STrib: Minnesota football fans: you're 'busy' (wink, wink) on this weekend ...

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Carr:

Here’s the football weekend you can circle with a thick red marker on that giant Minnesota sports calendar you have on the wall of your TV watchin’ den: Sept. 30-Oct. 1.

We already know what’s going to happen leading up to that weekend. (That’s a lie, but hang with us a sec) …

By that Saturday morning, Sept. 30, P.J. Fleck will be yelling and screaming and rowin’ boats and, more importantly, his Gophers will be 3-0 and feeling good about their start. It’ll go like this: crush Buffalo at home in the opener, beat Oregon State in overtime at their place, crush Middle Tennessee (REVENGE FOR THAT NCAA TOURNEY BEATDOWN!) at the Bank. That’s 3-0, and even more fuel for Fleck.

The Vikings will be 2-1, coming off a nice home victory over the up-and-coming Buccaneers, knowing they need to put some Ws on the board in the early fall before a tough finish.

Two teams riding high, heading into the last day of September. Then: The Weekend That Will Tell Us Everything We Need To Know About These Football Seasons will be upon us.

The Gophers play host to Maryland that Saturday, Sept. 30, their Big Ten opener. Maryland’s on the rise. Fleck’s first big test. Lots of pressure to get this one done in front of the revved up maroon and gold sweaters. Do the Gophers have a functional QB? Is the defense still slamming doors on drives? The Gophers have a real chance to be 7-0 heading to Iowa on Oct. 28 – after Maryland, it’s at Purdue, vs. Michigan State, vs. Illinois – but the Sept. 30 game against the Terps sets the tone.

http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-football-fans-you-re-busy-wink-wink-on-this-weekend/420103773/

Go Gophers!!
 

Maryland looks to have some nice pieces on offense after watching highlights of their spring game. Yes, I know spring ball is pretty meaningless, but I will be a bundle of nerves leading up to this game. I have a feeling the D will have it's work cut out for them.
 

Well, at least someone else thinks we've a chance to be 7-0, so I got that going for me:cool: we
 




BleedGopher said:
per Carr:

Here’s the football weekend you can circle with a thick red marker on that giant Minnesota sports calendar you have on the wall of your TV watchin’ den: Sept. 30-Oct. 1.

We already know what’s going to happen leading up to that weekend. (That’s a lie, but hang with us a sec) …

By that Saturday morning, Sept. 30, P.J. Fleck will be yelling and screaming and rowin’ boats and, more importantly, his Gophers will be 3-0 and feeling good about their start. It’ll go like this: crush Buffalo at home in the opener, beat Oregon State in overtime at their place, crush Middle Tennessee (REVENGE FOR THAT NCAA TOURNEY BEATDOWN!) at the Bank. That’s 3-0, and even more fuel for Fleck.

The Vikings will be 2-1, coming off a nice home victory over the up-and-coming Buccaneers, knowing they need to put some Ws on the board in the early fall before a tough finish.

Two teams riding high, heading into the last day of September. Then: The Weekend That Will Tell Us Everything We Need To Know About These Football Seasons will be upon us.

The Gophers play host to Maryland that Saturday, Sept. 30, their Big Ten opener. Maryland’s on the rise. Fleck’s first big test. Lots of pressure to get this one done in front of the revved up maroon and gold sweaters. Do the Gophers have a functional QB? Is the defense still slamming doors on drives? The Gophers have a real chance to be 7-0 heading to Iowa on Oct. 28 – after Maryland, it’s at Purdue, vs. Michigan State, vs. Illinois – but the Sept. 30 game against the Terps sets the tone.

http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-football-fans-you-re-busy-wink-wink-on-this-weekend/420103773/

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

The one Gopher home game I'm going to miss this year is the Maryland game. I will be in Vegas for a wedding. It stinks but when your best friend for 18+ years gets married you have to be there. I'm gonna bet on the Gophers and will still be watching the game though.
 

A little off-topic, but a lot of the media is down on the Vikes. I'm seeing a lot of predictions for 6-10, 7-9, etc.

I know we talk about this every season, but IF the Gophers get off to a good start, and the Vikings are struggling, it will present a big opportunity for Fleck and the Gophers to grab a little more of the media spotlight - and more importantly, the fan market.

With all due respect to those who are trying to keep expectations realistic for Fleck's 1st season, I'm just saying that a good start to the season, coming off a 9*-win season last year, and we could see a little momentum shift to Gopher FB.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I know we talk about this every season, but IF the Gophers get off to a good start, and the Vikings are struggling, it will present a big opportunity for Fleck and the Gophers to grab a little more of the media spotlight - and more importantly, the fan market.
Click to expand...
Another annual call of the off-season.

Winning a few games while the Vikings lose a few isn't going to make a discernible effect in the churn of the two fan bases. There are enough casual fans in town for both teams to increase their attendance in good years, even if both are undefeated.
 

Unfortunately, there will be no momentum until the Gophers beat top 20 teams. Once they accomplish this and win the games they are supposed to, the bandwagon fans will be extremely prevalent in the cities. Until then, just a bunch of Debbie Downers saying we can only beat the down trodden foes of the Big Ten Basement.
 



HoustonTXGopher said:
Unfortunately, there will be no momentum until the Gophers beat top 20 teams. Once they accomplish this and win the games they are supposed to, the bandwagon fans will be extremely prevalent in the cities. Until then, just a bunch of Debbie Downers saying we can only beat the down trodden foes of the Big Ten Basement.
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Yep....
 

This guy's jumping ahead, misses the boat. It's Oregon State, Oregon State.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


I have been a regular visitor to Gopherhole since mid 2009. I have watched countless threads and comments discuss what it will take to fill the stadium, capture the imagination of the populous, etc. "They need to win 10 games." "They need to have sustained 8 win seasons over 10 years" They need to win the B1G. They need to beat Wisconsin. They need to go undefeated. They need to get to the Rose Bowl. They need to win the Rose Bowl. They need a division championship. They need several wins over top 20 programs. They need a trophy case full of rivalry trophies. They need to be good at the same time the Vikings are bad. It goes on and on.

I recently have had a new line of thinking that has washed over me like a warm blanket: I'm not going to worry about it. I am especially not going to worry about it after the team went 9-4 last year and had a very nice bowl game victory. The average joe on the street yawned and said "they didn't beat anybody good." Basically, I am done worrying about what uninformed people think of Gopher football. Yes, it sucks the team has been mostly mediocre for decades. But, it has become so ingrained in the casual fans that the team is either "mediocre" or "bad" - even when they have seasons where they are one game from a division or conference championship - I just don't think it is worth worrying over it anymore. For those of you that do, that's fine. I of course do hope for a full stadium, B1G championships, and more. I'm just not going to worry about what my casual fan friends think about it. I am going to worry about what to prepare at the tailgate and YES, I am going to worry about the weather being bad on game day because I like the tailgate and game to be comfortable. That's me. I'm different.

After all is said and done, if the Gophers win the B1G and the Rose Bowl in 2019, there will be a nice attendance boost in 2020 but by 2021 if it is back to 8-4 football - everything will look the same as it does now. Minnesotans. Not EVERYTHING is perfect about them.
 



Schnauzer said:
I have been a regular visitor to Gopherhole since mid 2009. I have watched countless threads and comments discuss what it will take to fill the stadium, capture the imagination of the populous, etc. "They need to win 10 games." "They need to have sustained 8 win seasons over 10 years" They need to win the B1G. They need to beat Wisconsin. They need to go undefeated. They need to get to the Rose Bowl. They need to win the Rose Bowl. They need a division championship. They need several wins over top 20 programs. They need a trophy case full of rivalry trophies. They need to be good at the same time the Vikings are bad. It goes on and on.

I recently have had a new line of thinking that has washed over me like a warm blanket: I'm not going to worry about it. I am especially not going to worry about it after the team went 9-4 last year and had a very nice bowl game victory. The average joe on the street yawned and said "they didn't beat anybody good." Basically, I am done worrying about what uninformed people think of Gopher football. Yes, it sucks the team has been mostly mediocre for decades. But, it has become so ingrained in the casual fans that the team is either "mediocre" or "bad" - even when they have seasons where they are one game from a division or conference championship - I just don't think it is worth worrying over it anymore. For those of you that do, that's fine. I of course do hope for a full stadium, B1G championships, and more. I'm just not going to worry about what my casual fan friends think about it. I am going to worry about what to prepare at the tailgate and YES, I am going to worry about the weather being bad on game day because I like the tailgate and game to be comfortable. That's me. I'm different.

After all is said and done, if the Gophers win the B1G and the Rose Bowl in 2019, there will be a nice attendance boost in 2020 but by 2021 if it is back to 8-4 football - everything will look the same as it does now. Minnesotans. Not EVERYTHING is perfect about them.
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I love this post. I have basically all but given up on the current generation of middle-aged potential fans in Minnesota (roughly ages 25-45). They have made their decisions and are either bitter about not being recruited by Mason, are from Iowa/wisconsin, or just enjoy laughing at the program (I'm not talking about anybody that posts here - if you do, you at least have some interest in the program being successful). This is why the only attendance I really care about it student attendance (within reason - of course the program would struggle if a large number of non-students stopped buying tickets). If Fleck, or any other future coach, can grab and maintain the imagination of the student fan base we will see greater overall attendance in the future. I think Kill came very close to doing this, and might have succeeded if he could have managed his health. Being what the Gophers have been for the last 45 years, we have created a somewhat 'lost generation' of fandom.

I think Fleck is the perfect man for this particular job. I guess that is where my optimism stems from - I can't guarantee that he takes us to heights beyond what Mason and Kill/Clayes did in the win/loss column, but I think with his personality and with the confluence of the new facilities we could be seeing a rebirth of Gopher fandom starting with the current generation of students. It was definitely a gamble to dump a 9 win coach for a young guy from the MAC, but our facilities are only going to be 'new' for so long and this was a risk that needed to be taken. The status quo doesn't seem to move the needle much here.
 

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