Why not Minnesota?

Leach? Really?

Uh, no.

I do wonder if things would change if the Vikes left town. Say they continue to bellyflop this year and don’t get the stadium they want. What then? Ziggy sells the team and it eventually gets moved to LA? What team fills that void in the twin cities? Provided the Gophers hire a solid or better coach, they could very easily do it. But only under those circumstances in my opinion. I say this and I AM a Gopher fan.

Fair points, and some are right on the money. Some aren’t, though, and I have to stand up for the home state:

Because Minnesota High School football isn’t that good, and the best players get cherrypicked by other schools. Note: Joe Mauer (FSU), Seantrel Henderson (Miami via Kiffykins), and even Lydon Murtha (Nebraska via an ill-fated attempt at using the Barnett Recruiting Playbook).

True enough, there aren’t a lot of 4/5 star recruits. However, athletes are drawn to good programs, and good coaches can take the talent they have and make the whole better than the sum of the parts, to play off of your theme. And once a good foundation is built, it will be easier to keep the good ones when they do come along. I realize it’s foolish to think the Hendersons and Little Animals of the world won’t go to Minnesota just because it’s the home state college. They want to go where they will get exposure for the NFL. If Minnesota can become a top half of the Big Ten program, they will stay. Not all, of course, but more than are staying home now.

Because a conference is a closed system. For every conference win, there is a conference loss.

True, but you make the argument seem that someone has to get worse before someone else will get better. Why couldn’t the opposite be true? If one team gets better on its own, others teams would get worse.

Because you’ve been Indiana with Trees for my lifetime, and I’m dangerously close to being Mike Gundy’s well-publicized age. I don’t remember great Minnesota teams. (The only ones I remember were the ones Nebraska housed in the 80’s and the Lawrence Maroney / Marion Barber teams.) Most fans – and God help me, high school kids – don’t dream of leading the Gophers to championships, because there’s no reason to think that such a possibility exists. Not in their lifetime, nor in their father’s lifetime.

I’m older than that, and you’re right. There has been an occasional good team, but mediocrity has been the norm. the reason kids don’t dream of playing for the Gophers is because the Gophers aren’t an attractive commodity. Make it an attractive commodity, like the VIkings usually are, and that might change.

Because you can’t or don’t hire coaches who are either: ahead of the curve, or; young and competent. Heck, you can’t even manage one of them and hope they grow into the other. (Not a new trend, you interviewed Solich before you hired Mason.) If you do hire a young one, he’s not competent; if you hire a competent one, he’s not good enough to take you where you think you deserve to be, and then it gets even harder to hire a better one.

Because you gave up any competitive advantage you may ever have had to play in the Hubert H. Humphrey Mausoleum. You’d have been better off playing in one of the seven Sam Goody’s at Mall of America.

No argument there. At all. Counsel concedes the points. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Because Gopher football is as important to the average Minnesotan as BC football is to the average Bostonian. Seriously, how much time does WCCO spend on Gopher football compared to the Twins and Vikes come September? Compare that to the level of coverage that Wisconsin or Iowa gets within their borders. Heck, even in Omaha, Hawkeye fan takes the fact that you can buy Nebraska gear on their side of the river as casus belli. Wisconsin has to share hearts and minds with Brewer/Packer fans, but they don’t have to share it in the same town; in Minneapolis, are the Gophers ever above the fold except possibly on 12 Saturday mornings a year? Heck, you can’t even spread into the Dakotas; the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls has covered Nebraska and Iowa more for years – and the entire Dakotas is Viking/Twin country. Minnesota kids don’t evangelize their fandom; I went to school with lots of Minnesotans, and none of them lived and died with Gopher football. You don’t care, pure and simple, or at least not enough of you care enough.

Iowa and Wisconsin have spread because they’ve had success. Iowa and the Dakotas are Viking/Twins territory because both the Twins and Vikings have had sustained periods of success, neither Iowa or the Dakotas have pro teams, and bestiality is generally frowned upon…except in certain parts of Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern Iowa. But yeah, Gopher football is an afterthought right now, primarily because the Minneapolis media, namely Pat Reusse and Jim Souhan, go out of their way to belittle and bemoan Gopher football. I’m not saying criticism isn’t warranted, but Reusse especially never gave Brewster a shot. He was even bragging on his radio show about ripping him in a column three days after Brester’s introductory presser.

And if/when the Vikings leave, I’m pretty sure Gopher football will have the spotlight turned back on them. In a BIG way. But even if the Vikes do get a new stadium and stay, there’s no reason to think that the Gophers can’t get their fair share of the media coverage. Granted, they need a paradigm shift, but it’s not an impossible task. Just don’t lose to South Freaking Dakota on a regular basis.

And since when has Iowa consistently competed at the top of the Big Ten? Iowa’s shared the conference title three times in 20 years. Wisconsin, shared twice and once outright. (BTW, Colorado won the Big 8/12 the same number of times in the same timespan.) That not the right definition of competitive? Iowa’s finished the season ranked 9 of the last 20 years. I can’t find Sconnie’s records conveniently on the wikipedia, but it’s gotta be slightly better, but they’ve not gotten over on the Big Ten Oligarchy with that much regularity either.

Iowa and Wisconsin are consistently in the top half of the Big Ten, and play in decent bowl games. Iowa and Wisconsin have been to the Rose Bowl in my lifetime. Minnesota has done neither. Every now and again, they compete for and win the Big Ten. It’s not like Gopher fans are asking for an Ohio State, but they would like something more than the MicronPC bowl every third year.

This was amazing. You’ve earned my rec.

Step two: lock player in shed

Step three: fire Mike Lech

Step four: Profit?

Brewster is not going to get them to the next level and I think we can all agree he gets fired after this year barring a miracle in conference play. I’m going to base the ideal coaching qualities off of Fitz because 1) he’s a pretty darn good coach 2) he’s in a similar position of turning an average, inconsistent program into a consistently respectable one, and 3) I am a shameless homer.

The ideal coach for Minnesota needs to be able to develop and get the most out of the talent available. Adam Weber looked like a potential star QB but has made almost no progress over the years. I could be wrong but I doubt any Gopher player has gotten significantly better in their time at Minnesota. Fitz has succeeded by turning lowly regarded recruits that most BCS schools passed over into solid Big Ten competitors. Only now with two big seasons in a row are 4 star/ ESPN 150 types even considering NU.

Their next coach also needs to be able to inspire people. Brewster can WIN FIGHT TRY all he wants but it doesn’t seem to actually move people. Fitz is very humble and a master of coachspeak with the media, but brings the intensity on the field, in practice, and in one-on-one interviews that has players and even reporters consistently saying that he gets them fired up to the point where they would run through a wall for him.

Minnesota’s next coach also has to want to stay there. Not necessarily for life, but long enough to establish himself and change the culture. I’d say about 8-10 years at least. Four to get the ideal personnel (though they should make something work with the old people, not jam a square peg in a round hole, RichRod) and then enough time being a contender that bad memories of the past are largely irrelevant. Yes, Northwestern sucked something awful from the 70’s to the early 90’s and was fluky even in the Walker years, but that has very little to do with how fans and recruits see the program now.

Barring an inspirational star alumni turned young coordinator, I’d say get Mike Leach. He’s shown that he can get his team to compete with superior athletes and shape players into his offensive mold. Because of the controversy around him, top programs seem hesitant to pick him up and he seemed content making trouble as an underdog at TTech, so I don’t think he’d be a flight risk if you got him.

Plus, it would be really entertaining to watch.

would have been a better example than Lydon Murtha. Swift came out of the same place as Murtha, but went on to become Nebraska’s all-time reception leader.

Having been here (MN) for 20+ years, my conclusion is that Minnesota will never develop into a good program because they simply don’t care about college football. I don’t think that’ll change regardless of who runs the program, and how many games they win because any coach who gets them that far will leave for another program that will pay them a lot more than Minnesota is wiling to pay, and have more prestige than Minnesota can develop over that coach’s lifetime, especially since the coach is going to have to spend years competing against the pro teams in the state.

Swift and Murtha both went to Nebraska because they walked into a stadium full of 85k Husker nutcases and realized that they’d never see the same in Minnesota. That will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.

1. Yarr!
2. Don’t forget about deer season. That’s as/more important to over half the state than the Vikings/Twins combined.

 Overall, as a generalization, you’re right. Minnesotans don’t care about college football (it pains me to say/see it).

Try to hire a Fitzgerald-type former player. Someone who believes in the school, is whip-smart, and has demonstrated success in FCS (i.e knows how to win). Then stay with him for the next 10-15 years… no matter what happens on the field.

Don’t know that you’ll ever contend for championships. But you’ll have risen to the conference middle-tier (maybe upper-middle-tier) and you’ll play in some really exciting bowl games.

My two cents.