Chip Scoggins column: Kill's discipline is just what Gophers need

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I love the Scooping up horsecrap story. Under Brewster (also my undergrad) it was well known what kind of problems there were with players. They would start fights out at house parties and the fraternities when access was denied. My friend got decked when he was door guarding. (It's clear they're players because they'd always wear their backpacks and number tags around.) Students went to Brewster and his response was "It's not my job to deal with them off the field." We were appalled. I'm glad to see we have a coach who legitimately cares about his players and his community. I know that this is going to lead to wins.
 

I know and talked to a bar owner in the area that also was having issues with players and actually went to Brewster's staff about it. He was told if he couldn't I.D. them there was nothing they could do. He actually banned U of M players from his bar that he has owned for nearly 15 years. I'm sure Kill and staff will be more receptive to neighborhood issues.
 


I might be wrong but I don't believe we will see a plethora of off the field problems during the Kill era. He won't put up with it.
 


Unregistered User said:
You have a degree in Brewster? I thought the Disney class I took was odd, but this takes the cake.
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Yea. A Brewster major is perfect for getting into Law School for people. You get to learn how to talk alot of B.S. ;)
 

It's the responsibility of the school to control and discipline any segment of the student population that is creating problems in the neighborhood. That should be true whether it is football players or not. Because of the size of the U it is often difficult to do that with the general student population but if a small subset was creating problems and nothing was done, that is crazy.
 

Best line of the article...

"But Kill wants his players to know that it's not OK to skip class, it's not OK to arrive late to study hall, it's not OK to jump offsides on third-and-2. If his players don't believe those things are interrelated, they will continue down the same path they're on."

It doesn't start with discipline on the field in front of thousands, it starts with choices you make when few or no one is watching.
 

Last summer a friend whose neighbor's kid is on the spirit squad told me the kid told him the team was going to be "terrible" because they were "partying too hard." I took it with a grain of salt thinking there's no way Brewster, whose job was on the line, would be dumb enough to let the team get that out of control at such a critical time during his tenure. Man that guy was blowing smoke up our collective butts.
 



It's refresing to have the adults back in charge.
 

Just speaking for on the field discipline, they'll be a much improved team if they can clean up half of their stupid mental penalties. How many times over the past four years did they shoot themselves in the foot with a stupid penalty? Drove me nuts because so many of them were drive killers on offense and drive extenders on defense.
 

SMU GOPHS FAN said:
Just speaking for on the field discipline, they'll be a much improved team if they can clean up half of their stupid mental penalties. How many times over the past four years did they shoot themselves in the foot with a stupid penalty? Drove me nuts because so many of them were drive killers on offense and drive extenders on defense.
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Overall discipline is what Kill is trying to get at. If you conduct yourself as an adult off the field that translates to on-the-field discipline. Showing up for study hall 15 minutes late is the same as jumping a hard count on 3rd and 2 in Kill's eyes.
 

I wouldn't expect to not hear any of these stories anymore, it sort of comes with the territory of college football. Even the most disciplined, well run programs have their fair share of the off the field issues. The fact remains that a lot of college football players, even the good ones who are disciplined, are a different type of human. They are cut from a little different cloth and are sometimes more prone to issues of getting into fights and that sort of thing. I'm not condoning and and i'm not defending Brewster as it sounded like the inmates were running the asylum for a bit in Dinkytown.

Now, it didn't appear to be much more than any other program and it actually appeared to be less of a problem with football than basketball but I do think Kill will probably put more of a premium on being responsible. However, off the field issues won't go away. Big 10 college football players are also going to be MUCH more likely to be the alpha male type that teeters on being a jerk than the typical student (not all of them, but just in general), so I'd imagine the stories of them bullying to get into house parties and causing ruckus at local bars will continue.
 



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