Chip: Jerry Kill is a hot name now. That means it’s time for the U to start dig in

BleedGopher

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per Chip:

Nebraska’s football facility features a three-story waterfall, a dedicated Heisman Trophy room and first-class amenities for athletes. The Gophers have a dark indoor facility with holes in the ceiling.

Think recruits notice the difference?

A cynic might argue the merits of facilities because the Gophers have caught or surpassed teams with fancier digs. That’s missing the point. They are winning despite that. And why settle?

The university displayed a commitment to football by building TCF Bank Stadium, and also by standing with Kill through his health crises and giving significant raises to him and his staff last offseason. Those were critical pieces to the puzzle. After this successful season, Kill doesn’t need another raise, he needs the shovels to hit the dirt, pronto.

The time is right to take advantage of this momentum. Their program feels like it’s on the cusp of big things.

They found the right coach. Now they need to keep building around him.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/283783851.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue

Go Gophers!!
 

Where do you even donate? I'm not here to give 7 figures, but i'd fork over a bit to keep this ball rolling.
 



Where do you even donate? I'm not here to give 7 figures, but i'd fork over a bit to keep this ball rolling.

Thank you for considering giving a donation. That is a fantastic gesture on your part. As with anything, I am sure every amount helps no matter how big or how small. You would do it through the Nothing Short of Greatness campaign website that was launched a couple months ago. If you have more specific questions you can also contact the official Golden Gopher Fund folks at the university too.

Cheers and Ski-U-Mah!

http://www.nothingshortofgreatness.com/
 



Kill is our first coach in some time (Football/Basketball) where success does not get me worried about him moving on. He is in the Big Ten and I don't see him leaving before retiring.

Actually history is on our side as Lou Holtz is our only Basketball or Football coach to leave without getting fired in some time.
 

Done, thank you everyone! I agree with the article though, maybe there is more happening at the higher level, but why not engage this fan base for those who can give $10, $100, $1000 or whatever. It's time.

I totally agree homermn. I gave a small amount as soon as they came out with this campaign. Every little bit helps!
 

Also, if your employer offers a Matching Gifts Program, that's a great way to increase your donation. My employer does 100% match up to $1,000 per year. Many local companies do something similar.
 



Get out your checkbook. See below:

http://www.nothingshortofgreatness.com/

From the above website:
Embarrassing...

12 Big Ten schools have built new academic centers in the past 17 years. Our building is 42 years old.

10 Big Ten schools have built new basketball development facilities in the past 18 years – six in the last five years alone. We have never had a basketball development facility.

All 13 of our Big Ten peers have built or significantly renovated their football development facilities in the past 20 years – seven in the past decade. Ours is almost 30 years old.
 

It's clear: start with the waterfall and build around it.

Yep, this is what happens when you get this far behind. People seem to think that we just built a football practice building, when that was nearly 30 years ago. Who hasn't improved their home in 30 years - or added on or moved when it becomes inadequate for them? There's nothing to call it but institutional neglect.

Just getting a start will be huge psychologically and for recruiting.
 

Anybody know how close we actually are to building this thing?
 

Anybody know how close we actually are to building this thing?

Kill keeps saying that shovels will go into ground Spring 2015. But I haven't heard that from Norwood or any official U spokesperson.
 



Kill keeps saying that shovels will go into ground Spring 2015. But I haven't heard that from Norwood or any official U spokesperson.

Thanks. This was maybe on the website, but how much is the facility cost compared to the top ones in the nation like a Nebraska or Oregon?
 

Agree a bazillion percent with Chip. I love to complain about our local sports media, but really local media sucks balls most places and so we should actually be celebrating the Chip, Russo, etc types that we actually have.
 

I'm starting to get a little frustrated at the fundraising for this. We have about as much hype surrounding this team as we have had in my life time (one other time under mason) and it sounds like coach Kill is still just begging for them to make some improvements. Why isn't the U pushing a big donation campaign? They could have been doing something at every home game $100/person gets you on the field during warm ups for a VIP experience. Raffle's for away game packages. Start doing a tiered donation awards system where you could get your name on a brick in the new facility on a wall of fame or something.

Go to a marketing class in the business school, convince a professor to make a midterm project for the class as a contest to see who can come up with an idea that generates the most donations and set the kids lose for some free marketing.

What are they doing? This website: http://www.nothingshortofgreatness.com/ That 9/10 gopher fans don't know about? Seriously? Lets get this thing going! I believe Kill is happy here and is here for the long run. The only scenario I see him leaving any time soon is if we don't get him new facilities. If I was a recruit (thank god i'm not) I wouldn't go here after watching spring practices last year with leaks every 10 yards in the roof
 


I didn't even know about this website until 15 minutes ago. I heard Jerry say they expect to break ground in April.

That better be true.
 

What are they doing? This website: http://www.nothingshortofgreatness.com/ That 9/10 gopher fans don't know about? Seriously? Lets get this thing going! I believe Kill is happy here and is here for the long run. The only scenario I see him leaving any time soon is if we don't get him new facilities. If I was a recruit (thank god i'm not) I wouldn't go here after watching spring practices last year with leaks every 10 yards in the roof

The last "news" update was September of 2014. I think that says enough about the level of engagement on this and the fact I read about Gopher sports everyday and have never seen this website.
 


Nice to see that they keep that site updated, as the latest News Release is from September. Which is about when the site was first posted here.
 

As a Badger fan I really like coach Kill. Believe it or not, I also really like the fact that this is a real rivalry again. Some of the talk on fan boards on both sides of the border is a little crazy but Saturday will feature two really good teams going toe to toe.

But if any of you Minnesota fans think that coach Kill is there to stay no matter what, you are sorely mistaken. The university, the state and most of all the fan base are going to have to invest significant dollars if you want to keep the coach and stay relevant.
 

If we build good facilities he will stay. We will lose a lot of his assistants but I do believe he will be here for a long time.

His comments after the Nebraska game really made me think though. Coach Kill is very careful about what he says, especially when it comes to "political" things like building facilities. His comment about them doing all this winning and they have to eat in a hallway was a giant dick slap (dare i say mushroom stamp) to the face of our athletic department. Get off your arsses and get this thing done.
 

Get er done or Kill will eventually leave.
 

If we build good facilities he will stay. We will lose a lot of his assistants but I do believe he will be here for a long time.

His comments after the Nebraska game really made me think though. Coach Kill is very careful about what he says, especially when it comes to "political" things like building facilities. His comment about them doing all this winning and they have to eat in a hallway was a giant dick slap (dare i say mushroom stamp) to the face of our athletic department. Get off your arsses and get this thing done.

Kill knows the facilities are coming.
He'll probably get another raise, his assistant's salary pool will probably get another raise.

This is about recruiting in the current facilities.
He's throwing this out there to further the fundraising for future facilities, and to tell recruits that "if this is what we can accomplish in these facilities, wait til you get here in brand new ones"
 

If we build good facilities he will stay. We will lose a lot of his assistants but I do believe he will be here for a long time.

His comments after the Nebraska game really made me think though. Coach Kill is very careful about what he says, especially when it comes to "political" things like building facilities. His comment about them doing all this winning and they have to eat in a hallway was a giant dick slap (dare i say mushroom stamp) to the face of our athletic department. Get off your arsses and get this thing done.

It's a bit of a shot across the bow. Well timed. Kill will be loyal to Minnesota for the opportunity they gave him, but there will be a limit to that loyalty. Like Mason, he'll agitate the U for the benefit of the U.
 

JK wants to win. He is not interested in moral victories or getting credit for being B1G COY because he got us to a division title game with abysmal facilities. It's ok. We've overcome a lot to get to this point, but Scroggins point and Kill's comments about "eating in a hallway" and rain indoors (?) should not be taken lightly. Last I checked it takes a while to build buildings. Starting in April means it's going to take a while to complete. If there isn't a sense of urgency I am convinced he's made the case for being a strong candidate for pretty much any open job in the country. There are plenty on this site that don't quite get that. Yeah, he likes it here and would probably retire here under the right circumstances, but I'm telling you he wants to win it all and if Minnesota doesn't he'll go somewhere where he can.
 

Barreiro and AP Sports guy were talking on KFAN yesterday and both agreed that Kill will be very loyal to the University if/when he becomes a hot commodity. The University stuck by him at his lowest point and he isn't the type of guy to forget that. Very few other schools would have stuck with their coach through those issues having not had a breakthrough moment.
 

The facilities (particularly football & basketball) are going to happen and they are going to happen relatively soon. Coach Kill, Teague and Pitino know what they are doing. Some of you constant hand wringers on this subject really need to relax. Or continue unnecessarily worrying so much and reading false negativity into every little thing you see or hear if that is your deal and you just can't help yourself. It is the very Minnesotan thing to do actually. :rolleyes:

P.S. I would say unless you are making (or have made) a contribution yourself (big or small) it is kind of self-serving and rather petty to constantly call out and/or denigrate the current fundraising work, perceived pace of it, etc. that Teague, Kill, Pitino and I am sure all the other U of M coaches are doing as well.
 

The facilities (particularly football & basketball) are going to happen and they are going to happen relatively soon. Coach Kill, Teague and Pitino know what they are doing. Some of you constant hand wringers on this subject really need to relax. Or continue unnecessarily worrying so much and reading false negativity into every little thing you see or hear if that is your deal and you just can't help yourself. It is the very Minnesotan thing to do actually. :rolleyes:

P.S. I would say unless you are making (or have made) a contribution yourself (big or small) it is kind of self-serving and rather petty to constantly call out and/or denigrate the current fundraising work, perceived pace of it, etc. that Teague, Kill, Pitino and I am sure all the other U of M coaches are doing as well.

I do not think, once our school has the least modern facilities in the league, to hand-wring about facilities. The fact that every school has come before us, with many doing it multiple times, I'm not sure why we should believe out of thin air that next time is our turn.

I do agree though that all who care should contribute. In a way we get what we want. If we really wanted this, like as much as the fans of other programs, we'd prove it by giving what they give. Make all the excuses you want, and many(most?) are valid, but at the end of the day folks at other programs have put up dough.
 




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