Why I'm cheery and not depressed so far

Urbandale

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In October of 2008, I was sitting in the bar at the MGM Grand in Vegas. A friend of mine was with me, and we were having drinks and watching college football. The Gopher game was on right in front of me, and they were in the process of beating Illinois to run their record to 6-1. It was Brewster's second season.

My buddy, a Hawkeye fan, congratulated me. I remember telling him that I wasn't going to get too excited. Everything just seemed to be bouncing right - passes were clanging off linemen helmets and somehow finding their way into Gopher hands, fumbles were taking weird bounces away from opposing players - strange circumstances that just seemed too fortunate. Too random. Too lucky.

As we all remember, after beating Purdue the next week to jump into the Top 20, the Gophers lost their final five, including being blown out by Kansas in the Insight Bowl. Those first several games were a mirage.

This year feels different to me. These three wins don't feel fortunate or random or lucky. The Gophers have felt like the better team each game, but have simply not played terribly well, or at least just well enough. And that's a great feeling to have, because that means the ceiling is higher. It's like when Tiger Woods would struggle to a two under in a round and all the announcers would say that he was right in the thick of it despite not playing particularly well, so the other players better look out tomorrow.

What a rejuvenating feeling to have three wins and absolutely know that the best is yet to come.
 

In October of 2008, I was sitting in the bar at the MGM Grand in Vegas. A friend of mine was with me, and we were having drinks and watching college football. The Gopher game was on right in front of me, and they were in the process of beating Illinois to run their record to 6-1. It was Brewster's second season.

My buddy, a Hawkeye fan, congratulated me. I remember telling him that I wasn't going to get too excited. Everything just seemed to be bouncing right - passes were clanging off linemen helmets and somehow finding their way into Gopher hands, fumbles were taking weird bounces away from opposing players - strange circumstances that just seemed too fortunate. Too random. Too lucky.

As we all remember, after beating Purdue the next week to jump into the Top 20, the Gophers lost their final five, including being blown out by Kansas in the Insight Bowl. Those first several games were a mirage.

This year feels different to me. These three wins don't feel fortunate or random or lucky. The Gophers have felt like the better team each game, but have simply not played terribly well, or at least just well enough. And that's a great feeling to have, because that means the ceiling is higher. It's like when Tiger Woods would struggle to a two under in a round and all the announcers would say that he was right in the thick of it despite not playing particularly well, so the other players better look out tomorrow.

What a rejuvenating feeling to have three wins and absolutely know that the best is yet to come.

Bumping my own thread from September 15th because nobody found it interesting enough to comment on. But I thought I made some prescient points. [...wincing and steeling myself to, once again, get nothing but crickets...]
 

Bumping my own thread from September 15th because nobody found it interesting enough to comment on. But I thought I made some prescient points. [...wincing and steeling myself to, once again, get nothing but crickets...]

Well, nice post. Took me a while, but now I am appreciating the team and it's accomplishments. As you mentioned inspite of playing less than perfect ball.
 


Since we're resurrecting posts that got no run, I'll throw in this one I made on 9/16 about the offense (specifically the running game struggles) after having gone back and rewatched the GT game. I'll try not to break my arm patting myself on the back.

I DO think they're capable of performances (and final scores) like that this year, and I wouldn't be surprised with 8 wins -- even after this shaky start. Just based on what I saw in the GT game, I think the biggest factors will be these:

>RBs finding creases when it doesn't look like there's a crease...plus breaking tackles when 1-1. Smith started slow this year, but he looked much better Saturday before going out...something like 5 YPC. Ibrahim has looked equally as explosive (and hard to tackle) as last year, but I'm not wondering if he hasn't been battling a slight injury. In either case, the dropoff from healthy Smith and Ibrahim to Wiley to Williams was obvious, despite the OL being the same. I'm starting to think it takes time for the RBs to get back at game speed with finding holes in this zone scheme (esp with Smith coming off an injury...and esp with few obvious creases so far), so I can see big improvements coming in that area.

>OL gel to the point where they at least get stalemates upfront -- or only one guy gets whipped. This year we've frequently seen two or more guys screw up on the same play which leads to a total breakdown.

>OL learn to deal with basic stunts and blitzes so there isn't instant pressure (or from multiple places). Morgan is really good at eluding one man if he has a second to survey things. It's these multiple "jailbreak" scenarios this year where he's got no hope.

>More quick hitting stuff to the WRs and stretching the D horizontally rather than just vertically -- both in the passing game and through stretch type running plays. Right now everybody is just coming straight downhill on our running and passing games at mesh point because every run (and many throws in RPO) is between the hashes. In the bowl game a lot more stuff went outside.
 


This is a team that used three and sort of four to find itself. They overcame all kinds and all versions of adversity to win. A team that grew up right in front of us. I’m not going to dig up the posts, but after the Fresno win, I’ve repeatedly said this will be a special season, enjoy the ride.
 

Bumping my own thread from September 15th because nobody found it interesting enough to comment on. But I thought I made some prescient points. [...wincing and steeling myself to, once again, get nothing but crickets...]

Ha, at first when I saw this I thought it was a post from today and thought to myself “only on a Minnesota board would someone feel the need to explain themselves for being cheery following a 7-0 start.”
 

It’s too bad G4L can’t be here to enjoy the cheeryness.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

I don’t know how many people I explained how the first 3 games we had as bad of luck as you can have (without major injuries), and still prevailed. Great insight and I’m glad that the bad luck has subsided and we seem to be improving by the week.
 



Good post. Not sure how I missed it when first posted.

Early this year we were winning despite some bad bounces.
Lately we've been beating teams soundly where a single bad hop doesn't blow the game.
 


When I watch the gophers, I feel like I'm watching a team that's lost every game this season and doesn't need to care about the record or the score. They play loose and relaxed. Isn't that coaching, and dare I say culture? Am I wrong about this?
 

I was sitting in a different casino in Vegas for the Nebraska game with an LSU fan (the LSU - Florida game was on).
They watched a bit of the Gophers game, turned to me and said, “wow, Minnesota looks like a real football team.”

About all you can ask for from an SEC fan.
 



I was sitting in a different casino in Vegas for the Nebraska game with an LSU fan (the LSU - Florida game was on).
They watched a bit of the Gophers game, turned to me and said, “wow, Minnesota looks like a real football team.”

About all you can ask for from an SEC fan.

Not fake news for sure.
 

I'm trying not to get ahead of things. Lets beat Maryland first. Then we have separated ourselves from the bottom half of the league with the best of the West next.

If we become 8-0, this is a huge step from last year. Then who knows.............
 

I somehow missed it back in September. Good stuff. I was worried on September 15 but certainly not ready to give up. Not like the guy that sat behind us in the stadium that booed like crazy every time a drive stalled or an opponent got a first down through the first couple home games.
 

I somehow missed it back in September. Good stuff. I was worried on September 15 but certainly not ready to give up. Not like the guy that sat behind us in the stadium that booed like crazy every time a drive stalled or an opponent got a first down through the first couple home games.

Hopefully he's chilled the **** out by this point
 

I'm trying not to get ahead of things. Lets beat Maryland first. Then we have separated ourselves from the bottom half of the league with the best of the West next.

If we become 8-0, this is a huge step from last year. Then who knows.............

Yes, this. I'm happy but tentative - I am OK with the Gophers losing 3 of the last 4, given the circumstances. But they really need to win this one, against a team who has historically given them a lot more problems than they should have.
 

Yes, this. I'm happy but tentative - I am OK with the Gophers losing 3 of the last 4, given the circumstances. But they really need to win this one, against a team who has historically given them a lot more problems than they should have.

What I would hold onto is that 2 of the three games we lost last year that felt terrible (Illinois, Maryland, Nebraska) have already been reversed this year lending more credence to the idea that firing Robb Smith might have been the best thing that has happened to this team. I am hopeful and expect to reverse last years loss to Maryland as well.

Even the Iowa loss was played with a Robb Smith defense, I'm guardedly hopeful we put a beat down on them too.
 

Yes, this. I'm happy but tentative - I am OK with the Gophers losing 3 of the last 4, given the circumstances. But they really need to win this one, against a team who has historically given them a lot more problems than they should have.

If the Gophers beat Maryland Saturday, I will not be OK with them losing 3 of the last 4. Get to 10+ regular season wins and then we'll see where that lands them. Will improve everything: recruiting, media coverage, ticket sales, atmosphere, general excitement.

Winning fixes almost everything.
 

This team is different, they don't need to be perfect or get all the bounces and calls to win. When have we had a team make so many mistakes (strip sacks, stupid penalties, blocked field goals) go against them and still be able to win?

I didn't realize it until the second half of the Illinois game and told my wife right before Illinois scored their second defensive touchdown that day. She got mad and said I jinxed them, I just laughed and told her it doesn't matter with this gopher team.
 




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