I became a Gopher fan much later in life than most of you (well beyond my college years). I didn't move to this state until this century and it took me about 10 years after moving here to become one. It was pretty easy to live in this state without catching Gopher fever as I found that the citizenry didn't live for the Gophers the same way they did for the Vikings or the Twins or the way that I saw Iowans live for the Hawkeyes when I lived in eastern Iowa.
I started watching the basketball team faithfully in Tubby's last year and the football team a year later in the 2013 season and I've been a faithful follower of both since. On the whole, I'm happy that I never embraced the football program during the Brewster years although I'm a bit sorry that I missed some good moments from Mason's tenure during my earliest years of living here.
I have to say that, on the whole, the football team hasn't been bad during my nine years as a fan - more good moments than bad moments anyway. Counting the expected outcome of this season, I will have experienced 6 winning seasons to 3 losing ones and one of those losing seasons was 2020 which was more or less a lost year for most teams. All of you know the biggest problem: we just can't beat those two teams at the top of the division more than once in a blue moon. But, we're not the only western team with that problem and also-rans in the eastern division have the same problem with their division leaders.
This morning I was trying to find a comparable Power 5 team with a similar historical conference standing to the Gophers during my tenure as a fan. I think I found one: we're the Big Ten's Kansas State. Kansas State is never at the very bottom, occasionally is close to the bottom, sometimes rises to be close to the top teams, and can usually be found in the middle of their conference. They're better than many people might think, but, since relatively few outside of their region ever think about them, their successes or failures don't make much of an impression on the national consciousness either way.
I think the most painful part of being a fan of the two most high profile men's sports (football and basketball) is that, during my Gopher period, they haven't managed great success in either sport (the 2019 football season being the clear exception). Some Big Ten teams are poor or mediocre in one of those sports but much better in the other. For example, Northwestern is terrible in basketball but frequently pretty good in football. Maryland is really mediocre in football but usually pretty successful in basketball. The same is true with Illinois, at least lately.
It must be said that our football team has been better these last nine seasons than our basketball team. Our football team rarely has been among the bottom of the conference during that time whereas Pitino's teams have been among that group in five of his eight seasons and Johnson's first season is extremely likely to produce the same result. In fact, most of us will consider a 13th place conference standing this season to be a victory of sorts. I guess it's a testament to the football program that we have enough expectations to be crushed by the failures of a 6-4 football team.
I started watching the basketball team faithfully in Tubby's last year and the football team a year later in the 2013 season and I've been a faithful follower of both since. On the whole, I'm happy that I never embraced the football program during the Brewster years although I'm a bit sorry that I missed some good moments from Mason's tenure during my earliest years of living here.
I have to say that, on the whole, the football team hasn't been bad during my nine years as a fan - more good moments than bad moments anyway. Counting the expected outcome of this season, I will have experienced 6 winning seasons to 3 losing ones and one of those losing seasons was 2020 which was more or less a lost year for most teams. All of you know the biggest problem: we just can't beat those two teams at the top of the division more than once in a blue moon. But, we're not the only western team with that problem and also-rans in the eastern division have the same problem with their division leaders.
This morning I was trying to find a comparable Power 5 team with a similar historical conference standing to the Gophers during my tenure as a fan. I think I found one: we're the Big Ten's Kansas State. Kansas State is never at the very bottom, occasionally is close to the bottom, sometimes rises to be close to the top teams, and can usually be found in the middle of their conference. They're better than many people might think, but, since relatively few outside of their region ever think about them, their successes or failures don't make much of an impression on the national consciousness either way.
I think the most painful part of being a fan of the two most high profile men's sports (football and basketball) is that, during my Gopher period, they haven't managed great success in either sport (the 2019 football season being the clear exception). Some Big Ten teams are poor or mediocre in one of those sports but much better in the other. For example, Northwestern is terrible in basketball but frequently pretty good in football. Maryland is really mediocre in football but usually pretty successful in basketball. The same is true with Illinois, at least lately.
It must be said that our football team has been better these last nine seasons than our basketball team. Our football team rarely has been among the bottom of the conference during that time whereas Pitino's teams have been among that group in five of his eight seasons and Johnson's first season is extremely likely to produce the same result. In fact, most of us will consider a 13th place conference standing this season to be a victory of sorts. I guess it's a testament to the football program that we have enough expectations to be crushed by the failures of a 6-4 football team.
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