This thread if for people that actually ENJOYED the win!!

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All sorts of negativity on GH.....good lord. We go from 3 OT against this team last year to beating them relatively solidly this year. I remember losing to Dakota's in the recent past, so this was refreshing last night!!!

Was the offense impressive, nope. We also took what UNLV gave us with the QB runs. Lots of time to work on the mistakes. I also think it was bland intentionally. I only saw the Golden-I a couple of times last night. I think we'll see progression in the next few weeks. We even got a few snaps to the 2nd team in a blowout VICTORY!! Nice to see.

I see nothing wrong with leaning on the special teams. Great coaching, not luck, is huge in special teams (see Va Tech and Chicago Bears almost winning the Super Bowl with no offense). Remember, the big plays on special teams and D took 3 drives away from the O.....that is going to skew the stats as well.

Also, no Wells or Harbison last night either.

If you actually want to enjoy the home opening victory, feel free to post here :)
 

I agree with much of what you said and just posted this on another thread.

This was a game they should have put up 50 and they did. Not conventional, but they put up 50. Every special teams play or defensive play keeps your offense off the field. Nelson and the offense really never could get any flow going.

Also take into consideration on defense that it was 90 degrees and they were running guys on and off the field. I think we played nearly 10 d-back. Hageman was not on the field for UNLV's first TD. Our best DB experience-wise did not play. Claeys continues to make adjustments at halftime that prove how good of a coordinator he is.

This team is 8-0 when leading at the half and 0-16 when trailing under Kill. Just have to cut down on early game jitters and missed opportunities. Game could have gone good a lot earlier if Nelson doesn't drop the ball on the goal line.

Over 40 guys got valuable game experience in the 1st game of the season. Huge!
 

I left the stadium feeling great that we ended up with a comfortable win. It's also a bonus that we could do that and still have a boat-load of teaching moments.
 

I think the frustration that people have is the team didn't look 'good'. However, I think it's incorrect to say this doesn't mean there has been improvement.

The team definitely has slowly looked 'less bad' over the past year or so. That's not as exciting, but it's certainly improvement. Ignoring individual performances for a moment, my take-away last night was that our weak links were clearly less weak than UNLV's. Last year, this wasn't so obvious.

So basically what happens is we didn't dominate in any phase of the game, but sooner or later our generally improved athleticism matched up well against their 'weaker weak link', and we a) block the FG, b) return the TD, etc..

Also, the team definitely feels like it has put the "pants-on-fire OMG what do we do?!?" comedy routines characteristic of the Brewster years behind them. The team operates like they know what they are doing. The only totally bone-head move was Shabazz giving up on the long TD, and I'll put that down to an individual screw-up, not an organizational one.
 

I love special teams and defensive scores. We had THREE! You can go a whole (or several) season without seeing one KOR or a blocked kick TD and we had both in one game.

This was like a prototypical 70s Vikings game-offense struggled, defense and special teams came through.

We scored 51 points. 51. Won by 4 touchdowns. Our second-teamers played. And scored. ONE PENALTY.

Without pre-season games, you can expect some struggles. That's why you want to open at home and play as many NC home games as possible. Now it's off to New Mexico to play a NMSU team that will likely give up more than 50 to Texas.

The offense will get better, the defense will get better. If your QBs can run for 3 TDs and pass for a 4th every week, you'll win more than you lose. If you score 3 defensive or special teams TDs you'll win every time.

I'm ecstatic. This was a character-building win.
 


We never scored over 50 points in TCF Bank Stadium before. We're 1 year removed from going to 3 OT's against this team and 2 years removed from losing to teams of this caliber. Dang right I'm pleased with the win.
 

I am pumped about this win. It just sets the season in the right direction. As coach Kill likes to say, "It's a heck of a lot easier to coach and correct mistakes after a win." Now we have a few extra days to prep and get rested up for the next matchup. The offense will come along and it was great to see key plays by special teams and the secondary. I am just happy I get to watch my Gophers again.
 

At the Goal Line lunch I sat with some people from the University of Minnesota Athletic Department and they said the GopherHoler's are a bunch of negative whiners. Why would they think that?
 

Killjoy said:
At the Goal Line lunch I sat with some people from the University of Minnesota Athletic Department and they said the GopherHoler's are a bunch of negative whiners. Why would they think that?
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Because they are satisified with 50 years of sub-mediocrity.

"Everything's fine! Gopher-holers are so NEGATIVE!"

(note: I think the program is slowly improving, but my point is you basically lost credibility when you wrote "University of Minnesota Athletic Department thinks...".)
 



I'm excited we are still on track for playing in the national championship game.
 

Good teams find a way to win whether the scores come from the offense, the defense or the special teams. The TEAM put up FIFTY-FRICKIN-ONE points!! If the team continues to do that, more often than not, we're going to be on the winning side of the stat column!

Go Gophers!
 

Our positive thoughts only? Here you go

- They finally opened a season at TCF.
- They won going away.
- The people we brought to the game had a great time.
- They had a kick-off returned for a touchdown and it wasn't called back. You hear that? A Gopher kick-off returned for a TD that the Officials DID NOT FLAG! That was beautiful.
- A return trifecta of Touchdowns.
- A 2nd Half full of Gopher scoring and much cooler temperatures.
- Linebackers and D-Backs that look good.
- Both teams looked absolutely worn-out half way through that 3rd Quarter but gave us, at least Gopher fans, a great time right-up to the last couple of minutes of the game.
- The blow-out allowed us to get out of the Parking Ramp in less than 20 minutes!!!

And on a very personal note the wedding we went to at the Ridgedale Government Center ended at 5:35. We only missed 5 and a half minutes of the game.

Now that was a positive!
 

looked like a well coached team! Much to be excited about this year. Not saying this in a National Contender point of view but very optimistic for the year and look forward to watching some gopher sports this year
 



tato2001 said:
Because they are satisified with 50 years of sub-mediocrity.

"Everything's fine! Gopher-holers are so NEGATIVE!"

(note: I think the program is slowly improving, but my point is you basically lost credibility when you wrote "University of Minnesota Athletic Department thinks...".)
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Think the posts following a blowout win prove they have a point.
 


Also, let's not forget that while UNLV has not been good lately, - they are a WAC team and not Indiana State or another FCS schools. I believe UNLV returned something like 19 of 21 starters from last year, and everyone on offense. Who knows, they may even win 6 games before the season is over, as they are definitely better than last year.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Nelson and the offense really never could get any flow going. Huge!
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Not trying to be a negative nancy or anything but the offense had their chance to get the flow going with their first series and they didn't. It is their job to set the tone and they allowed UNLV to take away what they wanted to do by getting beat on the line and by the db's. That said though it was an exciting game with many big plays to cheer about and gives me hope the gophers can be even better than what they showed last night. Thrilled with the margin of victory and expect another one of those at the next game.
 

The guy behind me was so negative right from the beginning. Even before anything bad happened. When UNLV completed their first pass, he pulled out the old "Oh god, here we go again."...He's completely silent when our team makes big plays. It's like he's only there to be negative. I almost think he's miserable when things are going well.
 

When is the last time we, let alone any team in CFB, returned a kick for td, blocked a fg and returned it for a td, and got a pick 6 all in one game? How many years has it been since we returned a kickoff for touchdown? One penalty? The offense will get better. 2nd half adjustments on d continue to impress with this coaching staff. I'm loving it.

Also, this was the first live football game my girlfriend had ever been to and the big plays in the second half alone turned her from someone completely uninterested in football to a huge gopher fan! The place was rockin.
 

gopherfield said:
Also, let's not forget that while UNLV has not been good lately, - they are a WAC team and not Indiana State or another FCS schools. I believe UNLV returned something like 19 of 21 starters from last year, and everyone on offense. Who knows, they may even win 6 games before the season is over, as they are definitely better than last year.
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Add that Hauck brought in his brother to be the DC. He has a bunch of NFL experience. Lets see how Arizona fares at UNLV next week.
 

CentralGopher said:
Not trying to be a negative nancy or anything but the offense had their chance to get the flow going with their first series and they didn't. It is their job to set the tone and they allowed UNLV to take away what they wanted to do by getting beat on the line and by the db's. That said though it was an exciting game with many big plays to cheer about and gives me hope the gophers can be even better than what they showed last night. Thrilled with the margin of victory and expect another one of those at the next game.
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I believe I mentioned that they need to take care of early game jitters and missed opportunities.
 


Killjoy said:
At the Goal Line lunch I sat with some people from the University of Minnesota Athletic Department and they said the GopherHoler's are a bunch of negative whiners. Why would they think that?
Click to expand...

Because they enable it.
 

Buried in the game, late in the first half was a textbook 2 minute drill by Phillip Nelson and the offense. With 1:45 left in the half, he converted three third downs. Moved the team 39 yards and hit Williams for a TD going into the half. It was huge going into the locker room. That seems to lost to most everyone. And when Jones returned the second half Kickoff you saw 14 straight points for the Gophers.
 

I was at the game,and saw some bad, but more,much more good. I then came home and watched the tape, and was much more impressed. A lot of UNLV's plays were individual break downs, but people were doing their jobs and not trying to be heros. If this is what JK wants to build, I'm all for it. And most of these kids are young. I hope people hang in there until we are playing all 3rd 4th and 5th yr players. Adjustments at the half scare me!!!! Are we paying our assistants enough to keep them??? Loyalty can only go so far.
 

I really love the fact that the won the way they did. It's good coaching. All aspects(O, D, ST) aren't going to be perfect every game and ST's made up for an offense that wasn't clicking. A win is a win and by 28.
 

husker70 said:
Buried in the game, late in the first half was a textbook 2 minute drill by Phillip Nelson and the offense. With 1:45 left in the half, he converted three third downs. Moved the team 39 yards and hit Williams for a TD going into the half. It was huge going into the locker room. That seems to lost to most everyone. And when Jones returned the second half Kickoff you saw 14 straight points for the Gophers.
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You make a good point about the textbook 2 minute drill. I agree.
 

After sleeping on the win, I was much happier when I woke up. Any blowout should be taken without a need to disect everything you did wrong. First games in College Football are notorious for bad play. The fact we had only one penalty (and another that was declined) is pretty amazing. The fact we scored 51 points, and 30 by the offense that didn't look very good is great. The fact we have some sort of defensive backfield after graduating the two starters from last year is great. Mostly though, I'm happy to be 1-0. Closer to a bowl game then we were yesterday at this time...
 

husker70 said:
Buried in the game, late in the first half was a textbook 2 minute drill by Phillip Nelson and the offense. With 1:45 left in the half, he converted three third downs. Moved the team 39 yards and hit Williams for a TD going into the half. It was huge going into the locker room. That seems to lost to most everyone. And when Jones returned the second half Kickoff you saw 14 straight points for the Gophers.
Click to expand...

+1 - Great point
 

Here's one of my favorite take-aways from the game. I've seen a lot of people say the run game sucked. I don't get it. We averaged 5.8 yards per rush. Not only is that the best YPC of the Jerry Kill era, it's the best mark for the Gophers since the 2007 season (we had 6.3 yards per rush in a loss to Purdue). If we average 5.8 yards per rush on a bad day, I can't wait to see this running game on a good day.
 

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