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 8:01 PM ^
Seems like that's the rule with them. For what it's worth "Fleck" means "stain" in German and that sounds about right.
November 5th, 2017 at 8:02 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 8:35 PM ^
Man, 11 coaches in the last 45 years.
November 5th, 2017 at 8:39 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 7:55 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 7:59 PM ^
Also, don't feed us the line "Greatest fans in college football." Great fans don't leave garbage scattered all over the place when they go home. I noticed this in 2014 on the golf course and wondered if it was because the fans were mad from their team getting whooped. Not so. I kind of get leaving dead beer cans on the ground, there were enough bums, neer-do-wells, and Cub Scouts sweeping the property for the can deposits to take care of that. But the rest of the trash, lots of it, was disgusting and it rankled me.
November 6th, 2017 at 3:09 AM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 8:02 PM ^
At the end of the day though Minnesota and Wisconsin do not produce enough athletes to sustain dominate programs. Wisconsin does a better job recruiting outside of that area and will always beat Minnesota for recruits.
Also it’s bloody cold there.
November 6th, 2017 at 7:27 AM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 8:29 PM ^
Interesting history. I knew Crisler brought the winged helmet from Princeton, but had no idea Crisler coached Gophers before then
November 5th, 2017 at 8:17 PM ^
This was said below, but I think Mason's firing was one of the most inexplicable in the Big 10 in recent decades. As I recall, they collapsed in the 2nd half of a bowl game & he was out. Someone forgot to tell the AD that they were in a bowl game. Given the history of Gopher football prior to Mason, while producing players like Barber, Mahoney etc., I think keeping him should have been a no brainer.
November 5th, 2017 at 10:23 PM ^
firing at IU was a similarly dumb move
November 5th, 2017 at 9:03 PM ^
That’s gotta make it worse, right?
November 5th, 2017 at 9:38 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 10:27 PM ^
i yelled at fleck for kicking that field goal. i have seats behind their bench. i yelled that it was a gutless move and hope that he is really happy with that 3 pts when down 4 TDs. he proceded to walk down the sideline away from me.
November 5th, 2017 at 10:34 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 10:14 PM ^
BTW, visiting that Minnesota forum, I'm surprised how negative their fans are on Fleck. I'm not totally sold on him, but he was a big catch for their program - there were a lot fanbases that wanted him. The honeymoon's already over? Or is it just post-loss venting?
November 5th, 2017 at 10:13 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 10:18 PM ^
They are the Golden Goofers.
Hiring coaches is a crapshoot. You know Bo interviewed for the Illinois job and they hired someone else. Shortly after that, he was hired at Michigan. Can you imagine if Illinois hired him and Michigan hires a so, so or bad coach? What was Penn State before Joe Ped Paterno?
November 5th, 2017 at 10:21 PM ^
my answer: apparently they weren't child molesters (yet).
November 5th, 2017 at 10:24 PM ^
Fleck is the perfect coach for Minnesota as he is kind of a cartoon chariacature of a coach.
November 5th, 2017 at 10:39 PM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 10:51 PM ^
November 6th, 2017 at 8:09 AM ^
November 5th, 2017 at 11:30 PM ^
Minnesota has a blog?
November 6th, 2017 at 7:36 AM ^
Career will trend like his wife choices. Hot to ... not so much. Good luck Minny.
Didn’t Minny have enough coach drama with Jerry Kill and Dilly Bar Claes? Bad move.
November 6th, 2017 at 7:37 AM ^
November 6th, 2017 at 12:02 PM ^
Gopher Malaise sounds like a salad I do not want to try.
November 6th, 2017 at 12:25 PM ^
The college football landscape has changed considerably since the last time the Gophers were a college football force, which I believe was somewhere from the 1940s-1960s.
Minnesota was never a real blueblood to begin with. Even back in the early days of the game, so it doesn't have the tradition, fan support and resources of a Michigan, OSU or ND to fall back on. Minneapolis is a great city, but it's hard to attract players to go play football there there. It is still pretty "away" from everything, even if you're in the Midwest. Cold as hell during the winter, the program has never really had a period of dominance that anyone other than our grandparents would remember, and while Minnesota is a pretty good school, it's not a Michigan or a ND that recruits would sit there and say "well at least I'm getting a top-flight education if nothing else." There's also far more schools to choose from now. Minnesota sadly has a lot of built-in disadvantages that you really just can't get around. Or it's just very difficult to get around them.
Of course, I'm a firm believer in the idea that the right coach can make any school a winner, regardless of what kind of resources the school has at its disposal. A program like IU or Minnesota can contend on a national stage with the right guy. How else do you explain Boise State under Chris Petersen? He routinely whipped the crap out of schools with FAR superior talent and far more resources at their disposal. PJ Fleck could create something similar at Minnesota if he stays long enough.