BLOG: Because Stephens ran, Gray will get a chance to throw

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emann

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"On the eve of the 2011 college football season, the College Football Hall of Fame inducted Sandy Stephens, while the Gophers have all but officially named MarQueis Gray this year’s starting quarterback. Here’s why both decisions were overdue."

http://bit.ly/mncmT8
 

Good article, I enjoyed reading it, thank you for posting. I've only been following the Gophers since Brewster's first year, so I don't really know a whole lot about the Gophers' more glorious past. I enjoyed reading about Sandy Stephens and what he did for the Gophers and for breaking the race barrier in sports, very interesting.
 


No, it does NOT extend any kind of debate...

It was only a bashing of Weber and the person who is the ONLY person who could have changed ANYTHING about Gray's playing time...the gm/recruiter brewster, was not attacked and vilified any where near to the extent the student athlete Weber was. IF anyone had a problem with the way things went down...put the blame on the coach and start going after that brewster character. He was the power broker...the player in this little drama who was the only person who called all the shots. But, by sticking to the agenda and theme of his piece, this blogger went after Weber. I'm hoping that Gray is an All-American qb. For the Gopher's sake, he will have to be all that,...and more. That would be GREAT!

But, there really was no need for the blogger to cheap shot Weber the way he did. He/she should have gone after brewster...because, after all, brewster was getting the big pay check to make all the moves that he, and he alone decided to make. For that reason, I believe the blogger, took the cowards way out and blamed Weber for the blogger's frustration that Gray didn't play qb. That was brewster's choice, not Webber's decision. Total misplaced blame, guilt and scapegoating technique was utilized by the author of this blog piece in that regard.

It was a nice write-up of Sandy Stephens from an historical approach. I watched him play offense, defense and return kicks. He was surrounded with a ton of talent and he was a fantastic leader! He was TOUGH as nails and on a team that was tough as nails at most positions, it took GREAT leadership to bring it all together. I guess that was the thing about Sandy Stephens...what a great leader he was! And, what great talent he and his teammates had. In many ways and on many levels, that team helped move college football into the mainstream of what was happening in this nation that was far more important than mere college football...yet, it did represent college football and that team WAS college football at it's finest. Thank you to Murray Warmath for that too!

Good luck to Gray and all the Gopher qbs in 2011 and beyond. It will be up to Coach Kill to put Gray and all his qbs in great situations with strong offensive line play, a great rushing attack to compliment the passing game and outstanding wide receivers and tight ends who run great routes, have sure hands and make plays on the ball. And, no matter who plays, it will be because the Coach calls the shots...not ANYBODY else. But, I hope that Coach Kill satisfies the every want, wish and need of every armchair fan who has a favorite qb that probably won't be getting enough playing time. Sometimes life is really tough for the poor fans out there who have a favorite qb who just isn't getting the chance...the respect...the time needed to achieve all that qb can achieve...if ONLY given the chance....and WHO do they blame????? Why, the qb who played, of course. Crucify the COACH for determining who would play and who would not play. But, it is so much easier and creates more hate and discontent for some blogger to blame the college kid who got the playing time and put his name in the record books. Misplaced blame...that's a fun little game....but, what was it's purpose? What was the inner-hidden-deeper-secret-meaning of this blog piece...

And time waits for no one...

We will never know what evil lurked within brewster's heart re: this qb controversy. He is gone. Weber has graduated. Gray has two seasons left. These three people were all brought together for a brief period of time. They are now totally seperated and all three face totally new and challenging circumstances. Good luck and best wishes to all three.

But: badger joel macturi must be thrown under the bus because HE hired brewster. brewster holds the smoking gun and must take credit for EVERYTHING that happened under his watch. The same for the ad, bjm....

; 0 )
 

Good job on linking Gray to Stephens.. Never really thought of it that way.

But the article did reek of bias for Gray, which I know is your opinion, I disagree with.
 



MMM says: "...So either you have been tagged as a relatively recent student by some members of the GH rabble incorrectly; or, you are not telling the truth here. Fess up! How old are you?"

No young pup "GH rabble..." is usually correct about much of anything. And I am certainly NOT a relatively recent anything...and I'm damn proud of that! ; 0 ) There is nothing to "fess up" about...anyone who has been around GH for any length of time at all knows that I am ugly, older than sin and that I am damn proud of that too!

I'm 64. My very first "in person" trip to the BRICKHOUSE was a trip with my Dad on October 3, 1959. I was 12 years old. I had been a Gopher fan for quite a while before then, but, I used to have to listen to the Gophers on the radio. But, really, listening on the radio was pretty darn good too! Sometimes I kind of miss those old days of listening to the games on the radio. Maybe I just really miss the fact that the Gophers used to win a LOT of Big Ten Football games back when I had to listen on the raido... But, that day in early October, I made my first trip to MEMORIAL STADIUM. I saw Minnesota beat Indiana 24-14 and got to see Sandy Stephens play in that game. I had heard him play a bit on the radio and had heard them talk about him...but he was so much better than the guys on the radio ever made him sound... It was the Gopher's ONLY Big Ten win that year. THAT was when I first realized just how fantastic it is to win a Big Ten Football Game! I guess I just had to BE there in person to realize that. In fact, that was the ONLY game the Gophers won in 1959 other than an ooc game against Vanderbilt. They lost a lot of close games that season. The next year, they won the National Championship! It broke my heart to watch them lose to Washington in the Rosebowl game though. But, things were still good and sure enough, thanks to the Ohio State faculty/alumni board voting NOT to accept an invitation to the Rosebowl when they won the Big Ten Championship, since Minnesota finished 2nd, the Gophers went to the Rosebowl again and this time beat UCLA And, Sandy Stephens had QUITE a run with his GREAT Gopher Teammates during those two Rosebowl years. Little did I realize that I would be watching the highlights of the next four or five decades way back then. But, that team...those players...ALL those Big Ten wins...what a wonderful time to have been a kid who LOVED football...and especially Gopher Football.

But, all the years WALKING IN THE WILDERNESS with Gopher Football did make me realize that it IS really a big deal to win a Big Ten Football Game. I know that Big Ten wins are as valuable as gold. I also know that the administrations at the University of Minnesota have been not too much friendlier to Gopher Football than that faculty/alumni board at Ohio State was when they voted NOT to accept a Rosebowl invitation to show the nation that Ohio State was NOT going to let football dominate their university. (The prexy of Ohio State, Prexy F(Fawcette sp?) and one Woody Hayes made sure that THE Ohio State University got their priorities in order and they did accept the next Rosebowl Invitation they were given...although that wasn't until 1968 and they promptly went on to play in the next three rosebowls '69, '70 and '71. I guess THAT showed the world that OSU DID, indeed value football pretty damn highly! Well...the administration at the University of Minnesota had totally checked OUT on football by that point in time. By 1982, they exiled Gopher Football from the campus and into the dome. That pretty much is the ULTIMATE move in an administration's DEVALUATION of a football program at a BIG TEN University.

I'm an OLD guy and I have WATCHED a LOT of Golden Gopher Football over the decades. It's funny how time has a way of moving right along. It's really GOOD to be old though...I've been very fortunate and have been able to see and do a lot of things. Life IS good....has been good...and always WILL be good...old or young...or...anywhere in between.

; 0 )
 

Wren, thanks for reading. I don't mean to unfairly criticize Weber (several times I added that things were not completely his fault) and I think I did a decent job of highlighting some of his good games along with his bad. It's not a cheap-shot takedown of Weber. If anything, my criticism is levied at Brewster and those who felt that Gray "couldn't handle a Division I offense." It's not Adam Weber's fault that coaches kept sending him out game after game. Just to reiterate, Adam Weber was not the sole reason the Gophers were an awful team last year. He wasn't even the biggest reason that the Gophers were bad last year.

As Formo said, my point of view is that Gray should have been playing more, so obviously, I'm making an argument for why Gray should have been inserted into the lineup ahead of Weber, especially when the season was a fully engulfed dumpster fire.

But thanks for adding what it was like to watch Sandy Stephens play at the Brickhouse; that must have been incredible. I'm a bit younger, so my perspective on him comes from reading articles from the time period and retrospectives from people who were around then. I have to say it makes me proud as a Gopher fan to say that the first Rose Bowl MVP of color and the first black All-American quarterback came from the U of M.

Thanks to everyone else for reading and leaving criticism/comments.
 

The Gophers have had many African-American quarterbacks - I think we'd stack up well compared to most schools in giving African-American quarterbacks and opportunity to start. Here's the list I can think of - any errors?
Asad Abdul-Khaliq
Billy Cockerham
Marquel Fleetwood
Rickey Foggie
Tony Dungy
Sandy Stephens
 



emann:

I realize that you wanted Gray to be playing qb both his freshman and sophmore seasons. However, have you ever asked yourself the question: "...at what point is the integrity of the here and now compromised for a chance that a young player might gain experience that will help him to be better in the future?..." Do you throw the juniors and seniors final year or two away? Do you run the risk of not winning ANY games for the betterment of the young, inexperienced player? Do you run the risk of putting that player out there without enough support, having his ego, his confidence, his lack of mastery of the system and possibly the careers of every single upperclassman on the line with virtually NO chance of obtaining any wins in conference play? Do you do that to LONG-TIME, loyal season ticket holders who have invested time, resources and support for decade after decade just to give a younger player some experience playing ahead of an upperclassman who may have a better grasp of your EVER CHANGING offense? Do you throw the whole notion of trying to honestly compete to the best of your ability out the door? Don't you owe it to EVERYONE involved to put the players on the field who give you the BEST chance of winning rather than just to try to POSSIBLY create more experience for the POSSIBLE qb of the future?????

I EXPECT and DEMAND that the players who give the team the best chance to WIN Big Ten Games NEED to be played. I feel that my season tickets give me that right. Unless the U of M wants to issue a statement that: "...we have decided to dedicate this season to getting our underclassmen as MUCH playing time as is possible and we really don't give a crap whether we lesson our chances to win or not...SO...we are willing to refund your purchase price of your season tickets..." But, they would NOT do that.

And, don't you think the Big Ten Conference would be more than upset IF a team started "playing for the future" instead of trying the program's VERY BEST to win EVERY game they play????? The integrity of the league would be SO FAR compromised IF several teams started "throwing away seasons" trying to "build for the future..."

And, jr. and sr. players would certainly have EVERY right to feel totally screwed by their coach and their school's football program.

The surest way to make a college football program TOTALLY meaningless, TOTALLY standardless, TOTALLY corrupt and TOTALLY dishonest would be to quit trying to compete today so that young players can maybe...possibly...compete better in future years. NO coach has that right. brewster did that his first year. He no longer had that option in 2008, 2009, or 2010 did he?

Don't ask me why brewster didn't play anyone else at qb late in games that were blowouts. You will have to ask brewster and badger joel macturi that. Those people were the people of power and were the people who called all the shots. REMEMBER, brewster did that horrible throw away year in 2007 so there was NO WAY he could have tried that again...EVER. THAT season spelled his doom. He threw away a season and it showed his lack of integrity. There was NO WAY he EVER could have recovered from the 1-11 regular season and 0-8 Big Ten season in 2007. And, he never DID recover from that season. Just 2 1/2 seasons later, he was fired in the middle of the Big Ten Season.

Now the year is 2011, how would you like it if Coach Kill decided to go the THROW AWAY SEASON for the "good of the younger players..." routine that brewster used and decided to go with a freshman qb rather than to stick with an upperclass qb...just on the outside chance he might luck out and possibly make things a little better two or three years down the line? I think you can see how ESSENTIAL it is for Coach Kill to go with and stick with the player at qb who gives him the BEST chance to compete and the BEST chance to win Big Ten Football Games. It looks as though Gray will get his shot. That is good. All he has to do is to make sure that he gives the Gophers the BEST chance to win with him at qb EVERY quarter of EVERY game. And to keep doing that game after game. And to stay healthy the entire season and never miss a down due to injury. I think it's GREAT when the upperclassmen are on the field come Big Ten Game time!!!!!

Don't you?

By beating Illinois AND iowa in 2010, you have ALL the proof in the world why you need to play the players who give you the best chance of winning. Coach Horton knew and understood that. 2 Big Ten wins certainly gave the seniors a MUCH better way to finish their playing days at the University of Minnesota than actually having endured TWO winless Big Ten seasons in a four year period. It showed integrity and honesty and an ability to see that the whole is MUCH more important than an individual here or an individual there. ALWAYS play to win! You owe that to the players, your staff, your school and the long-time season ticket holders who have been withyou through thick and thin!

; 0 )
 

I didn't read the effin' novel that Wren wrote.. Just the first and last paragraphs (isn't that all you need to read from him anyway?). But I must say, I agree with him. Well, at least with his first and last paragraphs. =)
 

@Word - I can't name any others off hand, but I agree, the U has been very progressive in starting quarterbacks of color. (For anyone who didn't read the blog, that sentence was included in it.)

Formo - Are you sure? That's a dangerous place to be, standing next to Wren. :)

Wren - You have proven my point with your rant. My point was never that younger players should be given priority because they have more potential. It was that the player who gives a team the best chance to win should play. By the end of last year, it wasn't Adam Weber. Midway through the season, when the team had lost several games in a row, he deserved to sit down. Playing him only so he could attain meaningless Big Ten personal records wasn't fair to the other players on the team. Gray took snaps at quarterback in three games. The Gophers won two of them. It's a small sample size, but I don't think it's a coincidence. (For example, without Gray's third-down run against Iowa, the Gophers in all likelihood lose that game.)

I never said all seniors and juniors should be benched for promising underclassmen. You've taken my point so far out of context that you're arguing your own made up straw man argument. I never wrote anything about "the good of the younger players," so I don't know who you are quoting. My point of view is that MarQueis Gray playing quarterback is overdue, because by the midway point last year, he gave the Gophers a better chance to win than Adam Weber.

No hard feelings, just my two cents about it.

Now, just for fun, I'm going to make a post with all of Wren's ALL CAPS RANTING:
ANY LONG-TIME EVER CHANGING EVERYONE BEST POSSIBLY POSSIBLE ????? I EXPECT DEMAND WIN NEED MUCH NOT VERY BEST EVERY????? SO FAR IF EVERY TOTALLY TOTALLY TOTALLY TOTALLY NO REMEMBER NO WAY EVER. THAT NO WAY EVER DID THROW AWAY SEASON ESSENTIAL BEST BEST BEST EVERY EVERY GREAT!!!! ALL MUCH TWO MUCH
 

emann: I totally disagree with your attack on Weber and in trying to say a qb...

is totally responsible for a team losing. Obviously, the team was NOT preforming up to it's ability under this brewster character. HOWEVER: who was qb-ing the team during the wins over Illinois and iowa????????? That's right, it was Adam Weber. What was different in the wins over Illinois and iowa?????? The WHOLE team stepped up. The defense. The offensive line. The defensive backs. The running backs. EVERY position on the team played better than they had in that long string of losses. I would contend that perhaps more important to the losing string that ended brewster's career at Minnesota was the overall play of the TEAM...not merely the play of the qb. And, I still maintain that regardless of who the coach was...it was the coach who decided who would play qb.

We have not seen yet how well Gray will handle the qb duties in 2011. However, I will guarantee you that if he looks less than great, it will NOT be entirely his problems that we see on the field. There are SO many moving parts to a football team that to try to pin ALL the problems on the qb is total foolishness. IF Coach Kill chooses to play Gray I will know that is because Coach Kill believes that Gray gives the Gophers the best chance to win playing qb...AND...I will defend Gray and will look to see what OTHER problem positions are also impacting Gray's ability to "look successful" on Game Day Saturdays. It is a TEAM game emann...it is TOTALLY a team game...and if one other position screws up, it can make the qb look bad. So If the coach goes with Mr. Gray, I will know it is because Mr. Gray gives the Gophers the BEST chance to win. Period.

emann: you are totally biased and I believe you have distorted just what a qb can do. This is a TEAM game... The last time Gray was given a chance to DO something at the qb position with the game on the line was in that bowl game against Iowa State in the bowl game of the 2009 season. He fumbled the game away. Against iowa, he picked up a HUGE first down and didn't turn the ball over. That was great...but...it was because ALL KINDS of players from MANY positions stepped up and came up BIG against Illinois and especially against iowa that the Gophers WON. He was put in the game with that play in mind. It pitted his strength and ability against the iowa defense. It was a SUPERB play! It was a GREAT call. It was exicuted BEAUTIFULLY. Gray was FANTASTIC on that play! The TEAM was fantastic on that play. THAT was Big Ten football at it's finest!

You know emann: you wouldn't have really been too impressed with Sandy Stephen's ability at the qb position, I don't think. Passing was not the most important thing to be focused in on with that offense, that style of smash-mouth football and the entire concept that field position was the name of the game. There wasn't so much "free-substitution and platoon football..." back then. The BEST players played offense, defense and many times special teams. Sandy Stephens was a COMPLETE football player who was surrounded with SO MUCH TALENT. Players at EVERY position were beyond competent and were many times flat-out better than the players on the other teams. Sandy Stephens was NOT flash...he was the leader and was hard-nosed, strong and played within the game plan. He was capable of doing just enough to let the superior talent that played on his team physically wear down and shut down the teams they were playing. Lots of times, it was a one yard option play 1st down run that Sandy would convert that would allow the possession game to work well enough to gain an extra three downs and ten yards of valuable field poition which would set up the next Gopher punt that would pin the other team down inside their own 20, that eventually would allow the Gophers to win a low scoring PHYSICALLY exhausting ball game. In some games, it was in the 2nd half when the Gophers would break the spirit, the will and the backs of teams after having worn them down for 2 1/2 quarters. For instance, in 1961, the Gophers lost to Missouri 6-0. They beat Oregon 14-7 and Northwestern 10-3. They did blow out Illinois 33-0 (Illinois tied with Indiana for 9th & 10th place in the Big Ten in 1961) The Gophers beat Michigan 23-20 and MSU 13-0. They beat iowa 16-9. They beat Purdue 10-7 and then lost to wisky 23-21.. They went on to beat UCLA 21-3 in the 1962 Rose Bowl.)

WHEN the Gopher Football Team played as a TEAM in 2010, at the end of the season, they won 2 Big Ten games. You are one of those: "qb-focused" fans aren't you emann????? The qb can NOT do it alone. ONLY a team...a complete team effort and competence from all positions can win Big Ten football games. Even IF a qb appears to have a "great game..." it is ONLY because the offensive line, the running backs, the receivers ALL step up and have "great games..." They have to ALL show up for the game. IF the front seven of the other team is abusing the offensive line, and the running backs, the odds are that the passing game is not going to do diddly squat. When the receivers and the qb are not on the same page, unless the running game is picking up at least 4 1/2 yards a pop CONSISTANTLY throughout the entire game, there is going to be hell to pay. In offenses predicated on "big plays, UNLESS the defense can shut down the other team you are going to get your head handed to you unless the other team's defense is even worse than your defense.

No, you would have felt "let down" by Sandy Stephen's game emann. He was surrounded by so many stars who SHOWED UP for most every game that he wasn't called on to put the team on his back. But, he always showe up. On offense...on defense...on special teams. He didn't make a lot of mistakes. But when he did, he was surrounded by difference makers who had ways of making the mistakes "go away" or to cover in some way.

But, Sandy Stephens was a LEADER...a MANAGER...and he truely WAS the All-American qb on a truely GREAT team...that played as a team and almost always showed up as a team. Football IS a team game emann. Did you know that?

Gray had a great run against iowa late in the game. THAT is what a TEAM does. Everyone contributes when called upon to do so. That was a great play. That is what you NEED players to do when you put them in to pit that individual's strength against the other team. There are SO many key players who HAVE to step up. When teams are looking really bad and are not executing, it is the fault and responsibility of each and every player. There are 11 positions, and if ONE of those positions...or two...or five...or nine players don't get their job done on that play, the play does NOT work. The final two games of the season, MORE members of the Gopher Team showed up to play. THAT is what it takes to win Big Ten football games. The TEAM needs to show up. It is the responsibility of the coach to insure THAT happens. The coach calls the shots. The coach does what ever he thinks gives his team the best chance to win. If you have a problem with the way things went down...bitch about the coach. However, obviously, Coach Horton knew a heck of a lot more about what the team needed than brewster did.
 



Yes, let's compare Sandy Stephens to Adam Weber. Good God man, keep up with your meds.
 

dopodoll: I did not compare anyone to anyone else. Were you there to watch Sandy Stephens and that incredibly studly cast of GREAT players who surrounded him? did you watch the style of football the 1960-1961 Gophers played...the level of defense...the incredible patience they had and their supreme confidence in their defense????????? I did write a little about Sandy Stephens. And I did mention that he had a GREAT supporting cast of characters. I also implied that field position was a KEY element in their game.

However, even Stephens wasn't perfect. Sometimes when the Gophers faced teams equally as physical as they were, they got beat. Take, for instance, that 1960 loss to Purdue: Purdue came into the BRICKHOUSE and left with a a 23-14 victory. Bernie Allen (who went on to star as an infielder in mlb) and his teammates tore apart the vaunted Gopher's defense. And, later that year in the Rose Bowl, the Gophers had no answer for the Washington Huskies in their 17-7 loss.

In 1961, the Gophers were unable to score in their 6-0 loss to Missouri at home. I saw that game too. It was a classic defensive struggle. Later that year, the Gophers came up short at home against wisky by a 23-21 score. Sandy couldn't work magic...but, he and his teammates really didn't drop the ball too often. Perhaps the most frustrating loss I can recall was when Purdue came in and whopped the Gophers in 1960. What was frustrating about that was the fact that Purdue ended in a 4 way tie for 5th-8th place in the Big Ten standings.

I did say that football is an ultimate TEAM game and there is a hell of a lot that goes wrong with a LOT of the positions out there that people like you blame the qb for. In part, Sandy Stephens could execute pretty well most of the time because he had a LOT of teammates who were truely OUTSTANDING at their positions. Do you question that dopodoll??????????? Bell, Eller, Brown, Munsey, Dickson, Hagberg, Mulholland, Hall and even Smokey Joe Salem, who shard some of the qb duties with Stephens during the NC season.

Now, let them lock you back in your little room dopodoll. You are dismissed...

; 0 )
 

imthewalrus said:
dopodoll: I did not compare anyone to anyone else.
Click to expand...

Actually, that's exactly what you did. The overall point of your rambling diatribe is:

-The QB isn't the whole team, so why boo him? Adam Weber didn't contribute to his team's winning or losing any more than any other player, so why boo him? And Sandy Stephens didn't contribute to winning or losing any more than any other player (just like Adam Weber), so if you booed Weber, you would've booed Stephens too, right?-

The problem is that Stephens and Weber as college QBs could hardly be any more different. All Stephens did was win a ton of games and rarely make mistakes. All Weber did was lose most of his games and make terrible, ridiculous mistakes constantly. Stephens is a college football HOFer. The only way Weber will even get close to the college football HOF is if he buys a ticket and visits, like the rest of us who are below-average college QBs or worse.
 

And Stephens had a lot of All-Amercians surrounding him at so many positions on...

the team. iowa was ranked number one in the nation at the time. IF you put a LOT of really outstanding players on the field in a LOT of different positions on one team, the job of the qb is a bit easier. NEVER did I compare Stephens and Weber. YOU did that dopodoll.

Stephens was a great managing/stabalizer of ALL that talent. Where was all the talent of equal ability to Bell, Eller, Brown, etc that Weber had surrounding him?????? Do you really not see the positives that being surrounded by All-Americans and All-Big Ten players can produce???????????? Put a lot of talent around a number of quarterbacks and the quarterback will look one hell of a lot better...instantly.

You appear to expect the qb to DO IT ALL regardless of the supporting cast of characters. It ain't going to happen consistantly...if at all on a team that just does NOT have the players to line up and go toe to toe game in and game out.

And, NEVER did I say anything about booing ANY qb. Any fan base that boos their own deserves to be in the basement. Those fans are kind of like the student fans who don't even show up. They are worthless, creeps, jerks and they deserve a last place team to represent their last place sportsmanship.

You talk about booing dopodoll. That's your kind of thing...that's your kind of style...
 

imthewalrus said:
You appear to expect the qb to DO IT ALL regardless of the supporting cast of characters.
Click to expand...

Nope. Not even close. This seems to be the fundamental disconnect. You think that "Weber mobbers and bashers" hold him up to some ridiculous standard that is unachievable. My standard for an average college QB is to bring as much to the table as he takes off of it. Guys like Abdul-Khaliq, Sauter, Tolzien, Stanzi, etc. were average college QBs because, while they didn't bring that much to the table, they didn't take much off of it, either. Adam Weber brought more to the table than any of them, but he also took way more off the table than he brought to it. For every brilliant game he had, he made tons of mistakes that most Jr. High QBs wouldn't make. I just expect a college QB with 40+ career starts to not do things like throw to the opposite side of the field against his body, overthrow post routes by 10 yards, and bounce 5-yard out routes at his receiver's feet. If this ridiculously lofty standard makes me guilty of expecting the QB to "DO IT ALL"...well, guilty as charged.
 

Wren, I don't want to have a pissing match with you, especially when your post title is something that I explicitly said is not true. I wrote something to the effect of: "Adam Weber was not the reason the Gophers were awful in 2010, it was the defense, specifically run prevention." Weber is by all accounts a good person, no one is attacking him personally. I don't mean to kick your dog by saying I think Gray will prove to be a better Gopher QB than Weber.

ANYWAY, MV at FBT had a interesting take on it:
http://fringebowlteamblog.com/?p=3753
"I think the previous staff’s reluctance to play Gray at QB stemmed from incompetence and/or fear of failing with their crown jewel rather than any real concerns about his command of the offense. The fact that Brewster and Horton were already planning on changing the offense again to fit Gray’s skill-set is startling proof in their inability to construct a program. Considering nearly everything that came out of Brewster’s mouth was overly-defensive hyperbole (with the opposite usually more true than his actual statement) and Kill is a habitual minimizer of his team’s abilities, what are we as fans to make of Jerry’s praise of Q’s quarterbacking instincts and ability to…wait for it…command the offense, call the right plays and read the defense? *gasp*"
 

As I stated to you, emann: go after the coach...NOT the player...

I don't believe that brewster had a CLUE what he was doing with the Golden Gopher Football Program as is witnessed by his incredible number of coordinators in basically 3 seasons. Yet, reading your piece, one would believe that you are trying to make Gray greater at the expense of Weber...the guy who actually tried to play for that incompetent brewster and his multiple offenses and coordinators and coaches in general. Toss in brewster's willingness to throw away his first season by trying to install an offense that did not fit any of his returning players (THAT actually was probably more geared toward what he thought Gray would do well in) and you had a ticking time bomb running the Gopher Football Program. You also had an idiot of an ad who had hired brewster who even went so far as to EXTEND brewster at the end of his third season and the handwriting was on the wall that no player on the Gopher Squad was going to be able to have a real grasp about what was going on.

I think that the reluctance to totally ruin their "crown jewell" with all the confusion and chaos of constantly changing offenses is probably as good a reason as anyone will ever hear as to why the total reluctance to turn Gray lose for a quarter or two. They were afraid, perhaps that he would lose confidence, that he would not look as good unless they had a supporting cast to go with him (EVERY qb needs a supporting cast to help them and make them look half-decent and a young, very highly hyped qb is no different than any other qb.)

But do NOT do the routine that you do emann, and many others do where they infer that adam Weber got preferential treatment over Gray. I think brewster was trying to protect Gray AND himself by not putting Gray out there into the chaos and confusion that Gopher football had become under brewster. Gray has a LOT to prove and this year the spotlight is on him. He will be under the microscope. It will be he and he alone out there under center, in the gun and under the gun. A lot of the confusion is clearing under Coach Kill. There will be more discipline. Gray has worked very hard and diligently to gain knowlege of this new offense. IF coach Kill starts Gray, I will say the SAME thing I said about Weber: go after the damn coach if you have a complaint about the qb. It is the damn coach who is sending his starter out there. The kids are doing the BEST they can do. So, if Gray is the starter: I totally and completely back him and I don't want to hear any cheap shots coming his way, or boos at him, or unkind remarks about him. IF you must bitch, whine and complain that your personal favorite qb isn't getting a shot: take it to the damn coach! Boo the coach. Bitch about the coach. The coach has the power, gets the big money and gets to call all of his own shots. The coach is your personal punching bag...NOT the young student athlete that the coach hands the ball to and says: ...get out there..." to. The coach NEEDS to be man enough to shut the bitter fans up when they want to try to start a BRUTAL qb controversy. brewster NEVER did that. He hid in the shadows like a coward while Weber got beaten up by you and your buddies, emann. brewster was NOT a stand-up guy. He was a total and complete JERK to let Adam Weber take all the heat from obnoxious fans who had another personal favorite who they wanted to see play.

So Coach Kill: either go to the qb you are going to stick with and defend him OR say that you are going to play who ever you think will do the best job given the circumstances and then stand behind EACH qb that you use in the games. But: do NOT ever let the silly fan base start their own qb controversy and then let it get out of hand the way brewster let it get out of hand. Tell the people that the heat belongs to you if you are going to do some experimenting Coach Kill. And then dress-down the crowd IF they start trying to create a qb controversy of their own. Don't say it in a quiet way. Give the fan base hell if they have it coming! Be a MAN about it Coach Kill. Don't be like brewster was. (I am sure you WILL be Coach Kill and that you ARE really stand-up about what ever it is you will decide to do on Game Day saturday.) brewster was NEVER a man about protecting his choice for qb. He was a wimp and a real first-classed jerk about it.

This kind of crap should NOT still be going on emann.

If Gray is the guy: stand behind him and tell the fans to take a hike if they don't like it Coach Kill!


At least that's the way I think it should be: imHo...



; 0 )
 

Just in case anyone is curious about things like this; Wren's word count on this post alone is over 5200.

Come on carpal tunnel!
 

It is amazing...

...how one person can high jack a string and babble absently on about his personal agenda. The man is loony. No, my fault the loon is somebody else.
 

What is the date that we will no longer have to infuse weber into every qb conversation? I am going to say about September 15, 2011.


You all know my thoughts on weber (and I am correct in my analysis by the way), but I am no longer going to discuss a former gopher who's American football playing career (on a 120 yard field including endzones) is likely over.
 


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