How many people still believe?

I'm still in...but I'm in like I've always been in with one eye looking for another escape route.
Like PJ's crootin', culture, passion and promotion of his team and also other U teams (I really like how he does that, think that is very cool)
Don't like his in game coaching...he makes some not so good decisions and his clock management drives me nuts, not sure he has all the right pieces on the coaching staff.
 

Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days. Heather Fleck LOL
 

this is a different kind of Gophers team. In the past, there were years where you knew the Gophers were a .500 team, and that is where they would finish.

This year, I honestly don't know what kind of a team they have. On the one hand, if they can fix the problems and keep the strengths as strengths, this could be a really good team.

On the other hand, if the problems persist, and the strong parts of the team don't perform every week, I could see them getting steamrolled in some games - worse than Maryland or Illinois last year.

So, I suspect the year is going to be a high-wire act. if they put it all together some week, they could go out and win a game by 3 or 4 touchdowns easy. But, if they have a week that is more bad than good, I could seem them losing by 4 touchdowns easy. I just don't know what to think or what to expect.

In Closing - this is not the team that beat Wisconsin or Georgia Tech last year. I would like to see that team return. does anyone know where they went?
 

The Gophers are 6-1 in their last 7 games, including beating Wisconsin for the first time in 15 years and the first time in Madison in 24 years? Including winning a bowl game by the largest margin in school history, and there are people starting threads like this. The delusion is absolutely laughable.


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Me

If the Gophers are in a position to fire a coach because they don't win by enough, that's news to me.

We're in year 3 and are 3-0 and talking about firing the coach....let that sink in for a second

Please take a peek at the upsets so far this week and this season. Could be much worse. A lot of things are correctable.

Who the F*c* has said anything about firing him? You may be the only post in this entire thread to say the word. Unbelievable.

I don’t think we should be allowed to beat up kids in the street. See how reasonable I am.


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I'm still on board; 3-0 is a big step toward a bowl this year. But what I can't understand is why we are running between the tackles 30+ times a game and getting little for it. Why can't we groom our tight ends to catch a pass once in awhile or pass to the running backs? Morgan has been amazing, as have our four best receivers downfield, but we can't get five to eight yards on runs or short passes. As one of the announcers said earlier this season, the Gopher have to "open the playbook." Do we have a playbook to open?
 




Right now, I believe they can, and should beat Purdue. I’ll assess the entire season when it’s over. Until then, I’m taking it game by game.


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Georgia Southern had some freak plays in that fourth quarter. Did I think the Gophers were toast when it was 3rd down and 30 to go from their own five. Fleck yeah!

Tanner played probably his worst game and they still won. The Oline really struggled today but they still won.
Like Mick Turitron said they day was beautiful, Gophers won an exciting game and quit yer bit@hing!
 

Right now, I believe they can, and should beat Purdue. I’ll assess the entire season when it’s over. Until then, I’m taking it game by game.


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Really depends on how healthy both teams are when we play in two weeks.

Purdue lost their best defensive player, sat their QB, sat their most experienced lineman, sat their #2 WR and had their #3 WR get injured today. Plus their best D-lineman is still out from an injury last year and there's a good chance he is still out when we play them. I'm thinking Sindelar, the O-lineman and the #2 WR Sparks play but the #3 WR Bell and DT Neal along with Bailey sit based on reports I've seen.

With us, Rodney, Mo, Shannon, Kamal and Wiley all were dealing with injuries but none appear to be serious. Fleck said Mo and Kamal could have played today but they decided to play it safe, Rodney is dealing with a strained oblique, doesn't sound too serious, he said he hopes to get Shannon back for Purdue and Cam was in concussion protocol but we shouldn't need him if the other guys are healthy.

But we will see. There is always that one guy where we find out 5 minutes before kickoff that they aren't playing due to an unknown suspension or injury like with Kamal.
 

Even after today, I think the realistic floor is 7 wins with a ceiling of 10 wins depending on how things go versus Purdue and Maryland.
 



We dominated GASO. We had two bad plays that gave up 14 points. Look at the stats. Doubled them up on yardage and first downs. Tied them on turn overs. We need a tune up, not an overhaul.
 

Today was one of the rare instances where we actually left early, we almost always stay good or bad until the end as the wife likes to say we've paid for the tickets we might as well get the value out of them. Today she was the one who said lets go after the strip sack TD return.....Walking out we kept hearing things happening in the stadium but the PA system echos a lot off the surrounding buildings as we walked back to the car. Sadly we missed a good finish but working night shift I was able to get home and get a 45 min nap in before having to head to work over sitting in traffic in the ramp to get out
 


We dominated GASO. We had two bad plays that gave up 14 points. Look at the stats. Doubled them up on yardage and first downs. Tied them on turn overs. We need a tune up, not an overhaul.

Add in the 4th and 1 call that led to a TD in the first half, and there is 21 points that probably shouldn't have happened. GSU gets credit for capitalizing on our mistakes, so not saying they didnt earn those, but it feels like we could have blown them out but for our self-inflicted wounds.

After FSU a lot of us felt the same way. There was a general sentiment that the good news is that that game was only close because of dumb mistakes, and that can be fixed. The same feels true yesterday, but we need to actually do the fixing.
 

I don’t understand why It takes so long to build a cohesive culture, Fleck really seems to slow play this. He is still tempering expectations in year 3. Just seems weird, and Fleck/coaches seem tense instead of confident.

Listening to Klieman at KState, he expects team culture and results in year one. No slow playing the expectations to the fans. Far different approach. Guy exudes confidence, trust in players and coaches.

Gophers are 3-0, so really can’t complain, but barely beating GaSo has me concerned.
 
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I don’t understand why It takes so long to build a cohesive culture, Fleck really seems to slow play this. He is still tempering expectations in year 3. Just seems weird, and Fleck/coaches seem tense instead of confident.

Listening to Klieman at KState, he expects team culture and results in year one. No slow playing the expectations to the fans. Far different approach. Guy exudes confidence, trust in players.

Gophers are 3-0, so really can’t complain, but barely beating GaSo has me concerned.

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Add in the 4th and 1 call that led to a TD in the first half, and there is 21 points that probably shouldn't have happened. GSU gets credit for capitalizing on our mistakes, so not saying they didnt earn those, but it feels like we could have blown them out but for our self-inflicted wounds.

After FSU a lot of us felt the same way. There was a general sentiment that the good news is that that game was only close because of dumb mistakes, and that can be fixed. The same feels true yesterday, but we need to actually do the fixing.

+1
 


This seems like such a strange question to ask about a coach in his 3rd year who has won 6 of his last 7 games including ending the most embarrassing streak in all of Gopher sports (and there are still a lot of embarrassing streaks with this athletic department). The South Dakota State game was atrocious, I was really, really discouraged after that game. The Fresno State game was actually encouraging to me: the Gophers went to a tough place to play against a team that is normally good and made a ton of unforced errors and still won the game. The Georgia Southern game fell somewhere between the two though much closer to the South Dakota State game. The bright side was the Gophers were clearly the more talented team (which I wasn't sure about against South Dakota State which was very alarming) but they made just as many mistakes as they did against Fresno State.

My number one concern is the running game. It seems like Fleck and Ciarrocca are determined for the inside zone to be the base from which the offense is built on. If the line can't block that better than it has (and will have to do it against bigger, better front 7's) then the Gophers are going to have a disappointing year. I wish they were more flexible with their game planning to switch to something else and not start ever new series with 2 yards or less on first down.

Big picture I think the underrated concern long term is the quarterback situation. If you are not sold on Morgan, and I am not, then you have to hope Annexstad, Clark, or Kramer is the guy as the Gophers are not taking a QB in the 2020 class and Fleck has shown no interest in going the grad transfer route at the position. I know they have a good QB commit for the '21 class, but realistically the decision on Fleck will be made one way or the other before he's ready to be a difference maker.

I feel like this is the most talented roster the Gophers have had with regards to both depth and future potential that we've seen in a long time. The team is currently 3-0 and, to my knowledge, hasn't lost anyone to a long term injury since Zack went down. I'd be the first to say the team hasn't looked great (or even good), but they are in the position they (and us) wanted to be in going in to the bye with a 3-0 record and a mostly healthy roster. Obviously as Gopher fans we've seen a lot of bogus 3-0 or 4-0 starts from the Mason, Brewster, Kill, and even Fleck eras which causes everyone to rightly have their guard up to future disappointment. Hopefully this year will be different.
 

Who the F*c* has said anything about firing him? You may be the only post in this entire thread to say the word. Unbelievable.

I don’t think we should be allowed to beat up kids in the street. See how reasonable I am.


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Well on the 1st page there's a thread each on firing the OC and DC and now this. If you say you don't believe the coach is the answer it's a pretty reasonable next step thinking that person's thought is they don't think he should be the coach.

There were people behind me yesterday actually saying he should be fired.
 
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Still believe?

Well, I believe certain things, based on evidence.

I believe the Gophers are 3-0. And I believe that 3-0 is the best possible record they could have achieved at this point. I believe Purdue would love to be 3-0, but they are not.

I believe I'll wait — at least until the Gophers' first loss — before I grumble too much.
 

I still believe in Fleck. You can can trot out all stats and numbers you want, but that is the past, Whether it is immediate past, recent past or ancient history, it's done and over.

Fleck has this team believing that in the present moment they can make the big play, the play that sets the Gophers ahead of their opponent.

In the middle ground of narrow wins and moral victories, you have keep believing in you ability to be the victor. It helps you put marks in the W column, even if they are not perfect and shiny. This is because a shiny moral victory still get marked in the L column and the amount of those indicate just how much a program accepts mediocrity rather than excellence.

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I was at the game yesterday, and no question the fans expected more from the team...mainly the coaching staff.. then what was delivered yesterday. Way to much confusion getting plays, and at times players, into the game. Bad decisions on timeouts due to that confusion.

I have been a Fleck supporter, but yesterday I was one of those disappointed fans. Sometimes I fear Fleck is more concerned on his appearance and schtick than game management. Yesterday was a cluster and admittedly I was one if the people booing coach. Not calling for his firing, but booing some really awful decisions. Particularly the timeout on the 2 point conversion. That was an inexcusable decision that should have been booed. Year three should have higher expectations. Yesterday failed to meet many of those expectations. Thankful they won. But to NOT acknowledge that was a crap show on many levels is not being truthful. PJ needs to be better than that. We paid him alot of money to be better than that. His schtick demands he be better than this. Hopefully starting with big ten play it is, but for the first time I have my doubts.
 

I was at the game yesterday, and no question the fans expected more from the team...mainly the coaching staff.. then what was delivered yesterday. Way to much confusion getting plays, and at times players, into the game. Bad decisions on timeouts due to that confusion.

I have been a Fleck supporter, but yesterday I was one of those disappointed fans. Sometimes I fear Fleck is more concerned on his appearance and schtick than game management. Yesterday was a cluster and admittedly I was one if the people booing coach. Not calling for his firing, but booing some really awful decisions. Particularly the timeout on the 2 point conversion. That was an inexcusable decision that should have been booed. Year three should have higher expectations. Yesterday failed to meet many of those expectations. Thankful they won. But to NOT acknowledge that was a crap show on many levels is not being truthful. PJ needs to be better than that. We paid him alot of money to be better than that. His schtick demands he be better than this. Hopefully starting with big ten play it is, but for the first time I have my doubts.

Stopping the 2 point try could have been key -- them not converting meant they wouldn't have a chance to win it with a field goal. I wouldn't have taken the time out their either, but I can see the logic in why it was taken.
 

Gophers won 6 of last 7.
3-0 this year.
Beat WI in their last meeting.
Close to being a top 25 team.
Longest non-conference winning streak in football.

But some fans are upset.


If you are upset at this point, maybe your issue isn't PJ Fleck and Golden Gopher Football.
Maybe some other part of your life isn't going quite right.

If you are just expressing concern, great. Then you can better express it as such. From reading their writing, it seems some people are really angry.

What's wrong with being 3-0?
 

Gophers won 6 of last 7.
3-0 this year.
Beat WI in their last meeting.
Close to being a top 25 team.
Longest non-conference winning streak in football.

But some fans are upset.


If you are upset at this point, maybe your issue isn't PJ Fleck and Golden Gopher Football.
Maybe some other part of your life isn't going quite right.

If you are just expressing concern, great. Then you can better express it as such. From reading their writing, it seems some people are really angry.

What's wrong with being 3-0?

Missing the point or changing the narrative? Other than a few looney birds who want to start firing coaches NO ONE is upset we are 3-0 and EVERYONE would take an ugly victory over a loss. If non-conference records determined anything of note then 3-0 would be all that matters. What you are reading is disappointment in how poorly the Gophers have played and what that means to the probability of success in the B1G games unless things change drastically.

It is OK to be disappointed in where this team is functioning now w/o it meaning any more than that, right?


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If you are upset at this point, maybe your issue isn't PJ Fleck and Golden Gopher Football.
Maybe some other part of your life isn't going quite right.

If you are just expressing concern, great. Then you can better express it as such. From reading their writing, it seems some people are really angry.

What's wrong with being 3-0?

I sense some frustration with the staff, but not real anger. Everyone is relieved to be 3-0. The team could very well also be 0-3. There is a binary outcome to the games. The guys have had the resilience to overcome adversity.

Without putting words in anyone’s mouth I think there is some concern with the bland and at times curious scheme. There may be some concern about the seeming inability to get plays in or be prepared for certain scenarios.

Anyone that has attended practice knows the staff likes to run them at 100 mph. They will put the guys in two minute drill scenarios, PJ will yell out a down and distance scenario and they need to snap to immediately and get the play off. It seems like someone needs to challenge the staff with similar training evolutions because they are consistently slow to react, slow to decide, burning timeouts that may be needed for two minute drives. Maybe there is a better reason for it than what is superficially evident but it seems like indecision,
 




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