Whining about a team that is 2-0?

[Rescooter]

I had to do this: I've been to both games this year - thoroughly enjoyed watching us dominate teams that we should dominate. I like what I see a lot. Here is what we have going for us:

1) A top ten running offense team
2) A defense that routinely produces turnovers and sets up the offense to score
3) Few penalties (including dumb penalties - like roughness, off-sides, too many men on the field, etc).
4) Few off the field problems
5) GPA of entire team is way up.

Kill has brought about a very needed change. Now we need to change and quit whining about things that don't matter. I do not know more than the coaching staff and I trust that they will make any changes (or hold onto certain play options/schemes) until the time is right.

Don't worry, be happy!

 

[Gopher Bandanna Guy]

I like the positivity. This is generally my attitude as well. Things could be a lot worse, and Kill has steadily improved this team, and stabilized the program.

Yeah, the passing game is a concern, as are some of the injuries. But let's sit back and see where this season takes us. Perhaps that schedule that looked so brutal a month ago may be much tamer than initially believed.

 

[60's Guy]

I had to do this: I've been to both games this year - thoroughly enjoyed watching us dominate teams that we should dominate. I like what I see a lot. Here is what we have going for us:

1) A top ten running offense team
2) A defense that routinely produces turnovers and sets up the offense to score
3) Few penalties (including dumb penalties - like roughness, off-sides, too many men on the field, etc).
4) Few off the field problems
5) GPA of entire team is way up.

Kill has brought about a very needed change. Now we need to change and quit whining about things that don't matter. I do not know more than the coaching staff and I trust that they will make any changes (or hold onto certain play options/schemes) until the time is right.

Don't worry, be happy!

Each of your five points are true. There is no point to this board if we all just go yay Jerry 24/7. The "fun"
is helping coach. Jerry ain't perfect. We've had to punt. The other team has scored. Clearly absolutely positively things are better but we are not defending Big Ten champs yet. I'm going to whine until we are. And being honest after that too because there are 100 ways to be successful and we all have our opinions how it should be done.
Jerry has thicker skin than you do.

 

[BarnBoy]

I sure would not have liked to have been visiting this site over the last two weeks had we lost. We are a team with flaws. So is every other B1G team. But we are 2-0 and have started our games 35-0 and 28-0. I'll take that every day. Onward.

 

[Rescooter]

Jerry has thicker skin than you do.

This made me laugh. Yes, to be a D1 head coach, you need thick skinned. And yes, I agree that we can't have a Jerry Pep Rally 24/7, but I think this board goes to extreme in their discussion.

They say that negative people are viewed as more intelligent than positive people. I would say that if we use that criteria; people like Wren and his ilk are geniuses.

 

[BarnBoy]

... but we are not defending Big Ten champs yet. I'm going to whine until we are.

I guess there are still those of us that give the team the benefit of the doubt until they lose. Crazy.

 

[MNVCGUY]

I sure would not have liked to have been visiting this site over the last two weeks had we lost. We are a team with flaws. So is every other B1G team. But we are 2-0 and have started our games 35-0 and 28-0. I'll take that every day. Onward.

Was listening to Vikings fan line after the Rams game and an interesting bit came up. A caller called in and was just ripping Sludge (Corey Cove) apart because he was not over the moon about the Vikings victory over the Rams and had the nerve to point out that it was against a bad opponent starting a journey man backup QB and being forced to turn to their third string guy.

Ben Lieber weighed in about the different way people look at games and he likened Sludge's approach to that of the coaches and players vs. the fan approach. For the coaches and players they are thrilled with the win but at the same time they are also looking at what they could have done better and what they need to do better in future games. Coaches/players see the big picture and get that a win is great no matter how you get it but that they also beat a very bad team. The flip side for a fan is, we blew out the Rams, everything is awesome, and all is right with the world (I realize I am oversimplifying it).

Applying that to Gopherhole we have a collection of posters in here that assume that any comment that is not 100% positive means that you don't support the team and are not happy with the win. I know I fall in line with coach/player line of thinking in that I am thrilled to death that we are 2-0 but I see a lot of things in that 2-0 that need to be improved upon going forward. We have beaten two teams we were supposed to beat and in both cases we were a double digit favorite going into the game. Again, it is great that we have done what we were supposed to do in those games, you certainly can't take that for granted, but I also don't think people should be vilified for pointing out things that are going to need to improve heading into the conference season for the team to get where we all want it to.

You can still be a fan even if you don't think everything is perfect.

 

[60's Guy]

This made me laugh. Yes, to be a D1 head coach, you need thick skinned. And yes, I agree that we can't have a Jerry Pep Rally 24/7, but I think this board goes to extreme in their discussion.

They say that negative people are viewed as more intelligent than positive people. I would say that if we use that criteria; people like Wren and his ilk are geniuses.

Hey rescooter, just the other day somebody made a comment to me saying: "you know the stupid group is a pretty large group".
That might be good to remember on message boards. lol Regarding your premise that negative people are perceived as more intelligent
which some agree with I like this philosophy: http://www.fastcompany.com/3028712/7-habits-of-highly-emotionally-intelligent-people

Go Gophers!! We will get it done!

 

[positively4thstreet]

I actually see the negative, or shall we say, more analytical takes as a positive and a testament to how we've progressed in the last 4 years. There was a time, not too long ago, when we would've gladly taken these issues coupled with a 2-0 record.

 

[RodentRampage]

It seemed there was a lot more negativity last year at this point.

Sent from my LG-L38C using Tapatalk 2

 

[CoMn]

I love this team. I would add a #6:
Special Teams
Jerry Kill has great special teams and I would take our special teams over most of the other ones...

 

[Iceland12]

Last week, after the Eastern illinois game Jerry Kill said on his show that he was happy with the result, but there was a lot of room for improvement. That's my attitude too. Wonder what he'll say this week?

 

[60's Guy]

I guess there are still those of us that give the team the benefit of the doubt until they lose. Crazy.

Well, I'm sorry to hear you are a fair weather fan. If we do lose I'm going to still be 100% behind coach Kill and the Gophers. I will give him the benefit of the doubt if we lose 10 games this year. I believe he is the right person for the job. I am not a player on the team. I am not a coach on the team. If I was, YES, for the team to be successful I need to be loyal and 100% behind Coach Kill's strategies. But I'm not. I'm a fan. Somebody who feels very poorly if the Gophers lose. My opinions of how the team does things has no effect on them....they are not listening to nor reading anybody's opinions on here...least of all mine. So as a fan, we can second guess, offer advice on how to do things but still be 100% supporters of Jerry Kill and the Gophers without endorsing his every move because we are not ON the team. If we were it would be different. As a fan it's okay to criticize in my opinion. I'll ague loudly if someone thinks Jerry Kill is not the right person to coach this team but I'm still going to
criticize him...he is not perfect. No one is. As a fan you can complain and still live and die with the ups and downs of your team. So don't paint me as someone who doesn't live and die with the fortunes of the Gopher teams and thinking somehow they can still win down 18 with 3 minutes to go. If they don't I'll have opinions what they should of done differently. I'll still be a Gopher fan and Jerry Kill is still going to be the guy I want leading them. Crazy you are going to jump off when they lose. I wouldn't have expected that from you.

 

[BarnBoy]

Was listening to Vikings fan line after the Rams game and an interesting bit came up. A caller called in and was just ripping Sludge (Corey Cove) apart because he was not over the moon about the Vikings victory over the Rams and had the nerve to point out that it was against a bad opponent starting a journey man backup QB and being forced to turn to their third string guy.

Ben Lieber weighed in about the different way people look at games and he likened Sludge's approach to that of the coaches and players vs. the fan approach. For the coaches and players they are thrilled with the win but at the same time they are also looking at what they could have done better and what they need to do better in future games. Coaches/players see the big picture and get that a win is great no matter how you get it but that they also beat a very bad team. The flip side for a fan is, we blew out the Rams, everything is awesome, and all is right with the world (I realize I am oversimplifying it).

Applying that to Gopherhole we have a collection of posters in here that assume that any comment that is not 100% positive means that you don't support the team and are not happy with the win. I know I fall in line with coach/player line of thinking in that I am thrilled to death that we are 2-0 but I see a lot of things in that 2-0 that need to be improved upon going forward. We have beaten two teams we were supposed to beat and in both cases we were a double digit favorite going into the game. Again, it is great that we have done what we were supposed to do in those games, you certainly can't take that for granted, but I also don't think people should be vilified for pointing out things that are going to need to improve heading into the conference season for the team to get where we all want it to.

You can still be a fan even if you don't think everything is perfect.

This is a great perspective. I think people assume that the homers (like myself) are in the "stupid fans, everything is great" crowd. But we see the flaws, we just choose to not to focus on them as much. I am always "glass half full" guy. If we are 2-0, let's give them the benefit of the doubt that they'll figure out a better passing game. Let's have more threads talking about how we can get the passing game back on track, not just that the QB and staff suck balls. Be more constructive.

I think part of the negativity (right, wrong or indifferent) is that we have had so many decades of failure that it's almost a coping mechanism. It allows those people to become the "I told you so" crowd as soon as something goes wrong. Like they knew better than us all along.

Many of us homers certainly don't think everything is perfect. I personally wish the "negative" crowd like you say would deal less in hyperbole. I think the vilification comes from the hyperbole. Like after his first incomplete pass, we get comments like "Leidner is DIII at best", "Limegrover should resign", "this staff knows nothing." It's just childish and trollish. Assuming you sat down with Leidner or Kill, what would you actually say to them face to face (let's say they are open to feedback)? Maybe some people would say things like that... and that's what irks me. Just differences in how people go about living their lives I guess.

 

[Deleted_User]

Wow. Some people really don't like it when their boat gets rocked even a little. Remind me to never go fishing with this crowd.

 

[BarnBoy]

Well, I'm sorry to hear you are a fair weather fan...Crazy you are going to jump off when they lose. I wouldn't have expected that from you.

Good catch. Read a sampling of my posts. I am the antithesis of fair-weather. That's not what I meant and it's my fault for poor word choice. What I meant in general terms is that I am not going to declare the sky-falling until Leidner/Limegrover/Passing Game actually start losing us games. Then (IMO) it's fair game to start being much more critical.

Let's be clear. People are not bent out of shape because we won ugly to EI and MTSU (and that is arguable). They are bent out of shape because they THINK we will lose to Iowa, WI, etc if we keep playing they way we are playing. I don't get bent out of shape over things that haven't happened yet.

All indications are that Kill runs a clean program and we are 2-0. Players/teams evolve. This team will not look the same in 4 games or in 8 games.

 

[fryguy22]

This is a great perspective. I think people assume that the homers (like myself) are in the "stupid fans, everything is great" crowd. But we see the flaws, we just choose to not to focus on them as much. I am always "glass half full" guy. If we are 2-0, let's give them the benefit of the doubt that they'll figure out a better passing game. Let's have more threads talking about how we can get the passing game back on track, not just that the QB and staff suck balls. Be more constructive.

I think part of the negativity (right, wrong or indifferent) is that we have had so many decades of failure that it's almost a coping mechanism. It allows those people to become the "I told you so" crowd as soon as something goes wrong. Like they knew better than us all along.

Many of us homers certainly don't think everything is perfect. I personally wish the "negative" crowd like you say would deal less in hyperbole. I think the vilification comes from the hyperbole. Like after his first incomplete pass, we get comments like "Leidner is DIII at best", "Limegrover should resign", "this staff knows nothing." It's just childish and trollish. Assuming you sat down with Leidner or Kill, what would you actually say to them face to face (let's say they are requesting feedback). Maybe some people would say things like that... and that's what irks me. Just differences in how people go about living their lives I guess.

This is a really solid post BarnBoy. I'd rather go in proclaiming that we'd beat TCU then be able to look back if we lose and claim I was smarter than the optimistic posters here. I have nothing against people who are realistic and point out our flaws and think we'll lose, and I don't need everyone pounding their chests claiming we'll go 15-0 this year. But I haven't seen a reason to claim the sky is falling and I'll go into Saturday's game expecting a win out of the boys

 

[diehard]

I think except for the Leidner injury this has been right to plan. Jeery isn't excited about playing TCU. Not because they are a good team with a great defense, but because his relationship with Patterson is so strong. He also knows Patterson is an excellent coach and will have his team well prepared. Same goes for Patterson.

Playing lot of Freshmen because they are talented and we need the depth. The DL injuries hurt, but Kill will adapt and keep it pretty well together. We have saved the passing attack for a reason and honed the running game. Perhaps more for establishing the OL than the RBs. I expect the passing game to open up against TCU. Expect Streveler to surprise you. Leidner would have as well. Gophers win by 10+ over a good TCU team at their place.

Our first 2 OOC games were really scrimmages against others teams. Pre-season. Gopher Football starts this Saturday.

Go Gophers!

 

[MNVCGUY]

This is a really solid post BarnBoy. I'd rather go in proclaiming that we'd beat TCU then be able to look back if we lose and claim I was smarter than the optimistic posters here. I have nothing against people who are realistic and point out our flaws and think we'll lose, and I don't need everyone pounding their chests claiming we'll go 15-0 this year. But I haven't seen a reason to claim the sky is falling and I'll go into Saturday's game expecting a win out of the boys

I have not really seen the sky is falling crowd all that much to this point. There are legit concerns about the QB play we are getting and our passing game but don't see people saying we are headed for disaster. Of course that could change quickly if we lay an egg against TCU on Saturday.

 

[fryguy22]

I have not really seen the sky is falling crowd all that much to this point. There are legit concerns about the QB play we are getting and our passing game but don't see people saying we are headed for disaster. Of course that could change quickly if we lay an egg against TCU on Saturday.

Yeah, you're right, maybe it is a "vocal minority" of even just a couple posters. I just don't think we've seen anything that would cause people to claim our 8 win season last year should only be expected every 15-20 years, or revising predictions of total victories this year down by 3+, or similar things such as those. I completely agree with the concerns (although my biggest is DL depth at this point) I just don't think it's anything we didn't already know heading into the season

 

[DMB123]

I think except for the Leidner injury this has been right to plan. Jeery isn't excited about playing TCU. Not because they are a good team with a great defense, but because his relationship with Patterson is so strong. He also knows Patterson is an excellent coach and will have his team well prepared. Same goes for Patterson.

Playing lot of Freshmen because they are talented and we need the depth. The DL injuries hurt, but Kill will adapt and keep it pretty well together. We have saved the passing attack for a reason and honed the running game. Perhaps more for establishing the OL than the RBs. I expect the passing game to open up against TCU. Expect Streveler to surprise you. Leidner would have as well. Gophers win by 10+ over a good TCU team at their place.

Our first 2 OOC games were really scrimmages against others teams. Pre-season. Gopher Football starts this Saturday.
Go Gophers!

Good post, I couldn't agree more. The offense will look a lot different this Saturday. Whether or not they'll be more successful remains to be seen, but the gameplan will be more explosive and creative than what we've seen. I think the Gophers win this game as well.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Good post, I couldn't agree more. The offense will look a lot different this Saturday. Whether or not they'll be more successful remains to be seen, but the gameplan will be more explosive and creative than what we've seen. I think the Gophers win this game as well.

I would expect the gameplan to be similar to what we will run in the BIG. We won't be able to hold back and hope to win this game so whatever they may have hidden in the first two games will be on display on Saturday. I definitely think we can win this game but it won't be easy and I will be shocked if we end up winning by over 10 points as has been suggested by a couple of people in this thread.

 

[AuEGO4]

Like Kill said with teachable moments, I will say about Gopherhole whining. It's a lot more fun to do when you are winning. I am an eternal optimist (heck I bought a brew crew t shirt), and there will always be things to critique about every game. It is much more fun to critique them when we are winning. Regardless of some of the posters on here, I enjoy hearing what people say and find it amazing that some will re-watch the game focusing on different aspects and then reporting back to GH. It makes me pay more attention to the game than just where the ball is and when will it get into the endzone. Whine away boys (and girls) and I will be reading after a hopeful victory on Saturday.
P.S. I also take a 3 day hiatus from GH after a loss cuz I just can't stand it sometimes.

 

[GhostofBronko]

Wins are wins, and I prefer 2-0 to any other combination, but unless you think this team is angling for a spot in the playoffs, the non-conference record isn't a consideration in my mind for evaluating the team (yes, it will factor in to how good a bowl bid we see). We'll know more after Saturday, but it's more than fine to evaluate this team relative to the competition it has played and point out where it needs to improve for conference play. Yes the Big Ten sucks, but there's still a chance that we'll see a team tougher than Eastern Illinois or MTSU in conference play, and there's room to improve.

 

[Deleted_User]

The memory of epic meltdowns is still fresh in my memory. Need many more memories of football conversations about big victories. Big victories are the cure all for all the negative memories.