Alvarez on if U can be like UW: I don’t see why not — they have everything they need

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per Shooter:

Barry Alvarez, 70, credited with Wisconsin’s turnaround into a national football power and now athletics director for the Badgers, accompanied the 11-0 team to Minneapolis for Saturday’s victory over the Gophers.

Can the Gophers ever achieve the Badgers’ status?

“I don’t see why not — they have everything they need to be successful, a great community, great school, so there’s no reason why they shouldn’t,” Alvarez said.

What about the beautiful 50,805-seat TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis?

Alvarez paused.

“I like 100-year-old stadiums,” he said.

Camp Randall Stadium in Madison has been Wisconsin’s home for football since 1895, and now has a capacity of 80,321.

http://www.twincities.com/2017/11/25/walters-vikings-case-keenum-on-track-to-become-very-rich/

Go Gophers!!
 

Good thing for Wisconsin that Alvarez was given time to build a program.
 


How do you explain the skunks? They are the opposite of everything you need to be successful. The majority of fans are drunken sociopaths.
 



maroonfive said:
How do you explain the skunks? They are the opposite of everything you need to be successful. The majority of fans are drunken sociopaths.
Click to expand...

They play good defense and they run the ball. You don't need a read option, you don't need 4 WRs all running a varied route tree and you don't need a QB in the shotgun on 90% of your snaps.
 

We've had too much turnover on our coaching staff over the past twenty years to ever make this a reality. Obviously we don't know if Fleck is the right man for the job, but if our goal is to become the next Wisconsin, we won't accomplish anything by getting rid of him after two or three seasons.
 

There are a variety of reasons why one program is successful and another is not. But it starts with a complete and total commitment by the school's administration to make a winning football team a priority. One could argue the U of MN has given lip service, but they have yet to match the commitment made by Wisconsin.
 

I don't think you need to copy the style.

Run pro-style, run wishbone, run spread, etc. Do whatever you want and mix plays and you have a chance to be good.

But you need to decide and stick with it. Then work with high schools and youth programs to start teaching players how you want your players to play from early on and stick with it.
You'll have more players to choose from, more players who start playing with the idea of playing at your University.


Here's another difference.

When Wisconsin stunk, I don't think they had many fans who cared. Wisconsin football didn't exist. So people and media weren't constantly complaining about how miserable the program was. Total apathy had already set it.
So when they started going 6-6 people thought that was great. Wow, they won a big ten game! Now they won two!

Here even during our more successful years, people will criticize the Gophers until they win a West title. So that in itself with the additional scrutiny almost makes it tougher than if there were total apathy.
 



Breakin' The Plane said:
They play good defense and they run the ball. You don't need a read option, you don't need 4 WRs all running a varied route tree and you don't need a QB in the shotgun on 90% of your snaps.
Click to expand...

That is my person favorite brand of football: tough defense, and inside running from straight handoffs, coupled with some outside runs, screens, and play-action passes. Bread and butter.

It has fallen away to the modern version of college football offense, though.


short ornery norwegian said:
There are a variety of reasons why one program is successful and another is not. But it starts with a complete and total commitment by the school's administration to make a winning football team a priority. One could argue the U of MN has given lip service, but they have yet to match the commitment made by Wisconsin.
Click to expand...

I would like to think that we have everything we need, now. Great stadium, new practice facilities, and a coaching staff that is getting paid what they need to stick around for a while.

Now all we need are the wins!


Face The Facts said:
I don't think you need to copy the style.

Run pro-style, run wishbone, run spread, etc. Do whatever you want and mix plays and you have a chance to be good.

But you need to decide and stick with it. Then work with high schools and youth programs to start teaching players how you want your players to play from early on and stick with it.
You'll have more players to choose from, more players who start playing with the idea of playing at your University.


Here's another difference.

When Wisconsin stunk, I don't think they had many fans who cared. Wisconsin football didn't exist. So people and media weren't constantly complaining about how miserable the program was. Total apathy had already set it.
So when they started going 6-6 people thought that was great. Wow, they won a big ten game! Now they won two!

Here even during our more successful years, people will criticize the Gophers until they win a West title. So that in itself with the additional scrutiny almost makes it tougher than if there were total apathy.
Click to expand...

That is an interesting idea: the U's past success in football actually is a hindrance to its present day efforts.

Nonetheless, I do think if the team starts winning, the fans will come back in droves. Out of the woodwork, and the whole shebang.
 

Face The Facts said:
I don't think you need to copy the style.

Here's another difference.

When Wisconsin stunk, I don't think they had many fans who cared. Wisconsin football didn't exist. So people and media weren't constantly complaining about how miserable the program was. Total apathy had already set it.
So when they started going 6-6 people thought that was great. Wow, they won a big ten game! Now they won two!

Here even during our more successful years, people will criticize the Gophers until they win a West title. So that in itself with the additional scrutiny almost makes it tougher than if there were total apathy.
Click to expand...

I hear Gopher fans state variations of this all the time, but - based on attendance numbers apathy just isn't true. You have the nadir of the Morton years, but even then (1989) the attendance was 41,734 - only 2,624 less than the Gophers this year. Since 1962 (the Rose Bowl year), the Badgers had only two seasons with attendance less than that of the Gophers this year - 1968 at 43,559 and the 1989 number above. Year by year from 1960 through 2009 shown below, not adjusted for stadium size adjustments.

The difference is that Wisconsin managed to make football an "event" whether winning or losing. In Minnesota, winning is all that matters - and sometimes not even that. The Minnesota AD is saying the right things and, if he can deliver, I think Minnesota can get to the UW/Iowa level - maybe. The fans seem to be much more into winning v. the college football experience. Just my observation from living in WI and MN.

Feel free to object.

1960 59,956
1961 47,143
1962 55,877
1963 61,223
1964 60,718
1965 56,428
1966 51,725
1967 52,495
1968 43,559
1969 48,898
1970 56,223
1971 68,131
1972 70,454
1973 60,400
1974 71,630
1975 73,962
1976 70,898
1977 72,682
1978 71,443
1979 73,979
1980 71,360
1981 71,640
1982 71,060
1983 69,787
1984 74,681
1985 71,613
1986 68,052
1987 59,256
1988 49,297
1989 41,734
1990 51,027
1991 49,676
1992 61,378
1993 75,507
1994 77,328
1995 78,222
1996 77,949
1997 77,880
1998 77,428
1999 78,081
2000 78,711
2001 78,333
2002 78,023
2003 78,486
2004 82,368
2005 82,551
2006 81,368
2007 81,747
2008 81,088
2009 80,109
 

TAW said:
The difference is that Wisconsin managed to make football an "event" whether winning or losing. In Minnesota, winning is all that matters - and sometimes not even that. The Minnesota AD is saying the right things and, if he can deliver, I think Minnesota can get to the UW/Iowa level - maybe. The fans seem to be much more into winning v. the college football experience. Just my observation from living in WI and MN.

Feel free to object.
Click to expand...

Don't want to go down the path of this debate again. I agree with you to an extent but Minnesota is in a unique position of more competition for the sports (and other entertainment) dollar compared to Wisconsin. I also think there is a very different culture related to "partying" at games in Wisconsin vs Minnesota. Wisconsin folks like to drink (more so than most people in the country) and a football game is an excuse to get hammered for most of them. I think a large part of Wisconsin fans just go for the event to get wasted rather than caring about the football game. But maybe that's what you were alluding to.
 

Word said:
Don't want to go down the path of this debate again. I agree with you to an extent but Minnesota is in a unique position of more competition for the sports (and other entertainment) dollar compared to Wisconsin. I also think there is a very different culture related to "partying" at games in Wisconsin vs Minnesota. Wisconsin folks like to drink (more so than most people in the country) and a football game is an excuse to get hammered for most of them. I think a large part of Wisconsin fans just go for the event to get wasted rather than caring about the football game. But maybe that's what you were alluding to.
Click to expand...

Partially agree. They don't go to the game as an excuse to get wasted, but if the team sucks and they "get wasted" (subjective) they still would return and support the team. They do not consider winning as a necessary threshold for supporting the team. It IS a different culture though.

A funny thing I read recently was that when German immigrants came to the midwest, the laid-back, partiers stayed in Milwaukee and the hard-core Lutherans went on to Minnesota. There is a kernel of truth in that.
 



TAW said:
Partially agree. They don't go to the game as an excuse to get wasted, but if the team sucks and they "get wasted" (subjective) they still would return and support the team. They do not consider winning as a necessary threshold for supporting the team. It IS a different culture though.

A funny thing I read recently was that when German immigrants came to the midwest, the laid-back, partiers stayed in Milwaukee and the hard-core Lutherans went on to Minnesota. There is a kernel of truth in that.
Click to expand...

I take offense to that as a German-Catholic Gopher fan.
 

TAW said:
I hear Gopher fans state variations of this all the time, but - based on attendance numbers apathy just isn't true. You have the nadir of the Morton years, but even then (1989) the attendance was 41,734 - only 2,624 less than the Gophers this year. Since 1962 (the Rose Bowl year), the Badgers had only two seasons with attendance less than that of the Gophers this year - 1968 at 43,559 and the 1989 number above. Year by year from 1960 through 2009 shown below, not adjusted for stadium size adjustments.

The difference is that Wisconsin managed to make football an "event" whether winning or losing. In Minnesota, winning is all that matters - and sometimes not even that. The Minnesota AD is saying the right things and, if he can deliver, I think Minnesota can get to the UW/Iowa level - maybe. The fans seem to be much more into winning v. the college football experience. Just my observation from living in WI and MN.

Feel free to object.

1960 59,956
1961 47,143
1962 55,877
1963 61,223
1964 60,718
1965 56,428
1966 51,725
1967 52,495
1968 43,559
1969 48,898
1970 56,223
1971 68,131
1972 70,454
1973 60,400
1974 71,630
1975 73,962
1976 70,898
1977 72,682
1978 71,443
1979 73,979
1980 71,360
1981 71,640
1982 71,060
1983 69,787
1984 74,681
1985 71,613
1986 68,052
1987 59,256
1988 49,297
1989 41,734
1990 51,027
1991 49,676
1992 61,378
1993 75,507
1994 77,328
1995 78,222
1996 77,949
1997 77,880
1998 77,428
1999 78,081
2000 78,711
2001 78,333
2002 78,023
2003 78,486
2004 82,368
2005 82,551
2006 81,368
2007 81,747
2008 81,088
2009 80,109
Click to expand...



You're assuming those Wisconsin fans were going there to watch football and that they are football fans.

You haven't met many people from Wisconsin and chatted football with them, have you?
 

TAW said:
Partially agree. They don't go to the game as an excuse to get wasted, but if the team sucks and they "get wasted" (subjective) they still would return and support the team. They do not consider winning as a necessary threshold for supporting the team. It IS a different culture though.

A funny thing I read recently was that when German immigrants came to the midwest, the laid-back, partiers stayed in Milwaukee and the hard-core Lutherans went on to Minnesota. There is a kernel of truth in that.
Click to expand...

You'd have to be pretty hardy back in those days to survive the winters!
 

Word said:
I take offense to that as a German-Catholic Gopher fan.
Click to expand...

I'm a German-Irish Catholic, third-generation Badger fan. I completely understand the offense you take. My nephew, a Gopher fan, stated Friday night (after a few beers), that his entire Gopher fandom would be vidicated if the Gophers could beat the Badgers and keep them out of the playoffs. And he said "And you know why, it is because of you and you (me and my brother) and Uncle X (another brother) and all the rest of the family who has given me grief for so many years." [Because he is a nice kid, he did not call out his mother, who goes to another room to watch Badger-Gopher games.]

I guess basically what I am saying is Minnesotans and Wisconsin are closely related genetically, but brought up differently. My Gopher nephew is just as big a Gopher fan as the rest of us are Badger fans, but I attribute that to the fact that his mother cheered even when the Badgers were losing (he is also a Bears fan from his father.) It will take a few generations of concentrated fan-dom for the culture to change.
 

My 80+ year old grandmother called late Saturday night and had to throw in the "Oh sorry you didn't get the outcome you wanted, but for those of us here in Sheboygan sure did like what we saw." Thanks grandma I was well aware we came up a wee bit short Saturday afternoon, for the 14th time in a row......
 

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