Golden Nugz - 8.31.11

…from both Kill and Maturi. Especially Maturi….I’ve never seen a guy come so close to saying “we really don’t have a shot” in an upcoming football game. What a sack of shit. Sure, we all feel this way, but the coach and AD need to be motivational above and beyond “if by an act of God we find a way to win this thing”….which is effectively what Maturi said. And Kill….I’ve seen multiple interviews where he’s saying along the lines of “boy, I really wish we weren’t playing USC in that first game”….

You all know I’m a HUGE Kill guy….but dude, you’re a head coach and having done everything else right in my mind, this is a time when I feel he’s making a big error/mistake. If I read my coach saying that shit in the paper, I’d be pissed off as a player. Really pissed off. A coach needs to think/know he can tactically win each game. Saying stuff like “we’ll definitely show up, but we really wish we didn’t have to play them big strong fast guys”….I really don’t like it.

And yes, I get the point….and I get his plan for future games to be against patsy’s at home, which is all fine….but don’t say this crap a few days before you head to USC!!!! Say your guys are amped and it’s an opportunity to shock the football world and be on the big stage. Don’t let it be known you’re using the game as nothing more than an NFL pre-season game to try to measure guys and figure out who you have got where on the field.

Also reading Shortell expected to get some reps and Gray potentially lining up at receiver. Yet I was a big ass-hole for saying that last week…but I digress…I still think if Gray struggles, he becomes our #1 receiver especially if Shortell is as solid as they say. Stil building for a future and everybody can say they had a fair shake. I’m good either way.

Cheers!

Kill had no input into playing his first game as coach on the road. “Very honestly, I’d (prefer) to be playing at home,” he said Tuesday. Against USC, or somebody else? “Somebody else,” he said. "You asked, and I’m being straight. But it is what it is, so we’ll go out (to Los Angeles) and we’re excited, and we’ll go out and do it. “But that’s not what I would have done. But that’s not my choice, and I’m not putting down anybody that did it. That’s not the philosophy I might have.”

OVERHEARD Maturi, on Kill playing his first game as Gophers coach at USC: “If I’m Jerry Kill, I’m not so sure I want to open up my first game at the University of Minnesota with Southern California on the road. I fully understand that. By the same token, none of us know what’s going to happen. If we somehow found a way to win, it would be an unbelievable start. If we play them competitively, I think it’s a good start. And if we get our butts kicked, it kind of tells you where we are in the program and how much we have to get better.”