Give 'Em Hell Goldy

Last call for a Big Ten win? Going once, going twice... - Penn State @ Minnesota

2010-10-22T14:02:00.001-05:00

Another long week for Gopher Bandanna Guy, and I didn't get to write as much as I would have liked. I watched the Purdue game through bloodshot eyes last Saturday, badly hungover from celebrating my first ever PTP (Pursue the Pennant) Title. The details of the game barely registered with me outside of the fact that we lost and let Dan Dierking run all over us. Unacceptable. A team on its 3rd-string QB, and second tier RBs and WRs, shouldn't be able to score that many points on even our youthfully bad defense. And yet it happened. And even when things seemed to look like they might swing in our direction, they turn on us. 'Hacksaw' Gary Tinsley (love that nickname from FBT), epitomized our season by stepping into the passing lane early in the 3rd quarter and picking off an errant Rob Henry pass, returning it down inside the five. But not before fumbling it out of the back of the endzone. This play felt like our entire season in a nutshell. One step forward, two steps back. The mid-season firing of Brew? I certainly didn't expect it so soon (I figured right before Iowa was the time), but let's hope this jumpstart's the search for the next coach and will be considered a strong step forward down the line.

And Weber, our all-time leading passer - continues to pile up garbage time numbers, and ascend up the Big Ten All-Time passing charts in what is becoming the most meaningless compilation of career numbers in recent memory. All those yards and TD, for so few wins. To be fair, this season's horrific slide is really Web's fault. He's played fairly well, and minimized his turnovers. His accuracy is still awful on the short throws, and that's what hurts us from time to time. But the defense can't stop anybody, and so the offense is under all the pressure to win games.

And wait, what's this? A Patrick Reusse column I ACTUALLY AGREE WITH? Wow. For a long while I didn't think this would happen, and in this one, Fat Pat actually shows a sliver of positivity that the right guy IS out there to turn the Gophers into a winning program.

But enough about the Purdue loss, and our search for the next head coach. We've got Penn State and that most milquetoast of trophies coming in - The Governor's Bell.

The Nittany Lions are probably our last, best chance to get a win in the Big Ten this season (and for the remainder of the season for that matter). They are not good. Unfortunately, neither are we. Both squads are winless in the Big Ten, and both have senior that are no doubt disappointed in how things have gone (Adam Weber and Evan Royster).

Penn State has had an extra week to prepare for this game, coming of a bye week, and have already faced two of the tougher Big Ten defenses (Iowa and Illinois), with little offense to show. But now they face the polar opposite in defensive prowess. Their QB, freshman Robert Bolden has struggled with accuracy tossing only 4 TDs to 7 picks, and Royster has not enjoyed the season many expected. Conventional wisdon would say that the prescription for these woes are to play the Gophers.

But now the Gophs are truly at rock bottom. And have nothing to play for but pride and a little personal glory. The boo-birds at TCF mean nothing now, and Brewster is gone. They know that Ohio State is looming next week, ready to beat them into submission, and they know Penn State is vulnerable. Question is, can they muster a complete effort one more time this year, and get at least 1 Big Ten win?

I think they can and will. Horton and Weber will manage to motivate these kids to play with the talent they have (pretty decent on offense), keep the game plan simple, and just play football. This game also marks my last chance of the season to make a fun 'homer' pick and take the Gophs, because I see them being double-digit 'dogs the rest of the way (maybe not at Illinois, we'll see). The PSU defense is still a bit dinged up, and that combined with a shakey starting QB on the road seems like a reasonable recipe for a decent Gopher performance. The one nagging thought in the back of my head though is Royster. He's yet to really go off this season, and this could be the game. Royster is a quality and experienced Big Ten back, and could easily gash the Gopher defense for 200 yards and multiple scores if we don't commit to stopping him.

That said, I think the defense will do just enough to keep him from taking the game completely over, and the offense will put up 30 points, mostly through the air.

Prediction: Minnesota 31, Penn State 27

Gopher Player of the Game: Adam Weber - 18-27 for 265 yards and 3 TDs

Nittany Lion Player of the Game: Evan Royster 22 carries for 135 yards and 2 TDs

Good Bye to Brew.

2010-10-19T00:16:00.000-05:00

In case you didn't hear by now, the Tim Brewster era of Minnesota Golden Gopher Football is officially over. Athletic Director Joel Maturi broke the news following the loss to Purdue, and even sent an official email to season ticket holders. Here's what it said:

Dear Gopher Football Season Ticket Holder:

I want you to be among the first to know that this morning I informed Coach Brewster of my decision to terminate his contract immediately as head football coach. While I appreciate the passion and commitment that Coach Brewster has shown, it is time for a change. In the interim, I have appointed Jeff Horton as the head coach for the remainder of the season.
This decision greatly impacts the future of Gopher Football and the goals we have for this program. Our vision is clear - to produce a team that we can be proud of and return Gopher Football to its rich history of consistently competing for championships.
I believe we are in a great position to attract the right coach to lead our program. We have a new, state-of-the-art football stadium and a world-class academic institution located in a major metropolitan market. Additionally, the Big Ten conference continues to thrive with the addition of Nebraska, divisional play, and a conference championship game.
I understand your frustration with the current state of Gopher Football. But we are convinced that we are going to find the right person to lead our program. I encourage you to continue your support of Gopher Football, and especially our student-athletes, throughout the remainder of this season and in the future.
Go Gophers,

Joel Maturi
Director of Athletics

Fair enough. I can live with Horton finishing out the season, and I agree that it had to be done. I'm am surprised it happened in mid-season, and also surprised that Maturi made this move when he could of waited Brew's contract out and let the next University Prez and AD make the big hire. But in the end, the heat had to be too much for Maturi not to fire Brewster, applied no doubt by the boosters who were rightfully demanding at least signs of improvement. Signs that were no where to be seen over the past 6 games. Maturi received a lot of heat for hiring Brewster back in 2007, but his phenomenal hire of Tubby Smith nullifies this (now clear) ineffective hire in my mind. This next hire will be the one that makes or breaks Maturi's legacy as AD (well that, and getting Tubby's extension signed).

Let the speculation on our future head coach begin.

Boiler up Big Ten bottom-feeders - Gophers @ Boilermakers Preview

2010-10-15T10:35:00.000-05:00

When we last left Ross-Ade Stadium, we shut the Boilers down
-photo by JT

Little to no time for a full detail game preview this week. Out in the field for work, and then evenings of Halo: Reach are dominating my kid-free late nights. I won't go with out a few brief words though about our upcoming game against Purdue.

Based on press clippings and cliched interview answers from the Gopher players, this team isn't packing it it quite yet. And I actually believe them. But can they win this game?

The short answer is 'yes'. Purdue has been decimated by injuries, losing QB Robert Marve, RB Ralph Bolden, and WRs Keith Smith and Justin Siller (remember when he was a briefly a QB?) for the year. They are officially wiped out at the skill positions, and that means that the hapless Gopher defense might just have a chance to slow somebody down. Limiting running QB Rob Henry and halfback Dan Dierking's yards on the ground is the no-brainer key. That happens and a Gopher win is eminent.

Purdue's defense has some strong performers, but as a unit aren't overwhelmingly good. They did play a very solid game against Northwestern, limiting them to just 17 points. Senior DE Ryan Kerrigan is a beast and will be the biggest challenge for the line to stop. If he can pressure Weber early and often, and generate turnovers, then the Gophers will be in trouble. OC Jeff Horton knows this though, and will probably dial up lots of inside runs all game, really testing the heart of the Purdue defense, rather than exposing Weber to 5 step drops and the shotgun early. The O-line has done a nice job limiting sacks this year, so let's hope their improved play continues. Lots of running mixed in with play action and screens. Look for the Boilers to have our effective TE screen snuffed out this week, as I'm sure that will be a play they watch on film closely from the Wisconsin game.

Prediction: Gopher pull the minor upset, grabbing the late lead in the 4th quarter.

Minnesota 27, Purdue 21

Gopher Player of the Game: MarQueis Gray, 125 yards receiving and 1 TD
Boilermaker Player of the Game: Dan Dierking, 95 yards rushing and 2 TDs

Minnesota @ Wisconsin: What We Learned

2010-10-13T22:01:00.000-05:00

Ahhhhrrrrg! The RED - it burns!
Photo by JT

Another Axe game come and gone. Another football loss to the Badgers. We keep this up a few more years and they might actually end up with the all-time wins edge that we’ve maintained for so long. That has always been the last refuge of the Gopher fan assaulted by Badger ‘we always beat Minnesota’ nonsense. If we lose that edge we have nothing else. Yes, 6 National Titles and all that are nice, but they garner us zero respect these days. Which is not to say that we shouldn’t bring it up, we should embrace our history as Coach Brew reminded us all when he first came to Minnesota.

And now, we need to remind him that by embracing our rich football history, its time for him to leave at the end of the 2010 season. And by that I mean – we’re 0-7 in our historic rivalry games (sorry PSU, I’m not counting you and that lame-o bell, but that would make us 0-9). These are two teams that we proudly hold the all-time wins edge over through the decades, and it must be maintained. Brew can’t win the ‘trinket games’, to borrow a phrase from Grinnin’ Glen Mason, and that’s a history this program can no longer afford to continue creating. I must admit that I might not have felt this way, had we seen another typical Brewster-era Wisconsin/Minnesota game, you know – where we actually had at least a chance to win in the end. But that’s not what happened. We got spanked, and couldn’t even muster a strong enough effort to be competitive.

I said to KZ in the closing moments of this game that this showing against Wisconsin was the last nail pounded into Brewster’s waiting coffin. I only half-heartedly believe this, because of the whole ‘outgoing University president, lame-duck AD’ issue going on in the background. It seems likely Maturi would be pressured by the big boosters to can Coach Brew by the end of the year, but whether he breaks down and actually does it is another issue. But even if we go winless the rest of the way, as long as Brewster doesn’t lose control of the team, I can see that there are a few pros to keeping him around for fulfill his final contract year. For me, they’re just not enough to warrant a 5^th year. Yes, I’m aware I’m late to the ‘fire Brewster’ party and I’ll admit he had me pretty snowed in years 1-3. I was happily awash in the positivity that Glen Mason never provided. And while I've been critical of Brewster in the past for his inability to maintain continuity at coordinator, and some of his hires (Jedd Fisch anyone?), I've given him more of a pass than I should for his inability to win games, using patience as a shield, thinking there was something at work we just needed to wait for it.

However, you won’t catch me booing or chanting for Coach Brew’s head, as I still have a high amount of respect for him, and all the hard work he puts in, despite the frustrating results. And I won’t give up on this team. I like too many of our young players and am too emotionally invested in quit on them now. But I digress, back to last Saturday’s game.

As tough as it was to watch (aside from the decent 2nd quarter showing) there were at least a few enjoyable moments of this game.

What I liked:

1) The new white helmets to go with the all-white jersey and pants. Very sharp. I wasn’t a huge fan of the white/white road duds, but add the white helmets and suddenly they become far more fashionable.

2) The play of Da’Jon McKnight, Eric Lair, and MarQueis Gray. I called for a ‘breakout game’ for McKnight, and while 2 catches for 50 yards is certainly not that, I did get two magnificent TD catches in garbage time. The other 2 made some nice catches as well, and I'm really liking that TE screen that they run for Lair.

3) Bielema deciding to go for 2 while up 25 with 6 minutes to go. Not that I liked the call, but I did like what resulted from the call. By Bielema going for two, we got to - A) stop them from getting 2 more points (phew); B) See Brewster get fired up and pissed off (I love surly Brewster) and; C) it will reinforce the rest of the Big Ten coaching ranks rumored dislike of Bielema. National media consensus also seems to be that it was a asshole call. Not shocking though, we’re talking about a guy who went to Iowa here. What goes around comes around.

4) The number of frosh and sophs on the field during the game who got to experience the bitterness of losing the axe first hand. Hopefully these kids will remember well, and win it back soon!

What I loathed:

1) Getting off to a solid start running the ball into Wisconsin territory, only to have to settle for a field goal because we decided to throw the ball 3 times in a row.

2) The blown call on the Kendricks fumble caused after ‘forward progress’ early in the 3rd on the Badgers opening possession. It was a clear strip and fumble. And there was no audible whistle on the broadcast until the ball came out. A garbage call, and a big momentum changer if it goes Minnesota’s way.

3) Going for it on 4th and 2 at the fifty with 10:30 to go in the 2nd. Yes we were down 14, but not getting the conversion there and giving the Badgers a short a field could have put us down 21-0 and the game essentially out of reach very early. Luckily we picked it up, and got a stay of execution.
4) The lack of energy out of the Gophers. Maybe I mistook it for the team trying to control their emotions, but only Weber seemed really pumped up.

5) All the damn red. ARGGGHH it burns my eyes!

And what did I learn? Well every week it’s something new. I learned that our trio of receivers, McKnight, Gray, and Lair could actually become one of the Big Ten's best units, and Gray's play in particular will make it tough to send him under center next year (unless he becomes the next Denard Robinson?). And I learned that turning off the TV immediately after the clock reads 0:00 is a good choice when we lose this rivalry game (I used to watch the post game celebrations as penance).

I also got some reminders of stuff I already knew. Namely, that stats lie, and no amount of can-do attitude will necessarily translate into a win. Case in point - in Adam Weber's 4 games versus Wisconsin, he's put up some impressive numbers - 63 completions, 1,074 yards and 11 TDs (1 rushing), with only 4 interceptions. Pretty good QB #s, and it means nothing as Web is 0-4 to show for it. And speaking of Web, all this nonsensical talk about his NFL prospects should shut down until he can throw a football accurately. I don't care what Peyton Manning said about him at his camp, he's passing the ball at under 60% a clip, and for college that ain't good. Accuracy has a high value in the NFL, and Weber doesn't have it. And lastly, I was again reminded what a jackhole Bielema is (although, admittedly I hadn't completely forgotten).

A trip to West Lafayette and a battle with Purdon't coming up next. Time to jump off the mat, snatch that hammer out of Purdue Pete's hand, and give the Boilers the beatdown that my safety school so richly deserves.

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin': Bielema claims he went for 2 in the 4th, up 25 (score was 41 - 16) with 6 and a half to go because that's what his "how to be an asshole" chart says. The over/under on the game was 58, and getting 2 would have put the total score on the 'over'. Obviously moot, once Minnesota scored its last TD, but an interesting coincidence?

The Crew's Brew of the Week (Big Ten Week 2) - Bud Light Chelada

2010-10-11T23:25:00.000-05:00

photo courtesy of Esquire.com

The disgusting performance last Saturday surely deserves a disgusting beer. So here you have it, Budweiser's 'Chelada.

For me, it's highly appropriate after the Gopher/Badger tilt. You get golden Bud Light mixed with red Clamato, two products I've consumed on their own and enjoyed in their own way. At first thought, you might think that flavoring up a watery Bud Light with some salty, savory clam and tomato juice might just work. Much like you might think mixing up Golden Gophers with the Red Badgers might make for a great football game (it has in Brew's recent past). But sadly, sometimes these combos just don't work out.

Esquire.com states this beverage "looks like grapefruit juice, and tastes like the worst Bloody Mary you've ever had." Sounds kinda like That sounds like a challenge to me, as I've had some absolutely abhorrent Bloody Marys. Really though, if this faux beer is that bad, Anheiser-Busch should consider advertising this as a healthy beer, lo-cal and loaded with tomato-ey vitamins and minerals. That or just scrapping it altogether, since we can pretty much make this concoction up on our own at home. It's pretty much as pointless as 'Bud Light Lime'.

And if we can't muster a better showing versus Purdon't this week, we might have to switch this weekly post's title to Crew's Liquor of the Week, which makes far less sense, given our head coach's nickname. Come on Gophs - don't let that happen!

'What we learned' post coming late tomorrow night. Drink up Gopher fans.

Brewster's last bid for the Axe? - Gophers at Badgers #120

2010-10-08T14:16:00.002-05:00

The game culminating Axe Week is nearly here, and its been a pretty quiet week from Coach Brew and the Gophers. One can only assume he's working dilegently with his staff to find a way to finally beat Wisconsin. He's come close each time he's coached against the Badgers, but come up short all 4 times. Its been pointed out several times this week by various sources that Brew has managed to lead at halftime in every one of his games against the Badgers. That's nice and all, and its clearly and improvement over some of the blowouts we had to endure under Mason against the Red Menance (particularly at Camp Randall). But winning is what is important, and at this point in the Brewster era, moral victories or leading for 3 quarters count for nothing. And much like last week, the cliched term 'must-win situation' comes to mind. If Brewster really is coaching for his life, then this rivalry game is one of the few remaining tests Brewster has an opportunity to really impress the boosters and fanbase that things really are going to get better in 2011. In nearly 4 years of play, we've had zero trophy game wins, and that might be the most damning piece of evidence against Brewster when compiling a case to remove him. Throw all the other stuff out the window, his lack of wins against Wisconsin and Iowa has been unacceptable. When your current signature win is a road win at Illinois or Northwestern, that's a problem. This current, or next Minnesota Golden Gopher Football Head Coach MUST find a way to beat these two hated rivals on a more regular basis. And what better time than right now to do it this Saturday. It may not save Brewster's job, but it might help his resume a bit when he's looking for work come December...

The Badgers are holding their homecoming this week, and are coming off a disappointing loss to Michigan State, from a game several Badger fans I talked to felt they should have won. They'll be hungry for a win and to get their B-10 season back on track. But with the marquee Ohio State night home game coming up next week, and a road trip to Iowa after that, this has some of the hallmarks of a 'trap game'. Clearly the Badgers have bigger fish to fry, and this stretch will make or break their season. Badger head coach Brett Bielema has stated that they are in the mindset of taking one game at a time, but this is just typical coach-speak. The reality is that the Badgers will likely be looking to tune up their game against a lesser opponent this week, and save their best for the big dogs.

Minnesota will need to play their best defensive game of the year to have a chance this Saturday. It starts with stopping running backs John Clay (6.2 ypc), Montee Ball (4.4 ypc), and emerging frosh, James White (8.3 ypc). No small task, given the O-line they run behind, which is mammoth and experienced. Cosgrove and Lee will likely load the box up with 8 and even 9 most of the game, and the Badgers know this. This is going to leave our inexperienced secondary even more vulnerable, especially to play action. And although the Badger receiving corps has underachieved based on expectations (as has QB Scott Tolzien), they will be wide open all game even if we can slow the run game down. Tolzien will likely feast on playaction passes, unless Cosgrove dials up some perfectly timed blitz calls. So I feel pretty negative about our defensive chances in slowing the Badger offense. Like the game versus Northwestern, generating turnovers is the primary (and best) way the Gopher defense can equalize things.

On offense, only giving the Badgers a dose of their own ball-control medicine will allow the Gophs to keep pace. One of the 3 RBs needs to have a solid game. Last week it was Eskeridge. How about Bennett stepping up this week? It's going to take solid O-line play for that. But Wisconsin's defense is not fearsome, and we should be able to put 20-25 points on them. And if 'Good Web' shows up for 4 quarters, and MarQueis is really over his plantar facitis, getting in the 30-35 points range is possible. Lair seems to be improving weekly, and McKnight seems primed to have a breakout game. So the pieces on offense are there to score enough points. As usual, execution is the key. Will Brew and Horton dial up some trickeration this week in order to get some drives extended? It seems likely, but those kind of plays only work so often.

On special teams - I have one great fear. Oreske's long hold and release on on punts. NIU blocked on on us. NU nearly did. And Wisconsin would be foolish not to pin their ears back and come after the punter early and often. Oreske's GOT to get a little quicker on his catch and release. He holds that ball back there for what feels like an eternity, and I don't want to see this game go down like it did in 2005.

See, its not all coloring books at UW
-photo courtesy UW Library system

But can the Gophers go into Camp Randall and the polyester red haze and somehow beat the Badgers? There's a chance, and more than just of the 'any given Sunday/Saturday' variety. This team has nothing to lose right now. Losing to South Dakota probably sucked most of the confidence right out of the team. The loss to NIU took whatever was left of that confidence, put it in a headlock, and suffocated the life out of it. And then when the Big Ten opener looked like a chance to build confidence anew, the final 2 minutes of that game put us right back to where we started. Now there's absolutely nothing left to lose. Pride is likely all this team has left, and while a majority of Gophers fans are running on empty, I think the players still have plenty. And even with Wisconsin heavily favored and laying 22 points for this game, pride might be enough. But probably not. All that said, I, while I believe the offense will have a respectable showing and keep the game from becoming a blowout, I simply don't have confidence that the defense has much hope in stopping the Wisconsin run game.

Prediction: Wisconsin 31, Minnesota 23

Badger Player of the Game: John Clay - 18 carries, 120 yards, 2 TDs
Gopher Player of the Game: Da'Jon McKnight 7 catches 90 yards, 2 TD

Final note: Coach Brew - you may be a dead man walking, but don't let that stop you from improving your resume here. Get that AXE! Goooooooooo GOPHERS!

Random Dead Badger Pic of the Day

2010-10-08T09:46:00.000-05:00

Last one for the week. Let's get that Axe!

Gophers vs. Badgers- Border Battle Game Preview (the Badger angle)

2010-10-07T12:41:00.002-05:00

Badger fans called him 'Nutpunch Decker', but look at Blake Sorensen
molesting Minneosota's favorite receiver - photo by Gophersports.com

Like last week, we've got another opposing fan's perspective on the week's upcoming game. This week its good friend and Wisconsin alum, Roger Murdock. You may recall last season I lost a bet with Roger, and had to don the cardinal and white for an evening of post-work drinking. That same bet is on for this year, and I am dreading the possibility of having to wear another article of Badger apparel. Roger would look much better in my Maroney #22 or Darkins #44 jersey. Here's what Roger had to say:

As a UW grad and lifelong Badger fan, I was asked by Mr. Bandanna Guy to provide an analysis of the upcoming Badgers-Gophers tussle from a Badgers’ perspective. Now, before I go on, I must admit that my nickname is Goldy. Sucks for a Badger fan. Even worse when Goldy is getting rammed crotch first into the goal post by Bucky and you have the entire student section at Camp Randall chanting, “Crush Goldy’s nuts!” A bit unsettling.

Anyhow, on to the game. This year’s Wisconsin team is disappointing fans for the 11^th straight season. No Big Ten title equals disappointment. Big things were expected out of this year’s team. Most of the offense returned and several defensive starters returned. They were sluggish out of the gate but the hope was they would get it together come Big Ten season. Well, they started on the road with a solid MSU team. Now, Spartan Stadium has not been kind to the Badgers in the past, and 2010 was no different. The Badgers lost by 10 but had a good shot to win this game. Down 3 with about 8 minutes to go they twice had MSU in a 3^rd and long situation and couldn’t stop them. MSU drives the length of the field to seal the game. One 3^rd down stop and the Badgers could have won. Oh Well.

The Badgers offense is not what it was expected to be this year. Some of it has to do with injuries and some has to do with expectations that were a little overboard. In regards to injuries, it has hurt the passing game that Toon and Gilreath have missed 3 games. The only real option with them out is TE Lance Kendricks (who has developed into a great blocker as well). Toon was back against MSU but looked rusty. Hopefully he gets his shit together for this week. With those guys out, the receiving corps is a bunch of JAGs (just a guy) and a white walk-on from Wautoma. John Clay has been a bust this year. He had off-season surgery on both ankles and came into camp looking like the Michelin Man. I believe he spent too much time at Chick-Fil-A back in Racine in the off season. He never had a burst, but he looks slower this season and is not finishing off runs like he did in the past. The O-line was supposed to be the best in the country and looks very pedestrian. Don’t know why, but they look like liquid dog poo.

The D is about what was expected out of them. Not the greatest, but respectable. Chris Borland going out with a season ending injury was a huge blow. As Gopher legend Glenn Mason said about him 68 times in a broadcast last season, “Chris Borland is a FOOTBALL player.” That guy did everything. JJ Watt is very good along the line. He bats down a ton of passes and gets in the backfield a lot. However, he isn’t the best at changing directions and QBs and RBs can put a move on him and get by him. He gets in the backfield like O’Brien Scofield did last year, but he just can't finish the deal. The secondary is crappy but that has been the case since Jamar Fletcher left. Look for a lot of 10 yard cushions, even on 3^rd and 5.

Now, as any good Badger fan would do, I have watched parts of the Minnesota losses. It is just kinda fun. It is obvious that the Gophers can’t stop the run. The killer also seems to be the lack of success on 3^rd and short. You keep giving it to the big white guy and he keeps failing. Now, the 3^rd and short issue shouldn’t be a problem against Wisconsin since they couldn’t stop Case High School (losers of 58 straight games) and 3^rd and short. Now the running thing may be more of an issue. As I mention earlier, Clay has been a disappointment. However, he may have a big day against Minny’s run D. There has been talk this week about Freshman James White taking over the starting role, but I think that was just the coaches going to the media to light a fire under Clay’s ass. White is a quick back that loves to run to the outside but can also pick his gaps in the line, but I see Clay just rumbling up the gut all game long.

So, I see a 31-24 Wisconsin victory. I don’t see Wisconsin punting much, which would be great since the coverage team blows. I see a bunch of 7 minute Wisconsin drives and the game ends with Wisconsin running out the clock with a 6 minute drive to seal the game. Minnesota will move the ball with the passing game but in the end, Tim Brewster coaches the Gophers and Wisconsin will win and retain the Axe for the 43^rd straight year. Honestly, I love watching the Badgers run around with the Axe. It’s my favorite part of the football season. There is nothing more galling than seeing scenes like an English Gophers place kicker running for the Axe. Blah.

I will be at the game with several crappy beers in the system. Should be a good time. On Wisconsin!

There you have it. A bounce-back Wisconsin win, predicted by a Badger fan, but the Gophs easily cover the massive -21.5 points the Badgers are laying. My prediction coming tomorrow.

Random Dead Badger Pic of the Day

2010-10-07T09:48:00.000-05:00

Another day, another dead badger.

Northwestern @ Minnesota - What we learned

2010-10-06T21:05:00.000-05:00

Another loss piled on to an already swiftly sinking season. Of course, some may have already declared the season officially ‘sunk’. I hadn’t prior to this game, but I’m almost out of buoyancy. That is to say the season hasn’t completely gone below the waterline for me, but its damn close. Getting blown out at Wisconsin this week could be the final torpedo to put my last modicum of hope under. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. I don’t want to think about how tough it will be to get excited for the Purdue game the following week if we’re 1-5 and axe-less. On a fun Gopherhole.com thread started last week, someone asked what movie quote best described the Gopher’s football program over the past several decades. My response?

Gopher fans - "I think you know how this is going to end. Don't you?"
- Anton Chigur (Javier Bardem) from 'No Country for Old Men'

Despite a good chance to win against Northwestern, didn’t the whole thing go down just the way you figured? I know it did for me. And sadly, that’s the exact feeling I started to develop at the back half of the Mason era, but really you could apply it to just about any full season under his tenure. Now that feeling has crept in to my mindset in the Brewster era.

The undefeated Wildcats came in and showed themselves to be who we thought they were (and we let ‘em off the hook), a vulnerable and beatable team that was still relatively untested. A team that Minnesota could best, if only a few things went our way. And this time, a number of things indeed did go our way – primarily the turnover margin, but also a missed XP, frequent Wildcat penalties, and some blown coverage in the Northwestern secondary.

The Gopher defense was again overmatched across from the skilled Dan Persa, but they managed to turn over the ‘Cats enough at the right times to allow for the offense to keep pace. Persa was able to do damage with his legs, but the Wildcat RBs were largely held in check. The front four (Smash Bros. et al) did generate some pressure, but Persa is very quick to flee on the first sign of pocket collapse and run. Definitely a strength for him in the college game, but it will be considered a weakness come draft day for him, as he didn’t seem to be willing to stand in the pocket and deliver the ball as coverage breaks down. Cosgrove dialed up some appropriately timed blitzes, (maybe too few?) and the one that resulted in a TD was simply tough luck as Ebert managed to muscle the ball from Collado on what appeared to be in near perfect 1-on-1 coverage.

Pre-game at the Stub & Herbs's back alley - photo by TKL

And with 2 minutes to go, even a freakily fortunate forward fumble advanced by the Gophs to the 40 (which the TV broadcast crew spent surprisingly little time looking at) still wasn’t enough good fortune to put the Gophers over the top.

The Gopher offense rediscovered their competence for nearly the entire game. Adam Weber was again secure with the ball, and DeLeon Eskeridge was the prime ballcarrier de jour, with some hard running and nice sidesteps on interior runs that earned him extra yardage. And it was nice to see the offensive line regain some of their confidence back, and actually started laying wood on some purple jerseys.

But sadly, all these things listed above were for naught. With 2 minutes to go, even a freakily fortunate forward fumble advanced by the Gophs to the 40 (which the TV broadcast crew spent surprisingly little time looking at) still wasn’t enough good fortune to put the Gophers over the top. Incompetence set in for those final 2 minutes, and it was just enough to ensure another loss. Obviously, based on the ‘Crew’s Brew of the Week’ posted earlier this week, I was surly and furious (pun intended) about the way the last possession went down. The Strib’s Phil Miller did a nice job breaking down the final 8 plays, coupled with Brewster’s post-game press conference remarks regarding some of the specific play calls. Read, and you’ll surely find a new irritation for Brewster/Horton (it’s still not clear who’s calling plays in these situations) and their crunch time way of thinking. I realize it’s easy to say in hindsight, but I think I could have come out of this loss feeling much better if we at least had been able to attempt a field goal or take a last second stab down the field.

It’s simply amazing to me to see how the Gophers fail to execute time and time again in the big moments of the game. Is it inexperience? Coaching? Are they actually overachieving in these close games (I shudder to think if this is true)? A combination of all these? I’m sure I don’t know, but losses like these continue to pound nails into the Brewster regime’s coffin. To come out prepared and able to give a quality Big Ten opponent the fight of their life, and shoot yourself in the foot with a chance to win in the closing moments has got to hurt the psyche of a probably already mentally fragile team.

The 'Block M', from the NW corner - photo by TKL

And what was learned from this, yet another tough loss? Well, the Wildcats apparently don’t care too much about ball security. They also still don’t have any running backs that could start on any other Big Ten team. But then the Gophers don’t seem to care about laying a proper block in crunch time either and that’s what in the end really counted. And finally, I learned that even though I let a well-behaved fan and friend who roots for the other team into our stadium with tickets to my seats, I still feel a little guilty about it.

This coming Saturday’s prospects? With the Badgers coming home off a tough road loss to the Spartans last week, I feel a Camp Randall spanking coming on. Then again, the Gophers have always played the Badgers tough and close (but always lost) under Brewster’s tenure. Vegas has the line opening up in the 20-21 point range which seems a smidge too high to me, I think +14.5 is more appropriate for the Gophs, but that line may shrink over the week.

Preview coming on Thursday night, along with Badger alum Roger Murdock’s take on the game.

Random Dead Badger Pic of the Day

2010-10-06T10:55:00.002-05:00

Day 3 - another roadside fatality.

A Wildcat visits The Bank

2010-10-05T21:25:00.000-05:00

Since TKL had my tix last weekend, it was only fair that he provide me with a little write up of his opinion on his trip up to Minneapolis. Here's his take on the day/game/stadium:

Back from a nice trip to the Bank where Wildcat fans held their collective breaths on a 4th quarter as Minnesota drive stalled out at the 40 yard line. Great times were had by my friends and I throughout the day, and were capped off by a close victory 29-28. That was a typical nail-biter of a Wildcat win that we have come to expect in the Pat Fitzgerald era. NU-UM games have also been quite good over the past few years--and this one was no different. Minnesota played pretty well and played turnover-free ball all day until the interception to end the game. NU made a few too many turnovers, but managed to claw their way back to victory.

Here are some favorite moments, highlights, and thoughts:

* A beautiful stadium with a nice mix of new and traditional character and features. Nicely done, U.
* The day was spectacular too. Not a cloud in the sky and the temperature was quite moderate.
* The Stub and Herbs pre-game crowd in the parking lot was a welcoming and friendly group. Always nice to down a couple of Premos and Bloody's among good people within a short walk of the stadium. I scored a free T for GBG too!
* Great seats, GBG. Although we were a little confused at first by the Row 1, Row 2 stack job! The fans around us were very nice too. My buddy (a Badger fan and Gopher hater) tossed a few grenades around, but overall I think your neighbors won't be giving you too much grief when they see you next game.
* A few empty seats and relatively quiet crowd at times, though. But this can be expected from a fan-base who has seen Coach Brewster take the air out of the sails of his team with his odd calls and game-planning ability.
* A nice contingency of purple clad fans in the upper deck and a few more sprinkled around the stadium. Ryan Field North? Not quite, but more NU fans than I remember in past games at the Dome.
* Several "Fire Brewster!" chants were heard. What a dumb set of calls on that last drive too. A buddy of mine went to clinic of his and mentioned he didn't think the guy had all that much fire--and that Mason was a lot more animated, excited, and interested to be with his players.
* The 1-2 punch of Eskridge and Bennett was very tough to handle.
* Danny Persa can scramble all right. Has a nice toss too. Love it!
* Adam Weber looked quite poised and played a nice game too. Bigtime 15 yd scramble at the end of the game too.
* Jeremy Ebert's weight room time sure paid off when he snatched a big 3rd down TD out of hands of the Gopher defender.
* Sally's post-game was great. We may have purchased them a new flatscreen TV with the amount we dropped there.
* Heard a few "Touchdown Jackrabbits!" catcalls thrown out on the walk to Sally's. Super funny for some reason--I kept chuckling at this SoDak game/KFAN reference.
* Can't wait for my next trip up to TCF--thanks for the tickets GBG!

Thanks for the impressions TKL, glad you had a nice time. My only regret is that the Gophers couldn't send you home with a loss. We'll hit it up next year in Evanston!

Random Dead Badger Pic of the Day

2010-10-05T21:08:00.000-05:00

Day 2 of Hate Week. Enjoy.

The Crew's Brew of the Week (Big Ten Week 1) - Surly Furious

2010-10-04T15:10:00.002-05:00

Photo courtesy of WCCO

Ok, so with the difficult Big Ten season starting this week, and alcoholic beverages needed to make it through the remaining games, I'm taking infrequent site contributor 2Mutch's suggestion and running with it. Welcome to the first of 8 installments of the GEGH Crew's Brew of the Week.

This week's entry, my favorite current beer - Surly Furious. Its both sad and ironic that the beer I enjoy drinking most also describes my mood immediately following one of the most incompetent 2 minute drill's I've ever seen in recent memory, and I'm a Lions fan, so I've seen more incompetence in the last decade than most have seen in a lifetime. Yes, I was Furious - you start with a fluke kick return with a weird forward fumble that gets advanced to our own 40 with 2 minutes to go, and we can't even get into position to attempt a long field goal?!? Then we can't even pass protect on a 4-man rush long enough to let Weber throw. Finish that off with some idiotic 3rd and long play calls and you've got no chance to score and take the game from a Wildcat team, that is frankly - soft on defense and protecting the ball. Dammit! I'm FURIOUS just thinking about it again.

Luckily for me, the hoppy taste of Surly Furious did the job at quenching my rage - putting all feeling in my body up into my tastebuds. This tasty locally brewed (Brooklyn Park) American IPA is rightfully growing in recognition across the country. WCCO recently rated it among the top 10 Minnesota beers. Heck, after 857 reviews on beeradvocate.com , Surly Furious received an 'A' grade. So clearly, I'm not the only one who enjoys this flavorful brew.

And here, thefullpint.com briefly reviews Furious as such.
Surly Brewing Co. – Furious – 16 oz. can poured into my New Belgium beer glass. 6.2% abv.
Appearance: Pours a dark orange or amber with a perfect 1 inch off white head.
Aroma: Light whiffs of piny hops, a little bit of citrus, and crystal malt.
Taste: Orange, lemon, pineapple, bitter piny hops, and sugar sweetness. Finishes with a nice level of bitterness.
Mouthfeel: Juicy, thick. Flavors stick and linger long after the sip.
Overall: Bursting with flavor. I am noticing a trend in the IPAs and IIPA’s coming out of the region. This is a very west coast like beer.

I definitely agree with the assessment of the citrus and other fruity tastes present, and it couples with the bitterness of the hops beautifully. Exactly what I needed to forget the last 2 minutes of the game vs. Northwestern. Probably what I'll need to forget the DVR rewatch tomorrow too. Sweet.

Random Dead Badger Pic of the Day

2010-10-04T14:46:00.000-05:00

Yessir - Hate Week is upon us, and the only good badger is a dead one my friends. And that means our usual 'Random Dead Badger Pic of the Day' must start up. I'd do a random dead pic of a hawkeye too, come Hate Week Part Deux. But nobody knows what the hell a hawkeye is anyway.

So here it is, another dead badger for your morbid enjoyment. This one looks like he might have been clipped by a van full of Spartan fans.

Chance For A Fresh Start?: Northwestern @ Minnesota Game Preview

2010-09-30T23:40:00.003-05:00

Is this logo looking tired and dated or what?

The Big Ten season starts this Saturday for the Gophs, and as Coach Brew has been keen to remind his players, we're 0-0 right now. A chance for a fresh start of sorts. And 'nowhere to go but up' is really the only attitude the team cab take at this point in the still young season. Conference play is also conceivably the 'last chance' battery of tests for Brewster if he wants to maintain his position as Head Football Coach of the Minnesota Golden Gophers. And while I think many would agree that Coach Brew has been as hard-working, sincere, and dedicated as we could have asked of anyone, those traits won't be enough to help him keep his job if he can't grab at least 5 wins in the Big Ten this year. And getting to 5 wins has to start with handing Northwestern a loss when they come into The Bank this weekend.

Northwestern has racked up a 4 and 0 record, and already won twice on the road (at Vanderbilt and Rice), but the schedule has been squishy soft overall. You know that's the case when Wildcat head coach Pat Fitzgerald claims that Minnesota will be the best team they've faced so far this season. I'd like to assume that Fitzgerald was just being polite and respectful, or that the statement was simply head coach hyperbole used to keep his squad from sleeping on the Gophers (the latter seeming much more likely to me). Of course, Fitz also went on to say that Minnesota is "one of the best coached teams in the country", so who knows what the hell this guy has been drinking of late. See, Brewster is not the only one who exaggerates for effect.

So exaggerations aside, can the Gophers hope to get back into the win column for a week? Let's look at the total team stats over 4 game, FBT-style. Through 4 games, Northwestern has generated nearly identical statistics to the Gophers on offense. Both squads average about 420 yards per game, 23 first downs, and a 3rd down conversion rate coming in at 47%. Total distribution of rushing and passing yardages are nearly identical as well. The only significant difference is that NU averages 30 points per game to our 26.5. On defense both NU and Minnesota have yielded approximately 1,500 yards of total offense, but Minnesota has not allowed twice as many points as Northwestern (31.0 to 15.5 ppg). What's all that mean? Not a whole lot if you ask me, as I'm loathe to draw many conclusions from a 4 game sample size (6 games is about where I think the team stats become more meaningful), especially without any common opponents. But I suppose these comparisons are at least interesting in that they show that despite nearly identical yardages gained and yielded by both teams, Northwestern has managed to capitalize on the scoreboard far more than the Gophers.

Everything on offense for the Wildcats goes through QB Dan Persa. A dark horse (in my opinion) for Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, Persa runs the spread extremely efficiently, completing over 80% of his passes (not a typo- yes, 80%). And like most NU quarterbacks of late, he can run when necessary too (leads the team rushing). Persa's primary target has been junior WE Jeremy Ebert (the only Big 10 receiver who's put up more yards than MarQueis Gray). And add Sidney Stewart, Demetrius Fields, and Drake Dunsmore to the list of Persa targets with at least double-digit catches. So the passing game is obviously a concern. How about running the ball? Well, if there was a Big 10 team that we should be able to stop the run against, its Northwestern. Of the Wildcats 3 primary running backs, Arby Fields, Mike Trumpy, and Jacob Schmidt, none of them averages over 4 yards per carry. The sophomore Fields, the starter up until this week, had gained a miserable 160 yards on 56 carries (2.9 ypc). Last week Schmidt and Trumpy showed Coach Fitz enough for him to demote Fields, and name them as co-starters. Sidenote: Has there ever been a group of running backs with collectively worse names than this? At any rate, Northwestern has averaged over 36 carries a game, so their poor rushing numbers aren't from a lack of attempts. Will Schmidt anc Trumpy become this week's Chad Spann or Allen Bradford? Or will Minnesota get things tightened up, get back to fundamentals, and stuff these bottom tier running backs in the back to the stat sheet where they belong?

Willie Wildcat displays horrible ball security

The Wildcat defense has generated plenty of turnovers, and yielded few (+7 in turnover margin). Seniors Corbin Bryant (DT) and Quentin Davie (LB) have been the leaders on defense for the 'Cats, and are active along the line of scrimmage, acting as the tip of the spearhead to generate turnovers and plays for loss. It's specifically these turnovers generated that have made the Wildcat scoring defense so good to date. The Gophers have done a decent job protecting the ball, and will have to continue to do so if they want to have a chance to win.

Minnesota's own offensive gameplan will likely remain unchanged - run, run, and run until we're down by multiple scores and then que Weber to start slinging the ball to Gray and McKnight. The Gopher offensive line played a dismal run blocking game last week, and if this continues, Weber will again bear the brunt of generating positive yardage and scoring opportunities. And that means converting third downs more efficiently and throwing the ball more accurately (nothing new here on Weber's 'need to improve' checklist). Bryant Allen looked pretty decent out of the slot last week filling in for Stoudemire, and perhaps he can be the reliable 3rd WR the Gophers have needed for some time. And speaking of Stoudemire, looks like he'll be lining up on the opposite side of the ball from here on out. He's been reinstated, as a DB, and from the sounds of things from Brewster he could even see some gametime, should the appropriate man coverage situation arise (I'm guessing a 5-WR set).

Predictions? Well, the Gophers should have plenty of motivation get out of the Big Ten opener on a high note. It's also Homecoming, and a win here could actually generate some momentum before heading into Camp Randall. That said, I've very skeptical that the Gophers run game can get going. If they can rip off a few big runs, and move the chains with a decent average per carry, then this game is very winnable. If they run the ball like they did against NIU, then they can't win. I believe both teams will struggle to run the ball, and a Weber-Persa shootout favors Northwestern. That formula means the Gophers will end up 0-1 in conference to start Big Ten play.

Prediction: Northwestern 34, Minnesota 27

Gopher Player of the Game: Adam Weber - 20-29, 290 yards and 3 TDs
Wildcat Player of the Game: Dan Persa - 27-36, 260 yards and 2 TDs, 10 carries for 45 yards and 1 TD

Northwestern @ Minnesota (the Wildcat Angle)

2010-09-30T21:41:00.001-05:00

The Wildcat - Photo by JT

As last season, we tried to get some opposing fan perspective here at GEGH when we can. Not from some other blogger or program insider, that's been done (head on over to The Daily Gopher to read about bloggers fraternizing with other bloggers). I go for the regular fan perspective here. This week its my good friend and Northwestern alum, TKL. In addition to using this blog as an opportunity to poke fun at us Gopher fans and our hapless team, TLK will be providing us with his impressions of our new home for on-campus football as he's headed up to Minneapolis to see the game in person. Here's what our alum friend had to say (for at least as long as his computer would function):

My first trip to the Bank is coming up this weekend, and I can’t wait. I just hope the chill in the air does not dampen the fun, as I know the Gophers won’t have it in them to accomplish that. Oh, immediate shot across the bow? Youbetcha, but in all honestly the Gophers have to be better than a loss to a (albeit pretty dangerous) FCS team and one of the Directional Illinois teams over the past few weeks. From what I've seen, this Minnesota squad looked liked they had some game in them; and fully ready to pull the upset against SC last week, only to come up a bit short. But you don’t need me to tell you this. This fine Blog here no doubt articulates this fact much better than I. My take - the 2010 Gophers resemble my laptop right now. . .in desperate need of a re-charge and/or new power source.

So - on to your guests from Evanston this Sat at TCF Stadium: the Northwestern Wildcats. A fancy team, though I must admit, I haven’t actually laid eyes in person on this year’s 'Cats. While I am a season ticket holder, I've been waiting for the better home match-ups of the Big Ten later this season. My first game at venerable Ryan (ne Dyche Stadium) Field comes the following week against the injury decimated Purdon’t Boilermakers. And of course, the final game of the season to be played at historic Wrigley Field against the hated Fighting Illini. So from the safety of the perch on my couch, they have looked pretty good so far. Yes, there is no other way to describe a 4-0 season; however I know that things can get away from a previously unbeaten team quickly once Big (12) Ten play begins. That is why the Wildcats (and Gophers) will be hungry to starts things out right against an opponent that they have a fair shot at defeating.

(The old 2007 Dell is chugging along here. . .just might make it.)

A little primer on the Wildcats: Dan Persa-another in the long line of very capable if not outright great Northwestern quarterbacks. His favorite connections are Drake Dunsmore, Jeremy Ebert (GBG's fav), and Sidney Stewart,. The running game is not so hot, although I hear the Gophers are susceptible to the ground attack. The master of the sub-3.0 yds/carry stat Arby Fields and Stephen Simmons will take a backseat to Mike Trumpy (nephew of NBC’s Bob Trumpy of 'Criqui and Trumpy' broadcast fame) who will get the start I believe. Unless Coach Fitz goes with Jacob Schmidt instead--well, who am I kidding, this backfield is filled with below average backs. The passing game and the fleet feet of Dan Persa will be the difference. Kicker, Stefan Demos is solid despite his woeful bowl game performance at the Outback Bowl last year.

On defense, the Cats will be . . . ahhhh no more power. . .signing off before my computer dies. . .Wildcats Win and cover, 27-21. You can take that to the Bank.

So there we have it, a respectful level of trash talk from an NU fan who shockingly didn't want to talk defense...err... who's computer died. Good stuff buddy, enjoy your time up in Minneapolis.

Northern Illinois @ Minnesota: What we learned

2010-09-29T21:26:00.007-05:00

This young Gopher fan found better things to watch than the 4th Qtr
Photo by JT

Another gut wrenching loss. What can you say that hasn't already been uttered in an overheard expletive laced tirade on the post-game walk to your car. Another glorious evening for football at The Bank, made ruinous by poor run blocking, and even poorer tackling. Sigh. Losing at home is not a habit I'd like to see develop. But it's happening. At least last year, we respectably defended our home turf with a winning record (4-3), with respectable losses to Cal and Wisconsin, and Illinois in a headscratcher. We seemed to own the night with the Air Force and Michigan State wins with some timely (if not lucky) bounces that went our way. That all seems so distant now. Truly, my confidence in the Brewster regime is all but dead. Only an improbable run in the conference schedule will restore it to at least measurable levels.

Now NIU is no pushover MAC team, but they certainly aren't USC either. Yet they came in and pretty much did the same damn thing to us that SoCal did. Ran the ball down our throats. Life seemed so much simpler 2 weeks ago, when we could just blame our pass defense on the inexperience of Christyn Lews and James Manuel (or conversley the suspension of Theret and the injury to Royston). Now that we've been gashed in both the pass and run, the defensive troubles seem so much more, well, troubling. The Huskies managed 34 points on the Gophers, in only 23 minutes of possession. Disgraceful.

Clearly NIU head coach Jerry Kill saw something on our tape vs. USC that he liked. I'm guessing it was the way our linebackers seem to always be 1 or 2 steps out of position, leaving major running holes wide open. Going into this game I thought we were going to get 'Dante Warren-ed' to death by a better and more experienced Chandler Harnish. Turns out, they didn't even need him to do much more than be a caretaker for the offense, letting Chad Spann carry the load. In that limited time NIU had the ball, Spann managed to rack up 223 yards on just 15 carries. Yeah, that's nearly 11 ypc. You'd think Barry Sanders or Gale Sayers was lining up across from us with those kind of numbers. And Harnish's legs? Well, he seemed to be the one player we actually did scheme for, and his runs were held in check. But that isn't worth much when the halfback lining up behind him can just get you 10 yards a crack.

This looks like a stout bunch in the Maroon. Key word - 'looks'.
Photo by JT

At the beginning of this season, I really did believe that the front 7 of this team would continually improve and ultimately become the strength of this defense. They certainly appear to be an athletic enough group. Chalk their performance up to inexperience and poor coaching? I suppose so, but my confidence in Cosgrove is virtually gone, to say nothing of Brewster. Last year I feld like Cosgrove had really maximized the talent on our defense, making them a cohesive unit that kept us in games all season. This year, I am really at loss for what has happened so far, and how things will progress/regress into th future. Perhaps all the Nebraska and Wisconsin Cosgrove-haters who warned us had it right?

On offense, OC Horton again tried valiantly to establish the run, but simply could not. Our longest run from scrimmage was a measly 12 yards, and the one explosive run we did muster (Bennett's 3rd quarter sprint to the east endzone) was called back on a hold. NIU's defensive rotations (6-man line shifts) seemed to keep them from getting worn down later in the game, and kept running room difficult all game. And once again, Weber was serviceable and didn't do anything to cost us the game (although that desparation shovel pass was an absolutely dreadful decision). He padded his stats again late in the game on some nice drives that ultimately just closed the margin of victory for NIU. MarQueis again looked the part of a potential All-Big Ten WR (maybe Dave Mona wasn't insane for claiming that?).

Thumbs down Gophers, you let my boys down
Photo by JT

But I need to stay positive here. There were some aspects about last Saturday's gameday that I did like:
1) The weather. Just about a perfect evening for football. Fireworks at the half were nice too.
2) My entire family taking in a Gopher football game (as we like to do as a full group annually), including my two boys getting to go to their first game at The Bank!
3) The Ski-U-Brat. Tasty, but the brat itself needs to be a bit larger, to match the scale of the bun.
4) Fresh mini donuts. Sweet and delicious.
5) "Goldy's Groove" in the 3rd Quarter. Attention TCF Bank Stadium Operations Manger(s) - keep this feature. I'm all about anyway we can incorporate Earth, Wind, and Fire in to gameday. And 'Let's Groove Tonight' did inspire some excellent fan dancing. How about next week we rock Funkadelic's 'One Nation Under a Groove'?
6) MarQueis Gray. He's real good at WR. He's not fumbling the ball. And Weber is finding him I like it.

So there were plenty of reasons to enjoy myself. Just not football. Well, except for MarQueis Gray. He can actually play football.

Fireworks. I enjoy them even when losing. Photo by JT

So how is this team going fare against Northwestern? The 4-0 Wildcats haven't won a single game convincingly against less than impressive opponents. Like most of our games versus the Mildcats, I expect a shootout. And tomorrow we should have our first of several weekly opposing views from a fan of our current Big Ten opponent. This week, my friend and Northwestern alum, TKL will be putting together a preview of his own of the game. He's also using my tickets, as I can't get up to the Twin Cities for a 4th straight weekend. Before you scoff at my selling season ticket seats to the enemy, remember this is a Northwestern guy, not some Badger jackhole or Hawkeye d-bag. And Northwestern alumni will always beat the rest of the Big Ten alums in 'gentlemanly-like behavior' at all sporting events. Except for that one NU fan who got ejected from Welsh-Ryan Arena last year for yelling at Ed Hightower. But then, who hasn't yelled at Ed Hightower? So no worries, he'll behave himself and be respectful. And he's graciously agreed to share with us what he thinks of our new digs and the upgraded 'college football on campus' atmosphere.

And what did we learn? I learned that we can't even stop a MAC team's running game. I learned that our offensive line cannot create running lanes against a MAC team. But I also learned that the most beautiful of autumn nights cannot quite be ruined by gross incompetence. And finally, I learned that I learned that having your wife and kids smiling at the game only goes so far, and that eventually you just need to abandon your family and grab a beer. Thanks for being there Mr. Omar Douglas Redux. That Surly Furious on tap at Stub and Herbs we had went a long way to soothe my nerves. And as my favorite beer, Surly Furious shall become the first of our Crew's Brews we highlight, as we suffer through this season and find different beers to ease the pain (stay tuned for more of our GEHG's Crew's Brews). Ethanol is needed to survive our Big Ten season and brutal remaining home schedule. Beer is the vehicle.

Desperation Setting In? Here Come the Huskies: NIU @ Minnesota Preview

2010-09-24T00:50:00.001-05:00

If this week's game preview post title seems a bit cocksure, don't misinterpret. Desperation is indeed looming, and could set in fully if Northern Illinois beats us at home. And the NIU Huskies are a pretty decent MAC team with a pretty decent quarterback (more on him later) that could easily send this season into a nightmarish death spiral. A decent that might not even be slowed by the winning of a few 'trinket games' later in the year.

And as if this game wasn't enough for the team to focus on, now there seems to be an undercurrent of dissent among at least one player. WR/KR Troy Stoudemire made it public by his recent Facebook declaration that he is no longer a Gopher. One assumes this was caused by Brewster's indefinite suspension of Troy for 'conduct detrimental to the team'. The team has said nothing officially about Stoudemire's departure, and apparently he's not yet spoken to the staff formally about leaving 'the U'. Maybe he's just blowing off steam over the internets? If so, its too bad he missed the halftime public service announcement at last week's USC game about 'going to far' with social networking.

Whatever the case, the loss of our #3 receiver and top kick return man shouldn't be our primary concern going into this game. That honor goes to Husky QB, Chandler Harnish. Harnish, who wasn't the Week 1 game starter under center, lost the QB battle to DeMarcus Grady in training camp. But after a rough 3 INT opener at Iowa State and a wacky low-angle throwing motion, Harnish was given the start in Week 2 vs. UND. No stranger to starting, Harnish has led the Huskies at QB in 18 games over the last 2 years. And in just two games this seasonb(UND and Illinois), the junior QB rolled up some impressive numbers -- 350 yards in the air and nearly 300 on the ground. Uh oh - dual threat QB. Dante Warren, but with more experience, comes to mind. And that smells like trouble. I presume this time around we'll actually gameplan for a QB with legs. Perhaps worst of all, he sort of has that bad-ass, focused, football-is-my-life, Eric Decker-esque look to him. Great.

Chandler Harnish means business

Harnish is not alone in the backfield either, as he can turn around and hand the ball to Chad Spann, a 5'9" 198 lb senior halfback. Spann has averaged nearly 80 yards per game, and already broke a 79 TD this season. Statistically, none of the Husky receivers stand out - none have even 100 yards receiving thru 3 games, so Harnish is doing a nice job spreading the ball around, but his wheels are the bigger concern. Its clear then, that stopping Harnish and Spann will be paramount if a Gopher win is to occur. To many 6-7 yard runs on 1st or 2nd down will put the Gopher defense in a bad spot, and allow the Huskies to keep the D off-balance, keeping them guessing if Harnish will be throwing or running in short down and distances. Watching some of Harnish's highlights from the Illini game, they have some designed QB runs that look very effective, and some short delayed passing routes over the middle that will keep our linebackers busy.

The NIU defense has allowed fewer yards than their offense has gained, but that hasn't translated into wins for them. They have been gashed for 175 yards per game on the ground, and look like they could be a team susceptible to the Gopher's run game. Illinois racked up over 300 yards on the ground last week, so that bodes well for us and controlling the clock.

I have little faith that our defense will be disciplined enough to stop Harnish all game, and so I think the key this week lies in keeping him off the field by dominating the time of possession. If the offensive line can play well and Bennett is back and healthy, this is the most likely route to victory for the Gophers.

This Saturday's game is an opportunity for the Gophers to get up off the ground, dust off our pants, wipe the blood of our nose, and play like a real Big Ten team. That means putting down the Huskies with the same type of ball-control offense we saw versus the Blue Raiders in the opener. Make no mistake though, NIU was a preseason pick to win the MAC West division and are eager to beat a big conference opponent before moving on to their conference schedule. They also have a recently infirmed coach to play for and rally around. Coach Jerry Kill was recently hospitalized for dehydration, and also had an undisclosed surgery earlier in the season, though he will be on the sidelines of TCF Bank Stadium this Saturday night.

Originally, I had called for this game to be the let-down loss on the schedule, after stealing a win from USC. Obviously, that scenario didn't play out. But based on the Chandler Harnish film I watched this week, I am still VERY skeptical that we can win this game. Harnish looks to be a dangerous player, the kind that our defense may not be experienced enough to stop. If the RB Spann was the focal point of the NIU offense, I'd be much more confident. Unfortunately he is not, and Harnish will likely shred us as he can pass on the run, or just tuck it and take off with deceptive speed and good vision. Ball control with Bennett, Eskeridge, and Kirkwood is needed to limit Harnish's touches. Can the Gophs control the clock for 45 minutes out of 60 again to gain the victory? I fear not.

Prediction: Minnesota 24, Northern Illinois 31

Gopher Player of the Game: Duane Bennett - 24 carries for 145 yards and 2 TDs

Huskie Player of the Game: Chandler Harnish - 15 carries for 110 yards rushing and 2 TDs, 14-20 for 120 yards and 2 TDs

USC @ Minnesota: What we learned

2010-09-22T23:37:00.001-05:00

The GEGH crew sets up in the Ski-U-Mah Lot - photo by JT

This Saturday gave us yet another beautiful day at The Bank, and with a quality if not villainous opponent in USC coming to town, most Gopher fans that attended seemed able to put aside last weeks horrid loss and rally behind the Gophs for another game. A win over the rule breakers from SoCal would go some significant distance in helping rerail the season. The pre-game tailgating scene in the Ski-U-Mah Lot was terrific, and there were plenty of smiling faces, back slapping, and booze to go around. Gopher Tailgate Nation was out in force again, and happy to be there, despite our recent woes. Our GEGH group assembled a 3-State alumni contingent, and had a terrific time eating, drinking, and carousing. I was, in particular, happy to spread the joy that is Cuervo 1800 Reposado with my colleagues (listen up Cuervo, you can advertise on here for free as far as I'm concerned).

With the exception of one irritable dude wearing a nice Chris Darkins, Jim Wacker-era jersey who rebuffed us for our "Darkins! Darkins! Darkins!" chant, most everybody rolling thru the lot appeared to be in good spirits (whatever, the guy obviously didn't know who #44 actually was). Most were expecting the worst and hoping for the best. It seemed like almost a given that the Gophers would be down multiple touchdowns early, and it would get worse from there. I was scoffed at by many for my bold (but ultimately foolish) 31-30 Gophers victory prediction. And during the game, there seemed to be some in attendance that were actually rooting for a blowout loss, so they could feel more validated in their "Fire Brewster Now!" position. But more importantly, the vast bulk of fans that attended the game were clearly here to support the Maroon and Gold for better or worse.

The ladies love themselves some Gopher Tailgating - photo by Mar

The game itself was pretty entertaining, at least for 3 quarters. The Gophers hung tough for much of the game, over came some ill-timed mistakes (and flukey bad luck). But it could only last so long. USC had the superior talent, and eventually found a way to overcome their own assemblage of mistakes (penalties and interceptions). I read somewhere out there in the blogosphere that this game felt like the Cal game last season. I'm inclined to agree. Everyone's favorite 'close personal friend' of a columnist, Sid Hartman suggested that the loss hinged on 3 plays. I'd suggest that it was really just two plays though; 1) The Jewhan Edwards facemask on the 3rd and long sack, and; 2) rather than the 97-yard kick return TD, the Gophers complete inability to answer that counter-punch with a score of their own following it (another 3-and-out). That 3-and-out was particularly damning, as it came AFTER Kirkwood gained a tough 8 yards off right tackle on 1st down.

But for once this season, I was not completely mortified by the pass defense. Yes they gave up 2 big TD passes, but for them to hold Matt Barkley, a shoe-in top 5 NFL draft pick, to under 200 yards in the air and pick him off twice was an accomplishment. No doubt Kyle Theret's return to the starting lineup was a big reason why. Unfortunately, once Kiffin figured out that running repeatedly with big back Allen Bradford was the way to go, we were already down and had to play catchup. My worry earlier in the week had been proven out. Recent history indicates that these bigger running backs seem to give us trouble, and Bradford and his line had their way with the Gophs through the latter stages of the game. This was culminated by the 56-yard touchdown run Bradford had for USC's final score, where he dashed down the north sideline completely untouched from start to finish. Obviously, the run defense really struggled, especially up front later in the game, hardly getting a hand on Tyler or Bradford on several runs.

Barkley wings his first TD of the game - photo by JT

The offense had its moments, but the running game disappointed me. Bennett tweaked his ankle early and had no impact on this game. DeLeon was who he always seems to be, a ball-secure first guy without great burst or vision. Donnell Kirkwood had a few nice runs, but they came too infrequently to allow for the ball-control that Brewster and Horton were clearly seeking with their gameplan. What really bothered me though wasn't the perceived 'over-commitment' to the run, but rather the lack of creativity and variability in the run calls. After re-watching the game, I noticed that about 80% of the runs seemed to be between the tackles, and most often just simple dives. No counters, very little trap blocking, and we didn't see much of the shovel and screen passes either. Was there something in the scouting report that told the staff that running up the gut was the way to make hay against this squad? Not sure, but we sure did like the dive play. The other thing that struck me was that none of our 3 running backs seemed to really even look to make a cut or

Weber again completed a little over half his throws, and did his usual of making just enough good plays in between the bad ons to keep me from being completely frustrated with him. His interception right before the half was ridiculously bad, as was best served to just throw the ball out of bounds (has Weber EVER done that?) even if it was 3rd down. MarQueis and McKnight looked pretty good when Weber managed to find them. If McKnight can make that over the outside shoulder catch on the sideline routinely, then he needs to run that route more often in games.

Favorite play on offense: The great catch in my corner of the endzone by McKnight was the BEST play of the day for the Gophs, but it wasn't my favorite. That honor goes to the Kirkwood 15-yard run at midfield that might have resulted in a TD had he been able to put a move on his closest defender. The left side of the O-line opened up a HUGE hole (see photo), and Donnell had lots of green in front of him. Instead he initiated contact and bowled over the safety. At the time (early 2nd quarter), I liked the message it sent. In hindsight, he's gotta come up with a Playstation move to freeze that guy.

Look at that hole - how did Kirkwood NOT score - photo by JT

Favorite play on defense: Manuel's interception of Barkley to end USC's opening drive of the 3rd quarter. Anthony Jacobs applies the pressure up in Barkley's grill, and Manuel comes over to the TE down the seam and snatches the wobbler out of the air to send the momentum back to the Gophers.

So what did we learn in this, the 3rd week of a still young (yet already exhausting) season? Many things as usual, perhaps the most important being that tailgating for an afternoon game is preferably to the 11AM starts. No need to get up at 7AM. You can leisurely get up at a sane hour and make your way down to Stadium Village with plenty of tailgating hours in front of you. I learned that MarQueis Gray appears to be the go-to receiver for Weber already. What that means for MG's QB career is unknown, but right now Gray looks like he might become too valuable at WR to become our starting QB if (and only if) Moses Alipate is game-ready in 2011. I learned that Kyle Theret was definitely missed, perhaps more than I wanted to believe. I learned that Horton still really does want to keep running the ball, but not in any real creative fashion. And finally, I learned that handing out a free magazine in the student section is a bad idea. How we didn't get penalized for all the mags that landed on the field (even during play) was beyond me. Chalk that one up to having a Big Ten ref crew, I guess.

NIU preview will be up late tomorrow/early Friday, and although I called for the let down loss after USC, I feel a win coming on before plunging into the Big Ten season.

Fight On! (Gophers) The Season Depends On It: USC @ Minnesota Preview

2010-09-17T00:57:00.001-05:00

Of all the teams that could be coming into The Bank this Saturday, and after the absolute failure we witnessed last week, the chance to play the University of Southern California might be just the medicine this program needs to get well.

Why? Well, they're an D-I Single A team for starters (hey-oooo). They have strong national name recognition, and have recently been one of the preeminent teams in all of college football. They are not particularly well liked by the rest of the nation, nor is Lane Kiffin, their supposed wunderkind new head coach. The casual Golden Gopher fan (you know, the folks who showed up late, and left at the half last week) expects nothing but a blowout and the total annihilation of the Gophs. The good news is, #18 USC is nowhere near as tough as they have been over the last decade, and has struggled in both of their two wins this season. Nowhere to go but up, eh?

Winning this game gets the season back on the rails in a quick way, but still keeps the burner under Brewster to show us it wasn't an anomaly, all while the 'fire Brewster' talk can legitimately (and fairly) continue. Losing meets the expectations of the masses and the 'fire Brewster' talk can still legitimately continue. So in a sick sort of way, win or lose - the outcome this Saturday will probably be satisfying in one way or another to all shades of Gopher fans.

USC's most recent national accomplishment is garnering an array of NCAA sanctions for 'lack of institutional control', including a 2-year ban from post-season play, the loss of 30 scholarships over 3 years, and their National Championship victory in the 2005 Orange Bowl versus Texas (one of my all-time favorite college football games apparently never happened now) is now vacated. Oh yeah, and they even lost MN's own Seantrel Henderson (arguably the top HS football recruit in the nation), who dissed the Gophs before committing to USC, and then subsequently dissed the Trojans for the Miami Hurricanes, post-SC sanctions dole out. Good times.

Will Snoop be in the hizz-ouse Saturday?
AP Photo/K.Djansezian

OK - but we all know USC's off the field woes. But the real question is, can the Gophers somehow, someway beat this team coming in? The Trojans are loaded with talent with nothing much to play for but pride. USC has played Hawaii (on the road) and Virginia (at home), and have been less than impressive in both games. The Hawaii's run n' shoot offense kept in place beyond the departure of June Jones, gave SC all kinds of trouble, and they piled up nearly 600 yards of offense in a shootout with 85 total points. The home opener for SC vs. Virginia was almost the inversion of their previous game, a 17-14 defensive slugfest that required the Trojans to recover an onside kick to preserve the win. In both games USC was outgained by their opponent, and racked up over 100 yards in penalties. So iffy defense and a lack of discipline seems to be their modus operandi thus far this season. These problems make it appear to me that USC can be quite vulnerable if they cannot correct these issues.

The Trojan offense, led by sophomore stud, Matt Barkley has been pretty damn impressive this year though, already completing 38 passes at nearly a 66% clip, to go with 7 touchdowns to no interceptions. Combine that with a strong and athletic line, and Barkley could put up passing numbers that would make Dante Warren's look like chump change. USC has two primary halfbacks Marc Tyler and Allen Bradford, and both are large (230 lbs+). This worries me as well, given that we struggled with a similar sized back last year in John Clay, but with a much more experienced defense. Combine that size of the runners with an athletic and speedy line that can get out in space and block, and it could be big trouble, especially running outside. The Trojan receivers are good, but not as terrifying as they have been in years past. Ronald Johnson and Robert Woods will be the primary beneficiaries of Barkley's throws. The Barkley's offense would appear to be the strength of the team, and must be slowed to give the Gophers any chance of winning.

To counter this offensive unit, its hoped that the return of senior's Kim Royston and Kyle Theret at the safety positions will be a major upgrade for the Gopher's defense. My concern is that there will be some rust from the lack of live game work for these two, but that said, I'd rather have them on the field than Lewis and Manuel right now. The front seven should be solid against interior runs, lead by the Smash Brothers (Edwards and Kirksey), but I fear running on the edge will rip off big chunks of yardage, given the issues we had with contain against USD. To win this game, I think the Gopher D will have to create at least two turnovers and allow none within their own territory.

SoCal's defense has had its difficulties. MV of FBT does his usual superb job of breaking down the USC defense personnel, so I won't elaborate too much. Lane's daddy (Monte) runs the defense for him, and he's dealing with a lot of inexperience on the DL and backfield. Frankly, we're seriously out coached here with a coordinator of Monte Kiffin's calibur on the sideline, so we'll need to rely on USC's inexperience leading to mistakes Minnesota can capitalize on.

And the Gopher offense - well, its going to take another appearance of 'Good Web' to give us a chance, as we need him to extend drives on 3rd downs and keep Barkley safely on the sidelines. I was a little disappointed in Horton last week, as his claim that the Gophers would not abandon running the ball early rang hollow. I felt he went away from really pounding the ball at the Coyotes when the Gophers got down a couple scores. Part of that was justified though, as our defense couldn't stop them, and we needed to get points somehow. This week, I'd expect us to run 2 out of 3 times the first couple possessions , but if our defense can't afford us the luxury of a couple USC 3 and outs (or at least short drives) to let the O-line and the RBs get lathered up, we'll be presumably passing early and often. And hey, the formerly suspended Dom Alford is now back to active status, but guess what? My favorite Gopher freshman, Ed-O (Ed Olson), will be getting the start at left tackle. His clamping onto his opportunity to start and not letting go has really impressed me, and I'll be watching him closely to see how he fares against these Pac-10 DEs.

Ultimately, predicting the outcome of this game comes down to is what you believe will happen on this Saturday. USC might beat Minnesota 99 out of a 100 matchups, but if that one win comes up, then all the analysts and experts are wrong. I was excited when we got SC on the schedule, and I remain so. Its a great opportunity for this young Gopher team to prove something (or conversely, get their asses handed to them, and learn something). Early this season in the 'Calling our Shot' post, I predicted a win for this game, and I've chose to stick with that, despite what we saw last week. Up until this afternoon, I was all but convinced the Gophs would have a valiant start to the game, but ultimately be crushed in the 2nd half. Then I watched this yesterday afternoon:

This clip of a Thursday post-practice interview of Kid Kiffin swayed me back to my pre-season position. Does this sound like a coach who has his team where he wants it for this game. By his own admission, he states that "we've got a long ways to go" and that they need to understand this is not a game they can take lightly. He sounds concerned and its already Thursday. My usual ridiculous positivity, although diminished, can last at least through pre-game tailgating this Saturday. After that, all bets are off. Gophers jump on USC early, and then hang on by a thread. Pics and post-game to come next week. GOOOOO GOPHERS!

Prediction: Minnesota 31, USC 30

Gopher Player of the Game: Adam Weber - 24 for 32 for 245 yards and 3 TDs

Trojan Player of the Game: Marc Tyler - 18 carries for 120 yards and 2 TDs

South Dakota @ Minnesota - What we learned (and where it went wrong).

2010-09-14T01:37:00.005-05:00

Gary Tinsely fills the 'A-Gap', all other defenders? Occupado. - photo by JT

Why do the football gods hate me so much? Why? After torturing me on another beautiful Saturday at The Bank, 24 hours later, they decide to take away an improbable opening road win from my Honolulu Blue and Silver by robbing Calvin Johnson of a game-winning TD catch. Oh, and the cherry on top was the loss of Matthew Stafford for 4-6 weeks. I don't know what I did to deserve this, but it must have been pretty bad.

As much as I wanted to write up my postgame 'What we learned' post on Sunday evening, I just couldn't bring myself to sit at the computer and think about this game. I needed some time to forget and feel sorry for myself (and watch the game a second time on the DVR). Well, that and I was pretty tired from the trip back home.

First off, let's give credit where credit is due. South Dakota came to play, and executed their offense very efficiently, despite of a lack of experience at several positions, including QB. This did not appear to be the team that got bullied for 60 minutes versus Central Florida. Second, let me step out and state that I was pretty much wrong about everything in my prediction of this game (although I did come very close to the Gopher's point total). No establishing the the run. No imposing of our will. No carries for Kirkwood (WTH?). No wearing the opponent down and dominating the 4th quarter. And most obviously, no win. Instead there was panic on offense. Panic to score, thanks to the ineptitude of the defense.

As I walked into TCF Bank Stadium at around 10:50 AM that morning, I felt pretty good (aside from the 2 and a half pounds of eggs, cheese, sausage, bacon, and potatoes courtesy of Sally's Game Day Skillet Scramblers). The sun was shining, the student section was actually filling up, and people seemed pretty excited about the 1 and 0 Golden Gophers. But by about the 8 minute mark, the mood was already starting to sour. The Gophers started out nicely, and looked the part of the more dominant team. Stoudemire got us rolling with a nice opening kick return across the fifty, and although the first drive was a little more pass-heavy than expected, it stalled but the result was still 3 points. On defense, things started solid as well. Keanon Cooper got a TFL to open the game, and the Gophers held on a 3rd and short to force a quick 3 and out. Chris Ganious was being contained and it looked like South Dakota would have to rely on their QB to generate some offense. That ended up being the worst thing that could have happened for the Gophers. Coyote QB, Dante Warren was up to the challenge, and Cosgrove, Lee, and Brewster couldn't scheme up anything to stop his legs or his arm. Two flag routes and 11 minutes later, the Coyotes were up 14-3, and everybody was scratching their heads as to how this could be happening.

Tiree drops Six - photo by JT

But the Gophs responded, coming right back with a beautiful 49-yard TD pass on the post to Troy Stoudemire. And on the ensuing USD possession, Michael Carter picked off Warren. The momentum swing was on. Or so it seemed. From there out, for every terrific play Minnesota made on offense was pretty much matched by the Coyotes. Post Carter INT, Tiree Eure dropped a go-ahead TD pass (see photo on right), and Weber missed a wide open MarQueis Gray on a comeback by sailing the ball 12 feet over his head. Ellestad completed the trifecta of poor execution with another wide left FG miss.

From this point the defense really started to struggle. Missed tackles and blown coverage being the main issue. Having already seen the RB screen once and getting fooled, the Gophs again got suckered by the clear path to the QB, this time yielding a 26-yard TD scamper. Now fairly shocked late in the 2nd quarter, I couldn't think things could go much worse until I saw Weber cough up the ball on a nice scramble, well past the 1st down marker when he could have slid. Down 21-10, it was a nightmare half to be sure. I can only imagine what Brewster's halftime speech must have been like.
Still, the game was in reach, and even though a blowout win was a distant memory, there was a feeling that with some key halftime adjustments on defense, we could dominate the second half and salvage an ugly victory. Once again my faith was misplaced.

Much to my surprise, the students showed up in force - photo by JT

Things only got worse on defense, and the rest of the way the Gopher offense had to frantically try and put enough points on the board to close the gap. The Minnesota defensive backs gave massive cushions to the USD receivers, and were regularly beat on quick slants and short comebacks that extended drives. And while the defense seemed capable of stopping Ganious on the ground (16 carries for just 8 years), they couldn't track down Warren on bootlegs, nor could they cover any deep routes down the middle. Essentially all USD had to do to score was run just enough to keep Minnesota honest, and then just strike downfield or roll out on a naked boot. And that 4th and short that Warren scored on untouched? Chalk that one up to Cosgrove for overcommitting the defense to the run up the middle.

And as admirable as it was to see Jeff Horton and Adam Weber do their damnedest to get the Gophers to close the gap, the defense couldn't produce enough stops to get the Gophers that last possession they needed to pull ahead. Brewster's decision to try and convert a 4th and 2 with 12 minutes left on the USD 24 was perhaps questionable, but the kick was going into the wind, and Ellestad has been money to miss from outside of 40 yards all season (0 for 3). This kind of talk is, of course, pretty damn ridiculous though, when you're talking about needing to play catchup against an FCS opponent (to say nothing of giving up nearly 500 yards of total offense to an FCS opponent). And so there we were in the final quarter, doing things like lining up for a fake onside kick, making illegal forward laterals, and other such signs of desperation that I hadn't expected to see on this day. That Sally's Skillet probably should have come back up right around then, but I somehow spared my lovely wife the indignity. Thank goodness this game was in as beautiful and alcohol-free a setting as it was. Had I been in the 'Dome, I surely would have been heaving into a urinal trough. The day and the stadium sent this defeat from 'truly unbearable' to just straight-up 'unbearable'

So what did we learn from this loss? First and foremost, I found that my seemingly boundless faith in Brewster hath been shaken. And while he shouldn't be fired midseason (simply not fair to the kids playing for him), you have to wonder now what it will take for him to save his job for the final year of his contract. Just 2 games into the season, and I'm already more confused by this team than in any other year of the Brewster era. What are we? Talented, but horribly inconsistent is what comes to mind. That, or just bad, with a few respectable playmakers. Neither is a formula for consistent winning. And now to restore my faith in Coach Brew, it will take a near miraculous remainder of the year (for me, I'd define that as winning 2 of 3 trophy games, and beating Northwestern, Purdue, and Illinois). The likelihood of that happening would appear slim, but I'll live on hope for now. Barring a season finish like that, Brewster and the 'U' need to part ways. There. I've said it, and quantified it (although I'm not hard and fast on things here, I'll trade a USC or Ohio State win for that rinky-dink Governor's Bell any day of the week. I also learned that MarQueis Gray is ready for prime time as a receiver, (at least against a I-AA teams). And last I learned just how much we really do miss Theret and Royston.

GBG, Nate, and 2Mutch sadly reflect on the game - photo by JT

So let me be positive here to close out. There were a number of good (albeit small) things that can be taken out of this game (believe it or not).
1) The O-line couldn't have pass protected much better. Web had all day to set up and throw from the pocket
2) For the second game in a row, the Gophers largely avoided the drive-killing penalties that wracked them in previous seasons
3) Favorite play on offense - the trips left formation where Weber found MarQueis down the seam for a nice score in the 3rd
4) Favorite play on defense - Gary Tinsley finally diagnosing the halfback screen and snuffing it out for a loss (3rd time's the charm, right?)
5) The express lanes to get in the stadium at Gates A and E were just that - express. I walked thru in under 15 seconds with 10 minutes to gametime. Amazing how quick a line can move when you're not patting down every man, woman, and child.

And now USC comes rolling into town next Saturday, no doubt licking their chops at the prospect of 1,000 yards of total offense. At this point, I'm just hoping the Gophs can score 30 to match SoCal's 70. Blowout or no, we'll be getting our tailgate on next week in the Ski-U-Mah lot and enjoying ourselves. And maybe, just maybe - the gods of football owe me one for last weekend?

Stay tuned for the USC @ Gophers preview to be posted on Friday morning.

A Coyote in the Coffers - SoDak in The Bank: South Dakota @ Minnesota Preview

2010-09-09T00:55:00.006-05:00

Here we go again with another FCS team. Fans of most BCS conference teams don't sweat games like these, but the Gopher's recent history with teams from this subdivision hasn't given us much to be overly confident about. Our last several efforts against I-AA teams have been pretty dismal. In fact, you have to go all the way back to middle of the Grinnin' Glen Mason Era to find the last game we utterly dominated a non-FBS team (Southwest Texas State, 42-0 in 2002). Ugh.

Luckily, last week's win over MTSU on the road has me feeling pretty good about the new look Gopher offense, and what we can accomplish against lesser foes. Sucking up 75% of the clock by grinding out the run has that effect on me. Not everybody was all that impressed with our opening road win though (thanks for drawing conclusions directly from a box score, Tom Dienhart). That's fine though, we're not looking for approval from the nation media right now, just another win.

So now South Dakota rolls into town this weekend, with nothing to loose and everything to gain. They got buried 38-7 last weekend on the road at Central Florida, in a game where they only gained 220 yards in total offense, and allowed nearly 500. By all accounts, UCF did what they wanted with the ball, and controlled all facets of the game. Statistical bright spots for the 'Yotes in the opener were junior running back, Chris Ganious - who rushed for 89 yards and the lone TD on a 4.5 ypc average, and former Gopher (transfer) junior SS Shane Potter's career high 16 tackles.

Offensively, the Coyotes start an inexperienced QB behind a bigger, physical O-line. Quarterback Dante Warren, who got his first career start last week, was secure with the ball against UCF, and did not turn the ball over. Chris Ganious, a smallish back at 5'8" and 185 lbs, is expected to be the primary ball carrier to have his name called on the PA this Saturday. Ganious has had a productive collegiate career, rushing over 1,500 yards and 14 TDs in his first two seasons. This is the guy the Gophers must stop, first and foremost. It's not clear how much the USD coaching staff wants Warren to throw yet, (only 19 attempts in a blowout loss), so I'd anticipate Ganious will be getting the ball early and often, to set up the play-action pass.

On defense, the Coyote's don't have a whole lot of film to look at from the Gophers besides run plays (and more run plays - 67 to be exact). The gameplan for South Dakota's D is likely to be very simple. Stop the runaway train that is time-of-possession - load up the box, and stop the run. The aforementioned Shane Potter will integral to that game plan, coming up from the strong safety position as the 8th man.

Charlie Coyote - Courtesy www.usd.edu

So can South Dakota jump back off the mat, wipe their bloodied nose, and hold their own against the Gophs? The answer is a resounding, 'no', provided the execution in the run game we saw against MTSU is there. I have to believe that Brew and Horton have no interest in generating any more film of the playbook for USC than they have to. Ditto for Cosgrove and Lee on defense. So I expect to see a pretty vanilla game plan, very similar to last week's. Pound the rock and wear down the defense. Horton continues to assert that they won't go away from the run too quickly if its not successful, and until I see otherwise, I believe him. So more heavy doses of vitamin B(ennett), E(skeridge), and K(irkwood). And if the lead gets built up, I'd expect Kirkwood to get the bulk of the carries down the stretch to keep Bennett's legs fresh for USC. And perhaps with that presumptuous lead, we'll also see MarQueis under center for some work later in the game (crossing fingers).

As far as the D goes, look for tackling and play diagnosis to be improved, as I'd guess these were items focused on in practice all week. I'd like to see somebody in our front 4 get a sack this week, but if not, I'm confident I'll see multiple TFLs on runs from them. Presuming the secondary is without Royston again this week, I'm going to watch Lewis and Manuel closely to see if there is improvement there. Overall, our team speed on defense should be enough to overwhelm the Ganious et al, provided they remain under control and stay disciplined.

On the starting lineup front, it sounds as if the LT job will be Ed-O's (Ed Olson Jr.) again this week, as Alford is still suspended for violating team rules. And it appears that Theret will remain suspended as well. Royston's status is still up in the air as to whether he's healthy enough to take the field yet. Jon Hoese, who lost his father this earlier this week is also a question mark. Stay tuned, I imagine we'll hear on the status of these guys soon.

So how does this all play out? Well, KFAN's resident Gopher basher, Dan Barreiro suggested that a win by less that 4 TDs would be an 'embarrassment'. So if my prediction holds true (27 point win, see below) - expect the usual ill-informed jokes and bits we usually hear from The Fan. At the beginning of this week, I was feeling a little nervous about this game, given our recent history with FCS teams. Nothing lasts forever though, and my attitude started to swing after listening to Brew's post-practice Q&A (thanks MV), and researching USD's game against Central Florida. I think starting the season out on the road had this team focused from the get-go, and the low expectations of the national media are a continuous motivator going forward. Gophs roll on to 2 and 0. And then let USC prep-week begin.

Prediction: Minnesota 41, South Dakota 14

Gopher Player of the Game: Donnell Kirkwood - 18 carries for 130 yards and 2 TDs

Coyote Player of the Game: Chris Ganious - 25 carries for 105 yards and 1 TD

Sidenote: According to Gophersports.com , a number of improvements in stadium operations are going to be implemented this year (think express entrances, new concessions, etc). Look for a quick review of how things are at The Bank in year 2 embedded within the next "What We Learned" post.

Minnesota @ MTSU - What we learned

2010-09-03T23:39:00.005-05:00

This kid knows a win when he sees it - photo by JT

Well, that's one win in the books. Halfway to our Sports Illustrated prediction!

And it felt good too. There wasn't too much of a bad aftertaste with this victory. The game wasn't as close as the score indicated, and there were a lot of positives. Before the game started, there was a little nagging worry in the back of my head about how the team would start the season on the road against a respectable opponent.

But the Gophers came out and punched the Blue Raiders right in the mouth on the opening drive. In the opening play, Bennett took the ball to the right off tackle and Laird, Hoese, and Hughes all laid perfect blocks on their men to spring the play for 32 yards. Third play from scrimmage? Student body right, and Bennett goes for another 25 yards. A fun start to be sure. And an instant injection of credibility to all the coaching staff who kept stating how the run game would be committed to and improved. But it wasn't the opening drive that convinced me that Horton and Brew were actually serious about this whole running the ball thing. It was his play calling in the 2nd and 3rd quarters that had me buying that this team wasn't going to panic and drop Weber into the shotgun for the rest of the way. He used the run to jab at MTSUs defense in the 3rd, and then had their hands on their hips for the final 15 minutes. If there's one thing I don't mind learning from a coordinator who spent 6 years as a Badger, its how to close out football games. And this was textbook domination of time-of-possession.

But not everything with the offense was sunshine and lollipops. There's still plenty to work on, of course. The passing game in the first half was rough, largely due to this year's first sighting of 'Bad Web'. Whether it was season opener jitters or just getting into the swing of playing with live bullets, Adam Weber was off to a rough to start. In his first throw of the game, he hung Stoudemire out to dry in the endzone on a quick slant between converging defenders. Luckily he was bailed out by a legit defensive PI call. From there he went 0 for 4, with accuracy being his primary issue. Finally on his 6th pass attempt of the night he sailed a nice ball to the left over the defender and into Eric Lair's waiting hands for a 24 yard game. Weber finally settled down in the second half and made some good throws, including a nice throw to MarQueis crossing the middle, and a beauty to McKnight on a 3rd and 12 that extended the drive (ultimately leading to the go-ahead score). And to Weber's credit, he didn't make any major mistakes or turnovers despite MTSU's frequent blitzes.

But overall, there wasn't a whole lot to criticize the offense on. All three RBs looked good. Check that -Bennett was phenomenal. He had terrific burst through the line, and great effort after contact. The frosh Kirkwood was solid, and picked his holes well. Jon Hoese's play was inspired and it was awesome to see him score the first 3 TDs of the season, given the fact that earlier in the week his traveling with the team was in question due to his father's health. Right tackle Ed Olson Jr's first career start should be considered a success (although he did get torched on one speed rush). They even minimized their penalties and the few they did have weren't drive killers.

And the defense? Well if a grade had to be handed out it would probably have to be 'incomplete'. They simply weren't even on the field long enough for us to conclude too much. That's what happens when your offense holds the ball for 75% of the game. From what we did see, it was clear that our young safeties are pretty inexperienced, as they struggled with coverage. The athleticism was there with Manuel and Lewis, but we could certainly stand to have Royston and Theret back soon. The Blue Raiders ran only 40 plays, but their offense was effective at times in the no-huddle. I was a little concerned with the lack of pressure our front 4 generated (zero sacks, and really not any hurries either). The LBs seemed solid initially, but seemed to struggle a little bit with their play diagnosis as the game wore on. However, in that limited sample size, the Gopher defense did manage a nice tip drill interception (Rallis) and a made a few key 3rd down stops - including a huge TFL by Jewhan Edwards to stifle the last possession by MTSU. And those positive moments should not be discounted.

So what did we learn on Thursday night? All kinds of things. First and foremost I discovered that our coaching staff really does appear to be committed to the run (67 rushing attempts was convincing). I found that all of MTSU's talk of selling out their home opener was just that, talk (sellout my ass). I learned that Keanon Cooper has decent wheels - as he ran down RB Phillip Tanner from behind to save a TD. I learned that Duane Bennett came to Murfreesboro TO PLAY ( and he would have had a nice receiving TD to tack on to his near 200 yds rushing, if on that shovel pass too he would have read his blocks a little quicker). I saw that Ellestad is still struggling from outside of 40 yards (but at least his problem isn't the distance). And finally, I learned that MTSU's slightly built QB, Logan Kilgore just might have been adopted - judging by the body type of his father and maternal grandfather.

Winning on the road is winning. Nothing negative about that at all. Still plenty of improvement out there to be made, but there was plenty to be pleased with as well. Next week - the South Dakota Coyotes come in to The Bank. So keep an eye on the Coyotes against Central Florida this weekend. Next Saturday should be a perfect opportunity for the Gophs to tune up their game before USC rolls into town.

Geography Be Damned - The Big Ten Realigns

2010-09-01T23:14:00.004-05:00

Photo Courtesy of www.bigtennetwork.com

Leaked earlier this morning by ESPN's Andy Katz, and confirmed later this afternoon by the Big Ten, the football realignment is in, splitting into two 6-team divisions that I've named with bad acronyms for lack of better title.

The 'MININUMMS' Division (pronounced 'min-e-numms') - Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Northwestern (NU), Minnesota, and Michigan State

-and-

The 'PSIPILOW' Division (pronounced 'sip-eh-low) - Penn State, Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Ohio State, and Wisconsin

While I doubt these lame and awkward acronyms will stick (okay, admittedly they suck), but I'll run with 'em for now, since they're better than the 'Division 1' and 'Division 2' the Big Ten gave us today. Maybe we should go with Heartland and Rustbelt Divisions?

The protected rivalry games (matchups that cross divisions but will be played every year) are as follows:

OSU - Michigan
Minnesota - Wisconsin
Northwestern - Illinois )
Michigan State - Indiana
Penn State - Nebraska
Iowa - Purdue (what the?)

I think its pretty obvious the main driver here in this alignment is that the powers that be wanted Michigan and Ohio State in separate divisions, so that the newest grand money maker of Conference Championship Games can be played (although the current Michigan team certainly doesn't seem capable of reaching this destiny in the immediate future). Add that to the end of regular season Buckeye-Wolverine tilt, and you've got some serious TV money-makin' going on.

I also think its pretty obvious (and humorous) that Wisconsin and AD Barry Alvarez were the big losers of this realignment. They were basically swapped out of a geographically more logical Big 10 West for Michigan, and lost their annual rivalry game with Iowa for the Heartland Trophy. All while the Iowa-Purdue matchup was preserved (sorry, had no idea this was a rivalry - someone convince me). And just to play in the Big Ten Championship Game, the Badgers will need to get past the Buckeyes on just about any given year. Despite Alvarez's Cornhusker alum status, Nebraska insisted on being paired with us lowly Gophers in a division, rather than Wisconsin.

And the Gophers? Well, its hard not to paint us as big winners in this whole deal. We kept all our important and historic rivalries (Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan), and reinstated one from our past (Nebraska). On a personal standpoint, I'm thrilled that we get to play Northwestern every year, as I've enjoyed going to the last several road games in Evanston, and now I can continue this every-other-year trip.

So hats off to our own AD, Joel Maturi for being able to get the Gophers in a position where we could preserve our historic rivalries, and not have to face Ohio State and Penn State each and every year. Maybe he worked all the angles and just out politicked some of his Big Ten cohorts. Maybe Nebraska just wanted to road trip to Minnesota to rout us and visit the MOA. Or maybe Maturi just had pictures of Barry with that cheerleader he allegedly boffed back in the 90s.

What ever the case, things worked out well for the Maroon and Gold. Now the next question is - what's going to happen for basketball?

Starting out in the Swelter: Gophers @ Middle Tennesse State Preview

2010-08-31T01:14:00.003-05:00

Gotta say it right off the bat. I've been a big fan of the Middle Tennessee State logo and mascot for several years now. How would I even know or care it existed you might ask? A fair question. And those who know me well, know that Gopher Bandanna Guy is a major sucker for all things blue and silver. It's a superior color combo in any setting, and frankly had there been a Big Ten school that sported these colors I might be blogging for them right now, rather than about the beloved Gophers. Then add the lightning breath onto the Pegasus, and you've made the a top ten collegiate logo in my humble opinion. I mean look at that horse - its ready to stomp your ass and then fly off into a thunderstorm.

But enough with the flattery of our first opponent of the 2010 Golden Gopher football season. Our beloved Maroon and Gold are headed south to Murfreesboro, TN for a Thursday night tilt (televised on ESPN U, 7:30PM EST) to kick off the season. Anecdotally speaking, this game perhaps more than any other on the 2010 schedule seems to be the one that Gopher fans (the casual and diehard) are the most split on. The naysayers and Brewster Bashers say this game is the harbinger of the end for the Tim Brewster era - where we'll go into a hostile southern football stadium, in stifling heat that we can't handle, and allow a Sunbelt Conference Team give our Big Ten team a dose of comeuppance. Then there are the overtly positive fans who are already claiming victory, in the name of the quality of Big Ten football. Have the NDSU's and Appalachian State's of the world taught us nothing?

But of course, those teams (and several others of recent upset memory) have reminded most of us college football fans that small conference and even inferior division teams can occasionally rise up and knock off a BCS conference opponent, their own conference strength be damned. The Blue Raiders dominated most of their opponents in the Sun Belt last year (7-1 in conference), were beat down by Clemson and Mississippi State, and beat a weak Memphis team at home and an equally hapless Maryland on the road. The Gophers and MTSU had no common opponents in 2009, but Maryland (who MTSU beat on a last second field goal) was removed by 1 degree of separation (Maryland was plowed under by Cal, 52-13 in their 2009 opener). What's that all mean? Most likely nothing. The Gopher team that hung with Cal for 3 quarters is not this year's 2010 team, nor is the Blue Raider squad, who had dynamic QB Dwight Dasher racking up yardage on the 'Terps.

One year later, and Dwight Dasher is still the QB for MTSU. Problem is he's been suspended by the NCAA, apparently for a $1,500 loan he got to play poker with. There's more details to this story, but what matters is that MTSU is without their senior dual-threat QB. That fact alone cause Vegas to move the line on this game substantially, pushing the Gophs from road dog to slight road favorites. Obviously the oddsmakers think highly of Dasher.

At this point it appears highly likely that this suspension will stand, and the Gopher defense will not have to face the Sun Belt Conference's Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. Good for us. Bad for the Murfreesboro Faithful. But there are 20 other Blue Raiders too line up against and a JUCO backup QB in Logan Kilgore. Apparently the sophomore Kilgore is getting the start over his upperclassman teammate Jeff Murphy, because he's gotten in more practice this preseason.

FBT (Fringe Bowl Team) did a nice initial eval of MTSU back in July, when Dasher was still expected to be the starting QB, and (I believe) accurately portrayed the Blue Raiders as a Northwestern-lite, as a team that runs the spread, and relies on their QB grabbing yards when the pocket breaks down. With Kilgore at the helm its uncertain what we'll get, but we all know a quarterback doesn't need to be particularly fast to stack up yards on our defense historically, just somewhat elusive (Mike Kafka anybody?). The buzz from some Blue Raiders fans is that he has been quite accurate in practices, but he's not the runner Dasher is.

So who steps up for MTSU on offense, if Kilgore is ineffective? An experienced, smallish offensive line (both OTs on the depth chart listed at less than 275 lbs) and 3 talented running backs - Phillip Tanner, Ben Cunningham, and D.D. Kyles who are expected to share carries this season. The matchup I'm most interested in watching this Thursday is going to be our less experienced front four matchup with this O-line. Dominate up front and make Kilgore uncomfortable and we win this game. I'm also curious to see if Cosgrove will keep it simple for this first game, or if he'll pick up where he left off last year, incorporating blitzes from all over the field.

When the Gophers have the ball, the MTSU defense is small, quick, and senior-laden. For Weber and Co. to put the ball into the endzone, its going to take some consistent sustained drives, as I don't think we'll see a lot of big plays and broken coverage handed to us from this experienced defense. We've heard all spring and summer camp that the Gophs are rededicated to running the ball. And although, I believe they are under Horton, it may be frustrating to watch several drives grind to a halt early in the game because we're establishing the run, and predictably rushing the ball on 1st and 2nd downs. Patience is key - something Fisch did not have last year with the run, and I think Horton will display.

Ok - enough babbling and regurgitating what others have already written. Like last year, I'll provide my weekly prediction and players of the game for both teams. This MTSU road game feels awfully like the Syracuse game last season to me (but without climate control and the Eric Decker and Mike Williams NFL-preview show). Very winnable for Minnesota, but it will be nail-bitingly close, thanks to some stalled drives due to our commitment to run early, and some 2nd half brain cramps on defense. Weber start out his senior season well, and look real sharp on some drives and make us feel good about having him under center for one more year.

Prediction: Minnesota 24, Middle Tennessee State 20

Gopher Player of the Game: Adam Weber - 14 for 20 for 195 yards and 2 TDs

Blue Raider Player of the Game: Phillip Tanner - 16 carries for 95 yards and 1 TD

Coach Brew - Boosting My Confidence Through Tremendous Surliness

2010-08-25T23:14:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure if any of you have managed to make your way on over to the excellent Gopher Football blog 'Fringe Bowl Team', but if not, you're really missing out. It's really the blog I wish this one could become, if I lived near campus and didn't have 2 little kids, a 50 hour a week job, and too many other sports interests to divert my attention. But I digress - MV does a phenomenal job there and has daily updates on recruiting, training camp, and recently he's been catching video of post practice interviews with players and coaches. In particular, an interview with Coach Brew posted earlier this week (8/23) was a real gem. And while I realize this was a topic batted about on Gopherhole the other day, I can't help but further reflect here.

First off, take the 10 minutes and watch it. You'll be entertained by a Coach Brewster that maybe you haven't seen much of in the past. This Brew is downright curmudgeonly with the media, and I like it. I kinda wish he was like this all the time.

Or if you don't have the 10 minutes, zip ahead to 5:05 and listen to the question Brew receives about linebacker, Keenan Cooper. His initial response is to incredulously repeat back the 8th grade level question, and then mid-way thru, shrug his shoulders and just go with it. Then he looks at the camera and states that he wonders how much the interviewers think about the questions their asking, only to have the dolt (presumably Marcus Fuller) try and make the excuse that he 'just came from basketball practice and is, spaced out'. Love it.

Shortly after, Brew gets snappy with Phil Miller (who's been more of a friend to the program than most writers in town). Again, this exchange just brings a smile to my face. And more importantly, it makes me feel more confident about this team's direction.

Why? To me, Coach Brewster appears to be a guy on a mission, and he just wants to start playing football (he states as much later in the interview). He's taken some lumps in the media for a good while, and he's no doubt fed up, and ready to lash out a bit. And there's almost a hint of confidence (or even arrogance) in his demeanor that makes me think he knows something the rest of the Big Ten doesn't, and he can't wait to unleash it on them. Maybe I'm just being my usual overly optimistic self, but I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach that might be the case.

What or who might be unleashed, I'm not sure - Is it MarQueis at WR (who Dave Mona proclaimed would be 1st Team All-Big Ten - talk about bold)? Is it Donnell Kirkwood at RB, who's turned a lot of heads in this preseason? Or is it scheme, in the form of Horton's simplified offense?

Maybe all - maybe none. Either way, go get 'em Coach Brew, and GO GOPHERS!

Calling our shots - 2010 Gopher Football Predictions

2010-08-21T11:16:00.012-05:00

Are there more than 2 wins on this 2010 schedule? Can we finish 'bowl eligible'? Rose Bowl or bust for Pasadena Brew? These are the burning questions of this upcoming Golden Gopher football season. We've had all summer to mull over the Gophs list of opponents (not that we needed it), and here's what our brain trust came up with:

The breakdown of each set of predictions has some interesting wins/losses - here's the brief rationale:

Omar likes us breaking out to a nice 3-1 start, and carrying that momentum into our Big Ten opener vs. Northwestern, and finds us road wins at Purdue and Illinois.
JJ and KZ don't like our season opener on the road at MTSU, and both like the upset at Wisconsin (which I just don't see happening this year). They differ only on where we'll get a road win in Weeks 10 and 11.
Gopher Bandanna Guy calls for the upset of USC, followed by a letdown loss to NIU, and a rebound victory vs. Northwestern. Then a 6 game losing streak is ended with the team rallying around the seemingly dead man walking, Coach Brew - taking down Illinois in Champaign and then shocking an over-confident Iowa squad to save his job a la Wayne Fontes.
2Mutch is the self-proclaimed 'Debbie Downer' of the group, giving the Gophs a more tempered 4-8 record, and basically has us winning only games where there's a chance of being favored in the line.
NG also likes us to ruin Wisconsin's season by knocking them off in Camp Randall, and taking down Iowa at home. Brew gets himself a couple of trinkets under this scenario, and that would certainly bode well for coaching Minnesota into his 5th year.

So what's it all mean? Probably nothing more than confirming that all of us are crazy dreamers and/or hopeful optimists when it comes to Golden Gopher Football. Virtually every publication and website prediction I've come across has us between 1 and 4 wins, and in last place. The experts are expecting grim results.

Bodog.com has us as 50/1 odds to win the conference (worst odds in the conference, behind Indiana at 40/1). Any Hoosier fans out there want to wager (beer?) that we'll finish above them in the standings? Ok, maybe that's a bad idea. Our schedule is tougher, but we've got something going for us more than anybody else in the Big Ten - no one expects ANYTHING from the Gophers, and guess what? There is some burgeoning talent on this team that will surpise some teams that don't scout closesly. Underestimate the Gophers at your peril! (hey, if loyal members of Gopher Nation can't stay positive, who can?)

Here's some predictions on Minnesota's individual players -
GBG likes:
Offensive Player of the Year: Da'Jon McKnight, WR (680 yrd, 9 TDs)
Defensive Player of the Year: Keanon Cooper, LB (65 tackles, 2 INTs, 4 FF)
Leading Rusher: D'uane Bennett (720 yds)
Leading Receiver: Da'Jon McKnight (680 yds)
Leading Tackler: Mike Rallis, LB (85 tackles)
Sack Leader: Ra'Shede Hegeman (8 sacks)
INT Leader: Michael Carter (4 INTs)

2Mutch likes:
Offensive Player of the Year: Adam Weber (in a nice bounceback season)
Defensive Player of the Year: Kim Royston (back from injury and a force)

And finally, Just Jake likes Brandon Kirksey to have a monster junior year at DT, big enough that he bolts for the NFL draft a year early. Wow. Now that's a bold prediction.

What's on tap for Give 'Em Hell Goldy?

2010-08-14T00:49:00.001-05:00

Thanks to a spring and summer filled with a hectic work travel schedule, playoff Bucks basketball, MLB road trippin', and slow-pitch softball - this blog all but died over the warmer months. But so what? We didn't have that many readers anyways.

But what'd we miss? All kinds of stuff. The Gopher Baseball team won the Big Team Championship (outstanding), Kyle Theret and Gary Tinsley got themselves suspended, Nebraska joined the Big Ten, and Royce White bolted for Iowa State, among other things.

But with Gopher football on the horizon and hoops not far behind, there is now motivation to get back into the swing of posting more regularly. So what's on tap here? Again, all kinds of stuff.

We'll be putting together a set of Big Ten Football predictions, a quick look at some of the new faces we'll see on the gridiron this Fall, resuming the weekly Game Preview and 'What we learned' cycle, and more entries to 'Gopher Profiles in Courage'. Gopher Bandanna Guy will be attending plenty of football games again this year, so expect more original photos and perhaps even some video footage.

So check in regularly, as we'll be attempting to pour on the content.

Looks like EA nailed it - The Bank immortalized in video gamedom

2010-08-08T22:11:00.002-05:00

With the release of EA Sports NCAA Football 2011 a few weeks ago, The Bank is now officially part of the video game universe. 'Bout time.

The game developers missed the deadline for last years 2010 game, and so its been finally included in this years edition. Judging by the video though, it was worth the wait - they nailed it. My only complaint is that it looks like they missed our Big Ten Titles and National Championships displayed proudly on the facade in front of the bottom of the upper deck. In some ways this video game version is better though, as it is advertisement free. Not a TCF, Arby's, Cenex, or Coca-Cola logo to be seen. In other words, its the stadium as I wish it would have been. Not that I'm complaining about the real stadium. Corporate advertising aside, its nearly perfect in my biased opinion.

For you schlubs who haven't been to the new digs yet, here's a photo for comparison.

Yeah, well, that's like, your opinion, man - Surviving White Hot Hawkeye Hate.

2010-04-13T23:41:00.002-05:00

Feeling masochistic? Then check out the latest from 'The Rivalry, Esq'. Deep breath Gopher friends.

Ugh, pretty rough, huh? This guy takes some potshots, speaks some truth (admittedly), and generally does his best to put thumbtacks in the shoes of Gopher fans everywhere. My hat is off to him. The piece is well done. This truly is hate-speech at its finest. I wonder where the venom glands reside in this Squawkeye's body.

I do take issue with the notion that he feels like the rivalry Minnesota has with the Hawkeyes and Badgers no longer exists, simply because we've been down in football. Both rivalries (and they are indeed just that) have ebbed and flowed with one side dominating the other for stretches. Yes the last 3 decades have been brutal for us, but then the 70s and 60s were downright awful for Iowa. And so it goes.

I did enjoy that the best he could come up with about our basketball program was suggesting that we'll soon be paying attention to "whoever replaces Tubby Smith", a notion that seems to be less and less likely with each growing day, particularly with the stellar recruiting class coming in once again (and just wait until Cory Joseph and Mo Walker commit)

Deal with it Hawkeyes - Tubby likes Minneapolis and will be wearing Maroon and Gold ties for a while, to dominate your pathetic group of talentless roundballers. I know, I know, this is the part where Hawkeye fans pretend they don't really care about basketball, and only football is important. Don't worry. You don't have to pretend - we saw your attendance last year. Even if the seats were paid for - you weren't showing up. You can enjoy our follies on the gridiron. We'll enjoy yours on the hardwood. You like Mason/Brewster and their bumbling ways - we enjoyed Alford's dirtbaggishness and Lickliter's in-over-his-headedness'. Its all good. Fair enough?

At least during the football offseason, you Squawkeye fans can enjoy some of that 'Broadway quality theatre in Des Moines' one of your bretheren has raved about.

Finally some news that will make us smile.

2010-04-01T23:54:00.004-05:00

Suck it Souhan.

Screw you Dennis Dodd.

Put away your wallet Phil Knight.

The Associated Press reports that Tubby is working on a contract extension, and NOT looking for a new job.

Forgive me if I find the AP slightly more credible than a blogger from CBS Sportsline, and a 'columnist' who takes pot shots at bald first year coaches of Sweet 16 teams, while being a bald-o himself (see his latest idiotic quip about Tubby here).

If you don't believe that, then go straight to the top for an answer. I know, I know, he's just delivering the company line here. Still he seems pretty damn sincere to me. I'm putting my trust in Tubby to not let us down. Of course, perhaps Phil Knight is loading up a second dump truck with money right now... sigh. Everyone, EVERYONE has a price.

Its time to make my April, Mr. Orlando Smith. Re-up for another 6 years, and get Cory Joseph to commit.

Suddenly, a new leader has emerged in insulting your sports intelligence - Dim Jim shoots from the hip.

2010-03-23T01:07:00.004-05:00

Not content to let Fat Pat be the only writer to get his jabs in at the Gophs, Star Tribune columnist Jim Souhan has produced his own form of hot, steaming compost over the last few days. Oh good. I haven't read an article explaining why we shouldn't really care about Golden Gopher basketball or anything else with the block 'M' attached to it in awhile. Wait a minute, yes I have. I won't get into too many of the details, as 'The Daily Gopher's' PJS does a outstanding job dissecting the latest nonsense that passes for sports opinion these days. This is a must read, as it brilliantly takes a part Souhan's laziness and utter disregard for actually KNOWING something about the topic he decided to tackle. Read Souhan's mess of an editorial first though, before seeing it sliced apart. Its worth the reaction.

Next, after creating his little piece of bulletin board material for the Musketeers, and being thanked by Xavier coach, Chris Mack (whom he ironically - see Souhan's own picture above - refers to as 'Whiny McBaldwhimp'), he churns out a truly insulting post in his blog that suggests that Jamie Dixon would 'eat him (Mack) alive' in the next round, among other things. Hmm. How'd that work out for Chris Mack last Sunday? And 'Whiny McBaldwhimp' - what the hell is that? Souhan looks like Harry Shearer's (see other pic) estranged kid brother (sorry Harry, I love ya, but neither of you are exactly tough guys). But hey, all I know is that Chris Mack guided Xavier into the Sweet 16 in his first season, and definitely proved that they deserved that #6 seed. Clearly making the Gophs underdogs, both conventionally (the Selection committee saw it this way), and posthumously - the #6 beat our #11.

Worst of all, one of his 'favorite moments' at the Bradley Center was an exaggerated (to the benefit of Wisconsin Badger fans no less), somewhat pointless slice of Session 1. His moment? "Wisconsin fans roaring throughout the Bradley Center when the Badgers came back against Wofford. Even though Pitt was playing Oakland in the Bradley Center, and the Wisconsin game was available only on TVs in the corridors." Huh? It wasn't as if the place was packed with Badger fans (it wasn't), there was hardly a roar in the place (a dull cheer at best). More like a sigh of relief after Jon Leuer hit the game clinching free throws. I know, cause I was standing out there in the concourse watching it. It had become more compelling than the game going on 10 steps away. Really by the time this all happened, the Bradley Center was over half empty, as Pitt had Oakland well under control, and most of the Gopher and Xavier fans had emptied out onto the streets. Why exaggerate this, if not to somehow juxtapose Badger fans loyalty versus Gopher fans? Ah, but I'm sure I'm just being hyper-sensitive.

What it really comes down to with Dim Jim and Fat Pat is that I'm starting to believe that these two are just writing this crap in an effort just to see how many people who unapologetically follow the Gophers through thick and thin, they can drive insane. Congratulations guys, its working (on me at least). Somebody more levelheaded than me please tell me I'm wrong, and that these guys are just calling it down the middle. Maybe I'm too 'duckies and bunnies' on the U. I'm fine with that if I am. And I certainly won't pretend to be something I'm not. But I also don't think everything the athletic department does is beyond criticism either though (my disdain of Jedd Fisch in 2009 for example).

Then again, maybe these two (Souhan and Reusse) are just complete douchebags, working for a dying medium that frankly, deserves to die if these are the best opinion writers they can employ. Hey guys, guess what? I might read your columns for the sake of sado-masochism, but I don't buy your newspaper, and I generally don't support your advertisers. Maybe if you actually played things down the middle once in a while and weren't so goddamn lazy in your research, you'd help circulation pick up. Try it. It couldn't hurt, could it? Its not like the paper is tanking or anything. Oh, wait...

Now, before your head explodes - get over to the Daily Gopher for that great dissection of the crap Souhan has been churning out.

Gophers can't top Musketeers - the 2009-10 season comes to a close.

2010-03-20T15:38:00.003-05:00

Despite the outcome, still had a great time at the BC for the Milwaukee NCAA regional. Attended the pre-game for Minnesota fans at Bootleggers, and it was Gopherrific to see so much Maroon and Gold in one place, all unified and postive. The bartenders were kept very busy all morning. After a couple hours of imbibing, I headed into Session 1 with my bud TKL who is a NU and IU alum, and Big Ten thru and thru.

A number of observations/comments:

Since it was a weekday and before 6pm, the parking situation around the BC was not real good. All on-street parking on side streets were 3 hour max or less. I ended up in a ramp that raked you to pay for parking during both sessions 1 and 2.
On my 9:30 am walk from the ramp to Bootleggers, I walked past not one, but two separate Iowa Hawkeye fans. By the second one, I was so bewildered at the sight of them that I said to him "What are you guys here shopping for a coach?" He ignored me.
Bootleggers was full up of Maroon and Gold. Pretty awesome. They had two huge U of Minn Alumni flags hanging from the rafters. The Rouser spontaneously broke out a few times, and spirits were high. At one point, a large banner was unfurled that said "It's Tubby Time - Let's Dance" or something like that. Very cool.
A group of Oakland fans swung into Bootleggers, and were definitely enjoying themselves. A fun bunch.
The BC got pretty full up by midway through the 1st Half, when the corner upper deck seats get filled up, good to see, since a number of the Thursday regional games had a lot of empty seats.
Xavier and Minnesota brought vocal crowds, both were on top of the game and rallied around their teams at the right moments.
No beer sales in the BC, no doubt due to NCAA stipulations. Stuck with Pepsi products. Got bad gut-rot from a soda. A little beer will put out that fire.
Headed back to Bootleggers after Session 1, with a pit stop at the Calderone Pub first. Nice mix of fans from all the teams in the regional there.
Bootleggers was no longer the Gopher haven it was when I left there that morning. Badger fans had decended upon it, and the Gopher fans started to disperse. Still our banners were up and we were flying the flag
Finally the Bootleggers staff start to take down the huge 'Welcome M Alumni' flags. I offer to buy one off the guy taking it down, but he states that these belong to the Alumni Association, to which I reply "I'm in the Alumni Association! Sell it to me!" No dice.

Panoramic view from our seats in Sec 221.

Obstructed view, but close enough that I didn't care.

Goldy keepin' it real, while the Musketeer looks on.

Goldy and the bench look on in the 1st Half.

Tubby paces the sidelines.

For some reason my camera chose to focus on Blake - I thought it kinda made this pic cool.

LW inbounds during the second half.

Gopher Nation stands to acknowledge the seniors, Westbrook, Johnson, and Bostick.

Its over, its all over.

Gopher Bandanna Guy and TKL just glad to be a part of March Madness.

Ralph Sampson the 2nd. Certainly the tallest man currentlyin the building. Very likely the tallest man currently in the State of Wisconsin. And quite possibly the tallest man currently in the upper Midwest. Also see Bryant Allen sitting with friends, and Paul Carter sitting with sister on the bottom of photo.

Game 2 - Pitt brings out their lovely cheerleaders, and apparently one grouchy one. Smile dear, you're at the Big Dance!

The Oakland Golden Grizzly. I thought he was pretty cool. Huge head, might be one of the biggest I've ever seen on a mascot.

Pitt sets up the offense.

With Pitt firmly in control, the stands empty out, but the Oakland Grizz faithful stick to the end.

Gone Dancin' - Gopher Bandanna Guy is out for the Big Dance.

2010-03-17T23:41:00.003-05:00

Big Dance here I come! Okay, so admittedly its not a very long trip. Really just a 35 minute drive from my home, and even less from my office. Its in my backyard, and I'm no stranger to the Bradley Center (affectionately known as 'the BC') or the surrounding scene, being a Bucks Season ticket holder. And I'm also no stranger to attending NCAA Tournament games. But this will be the first I attend where the beloved Maroon and Gold are playing for something (I can't count the 1997 Final Four, as I didn't get in the RCA Dome).

My Dad got me hooked on Tourney Time when I was just a freshman in high school, when he pulled me out of school to accompany him to the 1992 Milwaukee Regional. By the end of the 6 games, it ended up as one of my favorite sports memories ever as a kid. The regional was chalk until the 2nd round. I'll never forget the end of the game matching #7 seed Georgia Tech vs. #2 seed USC. Matt Geiger inbounded to James Forrest with 0.8 seconds left for a game-winning catch and shoot. You've surely seen that moment before on many a 'One Shining Moment' montages from years past (and if not, the link will show you - its only 40 seconds). I was there, and loving every second of it. But what only people who were there know about that game, was that the supposedly neutral crowd became very pro-Georgia Tech early on. Mid-first half, the crowd turned on USC and their star player, Harold 'Baby Jordan' Miner, after he displayed his showpony pre-freethrow routine by obnoxiously passing the ball through his legs and around his back. Boos rained down from there on, and the Milwaukee crowd got solidly behind Bobby Cremins' crew. That's one of the things that makes the Big Dance so great, seemingly neutral basketball fans or fans of other teams not involved, can and will rabidly turn against the favorite, or the team of a player that simply turns everyone off. Since then, I've enjoyed so many great tournament games, as I'm sure all of us have. This just reinforced my love of this, the greatest of American sporting events. Screw the Super Bowl. Tourney Time is where it's at. No doubt about it.

And since that regional, I've been sold on the glory that is attending the NCAA Tournament in person. I took in the 1st/2nd round Milwaukee '96 when Tim Duncan came to town, the '97 Final Four when the Clem and the Gophers stormed Indianapolis (although we didn't get into the game, as it was cost-prohibitive), the '02 3rd/4th round games in Madison when 4 big progams laden with NBA talent (much of it marginal, admittedly) rolled into town - Texas, Illinois, Kansas, and Oregon. And lastly, I fulfilled one of my minor goals in life by taking my Dad to the Final Four in Detroit last year, as my way of thanking him for pulling me out of school for a life experience 17 years earlier (Thank you Dad -did I mention that he was also the Principal of my school at the time?).

That brings me up to the present. Ever since I nabbed my Session 1 tickets (almost immediately after seeing we landing the #11 seed in the Milwaukee regional last Sunday afternoon), I've been absolutely jacked up for this game against Xavier. The chances for the Gophers to land in a Milwaukee regional are pretty slim on any given year, due to the fact that, a) Milwaukee only hosts about every 4-6 years, and b) the Gophers don't make the tournament all that frequently (that's changing though...). This is could quite literally be a once-in-decades opportunity. And so I'm seizing it.

Over Friday (and hopefully Sunday) Gopher Bandanna Guy will be running around 4th and State, photo documenting the fun, and the game itself. Check back, as I'll have pics, musings, and reflections on the general vibe of the event. I plan on spending my pre-game Friday morning over at 'Bootleggers' on Ye Olde Worlde Thirde Streete, which has been designated 'Gopher Nation headquarters' by the UMAA. Then heading into Session 1 for the Minnesota-Xavier and Pitt-Oakland games. After that its up in the air - scalp back in for the Session 2 Ohio State-UCSB and Georgia Tech-Oklahoma State games? Meet up with some friends and settle in on Water Street? Will Gopher Bandanna Gal shut down all the fun and call me home? Who knows? Win or lose, the day should be memorable.

As far as a breakdown on the game vs. the Musketeers goes, frankly I'm too excited to think rationally and critically on this one, and there are plenty of other speculators out there you can turn to. I'll just give my prediction and leave it at that.
Gophers pull the upset 71 - 66, on the strength of DJ's defense and some hot Westbrook shooting.

That's it for now - check back Saturday night for Friday's recap. GO GOPHERS!!!

Surprise, surprise - Fat Pat Strikes Again.

2010-03-13T22:31:00.007-06:00

Saturday was another great day to be a Gopher basketball fan. It was Tubby Time at its finest. After pounding the Nittany Lions into giving up basketball until Fall on Thursday, and then wrestling a win away from the always tough Izzo-led Spartans on Friday evening, the Gophs came out hot and absolutely BURIED Purdue. Now tomorrow we're in the Tournament Championship vs. Evan Turner and his Buckeye friends. Pretty exciting stuff, and the team is peaking at the right time.

Who cares if the motivation behind the team's success is from the disrespect they were shown by the media and coaches in the conference awards, or if they're just gelling when they need to? Winning is winning - and it counts whether Robbie Hummel or Chris Allen plays or not. Well, not to our good friend Patrick Reusse. Not content to write the standard congratulatory editorial (the kind you'd see in the 10 other Big Ten towns), complementing Tubby for getting the team to play their best ball now, and look past the troubles they've dealt with (and to a large degree overcome), Reusse delivers another series of paragraphs that backhandedly compliment the Gophs, and downplay the recent hot streak. Its clear to me that this is just another article designed to get the casual fan who might be suddenly interested in watching the Gophers take on OSU or a 1st round opponent in the Big Dance, to be dissuaded from caring about this team because he needs to remind everyone that they underachieved. Ironically, Just Jake and I were conversing via phone after the win, and I (somewhat rhetorically) asked him how long he thought it would be until Reusse spun this negative. He laughed and said 'not long'. I agreed, but even I was stunned to see that it took less than 6 hours after the win for him to take another sucker punch at Tubby and Company.

Why the hell is this guy so motivated in making people jaded on the Gophers? I have no idea, but Reusse seems to be committed to tearing down any good feelings that might generate around the football or basketball programs. We (the fans who follow the program) all know the team has underachieved this season. We all acknowledge that they've had some character issues (Mbakwe and White). We realize the Nolen suspension was unfortunate. We get that Sampson and Iverson are still developing, and we knew there would be growing pains along the way. Yup. We get all that. But I guess if we're to listen to this hack, we shouldn't enjoy the success now, knowing that. Thanks for setting us straight Mr. Reusse.

Devoe All Growed Up

2010-03-13T09:15:00.002-06:00

Well, Devoe Joseph ain't all growed up yet, but he's taking some big steps. His stone-cold shooting in OT was marvelous to behold; not only for the results (obviously) but just as much that someone OTHER than Larry "Don't Call Me Bryant" Westbrook had the brass tacks and cojones to take big shots with a defender in his face in crunch time. He sure doesn't seem to like our half-court sets; then again, NO ONE on our teams seems to like the half-court sets. Hope he can rectify that in the off-season. Funnily enough, I got a vmail from a buddy at the end of regulation who declared Devoe, and I quote, "Devoe Joseph is a F'n Mess. He is one of the worst point guards I've EVER SEEN on our team..." That's the sort of positivity I love from fellow Gopher fans! Personally, I'm excited to see Devoe continue to grow tonight and in the post-season (NIT or NCAA). It's gonna get real interesting when Nolen is back next year, and if we can land Devoe's little bro (and supposedly superior guard) Cory next year. That will be a stacked guard rotation.

It's been nice these first to conference tourney games seeing the Gophs morph into the team we all saw they had the potential to be earlier this year. The sheer domination of PSU was a prime example of our depth, talent, and determination (DJ especially in his FU to the moron coaches who kept him off the all D team), and last night's MSU game was a study in mental and physical toughness. Once the refs decided they'd only randomly called soft fouls, we got down to the business of banging around -- a big thanks to a guy I've been up and down on these last 2 years -- Colton Iverson. His clear out box-out (at the 0:28 mark) that led to a DJ dunk was a prime example of that. For better or worse, it appears that in big games this year, we really need a whole lotta of Iverson time (Butler earlier, MSU, etc) to win big games.

Tonight's game with the Boilers is gonna be fun. I personally hope we see a lot of RSIII as I think his game matches well with Purdue's long athletes. I really want to beat Purdue, especially since the slow, white hack that is Chris Kramer irritates the hell out of me. Defensive Player of the Year my arse.

Prediction: Gophers 73 - Purdue 68

NCAA Tournament here we come?

2010-03-12T00:30:00.001-06:00

Probably not unless we win 2 more games. However, I get this weird feeling that if we can get by Michigan State tomorrow evening, we will win the entire Conference Tourney. And if that happens - Damian Johnson will be crowned tournament MVP. Book it.

I am probably completely off base here, but I wanted to throw this out here so I'm on record. Either way, a solid tune-up win vs. Penn State.

GO GOPHS! BEAT SPARTY!

Big Ten Men's Basketball Awards a Big Time Snub.

2010-03-08T22:27:00.006-06:00

Today the Big Ten revealed their Men's Basketball All-Big Ten teams, and for the most part it appeared they got it right. McCamey, Lucas, Turner, Hummel, and Moore got 1st team. Fine, a great group that seems right to me (maybe Shurna over E'Twaun?). 2nd team? Sims, Shurna, Battle, JaJuan, and Hughes. Yup. Seems OK. 3rd team? Harris, Green, Morgan, Buford, Bohannon. Whatever, things get pretty subjective down on the 3rd team, and I'm not a fan of Bohannon at all, but that's fine. Player of the Year - Evan Turner. Very good, definitely deserved it. So where's the snub you ask?

Gopher senior forward Damian Johnson, affectionately known as 'DJ Swat' in the Gopher blogosphere came up completely empty. Not making 3rd team or even honorable mention was one thing. But not making the All-Defensive Team? This is a snub in the truest sense of the word. Damien led the Big Ten in steals (58 at 1.9 spg), and was third in blocks (57 at 1.9 bpg, and arguably inch-for-inch the best shot blocker in the conference, given his height relative to the other leading shot stuffers in the conference.

Members of this 2010 All-Defensive team include: Nash, Lauderdale, Jajuan, Kramer, and Hughes. So who should Damian have supplanted? Either Lauderdale, Nash, or JJ in my opinion. Damian is a better all-around defender than any of these guys, and his numbers prove it (at least in the case of Lauderdale and Nash). Both Lauderdale and Jajuan were slightly better shot blockers, but neither show up anywhere near the top 15 in steals. And while its true that DJ is not quite as good a rebounder as those two, DJ's ability to defend on the ball, in the post, or on the top of the zone makes him a far more versatile defender than either of these two. He's also probably the best help side defender in the conference. Damian's combined rebound, blocks, and steals per game average is 8.2, while JaJuan Johnson is at 10.0, but heavily weighted towards rebounds (7.2 rpg). Lauderdale is at an 8.0, with 3 times fewer steals per game. Nash is at a paltry 6.1, and probably played more zone defense than anybody else on the list. Clearly, DJ Swat's multi-talented approach to defense is not appreciated by the coaches or media. Which seems odd to me, because he causes all kinds of matchup problems for opposing teams.

What's even more frustrating to me though is that Larry Westbrook was the Gopher's lone representative on the awards sheet, as an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention. Not because Minnesota only got one award winner (I'm fine with that given the team's balance and depth), but because this award was clearly given to Westbrook because some media writer opened the Gopher's statbook, and saw that LW led the team in scoring (and only by a slim margin). Westbrook contributed little more than scoring this year, while Johnson did everything. Case in point, Senior Night was an analog for his entire career of filling up the stat sheet in ways other than just scoring - scoring 10 points while dishing out 11 assists, 5 boards, 3 blocks, and 3 steals. In 23 minutes. At least give him a slight modicum of recognition.

Oh, by the way 2 players from Iowa managed more accolades than Damian. Yeah, that seems about right. Thanks for nothing coaches and media members. You all suck.

If Dr. Tom was dead, he'd be spinning in his grave: Gophs destroy Hawkeyes

2010-03-07T22:20:00.002-06:00

Ain't it fun playing the Squawk-eyes? They truly are terrible. Unathletic, slow, and pale. The maroon and gold had their way on Sunday, and it was fun to watch. Pretty much every minute of it. My only gripe were Wayne Larivee's continued insistence that this was each of the Gopher seniors' last game in Barn. Wayne, did anybody bother to mention to you that at this point we're pretty much a lock to host an NIT game or two?

It was great to see Westbrook and Johnson go off on Senior night. Hell, even Bostick got some love. I know LW has been the subject of a lot of criticism throughout the year for his pouting and temperment, but I still love the guy for how he can light it up some nights, and has the fearlessness take any shot. DJ played a game that was an analog for his entire productive career at Minnesota. 10 points, 11 assists, 5 boards, 3 steals, and 3 blocks in 23 minutes. Yeah, I know Iowa is horrid, but that's serious production in limited time.

What's really a shame is that he won't be recognized as Big Ten Defensive POY, an award I think he deserves. Chris Kramer and David Lighty are nice defenders (and my guesses for Def-POY), but in my opinion they don't contribute to the defense the same way DJ does. DJ may not be a true shut down defender, but much of his defense is played coming from the help side. Damien steals and blocks, and as such creates offensive opportunities for his teammates. He's inch-for-inch the best shot blocker in the Big Ten, ranked 3rd in the Big Ten, and with nothing but centers around him statistically. He leads the conference in steals. He constantly deflects balls in the passing lane. And he's a nightmare matchup in a zone. What more can the kid do? Come on writers - give DJ Swat a little love (great nickname from 'The Daily Gopher', along with a nice summary of the graduating seniors). He deserves this award.

What's really disappointing about today is that had we not laid an egg against Michigan or won one of the last second heartbreakers, we'd have taken 5th place in the standings, as Illinois got taken apart by Wisconsin. That would have made our tourney hopes look a lot better right now. Such is life as a Gopher fan. Its hard to figure this team out. They can be so sharp some nights, and like absolute dogs the next. Inconsistency is our middle name. Still, I think a win over Penn State (who look like a very dangerous team to face right now) and then a win over the Spartans in the second round will put us in, unless some dark horse wins the B-10 tourney (the B-10 tourney bracket came out a few hours ago). Anybody else agree?

Real Men of Reproach - Steve Alford

2010-03-01T12:37:00.003-06:00

Here's a new feature at GEGH - 'Real Men of Reproach'. We'll focus on someone in the sports arena, typically Big Ten related (even Gophers) who deserve criticism and attention drawn to their idiotic or scum-baggish behavior. So, here's the inaugural post:

Say what you will about Golden Gopher AD Joel Maturi, but let’s all be glad he is sharp enough to have not hired a scumbag on par with Steve Alford. Brewster is by all accounts, a pretty honorable guy. And Tubby, well he’s always been above reproach. Okay, maybe that's not saying much. Either way, let's tip our hat to the Hawkeyes. You are now enjoying your own ‘Monson Era’ with Lickliter, thanks to Mr. Alford.

Check out Alford’s latest d-bag level behavior, getting into a rather juvenile post-game argument with BYU player, Jon Tavernari, that is culminated with his calling Tavernari an 'asshole'. Nice to see the person who I would guess is the highest paid public employee in the State of New Mexico keepin' it real. The genesis of this moment comes from some chippy play in last minute of a very tight game, where Tavernari received an elbow. Granted, no player should be mouthing off to another coach before, during, or after a game, that's a rule we all learned playing team sports very early. But he’s 20-years old, for crying out loud. He doesn't have the judgement of an experienced Division I head coach, especially one who just won the game. Of course, if I were a player who knew anything about Alford's history at Iowa, I might also be disinclined to be more respectful.

Classic Student Section

2010-02-20T19:11:00.004-06:00

So, here's is the video/audio of the 'classless' F*** Bo Ryan chant Gopher Bandana Guy referenced. It really gets audible at about the 0:15 mark...

The aggressive student section was great, so glad to see them really trying to do all they could to aid the win. It was also really cool we had a bunch of in-state recruits there to witness an impressive win.

I personally LOVED it. I wish we displayed this sort of winning attitude toward the badgers in football. Oh well, sticking to Becky on the court will have to suffice. Enjoy.

'BO' YAAAA! Gophs dispatch Badgers at the Barn!

2010-02-18T23:40:00.002-06:00

Hey? Wha' Happened Bo? Whining and grimacing won't work every night. The spring is back in my step tonight. Just wanted to share my elation from the 16 point takedown of the Badgers. And here's a fun pic of Bo doing his best impersonation of Fred Willard's "Mike LaFontaine" character from the underrated 'A Mighty Wind'... (hence the opening line of this post). I imagine this must have been what he did for a halftime speech, seeing as the Badgers made virtually no adjustments in the 2nd half.

It was nice to see Bo Ryan get outcoached by Tubby down the stretch (again). The zone defense the Gophs dropped into forced the Badgers to chuck 3's all 2nd half, and they weren't falling. The Gophers beat the Badgers at their own game, surprisingly beating them in a slow down match, with long possessions frequently ending in quality buckets. I would have expected the Gophs to go uptempo as we have in wins against Wisconsin in the past, but Tubby went with his bigs and a reduced bench rotation. Maybe this vexed the Badgers because they scouted them to go uptempo. Maybe not. Either way, I'm pleased with the results.

The fans were loud, if not a little tasteless (with the 'F*ck Bo Ryan' chant). But hey, what do you expect when he's making incredulous scowls and shouting at refs for calls on the opposite end of the court, with a student section desperate to do anything to help give the Gophs an advantage. Steve Lavin did his usual Badger ass-kissing all game, which he transparently tries to balance with his love of Williams Arena. And Larry Westbrook capped it off with a ridiculous and unnecessary dunk attempt with the shot clock winding down and the game all but over.

No time to rest now though, IU coming in on Saturday. Time for some revenge on them for stealing that game from us in Bloomington. Verdell Jones needs that smirk wiped off his face. Gotta keep any momentum generated from this game rolling at least until Purdue rolls into town.

In the meantime, celebrate with a classic Goldy spinning of his head (and a Grain Belt Premium or Surly Furious)

GO GOPHERS!

Minnesota's "Greatest Games" - Big Ten Network On-Demand

2010-02-05T00:02:00.005-06:00

On the recommendation of a friend, I sat down tonight to take a look at what the On Demand offerings of the BTN were, and I was pleased to see that each team in the conference had their own 'Greatest Games' offered. Much to my dismay, the current offering was the March 8th, 1997 basketball game between the Gophs and the Badgers. We all know how that one ended - Ty Calderwood tearing his jersey off, and the Badgers squeeking out a win to put them in the NCAA tourney. Hardly a 'greatest game' for the Gophs. Especially since there were at least 4 other games from that season alone that would have qualified, and been Minnesota wins. And yet loving the '96-97 team as much as I do, I couldn't help but watch the whole game anyways, despite knowing the outcome. I originally watched this game on a 19" color TV with poor over-the-air reception in my dorm in Comstock Hall, so it was nice to see the game with a little more clarity.

Some other random observations from the game:
- the general dickish-ness of Sam Okey
- Paul Grant is probably my 2nd favorite Badger player to watch (Patrick Tompkins forever being my #1)
- how much more character and volume the UW Fieldhouse had compared to the Kohl Center today
- Court-Dawg James is, and always will be my favorite player from the Clem Haskins era. If only he had not thrown that phonebook...
- I loved that 1-3-1 zone we ran under Clem, especially with Bobby Jackson on the baseline
- The Miles Tarver/Sam Okey stare down at midcourt was fantastic theatre - this moment was worth the watch alone.
- Trevor Winter's clubbing of Paul Grant was truly thuggish, yet I couldn't help but appreciate his willingness to send a message.
- David Burkemper might have been the most useless player on offense in the history of the Big Ten.
- Jacobson's three to take back the lead with under a minute to go was about as cold-blooded a basket as you'll ever see.
- Where the hell was Bucky Badger? I don't think I saw him once on the broadcast.

Anyways, despite the loss in the end, a fun watch. Especially since it becomes very evident early in the game that Minnesota is clearly the more talented team from top to bottom, but just didn't scrap the way the Badgers did. A classic Big Ten game, with bodies on the floor almost every possession. Check it out if you have BTN On Demand, and have an hour with nothing better to do.

Signing Day's Eve - and the rumors abound...

2010-02-02T23:08:00.001-06:00

Big day tomorrow Gopher fans - Signing Day for Coach Brewster's latest class. We've had a fair share of decommits since the departure of Jed Fisch, but of late a curious rumor has arisen that, if true, could breathe new life into the program. CAUTION - this is ALL hearsay at the moment.

So what's the deal. Well a day or so ago, someone noticed on James Louis' Facebook page that he intends to play at Minnesota with his friend and former teammate, Donnell Kirkwood (a Gopher RB recruit from Delray Atlantic HS in Florida). What's interesting about that? Well, James Louis just happens to be a 4-star Ohio State Buckeye recruit, with a 'soft verbal' committment to Mr. Sweater-vest. The Gophs had recruited him as well, so this is the kind of rumor that could become a reality. Of course some one with access to Louis' Facebook account (or Louis himself) could just be messing with everyone too.

Perhaps even more interesting than stealing a 4-star recruit from the Buckeyes though, is the potential that this may help land Seantrel Henderson. Supposedly, Henderson and Louis were planning on rooming together at OSU - if a friendship has developed here and the aforementioned rumor is truth, then perhaps this is the final push Seantrel needed to decide to stay home and become a Gopher.

The probability of any of this being truth though seems unlikely. I certainly don't expect us to pull in either Louis or Henderson this Wednesday - but all this speculation and jockeying for high-end recruits is entertaining at least. Personally, I'm just crossing my fingers that we don't have any 11th hour defections tomorrow.

Grab a Brew - don't cost nothin'.

2010-01-29T16:04:00.004-06:00

Or perhaps something stronger (as our friend Bluto here has), if you're not a fan of Coach Brewster. Of course, you all know that Gopher Bandanna Guy IS a fan of Coach Tremendous Brew. So it comes as no surprise that I am pleased to see that the Pioneer Press has announced that the 'U' and Brew have come to terms on a 2-year contract extension.

This is the right move, in my opinion, since continuity is in order to make any hay at all out of this experiment with Mr. Tim Brewster. I want to see it through now, for better or worse. And if Joel Maturi agrees (and he seems to), then extending Brew two more years is the exact right length to do it. Long enough to keep the recruitment train rolling for another year or two, but not so long as to completely hamstring the athletic department (a la Charlie Weiss at Notre Dame - ok, so maybe it didn't quite hamstring the Golden Domers financially- they just had another alum crack open a money bin like Uncle Scrooge to pay that slob).

In 2009, Coach Brewster cleared a cool million in compensation, ranking 66th in a list of college football coach salaries. That puts him 9th in the Big Ten, ahead of Pat Fitzgerald and Bill Lynch, which seems about right (Brew's ranking in salary that is). MSU's Dantonio at $1.8 million is clearly the highway robber of the Big Ten. So we're getting Brew relatively cheap on the pay scale of BCS conference coaches (and we should be). The terms of this extension have not yet been released, but I'd anticipate a modest raise over the duration of the new deal.

So there we have it, the stage is set for 2010. Brew, Horton, Cosgrove and Lee will lead our favorite gridiron Gophs with the promise of stability for a few more years. Let's hope that is enough to get this team on the upward track. Now Brew could just find a way to keep Seantrel at home...

Welcome Golden Gopher Football's latest O-Coordinator.

2010-01-22T15:51:00.013-06:00

Wow. That was quick. Maturi and Brew weren't kidding. Rivals.com has broken the news that Jeff Horton, Detroit Lions QB Coach, will be the new Minnesota Golden Gopher Football Offensive Coordinator. Continuity (for both the offensive system and recruiting) was obviously a concern here, as evidenced by the quick turn-around-time in filling the position.

Alright - first off, get your "the Lions suck - why would we hire anybody from them" comments out of the way. Those of you who know Gopher Bandanna Guy personally know that I am likely the ONLY Gopher alum/fan who is also a die-hard Detroit Lions fan from the early 80s on. That said, I may be slightly more attuned to Horton's more recent work - namely the handling of #1 overall NFL Draft Pick, Matthew Stafford. Stafford was progressing along nicely this season, until he got dinged up (knee and shoulder). He showed flashes of absolute brilliance (game vs. Cleveland), and decent game management skills (@ Vikings). He was also developing an excellent on-field relationship with fellow rookie, TE Brandon Pettigrew (until he went down for the year with an injury of his own). OK - before this post devolves into a lengthy discussion of Detroit Lion football woes, I'll just say that overall Horton seemed to have done a good job in handling the high profile Stafford.

However, Horton (like our DC Cosgrove) does have the Badger stink on him. That comes from being the Wisconsin QB Coach from 1999 to 2005. That also includes his handling of ex-Badger NFL QB Jim Sorgi, who has actually carved out a nice NFL career as a backup to Peyton Manning. So there's good (Sorgi, Stocco, and Bollinger were all pretty decent B-10 QBs) and bad (Badger stink). I got over it with Cosgrove, and I can get over it with Horton. Another plus, he also has head coaching experience (U of Nevada and UNLV). I feel better already about this hire, given his experiences in college and the NFL.

Presuming he sticks around for more than a season - Horton will play no small part in shaping the future of this team, particularly through the development of MarQueis Gray and our young group of skill position players. His success or failure as our OC is also going to make or break Brewster's career as a head football coach. Whether you are a Coach Brew supporter as I am, or just want improvement in the win column for 2010, lets hope the 3rd time is indeed the charm for hires at this position.

Seahawks go Fisch-ing, Al Nolen ineligible

2010-01-21T01:16:00.001-06:00

The rumors are finally confirmed, Jedd Fisch is now officially no longer a member of the Minnesota Golden Gopher Football coaching staff. The 'whiz kid' offensive coordinator is headed back to the NFL to be Pete Carroll's QB coach, where he can mess with the throwing motion of high priced multi-million dollar athletes, instead of kids with scholarships. Jedd we hardly knew ye.

But that's just fine. I said after the Iowa game that Fisch should be gone, and I got my wish (although he wasn't fired). I don't want to sit here and bag on the guy now that he's gone. We all saw what his system produced this year, and the de-evolution of Adam Weber that went with it. A 3rd OC in as many years is, of course, a huge concern. Coach Brew wants his next hire to run the same style offense, based on the infrastructure Fisch had laid down. I don't like this at all, from the perspective of limiting our potential hires. But if it means continuity in recruiting by keeping kids who want to play in a pro-style system. Though winning and stability seem like they'd be far more attractive to the average recruit. Who ever Brewster brings in for this postion, he's GOT to get it right. This hire could conceivably be his cliched 3rd strike if the Gopher offense languishes again in 2010. Early rumor has it that Tim Davis (current O-Line coach and Running Game Coordinator) is one likely candidate. This would certainly help with the continuity issues, and presuming the terminology and hand signaling are kept relatively similar, the transition could be easier on the players.

I give Brewster credit for hiring Ted Roof and his successor Kevin Cosgrove to handle the defensive side of the ball. Roof substantially improved the defense, but then bolted for Auburn (no fault of Brewster), and Cosgrove/Lee continued the progression of the defense. Clearly, Brewster is capable of making good hires. Let's hope he can find the right guy this time around too. If he can't, the development of MarQueis et al is at stake.

And some quick hoops news - starting PG, Al Nolen has been ruled academically ineligible as of last Tuesday (he has appealed his status). Things just keep getting better for the Gopher cagers. Perhaps this will force the team to develop freshman Justin Cobbs a little quicker, and Devoe Joseph will pick up more minutes. What really hurts though, is the loss of Nolen's defense. With a critical game vs. Michigan State coming to The Barn this Saturday, the Gophs need all hands on deck.

Fun times for Gopher Nation.

What is it with you Hoosiers - Don’t you have any pride?

2010-01-18T12:35:00.006-06:00

Storming the court after a win in which you blew a 15 point lead in the second half to an unranked Minnesota? Wow. I thought IU was a ‘classy basketball school’, but apparently taking down the Gophers was enough to prompt the students to drop their oversized headshot signs, and gleefully prance onto the hardwood. And speaking of those headshot signs, I thought there were rules about the dimensions of signs that can be displayed at games. But I digress. Most amusing to me, during the BTN broadcast was the juxtaposition of the camera panning the National Championship banners in the rafters near the end of regulation, followed by the jubilant students skipping onto the court like they were going to the Final Four. Come on, IU – don’t you have any pride? You’re a school rich with hoops tradition. I know its been awhile since you’ve done much in the Big Ten, but come on. Show some dignity. What's next? A win over rival Purdue or highly ranked MSU might get Assembly Hall burned to the ground. Watch out Hoosier boosters -get your student fan base under control.

This behavior displayed by the IU student body reeks of 21st Century Michigan basketball fans (who also questionably rushed the floor after beating #15 UConn this weekend). Come on students – let’s be a little more selective on what motivates you to push your way past a security guard. Save it for a win over a top 5 team, or clinching a Big Ten championship.

Ok – so its fair to say that I’m pretty angry about this loss, and admittedly I am venting here. Nothing wrong with that – this is the perfect venue for this, right? Alright, now that I’ve justified my bitterness, I can get on to what really irritated me during the game yesterday. Namely – one Verdell Jones the 3rd. Good player with good talent, but his little smirk got to me. He baited Westbrook into an ill-advised technical foul. And then all my irritation was culminated on his foul-drawing flop to the floor in OT on his fade-away shot hit in overtime against the clean defense of Devoe Joseph. The flop followed by a tongue wag. He knew he got away with it, and he had the gall to yuck it up too.

Then it hit me. I knew why I was so irritated with Jones III. He looks like he could be former Badger Devin Harris’ brother. All the more reason for my ire.

Fisch to Seahawks?

2010-01-15T16:44:00.003-06:00

Apparently the brilliance that was the Gopher offense this year has led to Jed Fisch joining Pete Carroll's staff in Seattle as his QB Coach.

"Jeremy Bates is expected to be the coordinator, Jedd Fisch of Minnesota likely to coach quarterbacks and Alex Gibbs will coach the offensive line and serve as associate head coach."

from this blog: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/seahawksblog/2010797203_coaching_staff_1.html

Can't say I'll miss him particularly, BUT the coordinator position doors continue to spin for our Beloved Maroon-N-Gold.

Wonder who Brew will chase now to be the OC?

Gophers @ Spartans–Tourney Resume Building 101: Get a tough road win

2010-01-13T11:40:00.008-06:00

So the Purdue game last Tuesday didn’t go so well – poor shooting and execution on the offensive end left the Gophers looking like a B-list Big Ten team. Maybe they are. But maybe not. The 2nd half performance against Ohio State restored some of my faith in the season. Evan Turner was back from injury (and extra whiny to boot), but it didn’t matter as the Gophs kept turning the Buckeyes over, and the Hoff wouldn’t stop making shots. Things even got a little chippy there in the end. All in all, the way I like to see a Minnesota Big Ten basketball game to go. Can this performance be repeated in East Lansing this week?

As Sparty Tom stated in his game preview, Spartan Head Coach Tom Izzo seems to have Tubby’s number, beating Smith’s teams 9 out of 11 times (and 5 out of 5 times with Minnesota). What’s up with this? A closer look at the Minnesota-MSU games over the last 3 years reveals that in the 5 Tubby Era games versus MSU, the Gophs have only managed to muster more than 60 points once in 5 tries. The average team shooting percentages have been a dismal 37.7% for the Gophs in these matchups, while the Spartans have averaged a 46.4% shooting percentage. Tough numbers to overcome. Izzo knows how to ‘D’-up the Gophers, and forces us to take bad shots in our half court sets. Running with them can be disastrous too, given their athleticism (especially at guard).

So can the Gophs buck the trend here and get a win on the road? Every Gopher player knows that a win over the #7 Spartans at the Breslin Center would look damn good on any resume for a team trying to prove they belong in the field of 64, and it tightens the Big Ten conference title race further (especially since Purdue just picked up their second loss in stunning fashion last night). Obviously, the motivation should be there. Defensively, forcing lots of turnovers like the Gophers did against OSU will not be enough. They need to convert on a much higher percentage of their opportunities on the offensive end. And unless Blake or Westbrook are shooting lights out, that seems to be a tall order. Barring the continued white-hot shooting of Hoffarber, the answer might lie with sophomores Ralph the 3rd and Colt 45. Get these guys the ball early, and let them post up and draw fouls against the less experienced Spartan big men. If this happens, the Gophs might be able to hang around long enough to make it a game in the final 2 minutes.
That said, I still don’t have a good feeling about tonight’s game, and our halfcourt offense is has not improved much since the pre-conference schedule. This worries me, since a footrace with MSU won’t work the way it did with Iowa.

Prediction: Michigan State 70, Gophers 58

Sidenote: The hot rumor flying around Gopher message boards right now is that Al Nolen and Rodney Williams will become academically ineligible in the near future (possibly next week), due to incomplete course work. Tubby has responded to questions surrounding this by stating that he is not concerned and expects all his players to complete the work they need to in order to stay eligible. Whether or not ineligibility is a legit issue remains to be seen, but a Gopher team without Al Nolen defending at the point is not the same (as much as I like what I’ve seen from freshman Justin Cobbs so far). Let’s hope these rumors are only that, otherwise being NIT bound seems inevitable.

Minnesota @ Michigan State Game Preview (the Spartan Angle)

2010-01-12T10:05:00.007-06:00

As we did with football, this hoops season 'GEHG' occasionally tries to give you a game preview from a fellow blogger or educated fan with allegiance to colors other than the beloved Maroon and Gold. The Gophs have another crack at building their currently rather weak NCAA Tourney resume this Wednesday evening, taking on Michigan State at the Breslin Center.

Enter once again, our friend 'Sparty Tom' - who did a great job previewing the wild Gophs vs. Spartans All Hallow's Eve game. Here's his take on the game:

The Minnesota Gopher program gained instant credibility in the eyes of Spartan fans when they hired Tubby Smith as head coach a few years ago. Teams around the Big Ten knew that all Tubby would need is 3-4 years before they are competitive with the conference’s top teams. Well, that time is now. However, in the world of college basketball some coaches just seem to have other team’s number. If Bo Ryan makes the Spartan faithful hold their collective breath (see Bo’s 11-5 record against Izzo), they usually breathe a little easier when Tubby is standing on the opposing sideline. Going back to his days in Kentucky, Tom Izzo has consistently beaten Tubby Smith in both regular season and NCAA tournament games (also see Tubby’s 2-9 record against MSU in his time at Minnesota). With that being said, this may be Tubby’s most talented team since his arrival to the Big Ten conference, and may have a good chance of leaving East Lansing on Wednesday with a resume-building win.

Now to the game at hand: Michigan State has come out of the gate with a 3-0 conference record, with wins over Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Iowa. The Spartans boast a talented lineup that returns almost every guard from the 2009 National Title run. Their growing pains have come at the center and power forward position, where they are inexperienced and undersized when playing other elite-level teams. Derrick Nix and Garrick Sherman have shown flashes, but they are freshmen…and freshmen are inconsistent. Sixth man Draymond Green (power forward) has been impressed everyone in his sophomore season with his passing ability and knack for getting the tough points in the paint; however he is undersized at 6’6”. At the guard spot, the Spartans boast as much talent as anyone in the Big Ten, with Kalin Lucas, Korie Luscious, Durrell Summers, and Chris Allen. These guys love to turn the game into a track meet. On the Minnesota side, they are among the nation’s top teams in many defensive categories including turnover margin and scoring margin. These Gophers can score the basketball with anyone in the Big Ten, and Sparty better be prepared for it. Lawrence Westbook and Blake Hoffarber are dangerous and will be key to any Gopher upset, as they are both averaging double digit scoring numbers. As a team, Minnesota is averaging 84.1 points in their last nine games.

If Spartan fans are expecting an easy Izzo vs Tubby victory, they may be greatly disappointed. The Gophers are playing tough basketball, and the Spartans are having some attitude issues…aka Kalin Lucas being tossed out of practice last week for lack of effort and leadership. In the end, I believe talent will win out in this one. It may be a close game, but the Spartans are too tough to beat at the Breslin Center, and they may be just starting to hit their stride (or at least Spartan fans hope so).

Prediction: Michigan State – 76 Minnesota - 67

Thanks for that 'Sparty Tom' - well done as always. Check back for Gopher Bandanna Guy's take later today.

Gopher Profiles in Courage - Miles Tarver

2010-01-07T21:54:00.027-06:00

As we head into this long cold Midwestern winter, its time for a lighthearted new periodic segment here on 'Give 'Em Hell Goldy'. My creation of the 'Gopher Profiles in Courage' blogpost is meant to remind us of a former Golden Gopher athlete who showed particular courage in the face of adversity, and maybe have a little fun at their expense. C'mon now, if you don't laugh, you cry - and god knows we Gopher fans have done enough of that recently.

Honoring this former Golden Gopher is long overdue. You may know him best from his smooth dance moves shared with Al McGuire after the Gophers took down UCLA earning a berth to the Final Four in 1997. I knew him best for his cringe-inducing mid-range jumper and his ham-fisted rebounds. Still, I loved the guy. He was sort of our version of Brian Cardinal (everyones favorite actress from Purdue). Oakand, California's own Miles Tarver. The man, the myth, the moustache.

A member of the Clem Haskins era Gophers, one might almost think Miles didn't actually exist, since NCAA wiped the books on us. But here's his career numbers, thru to his suspension in the 1st round tourney game versus Dan Monson's Gonzaga Bulldogs. Say what you will about his game, but he improved every year, and was a solid Big Ten rebounder and defender.

Who can forget his role in the notorious Filipino National Exhibition game? Instigating a major brawl, and then pragmatically backing out to watch (so as not to muss his hair, presumably). As I recall, Quincy Lewis somehow got ejected after this fight was broken up, despite being pretty much the only Gopher not involved. And Kevin Clark was NOT ejected, despite his ramming speed take down of the entire pile of Gophers, Fillipinos, and refs. Really, just click the link and see for yourself. And pay special attention to the defense Tarver (#42) is playing in the opening footage. He's guarding the guy using balled up fists. I remember being at this game and noting to friends around me that I though he might be playing with brass knuckles. But I digress.

So where is the courage in all this? Would you walk around campus with hair and a moustache like that? Nope, you wouldn't. That takes courage my friends. Mr. Tarver, you have what the Greeks call 'thrassos' - GUTS.

I actually bumped into Miles on campus a few times, all at theatre productions on the West Bank. Never said anything to him, but I always gave him a respectful nod if eye contact was made. He was always accompanied by a lovely co-ed too, so his look must've been working for him.

At any rate, I always appreciated the effort Miles put forth on the court (always a solid glass eater), his bold & fresh look, and his ability to make fans of the other Big Ten teams say "who the hell IS that guy?'. Miles Tarver - we here at 'Give 'Em Hell Goldy' salute you.

Oh, and a quick Google browse for 'Miles Tarver Pics' will land you a much more recent photo of Miles from his Facebook account. I guess Facebook is good for something (2Mutch, can you friend him or something?). His look may have changed a bit, but he appears to be smooth as ever. Remember Miles, we kid because we love.

Oh, and if anybody can find a link to any on-line video footage of Tarver dancing with McGuire, please share.

WOW... Jedd Fisch Is WANTED....

2010-01-06T20:31:00.005-06:00

Not to be strung up by rabid Gopher fans for his inept offense all year-long; rather by a 'professional' football team.

In discussing potential Chicago Bears offensive coordinators, the Chicago Sun Times finishes their article with this delicious tidbit...

"Other offensive coordinator candidates for the Bears include USC offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates and University of Minnesota offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch. Both have worked with Cutler."

Full article here:

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/bears/1977506,mike-martz-bears-06.article

Really?! The fact that this guy would be on a HIGH SCHOOL team's list; much less an NFL team's list is beyond astounding. All I can say is I truly hope if the Bears are foolish enough to do this, I hope the Gophers will take a flyer on Gopher Bandana Guy and myself as co-offensive coordinators. After all, it's not like we'd finish 100th in scoring offense, and lose to the 103rd scoring offense in our bowl game. *COUGH* Jedd Fisch *COUGH*

Unbelievable.

Gophs @ Boilers - While the Paint Crew is Away, can the Gophers play?

2010-01-05T14:23:00.008-06:00

With the Gophers, headed down to West Lafayette, real Big Ten play starts tonight at Mackey Arena. With all due respect to the Nittany Lions and Hawkeyes, you are marginal Big Ten foes this year. Our beloved Gophers are expected to beat you this year. That's just how it is. Not so with the Boilermakers though. Purdue is clearly the best team Minnesota has faced to date this season.

Purdue is undefeated, and the well-deserved #4 ranked team in the country (and possibly higher after this week given UNC's loss to CoC), and has taken down some top tier competition already this year, taking down Bruce Pearl's Volunteers on the road, and handling Bob Huggin's Mountaineers just recently at home (Purdue's last game). They also have a few common opponents with the Gophers in South Dakota State, St. Joes, and Iowa. Iowa gave the Boilers a bit of a first half scare last week, but the Hawkeyes went back to what they know (sucking) in the 2nd half. Still, despite being a B-10 road game, Purdue didn't utterly dominate the game as expected. Some speculated that the Boilers were looking ahead to their matchup with unbeaten West Virginia. Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, now that Purdue is officially a game into the B-10 schedule, they likely won't overlook the Gophers, even with a road trip to Wisconsin looming on Saturday.

The Gophers, unlike Purdue, haven't faced a hostile crowd all year - the closest thing coming during the B-10/ACC challenge in front of 5,000+ U of Miami fans. And Iowa on the road last Saturday was like a visit to the city morgue. Tonight will be a markedly different environment for the Gophs to play in. Purdue's student body is still on break, and we can only hope the bulk of those 'Paint Crew' kids will opt not to come back to campus for this game. (Note that Gopher Bandanna Guy did not abandon his Gophers over the winter break when he was a student, even driving a total of 10+ hours to illegally park for 2 hours in Minneapolis and watch Clem and friends take down the Sam Okey-led badgers in 1997 - oh wait, that season never happened, I forgot...).

With the potential of a partial Paint Crew tonight, can the Gophs get it done? I don't feel real good about this game, now that it is almost certain that Ralph the 3rd is out tonight. But perhaps going small and up tempo is the key here, as Myron Medcalf suggests. I agree with Myron that we won't beat the likes of Purdue or Michigan State with our halfcourt sets. Hell, we couldn't even beat Portland State that way. So I also say let's roll the dice and go up-tempo. Generate turnovers and push the ball up court.

Colton will have the starting matchup with center JaJuan Johnson, and while I like Colt 45, he's just not quick or skilled enough to slow him down. If that matchup gets exploited early (most likely in the form of 3 early Iverson fouls), then let's swing DJ off Hummel, and put him down on the blocks with JaJuan, and hope that his wingspan can make up for the 3" height differential. Then spread the floor and start running! Utilize our depth and try to wear them down in a running match.

Still, Purdue has such good frontline talent that this strategy could blowup in our faces by giving the Boilers lots of early and easy looks at the hoop. The last thing we want is Robbie Hummel getting warmed up with some uncontested jumpers offered up by an over aggressive trapping defense. No doubt head coach Matt Painter has looked long and hard at the Iowa game tape, and will be ready for us. Given this, I don't feel comfortable calling for the upset, signature win of the season.

Prediction: Purdue 74, Minnesota 67
Gopher Player of the Game - Lawrence Westbrook, 18 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists
Boiler Player of the Game - JaJuan Johnson, 22 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks

And hey, anybody else think the Purdue Pete pic at the top of this post looks just a bit like Gene Keady with scowl (AKA Keady's normal expression)? And who brandishes a hammer while playing hoops? As if the hardhat, giant black 'P' and the gold uni didn't tell us this was the Boilermakers, he needs a hammer too?

Go Gophs!

Who hates Iowa (basketball)? Apparently their own fans.

2010-01-02T15:06:00.004-06:00

If there's anything that can make you feel better after that tough bowl loss to ISU, its handing the hapless Squawk-eyes a serious beatdown on their own home court.

I had heard the Hawkeyes were not drawing well, but this crowd is ridiculous. I've seen more passion at Welsh-Ryan on down years for the 'Cats.

Well done Hawkeye fans, way to show up when your team needs you most - during B-10 play. I suppose the excuse is that all the fans are down in Miami at the Orange Bowl.

Either way Hawkeye basketball sucks. Big time. Enjoy the season.

Insight Bowl insight - Gophers vs. Cyclones Preview

2009-12-30T09:49:00.009-06:00

Its nearly here Gopher Nation. The bowl game we've all waited breathlessly for is almost upon us, complete with its convenient showing on the NFL Network and 5pm CST start time. Ok, so maybe this game is just for the handful of us true believers and die-hard Gopher fans. Be that as it may, we've got one more football game to play, and damned if I'm not still excited. A win on Thursday afternoon puts us over 0.500 for the year, and any way you shake it, that feels a lot better than 6-7.

A lot of Gopher fans understandably feel let down the way the end of the season went, sneaking past South Dakota State and losing to Iowa in a very winnable game. I personally feel more like I was just let down by the offense, rather than the team as a whole, as the defense performed admirably down the stretch. If nothing else, the Insight Bowl gives me a chance to rinse out the bad taste Fisch, Weber and company left in my mouth in Novemeber. I'm excited for that chance, along with the notion that MarQueis will be lining up a WR more regularly this game. I like it. Let's get this kid out in space and see what he can do (hopefully hold on to the ball). At this point, any involvement of him in the offense is a good thing.

The Cyclones appear to have ended their season in similar fashion to the Gophers (close win followed by a tough loss), slipping past a bad Colorado team at home, 17-10, and then getting beat by Mizzou on the road in the 4th quarter to end the regular season. The Gophs and Cyclones have identical overall records (6-6), conference records (3-5), and non-conference records (3-1). Iowa State's big win this year came in-conference, taking down Nebraska on the road in a defensive battle (9-7). Their worst loss was a early season 32-point beat down handed to them by the in-state rival Hawkeyes (3-35). Minnesota and ISU averaged just under 22 points a game on offense, and gave up less than 25 (24.6 and 22.6, respectively). And both squads also appear to have relatively incompetant junior QBs (at least statistically speaking for ISU's Austen Arnaud).

So what differentiates these teams? It would appear that the Cyclones have an edge in the running game, with Minneapolis native Alexander Robinson lining up at halfback and carrying the load for the Cyclones. Robinson is a 1,000 yard Big 12 rusher, despite missing a game. ISU averages 177 ypg on the ground, while the Gophs average less than 100 (98 ypg). But Robinson is a smaller back (5'9" 187 lbs), and seems to be the kind of back that the Gophers tend to have success bottling up (see Ralph Bolden and Edwin Baker). Their struggles have come against the bigger more physical backs (Clay, Martin, Robinson). So perhaps that edge is not as pronounced as the stats may have us believe. Certainly the oddsmakers felt that way, opening the line with the Gophs laying 2.5 points.

Defensively, ISU statstically appears to be the slightly better team, but they largely got off the hook of playing the real offensive stalwarts of the B-12, namely Texas Tech and Texas (they did get lit up by KU for 41 points though). The Gophers had no such luck on their 2009 schedule. So this statistical edge may also be meaningless.

So how does this game shake out then? For me it comes down to the preparation of the Gopher defense to contain Robinson and forcing QB Arnaud into a few costly mistakes. The disguised coverages and blitzes run by Cosgrove against Iowa were highly effective. Can they be again is the question. If 'yes', then the Gophers have a good chance to win, if the offense can actually show up for even a half.

The other big question is Good Web or Bad Web? Who is hanging out in Tempe right now? Adam needs to led the offense and get points on the board in the worst way this Thursday. We've had no offensive TDs in our last 2 games. Attrocious and inexcusable (particularly against a D-2 opponent). Web has to get at least 2 TDs on the board for us somehow, not necessarily by throwing TDs in the endzone, but by keeping drives alive on 3rd and longs, and getting us into position for scores. That and not turning the ball over in our own territory. My confidence in Adam Weber this year has been destroyed by his awful play and decision making in several games late in the season. He's got to get back on track and carry some confidence into 2010 if he is to retain the starting QB role I presume he wants to keep for his senior season. The spotty play of the O-line and our running backs, gives me little confidence that they will carry the day if Weber doesn't, so its got to be Web that leads this team to a win.

Predictions? I feel pretty similar to the oddsmakers on this one. I think a solid effort by the Gopher defense, and some decent game management from Adam Weber will get it done, but not by much. Wild cards for the Gophs? Troy's returns and the role of MarQueis Gray.

Gophers 23, Cyclones 20
Gopher Player of the Game - Lee Campbell, 12 tackles, 1 FF, 2 TFL
Cyclone Player of the Game - Alexander Robinson, 20 carries, 75 yards, 2 TDs

One last sidenote - a win on Thursday couldn't hurt our pipedream chances of landing #1 overall national recruit Seantrel Henderson (Cretin-Durham), who we're at least still in the running with...

Brewster gets extension?

2009-12-28T13:34:00.005-06:00

This morning, the Strib's Gopher Football beat reporter, Kent Youngblood, reported that Gopher AD Joel Maturi deemed that Coach Brew has earned a contract extension, and that the negotiations have already begun.

Stability was the key word Maturi used to justify his belief that Brewster should be extended. If you've read any of Gopher Bandanna Guy's posts on this blog in the past, you know that I agree with Maturi wholeheartedly. Which is not to say that stability is the only reason Brew should be extended, but it is a significant one in my mind.

So let's analyze this move a bit (assuming Brew does get extended). What are the pros and cons? Let's start with the pros - First, recruiting promises can continue to be made (playing time, positional guarantees, etc.). Second, the new out-state recruiting pipelines that are being established can continue to develop (Texas, Florida, Louisiana). Third, the young and upcoming players aren't forced to learn a different system (provided Brew keeps his coordinators in town). Fourth, the University doesn't send the message that "2 bowl games in 3 years gets you canned" to every other potential coaching hire in the country. And finally, re-upping with Brewster gives us a much better chance to retain him long-term should he make big gains in his 4th and 5th contracted seasons.

Now the cons. 1) We run the risk of continuing to have a football program without any kind of identity. 2) We run the risk of continuing the revolving door situation with coordinators. 3) We risk mediocrity or worse - what if Brewster cannot bring the program above the 6-6 (3-5) level throughout his tenure. 4) Reusse and Souhan will continue their campaign of negativity 'cause they don't like the guy.

So where does the Star Tribune online reading public fall on this topic? Well, the informal poll on the Stribs website when I checked had nearly 80% stating that Minnesota needed a coaching change, and 20% believed stability was more important (I should point out that this poll allowed multiple voting opportunities from the same computer, including 3 votes for the minority position by yours truly).

Now I realize that most of this 80% is made up of the mouth-breathers that still think we can land Tony Dungy or should hire back Lou Holtz away ESPN, but let's get real here people - NCAA Div 1 head football coaches don't get fired after their first 3 years. Especially when they make 2 bowl games, and expectations were not all that great. The only place the truly high expectations were coming from were the Gophers themselves. And that's where high expectation should be coming from at all times. Brew-haters - ask yourself if your opinion of Coach Brew would change at all if we had beat South Dakota State by 30. Or if we had beaten Illinois and were going to the Alamo Bowl instead. My guess is you'd still be hating on the guy.

My final take? Brew should be extended 2 years, unless the Gopher's showing vs. Iowa State on Thursday is absolutely dreadful. If that turns out to be the case, then back down to a 1-year extension, with another year possible if certain incentives are reached in 2010. Yeah, there's the possibility that Brewster won't agree to a 1-year deal, and if that's the case, let him sweat.

I'd love to hear other's opinions, on this polarizing topic within Gopher Nation.

Gophers draw Iowa State at the Insight.com Bowl

2009-12-08T22:26:00.003-06:00

Back to Tempe again - for the Southwestern equivalent of the 'Music City Bowl' versus the Iowa State Cyclones and Cy the Cardinal. That's what 6-6 gets you. And Michigan State gets to go to beautiful San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl, despite having the same record as us, and losing to us head-to-head. Yeah, their conference record was 4-4 to our 3-5, but then they didn't have to play Ohio State either. Guess Spartan fans travel better.

Oh well, I'm not sure I wanted a rematch with Texas Tech in a bowl again anyways. The draw of Iowa State seems much more palatable a team to play in our bowl game. Now to be honest, I don't know much about Cyclone football aside from they play in the Big 12 North, and Seneca Wallace played for them circa 2002. So, I'll be doing a little research over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for usual pre-game preview.

Gophers fall to 'Canes, Brewster's house STILL for sale, and GEHG plans for hoops season

2009-12-02T20:49:00.006-06:00

63-58 Hurricanes. Another tough, close loss by the Gophs tonight. That's 3 in a row now. They let it slip away in the last two minutes, that were tough to watch, kickstarted by an Al Nolen turnover as the Gophers were only down 2. Speaking of Nolen, he played another gutsy game, (6 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 steals, 9 points). I'm continually impressed by Nolen, as he gets significant minutes on the floor, despite the fact that he is absolutely not a threat to score from anywhere on the floor (layups the exception). Just think where his assist numbers would go if he was a dangerous shooter and defenders would have to respect him from the perimeter. I gotta believe he works on his shot. I just don't get how it hasn't improved one lick since his freshman year.

Site contributor 2Mutch tipped me off on this little gem - Tim Brewster's Shorewood, Minnesota house is for sale (see pic above). After doing approximately 5 minutes of research, it turns out its been for sale since last September, and Kent Youngblood speculates that Brew wants to be closer to the 'U' to cut down on his commute. Seems reasonable to me. But wait - if you had the misfortune of watching the local Minneapolis Kare 11 sportscast last Monday, you would have believe they broke this story, and the house just went on the market, putting all the 'Fire Brewster' mouth-breathers in 'Bring in Tony Dungy' mode. Kare 11 never mentioned the home was for sale for the last 3 months. Nice work morons - that's some quality journalism there. Brew is not going anywhere. Firing him now sends every potential coaching hire in the nation the message that 2 Bowl games in your first 3 years of rebuilding a program gets you fired. That will really bring a the A-list candidates our way, right?

One last thing friends - just wanted to mention that Give 'Em Hell Goldy will go into full blown Gopher hoops mode in a few short days. Gopher Bandanna Guy is still decompressing from the football season, and thoroughly enjoying the opening weeks of the NBA season (Go Bucks!). I am also slowly piecing together a Big Ten hoops conference preview, complete with opinions from alums and fans of the other Big Ten schools. Look for this before the conference season starts. Don't fret though, you'll still get your final dose of Gopher football come bowl season, as we'll preview our bowl opponent, and get you a final 'What we learned' for the year, before heading into the recruit signing season.

Go Gophs, and don't sweat it - Tubby will get these guys turned around.

One last thought - hey, we've almost hit 1,000 hits on the site. Pretty cool. Think I'll have a beer. Last can of Surly Furious in the 'fridge on its way down the hatch....!

Happy Thanksgiving! Golden Gopher Basketball for all!

2009-11-27T18:38:00.002-06:00

Hope all our blog contributors and readers are having a Happy Thanksgiving with their families and loved ones.

And even though my beloved Honolulu Blue and Silver couldn't compete with the Packers on the field of play, they'll always look better losing in their uniforms, than the Green Bay ever will winning in their vomit inducing forest green and urine. Luckily, the evening belonged to Gopher hoops though.

Hopefully you all got a chance to watch the Gophs take down the #10 Butler Bulldogs last night in the Anaheim '76 Classic. The game wasn't pretty at times, as the refs called enough fouls to put the teams on the line for a combined 81 attempts!?!? But in the end, some timely shooting by Devoe Joeseph, Blake Hoffarber, and some clutch free throws by Ralph the Third did Butler in. Be sure to tune into the Gophs next game tonight if you can - vs. Portland (who upset UCLA last night. 8:30 CST on ESPN U.

And don't forget about the Gophs on ice, taking on the Michigan Wolverines at historic Yost Arena in Ann Arbor tonight too.

GO GOPHERS!!!

Goldy Rules!

2009-11-23T19:26:00.002-06:00

This is HILARIOUS: Goldy Running Wild!

Further proof that Goldy Gopher rules. This is hilarious. Goldy absolutely OWNS that kid. Suck it 4th grader! I also got a kick out of Sam Rosen somehow correctly identifying Goldy (as a Gopher) and subsequently saying he was dressed as a BEAR!?!? WTF ROSEN!

Go Goldy!

Fisch needs to be fired... Brewster needs to stay (for now)

2009-11-21T23:09:00.010-06:00

In an effort to pull my good friend 'Just Jake' back from the ledge a bit, I've crafted this semi-counterpoint post to his POV.

We all saw the absolutely awful offensive performance the Gophers had on display Saturday. As putrid as the SDSU game was, this was even worse in some ways, because we knew we couldn't rely on the defense to completely win this game for us. The offense HAD to do something to get us to overcome the apparently overwhelming task of scoring more than 12 points. They didn't. They left our defense out to dry once again, with turnovers, 3 and outs, and poor execution.. How can our offense have become such a liability that I'd rather see us run the ball 3 times and punt, and give our defense a chance to score, than cringe at another turnover?

JJ holds Brewster responsible, as he was the one who hired Jedd Fisch, won't bench Weber, and can't get our WRs consistently involved in the offense. This is fair, but the reality is these are the growing pains we've had to face with hiring a man to run our football program who has had no head coaching experience. Coach Brewster has obviously made his biggest mistakes in his task of hiring effective coordinators. Its been a revolving door for his entire tenure.

But lets be honest about things, these mistakes have primarily been on the offensive side of the ball. His hiring of Ted Roof as defensive coordinator last season was outstanding. Roof improved our defense by leaps and bounds. Roof left for a better opportunity at Auburn after 2008, and that can hardly be blamed on Brewster. His hiring of Cosgrove, and the promotion of Ronnie Lee to co-defensive coordinator seems to have been a solid hire as well. But the offense is another story. The 'wunderkind' Jedd Fisch was brought in to replace Mike Dunbar, and has ties with Brewster from his Denver Broncos days. He also has no experience as a collegiate offensive coordinator. And if you review his credentials, they are pretty slim. Lots of work other under good coaches (NFL), but that's it. That's pretty much what Brewster's resume was coming in too, making it all the more of a blunder. When Brewster hired Mike Dunbar in 2007 to run the offense, I felt good that he was handing the reins of the offense to a sage veteran. This was the right call for a new head coach with no experience. He then 'pulled a Fisch' and hired Everett Withers, which obviously didn't work out. It would appear he has rectified his mistake of hiring an inexperienced coordinator on defense. But he somehow found a way to repeat his mistake on Withers with Fisch. If you believe that this is an unforgivable repeated mistake, then Brewster should be fired, here and now - so that he can't further repeat mistakes. I am not in this camp (and I'll get to why momentarily).

However, Fisch should be terminated no later than the close of whatever bowl game we end up in (and possibly sooner if the right candidate comes along, as we have a month and some change to implement a few components of a new offense). Fisch needs to be let go for 6 simple reasons:

1.) His inability to give the offense any kind of identity.

2.) His complete and utter lack of quality control (stupid penalties, poor execution, etc.).

3.) Adam Weber's regression and messing with his throwing motion.

4.) Ineffective and predictable use of MarQueis Gray (Gray threw what - maybe 10 passes all year?)

5.) Failure to effectively game plan for specific opponents, and find exploitable weaknesses.

6.) Failure to use our biggest weaknesses, and turn them to occasional success (poor pass blocking = runs screen passes)

Now, I realize that it can be tough to run an offense when the O-line doesn't allow for much at all to work, (and for that perhaps Tim Davis should be let go too), and I list these things, knowing full well that Brewster has major culpability in all this. However, he should NOT be fired until at least being allowed to finish the 2010 season for the following reasons:

1.) Recruiting - Brew has only 2 full classes of his players in house now, and only a few contributed this season. By all accounts his upcoming class is solid again. He needs to land this next class in full, and start getting his players on the field in 2010.

2.) His D-coordinator hires. Roof, Cosgrove, and the promotion of Lee were all solid moves. And despite all the seniors on the defense, I think our D can be even better next year with some continuity in coordinators. Tinsley, Cooper, Carter, Edwards, Kirksey, Wilhite, etc. will be excellent players with some more coaching up.

3.) It's too soon - he needs at least one more season to get things turned. Let's be honest - this season isn't a disaster. No it didn't follow the blueprint that we might have envisioned, but we still made a bowl game. Next year is the reason to react if Brewster doesn't get that signature win, or improve the play on the offensive side of the ball. Worst case scenario, he's got 3 talented recruit classes in for the next coaching staff to work with.

Now IF Brewster brings back Fisch, or IF he again hires a completely ineffectual new offensive coordinator for 2010, then all bets are off. There is absolutely no reason that the offense can't be resurrected for next year with a new offensive coordinator, given the players we have at the skill positions. However, I will follow up on this claim, with some hard research to see what other 1st year O-coordinators have had success, and what their situations were. If the offense can't be improved next season, then I'll be calling for Brewster's head as loudly as anyone else at that point.

Just my $0.02. So really, JJ and I are in agreement that 2010 is the year where it all comes to a head. We're just coming at it from different angles - he's placing more blame on Brew now, and I'm displacing it to Fisch for the moment.

Brewster Needs to Be Killed in the press...

2009-11-21T14:09:00.010-06:00

...for his coaching job down the stretch this year... (What did you think I meant with this post title?)

The Gophers D proved itself to be more than adequate versus the middling offenses that make up the pathetic Big 10 this year. We've seen that the D can keep us in games versus superior teams (PSU, OSU, etc)

Yet during that stretch we have seen zero growth on the offensive side of the ball. Jedd Fisch deserves the blame as does Adam F'N Weber. Yet the ultimate responsibility falls on Tim Brewster. HE'S the one who hired Fisch, HE'S the one who throws Adam F'N Weber out there time after time, HE'S the one who brings a stud of an athlete in as the jewel of his recruiting class (Gray) and then refuses to use him, HE'S the one who brings in a slew of talented WR's yet can't find a way to incorporate them into the offense.

Brew had plenty of time these last few weeks to try SOMETHING and failed to do so -- he's the one who has to come down on Fisch to work on something, anything to improve this HORRIBLE offense.

It is truly astounding that the offense is this bad, in a conference this full of crappy teams, yet we were in virtually every game this year -- including today versus a team that is supposedly 13th in the BCS standings; yet I saw almost no difference between them and us today. EXCEPT THEY OCCASIONALLY COULD MOVE THE GOD-D*MN BALL AND SCORE ONCE IN A WHILE!

WE SCORED 7 POINTS IN 3 BIG TEN ROAD GAMES THIS YEAR (AT PSU, OSU, AND IOWA). HORRIBLE, F.

Do Fisch or Brewster have a clue? Do we have any hope of the program improving? Or is Brew simply a huckster as many have opined? I say give him next year to see if his recruits show anything and the offense can be any better.

At least sophomore LB Gary Tinsley looked the part of a stud today, and our D figured out how to blitz and consistently pressure the QB. That and 2 bucks will get you a cup of joe. Dammit I hate this game sometimes.

UPSET ALERT!!

2009-11-21T10:23:00.004-06:00

Okay, I'm not calling for the upset today, but DAMN would it be nice to see the Gophers rise up and slew the F'n Hawkeyes. I don't know about you fellow Gopher fans, but I am damn sick and tired of being out-physicalled (yep, I just went all Matt Millen on ya and verbed a word) and out-coached year after year after year after year by the Hawkeyes and their arrogant son-of-a-beach coach.

That being said, is it too much to ask our offense to grow a pair today and incorporate some 'innovative' i.e. BLOCKING and RUNNING THE BALL? Also a lot more of Gray winging the ball around and our receivers and tight ends catching the damn ball!

No moral victory will do. A victory is what we need to see. I hope Brewster realizes the sh*tstorm that has risen up around him and his program this year as everyone from random bloggers (we matter damn it!) to 'respected journalists' like Fat Pat or Souhan have lobbed justified pot-shots in his direction.

It's time to see some good coaching, and some solid play.

Will it happen? As the beacon of positivity that supports our merry band of Gopher backers (along with Gopher Bandana Guy) I'm calling for the upset. The only way we win is to score the ball on some long plays, and create turnovers. We know our D/ST can do both -- our linebackers and safeties can play the ball quite well, and our return game is our best, most consistent component of the entire squad. That means some combination of Weber keeping his eyes open and getting the ball downfield AND Gray running wild with some deep throws is necessary. PLEASE COACH FISCH for the love all that is holy; RUN THE DAMN BALL!! Call some rollouts with Gray, some quickhitters off tackle, and stay with it!

Well, just writing this got me fired up and despite my earlier declaration, I'm going with my heart and calling for Brew's Crew to get this one done!!!

Gophers 31 - Hawkeyes 25

SUCK IT IOWA!

LET'S GO GOPHERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Big Ten Football Fan Poll

2009-11-19T23:36:00.006-06:00

Check out this very interesting polling of Big Ten fans, conducted by SI.com.

Some highlights:

-98.2 % of Buckeye fans consider Michigan to be their biggest rival. But only 96.0% of Michigan fans consider OSU to be their biggest rival. This conclusively proves that Buckeyes are smarter than Wolverines. But really, how this isn't a clean 100% on both sides is beyond me.

-9.3% of Badger fans consider Michigan to be their biggest rival. But 0.0% of Michigan fans consider Wisconsin to be their biggest rival. This disconnect is amusing to me. In fact 0.2 % of Michigan fans thought Northwestern was a bigger rival than Wisconsin. In the same vein, 1.3% of Minnesota fans think OSU is their biggest rival. We've had historically less success against the Buckeyes than any other Big Ten team. Who are these idiots?

-Northwestern is widely considered to have the most polite fans overall. That's easy though, when nobody shows up for the games. No one there = no one to heckle you.

-Ohio State and Wisconsin consistently shows up in every other teams top 4 for the rudest fans for visitors. Ohio State looks to have Wisconsin beat by a significant margin though...

-Only 2.9% consider Minnesota to have the favorite stadium to visit in the conference. Those are Metro-dump #s. Look for that to climb substantially in the coming years. 'The Bank' is phenomenal.

Salvaging the Season, Saving Floyd - Gophers @ Hawkeyes Preview

2009-11-19T23:10:00.005-06:00

Well, here we go - one last chance in the regular season to salvage some good feelings out of this season. The Gophs are 6-5 right now, and by nearly all major publication preseason expectations, six wins is slightly better than was predicted. Of course we Gopher fans had at least marginally higher expectations, despite the tougher schedule. So here we are, playing for a chance to go 7-5, a record that at the beginning of the season we would have been happy with, but somehow last week's win over South Dakota State has put a layer of tarnish over things. Time to shake off that attitude.

Yeah, a lot of things haven't gone as planned in 2009. Adam Weber's progression as a Big Ten QB has gone in reverse. We were robbed of seeing Eric Decker potentially grab some big time hardware (All-American and Biletnikoff anyone?). We lost to a Juice-less Illinois at home. Ok, all that sucks. But we still got to 6 wins somehow, defying the critics, and likely earning another crack at that Insight.com Bowl. No, it wasn't pretty, but its not a disaster either (we'll leave program disasters to Michigan and Rich Rod). Let's remember that as we get ready to watch our beloved Maroon and Gold take on the hated Hawkeyes this Saturday morning.

So - do we have a chance to win at Kinnick Stadium? Perhaps foolishly, I resoundingly say 'Yes'. And here's three reasons why:

1.) The Hawkeyes have not played well at home all year. Tight wins against Northern Iowa, Arkansas State, Michigan, and Indiana, and a loss to Northwestern, are nothing to be real proud about.

2.) James Vandenberg, who played well against OSU last week, is still a red-shirt freshman. And freshman QBs make mistakes. Cosgrove and Lee will have the D ready to go again this week, and will be looking to capitalize on an inexperienced QB.

3.) Getting drubbed 55-0 at home last year. Brewster doesn't need to work hard to motivate the team (unless you believe the latest Patrick Reusse efforts to deconstruct the program). The seniors on this team have a lot of pride and will do their damnedest to deliver Floyd to our custom-made trophy case.

But of course there are at least 3 major reasons we should lose too:

1.) Iowa has superior offensive and defensive lines. They could very easily dominate us up front on both sides of the ball. If we don't match their physicality, we could be in for a long game.

2.) Adam Weber. When he plays badly, our defense can only hold out for so long. At this point, I'm not sure I should expect anything from him but a bad game.

3.) Iowa has something to play for yet. A win gives the Hawkeyes an outside chance to make an at-large BCS bowl bid. That's big. And big $$ for the program.

Of course, I'm Mr. Positivity this season, and so I'll lean in the direction of a Gopher win on the road. Brewster has yet to win a 'trinket' game in his 3 seasons, and he needs something desperately to hang his hat on going into the next year, to keep the fans and his players believing.

What do we need to do to get this seventh win? On offense, it obviously comes down to doing the things we haven't done consistently all year. Run and pass block effectively. Minimize the penalties. And mix in MarQueis on plays that result in more than a lot of arm-waving, sideline glances, and wasted timeouts. A pretty generic formula for offensive success, admittedly. But there it is. Obviously, the offensive starters and the coaching staff have known this for weeks. It just comes down to execution. We saw it during the MSU game, so we know the offense has the capability to produce.

Defensively, getting pressure on Vandenberg is key, and if Cosgrove is selective about when to run blitzes, this can generate turnovers for the Gophers, as it did against SDSU. The rest is just boilerplate. The defense has played well enough all year, and we know what to expect from them at this point. If the offense can get enough first downs to gain the TOP needed to keep the defense fresh, and keep from turning the ball over in our own territory, then we'll be in this game. The Iowa RBs (Wegher and Robinson) have been solid if unspectacular this year, but it is unclear if Wegher will play (rib injury). The front seven should be able to contain either back though, if they match the Iowa O-line's physicality. Hawkeye receivers McNutt, Johson-Koulianos, Moeaki, and Stross have all made big catches in big games this year, so Vandenberg has plenty of targets to look at downfield. This is the larger concern. The secondary will need to make plays, and I presume Vandenberg will attempt to pick on true frosh CB Michael Carter. Carter has the talent to rise to the challenge on the road, so I'll be watching him closely this week.

Predictions? I really don't want to pick the Gophers to pull off the road dog (+9.5) upset, but I'm gonna. Why? Like I said, I'm "Mr Positivity". I'll leave it at that.

Prediction: Minnesota 17, Iowa 14

Gopher Player of the Game: Simoni Lawrence - 9 tackles, 1 INT, 1 FF

Hawkeye Player of the Game: Adrian Clayborn - 5 tackles, 3 sacks, 1 FF

Goooooo Gophers! - Get Floyd back home where he belongs!

SDSU @ Minnesota - What we learned

2009-11-16T21:01:00.008-06:00

Deja-NDSU. Ugh.

I'm talking about the 2006 win over the Bison, not the 2007 debacle. The fact that I have to clarify is embarassing enough. We've not done well against teams from the Dakotas in recent history. And last Saturday was no different.

This was one of those wins that was almost impossible to enjoy. All you could do was sit in the stands and wonder if the offense could be any more incompetant, or if the defense would finally falter.

At his press conference last week, Coach Brewster was asked if he still felt games against teams like SDSU had any benefit (transcript). Brew responded: "I feel the same way. I don't know how much it benefits the University of Minnesota to play South Dakota State. I'm not sure of that benefit." I agreed with him when he said that about NDSU two years ago, and I agree now. Why even play these games? They serve no purpose beyond potential embarassment, and they may even be counter-productive to recruiting in the region. If you're going to schedule on of these FBS teams for a game, it has to be somebody outside of the upper midwest. The South and North Dakota States of the world have rosters that appear to have stolen potential walk-ons from across Minnesota. Quality prep football players who could contribute on our roster, would the scholarships (fairly or not) need to go to more highly tauted out-of-state talent. But enough complaining about having to play the Jackrabbits to begin with.

First, let me be positive. Our senior laden defense was stellar all game, actually scoring as many points as they allowed (6). They generated turnovers, and hung tough to get us a win. Cosgrove and Lee had their unit prepared and ready to play. Hats off to them for showing up and gutting out a win on Senior Day. But the offense did these guys no favors. None.

As I stated earlier, this win was painful to sit through. This was almost exclusively the fault of the offense. Whaley disappointed me. The offensive line was dreadful (again), and Adam Weber was as ineffective and awful as I have ever seen him, with the added excitement of another pick-6. How a 3-year college quarterback who is your all-time leader in passing yardage can now routinely complete less than half of his attempted passes is beyond me. Weber managed to string together consecutive completions only once during the entire game (and the second completion was a two yard loss to boot). At this point, there is absolutely no reason for him to start any more. No need to waste Gray's freshman season any longer, right? Some how I doubt the offensive coaching staff will agree.

While reading some of the comments to a rather uninspired sarcastic Strib editorial penned by resident Gopher basher (when Reusse is too busy), Jim Souhan, I found one that got me thinking. The author noted that he didn't belive MarQueis Gray was blue-chip recruit, because a blue-chip recruit would be starting for this team, and speculated that Brewster is either a liar or an idiot for not starting him. Now I DO believe MarQueis is a blue-chipper, and I DON'T think Brewster is an idiot. But the point of this comment is well taken - we're simply not that good of a team where Gray shouldn't be playing all the time. Once the Illinois game was over, the transition to Gray starting with the first team should have been initiated. Gray needs reps if he's to be the QB of the future we expect him to be. Obviously, the situation is complicated by having an experienced upperclassman QB on the roster, but Brewster's leash for Weber has been long enough. I would have preferred for Gray to get his first start against SDSU at home, and admittedly, throwing him to the wolves in Kinnick Stadium seems much less appealing, but if the O-line is going to continuously collapse, then at least have MarQueis in there to try and make something out of nothing with his feet. What's the worst that can happen? 55-0?

So what did we learn on during this embarassing Saturday? Well, I learned that the tailgating scene in the lots around directly adjacent to the stadium is great. I learned that the SDSU football team appears to have ripped their jerseys and color scheme off from San Jose State. I learned that our offense can play worse against a lesser opponent. And finally, I learned that our defense has a lot of pride, and I can say confidently that they'll play tough against Iowa, no matter the awful circumstances the offense will almost inevitably put them in.

Time to try and end the regular season on a high note and get Floyd back. Go Gophers!

Eye Ball Test

2009-11-14T20:58:00.003-06:00

After watching today's game with South Dakota State, I am left with very little, other than we are a bad team. This is based not on stats, feelings, insight, or any other input; rather, it is a direct result of the eyeball test. We simply look like, and probably are, a bad team.

It is quite probable this is a combination of some mixture of bad coaching, poor talent, desire, and overall, a lack of any idea as to what it takes to build a winning program. Can this change? Sure.

To that end, I dedicate the attached photo of a rather idiotic Notre Dame cheerleader (I know, is there any other kind?.... Nope). It is dedicated to our overall effort today offensively, in coaching, and to our overall season-long effort. Adam Weber, here's to you, and your historically bad decisions. This poorly written post and poorly designed picture goes out to you.

Well done sir, well done.

Bring on the Jackrabbits! - SDSU @ Gophers Preview

2009-11-12T22:52:00.005-06:00

Despite the fact that South Dakota State is a Division I-AA football team, I can't deny that I'm excited about this game. Part of it is the fact that its the last home game of the year, but part of it is also because this game is an opportunity to show the fan base where this program really is headed. Has the Gopher's roster been infused with enough talent over the last two years to prevent another NDSU debacle, and blow the doors off a lesser opponent? Or are we continuing to stagnate as a middling program? A dominating win this Saturday will at least restore some of my confidence that the program is slowly getting to where we all want it. A close win, or (gulp) a loss - and my confidence is severely shaken.

The Jackrabbits, by all accounts are a very good football team. They sit in second place in the Missouri River Valley Conference, with a 7-2 record (6-1 conference). Their most notable win this year, is a 24-14 victory over the Northern Iowa Panthers. Yeah, the Northern Iowa that the Hawkeyes barely snuck past early in the season. Drawing any conclusions from this connection to a Big Ten foe is probably not good for gambling purposes. But as motivation for the Gophers to not sleep on this team it would seem to be a good motivator. From the sounds of things at Brewster's press conference and a Gopherhole.com interview of the SDSU beat writer, this is likely what players are being fed this week. And rightly so, the program seems fragile right now, and an ugly win or a bad loss to a I-AA opponent could damage the team's confidence long term. Not to mention kill the already lukewarm fan interest. Tubby Time starts tomorrow against Tennessee Tech, and many have already washed their hands of Gopher football, for the higher profile basketball team (don't worry we're all excited here at 'Give 'Em Hell Goldy' too, but let's get past SDSU and Iowa first...).

So what do the Gophers need to do to come out and dominate from start to finish? I'd like to believe the biggest component to winning this game big is running the ball over and over and over again. Let our massive line get a lather going, build some confidence, and maybe push people around for once. 45-50 times would be what I prefer. Maybe that means the Gophs only score 14 points in the first half, but if that means success and ball control in the latter half of the game, then so be it. The Jacks (I hate this nickname by the way, and refuse to use it from here on out) have a top notch DE in Danny Batten, who is a potential I-AA Defensive Player of the Year. He'll no doubt be the guy that the O-line will be watching all day, as he apparently lines up all over the place. The game plan of passing early and often has largely failed this team (the anomaly of the MSU game aside), and patience running the ball is a novel approach at this point. Bennett, Whaley, and Eskeridge deserve a real chance to show what they can do, and that relegating runs to 2nd and shorts. With Whaley's speed off tackle against, this could conceivably be his coming out party. Mixing in MarQueis heavily should also keep the SDSU defense guessing (2nd downs, lots of 2nd downs Jed!). When Gray is on the field, he will be the hands-down best athlete on the field. Let's use that to our advantage. Que sera sera with Weber. My only expectation for him is that he not turn the ball over in ways that make it look like he's on the take.

And on defense? From the sounds of it, the Jackrabbits will be starting a freshman drop-back QB with a big arm named Thomas O'Brien. And they have a lot of confidence in this kid, as he's won his first 3 starts. Sioux Falls Argus Leader beat writer, Terry Vandrovec, suggested that were he the Gopher's d-coordinator that he'd "blitz about 80% of the time" to put continuous pressure on the frosh QB. I'd prefer a slightly more conservative approach, that being see if we can get any pressure from the front 4 for a quarter or so, before leaving all our corners on islands. The Jackrabbit rushing attack is led by JR running back Kyle Minnett, who has nearly 1,000 yards and averages 4.9 a carry. No slouch there, I-AA competition or no. So the front seven will need to work hard to bring down Minnett at the point of contact. The Gopher defense has some pride, as they've been the backbone of this team, maintaining our respectability when the offense couldn't buy a first down. Time for them to man up after a sub-par performance against Illinois.

So how will this shake out? Early this week I felt very nervous about this game, and the potential downward spiral effect if could create on the program. But like last week, my confidence has grown as the week went on, and I smell big win. Yes, SDSU will bring fans, and there are a bunch of Minnesota kids on their roster, so there will be lots of family and friends there in support of the Jackrabbits. But our talent and speed should allow us to dominate, provided the game plan is sound. Hopefully the loss to Illinois was the learning experience it should be, and the team will come out fired up for Senior's Day.

Prediction: Minnesota 42, South Dakota State 17

Gopher Player of the Game: Kevin Whaley - 18 carries for 140 yards and 2 TDs

Jackrabbit Player of the Game: Kyle Minnett - 20 carries for 95 yards and 1 TD

Illinois @ Minnesota - What we learned

2009-11-11T23:18:00.007-06:00

While sitting on my sunny perch in Section 219 last Saturday, I realized that in all the game scenarios that ran thru in my mind, I did not process the one where the Illini go into the half up 21 with Juice Williams watching from the sidelines. Yikes. What the hell happened?

For starters, 'Bad Web' wandered back onto campus again, and like he has in games early in this season, it took him a half to really even get warmed up. In fact it was not until 13:40 left in the 3rd quarter before Weber was able to complete consecutive pass attempts. Worse than this though was the 6 points he gift wrapped for the Illini, on a pass that everyone in the stadium gasped at before it even left Weber's hand. His pick-6 to Terry Hawthorne might have been his worst INT of the season, and that's saying something.

But 'Bad Web' is only part of the story. The O-line didn't do him any favors either, as Weber was sacked an unacceptable 7 times. Coming off what I believed was their best pass blocking performance of the year last week, the line as a group regressed again. And their run blocking? Well its hard to say, since Jed Fisch decided that running the ball was not a priority in the first half. I don't usually like to specifically criticize playcalling because its very safe to assume that offensive coordinators at the college level know a hell of a lot more than me. However, I'll make an exception this week - as I feel that the 1st half playcalling was a big reason we couldn't go punch-for-punch with Illinois. Instead of running the ball we decided play-action passes to receivers 30+ yards down field were the way to go. These led to a lot of drive killing incompletions, and often forced us into too many 3rd and longs. By the opening drive of the second half, Fisch seemed to figure out the balance of run-pass, until he had the whole stadium groaning on a play-action pass called on a 2nd and goal from the half yard line. The play resulted in an 8-yard loss (QB sack), and the drive disappointingly ended with a field goal. From that down and distance, a TD seemed imminent, provided we keep handing the ball off to Hoese or Bennett inside the 5. Even working in QB sneak would have been fine. But enough second guessing. By and large, the offense stunk for a variety of reasons, and had Nick Tow-Arnett not come up with some clutch 3rd and long catches (including an absolute beauty down the seam), the mounting 4th quarter near-comeback would not have been a reality.

Assessing the defense is not pleasant either. They gave up 21 first half points, but they made adjustments and held them to just 7 in the 2nd half. Unfortunately, the last Illini TD scored came with 5 minutes left in the 4th, on a long, clock-eating drive. Jason Ford did well running against our front 7, and in the end managed to run the clock out on us. Our secondary was beaten by a freshman back-up QB (Charest), and got exposed repeatedly on 3rd downs when the front 4 couldn't get pressure. It almost seemed like they had gameplanned for Juice so heavily, that when he came out due to injury, they didn't know how to handle a traditional drop-back passer. After the Penn State and OSU games were over, I felt like our defense performed admirably, given their time on the field. But after the this game, I felt like they underperformed in a big way, and arguably gave their worst performance of the season. No major blown coverage in the secondary though, so I suppose that is one positive.

To both the offense and defense's credit, they did keep the penalties down (3 for 22 yards), so it was good to see the Brewster had tightened up on this over the week. Hats off to Keanon Cooper this week too, as he came up with the blocked punt that gave us a chance late in the game. That kid has had a nose for the ball all season, and good things happen when he's on the field (remember the pass breakup late in the game vs. MSU?) - really looking forward to his tenure as an everyday LB.

So what did we learn this week? Well, I discovered that sunny November football games at 'the Bank' will produce a pronounced thermocline down the middle of the stadium, with the fans on the southern half of the bowl kept nice and frigid under the shadow cast by the press box and suites, while the rest of us basked in solar warmth. We learned that we can play relatively penalty football. We learned that play-action passes don't work too well when you don't establish a running game, and they work even less well on the half-yard line when the run blitz is coming. And finally, I learned that fine friends, beautiful weather, and a Surly Furious make losing a football game in November tolerable. Win or lose, it was an absolutely picturesque day to go to 'the Bank'.

Jackrabbits from South Dakota State coming in this weekend, and I'll be there in person again to close out the home schedule. Stay tuned for the SDSU game preview tomorrow.