Syracuse.com: 2015 rankings (No. 52): Minnesota nears Glen Mason Territory (again)

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Syracuse.com:

Hand it to Jerry Kill. Minnesota has yet to regress in any of his four seasons. There's not a whole lot of sizzle to the Golden Gophers — they unabashedly unleash a strong running game, they take care of the ball and are sound defensively.

Best of all, Minnesota has virtually no foolish losses to show for itself over the last three seasons. It has dropped only one game to a non-bowl team in that span (at Iowa in 2012), and has back-to-back 8-5 seasons to show for its trouble.

Another such season — which is perfectly plausible — would prompt the question as to whether the Golden Gophers are approaching what Bill Connelly dubs Glen Mason Territory. That is to say, a program that plateaus at a fairly successful level given its history and resources and leaves its fans increasingly wanting more in the process.

http://www.syracuse.com/patrick-ste...nnesota_nears_glen_mason_territory_again.html

Go Gophers!!
 

I would probably have the number more in the high 30s than the low 50s...but I do think it is a good question.

At some point 8-5 will no longer be considered a great season.
At some point after that 8-5 will no longer be considered a good season.
At some point after that 8-5 will be considered a disappointing season.

Glen Mason got fired after a bowl season where the team won its last 3 big ten games and 4 of its last 5 regular season games (The loss being to the then #1 ranked Buckeyes)

I don't think another 5 loss season would mean people would be feeling like they were at the end of the Mason Era...but how many years without a West title would? I am thinking without a West title but with consistent bowls the seat will start getting warm about 2019.
 

Blah...... Blah Blah...... Blah Blah

cheer, let the games play out and enjoy!
 


Some guy said:
A) At some point 8-5 will no longer be considered a great season.
B) At some point after that 8-5 will no longer be considered a good season.
C) At some point after that 8-5 will be considered a disappointing season.
Click to expand...

I like this litmus test. I would put us firmly in category A. Three years ago, 8-5 would have been a great season. Now... me want more.
 


Some guy said:
I would probably have the number more in the high 30s than the low 50s...but I do think it is a good question.

At some point 8-5 will no longer be considered a great season.
At some point after that 8-5 will no longer be considered a good season.
At some point after that 8-5 will be considered a disappointing season.

Glen Mason got fired after a bowl season where the team won its last 3 big ten games and 4 of its last 5 regular season games (The loss being to the then #1 ranked Buckeyes)

I don't think another 5 loss season would mean people would be feeling like they were at the end of the Mason Era...but how many years without a West title would? I am thinking without a West title but with consistent bowls the seat will start getting warm about 2019.
Click to expand...

The Texas Tech debacle was the final straw.
 

but - Mason's downfall was the culmination of several factors: a series of "bad" losses or blown leads; a perception that Glen was openly courting other jobs; and a perceived failure to promote the program. Or, to put it another way, fans may have respected Mason, but a lot of fans just didn't like him on a personal level.

Jerry Kill - on the other hand - is constantly promoting the program - he's very active in the community and charity events - and people like him. That will buy him a lot more slack than Mason.

If the Gophs were to go 8-5/9-4 every year, but never win a B1G title, I still think Kill will coach here as long as he wants to. He will leave on his own terms.
 

The article that Bleed posted has it right. "Foolish" is the right word. The ways that Mason lost some games would send me into a fury. That has not happened, at least to me, since Kill has been here. We are getting better, we play smart, and I believe (maybe hope) that we have not reached our ceiling. Go Gophers!
 

goldy93 said:
The Texas Tech debacle was the final straw.
Click to expand...

They ended that season with a 6-7 record and finished tied for 6th in the Big Ten. That was preceded by 5 seasons of finishing 7th, 8th, tied for 4th and 10th in the Big Ten. In his 10 seasons of Big Ten play, he finished above .500 twice, 5-3 in both 1999 and 2003. He finished 7th or lower 6 times. The decision to fire him wasn't as nearly as bad as the horrible choice of who to replace him with.

Winning in the Big Ten for the Gophers has been very hard for a whole lot of years. The last time they finished as high as 3rd place was in 1990 and the Head Coach Gutekunst was fired a year later. The last time they won 6 games in the Big Ten was in 1973!

Kill should be here for many years to come. He should be able to mix-in 6 or 7 wins in the Big Ten in the near future. The 9 game Conference season should help that along, but it will still be tough. Keeping that staff together has made it more probable and so has that Defense.

Now they just need to start beating Wisconsin and whatever bowl game they get to, so they end the season on a positive note.
 



BleedGopher said:
per Syracuse.com:

Hand it to Jerry Kill. Minnesota has yet to regress in any of his four seasons. There's not a whole lot of sizzle to the Golden Gophers — they unabashedly unleash a strong running game, they take care of the ball and are sound defensively.

Best of all, Minnesota has virtually no foolish losses to show for itself over the last three seasons. It has dropped only one game to a non-bowl team in that span (at Iowa in 2012), and has back-to-back 8-5 seasons to show for its trouble.

Another such season — which is perfectly plausible — would prompt the question as to whether the Golden Gophers are approaching what Bill Connelly dubs Glen Mason Territory. That is to say, a program that plateaus at a fairly successful level given its history and resources and leaves its fans increasingly wanting more in the process.

http://www.syracuse.com/patrick-ste...nnesota_nears_glen_mason_territory_again.html

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Dammed with faint praise. First of all, the Gophers are better than 52nd in the country. Second, I disagree with the notion that we will necessarily "plateau at a fairly successful level given [our] history and [our] resources." The statement ignores that we now have a University President in Eric Kaler and an Athletic Director in Norwood Teague who are willing to make the kind of investment in the football and basketball programs that we haven't seen since the 60s, maybe ever. I think we can return to where we were in the first 60 years of the 20th Century.
 


The thing people forget about Mason's years is the lack of consistency. Only once did his teams go .500 or better in the Big Ten in back to back years. Only once did his teams win 8 or more two years in a row. The most Big Ten wins he had over a 3-year period was 12. Getting to 4 wins this year gets Kill to 13 over the past three years.

The point is, I think consistently winning 7 to 9 games per year is a step up. And when you're at that level, you're just a star or two away from competing for a conference championship and chance to play in one of the big bowl games.
 

GophersInIowa said:
The thing people forget about Mason's years is the lack of consistency. Only once did his teams go .500 or better in the Big Ten in back to back years. Only once did his teams win 8 or more two years in a row. The most Big Ten wins he had over a 3-year period was 12. Getting to 4 wins this year gets Kill to 13 over the past three years.

The point is, I think consistently winning 7 to 9 games per year is a step up. And when you're at that level, you're just a star or two away from competing for a conference championship and chance to play in one of the big bowl games.
Click to expand...

Quite true

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Mason
 



I agree on the consistency point. Another point of contention was his record against our two primary rivals Iowa and Wisconsin. Two wins against Wisconsin and 4 against Iowa in 10 seasons just didn't cut it. His best success against Iowa came in the last year of Fry and first couple years of Ferentz. I honestly believe the 2005 Wisconsin game was the tipping point though. There were other blown saves like Purdue in 2001 and the legendary collapse against Michigan in 2003, but the way they lost the Wisconsin game was unforgiveable.
 

I'd argue that the biggest problem, even bigger than the win/loss record, was Mason's attitude. He knew it all, and he told you he knew it all.
Well when you're 6-7 in your 10th season you either ran into really bad injuries or you don't know it all.
It's just like Ferentz right now, he doesn't want to change his style because he knows it all.
Kill has shown an ability to evolve, develop, and hasn't stopped working hard since he got here. If he ever stops doing those things he will be in Mason territory, until then he's a winning coach still working towards bigger and better things.
 

Please indicate the evolution of the team under Jerry. His recruiting has been good, not great. His game management has been fairly static. We shall see if he progresses this year or not.
 

Dean S said:
Please indicate the evolution of the team under Jerry. His recruiting has been good, not great. His game management has been fairly static. We shall see if he progresses this year or not.
Click to expand...

When your strategy is to slow the game down and minimize mistakes.

He's Bo Ryan without all the buffoonery (yes, different sport)
 

salzie said:
When your strategy is to slow the game down and minimize mistakes.
Click to expand...

I hope this is the year we can call more aggressive games and minimize our mistakes. I hope the players are ready, and if they are the Jerry will trust they can do it.
 

Dean S said:
Please indicate the evolution of the team under Jerry. His recruiting has been good, not great. His game management has been fairly static. We shall see if he progresses this year or not.
Click to expand...

He's certainly upgraded his recruiting every year since he was hired. We're getting multiple BCS offer guys now, even some from outstate.

His offense evolved away from the power spread attack he had at NIU, to a multiple FB/TE power running attack in 2012 through last year to emphasize the players we had and didn't have. Now we hear the offense is further evolving to add a hurry up package, and to use Jeff Jones in ways someone like Malcolm Moulton in 2011 wasn't capable of.

The defense has evolved in complexity since the system has been in place, especially with the different looks the secondary can give with our depth.
 

I laugh at the knuckleheads who didn't like Mason on a personal level. He and his wife Kate were top shelf. Yep...Glen couldn't wait to get out of Minnesota. WHOA Nellie!!!, he still lives in Minnesota.
 

ruppertflywheel said:
I laugh at the knuckleheads who didn't like Mason on a personal level. He and his wife Kate were top shelf. Yep...Glen couldn't wait to get out of Minnesota. WHOA Nellie!!!, he still lives in Minnesota.
Click to expand...

Glen was pretty darn good for the Gophers, made them respectable, helped get them out of the Metrodump. He could have been much, much better; all he had to do was not flirt with other jobs. Some people here didn't like Glen because of the (rightful, IMO) perception that he was always looking for a way out. One could maybe forgive him for going for the OSU job, since that was his alma mater. The other ones? Not so much. He ruined himself as a coach by being too flirty. That and a complete disrespect for aggressive defense.
 

There is this myth that Jerry kill is a great guy and nobody else is.
Jerry kill does not have a monopoly on being a nice person.


In fact, I even know people who have had experiences with Jerry kill who don't like him (shock)
 

Some guy said:
There is this myth that Jerry kill is a great guy and nobody else is.
Jerry kill does not have a monopoly on being a nice person.


In fact, I even know people who have had experiences with Jerry kill who don't like him (shock)
Click to expand...

Perception is reality. The perception is that Kill is a great guy. The perception was Mason was always looking for other jobs and got lazy at the end of his time at MN.
 

I have a lot of respect for Mason and he is a great guy. He just didn't have a good relationship with the high school coaches, he whined about recruiting and his players never believed they were good enough to win the games against the big boys. I think the ultimate example was the Michigan collapse and their fear of winning. Of course, Kill is not a miracle man, but he does know the value of recruiting speed and it shows with the dramatic improvements on defense. And his players believe that they can beat anyone!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

To a large degree Glen Mason is still here because his wife likes it here. Coach Kill has said that Rebecca loves it here and had made cracks like he might move again but she isn't. I belive that Kate Mason is from Kansas as are the Kills I'm starting to see a trend.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Perception is reality. The perception is that Kill is a great guy. The perception was Mason was always looking for other jobs and got lazy at the end of his time at MN.
Click to expand...

Perception is not reality. Reality is reality. Perception is perception. Delusion is delusions.

Reality is that most people think Jerry kill is a great guy.
Perception is that Jerry kill is a great guy.
Gopher fan delusion is that Jerry kill is the GREATEST guy of all time.
 

If I was offered 8-5 for the next 20 years, I would take it and probably end up with more victories than reality.
 

GopherHomer said:
If I was offered 8-5 for the next 20 years, I would take it and probably end up with more victories than reality.
Click to expand...

I would absolutely not take that. We play this game in hopes of winning titles. No way we take the B1G at 8-5 (unless we get to Wisconsin our way into the title game finishing third and leapfrogging the disqualified teams above us).
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I would absolutely not take that. We play this game in hopes of winning titles. No way we take the B1G at 8-5 (unless we get to Wisconsin our way into the title game finishing third and leapfrogging the disqualified teams above us).
Click to expand...

I'm sure that 8-5 (7-2) would win the division in a lot of years.
 

dpodoll68 said:
I'm sure that 8-5 (7-2) would win the division in a lot of years.
Click to expand...

I'm sure the Big10 would look great having a division champ going 1-3 in the non-conference. Not likely to happen ever unless the non-conference schedule is changed drastically.
 

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