Souhan: Gophers' Zack Annexstad has to showcase poise after lopsided loss

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Souhan:

The loss reflected the reality of Fleck’s roster: Playing freshmen can be seen both as a sign of promise and a lack of depth.

He has two flashy stars — defensive back Antoine Winfield Jr. and receiver Tyler Johnson. Winfield left because of an injury in the first quarter. On the next play, Maryland scored on a 26-yard run. Johnson did not catch a pass in the first half, while younger receivers Chris Autman-Bell and Bateman were shining.

Fleck regretted that he couldn’t move Annexstad around more, to help him avoid the rush. “We’ve got to get that [leg] healthy,” Fleck said. “It’s a good thing, with the bye week, to get him healthy and get him to move around a lot more. Because he’s really good with that.

“They probably knew that, and they put a lot of pressure internally on him. Our pocket was not a picket all night, or all afternoon. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit. They got after him all afternoon. But he’s got to grow up.”

Fleck is 2-8 in the Big Ten. His teams have been outscored 112-13 in their past three conference games.

Saturday, Annexstad was not made available for interviews. In an illogical move, Fleck has refused to let his quarterback talk to the media — except for ESPN. So he deems Annexstad ready to play football on national television and talk on national television but not to answer questions for local reporters.

Talking about failure, you could argue, is growth.

http://www.startribune.com/gophers-...showcase-poise-after-lopsided-loss/494050661/

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
In an illogical move, Fleck has refused to let his quarterback talk to the media — except for ESPN. So he deems Annexstad ready to play football on national television and talk on national television but not to answer questions for local reporters.

Talking about failure, you could argue, is growth.
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Lol, classic media member whining. Reality is the Gophers have nothing to gain by letting Annexstad talk to the media.
 

No one cares Jim but you. What is Annexstad going to say that we don’t already know? Cliches and the usual rhetoric. What did we really miss Jim? Token responses to your stale questions might stunt his growth.
 

If I were on the Gopher staff, Souhan's questions would be ignored anyway. Period.
 

Seems like Annexstad is still bothered by that ankle injury. The game announcers reported he was back to 100%, but sure doesn't seem like it. Hopefully he can heal over the bye week.
 


Souhan is a hack. I don't recall his efforts as a beat reporter, but he's the Tim Brewster of columnists: a tiny amount of flash backed up by zero substance.

JTG
 

No player should ever talk to the press regardless of the game results. The reporters will print what they thought they heard not necessarily what was said. Coaching Theory 101 —avoid the press at all times. You can’t win the discussion. The press has the last say.
 

Wow, I hope the coaching staff read this and black lists soupcan. Never answer a single one of his questions again.
 

stevedave23 said:
Lol, classic media member whining. Reality is the Gophers have nothing to gain by letting Annexstad talk to the media.
Click to expand...
Face it PJ sets himself up with his PJism. Southampton is a prick, and is possibly in the closet with a coke problem, but that was funny

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 



BleedGopher said:
per Souhan:

The loss reflected the reality of Fleck’s roster: Playing freshmen can be seen both as a sign of promise and a lack of depth.

He has two flashy stars — defensive back Antoine Winfield Jr. and receiver Tyler Johnson. Winfield left because of an injury in the first quarter. On the next play, Maryland scored on a 26-yard run. Johnson did not catch a pass in the first half, while younger receivers Chris Autman-Bell and Bateman were shining.

Fleck regretted that he couldn’t move Annexstad around more, to help him avoid the rush. “We’ve got to get that [leg] healthy,” Fleck said. “It’s a good thing, with the bye week, to get him healthy and get him to move around a lot more. Because he’s really good with that.

“They probably knew that, and they put a lot of pressure internally on him. Our pocket was not a picket all night, or all afternoon. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit. They got after him all afternoon. But he’s got to grow up.”

Fleck is 2-8 in the Big Ten. His teams have been outscored 112-13 in their past three conference games.

Saturday, Annexstad was not made available for interviews. In an illogical move, Fleck has refused to let his quarterback talk to the media — except for ESPN. So he deems Annexstad ready to play football on national television and talk on national television but not to answer questions for local reporters.

Talking about failure, you could argue, is growth.

http://www.startribune.com/gophers-...showcase-poise-after-lopsided-loss/494050661/

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

So....it's Zack's fault he got hurt because he didn't identify the proper protection call. And, now he has to pay the price by starting and hobbling around, risking getting killed because he has no ability to avoid the rush and then PJ will criticize his effort and courage too when he doesn't like the results and media heat because it's all Zack's fault. Sheeeesh
Brilliant PJ. Don't utilize Seth Green nearly the whole game. Don't help Zack's mobility deficit with quick slants, swing passes to the backs, quick passes to the receiver with the defensive back playing 10 yards off and let him go one on one etc etc...Nope just use the best offensive line coach in the country and just let him keep Zack free from pressure all game.
Don't even think of playing a healthy Tanner Morgan who is almost just a whisker less talented. lol
Nice coaching PJ
 

On the surface, one could argue that it is a bit odd to not allow your starting QB to do interviews with the local media - but you do let him do an interview with ESPN.

Personally, if the kid is mature enough to be a starting QB for a B1G team, I would think he's mature enough to answer a couple of questions from the media. It's not like they're going to grill the kid - I suspect most of the questions would be fairly routine. "how do you feel about......" and so forth.
 

"Fleck has refused to let his quarterback talk to the media — except for ESPN."

Well, given last year's article about Gopherhole, I know you're all going to read this so here it goes:

It's because y'all suck at your jobs.
The odds of you all ripping this kid a new asshole and rattling him after his first loss are 100x higher than letting ESPN interview him and compare him to Mayfield.

Y'all can't write an objective article to save your lives.
ESPN, on the other hand, is objective. You're literally worse than ESPN. Let that sink in.
 
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This isn't at all unusual for a college football player. The fact that a sports writer doesn't know this insane.

Another example at just how ignorant our local media is college sports.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
This isn't at all unusual for a college football player. The fact that a sports writer doesn't know this insane.

Another example at just how ignorant our local media is college sports.
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Then why let him be interviewed by ESPN? Don't have a problem with saying a player is not going to be available in FR year, until first game or whatever rule they want to come make about them talking to media, but then it should apply to all situations.
I believe Pitino does it in BB.
 

Sometimes a bunker mentality is warranted, other times it is (or comes across as) paranoid thinking. I suppose cherry picking access to your team leaders could be construed as a not so subtle message or maybe ESPN is simply doing a fluff piece (alternating with the hit piece at ESPN) and needed some comments for the column. I tend to think the latter.
 

bottlebass said:
Wow, I hope the coaching staff read this and black lists soupcan. Never answer a single one of his questions again.
Click to expand...

Yeah ... but, would that actually stop him? He wrote a whole column, just fine, without having any of his questions answered. PJ always makes statements at press conferences that are directed at anyone there. Souhan can use those in his columns, as he did here.

And if you ignore the media, then they'll just write that Fleck is trying to be unaccountable for his mistakes, has something to hide, etc.

IMO, it's better to make friends out of the media than enemies. In the long run, every coach either moves on or gets fired. Very few, in the end, outlast the main guys at the newspaper ...
 

Gophers_4life said:
Yeah ... but, would that actually stop him? He wrote a whole column, just fine, without having any of his questions answered. PJ always makes statements at press conferences that are directed at anyone there. Souhan can use those in his columns, as he did here.

And if you ignore the media, then they'll just write that Fleck is trying to be unaccountable for his mistakes, has something to hide, etc.

IMO, it's better to make friends out of the media than enemies. In the long run, every coach either moves on or gets fired. Very few, in the end, outlast the main guys at the newspaper ...
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Given that half of 1500 just got fired because nobody gave a **** what they had to say, I'm sure that Souhan is next.
I haven't read a strib sports article in months. Just complete garbage.
 

GFBfan said:
Then why let him be interviewed by ESPN? Don't have a problem with saying a player is not going to be available in FR year, until first game or whatever rule they want to come make about them talking to media, but then it should apply to all situations.
I believe Pitino does it in BB.
Click to expand...

Because ESPN interviews would occur less often and it would just be fluff.

I don't think this is unusual at all.
 

I'm ok with letting him on ESPN. National exposure is a good thing in this day and age of recruiting.
 

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