Sid writes his annual "Mike Shanahan has Gopher ties" column

Donate To GopherHole
BleedGopher

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
60,716
Reaction score
15,963
Points
113
per Sid:

Early Gophers ties

The Shanahans have a fondness for Minnesota. Kyle was born here when Mike was Gophers offensive coordinator under Joe Salem for the 1979 season.

The Gophers were only 4-6-1 (3-5-1 Big Ten), but they did have a tremendous offense that pushed Ohio State in a 21-17 loss that September at Memorial Stadium. The Buckeyes went 11-0 during that regular season before losing the Rose Bowl 17-16 to No. 2 USC.

“I remember having 350 yards in the first half [against Ohio State],” Shanahan recalled. “… We introduced the run-and-shoot offense, and they were not ready for it. And even though we didn’t have a great year that year, we did a lot of good things offensively.”

Shanahan was a 27-year-old offensive coordinator at Eastern Illinois when Salem hired him. Salem recalled last week that Shanahan did such a great job in that one season with the Gophers, several schools were after him because they wanted to use the run-and-shoot offense. Salem wanted to keep Shanahan here, he said, but there was no hope of that happening. Shanahan left to become offensive coordinator at the University of Florida in 1980.

http://www.startribune.com/mike-and-kyle-shanahan-kirk-cousins-have-lengthy-nfl-history/492556601/

Go Gophers!!
 


at one point or another, Joe Salem's coaching staff at MN included Mike Shanahan, Tony Dungy and Mike Martz. All three went on to win NFL titles. Sid is not the only writer who has pointed out that Salem might have had a lot more success at MN if the U would have let him pay his assistants more and keep the staff in place. The best coaches got poached by other teams, and - not surprisingly - things went downhill for Salem at MN.
 


350 yards in the first half and finished the game with only 21 points? Sounds like an unusual set of events - somebody want to explain what happened?
 


Pompous Elitist said:
350 yards in the first half and finished the game with only 21 points? Sounds like an unusual set of events - somebody want to explain what happened?
Click to expand...


Actually, they lost that game so only 17 points.
 


Pompous Elitist said:
You’re right. Even more odd. Surely Sid or SON or one of the 55+ crowd remember this game.
Click to expand...

http://grfx.cstv.com/schools/osu/graphics/pdf/m-footbl/1979/1979-02-Minnesota.pdf

Minnesota led 17-7 at the half and were outscored 14-0 in the second half. They somehow had 505 yards (278 rushing and 227 passing), 26 first downs, and still had only 17 points. They ran 80 plays to OSU's 49. They only had one turnover - zero interceptions, one fumble. It really is baffling.
 




short ornery norwegian said:
at one point or another, Joe Salem's coaching staff at MN included Mike Shanahan, Tony Dungy and Mike Martz. All three went on to win NFL titles. Sid is not the only writer who has pointed out that Salem might have had a lot more success at MN if the U would have let him pay his assistants more and keep the staff in place. The best coaches got poached by other teams, and - not surprisingly - things went downhill for Salem at MN.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure Sherman and Dungy coached for Cal Stoll.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


dpodoll68 said:
Assuming that you meant Shanahan and not Sherman - they both definitely coached under Salem. Dungy played for Stoll.
Click to expand...

Actually meant Mike Sherman. I new Shanahan coached under Salem.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom