The malaise of the Gophers
Astonishing tidbit I found on this Gopher forum:
"Starting with the year 2000, the Gophers have exactly SEVEN wins over teams that finished the season above .500 in conference play.
Mason (3): Ohio State, Northwestern, Michigan
Brewster (1): Northwestern
Kill (2): Nebraska, Nebraska
Claeys(1): Northwestern
None of those teams finished better than 5-3 in conference play, none of those teams finished in the top 3 in the conference. It is truly amazing how consistent Gopher football is: If a team is really good, Minnesota ALWAYS loses, If a team is slightly above average in conference play, Minnesota almost ALWAYS loses."
Ouch.
Minnesota fans' postgame thoughts are here.
November 5th, 2017 at 7:27 PM ^
I think it was the other way around - he wanted the job and they turned him down for Tressel.
November 5th, 2017 at 7:53 PM ^
Yeah, Minnesota was solid that year and had beaten OSU in Columbus in 2000 before we did IIRC. But rumors at the time said that Mason wanted the job but wasn't offered.
Annoyingly, OSU really hasn't made a bad permanent (eg not Fickell) coaching hire since at least 1947. Fricking 70+ years. Which is pretty amazing, I don't think there is any other school that can say that.
November 5th, 2017 at 8:50 PM ^
To their credit, when Tressel was fired no one panicked (ie. freaking out about the recruiting class) and took their lumps that season in order to make a good hire.
But they also had incredibly good timing where Meyer was available to be had. LSU hired on their interim as there were no other slam-dunk hires to be had. It will be interesting to see what Florida does.
Timing is everything and those bastards in Columbus have had it good.
November 5th, 2017 at 7:50 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 8:39 PM ^
collapse in a bowl game with a big lead (maybe 27 points) and they canned him just like that.
November 6th, 2017 at 9:16 AM ^
Hate to say, "know you place", but man, does it sure apply to schools like Minnesota.
There's a difference between wanting to be among the elite programs of the B1G, and actually having the resources (including location) to do so.
Elite schools/ programs might be able to have the expectations to compete for the conference title nearly every year. Middle tier programs have to be satisfied with bowls consistently, and truly great teams a couple of years every decade, when all the stars align.
Mason had turned Minnesota from losers to a solid program. If he were still there, I have every reason to believe they would be competing with Wisky, Iowa, and Nebraska regularly to win the west.
November 6th, 2017 at 11:44 AM ^
So true. he was the best thing they had going in forever and when they fired him it really came out of the blue. They thought they were on the edge of greatness but turned their back on the guy who built them into a respectable team. A lot of folks outside of MN were shocked at the time.
November 5th, 2017 at 6:41 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 6:52 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 10:55 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 7:13 PM ^
in the West, if they can aspire to split with Nebraska/Iowa every year and basically concede the Wisconsin game, they still have a good chance to go 6-3 or better in conference in a lot of years just by beating the bottom feeders. Their non-con is also a total joke until seeing Colorado in 2021 so they could easily get some 8-10 win seasons in the next few years if Fleck can just get them up to being decent
November 5th, 2017 at 7:24 PM ^
The campus is right in the middle of downtown Minneapolis, too. That can't help recruiting...
November 5th, 2017 at 8:09 PM ^
November 6th, 2017 at 8:43 AM ^
November 6th, 2017 at 1:49 PM ^
Well it stradles the Mississippi when gives it a lot of beauty and is in a very convenient location in the city for mass transit. The only downfall is some crime but nothing alarming.
November 5th, 2017 at 6:49 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 6:58 PM ^
I'd really like to see what Ferentz could do at a more prestigious school.
November 5th, 2017 at 7:10 PM ^
Ferentz is Ferentz. He's great for a school like Iowa, but we'd run him out of here in 3-4 years because his neolithic approach would be infuriating with the talent level we have. It works out well for Iowa
November 5th, 2017 at 7:18 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 7:59 PM ^
that was Iowa's first win over OSU since 2004 so Ferentz is something like 2-13 against OSU in 19 season (assuming they've had a few off years in there)
November 6th, 2017 at 6:37 AM ^
November 6th, 2017 at 9:32 AM ^
v. osu in 13 years but true statement
November 5th, 2017 at 10:19 PM ^
I'd really like to see what Ferentz could do at a more prestigious school.
You almost got a chance to find out.
November 5th, 2017 at 7:01 PM ^
there are structural reasons. The University of Minnesota main campus (and thus the football program) is in the Twin Cities and they are not even the most popular football team in their city never mind the state. The Twin Cities are a pro market, not a college market. And at the HS and college level, hockey is big and attracts talent and fans across the vast expanse of Minnesota.
In Iowa, Hawkeye football is king. There's no pro franchises. The Cyclones are the little brother by some margin. Nobody cares much about hockey either.
Now obviously neither is a great structural situation because of the obvious limitations, but the reality is that if you're in one of those states, you're recruiting the neighboring states as well as the leftovers from Ohio, Texas, Florida, Cali etc. anyway i.e. the guys who didn't get offers from powerhouse programs.
If I have to sell a program to those recruits..well would you rather be a king in Iowa City i.e. play on THE team in the state or just a dude in Minneapolis.
November 5th, 2017 at 7:20 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 7:34 PM ^
but in the real world, I find Iowa to be a better job than Minnesota. I think that people and resources tend to gravitate toward strengths. In Iowa, that's their football, in Minnesota that's probably hockey.
November 5th, 2017 at 8:54 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 9:12 PM ^
cancelled anything Minnesota did before the advent of color TV. And really Minnesota's glory days were the 30s with a brief revival in the early 60s. By the mid 60s they were mediocre. From 1963 to 1980 they won more than 6 games exactly 3 times. Mason's 1999 was basically their best year in 30 years.
Iowa is a persistently underrated program (which is how games like yesterday happen). In the 80s, they were the 3rd program of note in the Big Ten and since then they've been good for some really good seasons in a way that Minnesota hasn't sniffed in 50+ years. Ferentz is really just continuing what Fry started.
November 5th, 2017 at 9:24 PM ^
It's remarkable to consider that, to this day, Minnesota has more Big Ten titles than any other school besides Michigan and OSU, despite winning zero in 50 years.
(Imagine going back in time to 1941 and telling someone that Minnesota would only win two more league titles in the next 76 years. They'd think you were nuts.)
November 5th, 2017 at 7:10 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 7:12 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 7:18 PM ^
I'm about 99.9% certain that PJ Fleck is a robot programmed with every motivational cliche or metaphor a coach has ever spoken, and is set to randomly string them together. You can see right through it.
November 5th, 2017 at 7:57 PM ^
Yes. I've said it before here: PJ Fleck is an upper-middle-class Brady Hoke. He's a "culture" guy more than a brilliant coach. I wouldn't be surprised to see him at Northern Illinois in a few years.
November 5th, 2017 at 8:01 PM ^
and get promoted to a mid-level / decent P5 team where he'll flame out
November 5th, 2017 at 10:33 PM ^
November 6th, 2017 at 12:44 AM ^
November 6th, 2017 at 8:59 AM ^
Coaching cliches and metaphors and psycholibical gimmicks have been a huge part of Meyer (and Holtz before him). (That and great recruiting).
November 5th, 2017 at 8:06 PM ^
November 6th, 2017 at 8:40 AM ^
November 6th, 2017 at 10:10 AM ^
Interesting take, I have not heard any comments about Fleck that would lead me to believe there is even a tinge of disappointment. Most fans I talk to are basically saying, wait and see if he can get a QB.
Regarding Claeys, the primary sentiment I heard was that everyone agreed he wasn't really given a chance, but if you were going to make a change, you may as well do it earlier than later. Keep in mind, that was in the middle of the bad PR U of Minn. was getting about the incident with the wrestling team and a seperate incident with a couple football players. That was part of it all also.
November 5th, 2017 at 7:17 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 10:48 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 7:51 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 7:55 PM ^
in the modern college football era.
Consistent success has not been found there since the Eisenhauer administration.
Even Fritz Crisler went 10-7-1 coaching football at Minnesota (1930-1931).
Clarence Spears and Bernie Bierman are the only coaches at Minnesota to have any significant success there over 5 seasons or more:
1925–1929 | Clarence Spears | 5 | 28–9–3 | .757 |
1930–1931 | Fritz Crisler | 2 | 10–7–1 | .558 |
1932–1941, 1945–1950 | Bernie Bierman | 16 | 93–35–6 | .727 |
1942–1944 | George Hauser | 3 | 15–11–1 | .577 |
1951–1953 | Wes Fesler | 3 | 10–13–4 | .435 |
1954–1971 | Murray Warmath | 18 | 87–78–7 | .526 |
1972–1978 | Cal Stoll | 7 | 39–39 | .500 |
1979–1983 | Joe Salem | 5 | 19–35–1 | .352 |
1984–1985 | Lou Holtz | 2 | 10–12 | .455 |
1986–1991 | John Gutekunst | 6 | 29–36–2 | .441 |
1992–1996 | Jim Wacker | 5 | 16–39 | .291 |
1997–2006 | Glen Mason | 10 | 64–57 | .535 |
2007–2010 | Tim Brewster | 4 | 15–30 | .333 |
2010 | Jeff Horton | 1 | 2–3 | .400 |
2011–2015 | Jerry Kill | 5 | 29-29 | .500 |
2015–2016 | Tracy Claeys | 2 | 11-8 | .579 |
2017–Present | P. J. Fleck | 0 | 4-3 | .333 |
Totals | 32 coaches | 131 seasons | 686–498–44[13] | .570 |
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November 5th, 2017 at 10:10 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 10:17 PM ^
they weren't going to keep him away from that.
November 5th, 2017 at 11:27 PM ^
When Holtz took the Minnesota job, a reporter asked him: "How do you sleep at night knowing you face Ohio State and Michigan every year?"
Holtz replied: "I sleep like a baby. I wake up every 2 hours and cry."