"New Deal in Gopherland"...a good read

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metrolax

metrolax

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During Holtz's first season in 1984, Sports Illustrated ran an article by William Oscar
Johnson that even today is a good read into the past of Gopher Football.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1122791/index.htm

While there are some problems endemic to the Gophers' situation in 1984 that
have since been changed for the better (facilities, the state producing skill
position players like D. Thompson and T. Tapeh, among others), there are still
many things that ring true today.

Just some insight.....
 


truly a great read, change a few names and it could have been written last year instead of 1984
 


That was a fun read. One big difference I see from 1984 is the article itself. Nowdays you'd need it to be about 3/4 shorter for someone to take the time to read it and it would have to have several big glossy pictures with it. Nobody reads articles that long these days.

Interesting though. A lot of it is still true today but a lot of it is different. There have been some very good skill position players out of the state since that article was written.
 



It seems the administration likes to go to sleep on their duties to manage what is a pretty big revenue stream, only to wake up and find out they're no longer relevant. Then they scramble to get to catch up. Then they go back to sleep and repeat. Someday they'll figure out that it's actually more prudent to always stay a little ahead rather than play catch up.
 

After reading that article, it's easy to see that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
 

What is so special about Lou whatever? He was a first class asshole and had 2 very average seasons. he excited a bunch of square heads.
 



Great article.

Not only would one not find a current article of such length, but with such reference to non-athletic knowledge.
 

That was an excellent article. Very well-written piece, and it was great coming from that particular perspective, the lifelong Gophers fan who'd been following the team since he was a kid, and been continually let down by since he was a kid. And the article is so evocative of those heady days of a very brief hope, and there was a definite and serious hope. That was the Minnesota Golden Gophers version of a Prague Spring, and this writer did a hell of a job capturing that brief moment in time and expressing how that felt.

I'd read this guy's stuff any day of the week. He really did a heck of a job with this.
 

He wrote an article on Bruce Smith a few years later. I'll try to find it for you.
 




Not to be sacrilegious about it, but I've always thought of the Holtz era in almost Biblical terms, how he came to us as a savior, a modern-day Moses come to lead us out of the wilderness after wandering in the desert for all those years, and how he left us as a Judas Iscariot, who sold us out for 30 pieces of silver and the glitter and gold of Notre Dame.

It was the polar extremes of emotion, such shining hope and then such crushing and bitter disappointment, anger, and resentment- and then of course that old familiar fatalism and resignation as you realize that hey, we're the Gophers, so what the hell else do you expect? The answer is to expect nothing, and thereby hope to minimize disappointment.

That was a very intense experience emotionally for me. I really felt it and got caught up in it, and I will never forget how that felt.
 

My Dad knew Bruce Smith from when he lived in Alexandria, and he always told me that
he was such a genuine, unassuming, down-to-earth guy.

I have always loved the SI article on him.
 

The good news...

The good news is that, nowadays, you CAN find quarterbacks and receivers in Minnesota and the surrounding states. Not a lot, but not none either. The task of coaching Minnesota Football isn't nearly as uphill as it was when the article was written.

Holtz was a great coach, simply great. He wasn't just a salesman and a recruiter, he knew offense, and he had the knack for head coaching and organizing. His players loved and respected him. The turnaround was instant from 1983 to 1984. With many of the same players, it didn't even look like the same team.
 

gopherjay said:
What is so special about Lou whatever? He was a first class asshole and had 2 very average seasons. he excited a bunch of square heads.
Click to expand...

What was special about him was how he took a program that was in a worse situation than we are in now to a bowl game. If he would have stayed-Rose Bowl. Too bad he is a little weasle.
 

I think the geography arguement is worn out.
If places like Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Boise State and Oregon State can overcome their geography, then so can we.
 

Go Gophers Rah said:
I think the geography arguement is worn out.
If places like Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Boise State and Oregon State can overcome their geography, then so can we.
Click to expand...

It's not JUST geography keeping us back. It is ONE of the factors. Nobody is saying we can't win JUST because of the location we are in.

The reality is that we ARE at a disadvantage compared to many of the schools in the FBS because of our geography and lack of local talent. There is no way of getting around that or disputing it. The numbers back it up.

Some of the schools you mentioned have overcome their geography and lack of local talent because they have less issues OVERALL holding them back, or in the case of Oregon State (I'll throw Oregon in there too) and Boise St, are a lot closer to talent in California to help them out. We have to deal with not only geography, but commitment financially, same exact city as pro sports teams, cold weather, etc.
 

Go Gophers Rah said:
I think the geography arguement is worn out.
If places like Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Boise State and Oregon State can overcome their geography, then so can we.
Click to expand...

Everything has to come together and you have to get a little lucky to be successfull. If Nebraska and Iowa can win so can the Gophers. Minnesota is better than those states as far as home grown talent is concerned.
 

I've said this before, but when your hometown city and your state's largest
city contribute next to nothing over a period of years to your program, you
will be hurt.

When Minneapolis stopped sending players to the U, Gopher football
started to slide.

If MPLS HS football can start sending 6-10 players a year to the U,
then things will be much easier.

In most cases, the state schools around the country can count on their
large and largest cities providing players. Not so in Minnesota with MPLS.
 

This story provided an interesting juxtaposition: If you noticed, the story appeared in an edition that featured a cover story about Gerry Faust, the Notre Dame coach at the time. After Faust failed at ND, Holtz left Minnesota and took over for Faust. Talk about your SI jinx!
 

jovs said:
Everything has to come together and you have to get a little lucky to be successfull. If Nebraska and Iowa can win so can the Gophers. Minnesota is better than those states as far as home grown talent is concerned.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The whining about the local talent, weather and worst of all pro sports teams is pathetic. The weather is no worse then the rest of the Big 10. The local talent, while not FL or TX, is better then Iowa, Nebraska, etc.

Finally, the pro sports thing is a total straw-man. It CAN actually be a good thing. What's more impressive to an out-state recruit, a thriving large city with pro sports among many other entertainment options or Iowa City/Madison? In some ways UW has it even worse. They still have to compete with the Packers/Bucks for ticket sales and media, yet they can't showcase pro sports as a reason for recruits to come to Madison since they're hours away. But Josh/UpNorth you just keep telling yourselves it's all the Vikings fault.
 

metrolax said:
I've said this before, but when your hometown city and your state's largest
city contribute next to nothing over a period of years to your program, you
will be hurt.

When Minneapolis stopped sending players to the U, Gopher football
started to slide.

If MPLS HS football can start sending 6-10 players a year to the U,
then things will be much easier.

In most cases, the state schools around the country can count on their
large and largest cities providing players. Not so in Minnesota with MPLS.
Click to expand...

While it's true that there hasn't been much talent produced recently within the MPLS city limits, that's a bit of an arbitrary boundry. The suburbs and St. Paul have produced plnety. CDH alone has produced many NFL-calibur players in the last 20 years that we've missed on. You don't think getting even a few from the group of Steve Walsh/Chris Wienke/Joe Mauer/Corbin Lacina/S. Henderson, etc. would have helped immensely?
 

metrolax said:
I've said this before, but when your hometown city and your state's largest
city contribute next to nothing over a period of years to your program, you
will be hurt.

When Minneapolis stopped sending players to the U, Gopher football
started to slide.

If MPLS HS football can start sending 6-10 players a year to the U,
then things will be much easier.

In most cases, the state schools around the country can count on their
large and largest cities providing players. Not so in Minnesota with MPLS.
Click to expand...

Careful, I went to a Minneapolis high school that very recently did not win a game for a period of years. Yes, years, as in plural. There was even one season where they did not record an offensive touchdown.

I agree with you, though.
 

howeda7 said:
Finally, the pro sports thing is a total straw-man. It CAN actually be a good thing. What's more impressive to an out-state recruit, a thriving large city with pro sports among many other entertainment options or Iowa City/Madison? In some ways UW has it even worse. They still have to compete with the Packers/Bucks for ticket sales and media, yet they can't showcase pro sports as a reason for recruits to come to Madison since they're hours away. But Josh/UpNorth you just keep telling yourselves it's all the Vikings fault.
Click to expand...

Ummmmm.....hate to break it to you, but recruits are far more impressed by FULL college stadiums of 70,000+ and fans that support the team they are being recruited by no matter what their record is vs. the ability to attend a Timberwolves game or go to the Guthrie.

99% of parents or recruits will say the exact same thing, and you know it.

Also, why do you keep thinking I blame everything on the Vikings? I know I have told you this before but you don't seem to grasp the concept of not putting words into people's mouths. Please find just one post where I have ever said it is all the Vikings fault. I guarantee you won't find one - however, you probably have at least a half dozen posts where you say that I have said it. Talk about grasping at straws.
 

It was an enlightening article. Good read.

Thanks for posting it.
 

metrolax said:
I've said this before, but when your hometown city and your state's largest
city contribute next to nothing over a period of years to your program, you
will be hurt.

When Minneapolis stopped sending players to the U, Gopher football
started to slide.

If MPLS HS football can start sending 6-10 players a year to the U,
then things will be much easier.

In most cases, the state schools around the country can count on their
large and largest cities providing players. Not so in Minnesota with MPLS.
Click to expand...

If this is the case were completely f'd.
It's interesting as this article relates to the SI article, when Holtz says that the U has to start recruiting outside of MN. This is kind of like that, the days of Minneapolis being a power house of hs state football is gone. But if the twin cities can turn out 6-10 high quality players to play for the gophers I think that's an adequate replacement.
 

howeda7 said:
While it's true that there hasn't been much talent produced recently within the MPLS city limits, that's a bit of an arbitrary boundry. The suburbs and St. Paul have produced plnety. CDH alone has produced many NFL-calibur players in the last 20 years that we've missed on. You don't think getting even a few from the group of Steve Walsh/Chris Wienke/Joe Mauer/Corbin Lacina/S. Henderson, etc. would have helped immensely?
Click to expand...

And that's just the short list from CDH. Floyd, Harris, McCullough, only one of three Rosgas. We've gotten a few, but that's a talent vein we should be able to mine. Believe me, Holtz would have had them doing "Hail Lous" in chapel.
 

josh087 said:
Ummmmm.....hate to break it to you, but recruits are far more impressed by FULL college stadiums of 70,000+ and fans that support the team they are being recruited by no matter what their record is vs. the ability to attend a Timberwolves game or go to the Guthrie.

99% of parents or recruits will say the exact same thing, and you know it.

Also, why do you keep thinking I blame everything on the Vikings? I know I have told you this before but you don't seem to grasp the concept of not putting words into people's mouths. Please find just one post where I have ever said it is all the Vikings fault. I guarantee you won't find one - however, you probably have at least a half dozen posts where you say that I have said it. Talk about grasping at straws.
Click to expand...

There's no question that recruits are more impressed with a full stadium. However, the Gophers have already proven they can fill TCF and have it roaring and full of atmosphere, so that is not the issue. My only point is that having the pro teams in the same city is probably better then having them in your market but a couple hours away. You get the disdavantages of competition without the benefits. Admittedly, the Hawkeye's get the unflinching adoration of most Iowans. But the trade-off is they have to convince recruits Iowa City's more fun then Minneapolis, Chicago and Madison, etc.

Admittedly, you've probably never said it was 'all' the Vikings fault, so I was exaggerating. But there are a few on this board who can't seem to move off of it, and actually want the Vikings to leave in some desperate hope it will help. It won't help, and it's a selfish thing to wish for.
 

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