The Sleeping Giant

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RogueGopher

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PJ Fleck talked about the Gophers being a sleeping giant back when he first signed to be the head football coach at the University of Minnesota. Well, it looks like the giant is beginning to open its eyes. Arguably the biggest game in the last 50+ years, Nov. 9th.

If you're Penn State, you can not let the Gophers win this game. If the Gophers win this game, the giant will be fully awake and ready to tear apart anyone in its path.

https://youtu.be/u45UD--68EA
 

RogueGopher said:
PJ Fleck talked about the Gophers being a sleeping giant back when he first signed to be the head football coach at the University of Minnesota. Well, it looks like the giant is beginning to open its eyes. Arguably the biggest game in the last 50+ years, Nov. 9th.

If you're Penn State, you can not let the Gophers win this game. If the Gophers win this game, the giant will be fully awake and ready to tear apart anyone in its path.

https://youtu.be/u45UD--68EA
Click to expand...

 

RogueGopher said:
PJ Fleck talked about the Gophers being a sleeping giant back when he first signed to be the head football coach at the University of Minnesota. Well, it looks like the giant is beginning to open its eyes. Arguably the biggest game in the last 50+ years, Nov. 9th.

If you're Penn State, you can not let the Gophers win this game. If the Gophers win this game, the giant will be fully awake and ready to tear apart anyone in its path.

https://youtu.be/u45UD--68EA
Click to expand...

Purely awesome


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Hayden Fry once said we were a sleeping giant. Lou Holtz left before he even got started and we are still waiting. Maybe this is it.
 

"Once you come here, either to visit or to live for a little bit, you end up staying forever."

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tJOlrapRFwo" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 


Love these old clips from a few years ago. When this team finally turns the corner the support from the fans will be there, the tough part is that there have been false starts and near misses in the past so people are very nervous about buying in.

These next 4 games could go a long way towards waking the sleeping giant that is Minnesota football. Fleck is spot on with this area being unique. We don't have the strong local talent base but we can offer a lot of things that other schools can't and those things will really appeal to some players. You just have to have a staff willing to work hard enough to go find those guys.

Exciting time to be a Gopher football fan, we might still be a year away from really arriving on the National scene but for the first time in a long time it feels like we may finally be taking that next step that has eluded this program for so long.
 

I think you all are putting way to much into this one game. “Awaking the sleeping giant” is not a one game event. It won’t happen because we beat PSU, and it won’t be stopped if we lose to PSU.
 

RogueGopher said:
"Once you come here, either to visit or to live for a little bit, you end up staying forever."

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tJOlrapRFwo" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Click to expand...

He had a list of 8 jobs he was willing to leave WMU for, and we were on the list.

I wonder if he has a similar list now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

DEGopher said:
I think you all are putting way to much into this one game. “Awaking the sleeping giant” is not a one game event. It won’t happen because we beat PSU, and it won’t be stopped if we lose to PSU.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input.
 



PitinoFan said:
He had a list of 8 jobs he was willing to leave WMU for, and we were on the list.

I wonder if he has a similar list now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I’ve been thinking the same as you, but I don’t want to think that way...can’t help it as a Gopher fan.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

PitinoFan said:
He had a list of 8 jobs he was willing to leave WMU for, and we were on the list.

I wonder if he has a similar list now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Sad that people watch those videos and the part they fixate on is the part that plays into the inferiority complex so many of us have here ever since Holtz abandoned us. There should be a clinical term for it because it runs very deep in Gopher football.

Coaches don't tend to actively try to leave the Big Ten, because you know it is one of those major conferences and all that. If the school takes care of him and his assistants I highly doubt he will be in any hurry to go start over somewhere else when he clearly has a good thing going here.

Could be totally wrong and maybe he will jump ship the first time a big time offer comes his way, but I have a feeling he truly is really happy here and believes he can win at a high level.

In the meantime people just need to relax and enjoy the journey.
 

DEGopher said:
I think you all are putting way to much into this one game. “Awaking the sleeping giant” is not a one game event. It won’t happen because we beat PSU, and it won’t be stopped if we lose to PSU.
Click to expand...

I agree PSU isnt the end all be all, but collectively, PSU, Iowa, and Wisconsin could have a big effect. We win 2 of those 3 (and dont crap the bed at Northwestern), and we are packing for Indy. We lose all three, then we are a 9 in team, which is still a very good year, but back to the "well, they did a good job of not slipping up in any of the easy ones, but couldn't handle the good opponents" territory. Getting Penn State under our belt would be huge, then we just need to split Iowa/Wisconsin.
 

RogueGopher said:
PJ Fleck talked about the Gophers being a sleeping giant back when he first signed to be the head football coach at the University of Minnesota. Well, it looks like the giant is beginning to open its eyes. Arguably the biggest game in the last 50+ years, Nov. 9th.

If you're Penn State, you can not let the Gophers win this game. If the Gophers win this game, the giant will be fully awake and ready to tear apart anyone in its path.

https://youtu.be/u45UD--68EA
Click to expand...

Lou Holtz once said the same thing. He called it one of the top jobs in the country as you could sell it as a 60 year plan where the many local businesses set up a career outside of football for the rest of your life. There is a lot of money here. I love all the new people picking up interest here - that is how you know it is picking up steam here.
 



RogueGopher said:
PJ Fleck talked about the Gophers being a sleeping giant back when he first signed to be the head football coach at the University of Minnesota. Well, it looks like the giant is beginning to open its eyes. Arguably the biggest game in the last 50+ years, Nov. 9th.

If you're Penn State, you can not let the Gophers win this game. If the Gophers win this game, the giant will be fully awake and ready to tear apart anyone in its path.

https://youtu.be/u45UD--68EA
Click to expand...
The giant is waking. It remains to be seen if State Penn is a victim of the giant or not, but something big is brewing in Gophertown. Lose to them, not the end of the world because anyone with a brain can see progress, but if THE Original U beats them, it's "Katy, bar the F-ing door'. The U is on to big things.
 

If we beat Penn State there are lots of things that change:

1. We won't be underdogs in any of remaining games.
2. We will be ranked in the top 10.
3. We won't be "The Worst Undefeated Team in the Country".
4. We become every other team's "Super Bowl".
5. We become "Media Darlings".

We lose, and we get the "Told you so" treatment.

Seize the moment Gophers!

Go Gophers!
 

Otis said:
If we beat Penn State there are lots of things that change:

1. We won't be underdogs in any of remaining games.
2. We will be ranked in the top 10.
3. We won't be "The Worst Undefeated Team in the Country".
4. We become every other team's "Super Bowl".
5. We become "Media Darlings".

We lose, and we get the "Told you so" treatment.

Seize the moment Gophers!

Go Gophers!
Click to expand...

Exactly!

I am not surprised, but it still amazing to see the twitter comments about how The Gophers "haven't played anyone." Almost every time I see someone bashing the Gophers or somehow holding this team responsible for its schedule or dismissing B1G victories, a look at the person bio or past Twitter activity reveals them to be big Vikings fans.

Beating Penn State (a very tall task) is somehow more important for convincing our own "fans" than it is national media.

I always envisioned a series of steps to having a good team. Start getting to bowl games regularly. Then start winning more B1G games, then start winning a lot of B1G games and occasionally take down a ranked team. Then be regularly ranked and a regular match for conference contenders.

But, this whole time much of the Gopher "fan base" had a much more simple pathway: Schedule Alabama, Oklahoma, and LSU for non conference games every season and petition for B1G scheduling changes that guarantee cross over games against PSU, Ohio State, and Michigan and only count those games along with Iowa and Wisconsin in conference standings. Any other B1G game doesn't count.
 

RogueGopher said:
PJ Fleck talked about the Gophers being a sleeping giant back when he first signed to be the head football coach at the University of Minnesota. Well, it looks like the giant is beginning to open its eyes. Arguably the biggest game in the last 50+ years, Nov. 9th.

If you're Penn State, you can not let the Gophers win this game. If the Gophers win this game, the giant will be fully awake and ready to tear apart anyone in its path.

https://youtu.be/u45UD--68EA
Click to expand...

I love seeing Minnesota being called the "Sleeping Giant". A program that was once great and now awakening again and becoming a newly emerging power in the Big Ten.
 

Schnauzer said:
Exactly!

I am not surprised, but it still amazing to see the twitter comments about how The Gophers "haven't played anyone." Almost every time I see someone bashing the Gophers or somehow holding this team responsible for its schedule or dismissing B1G victories, a look at the person bio or past Twitter activity reveals them to be big Vikings fans.

Beating Penn State (a very tall task) is somehow more important for convincing our own "fans" than it is national media.

I always envisioned a series of steps to having a good team. Start getting to bowl games regularly. Then start winning more B1G games, then start winning a lot of B1G games and occasionally take down a ranked team. Then be regularly ranked and a regular match for conference contenders.

But, this whole time much of the Gopher "fan base" had a much more simple pathway: Schedule Alabama, Oklahoma, and LSU for non conference games every season and petition for B1G scheduling changes that guarantee cross over games against PSU, Ohio State, and Michigan and only count those games along with Iowa and Wisconsin in conference standings. Any other B1G game doesn't count.
Click to expand...

There is a difference between unfairly criticizing a team for a back-loaded schedule (though we do have control over what kind of outbof conference slate we put together) and acknowledging that there are unanswered questions due to the fact that we dont have any data points against high-quality competition. Our next game, we get the answer to those questions.
 

DEGopher said:
I think you all are putting way to much into this one game. “Awaking the sleeping giant” is not a one game event. It won’t happen because we beat PSU, and it won’t be stopped if we lose to PSU.
Click to expand...

Exactly right. Some fans love the narrative of a "program changing win" or "season." Neither of these exist. What team has ever had a "program changing win?" You become a great team through sustained excellence over a period of time, not a single game or even a single season. There are plenty of teams that had one great season and then moved back to mediocrity quickly. The aspect I like to our team is that we are developing depth and appear poised to be a good team for the foreseeable future.

Beating Penn St will mean little if we lose to Iowa and Wisky. Likewise, a loss isn't going to be "Michigan 2003" all over again if we beat Iowa and Wisky.
 

The Jolly Green Giant is gone from MN now as I understand the last cannery in LeSeur closed...so Welcome Giant Striped Gopher!
 

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