BleedGopher
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per Shama:
Some call it moral victories. Let’s refer to it here as style points. Either way, hello, Tracy Claeys.
The Gophers interim head football boss is coaching for scoreboard wins in the team’s last four games of the season, but there’s more to it than that as he auditions for the permanent job. Minnesota is all but certain to lose some of those games but what matters along with the number of W’s will be how the team looks.
Will the Gophers play with emotion the rest of the season? Do they sustain effort if the score is one-sided? Will sloppy play characterize the performances of players? Is this going to be a team making excessive mistakes including turnovers and penalties? How about the effectiveness of the play calling? What about the in-game adjustments by the coaches?
Long ago Gophers football had a high standard of excellence. There were expectations about Big Ten titles, even national championships.
Moral victories? Bull.
Style points? Really?
But reality is today’s Gophers program is still trying to prove winning half of its conference games year after year is doable. What Claeys and the staff might show us in the next few weeks and months (recruiting season) is this program could go beyond what Kill delivered including 5-3 and 4-4 conference records the last two seasons. It requires Forrest Gump-like optimism to see the Gophers winning three more times this fall and finishing at .500 in Big Ten games. But let’s be willing to drink enough feel good Kool-Aid to think the Gophers are going to find a way to win two more regular season games and then get Minnesota’s first bowl victory since 2004.
Yeah, win a couple more games and in the losses don’t embarrass Gopher Nation—the tag Tim Brewster put on the fan base. During the Brewster era he had games where he lost 55-0 to Iowa and 48-12 to Wisconsin. Seven games into the 2010 season he was fired. Two weeks later his successor, interim head coach Jeff Horton, lost 52-10 to Ohio State.
Get the idea about style points?
http://shamasportsheadliners.com/
Go Gophers!!
Some call it moral victories. Let’s refer to it here as style points. Either way, hello, Tracy Claeys.
The Gophers interim head football boss is coaching for scoreboard wins in the team’s last four games of the season, but there’s more to it than that as he auditions for the permanent job. Minnesota is all but certain to lose some of those games but what matters along with the number of W’s will be how the team looks.
Will the Gophers play with emotion the rest of the season? Do they sustain effort if the score is one-sided? Will sloppy play characterize the performances of players? Is this going to be a team making excessive mistakes including turnovers and penalties? How about the effectiveness of the play calling? What about the in-game adjustments by the coaches?
Long ago Gophers football had a high standard of excellence. There were expectations about Big Ten titles, even national championships.
Moral victories? Bull.
Style points? Really?
But reality is today’s Gophers program is still trying to prove winning half of its conference games year after year is doable. What Claeys and the staff might show us in the next few weeks and months (recruiting season) is this program could go beyond what Kill delivered including 5-3 and 4-4 conference records the last two seasons. It requires Forrest Gump-like optimism to see the Gophers winning three more times this fall and finishing at .500 in Big Ten games. But let’s be willing to drink enough feel good Kool-Aid to think the Gophers are going to find a way to win two more regular season games and then get Minnesota’s first bowl victory since 2004.
Yeah, win a couple more games and in the losses don’t embarrass Gopher Nation—the tag Tim Brewster put on the fan base. During the Brewster era he had games where he lost 55-0 to Iowa and 48-12 to Wisconsin. Seven games into the 2010 season he was fired. Two weeks later his successor, interim head coach Jeff Horton, lost 52-10 to Ohio State.
Get the idea about style points?
http://shamasportsheadliners.com/
Go Gophers!!