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Row the damn boat


JimmyHoffa

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No, going out after the game in a city like Minneapolis is a plus. It is here in Austin. It is that you have to train a whole fanbase to come to campus and enjoy the game and culture that is unique to your campus and fanbase. They really don't have traditions built around having a home stadium so that has to get amplified now that they do. They should copy some of what CDC is doing here to build that up. Culture is important and traditions that grow up around being a long time fan. But most important is winning, that raises everyone's spirit and gets them to want to party and enjoy the hell out of the experience. Irritation at parking or traffic really gets minimized with a win when you are blasting your fight song and yelling at the loser fans that they suck. The true joys of the college gameday experience. 

Seriously, the Gophers have a fine opportunity to seize the day with the team and Fleck bringing in the Ws. This should go a long way towards building a solid foundation to a great gameday experience. 

 

UT is a much bigger driver in Austin than U of M is in Minneapolis. They aren’t really comparable. Austin is way more college towny, in a way that’s conducive to a better game/collegiate experience.

 

Minneapolis has always been more of a city than a college town. Austin is a college town that became a city.

 

I think Minneapolis can and should compliment the U of M gameday experience, but thus far it hasn’t

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13 hours ago, TexasHooch said:

U of M fans love the Gophers, but they also love the Wild, Wolves, and Vikings. Iowa State fans need only choose between the Cyclones and the meat raffle at the American Legion.

There's a meat raffle? It's a wonder anyone attends Cyclones  games.

<You're welcome, AI_4_ISU>

Fwiw, the game sold out a couple days ago. 

Edited by WhatTheBuck
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I agree that the Athletic Department needs to build a relationship with the city and work to make the games a fun event for alum and city dwellers that might want to hit a college game. The eye candy, the atmosphere, pretty campus all play into making that a draw as well as the winning. Minny being a big city is a plus, imo. There is so much fun things to do that will draw the out of towners to come to some games. Look, Austin is Austin and not many cities can compete with it's allure but some smart city people should be brainstorming ways to lure people to the games and rope in the press to talk the shit up. It is very doable, imo. I spent a lot of time in Minny for work and I always liked the bars and restaurants around the campus area.  Haven't been in years but surely it is still a fun scene. 

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10 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Fwiw, the game sold out a couple days ago. 

Yep, though they had to put in a lot of work to get there.  Not a top 3 reason for slow ticket sales, but it certainly doesn't help that this morning was the start of Deer Season.  It's a really big deal in MN and it draws a lot of people away from the city over the weekend.  Even the Vikings feel it when they have home games during opener (lots of sold but empty seats).

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I remember about five years ago, one of the local college teams fired its head coach who was doing just okay but the team was kind of stuck in a rut of mediocrity. They didn't have any tradition of success or name brand and just an average size fanbase and no real recruiting footprint or advantage there. The local columnists made several suggestions, but several indicated that you need a gimmick to kind of break our of a cycle. They were talking about something like installing the option offense, or redesigning the uniforms over and over again. People think of gimmicks like in a pejorative sense. But in a system like college football where so many guys are competing for recruits attention it can be useful to get you in the door with some guys. It gets people's attention. Anyway, Fleck has some videos where he even talks about himself as a guy that other people call a gimmick coach. 

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Okay, the game at Iowa is on FOX at 3:00 and Minnesota is the 3 point dog on the road, the point total is 44.5 which is way on the low side for college football. Iowa has upset some top ten opponents in similar situations in the past few years. The Iowa offense is struggling to score points in any conference game or against any competition. If Minnesota gets 25 points they almost definitely win. Iowa's secondary is a weak spot this season, and a real playmaking wide receiver can do something to the. Minnesota's quarterback played the near perfect game last week, and he probably won't match that performance two weeks in a row, but he probably won't have to. Can the Gopher's maintain the emotional high they had last week? They can basically clinch a tie for the B1G West this weekend.

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The Iowa offense broke a bunch of their tendencies in their first possessions. Things like going shotgun on short yardage or a toss play that they hadn't run all season. The Gopher defense looked confused early, and missed tons of tackles they didn't seem to do last week. The Hawkeyes hadn't scored an opening drive touchdown against a decent opponent in a long time, but they had three touchdown drives to start the game. 20 of their 23 points came on those first three possessions. The announcers noted that they were anticipating the secondary for Minnesota to be aggressive, and some double-moves hit for large gains. The Iowa offensive line had their best game of the season, Stanley was able to get into a rhythm he hadn't been in all season. This is an offense that looked dead against every other B1G opponent and then they just march down the field to start this game.

 

The Gopher's play action and RPO game started slow, the running plays just weren't gaining many yards and the passes were getting tipped at the line by linemen who were staying back to sniff out the run. The Gopher wideouts dropped a few passes early. Iowa was able to keep two safeties deep and have linebackers dropping into coverage zones most of the night. Morgan had a couple passes nearly picked but dropped. The Iowa secondary had a couple really athletically limited guys out there, but they had four guys in a zone looking at the football and didn't give up any big plays. Minnesota was stalled in the red zone without getting a touchdown a few times. 

The radio announcers were blown away by the Gopher wide receivers, they are just better than what you see in the B1G west. They can get to multiple levels and stretch out the defense.

 

The special teams battle was lost by Minnesota missing a field goal early, and an extra point late in the game. The final sequence with the missed PAT, the onside kick, then having to pass to score a touchdown was a bad spot to be in.

 

Assuming they beat Northwestern next week, it will come down to the last game at home against Wisconsin to decide the B1G West.

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I was watching the press conference where Fleck explains why he runs onto the field after a late hit, the hit was like a long five seconds after a play. He says he was on the staff at Rutgers when Eric Legrand was paralyzed on the field. I went and checked the Rutgers media guide and found the Fleck bio page just for fun

 

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Okay, next up is the Northwestern Wildcats, at Ryan Field in Evanston Illinois. The Gophers are favored by 13.5, and I think they can name the score against the Cats. Teams often play extra mean in the week after their first loss of the season. The Northwestern team just doesn't have the rhythm on offense that they need to get their version of the spread to work. If you want to see a bunch of short guys running around and endless incomplete passes, this is your kind of team. At least for this year. Anyway, the secondary ticket market has seats for about $6.00 and its just outside Chicago.

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Okay, Tanner Morgan was clearly at full speed and the Gopers started the game by taking a 21 point lead. It wouldn't surprise me if they were keeping some offensive wrinkles for next week. Northwestern has just been awful this season. The wide receivers have been the stars for the team as the season has gone on, and the B1G West just doesn't get these kinds of playmakers at that position. They get open in any part of the field and use their bodies to create just a little space and Morgan has been dropping the ball into them.

 

Its on to Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon at TCF Bank Stadium, tv is 2:30 central time on ABC and it looks like the Badgers are slight favorites on the road. The Badgers seem like they hit their peak performance against Michigan early in the season. Purdue stuck around with them for the first half this week. They just don't seem to be getting better as the season goes on. The Gophers looked awful in close early season wins but have been looking better as the season goes on.

Edited by trza-hawk
clarification
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7 hours ago, Brothahorn said:

I hope Minny backs up all the hype.

I'd say they already have. They've got their best record in over a century. They're competing for a division championship for the first time. College GameDay is in town for the first time. 

Wisconsin is favored by 2.5 points. The Gophers are supposed to lose. Just being there is cause for a big raise and contract extension for Fleck, which he got, and he'll also be named Big Ten Coach of the Year. (Never mind if Ryan Day manages to go undefeated in his first year as a head coach. Fleck has that award wrapped up. You're supposed to be successful at tOSU. They don't reward you for that.)

I hope Minnesota wins. But even if they don't it's been a successful season that exceeded expectations. PJ will keep coaching, keep recruiting, and trying to get better every day. That's how you build a successful program. We saw him do it in Kalamazoo and we're watching him do it again in Minneapolis. 

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I see a small opening for the Gophers because their passing game is in sync and their receivers are better than anything that the B1G West has seen since the divisions were set up in the B1G. I can also see them slowing down the Badger running back if they throw everything at stopping the run. Wisconsin has just been bigger and stronger than the rest of the division, their offensive line especially, for the past ten years.

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1 hour ago, Parliament said:

Yeah I think the Sconnies are gonna boat race the boat rowers.

Yup.  It's a revenge game, and there will be a shit ton of Sconnies in the house, because that's what they do when they play teams (pro or college) from Minnesota in Minnesota.

I do think Minnesota vs. tOSU will be a more interesting Big 10 title game, but Wisconsin is like a better version of Iowa, and we saw what happened when Minnesota played Iowa.  Minnesota's offense at least has a chance of hanging around in a shoot out.  

Edited by Al_4_ISU
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Taylor also has a penchant for losing fumbles. He lost two last week and one in their Illinois game that led to the Illinois TD that got the Illini within 2.

It also bodes well when both Antoine Winfield Jr. and Tyler Johnson are playing like they want their names called early in the NFL draft next spring. 

The Gophers can absolutely win this one. Keep Tanner Morgan upright so he can get the ball out to TJ and Bateman, get out on the lead first, and then force their QB to throw. The winning drive last year at the Camp resulted in no points but ran almost 10 minutes off the clock in Q4 and put the ball in the QBs hands (and out of them 3 plays later).

It's going to look like the Hoth system out there on Saturday, and tailgating in a foot of snow will be interesting. 

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Not liking the weather taking away the passing attack of Tyler Johnson/Bateman for Minny...but they still do have a decent trio of backs in Smith, Ibrahim and Brooks.

 

The Minnesotan in me tells me they lose a heart breaker, because  that is all I know how sports end except for those that blips in 1987, 1991 and 2005.

Edited by MNLonghornFUKM
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Gameday intro from Minnesota, to get to the National Championship game in the Superdome in New Orleans they have to row their boats a thousand miles to New Orleans

 

 

 

 

This is their defensive leader getting the team hyped before the Northwestern game, if these guys can slow down the Badgers today then they have a chance

 

Edited by trza-hawk
geographical distances
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