When will the casual fan pay attention again?

[imthewalrus]

Hey there freak...Where did I say ANYTHING about Mason being fired in that post??????

Oh...that's right...I didn't...did I freak?

I mentioned the 3 coaches other than Warmath that DID manage to beat Michigan...Stoll, Gutey and Mason. I DID state that it is high time that some of the wishy-washey types who pi$$ and moan and cry about that 2003 loss reflect a bit on the fact that just maybe it IS far better to lose a game to Michigan after having had the lead most of the game than it is to lose by 49-7 head-bashing type scores the way so many of our coaches just about always seemed to do for so many decades.

YOU are the one who talked about Mason being fired and then you TRIED to blame me for it freak...what's YOUR deal with THAT????????? I do agree with you that eg9 was out to lunch with his tangent.

My whole point was the fact that I believe it was MUCH better to play Michigan even and lose at the end, OR as Stoll, Gutey and Mason did...to beat Michigan and also believe that even losing the way our team lost in 2003 was FAR more honorable than all of those 49-7 type head bashings that Michigan put on Golden Gopher Football Teams so often for so long.

And yet,some of our fans call that their worst Gopher memory. I say "...b.s..." to that noise. Those 49-7 and 55-0 type head bashings the Gophers have taken over the years are my worst memories. To those who waste time whining about the 2003 Michigan game, I say: "...you people deserve to walk in the wilderness for the rest of the days you follow Gopher Football..." I'm proud of that Stoll win...that Gutey win and that Mason win. I'm also damn proud of that 3 year stretch in 2003, 2004 and 2005 when the Gophers were right there with Michigan...even though two of the 3 games were heartbreaking losses to go along with that 2005 win.

I will never understand a lot of the Gopher Fans who apparently would rather lose 49-7 to Michigan than to have battled the cornblues the way that 2003 team did. To me there was MUCH MORE honor in that game than there was in all those 49-7 head bashings that Michigan has inflicted upon my Gophers during the past half century.

 

[FreakyDeke]

Oh...that's right...I didn't...did I freak?

I mentioned the 3 coaches other than Warmath that DID manage to beat Michigan...Stoll, Gutey and Mason. I DID state that it is high time that some of the wishy-washey types who pi$$ and moan and cry about that 2003 loss reflect a bit on the fact that just maybe it IS far better to lose a game to Michigan after having had the lead most of the game than it is to lose by 49-7 head-bashing type scores the way so many of our coaches just about always seemed to do for so many decades.

YOU are the one who talked about Mason being fired and then you TRIED to blame me for it freak...what's YOUR deal with THAT????????? I do agree with you that eg9 was out to lunch with his tangent.

My whole point was the fact that I believe it was MUCH better to play Michigan even and lose at the end, OR as Stoll, Gutey and Mason did...to beat Michigan and also believe that even losing the way our team lost in 2003 was FAR more honorable than all of those 49-7 type head bashings that Michigan put on Golden Gopher Football Teams so often for so long.

And yet,some of our fans call that their worst Gopher memory. I say "...b.s..." to that noise. Those 49-7 and 55-0 type head bashings the Gophers have taken over the years are my worst memories. To those who waste time whining about the 2003 Michigan game, I say: "...you people deserve to walk in the wilderness for the rest of the days you follow Gopher Football..." I'm proud of that Stoll win...that Gutey win and that Mason win. I'm also damn proud of that 3 year stretch in 2003, 2004 and 2005 when the Gophers were right there with Michigan...even though two of the 3 games were heartbreaking losses to go along with that 2005 win.

I will never understand a lot of the Gopher Fans who apparently would rather lose 49-7 to Michigan than to have battled the cornblues the way that 2003 team did. To me there was MUCH MORE honor in that game than there was in all those 49-7 head bashings that Michigan has inflicted upon my Gophers during the past half century.

Before you go all caps and punctuation crazy, let me apologize for a misunderstanding. I was not whining about that being the worst loss ever, and I don’t recall anyone else saying that either, so I was not following you down that line of thinking. OF COURSE we would rather lose to Michigan by 3 than 50, I figured that went without saying. To me, why say something that obvious unless you are proposing a solution or making a point? You did make a point, by saying that Maturi needs to go (which I agree with), and I extrapolated that you must have been talking about his hiring/firing of Mason/Brewster, because what else was in his control about the collapse of the football program? Please respond intelligibly and with respect.

 

[imthewalrus]

I'll respond the way I choose to respond freak. Here is the deal:

I am tired of the "so-called-fans..." who have trashed everyone involved in that classic 2003 game vs. Michigan. There has been MORE whining, blaming, awfulizing, cursing and dissing of that game by people who obviously didn't appreciate what a change for this program the ability to compete with Michigan and even stay on the same field with the cornblues the 2003, 2004 and 2005 edition of the Golden Gophers was. And, those great kids who did the U of M proud in that 2003 Classic Clash were left out there to hang by our totally fair-weather sold-out packed crowd in the dome that was SO offended by the outcome of that game.

The fans got EXACTLY what they deserved from prexy b and badger joel macturi when they made all the moves they made with the football program following that 2003 Classic Football Game. They let the contract of Mason run down through the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Then they extended Mason. Then the next year, they fired him and brought in the inexperienced and incompetent brewster.

By the end of the 2007 season: the football program gave us a 1-11 overall record and only the second 0-8 Big Ten record in the school's history. Since 2005, they have hired... three head football coaches and one temporary "acting head coach..." They had 10 coordinators (2 for Mason, 6 for brewster and 2 for Kill) and God only knows how many position coaches.

In the 2004, 2005 and 2006 seasons, Mason won 10 Big 10 Football games, brewster in the 2007, 2008, 2009 and 3/8ths of the 2010 Big Ten Season won a total of 6 Big Ten Football games. Our "temp." head coach won 2 of five Big Ten Football games he coached to finish out the 2010 Big Ten Season. Coach Kill is about to coach his first Big Ten game, ironically, against Michigan. What will the outcome of macturi's latest football move be when they travel to Michigan for the Battle of the Brown Jug?

prexy b (now the former prexy of the U) and badger joel macturi in the years 2004 through 2010 (7 seasons) managed to mismanage and oversee 18 Big Ten Football wins. prexy b wasn't watchful enough and let the door hit him on his way out and managed to limp out with a broken leg. badger joel macturi is still acting as ad. He has fired two head football coaches and let one "acting" head coach go. This is bjm's 10th season as ad. The general trend for Football has been lower under his watch. He is a basement-level Big Ten Football ad...nothing more...nothing less. WHY is he still here?

But, my heart goes out to those players who contributed SO much to that 2003 Minnesota vs. Michigan Classic Football Game. And, our fans really have never done any more than dis the program for that incredible effort those kids put out in that game. Yes, the Gophers lost the game. Yes, Michigan had some pretty darn fine players of their own in that game. It is considered a classic in Ann Arbor. I certainly consider it to be one of Minnesota's Classics too.

I am just incredibly tired of the fact that people just DON'T seem to recognize that football at Minnesota HAD arrived. That Michigan team between 2003 and 2005 played another Classic game...a game vs. Texas in the 2005 Rose Bowl Game which neither Texas or Michigan could stop the other team. Texas won 38-37. The Gophers had lost a heart-breaker to Michigan in Ann Arbor in 2004. That was a Michigan team that finished 7-1 in Big Ten play in 2004 and went on to that Classic Rose Bowl game against Vince Young and Texas in the 2005 Rose Bowl Game.

Yes, that bunch of Gophers from 2003 through 2005 played some of their greatest games against Michigan in the last half century against Lloyd Carr and a pretty damn decent Michigan Football Program. And "so-called" Gopher Fans forever complain about that 2003 game and act as though they were "short-changed..." Well, I think the "so-called" Gopher fans have "short-changed" the kids who gave us ALL THEY HAD in that 2003 Minnesota vs. Michigan Football Game. I think it's a damn shame that game has been treated the way it has been treated.

I don't think Gopher Fans even realized what those three games from 2003, 2004 and 2005 meant in terms of "leaving it all out there on the field..." for the battle for the Little Brown Jug. It had been since back in the late 50's and early 60's since Minnesota had been able to compete THAT well with the mighty Michigan Team in Minneapolis and in Ann Arbor.

Respect what those players did to TRY to put some life back into the Battle for the Brown Jug. Granted, it was only a three year period of time, but those kids for even just a few seasons put some meaning back into the oldest and one of the most famous trophy games of them all.

Give that 2003, 2004 and 2005 bunch of Golden Gophers their due for breathing a little life into the Brown Jug Game. I was at all three of those games. I was damn proud to be a Golden Gopher Football Fan as I left those games...DAMN proud! Thanks to the young men who represented the U of M so PROUDLY vs. Michigan in 2003, 2004 and 2005!

Ditch bjm NOW!

 

[zambam]

Wow. Maybe if the Gophers prove they can have more than one team that competes every 30 years maybe people will actually care.

 

[imthewalrus]

THAT was a 3 year period in 2003, 2004 and 2005. The 2003 game was in the damn dome. The 2004 game and the 2005 game were each played in Ann Arbor in the Big House. THAT was a great 3 game series with a very good Michigan Football Team that was coached by Lloyd Carr...He won a NC. Even the Mighty Bo Schembeckler never won a NC. For those THREE years, the Battle for the Brown Jug WAS meaningful and WAS a game. Michigan won two of those games and the Gophers won one. THAT was really the first and last hurrah for the Gophers in that series that exceeded a one game surprise win in probably 35 to 40 seasons.

And now the Gopher Fans who just couldn't appreciate that are back to "...walking in the wilderness..." And the end of the wilderness walking is not clearly in sight at this point in time. Yes, we Gopher fans have pretty much gotten EXACTLY what we deserve when it comes to being fans of the revenue sports. We HAVE been "...badgerjoelmacturied..." and "fairweatherfanned..." to death.


And some of us didn't even appreciate a REAL 3 year Battle for the Brown Jug when we had it.

Shame on us.

Just head on into that wilderness walk zambam. You are really going to enjoy your time in the wilderness. We get what we deserve zambam...we get what we so richly deserve...

; 0 )

 

[zambam]

I never once mentioned the Michigan games. I mean in general a team that competes EVERY game no matter the opponent.

 

[imthewalrus]

Based upon the past half-century, I don't think your definition is going to work out in the near-term future zmabam. Nebraska has been added to the conference. In our division, we play Michigan, MSU, Nebraska, iowa, NU (Northwestern will always be NU to me..) and we have wisky as a "protected: "...yearly rivalry..." game that is on the schedule every year. Some years, we might get PSU, OSU, MSU, Michigan, iowa, wisky and Nebraska, along with Northwestern.

I'm all for competing against EVERY team on the schedule...but...after having watched Gopher Football for over half a century, even in our last NC season, we didn't beat EVERY team we played. I think you underestimate the strength of the Big Ten schedule zambam.

Set the bar high...work hard...hope for some luck...but, don't hold your breath...

; 0 )

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Another thread hijack by wren. Yay.

 

[imthewalrus]

Only responded to the demands and comments of the casual fans who casually...

responded to my casual comment about some of the attitudes and patterns of the casual fans during the decade of the reign of badger joel macturi darren the greek guy...

So, what is your opinion of what the plight of the casual fan's attraction and retention to Golden Gopher Football? Do you think the 2003 Battle for the Brown Jug was ever any kind of a factor in the ever pondered absence of the hard to attract "casual fan?..."

Thanks for your very interesting, incredibly insightful comment darren the greek guy. There was just SO much traffic on this site tonight, I suppose that the few comments from the freak, zambam and walrus (wren) were taxing the bandwidth resources of the site. Thanks for being such a stand up guardian of the bandwidth resources daren the greek. You're the best! See ya....

; 0 )

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

I gave my opinion on when casual fans would begin to pay attention to the Gophers on page 1.

 

[EG#9]

It's no myth, my friend. It was a possible program-changing opportunity squandered. If not for the Michigan collapse, we would have gotten the "40-year-Rose-Bowl-less" streak off our chest. You can say that the schedule was weak (which it was), but who cares? That's how lots of Big Ten teams got to Rose Bowls. You need to take advantage when you have a favorable schedule.

I don't disagree with anything you said, it was an opportunity squandered. The reality of the 2003 season is that the Gophers finished in a tie for 4th place in the conference and a real case could be made that they were 6th out of 11 teams because they lost to the two teams they tied with. The myth is that the Gophers had some kind of great season, they clearly did not. If they win that game against Michigan, they likely never lose to Michigan State the next week (Gophers got down big early and couldn't erase the deficit) and we likely are having a different conversation.

 

[FreakyDeke]

I don't disagree with anything you said, it was an opportunity squandered. The reality of the 2003 season is that the Gophers finished in a tie for 4th place in the conference and a real case could be made that they were 6th out of 11 teams because they lost to the two teams they tied with. The myth is that the Gophers had some kind of great season, they clearly did not. If they win that game against Michigan, they likely never lose to Michigan State the next week (Gophers got down big early and couldn't erase the deficit) and we likely are having a different conversation.

I agree that we probably would have beaten MSU if we hadn't crapped the bed against Michigan, but even if we didn't, a Michigan win alone would have put us in a 4 way tie for the conference championship at 6-2. As the least recent Rose Bowl team, we would have had the tie breaker to go.