Scoops5
New member
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2015
- Messages
- 26
- Reaction score
- 20
- Points
- 3
I tend not to post often on the board because usually reading the threads tends to entertain me enough or fulfills my need for Gopher Football conversation at this time of the year. But I felt like this was a valid time to post. Be ready for a long one.
The main point to this thread is to point out that many of Gopher Football fans (both diehard and casual) need a serious reality check regarding the current state of the program.
Most of what I read and hear of in the last few weeks is complaints, which is understandable when you are losing. But the level of expectations that many have for this team and overall program are not grounded in reality,
Let’s start with the common complaint: Tanner Morgan is a bad QB and bench him. And yet, he will end up holding a bunch of U records for QB (yes, I know he’s been here for six years). He has been starter because he is the best we got ( I watched AK tonight and yes he showed promise, but he is a Freshman and it showed too I.e. 9/22 175 yds 1 TD 1 INT.) Moral of the story: Minnesota has not been a premier QB destination so what makes anyone think we have such studs as backup? If anyone was better than Morgan, they would have beat him out. The truth is with a struggling OL and an underperforming WR room after CRAB’s injury, there are probably only a handful of college QBs that could be successful in those conditions. Morgan has been a competent QB when the pieces around him have been in place, but he is not Peyton Manning or a like QB who can make up for the rest of the team’s weaknesses.
Complaint #2 This coaching staff can’t recruit WR which is why the WR room is weak. Truth: Most Big Ten teams can run the ball effectively but the successful ones find a way to be successful in the air. However, with running being such a base to Big Ten identity, what WR talent wants to join teams where they barely throw the ball, leave alone that most Big Ten QBs are average college QB? The point is this program generally has to find ”Diamonds in the Rough” and coach them up to their maximum potential. The problem with that is that a lot of those “diamonds” don’t get there for an assortment of reasons. So, if you have the WR talent (I.e. Johnson and Bateman) lucky you. But a lot of the time in the Big Ten, you don’t.
Complaint #3 (and most recent) Flack has become Kill. Just because three games were lost to probably the best 3 teams they will face this year, we think the program is going backward? Seems pretty unreasonable. I’ll be honest that I was skeptical about Fleck’s hiring when Claeys won 9 games, but ultimately I understood the hiring. Fleck is 39-25 with a messed up COVID year, won 9 games twice and has beaten Wisconsin twice after we hadn’t won it since 2004. Let’s throw in the Penn State win in 2018 and College GameDay in there too. To me, he has moved the program up in six years. For those who think the Gophers won’t win another game this year after the last three, we will see. But let us compare him to the last time our program made it to the promise land of the 1960 Rose Bowl. Coach Murray Warmath (1954-1971)was 23-30 his first six seasons before posting 8-2 seasons in ’59 and 60’. He banked his career on that ‘60 season as he only won 8 games one more time in ‘67 and a majority of the other seasons after ‘60 were losing ones. My argument: How can we expect results the like of Top 5 juggernaut programs when we haven’t experienced like it since the Bernie Bierman era of the 30s and 40s when the forward pass was still very much in its infancy?
We can be disappointed in losing or the team not playing to potential. But I can’t believe how many people were thinking this team could go into Penn State and win or are thinking the program is in shambles because the Nittany Lions are a weak team (yet ranked 16 and lost to a Top 5 team in Michigan). Not to mention with a freshman QB and his first career start in front of 100k fans. You didn’t think Penn State was pissed after Michigan pumped them the previous week and that the Gophers wouldn’t be walking into a shitstorm?
When you look honestly at the history of Gopher Football you should realize a win tonight would have been breaking the MO of years and years of an up-and down program.
So let’s be realistic. This could still be a decent season. But just because we aren’t playing some of the big boys of the East division, didn’t mean no one was getting better in the West. All in all, stay grounded, look for the positives, enjoy the ride.
The main point to this thread is to point out that many of Gopher Football fans (both diehard and casual) need a serious reality check regarding the current state of the program.
Most of what I read and hear of in the last few weeks is complaints, which is understandable when you are losing. But the level of expectations that many have for this team and overall program are not grounded in reality,
Let’s start with the common complaint: Tanner Morgan is a bad QB and bench him. And yet, he will end up holding a bunch of U records for QB (yes, I know he’s been here for six years). He has been starter because he is the best we got ( I watched AK tonight and yes he showed promise, but he is a Freshman and it showed too I.e. 9/22 175 yds 1 TD 1 INT.) Moral of the story: Minnesota has not been a premier QB destination so what makes anyone think we have such studs as backup? If anyone was better than Morgan, they would have beat him out. The truth is with a struggling OL and an underperforming WR room after CRAB’s injury, there are probably only a handful of college QBs that could be successful in those conditions. Morgan has been a competent QB when the pieces around him have been in place, but he is not Peyton Manning or a like QB who can make up for the rest of the team’s weaknesses.
Complaint #2 This coaching staff can’t recruit WR which is why the WR room is weak. Truth: Most Big Ten teams can run the ball effectively but the successful ones find a way to be successful in the air. However, with running being such a base to Big Ten identity, what WR talent wants to join teams where they barely throw the ball, leave alone that most Big Ten QBs are average college QB? The point is this program generally has to find ”Diamonds in the Rough” and coach them up to their maximum potential. The problem with that is that a lot of those “diamonds” don’t get there for an assortment of reasons. So, if you have the WR talent (I.e. Johnson and Bateman) lucky you. But a lot of the time in the Big Ten, you don’t.
Complaint #3 (and most recent) Flack has become Kill. Just because three games were lost to probably the best 3 teams they will face this year, we think the program is going backward? Seems pretty unreasonable. I’ll be honest that I was skeptical about Fleck’s hiring when Claeys won 9 games, but ultimately I understood the hiring. Fleck is 39-25 with a messed up COVID year, won 9 games twice and has beaten Wisconsin twice after we hadn’t won it since 2004. Let’s throw in the Penn State win in 2018 and College GameDay in there too. To me, he has moved the program up in six years. For those who think the Gophers won’t win another game this year after the last three, we will see. But let us compare him to the last time our program made it to the promise land of the 1960 Rose Bowl. Coach Murray Warmath (1954-1971)was 23-30 his first six seasons before posting 8-2 seasons in ’59 and 60’. He banked his career on that ‘60 season as he only won 8 games one more time in ‘67 and a majority of the other seasons after ‘60 were losing ones. My argument: How can we expect results the like of Top 5 juggernaut programs when we haven’t experienced like it since the Bernie Bierman era of the 30s and 40s when the forward pass was still very much in its infancy?
We can be disappointed in losing or the team not playing to potential. But I can’t believe how many people were thinking this team could go into Penn State and win or are thinking the program is in shambles because the Nittany Lions are a weak team (yet ranked 16 and lost to a Top 5 team in Michigan). Not to mention with a freshman QB and his first career start in front of 100k fans. You didn’t think Penn State was pissed after Michigan pumped them the previous week and that the Gophers wouldn’t be walking into a shitstorm?
When you look honestly at the history of Gopher Football you should realize a win tonight would have been breaking the MO of years and years of an up-and down program.
So let’s be realistic. This could still be a decent season. But just because we aren’t playing some of the big boys of the East division, didn’t mean no one was getting better in the West. All in all, stay grounded, look for the positives, enjoy the ride.
