Worst Offense in Gopher History

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Todd McTodderson

Todd McTodderson
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This past season was hard to watch, we all know that. Mainly because we had one the worst offenses ever. Here are a few interesting stats:

1.) The offense ranked 113th out of 120 teams in the FBS
2.) The offense had 32 touchdowns
3.) The Gophers completed 34% of third down conversions
4.) Adam Weber continued to regress as a quarterback. He threw 15 interceptions and only had 13 TD's.
5.) We averaged 3 yds a carry in our rushing game. Remember the good years with Maroney, Barber, and Russell?
6.) Our leading rusher was Bennett with 395 yds. Gray had 277 yds with 50 less carries.

I can see why KH made fun of the Gophers during the Rose Bowl. When you think of poor programs in the Big Ten, the Gophers have to come to your mind. I can't believe there are people that are happy with going to the Insight Bowl every year. But, that is the Minnesota way.
 

You can say Weber regressed, but until Brewster gets a real offensive coordinator, it won't matter who is the QB. Fisch is the worst OC, ever, in the history of college football.
 

Statistically, we were worse last year.
 

The offense has been horrible all three years under Brewster. It is totally weird that he doesn't do everything imaginable to change it - including working Gray into the lineup, especially during and after the Illinois game. Fisch is strictly minor league at this point, but may develop - who knows? If Weber starts next year it is hard to see the Gophers winning more than 5 or 6 games, if that. Hard to imagine Alipate playing that early and Brew just won't play Gray at QB. The running game has been awful for three years.
 

Sumtimegophs said:
You can say Weber regressed, but until Brewster gets a real offensive coordinator, it won't matter who is the QB. Fisch is the worst OC, ever, in the history of college football.
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Get your hand out of Weber's pants and get a fu.ckin clue. If you watch Weber at all, you can see that he locks down on his primary receiver and oftentimes doesn't resort to his second or third option. He forces the ball to his primary receiver, and this results in either an interception or an incomplete pass. Also, if you watched Weber this year you will notice that on many short passes he would hit the receiver's foot or the turf right in front of the receiver. He also sailed many passes over the head of the receiver and couldn't lead a receiver to save his life.

On Fisch; maybe he didn't have the greatest of years this year. I think he deserves one more year and certainly doesn't deserve to be called the worst offensive coordinator in the history of college football. I don't believe that you know enough about college football to be making outlandish statements like that.
 


Boondoggle said:
On Fisch; maybe he didn't have the greatest of years this year. I think he deserves one more year and certainly doesn't deserve to be called the worst offensive coordinator in the history of college football. I don't believe that you know enough about college football to be making outlandish statements like that.
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He may not be the worst OC ever, but he was bad. But you are right he does deserve another year. Hopefully he now knows what kind of talent he has on this team and can make some adjustments to get the most out of his players. But that would involve some time of coaching, and i guess time will tell
 

Boondoggle said:
Get your hand out of Weber's pants and get a fu.ckin clue. If you watch Weber at all, you can see that he locks down on his primary receiver and oftentimes doesn't resort to his second or third option. He forces the ball to his primary receiver, and this results in either an interception or an incomplete pass. Also, if you watched Weber this year you will notice that on many short passes he would hit the receiver's foot or the turf right in front of the receiver. He also sailed many passes over the head of the receiver and couldn't lead a receiver to save his life.

On Fisch; maybe he didn't have the greatest of years this year. I think he deserves one more year and certainly doesn't deserve to be called the worst offensive coordinator in the history of college football. I don't believe that you know enough about college football to be making outlandish statements like that.
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History will prove that my statements and assessment of Fisch are not outlandish.

When you get your head out of your arse I'll get my hands out of Weber's pants.:pig:
 

Boondoggle said:
If you watch Weber at all, you can see that he locks down on his primary receiver and oftentimes doesn't resort to his second or third option. He forces the ball to his primary receiver, and this results in either an interception or an incomplete pass.
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So you're saying that on all those 3rd down passing attempts, Weber's primary receiver was the guy well inside the first down marker? It looked to me that on those types of plays, Weber didn't give the routes time to develop and dumped the ball off to the closest receiver. So he did check down, but didn't have enough patience. Granted there were times when he didn't have time to be patient, but there were many, many times when he did and just blew it by not even trying to get the ball past the first down marker.

Wouldn't it be better to try and get the first down, and throw it away if needed? Instead, Weber throws to the short route. It's a punt either way, except there'd be chance for a first down by throwing past the sticks.
 

Most telling stat:

We had, like, 4 rushes of 20+ yards.

Barf bag please!
 



The running game killed the O. The OL killed the running game. Our RBs were good enough to move the ball if they had holes to run through. If there had been holes then a great RB would have made a difference. The OL should have been better, even with the same personnel. I am confused by this because I know Davis is a very good OL coach.
 

Sumtimegophs said:
You can say Weber regressed, but until Brewster gets a real offensive coordinator, it won't matter who is the QB. Fisch is the worst OC, ever, in the history of college football.
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I don't know how anyone could honestly have this opinion. If Weber doesn't throw the ball three feet behind Stoudamire, that is a TD (instead of an INT), if Weber doesn't skip a pass to a wide open receiver in the endzone, that is a TD.

I am not proclaiming Fisch to be the next Bill Walsh, but you certainly can't blame him for Weber's inability to read a defense and throw the ball accurately (with any sort of consistancy). It is safe to say Weber is an OK MAC QB, he is a sub-par Big 10 QB.
 


We played 13 games and our leading rusher didn't even have 400 yards. It is unthinkable what has become of this offense.
 



Studwell55 said:
Most telling stat:

We had, like, 4 rushes of 20+ yards.

Barf bag please!
Click to expand...

Gray had at least that many on his own but your point is well taken. Explosive runs from the running backs were few and far between.
 

Shaw and Browning

Ah yes the good old days with Gordie Shaw and Mitch Browning, Brewster should have left the offense alone, all he needed was a decent D coordinator but no he cleaned house and brought in the spread. But no that wasn't his identity and wants to return to what we had when he arrived here. I wonder how many times he has regretted getting rid of Shaw and Browning two "loyal gopher coaches".
 

It was a terrible year. But thankfully, I suppose, it's over now. I like to think that the U of M has a lot of smart people working for it and it isn't lost on anyone how bad the offense was. I have to believe Fisch and Brewster will be working pretty hard this off season on it. Say what you will about Brew but the guy puts in work and from everything I've read about Fisch he's a hard worker too.

Looking ahead:
As for our players on the squad the QB situation both 'Quise and Adam have a lot to motivate them to get better. I'm guessing Alipate gets a look too, he's a great teammate, leader and can really throw.

If Whaley stays out of trouble by weightlifting and watching film to find the right holes to run through he'll be the starter next year. Otherwise I think a freshman, especially the kids from FL. will play a lot next year.

Our OL and WR's will need some players to step up.
Our WR's never seemed to get enough separation. I think it was GL in another thread who said our old WR coach McDonald deserves a lot of credit bringing Decker along. I think we missed coach McDonald a lot this year. On the other hand Fisch was a WR coach in the NFL so he should be able to help these kids.

Lastly our OL. I'm not an OL guy but to me this could be the position with the most turnover next year. Big young kids coming of RS years, it'll be interesting to see where the land in the 2 deep. Personally I think Wills made big strides from the player he was at the beginning of the year to now. If you take into account how much weight he dropped before the season even started, he's got a lot to be proud of. I think he comes back slimmer and stronger next year and really plays well.
 

Watching the O-line block on television.

diehard said:
The running game killed the O. The OL killed the running game. Our RBs were good enough to move the ball if they had holes to run through. If there had been holes then a great RB would have made a difference. The OL should have been better, even with the same personnel. I am confused by this because I know Davis is a very good OL coach.
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With the benefit of slow motion television replay....did you ever see ANY holes opened up by the Gopher O-line this year?

Exactly! There weren't any all year!

You've got to have an offensive line that can open holes up well enough for the running backs to gain enough yards, to make the running game a threat, which makes the passing offense more of a threat and vice/versa.

If you have no running game (right now the Gophers have NONE) this hurts your passing offense as well since the defense knows you can't run and is "pre-anticipating" a pass play.

This has to be fixed or the Gopher football team will also suck in 2010 and beyond. Even so, I'm not selling my 4 season tickets.
 

snapperstein said:
Ah yes the good old days with Gordie Shaw and Mitch Browning, Brewster should have left the offense alone, all he needed was a decent D coordinator but no he cleaned house and brought in the spread. But no that wasn't his identity and wants to return to what we had when he arrived here. I wonder how many times he has regretted getting rid of Shaw and Browning two "loyal gopher coaches".
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I agree that the problem with the football team was not the offense, it was the defense. If Brewster would have left the offense alone, and focused on the defense, we would be in a lot better shape. Or if he had made a less radical change than going to the spread and then to a pro-style offense. A triple option would have been a less radical change, for example.
 

also the worst offensive player to ever start every game for the gophers in Jeff Willis.
 


Brewster sucks...much like Wacker, we compounded a mistake by adding to his contract. Sometimes you have to just cut bait. Brewster is in over his head. PLEASE let him go back to the NFL with Schottenheimer or Shanahan, assuming one of both get jobs this winter. The Brew is a tight ends coach...nothing more.
For all those that want to disagree with me, start your list of examples of why he is a good coach, I will follow with a llist of examples that show he is a poor coach. Dollars to donuts my list will eclipse yours.
 

eag35 said:
Brewster sucks...much like Wacker, we compounded a mistake by adding to his contract. Sometimes you have to just cut bait. Brewster is in over his head. PLEASE let him go back to the NFL with Schottenheimer or Shanahan, assuming one of both get jobs this winter. The Brew is a tight ends coach...nothing more.
For all those that want to disagree with me, start your list of examples of why he is a good coach, I will follow with a llist of examples that show he is a poor coach. Dollars to donuts my list will eclipse yours.
Click to expand...

I won't make that bet, I'm positive you will have more incorrect opinions that I have correct, since this is a subjective request. :clap:
 

Subjective? You kidding me?? :confused: Horrible offense...horrible defense...horrible special teams...turn over in coaches......poor game management...the list goes on and on. those are not subjective, they are factual. As in they can be factually proven by numbers.
You can't defend the defenseless. The Gophers under Brewster are in many ways WORSE off than under Mason.
 

Horrible defense? The defense wasn't horrible, it's the best defense we've had in years. If Mason's teams had had a defense this good, we would have won a lot more games.
 

Our "worst offense ever" scored 272 points this year. 272 points is the most we scored (in 1995) in one season under Wacker.
 

RodentRampage said:
Horrible defense? The defense wasn't horrible, it's the best defense we've had in years. If Mason's teams had had a defense this good, we would have won a lot more games.
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Best since 2004,2003, and 2002 when looking at NCAA rankings for scoring defense.
 

Sumtimegophs said:
History will prove that my statements and assessment of Fisch are not outlandish.

When you get your head out of your arse I'll get my hands out of Weber's pants.:pig:
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Oh, so you admit your hands are someplace they don't belong.
 

Willis I thought was really good by the end of the year. I think too many people are hung up on his terrible start to the season and didn't allow themselves to see his improvment. I think our pass blocking ended up being pretty good. Our run blocking, not so much.
 

TCU has four players with over five hundred yards rushing - it would be nice if we had at least one.
 

charlesbenjamin7 said:
TCU has four players with over five hundred yards rushing - it would be nice if we had at least one.
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In all fairness, Maturi DID try to hire TCU Coach Gary Patterson, but Patterson withdrew his name from consideration before the decision was made.

I have been pretty hard on Coach Brewster lately. I don't hate the guy, I just don't think he is a good coach until he proves otherwise. The most disheartening thing about this team isn't the oh for bowl games or oh for the trophy games, it's all three seasons going oh for November/December in the Big Ten and postseason. We seem to get worse as the year goes on.

If the season ended after the Michigan St. game, we would all be feeling pretty good about the future of this team. Unfortunately, in what is getting to be a trademark for this coaching staff and team, we play considerably worse as the season goes on. I know Decker going down hurt us big time, but it is very discouraging watching this offense. It is just horrible and it looks like a pee-wee football team learning how to block, run, catch and execute. A lot of people are badmouthing Weber and some of the other kids, but I don't think it can all be blamed on any one individual and that includes Tim Brewster or Adam Weber. I think we really need to go back to the basics and find ourselves again. This will take some time.

The good news is there is a lot of talent on this football team. On paper, there are a lot of highly recruited kids who will be stepping in next year and some look like they are going to be very good. If we can get the offense squared away, this could be a fun team to watch.
 

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