changing...actually pretty quick. Regardless, the Eers know us now and on to 2022.
 



BilldGopher said:
Anywho, I did come to recognize again for a big chunk of fans in other conferences across the land Minnesota means little to nothing to them as a FB program...and many think that because they don't know about us we must be bad. Obviously some truth to that over the modern football period, but that is changing...actually pretty quick. Regardless, the Eers know us now and on to 2022.
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Fans can be delusional. Even fans that really should know better can underestimate the Gophers. Take Cornhusker fans as an example: Nebraska folks are quite familiar with Gopher football, and yet they still think they're better than us! They still act mortified and dumbfounded and shocked when the Gophers beat them — despite the fact that the Gophers have been whipping them pretty much annually for a good while now.

I have some people in my life who are Badgers fans. These are intelligent folks who are clear-eyed and rational in most situations, yet they simply cannot wrap their heads around the fact that Minnesota has beaten them twice in the last four matchups between the two rivals. They still act as though it has been 20 years since Minnesota even remotely threatened to be competitive against their team.
 
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BilldGopher said:
Their coach Brown made a comment in the post-game presser that it seemed like we had extra knowledge on them or similar, but really an excuse for the poor execution on their side.

Spent time on their 247 site before and after the game and got a good feel for where they are. This was Year 3 under Coach Brown and they are very similar to GT (also in Year 3) and even Nebraska...where the coaching change was promising but is not producing even modest results. They need some coaching changes on the offensive side, and now that Doege is moving on, may get some new blood at QB. The Portal is a revolving exit door for them right now that is not helping either.

Anywho, I did come to recognize again for a big chunk of fans in other conferences across the land Minnesota means little to nothing to them as a FB program...and many think that because they don't know about us we must be bad. Obviously some truth to that over the modern football period, but that is changing...actually pretty quick. Regardless, the Eers know us now and on to 2022.
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There is some truth to underestimating the traditional non-helmet schools; and this is one reason I love the bowl season so much (please CFP, don't kill it). For example, I always underestimate Utah as being less than Oregon et al in the Pac 12, but that team is tough as hell. Same with Kentucky as a little brother in the SEC. I thought Iowa would significantly out-physical them but that wasn't the case. I totally underestimated Arkansas as well.
 

Seemed like a pretty fair and balanced take. I was expecting potshots from a delusional fan who thought the Gophers were a G5 equivalent program.
 

FormerFatOL said:
There is some truth to underestimating the traditional non-helmet schools; and this is one reason I love the bowl season so much (please CFP, don't kill it). For example, I always underestimate Utah as being less than Oregon et al in the Pac 12, but that team is tough as hell. Same with Kentucky as a little brother in the SEC. I thought Iowa would significantly out-physical them but that wasn't the case. I totally underestimated Arkansas as well.
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I'll also say I overestimated WVU. They were basically Maryland with a worse offense.
 




RememberMurray said:
Does anybody else, besides me, feel that Minnesota fans are a little bit unique, because we have a tendency to underestimate how good our own team is?
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I don't underestimate the Gophs anymore under Fleck. They can play with anyone on a good day. However, the team has been inconsistent enough, especially on offense, to know which team shows up. The Gophs coulda woulda shoulda killed WVU by four touchdowns if not for red zone issues.
 

FormerFatOL said:
I'll also say I overestimated WVU. They were basically Maryland with a worse offense.
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Yes, Maryland's offense is much better but WV had a better defense than Maryland and they committed fewer penalties.
 


RememberMurray said:
Does anybody else, besides me, feel that Minnesota fans are a little bit unique, because we have a tendency to underestimate how good our own team is?
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No, I think that's just a manifestation of fan bases with long historical memories of failure. A lot of people around here seem to talk about how Nebraska fans are delusional about the quality of their football program. I do agree that Nebraska fans were very arrogant 10 years ago but when I read their threads these days I don't get much of a sense that they overestimate their program now. Sustained failure will sink into the consciousness of any fan base.
 

cjbfbp said:
Yes, Maryland's offense is much better but WV had a better defense than Maryland and they committed fewer penalties.
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You're probably right that I'm off base with the Maryland comment. Maryland probably has better athletes than WVU, at least on offense, but less discipline. Maybe I'm wrong, but my off-the-cuff feel for Maryland is that they have some very good athletes, but they are dumb as stones. I'm guessing that if team IQ tests were given, Maryland would be at the bottom of the conference.
 

Just watched and a good introspection piece from the WVU fan's perspective.

I think one thing to take away is that Coach Fleck has shown twice now that he is willing to do the hard, cold assessments of his coaching staff and pull the plug when needed. I think he does that with players too...which may explain some players inexplicably suited up but on the sidelines during games. Coach Brown has yet to show that to the Eers and the clock is ticking.

Back to the game and bowl season, in theatre there's something called the "willing suspension of disbelief" to be able to enjoy a play. The bowl season analog is "Bowl games do matter if you let them." For this game seeing the Gophers win convincingly (yes with some hiccups) against an up-and-coming program was fun. Also saw some other great bowl games too.

One more game left but all-in-all the 2021 Season delivered some fun times. Here's to 2022.
 


USAF said:
I guess if 3 straight is "annually for a good while now."
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Good one. But, we have beaten them in 6 of the last 9 meetings. I also think their fan base is very conscious of that and doesn't see our football program as below them currently as many around here like to claim.
 

cjbfbp said:
Good one. But, we have beaten them in 6 of the last 9 meetings. I also think their fan base is very conscious of that and doesn't see our football program as below them currently as many around here like to claim.
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Also 6 of the last 25. That qualifies as "a long while" in my book.

In any case, there are delusional fans in both fan bases, which is my point.
 

cjbfbp said:
You have to be careful when saying things like: "Here's the reaction of West Virginia fans." That's an oversimplification.
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Yeah rando internet fan /= fan base.

Imagine someone here making a video and people claiming that it represents the fan base.
 
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I remember the bad old days, the 70s, Nebraska 45, Gophers 3 end of first half.
 

If we had a bad defense that suddenly looked amazing it might lend some credence to the idea that we had "inside info" or that KC gave us the playbook.

But of course that isn't the case at all in that we had a very good defense and Rossi has proven very good at game planning for opponents and figuring out how to limit what they want to do on offense. I am sure KC might have given him a few insights but I doubt Rossi relied on him much at all in prep for the bowl game. He just did what he does and what has made him an amazing DC since he took over a few years ago.
 

hungan1 said:
This is a little late but is still interesting to listen to.

"Coos" (?, I can't decipher his accent) commented that the Gophers took away WVU's bread and butter play which is the screenplays. He seems to insinuate from a WV talk show that the GOphers had inside info about personnel issues. He seems to think that Kirk Ciarrrocca leaked that information to the Gophers Coaching Staff. He talked about a play where they have extra Offensive Linemen plus TEs, and the Gophers were able to sack their quarterback with just three Defensive Linemen rushers. I think he was talking about the Boe Mafe sack. Interesting perspective from the Mountaineers' side.

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Wasn’t he calling out that sack play as an indictment against the oline play? I don’t think he said that had anything to do with KC.
 

BilldGopher said:
Their coach Brown made a comment in the post-game presser that it seemed like we had extra knowledge on them or similar, but really an excuse for the poor execution on their side.

Spent time on their 247 site before and after the game and got a good feel for where they are. This was Year 3 under Coach Brown and they are very similar to GT (also in Year 3) and even Nebraska...where the coaching change was promising but is not producing even modest results. They need some coaching changes on the offensive side, and now that Doege is moving on, may get some new blood at QB. The Portal is a revolving exit door for them right now that is not helping either.

Anywho, I did come to recognize again for a big chunk of fans in other conferences across the land Minnesota means little to nothing to them as a FB program...and many think that because they don't know about us we must be bad. Obviously some truth to that over the modern football period, but that is changing...actually pretty quick. Regardless, the Eers know us now and on to 2022.
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WVU and Nebraska both have disgruntled fans. Maybe even angry or depressed. That has a familiar ring to long-suffering Gopher Football fans.

We are familiar with poor execution and planning. Under Mike Sanford, Jr., the losses against Bowling Green, Illinois, and Iowa precipitated a change in the Offensive Coordinator. Coach Brown probably will do the same to save his job and the WVU Football Program. They have one of the highest losses of players to the Transfer Portal in the calendar year 2021 (36). Does this sound like a program in distress? Their quarterback Jarrett Doege entered the Transfer Portal. They needed a change in direction at quarterback too.

Nebraska had higher-rated recruits (@ top 20-25) than the Gophers except for 2021. They didn't have the coaching. Now, Scott Frost cleaned the house and has new experienced assistant coaches with the lifeline thrown to the native son hero. They lost nine games with eight points or less with dismal coaching. Let's see what they can do with seasoned coaching. The buck stops with Scot Frost.

LOL, to many football fans outside of the Big Ten, Minnesota must be a land of tundras that the Vikings settled in. It didn't help the image of Minnesota when Interstate Batteries used to have those commercials of their batteries starting at -35 degrees below zero in International Falls. When football recruits and their families come to Minneapolis for a recruiting visit, they are awestruck. The beauty of the Twin Cities and how much the State offers. They are blown away by the football program and its culture. The key is to get them to come for a visit. The perceptions are changing under PJ Fleck.
 

btowngopher said:
Wasn’t he calling out that sack play as an indictment against the oline play? I don’t think he said that had anything to do with KC.
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The comment on a radio talk show in regards to KC leaking information and how stupefied he was that the Gophers were able to rush just three defensive guys and sack Doege are two separate things.
 

RememberMurray said:
Does anybody else, besides me, feel that Minnesota fans are a little bit unique, because we have a tendency to underestimate how good our own team is?
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Not too many fans of other schools have so many sports attractions (distractions) to shift their loyalty to when their college team sputters. So they bond tightly to those teams. Arkansas, Kentucky, WVU, Alabama, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa are examples of this.
 

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