Rittenberg's opinion on our team

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I think he's right, but if we had to choose, I guess I would rather have tons of speed and athleticism, than a stable coaching group.
 

I like Rittenberg and think he does a great job for ESPN. I agree with the fact that when we keep switching coaches it hurts us, but every article about us mentions that fact. It's getting pretty old haha. I would love to read a positive article about the Minnesota team as a whole (individual articles about Decker or Maresh usually don't mention switching coaches), but it seems like every article comes down to the revolving door of coaches.
 

Our season will hinge on how much the OL improves. Not to slam previous coaches but when it was clear that one coach wasn't cutting it you have to move on. It is quite clear that we upgraded our OL coach so my only question is how much will we improve with a year of experience for all 10 in the 2-deep and the addition of Carufel & Wills.

There may be some growing pains with implementing a new offense but our players did surprisingly well with it in 2007 when our personnel wasn't as good as it is now so I think we can handle it now.
 

Switching coaches isn't necessarily a problem, but it does represent uncertainty. It could work out well or poorly, but you can't count on it either way in advance.
 


New scheme will be tough on opponents.

The one thing that the Gophers have in their favor is that the first several teams of the year will have a hard time preparing for what we will do. When you get a new scheme like the Gophers will have its not like last years video is going to be used to prepare for the team. Opponents will have to prepare for an unknown offense until we have given enough video to truelly prepare for the team and that may take 2-3 games.

I agree with the comments about the O-line next year. If they play better than they did the first 5 games last season this team will be taking a big step forward. If we can play at a higher level than we did the first 5 games last season the fans will be smiling come January.
 

Uncertainty

I think the coaching changes are a huge reason why the pundits are afraid to predict much positive out of our team this year. Other than maybe browsing some AP stories about us they don't have much to go on. I think those of us who followed spring practices are more confident and look at our new hires in a positive light.

Like someone said before, the veterans are used to this change occurring every year and the rookies have to do it anyway. Plus the team's grades indicate that we've got some intelligence. My impression so far of Fisch is that he focused primarily on fundamentals and creating/looking for options in spring practice. I think that is somewhat of a departure from what Dunbar did and I think it's a good thing, at least early on. I also felt like last year Dunbar was predictable (especially in the last few games), so hopefully the pro-set and mix of shotgun and under-center formation with more weapons than last year will prevent that.

I think Gopher fans know that Davis is a significant upgrade. The OL will be much better this year.

On defense we add more talent and hopefully Cosgrove (who to me seems similar to Roof) and Lee can keep the turnover production up where it was last year. No reason why we can't still have Turnover Tuesday right?
 

AeroGopher said:
Cosgrove (who to me seems similar to Roof)
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With the exception of the fact that Roof has always been successful when leading defenses.

This in stark contrast to Cosgrove, who looked utterly lost in "leading" Nebraska's worst defenses ever, despite the fact that they were loaded with highly-rated recruits.
 

the 2006 husker defense was much better than the 2007 model
 



MNWolfman said:
the 2006 husker defense was much better than the 2007 model
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So what's your point? Cosgrove was the coordinator for both of them.

If anything, all that means is that the defenses somehow got worse the longer he was there.
 

I think it is a pretty fair assessment of the Gophers at this time.
 

dpodoll68 said:
With the exception of the fact that Roof has always been successful when leading defenses.

This in stark contrast to Cosgrove, who looked utterly lost in "leading" Nebraska's worst defenses ever, despite the fact that they were loaded with highly-rated recruits.
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ummm, Roof's defense wasn't exactly lighting it up the second half of the season.
 

Cosgrove Was in a Very Bad Spot

koppco1 said:
ummm, Roof's defense wasn't exactly lighting it up the second half of the season.
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When an offense-minded head coach decides he wants to fiddle with the defense, the morale of the coaching staff and the defensive players hits rock bottom. That was the situation Cosgrove found himself in at the end at Nebraska. Absolutely a "no win" situation. I don't think Brewster takes that approach, and Cosgrove is the co-defensive coordinator.

I think this will work out.:pig:
 



Honyocker said:
When an offense-minded head coach decides he wants to fiddle with the defense, the morale of the coaching staff and the defensive players hits rock bottom. That was the situation Cosgrove found himself in at the end at Nebraska. Absolutely a "no win" situation. I don't think Brewster takes that approach, and Cosgrove is the co-defensive coordinator.

I think this will work out.:pig:
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Actually Bill Callahan did not fiddle with the defense at all and left it up to Cosgrove. If there is one thing you can say about Callahan was he was loyal to Cosgrove probably to a fault as it ultimately cost him his job. When Tom Osborne was hired as the A.D. at Nebraska, Callahan went and asked Osborne if he wanted him to fire Cosgrove or any other coaches, Osborne stated that he would never tell a head coach to do this but it was the head coaches responsibility to make those decisions and that the head coach would ultimately be held responsible for the outcome one way or another. Callahan kept Cosgrove on staff and at the end of the year the entire staff was fired, other than the offensive coordinator and wide receiver coach who were retained by Bo Pelini. All of the blame for Cosgrove's defenses struggles falls completely and solely on his and his staffs shoulders. The concern with Cosgrove as well was that his defenses struggled the longer he was there in addition to the fact that his recruiting declined.
 

cduff said:
On a very high level, Rittenberg says that our strength is that we are much more talented, but that our continual revolving door of coaches could come back to bite us. Hopefully the fact that we are a veteran group will help the guys grasp the new systems quickly.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/bigten/0-3-526/Hope-and-concern--Minnesota-Golden-Gophers.html
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I would agree that the revolving door of coaches hurts a program, as would Tom Osborne and Joe Paterno who both gave talks on this at the national coaches association conference this year. They both credited the stability in their staffs through the years as being one of the primary reasons for their success and these are both coaches whose records we could only dream to follow.
 

The good thing about the coaching changes is that they are all upgrades, with the exception of Cosgrove. Hopefully coach Lee can neutralize the weak link there.
 

Not every pundit points to the revolving doors on the coaches offices as a reason for decline in 2009. Some point out that there is just too little speed on defense.

In the most current SportingNews article Curtis and Hayes each pick the top five teams they think will make the biggest steps back this coming season and why.

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=558533
 

Sumtimegophs said:
Not every pundit points to the revolving doors on the coaches offices as a reason for decline in 2009. Some point out that there is just too little speed on defense.

In the most current SportingNews article Curtis and Hayes each pick the top five teams they think will make the biggest steps back this coming season and why.

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=558533
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That kind of analysis shows why the SportingNews is THE place to go for your sports news and information.
 

Cosgrove is the model of an enigma. Is he as bad as his last year at Nebraska surrounded by very good talent or as good as his record at Wisky where he had two consecutive D's that allowed about 12 points a game?

IMO, I am glad to have a veteran DC on board who has been experienced the big time and been in Rose Bowls.

We need to keep things in perspective here as the DC is lacking the talent and depth of a BT contender.

My hope is the D can whittle about 3 or 4 points off the 26 ppg we allowed in the BT last year and then get it below 20 ppg in 2010. A tall order indeed.
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
Cosgrove is the model of an enigma. Is he as bad as his last year at Nebraska surrounded by very good talent or as good as his record at Wisky where he had two consecutive D's that allowed about 12 points a game?

IMO, I am glad to have a veteran DC on board who has been experienced the big time and been in Rose Bowls.

We need to keep things in perspective here as the DC is lacking the talent and depth of a BT contender.

My hope is the D can whittle about 3 or 4 points off the 26 ppg we allowed in the BT last year and then get it below 20 ppg in 2010. A tall order indeed.
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Maybe not such a tall order. If they had held Iowa to 28 points (for example), the season average would have been about 22 points per game in the BT last year.
 

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