What is the number one change you'd make to the cuurrent program?

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MplsGopher said:
Wonder if he hadn't shown as much in practice?

I think sometimes coaches get paralyzed by what they see in practice.

Sometimes, stuff just works in the pressure of the game. People focus in, plays work that didn't in practice.
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Taylor is gifted. He’s football’s version of Muhammad Ali. He floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. He approaches the line with patience. He’s here … no he’s there… then his great vision picks the spot and he’s a burst.

This is God-given talent. It wasn’t hidden the last six months.
 

if you're asking for an immediate change:

shorten the playbook. pick out the 5 or 6 passing plays that AK runs the best and emphasize those plays. right now he looks a little overwhelmed. do what the Vikes did for Culpepper and simplify the game for him. (admittedly, helps if you have Moss to throw to.....)

for a longer-term fix: find a Billionaire who likes Gopher football and have him start handing out 6-figure and 7-figure NIL deals. take the current roster - add in a half-dozen 4* players and maybe one 5* and this is a different-looking team.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
if you're asking for an immediate change:

shorten the playbook. pick out the 5 or 6 passing plays that AK runs the best and emphasize those plays. right now he looks a little overwhelmed. do what the Vikes did for Culpepper and simplify the game for him. (admittedly, helps if you have Moss to throw to.....)

for a longer-term fix: find a Billionaire who likes Gopher football and have him start handing out 6-figure and 7-figure NIL deals. take the current roster - add in a half-dozen 4* players and maybe one 5* and this is a different-looking team.
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No, he doesn't have too many plays to process. He is performing badly on all of them.

In practice this week, tell him he can never throw to the first option. He must throw to second or third. Repeat 50 times a day. It will let him get comfortable looking over the field.
 


Harrymannback77 said:
I don't know, ask the North Carolina Tar Heels OC who is also QB coach, Chip Lindsey. Seems he is doing OK with Maye.

And Phil Longo before him. Longo is making 1.25 million at Wisconsin now. If we can't cough up 1.25 for an OC with the revenue streams from BT network, etc, we have no business being a power 5 program, imo.
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Most OCs look good with Maye. And Longo is now sucking at wisky.
 

Game planning and in game coaching. Everything else seems pretty elite. That part is a good solid D and kinda has been for 7 years now.
 

Get better players. Way easier said than done. It’s not the coaches. That’s who everybody blames. The players are not as good as North Carolinas players.
 




PMWinSTP said:
Passing on first down driving for a game impacting a score with your backup QB.

Again, they decide to go aggressive in the weirdest situations.
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Correct.

Deep shot with Kramer on first.
Taking Taylor out and having Athan run a bootleg on 3rd and 2 in the 4th
Punting on 4th and 3
Passing twice after having 1st and goal from the five and settling for a field goal

Not good decisions. It’s as if they were not watching Athan perform.
 

disco said:
Here's a better idea. Hire a proven QB coach. Not someone just because they played here. The provincialism in this state makes me sick sometimes.
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My idea wasn’t provincialism. We are now past fall camp and “in the season.” Your comments assumes that a lot of “proven QB coaches” are sitting around unemployed, waiting for a call. Might be true in the off season, but I assume the opposite: now that season is well underway, there aren’t a lot of proven QB coached (who can work with PJ) just sitting around twiddling their thumbs. I also assume that the 2023 Gopher football team works on a budget and that, with the season underway, most of that budget is already earmarked. Maybe PJ has a big school-provided slush fund he can resort to, mid-season, but I doubt it. So, for an immediate hire who wouldn’t break the bank, I though of a couple of guys whose loyalty to the school might make it easier to bring them on mid-season for a one year gig. You say provincialism, I say practicality.
 

Dakota2 said:
NC brought in a new OC this year. We saw a very sophisticated passing attack yesterday. Great QB aside, the OCs first year at NC.
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You can’t say great QB aside and act like that isn’t a factor. They have a top 5 NFL draft pick at QB. Chances are he could make pretty much any offensive system work. Even ours.
 

I like Athan and I have faith he can turn it around but if we had decent QB play, we'd be 3-0 with a win on the road against a top 20 football team.

The answer is decent QB play.

Are the WRs as good as they were in 2018? Nope. But they were open enough that with semi-accurate passing, we have a big game offensively. I don't know if it's a QB coach or recruiting.

If you're talking about things I could actually change right now? No magic wand needed. I'd scrap that under center set of plays. We really only run a strange counter out of that set and then the playaction bootleg to the RB. It's obvious what we're doing when we get into that formation and we don't look comfortable. Scrap it.
 



Let's see what happens...we were psyched out chasing ghosts in game one...whole team talking about it post game. Game two we dominated the second half looking impressive. Game 3...first game on the the road and against our best opponent we were a hot mess. We are very inconsistent...is that coaching? Yes. Is that inexpereience? Yes.
Athan did look very unconfident from the start....psyched out competing with Maye comparing himself? QB play like we got isn't going to win many games against anybody. Defense forgot the substitution rules and system.
Lindenberg hurt is not helping.
Let's see what we look like at Northwestern....if we play poorly again...it's probably time to panic.
QB has to be better, receivers gotta catch the ball and run routes properly for us to improve on offense. Defense hopefully just had a bad day.
 

Harrymannback77 said:
I'll expand on your points to add Athan locks into his primary read the minute he takes the snap. It's very rare this season so far, that he drops back and you see him survey the field. It's causing him to miss open routes at various levels. And multiple times yesterday he locked in and still was behind his intended target, which was usually Jackson. He missed Crooms deep who had his man beat. He underthrew Brockington for an easy run and catch TD with his speed late in the game. He can't hit stone hands BSF who maybe has the biggest catch radius on the entire team. Its very troubling, despite this being only his 7th start. Its simple to coach a guy to not stare down option one or his primary read, yet he can't seem to do it.
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Don't disagree with what you have to say but feel like you are burying the lead a little. The 7th start part is important.....than is still a very young inexperienced player. He is not a finished product and should get better as he plays more.
 

MNVCGUY said:
You can’t say great QB aside and act like that isn’t a factor. They have a top 5 NFL draft pick at QB. Chances are he could make pretty much any offensive system work. Even ours.
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My comment pertained to the very sophisticated system they are running. Maye executes it but didn’t design it.
 


MNVCGUY said:
Don't disagree with what you have to say but feel like you are burying the lead a little. The 7th start part is important.....than is still a very young inexperienced player. He is not a finished product and should get better as he plays more.
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I pointed it out, so yeah. And he should get the year. But year 3, and the fact he had shown zero touch. Not good.
 

U2Gopher said:
This is so true. Folks bitching about play calling wouldn’t be saying a word on here had AK8 hit those three obvious TD passes for touchdowns. We’d have won the ball game and people would be talking about how aggressive the offensive game plan was. Not to mention all of the drops, of which there were several, many of which would have been first downs.

Now, I’m not ripping AK8. I fully expect him to have games where he shines and games where he looks like what he really is….an inexperienced power 5 QB, learning every week how to win games. I’m still stunned that people expect him to go out and play flawless football at this early stage. He’s gonna be fine folks. He’s gonna get better and learn to hit those receivers when he gets more comfortable, which only comes by playing in live games with the bullets flying, not practice. Folks clamoring for Kramer yesterday?? WTF?!?!?

You should all be much more concerned about receivers, experienced receivers, who can’t catch footballs.

We have found our running back.
The offensive line is progressing.
Our defense, even without Lindenburg, is stout against the run, which will play well in conference.
We have a legitimate pass rush.

Take care of business the next two weeks and we will be 4-1 after the first 5 games, and 2-0 in conference . Every damn one of you would have taken that if offered before the season started.

We are fine and headed in the right direction.
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Agreed. Said it already, but the line did more than enough to make time for Athan and were opening up good holes in the run game, our running back has all-big caliber talent (minimum) and is a frosh, and the gameplan created opportunities in the pass game yesterday where, if the passes didn't sail, get thrown behind receivers, or get deflected into defenders' hands, I firmly believe we win. We were the better team, defense settled in and eventually caved because the offense couldn't keep them off the field.

The problem wasn't the OC or the role players. It was AK, and to a lesser extent BSF's hands, and if those issues were reversed we're having a completely different convo this week. My only hope is that AKs performance to this point is because he's only a sophomore and that he improves as the season progresses.

None of our end of season goals were ended yesterday except finishing undefeated. We can still keep the Axe, claim the pig, win the west, win the Big, and win the natty. Time for Louisiana.
 

Replacement Gopher said:
Correct.

Deep shot with Kramer on first.
Taking Taylor out and having Athan run a bootleg on 3rd and 2 in the 4th
Punting on 4th and 3
Passing twice after having 1st and goal from the five and settling for a field goal

Not good decisions. It’s as if they were not watching Athan perform.
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Punting on 4th and 3 is not agressive or a weird situation.
 

Patience, this schedule is tougher than last year's, and the next year's with the West Coast teams coming in may also be a real challenge.
It will be apparent in a couple of years if PJ is the coach that will get MN into the playoffs and if not is the AD satisfied with mediocrity?
 


Number 1 things we need right now is 12 months of improvement. Athan hasn't played live for a full season in 3 of his last 4 years/ I believe because he was injured his senior year. He just needs some fine tuning, as do his play callers. If they can keep the rest of the team solid, I believe next year could be special. I still think we can be an 8 or 9 win team this year, but to go to the next level we need Athan to be a star, with Taylor in the back field and a continued solid D.
 

golfing18now said:
Until the Gophers recruit like a top 20 team in the nation, they will have a hard team competing like one. We can complain about coaches, play calls, schemes, practice facilities, etc. but the biggest difference between the Gophers and North Carolina, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and others is talent.
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I agree with this one 100%! I've been told I'm a star chaser for wanting better recruits. I truly thought with the buildup of Flecks supposed recruiting prowess, Fleck would significantly improve recruiting and we would win the Division in the future.

I'm here to say that has NOT happened! While we have improved, the needle has just barely moved and just imagine if we'd have been playing in the East.
 

DanvilleGopher said:
I agree with this one 100%! I've been told I'm a star chaser for wanting better recruits. I truly thought with the buildup of Flecks supposed recruiting prowess, Fleck would significantly improve recruiting and we would win the Division in the future.

I'm here to say that has NOT happened! While we have improved, the needle has just barely moved and just imagine if we'd have been playing in the East.
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Geographically Minnesota is among the least talented spots to recruit to in the nation. At least Fleck has us beating out Iowa and Wisconsin for a lot of top guys in the region now.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I like Athan and I have faith he can turn it around but if we had decent QB play, we'd be 3-0 with a win on the road against a top 20 football team.

The answer is decent QB play.

Are the WRs as good as they were in 2018? Nope. But they were open enough that with semi-accurate passing, we have a big game offensively. I don't know if it's a QB coach or recruiting.

If you're talking about things I could actually change right now? No magic wand needed. I'd scrap that under center set of plays. We really only run a strange counter out of that set and then the playaction bootleg to the RB. It's obvious what we're doing when we get into that formation and we don't look comfortable. Scrap it.
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I feel like the under center bootleg plays have been working well most of the time. I know the 4th down one didn’t and I think the bad pass INT vs Nebraska was one. My only knock on it is that it’s becoming obvious at this point.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Passing on first down driving for a game impacting a score with your backup QB.

Again, they decide to go aggressive in the weirdest situations.
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The pass play was open for a TD if a decent throw is made. I can’t rip that play call that much.
 

btowngopher said:
The pass play was open for a TD if a decent throw is made. I can’t rip that play call that much.
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That's sort of the point with calling that play...backup in, third best QB arm for a longer throw, cold off the bench.
 

We lost a game to a superior opponent. Drake Maye and the UNC receivers were really really good. AK8 played like shit and we couldn't score points. We probably should have run more. Teams usually play bad when their on a the road against a tough opponent, that's what happened to us. Cleary there was some communication issues on defense and the deep ball from the backup was a bad idea. Hopefully we can change our best and clean up those mistakes for the Northwestern championship season.
 

FanSinceTheFifties said:
Certainly true. Now how do you get top recruits to agree to come to Minneapolis? To answer that, we ought to ask those who won't why they won't. With proper interviewing techniques, we might find out why
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You pay them more than other programs. It's really that simple.
 

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