Positives of the game

Couple of stand outs from today:

Orseske is a great punter. It's nice to have that consistency back and will help the battle for field position.

Hawthorne seems to have ironed out his early season woes with some consistency and the ability to hit a 47 yard FG is comforting.

Marcus Jones! His breakout speed makes up for his lack of height. From his returns to make some slant or bubble screen catches, he's dangerous in the open.

Defense had two sacks today. That's progress. It means the pass rush could be effective with the right players.

Freshmen getting some experience -- always a good thing during a rebuilding process.

Fumbles aside, I still like Kirkwood's running. He had an off day, but when the line makes a hole, he hits it well and puts his head down for that extra gain.

Anyone else want to add?

magpie said:

Couple of stand outs from today:

Orseske is a great punter. It's nice to have that consistency back and will help the battle for field position.

Hawthorne seems to have ironed out his early season woes with some consistency and the ability to hit a 47 yard FG is comforting.

Marcus Jones! His breakout speed makes up for his lack of height. From his returns to make some slant or bubble screen catches, he's dangerous in the open.

Defense had two sacks today. That's progress. It means the pass rush could be effective with the right players.

Freshmen getting some experience -- always a good thing during a rebuilding process.

Fumbles aside, I still like Kirkwood's running. He had an off day, but when the line makes a hole, he hits it well and puts his head down for that extra gain.

Anyone else want to add?

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I think the biggest thank you should go to the refs. There is a reason Purdue is #1 in penalties and I saw that on display today. So why am I thanking the refs? They (hopefully) taught this team a lesson and that is no one is going to bail you out. Overall I think the team did the right thing and didn't respond for the most part, but I do think that Jones did the right thing and let 44 know that he wasn't going to take his cheapness. Especially since he knew that the ref wasn't going to call anything.

Other then that, I saw some hustle on the defense. I still think the coaches need to have the team work more on form tackling though. That and increases in strength will be needed.

1. The two Minnesota fans holding up the "Block M" sign after the first TD. I give them a ton of credit for going to that game and actually showing that they are Gopher fans.

2. The Gopher cheerleaders finally wearing next to nothing!

1. Hustle from the young players.
2. Fight in the young players.
3. Tommy getting more reps on the line.

began11 said:

2. The Gopher cheerleaders finally wearing next to nothing!

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I think we pics of this.

I hate to point out 2 defensive players in the "positives" thread because the defense as a whole was pretty pathetic today, but Ben Perry did show some signs of promise today at DE (it was the first time this year that I even noticed him out there anyways), same for LaMonte Edwards at LB, his athleticism is much needed out there.

Jerry Kill is still undefeated against the MAC as Minnesota's coach!

Two players that I thought had very decent games; Tommy Olson & Michael Amaefula. That fact that these two are true freshman gives me hope for the future.

As bad as it was today I actually saw some good things. After it all blew up early, very few quit!! I liked the way they played hard and flew around. Still alot of mistakes, which when done by young kids is going to happen. B ut when Roystonand Sr. linemen are doing it, then it's hard. I think there might still be some bubble upperclasmen who didn't seem like 100% ers. But a baby step!

Hey, wasn't the second half 14-14?

The Freshman Thompson(#27) looks good

Michael Amaefula and Ben Perry look to have a bright future. They have both shown more at DE than we've seen in a few years. They still have a ways to go, but they do look promising.

nc2mn said:

Hey, wasn't the second half 14-14?

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There's a clear pattern here. We can't play first quarter football and our D is better second half.

10 55 30 34
61 68 30 37

I'm happy to see that many of the kids that were recruited by this staff played well. I'm encouraged that they appear to be adept at evaluating talent which will be needed to build this program up.

I thought it was refreshing to see Kill take a player (Olson) out of the game for a play and chew him out on the sideline and then put him back in. That to me is the sign of a good coach, and Kill was teaching him how his actions hurt the team. How many times have you seen a player have a stupid penalty and there are no repercussions?

I'm not interested in fighting trolls right now so I'll post some positive thoughts on this thread.

Liked Amaefula/Perry early on, these two really look like their getting better as the season goes on, bright future. I'll be interested in how they handle the power running teams coming up.

Liked the defensive gameplan early with the stunts/blitzes, it would have worked better if we had a bit more speed up front.

Liked Marcus Jones, he could be a James/Jaquizz Rogers type(OSU beavs), he's gonna be a good weapon going forward.

Punting continues to be good, Orseske/coaches deserve credit for getting him back on track.

I saw some flashes from some young DB's that could be a good sign, Haviland/Thompson.

The Oline is THE issue with this squad, can't pass, can't run, can't control the clock, can't keep the D off the field to rest, can't sustain drives to flip field position. BUT
we are playing enough young guys that I see reason for hope down the road. Guys like Leinkiwitz/Epping/T. Olson/Gjere/E. Olson/Ferguson simply shouldn't be put in the positions they are having to be put in, and they will get better with age/bulk/experience. As they improve, the team will improve.

Overall, I'm feeling better after this game(crazy huh?) than the Michigan one, I expect the bye week to heal up some guys and for us to show a fight against Nebraska, even if it's a losing one.

I also have a theory that the Iowa game will be the turning point for the season, when juniors/seniors who have to this point seemed lost and somewhat disinterested will show the fight and heart Kill has been looking for. Desperation and hate will be good motivation in a rivalry game at home, we may still lose, but I think that may be how it plays out.

As I read through this thread, the one thing that stands out to me is really telling:

Virtually all of the positives that people are noticing are from Freshmen (and a few sophomores). Fair to say that speaks volumes about just what we are dealing with. I have a really difficult time being overly pissed off about the results so far when I see the INSANE number of underclassmen that are playing.

Marcus Jones is showing to be an asset. If we keep giving up that man points, he might just break Stoudermire's return yards record.

Orseske has been pretty good this year except for the few shanked punts and wind aided short kicks the past couple weeks.

Although overall the line play on both sides has been horrendous, there have been plays/drives where they show a sign of life. A few times the O-line had had some good push, hopefully as the season goes on, they can get some more drives in like the 10 play 95 yard drive against NDSU.

No false start, illegal formation, and offsides penalties in the game. Even though the ones we did have were worse and cost us more than what those probably would have in both yards and overall result on plays, but hopefully it is a start at eliminating our dumb penalties.