Why don't we ever get to have nice things

[gopherdudepart2]

Snatching certain victory from them with a nice drive to giving them a chance they should never have had. Tough to see Lucy pull away the football again. Gopher football may be cursed, but that would be letting today's loss off to lightly. This was not a good Penn State football team. Beyond dissapointed that I let my expectations 4 this team to rise. Should have expected the self sabotage and mistake. Been Gopher fan long enough to know losing games in new and uninteresting way's happens to the Gophers.The Gophers beat themselves today.Hence the perputiuity of never contending in the Big 10and same old Gophers. Only the players can change this negative perception b ynot letting their opponents off the hook. Coaches come an go ,faces change yet being the goats that never get the last laugh doesn,t change. Who will be the change?

 

[MGGopher]

Were you honestly surprised today? After what I saw against Oreg St, I had a feeling it'd be another very average season. If you believe in this staff's ability, you believe they can improve greatly as the season goes on. Coupled with players returning from injuries and suspension, you might see a much better team in 5 weeks. I highly doubt it, but it's certainly possible.

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[Gopher028]

Ha, we lost our only trophy, the broken liberty bell....

and I dont think were getting the pig, axe or chair, either.

 

[IceBoxGopher]

I get the sentiment about this team never really being elite or anything, but I also get where the Op is coming from. Gophers were in position to win this one multiple times and just couldn't get it done, and the feeling of losing the way they did is so familiar. At the same time, Tennessee had a last second hail mary to win the game, I too wonder why we can't have something like that.

 

[John Galt]

Here's why we don't have nice things:

1. Minimal football talent at the high school level. On average, we get 5-6 high school players from MN per year.
2. Subpar recruiting nationally. Recruiting rankings do matter, and we simply don't have as much talent as the schools we want to play with.
3. Limited university support for football. People accept 6-8 wins as just fine. We aren't willing to pay $3-5 million for a top flight coach.

That's really all there is to it.

 

[gopherdudepart2]

Were you honestly surprised today? After what I saw against Oreg St, I had a feeling it'd be another very average season. If you believe in this staff's ability, you believe they can improve greatly as the season goes on. Coupled with players returning from injuries and suspension, you might see a much better team in 5 weeks. I highly doubt it, but it's certainly possible.

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Penn State had a depleted defense. Yes l fully expected Gophers to win and then play with confidence the rest of the year. This was football game the gophers should have won. Losers lament, The whine of a violin gets old when you the same ending happesn in games year after year .The Gophers are more than due a lucky football bounce their way.I thought #7 Travis played great so did Richardson, but they let a couple chances to seal game slip by. #7 too Leidners a senior QB can't throw pick he threw. Took likely points off the board. Bad throw and decision. He didn'follow through just like overtime.Same badhabbits and movie Ending. Even Mitch has to learn to win.

 

[IceBoxGopher]

Here's why we don't have nice things:

1. Minimal football talent at the high school level. On average, we get 5-6 high school players from MN per year.
2. Subpar recruiting nationally. Recruiting rankings do matter, and we simply don't have as much talent as the schools we want to play with.
3. Limited university support for football. People accept 6-8 wins as just fine. We aren't willing to pay $3-5 million for a top flight coach.

That's really all there is to it.

I get that mentality and agree with it to an extent. At this point, I don't think Minnesota will ever be Alabama or Ohio State. However, I think what GopherDude was meaning was why can't even the games go Minnesota's way.

Vs Penn State today they had a chance, multiple chances really, to win but had another gut wrenching defeat.
Last year vs Michigan had the chance to win right in front of them and they didn't get it
2014 vs Illinois, had the talent to beat them, would have probably meant even a better bowl or finish maybe, and they couldn't do it.
2013 vs Syracuse, had the talent in my view to win that bowl game and finish 9-4 and they flopped.
It goes back to the 06 game vs Texas Tech, 05 vs Wisconsin, 03 vs Michigan.

Once again, I agree with your assessment about recruiting, what Minnesota has in its own backyard and university support. At the same time, though, I also know that Minnesota, while maybe not as good as the elite in the country, have been able to compete, have wins right in front of them and have the victory snagged away, leaving fans, myself included feeling like we were blindsided.

More or less, games like today's just really suck.

 

[gopherdudepart2]

Here's why we don't have nice things:

1. Minimal football talent at the high school level. On average, we get 5-6 high school players from MN per year.
2. Subpar recruiting nationally. Recruiting rankings do matter, and we simply don't have as much talent as the schools we want to play with.
3. Limited university support for football. People accept 6-8 wins as just fine. We aren't willing to pay $3-5 million for a top flight coach.

That's really all there is to it.

dont 'agree about lack of high school talent. I think guys get overlooked because we lack spring ball, 7on 7 leagues, and home grown talent takes longer to develop because of less playing time and games. That is our disadvantage not athletes in MN. I think local talent is better tha perception. We will never be close to Texas or Alabama but we still enough guys that we should be able to be better.Todays loss was eerily similar to not winning Michigan game last year and again it slipped away.This program has got to earn to finish throws, tackles,and blocks and catches. Like coach Kill used to say play to whistle. Minnesota has , nothing is given to the Gophers.

 

[salzie]

I get that mentality and agree with it to an extent. At this point, I don't think Minnesota will ever be Alabama or Ohio State. However, I think what GopherDude was meaning was why can't even the games go Minnesota's way.

Vs Penn State today they had a chance, multiple chances really, to win but had another gut wrenching defeat.
Last year vs Michigan had the chance to win right in front of them and they didn't get it
2014 vs Illinois, had the talent to beat them, would have probably meant even a better bowl or finish maybe, and they couldn't do it.
2013 vs Syracuse, had the talent in my view to win that bowl game and finish 9-4 and they flopped.
It goes back to the 06 game vs Texas Tech, 05 vs Wisconsin, 03 vs Michigan.

Once again, I agree with your assessment about recruiting, what Minnesota has in its own backyard and university support. At the same time, though, I also know that Minnesota, while maybe not as good as the elite in the country, have been able to compete, have wins right in front of them and have the victory snagged away, leaving fans, myself included feeling like we were blindsided.

More or less, games like today's just really suck.

Agreed

Just frustrating to lose to bad Penn state team

 

[beavergopher]

I get the sentiment about this team never really being elite or anything, but I also get where the Op is coming from. Gophers were in position to win this one multiple times and just couldn't get it done, and the feeling of losing the way they did is so familiar. At the same time, Tennessee had a last second hail mary to win the game, I too wonder why we can't have something like that.

Because Mitch would have thrown the pass five yards over the head of the reciever?

 

[John Galt]

I get that mentality and agree with it to an extent. At this point, I don't think Minnesota will ever be Alabama or Ohio State. However, I think what GopherDude was meaning was why can't even the games go Minnesota's way.

Vs Penn State today they had a chance, multiple chances really, to win but had another gut wrenching defeat.
Last year vs Michigan had the chance to win right in front of them and they didn't get it
2014 vs Illinois, had the talent to beat them, would have probably meant even a better bowl or finish maybe, and they couldn't do it.
2013 vs Syracuse, had the talent in my view to win that bowl game and finish 9-4 and they flopped.
It goes back to the 06 game vs Texas Tech, 05 vs Wisconsin, 03 vs Michigan.

Once again, I agree with your assessment about recruiting, what Minnesota has in its own backyard and university support. At the same time, though, I also know that Minnesota, while maybe not as good as the elite in the country, have been able to compete, have wins right in front of them and have the victory snagged away, leaving fans, myself included feeling like we were blindsided.

More or less, games like today's just really suck.

Fans always remember the games that we almost won and forgot the ones we fortunate to win. 1 or 2 plays was the difference in our wins this year vs. CSU and Oregon St. 1 play was the difference last year in beating CSU and Ohio. In 2014 we beat Nebraska when BBC stripped the ball from their WR to end the game. We beat Purdue that year after Santoso kicks a 50+ yard FG and Thompson gets an INT to ice the game. We won at Indiana in 2013 when our LB recovered their lateral to end the game. It goes both ways. The problem is that our heartbreaking losses are often against teams that are better than us. The main problem is we have less talent and therefore less margin for error.

 

[John Galt]

dont 'agree about lack of high school talent. I think guys get overlooked because we lack spring ball, 7on 7 leagues, and home grown talent takes longer to develop because of less playing time and games. That is our disadvantage not athletes in MN. I think local talent is better tha perception. We will never be close to Texas or Alabama but we still enough guys that we should be able to be better.Todays loss was eerily similar to not winning Michigan game last year and again it slipped away.This program has got to earn to finish throws, tackles,and blocks and catches. Like coach Kill used to say play to whistle. Minnesota has , nothing is given to the Gophers.

Think about it like this. An average recruiting class is about 20 players. We probably average 5-6 from Minnesota per year. How do you think our team would perform if the coaches took 12 -15 MN kids per year? We'd be far worse off than we are right now.

 

[Pompous Elitist]

We don't yet have average Big Ten recruiting classes so we are not likely to go 4-4 or better every year without above average scheme, coaching and development, and discipline. That doesn't preclude good seasons from happening but less likely. We should enjoy any season we improve in the win column, the "eye test", etc. it's going to be a long slow grind to the upper tier of the Big Ten. It sucks, but lower realistic expectations will allow everyone to enjoy the games more. Doesn't mean we should settle for mediocrity or poor coaching. But, we also can't afford massive buyouts every 3-4 years.

 

[John Galt]

GH lies that some continue to believe: "but but but but recruiting rankings don't matter. We get players that "fit" our system. We can get them "coached up."

 

[salzie]

GH lies that some continue to believe: "but but but but recruiting rankings don't matter. We get players that "fit" our system. We can get them "coached up."

The 180 of that is some gopher fans have unreasonable recruiting expectations. They're rooting for wrong team if they expect top 25 classes


Mn is a 3 star school. They'll need rely on recruit and development and have ups and downs. You hope ups lead to better recruits