Coach Kill: Sports Huddle - 5/22/11

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DL65

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Coach Kill's comments and responses to questions on this morning's Sports Huddle:

1) Reaction to fans on the road: Good trip (Hutchinson, Willmar, & Mankato), enjoyed the travel, fans and the beautiful state. Good mixture (age groups) at the places visited. Mona said there were more young people at Mankato than at the previous two stops. Coach Kill: There needs to be more focus on the students; however, all age groups are necessary, needed and important in what we're trying to do in turning the program around.

2) USC: They look like USC . . . good athletes . . . "We're more worried about us." We've been busy with spring recruiting, evaluating and gaining information and transcripts related to potential recruits.

3) Sid asked if they might sign another player before fall practice: Kill said there's probably 4 or 5 players (they're looking at) . . . but it's important that the players are a "good fit." He went on to say we're not the only ones looking for a player or two as late signees . . . recruiting is very competitive.

4) Participated in Big 10 meeting(s) this past week. "Good meeting, information for me about the conference. Some discussions related to rule changes: blocking below the waist (some differences of opinion or confusion between officials and coaches) and whether or not the conference should go to 9 conference games from 8. Personally he would like to see the 8 game conference schedule to remain in place. He said coaches favor 8 games but the ADs prefer 9. Discussion(s) focused on the future and improvement of the conference.

5) Nebraska: They had 65,000 fans for their spring game. Their fans live and breathe Nebraska football . . . another Ohio State coming into the Big 10 Conference. "There's no reason we can't do the same." We're the state school and our fans want a winner. We need the state people to get behind us.

6) Marqueis Gray: It's very early in the process of the quarterbacks. Gray is a good athlete . . . what impressed coach Kill was how Gray was able to learn all the things he had to do in just 15 days of practice (leadership, changes at the line, etc.) . . . "He just got better during the spring. He'd be scary, if he had played quarterback the past two years." He also understood the reason for playing him at receiver (getting your best players on the field).

7) Will recruiting pick up during summer camps? (via text message) "We're quiet (in our recruiting)." We like where we're at. He questioned those that have 15-16 commits at this time (question of evaluation). (I lost a portion of the telecast and did not receive his entire response to the question.)

8) Grades: Most grades are in but not all. Academic service people have done a very good job . . . pulled off some minor miracles . . . a few didn't get it turned around (no names given).

Go Gophers!!
 

As usual, thanks for the summary, DL65. This guy does not call a spade a spade. He calls it a God Damned Shovel, which is the hard working man's analogy. Remember, a farting horse never tires, a farting man is the man to hire.
 

Thanks for the report. I liked this sentence:

He said coaches favor 8 games but the ADs prefer 9

ADs have to balance budgets, find and negotiate non-conference games. Coaches have to keep players healthy and win games or get fired. Those things make the above sentence pretty explainable.

Fans generally don't care about budgets, scheduling or keeping players healthy, they just want to see wins. They never use to care where those wins came from now some of them do.

All of that is pretty explainable too.
 

Iceland12 said:
Thanks for the report. I liked this sentence:

He said coaches favor 8 games but the ADs prefer 9

ADs have to balance budgets, find and negotiate non-conference games. Coaches have to keep players healthy and win games or get fired. Those things make the above sentence pretty explainable.

Fans generally don't care about budgets, scheduling or keeping players healthy, they just want to see wins. They never use to care where those wins came from now some of them do.

All of that is pretty explainable too.
Click to expand...

Iceland12,

1. Those of us who are old enough to have watched Murray coach in Memorial Stadium definitely cared about nonconference wins against PAC-8 and Big 8 teams, and we certainly always cared about Big Ten wins.
 

Personally, I would much prefer...

11 Big Ten games. I like the Big Ten Conference games and really would love to see the gophers play every team in the conference every year. I will root for the Gophers no matter who they play, and will ALWAYS subscribe to the notion that any kind of win is much better than any kind of loss. However, I am flat out totally biased in favor of playing as many Big Ten teams each year as possible. I would LOVE to play every single Big Ten Team EVERY single year! I don't care what the coaches think. I don't care what the administrators think. I am a long-time season ticket holder and as a paying customer, I will always vote for what I consider to be the very BEST value for me as a season ticket holder. And the very best value in my season ticket package for me would be for the gophers to play 11 Big Ten games EVERY season. I have always LIVED for the Big Ten Football Season. I care about Big Ten Football. I really don't care about any other conference. I think that it is a farce to crown a conference champion when all the teams in the conference don't play each other. The beauty of Big Ten Football lies in having to go against Big Ten Teams week after week after week. It is a matter of survival...and showing up week after week after week. At home...on the road. This current Big Ten "championship game" format is pretty much a stretch as far as I am concerned. Unless every team plays every other team, there can NOT be a true Conference champion.

I also realize it won't happen...BUT...I will always WISH it would happen. I am a University of Minnesota Golden Gopher Big Ten Football Fan! THAT is what I want to see! ; 0 )
 


I've read Kill blabbing this pre-excuse for why Gray could fail as the Gopher's 2011 QB in multiple publications now.

Gee whiz, golly gosh darned dang - if ONLY he had been playing QB......then.....what? He would have more consistent accuracy throwing the ball? Is that what Kill is trying to prepare us for? A top level athlete who throws a great ball but can't consistently make an accurate throw when it's needed?

I hope not.
 

Weird, Wren thinks that Big Ten wins are important and Bison is twisting Kill's words to troll everyone. Never seen this before... :rolleyes:
 

What Kill Is Really Saying

BisonGopher said:
I've read Kill blabbing this pre-excuse for why Gray could fail as the Gopher's 2011 QB in multiple publications now.

Gee whiz, golly gosh darned dang - if ONLY he had been playing QB......then.....what? He would have more consistent accuracy throwing the ball? Is that what Kill is trying to prepare us for? A top level athlete who throws a great ball but can't consistently make an accurate throw when it's needed?

I hope not.
Click to expand...

The problem is that Kill hands are tied when it comes to talking about the lack of development of Gray at the quarterback position. Kill is too much of a class guy to blame Brewster for wasting Gray’s first year by not red shirting him and then not developing him to play quarterback last year. We all have heard the pros and cons of Weber vs. Gray but I personally find Brewster’s failure to develop Gray as a quarterback incredibly stupid and shortsighted. This is compounded even further by the fact he chose to go with at best an average quarterback instead of developing the player that is the key to our offensive success in 2012 and 2013.

Wren, since you don’t seem to be capable of understanding what coach Kill is saying and what he won’t say, you don’t need to respond to this. It would require you to have some insight and actually think instead of muttering Big Ten wins.
 

BisonGopher said:
I've read Kill blabbing this pre-excuse for why Gray could fail as the Gopher's 2011 QB in multiple publications now.

Gee whiz, golly gosh darned dang - if ONLY he had been playing QB......then.....what? He would have more consistent accuracy throwing the ball? Is that what Kill is trying to prepare us for? A top level athlete who throws a great ball but can't consistently make an accurate throw when it's needed?

I hope not.
Click to expand...

People just need to realize that not everything a coach says is always directed to fans only. Maybe statements like this will make Gray work even harder.

I personally couldn't care less what a coach says to the press about stuff like this. Ultimately it's about what we see on the field.
 



killjoy: watch your step with what you are sayning here now, or are you speaking as..

Coach Kill here??????

The key to the offense IS the offensive line. Period. A quarterback might have a great start and get hurt and have to be replaced. Or a quarterback may have not such a great start...and have to be replaced. Or a quarterback might have a fantastic start and play fantastically ALL season long. However, no matter how it goes for the qb, the qb will not stand much of a chance IF the offensive line is too weak or has too many injuries or for what ever reason can not get the job done. The same is true for the running game. The running game is going NO WHERE without a decent, healthy offensive line.

On offense, the 2011 season totally rests in the hands of the offensive line.

You have to be able to run the ball...and...on defense stop the run. IF you can't do those two things, it will be a LONG season. It has always been that way, and it always will be that way.

Now killjoy: are you pretending to speak for Coach Kill again????? Are you Coach Kill, killjoy????? Do you believe you are Coach Kill, killjoy????? Are you hearing voices killjoy????? IF you think you are Coach Kill, killjoy: are you trying to make excuses for the 2011 season???????

Remember: the offense will go as far as the offensive line will take it. And that is the bottom line...always has been and always will be.
 

BisonGopher said:
I've read Kill blabbing this pre-excuse for why Gray could fail as the Gopher's 2011 QB in multiple publications now.

Gee whiz, golly gosh darned dang - if ONLY he had been playing QB......then.....what? He would have more consistent accuracy throwing the ball? Is that what Kill is trying to prepare us for? A top level athlete who throws a great ball but can't consistently make an accurate throw when it's needed?

I hope not.
Click to expand...

Blabbing=negative.

Why are you here?
 

Wren: I'm confused a bit. I thought you thought Maturi did an awful job in terms of the divisions, because we got placed with too good of football teams. You were fighting for Indiana, Purdue, Northwestern, & Illinois all in the same division with us. Now you want to play all 11 Big Ten teams?

My opinion: Depends how we schedule non-conference foes. If we're going to stack it with New Mexico State's & directional North & South Dakota schools, I'd rather have 9 Big Ten games. If we're going to have the USC's, North Carolina's, Colorado's, or other BCS schools with a name, I'm fine with 8 Big Ten games.
 

In honor of the artist formerly known as Wren/The Rambler, I give you Steve Martin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htTLWC1unMc

For the record, I agree with FireDaveLee. Now that there's a championship game, 8 conference games is good by me, so long as the U schedules one quality nonconference game. But if the goal is to schedule nothing but automatic wins outside of B1G play, I'd like to see a 9th conference game.
 



Oh for crying out loud dave lee...you've been fired... ; 0 )

I never really weighed in on who I wanted the Gophers paired with in Big Ten Play. My preference always has been and always will be that every team in the Big Ten should play every other team in the Big Ten every year.

The one point that I did feel was important though was IF the Big Ten was going to split into divisions that Michigan, PSU and OSU should NOT all be put in the same division. That would have put the POWER base in the eastern half of the Big Ten. Why should Michigan, PSU and OSU worry about the other Big Ten members IF they were all paired together? The three of them could have packaged themselves and shopped themselves to a national SUPER conference along with some of the best of the SEC, PAC-10, Big 12, etc. and formed a super conference network that would have split billions and billions among the top 12 or 14 TRADITIONAL football powers. Those three could have cut themselves very nice deals and could have ditched the Indiana, NU, Prudue, MSU, Minnesota, iowa, Illinois and wisky's that by themselves wouldn't have had nearly as much sex appeal to a potential super conference as PSU, OSU and Michigan would have. Since that point in time, Nebraska was added to the conference. I think that pretty much insures that OSU, PSU and Michigan won't bolt in the near-term future. But, never say never. Money talks...always and forever.

badger joel macturi has not done anything right with the football program during the entire time he has been here. He should have been fired when he let Mason's contract run down to nothing, then extended Mason long term and then fired and bought out Mason after Mason helped get the stadium. He wasted millions and millions of dollars in buy outs and bjm should have been history right then and there on the spot. But, prexy b was also part of the big mess...so we are still screwed with bjm running our revenue sports into the ground. That NEVER should have been allowed to happen. bjm wasn't even good enough to be considered to be the ad at wisky when Richter stepped down. In fact, wisky pushed bjm out the door long before Richter stepped down. They KNEW what they had in bjm and they did NOT want him. And, now we have been stuck with him since the summer of 2002. What a bummer.....

; 0 )
 

Apologies, walrus....the person that was promoting that alignment was Gopherhurrin, who I thought happened to be you before you announced your presence with authority of being the walrus. Looks like Gopherhurrin was Loon.

Maturi has more negatives than positives, but I do think he did allright with the alignments (if he had any say at all). To me, priorities were 1) maintain rivalries (did that with Iowa & Michigan in division with Wisconsin protected and creating Nebraska annually) & 2) Not being in Ohio State's division.
 

SelectionSunday said:
In honor of the artist formerly known as Wren/The Rambler, I give you Steve Martin:


Not bad old " hodger, the odds making tax dodger who handicapps for the betting crowd..." Are you still trying to corner the betting market on college sports? You know, get some hoops players or other college athletes to hook up with the gamblers who like to control their own destiny, and throw a few games and all that good stuff? What are the odds or the "evens" of a walking, talking odds making man coming out of Northfield???? ; 0 )


Athletic directors like to set up ooc games in which they get at least 2 home games for each road game...OR...games in which they NEVER have to give up a home game. They would rather "buy" a home game than have to do a home/home swap. The ad will try to put the screws to the season ticket buying public just as much as they can. Just look at the ooc hoops home schedule. Hoops fans probably get the screws put to them as much as football, but, at least in hoops, you get to see every team play every other team in the conference every year. They also do a conference tourney in which all of the teams in the conference participate. Because of the limited number of games in football, playing only 8 conference games in a 12 member conference is really kind of a sad commentary on the eventual conference champ.

Historically, attendance even for the Gophers has been much better for Big Ten games than the ooc portion of the home schedule. Even cutting back to a 50,000 seat stadium won't change that...although I do LOVE our 50,000 seat stadium.

; 0 )
Click to expand...
 

The Village Idiot Does It Again

Wren refuses to deal with reality again when it comes to the QB position. He now claims that in 2011 the offensive problem was totally the line and not the QB. But what would expect from a guy that can't figure out what Kill is doing to turn the program around. That would require insight and unfortunately with wren the elevator doesn't go all the way up to the top.

Here is quote from Iceland12 that says it best about Gray vs. Weber “…..Gray is unproven. Brewster though IMHO, would have won 2 or 3 more games each of the last two seasons if he wasn't so damn stubborn about trying to force the run and/or stay with Weber. That means he could have had 8-9 wins in 2009 and 5 or 6 in 2010.”

Yea wren there is a reason why the top QB’s are the most sought after players in NFL draft. But alas reality has never been your strong point.
 

Are you the Coach Kill-speak dude or dudette, killjoy???????????????????

In college football and even in other forms of football, the offensive line IS the key to each and every offense...the passing game AND the running game.

AND: if you are going to start quoting complete b.s. and imaginary possibilities as fact you had BEST be ready to PROVE and back up your statements: No crap like this can stand on it's own merits. It is complete b.s.:

"Here is quote from Iceland12 that says it best about Gray vs. Weber “…..Gray is unproven. Brewster though IMHO, would have won 2 or 3 more games each of the last two seasons if he wasn't so damn stubborn about trying to force the run and/or stay with Weber. That means he could have had 8-9 wins in 2009 and 5 or 6 in 2010.”..."

Prove that brewster would have had 8-9 wins in 2009. Prove that he would have even had 5 or 6 wins in 2010. In fact, an opinion could be given that he might have won 2 or 3 games LESS in 2009 and 2010 by ditching Weber and going with an inexperienced Gray, along with all other factors being the same...or...different, which ever the case might or might not have been... ; 0 ) You can NOT prove a statement like that. Any reasonably intelligent person would tell you time and time again that the ONLY thing we have to go by is EXACTLY what did happen.

What kind of fool are you Coach Kill imposter????? You claim that you KNOW what Coach Kill is saying, doing and thinking. Well, IF that is the case, we are really in for some bad seasons of football here at Minnesota. If YOU are inside the head, mind and inner-circle of Coach kill, based upon the way YOU conduct yourself and your statements, this is NOT going to be pretty.

Personally, I believe Coach Kill is reporting what he sees and thinks. And, he sees that brewster left him quite a few problems with all kinds of things, academics included.

So, killjoy: I am calling your stupid 8-9 win statement in 2009 and even 5 or 6 win statement in 2010. That is NOT what happened. Maybe YOU live in fantasy land...but, your statement is complete b.s. and can NOT be left standing unchallenged. Cut it out killjoy. By the way: do you think you ARE Coach Kill?????? Right now you are dismissed and can go back to your little room killjoy. I'll call on you if I should ever wish to chat about your perception of yourself and this silly Coach Kill-speak thing that you try to act out with...

I'm not laughing with you killjoy...I'm laughing at you...

; 0 )
 

Wren. Did you know that IMHO is an acronym that means "In My Humble Opinion"?

He stated an opinion, not a fact. There is nothing for him to "prove".

But don't let that stop you from another one of your annoying, long winded posts.

Everyone laughs at you wren.
 

Wren: "Prove that brewster would have had 8-9 wins in 2009. Prove that he would have even had 5 or 6 wins in 2010. You can NOT prove a statement like that. Any reasonably intelligent person would tell you time and time again that the ONLY thing we have to go by is EXACTLY what did happen."

Hold on a bit! You did exactly the same thing during one of our discussions in the past about the cupboard being bare when Brewster took over in 2007. You were adamant that Mason was a lock for 6 or 7 wins and maybe more. I was generous and thought maybe 3 or 4.

All we can go by is exactly what did happened. Just saying Wren.

I would rather much rather laugh with you than at you! :>)
 

GophersInIowa said:
People just need to realize that not everything a coach says is always directed to fans only. Maybe statements like this will make Gray work even harder.

I personally couldn't care less what a coach says to the press about stuff like this. Ultimately it's about what we see on the field.
Click to expand...

Then why doesn't coach say "well...I don't think I'm going to comment on Gray right now...lets just wait and see how he does on the field"?

You can see the same idea repeated in multiple places about how good Gray could be if he had been playing QB. He's already laying the groundwork for himself (and Gray) to escape heat if QB play falters this year. Kill can point back and say "now look I told you back in May that if Gray had been playing QB...things would be different".
 

BisonGopher said:
You can see the same idea repeated in multiple places about how good Gray could be if he had been playing QB. He's already laying the groundwork for himself (and Gray) to escape heat if QB play falters this year. Kill can point back and say "now look I told you back in May that if Gray had been playing QB...things would be different".
Click to expand...

Yes, because the one consistent theme echoed by everyone at NIU, SIU, etc was that Jerry Kill was an excuse maker. How could I forget all the quotes from fans, alumni, former players, former AD's, etc that have worked with him that paint this vivid picture of a man who always makes excuses? Silly me.

Nevermind the fact that what Kill is saying is undoubtedly true...not the Pryor part...I think that was heaping too much praise. But anyone who thinks MG wouldn't be a better QB had he actually played QB the past 2 seasons (instead of WR and wildcat RB) is just delusional.
 

DL65 said:
He said coaches favor 8 games but the ADs prefer 9.
Click to expand...

That actually surprises me. If they add a 9th game you are losing a home game every other year. I would think most programs would make more money with a non-conference home game every year versus one conference home game every two years. Being the AD's are in control of the budgets, it would seem like it would be better to keep it at 8...
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
Wren: "Prove that brewster would have had 8-9 wins in 2009. Prove that he would have even had 5 or 6 wins in 2010. You can NOT prove a statement like that. Any reasonably intelligent person would tell you time and time again that the ONLY thing we have to go by is EXACTLY what did happen."

Hold on a bit! You did exactly the same thing during one of our discussions in the past about the cupboard being bare when Brewster took over in 2007. You were adamant that Mason was a lock for 6 or 7 wins and maybe more. I was generous and thought maybe 3 or 4.

All we can go by is exactly what did happened. Just saying Wren.

I would rather much rather laugh with you than at you! :>)
Click to expand...

Yes, by all means Bayfield, perhaps I did stretch that a bit and it was a GOOD thing that you called me on that.

HOWEVER, Bayfield, you yourself stated that "...maybe 3 or 4..." might have been Mason's win total. I was merely responding with my outrageous belief to counter your totally outrageous belief that Mason only would have won 3 or 4 games.

so, it appears that the Bayfield assumption is equally as flawed in making a blanket statement as was the wren assumption. I think we must have BOTH been out to lunch on that Bayfield!!!!! ; 0 )

I countered your assumption with my own assumption. I think that, indeed, we both must laugh together about our shared discussion over what never occurred. The truth of the matter is though that even in year four, brewster had quite a few recruiting classes to bring his own players in and he was right back headed to that one win season in what turned out to be his final season that would have bookended his one win first season.

There are times when one's FIRST impression IS the correct impression.

I still don't fault brewster as much as I do prexy b and badger joel macturi for the mess that they got program into though... The administration messed that WHOLE deal up really badly.

Tell you what Bayfield: I'll split the difference with you...Mason probably would have been a lock for 5 or 6 wins in the 2007 season compared to brewster's 1 win overall season (0-8 in Big Ten play...) Naw...what happened happened and that's the way the cookie crumbled...

; 0 )
 

"class..... Class ..... CLASSSSSS, SHUT-UP!!!!"

A timely quote from Sister Mary Elephant
 

Classic Cheech & Chong. "I gotta' go to the can, man."

Had Sister Mary Elephant on a 45 RPM way back in the day, as well as Basketball Jones.
 


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