Jerry's honeymoon over?

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beavergopher

beavergopher

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Season in a death spiral after hopeful start. Chickens out of UNC series, who have a first year coach, while pissing away needed money for the athletic dept. Gets ass kicked by both arch rivals who are having down years. Starting to wonder if this is going to work. So sick of losing to the Badger.................in honor of Clem Haskins.
 

Before the season started, if it was hypothesized that the Gophers would start out 4-0, but lose the first three conference games, I don't think many people would have called that a death spiral.
 

No B1G championship in year 2, this is unacceptable, Kill must go, let's start from scratch again, that's the ticket.
 

No B1G championship in year 2, this is unacceptable, Kill must go, let's start from scratch again, that's the ticket.
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Next year will be a big one for this staff. 1-2 Big 10 wins in year THREE will not be acceptable. Although nothing will happen to probably after year 4 in terms of firing/resigning.
 

It's not over, but all the goodwill from 4-0 is gone. The fringe fans aren't going to buy tickets for a team that's looked terribly unprepared for their first three conference games. Playing all the freshmen might be part of the bigger plan, but it also looks like a desperate move to win now.
 


It seems that with many in the sports media and some of the fans the honeymoon is indeed over. Personally I'm rather shocked at the high expectations. If Jerry Kill is not going to turn this program around we'll know it in year 4 or 5, not year 1.5.
 

B1G sucks, so expecting a win or two is unrealistic? Anyone see the PSU iowa score.
 


What does it even mean when someone says the honeymoon is over? Never understood that phrase.
 



beavergopher said:
B1G sucks, so expecting a win or two is unrealistic? Anyone see the PSU iowa score.
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Not unrealistic, but so far they have played at Iowa, home against NW, and at Wisconsin. I wish they could have taken one of these 3 as bad as anyone - but that being said.

At Iowa: Extremely tough place to play and Iowa was coming off an embarrassing loss to a bad team.

NW: Currently 6-2. Honestly, probably should have won this game - but w/out starting QB and a number of OL - not an easy game.

At Wisconsin: Expecting a victory? True Freshman QB in 1st start? 3 OL out? Unreasonable expectations. If I recall, I saw a stat that said the last 3 teams that won at Wisconsin have all gone to a BCS Bowl. Hate saying it, but we aren't in that class yet - especially playing as short handed as we were.
 

stevedave23 said:
It seems that with many in the sports media and some of the fans the honeymoon is indeed over. Personally I'm rather shocked at the high expectations. If Jerry Kill is not going to turn this program around we'll know it in year 4 or 5, not year 1.5.
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Not sure if there really is such a thing as a honeymoon period for a coach taking over a program like this one. Personally, I'd call it more of a grace period. But all terminology arguments aside, Kill really did himself a disservice with how he handled the North Carolina scenario. Should have just left the series alone and let it play out while continuing to work towards improving the team day-by-day.

Instead, it comes out that Teague and Kill practically begged UNC to cancel the series (to the tune of $800,000) because they're just too darn tough for us. And to top that off, he then sandwiches that announcement around blowout losses to Iowa and Wisconsin in which the team appears only somewhat competent. So, yeah, I guess you could say the "honeymoon" or "grace" period is over. The frustrating thing is that it didn't have to be over this soon.
 

MRJ said:
Not sure if there really is such a thing as a honeymoon period for a coach taking over a program like this one. Personally, I'd call it more of a grace period. But all terminology arguments aside, Kill really did himself a disservice with how he handled the North Carolina scenario. Should have just left the series alone and let it play out while continuing to work towards improving the team day-by-day.

Instead, it comes out that Teague and Kill practically begged UNC to cancel the series (to the tune of $800,000) because they're just too darn tough for us. And to top that off, he then sandwiches that announcement around blowout losses to Iowa and Wisconsin in which the team appears only somewhat competent. So, yeah, I guess you could say the "honeymoon" or "grace" period is over. The frustrating thing is that it didn't have to be over this soon.
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It doesn't help that UNC lost to Duke tonight.
 




GophersInIowa said:
What does it even mean when someone says the honeymoon is over? Never understood that phrase.
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When you're on your honeymoon you are madly in love, you only see the best in each other, you are willing to forgive small transgressions. Then you come home and sometime during the first month it's that time of month for your wife, the dog got sick on the new carpet, and you decided to stay for just one more. The honeymoon is over!
 

I don't think the season is in a death spiral. Although I think our performance in the last three games has been disappointing, our team, as Coach Kill keeps reminding us, is young. At times our defense looked good today. Our offense, at times. showed promise. I expect that we will improve as the season progresses. That doesn't mean, however, that we will win any more games, but I do think we are likely to improve, and that we will be be better next year and will continue to improve the year after.

I am disappiointed, though, that we cancelled the North Carolina games. I think it sends a very bad message to potential recruits.
 

MRJ said:
Not sure if there really is such a thing as a honeymoon period for a coach taking over a program like this one. Personally, I'd call it more of a grace period. But all terminology arguments aside, Kill really did himself a disservice with how he handled the North Carolina scenario. Should have just left the series alone and let it play out while continuing to work towards improving the team day-by-day.

Instead, it comes out that Teague and Kill practically begged UNC to cancel the series (to the tune of $800,000) because they're just too darn tough for us. And to top that off, he then sandwiches that announcement around blowout losses to Iowa and Wisconsin in which the team appears only somewhat competent. So, yeah, I guess you could say the "honeymoon" or "grace" period is over. The frustrating thing is that it didn't have to be over this soon.
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Well said.

I don't think Kill or Teague had any idea of the PR implications of the UNC situation.
 

gophertime said:
When you're on your honeymoon you are madly in love, you only see the best in each other, you are willing to forgive small transgressions. Then you come home and sometime during the first month it's that time of month for your wife, the dog got sick on the new carpet, and you decided to stay for just one more. The honeymoon is over!
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My wife and I got in a gigantic fight because while we were on our honeymoon. She wanted to sign us up for an all-day timeshare presentation where the payoff was a free meal and two tickets to see Gallagher. I won that one.
 

MJGopher said:
At Wisconsin: Expecting a victory? True Freshman QB in 1st start? 3 OL out? Unreasonable expectations.
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There's a difference between expecting a win (nobody was) and expecting a fight. Some people will try to talk about how we were competitive in the first half, just like some people will try to talk about how we were competitive in the second half against Iowa. But, at the end of the day, both of those teams punched us straight in the mouth and we had nothing for them when it came down to it.

As I said elsewhere, this team has had a stunning # of big losses under Kill in just 19 games.

-Michigan (58-0)-Worst Big Ten loss in the history of the program
-Purdue (45-17)
-Nebraska (41-14)
-Wisconsin (42-13)
-Iowa (31-13)
-Wisconsin (38-13)

These aren't just losses, they're beatdowns. People lost their damn minds when Brewster lost to Iowa 55-0, but short of that game, most of his losses were at least competitive spread out over 3.5 seasons, and Brewster is absolutely vilified on this board.

So...ok. I get that Kill is getting his own guys, and he should be given time. But can we put up a damn fight? Can we tackle? Can we work on the snap exchange? Some of this stuff is just humiliating because we don't even look like we belong on the same field as them.

I expected us to finish 5-7 this year, so I'd hardly think my expectations are sky high. But I am tired of being embarrassed, and I think that's where a lot of the grace period has worn off. People are tired of being embarrassed, and the last few weeks have been really embarrassing.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
My wife and I got in a gigantic fight because while we were on our honeymoon. She wanted to sign us up for an all-day timeshare presentation where the payoff was a free meal and two tickets to see Gallagher. I won that one.
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You missed seeing Gallagher?
 

gophertime said:
You missed seeing Gallagher?
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That's the kicker. The weasel that was slinging his timeshare B.S. was telling people that they were giving away tickets to see Gallagher. It was actually to Bruce Baum, who looks a little bit like Gallagher, but doesn't smash watermelons (to the best of my knowledge).
 

MRJ said:
Not sure if there really is such a thing as a honeymoon period for a coach taking over a program like this one. Personally, I'd call it more of a grace period. But all terminology arguments aside, Kill really did himself a disservice with how he handled the North Carolina scenario. Should have just left the series alone and let it play out while continuing to work towards improving the team day-by-day.

Instead, it comes out that Teague and Kill practically begged UNC to cancel the series (to the tune of $800,000) because they're just too darn tough for us. And to top that off, he then sandwiches that announcement around blowout losses to Iowa and Wisconsin in which the team appears only somewhat competent. So, yeah, I guess you could say the "honeymoon" or "grace" period is over. The frustrating thing is that it didn't have to be over this soon.
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MRJ, you clearly know nothing about football, so i'm not surprised that in year 1.5 of the Kill regime, you're already pulling the plug. Now, for those fans that actually know something about the game, i would guess they're still behind coach Kill and believe he's the right man to get the program headed in the right direction.
 


Gopherprof said:
There's a difference between expecting a win (nobody was) and expecting a fight. Some people will try to talk about how we were competitive in the first half, just like some people will try to talk about how we were competitive in the second half against Iowa. But, at the end of the day, both of those teams punched us straight in the mouth and we had nothing for them when it came down to it.

As I said elsewhere, this team has had a stunning # of big losses under Kill in just 19 games.

-Michigan (58-0)-Worst Big Ten loss in the history of the program
-Purdue (45-17)
-Nebraska (41-14)
-Wisconsin (42-13)
-Iowa (31-13)
-Wisconsin (38-13)

These aren't just losses, they're beatdowns. People lost their damn minds when Brewster lost to Iowa 55-0, but short of that game, most of his losses were at least competitive spread out over 3.5 seasons, and Brewster is absolutely vilified on this board.

So...ok. I get that Kill is getting his own guys, and he should be given time. But can we put up a damn fight? Can we tackle? Can we work on the snap exchange? Some of this stuff is just humiliating because we don't even look like we belong on the same field as them.

I expected us to finish 5-7 this year, so I'd hardly think my expectations are sky high. But I am tired of being embarrassed, and I think that's where a lot of the grace period has worn off. People are tired of being embarrassed, and the last few weeks have been really embarrassing.
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If you want guys that can tackle or put up a fight, why don't you check with the players? If they don't have the talent, or the fight to do a better job than they did today, there's nothing the coaching staff can do about it other than recruit better players, which is what they're doing. Check that front 7 and tell me how many of those kids were brought in by the current staff? Our LB corp includes 2 former walk-ons (Rallis & Hill) in the starting line-up. They're just not good enough, man. That's not a coaching issue.
 

gopherinpain said:
Next year will be a big one for this staff. 1-2 Big 10 wins in year THREE will not be acceptable. Although nothing will happen to probably after year 4 in terms of firing/resigning.
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This is very similar to what I have been saying for a while. The first two years you can fall on the new staff young team excuses that they are tossing around freely. Year 3 will have to show noticeable improvement, not talking about championships but I would say a minimum of 3 wins in the conference. If by the end of year 4 we are still struggling to get to that 3 win threshold NT very well may make a change. But Kill will get at least 4 years baring some off the field issue to show that he knows what he is doing.

As for the honeymoon being over.....yeah it's over. Won't lead to anything drastic happening but the media is not going to pull punches after the UNC mess and the fanbase is not going to be real energized unless they can pull a few wins out of the hat. Right now I don't see a clear W on the schedule. I would say Illinois but with the way we have played on the road so far in conference that is certainly not a sure thing.
 

I notice a lack of patience with this staff that seems worse than with Brewster - yet they are making progress. Last year we were 1-3 non-con (though that included USC), this year 4-0. Last year 0-3 in B10, but that included huge beatdowns from Michigan and Purdue. With Gray healthy we'd have won homecoming and be 5-2. Injuries have been horrendous. Still, Kill & Company are making only incremental progress and many of us want marked progress (as with Hayden Fry in his early years - something you can see and feel with the team and in its morale and effort). Alvarez didn't do all that well his first two years building at Wisconsin, but won the Rose Bowl his fourth year. Maybe next year will be the big test for Kill, though he has to win at least one conference game this year, if not two, to dampen the criticism.
 

MNVCGUY said:
This is very similar to what I have been saying for a while. The first two years you can fall on the new staff young team excuses that they are tossing around freely. Year 3 will have to show noticeable improvement, not talking about championships but I would say a minimum of 3 wins in the conference. If by the end of year 4 we are still struggling to get to that 3 win threshold NT very well may make a change. But Kill will get at least 4 years baring some off the field issue to show that he knows what he is doing.

As for the honeymoon being over.....yeah it's over. Won't lead to anything drastic happening but the media is not going to pull punches after the UNC mess and the fanbase is not going to be real energized unless they can pull a few wins out of the hat. Right now I don't see a clear W on the schedule. I would say Illinois but with the way we have played on the road so far in conference that is certainly not a sure thing.
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Kill on his Thursday radio show and I also heard the new AD insinuate that bascially the program Kill took over was in shambles. Neither of them blamed any one person for this. AD guy talked about how far behind they are in the facilities which we all know. Kill talked about if he had taken over after Mason the scheduling would probably have not been an issue.

If the program was in as bad shape as we are to believe Kill deserves a full 5 years to see what he can do. That doesn't mean he isn't above criticism until then.
 

I think Jerry could bring back that loving feeling (my apologies to the Righteous Brothers) if he could pull off very doable wins vs. Purdue, at Illinois, and vs. MSU (MSU is the toughest team, but we lost by 1 TD on the road last year, they are weaker this year, so I think an improved Minnesota should be able to beat them at home) and improve his conference performance by one game. Hell, take two of those three (just match last years conference performance), go to a bowl game, and I think he will have all the fan support he needs heading into next year.
 

tpbeight said:
If you want guys that can tackle or put up a fight, why don't you check with the players?
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The players don't make millions of dollars and can't be fired. If this was the NFL, I'd suggest that a lot of cuts were in order, but that isn't the nature of college football.

If they don't have the talent, or the fight to do a better job than they did today, there's nothing the coaching staff can do about it other than recruit better players, which is what they're doing.
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I hope you're right, but we won't know that for a while I'm afraid. In any event, I think the blame can be spread pretty much across the board when you get your ass handed to you like this. Let's hope for improvement, but I can't really blame people for being discouraged or disheartened.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I think Jerry could bring back that loving feeling (my apologies to the Righteous Brothers) if he could pull off very doable wins vs. Purdue, at Illinois, and vs. MSU (MSU is the toughest team, but we lost by 1 TD on the road last year, they are weaker this year, so I think an improved Minnesota should be able to beat them at home) and improve his conference performance by one game. Hell, take two of those three (just match last years conference performance), go to a bowl game, and I think he will have all the fan support he needs heading into next year.
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You seriously underestimate MSU.
 


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