Golden Nugz - 09.19.11
by GopherNation on Sep 18, 2011 11:04 PM CDT
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PrintMonday Nugz are always more fun after a win, but the available links are not usually as interesting.
Sid caught up with Glen Mason who seemed a bit excited about the Gopher's win on Saturday.
"He reminds you of guys like Terrelle Pryor," Mason said, comparing Gray with the former Ohio State quarterback. "He needs to develop that accuracy in passing. A lot of times the receivers are wide open, sometimes he makes great throws, sometimes not so great. Once they get ironed out they're going to be awful tough to stop."
Kind of a lazy comparison, but he absolutely right that the accuracy really needs to improve. Gray carried this offense with his legs but he'll need to do it with his arm as well if we are going to win a Big Ten game or three.
- Minnesota Daily recaps Jerry Kill's first win.
- Phil Miller saw a tight Gopher team, this win may release some anxiety.
- The Gophers have developed a 2nd half team persona while the Vikings are a 1st half team that is terrible in the 2nd.
- Tom Powers prescribes more rest for Coach Kill after the week he had. It hasn't been very public but Kill was suffering seizures throughout the week last week.
I'm not sure why that was such a secret, but it was and it makes Kill's sideline presence even more dramatic.Nothing to worry about, the regular updates said. This has happened before and the doctors simply are regulating his medication. He's out of bed and turning cartwheels and working out with a hula hoop. No big deal.
In fact, Kill continued to suffer seizures while in the hospital. He mentioned after Saturday's 29-23 win over Miami (Ohio) that one of the toughest parts of last week was trying to communicate with his coordinators on Tuesday while he was in the hospital.r'
- Finally a hoops nugget. Andy Katz loves Tubby Smith and for the second year in a row he declares the Gophers are one of his sleeper teams.
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Glen Mason...
I’ve still got a bad taste in my mouth because of the heartbreaking losses his teams have put me through, but this quote/jab from the Sid column is pretty solid:
“I don’t know Jerry Kill that well, but I have a lot of respect for him as a football coach. I’ve watched his teams play,” Mason said. “I’ve watched how he developed programs. He’s not a guy that was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. He’s an honest-to-goodness football coach.”
When we get the Pig, the Jug and the Axe, we'll have one hell of a picnic
I'd cut this one out if I actually had a copy
From the JV paper:
“The Good Lord has been good to me,” Kill said.
Well, the Good Lord made him coach of the Golden Gophers so I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions there.
When we get the Pig, the Jug and the Axe, we'll have one hell of a picnic
Still a Mason booster
Mason’s firing was an emotional over-reaction. He was a good football coach. Unless Maturi had a better plan in mind he shouldn’t have fired Mason. As it turned out, he had nothing in mind.
Post-Tressel, Glen Mason was excellent at beating the hell out of MACrifices to get to a crappy bowl at 6-5, then proclaiming Minnesota should be happy they can achieve such a lofty result.
The hiring of Brewster was beyond idiotic, but I have no regrets about the idea of showing Mason the door (though the execution left something to be desired).
agreed
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Sep 19, 2011 9:33 AM CDT up reply actions
I agree also
but I thought Mason did a good job of providing color on BTN—-first time I had heard him do a game.
by Texas Gopher on Sep 19, 2011 9:45 AM CDT up reply actions
In retrospect...
….how can you argue that Mason wasn’t exactly correct that we should be happy making it to a bowl game? Take what happened the 40 years before he got here, and the 5 or so years since….I find he had a valid argument.
Not one you want leading your program, but valid nevertheless.
I’m hoping Kill takes us one level higher…where these “bad bowls” become the low end of the standard and occasional challenges for conference championships are possible once a decade, but I agree with Mason that people should have been more appreciative of Sun Bowls and Music City Bowls instead of crapping all over them.
People were appreciateive of them...
…until he never went anywhere else despite the most powerful rushing attack the country had seen in many years. Following which, he would tell us to be happy with the lower tier bowls as if they were a gift.
One thing missing too...
The bowl selection committees crapped on us multiple times because we don’t travel well. If we could have made one Alamo Bowl, the joke about not being able to spell Music City without “UM” wouldn’t be necessary to make on KFAN.
True to a point.
But if you win a few more games they can’t crap on you like they did (i.e. 2003, win one more and the Gophers are auto-selections to the Rose Bowl).
I also agree.
The problem was not whether he deserved to be fired but when he was fired/who he was replaced with. The U should have fired him after the season or let him come back. And once they were dumb enough to fire him post bowl game they should have gone with Charlie Strong or another candidate with actual coordinator experience.
Half true
Mas did a lot of good things for the Gophers. Too bad he never figured out how to get his teams to play D,or keep from collapsing under pressure.
Or play special teams.
Or recruit. Or develop a passing game.
Mase was what he was. I’ll probably mellow as time passes, but I still believe his firing was past due.
Everyone fails. The successful learn from their failures. I just wish we'd quit giving ourselves so many learning opportunities.
by WhiteSpeedReceiver on Sep 19, 2011 11:51 AM CDT up reply actions
He may have been only able to get 2 and 3 star recruits,
but he made them into some pretty fair football players. After the Brewster years,that alone seems like a major accomplishment. Although I also agree his time was up,the Brewster hiring struck me as being pretty lame at the time,but we’re all geniuses in hindsight.
Special Teams?
I think Mase did a great job with special teams. It seemed like we blocked punts all the time and often had good kick returners. I feel like the special teams play went downhill with Brewster.
We definitely had a lot of choke jobs though.
I don't recall a lot of punt blocks...
…but I’ll readily admit my memory in this regard is likely faulty.
I remember a lot of blocked punts
Except they were done by the other team, namely the Wisconsin game
When we get the Pig, the Jug and the Axe, we'll have one hell of a picnic
Wasn’t that a bad snap and our punter was too stupid to kick it or punch it or blow on it out the end zone? That is a worse memory to me than Michigan.
by jimipig on Sep 20, 2011 8:10 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Both...
…plus none of the coaches reminded him to take the safety if needed (Mason later said they didn’t want to worry him with too many details or something).
I do recall that nonsense explanation.
I went on a cruise with my wife that Sunday for 7 days, and I recall being so physically/emotionally upset with that loss that it took me until Wednesday to begin to have fun and to sleep the night without waking up and thinking about it. That was back before the team had completely stripped me of my happiness and positive spirit. These days, I sleep peacefully regardless of what they do. They have taken all I have to give.
GN...
….like your work, but you’re being overly critical of Mason. He’s about 10th in line to people comparing Gray to Pryor…including the entire current coaching staff. He’s also excited about the win perhaps because….well….we got our asses kicked by New Mexico State last week! He’s also at the stadium he dreamt about and worked so hard to get for years.
Nobody in Minnesota should feel a single bit of ill-will toward Coach Mason. Did he collapse? Absolutely….but did he give Minnesota the first taste of sustained winning football in 40 or 50 years? Yes! So I don’t get the hard feelings so many Minnesota fans/alum/media have against Coach Mason.
I will admit though…I always liked him. Even through the heart-breaking losses….I think he gave a lot more to Minnesota football than he received. Was it time for him to go? Yes…but the program should be thankful we had him and those years. We were able to play teams like Oregon, Alabama, etc. in those bowl games and we even snuck out the occasional big win (PSU, OSU, Michigan).
wasn't critical of Mason
critical of the comparison because it is usually just because they are both black and athletic.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Sep 19, 2011 11:49 AM CDT up reply actions
but who else would you compare him to??
I think Gray today is very much like Pryor his freshman year.
by Texas Gopher on Sep 19, 2011 12:06 PM CDT up reply actions
he's been compared to
Pryor
Vince Young
Vick
and probably others
they may all be different but they are black and run for a lot of yards. It might be accurate, but I feel like it is lazy.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Sep 19, 2011 1:32 PM CDT up reply actions
Those are all lazy then, right?
I’m sure there are a million opinions on it so I’ll stop. Toss whitey Tebow in there for good measure.
As for the Mason stuff…I agree he should have been let go, his time had run its course. My argument is, what he did for Minnesota football should be appreciated and commended, not still be looked at negatively because he lost some melt-down games. I’m saying look at the 40+ years before him, and the 5 since…and he did it in the DOME! I have little doubt he could have done more with the stadium. It is sad actually that we’ll never know what he could have done with that stadium. That discussion is for the bars…
Just calling it a lazy comparison.
Then the rest was my general frustration with other Gopher fans still digging on Mason in one way or another.
Watching this game against Miami (OH)….it was reinforced that we may lose several games by 3 touchdowns or more this season…and I can’t see us being competitive even in a “down” year in the Big 10. Tough year ahead until next season, where I hope our offensive line turns to performance enhancing drugs to get stronger/tougher. Our line is putrid trying to run the ball.
On Glen Mason
I disliked Mason when I covered the team as a beat writer in ‘03. I thought it was, without a doubt, the right move to fire him when Maturi did. And I still feel that way now. But that being said, I do appreciate what Mase did for the program, and in listening to him on Barreiro’s radio show and now on BTN on Saturday, I like him a little more. And by “like a little more,” I mean that I hate him a little less. It’s cool that he’s openly in the Gophers’ corner considering that he could be rooting against him after a bad break-up with the U.
Journalism. Enhanced.
Fair
as you’d have a lot more exposure to him than I did. I only saw him at Big 10 events down here in Chicago and in listening to his weekly radio shows. I trust your judgment.
My read is that people really blame him or hold a grudge against the guy…and it makes me scratch my head in that he made Gopher football half relevant again after decades of futility. We all know the story after he left, even worse…so I just think people need to let go whatever anger they’ve got toward the guy given how difficult it obviously is to win a god damned football game if you have a Minnesota jersey on! Watching this team…I literally am ashamed of the program and the school. We have no business being in the Big 10. They should have kicked us out with Indiana decades ago….some time in the ’70’s.
Mason, in one sentence
While at the U, he was a good football coach, bad with his PR and the media.
That makes it pretty ironic that Mase is now a color commentator. But I don’t think it’s a stretch to say he learned that at a major college program, PR is important, even if it’s not important to you personally. Unfortunately, it took him getting fired for that lesson to really sink in. If you’re perennially challenging for a national championship, you can get away with being as coarse as you want. If you’re going to consecutive Sun Bowls, you better sell yourself well because the rest of us will need convincing that we should feel good about that. Like I said, he gets that now. He didn’t when he was coaching.
Journalism. Enhanced.
I honestly don't think people hold much anger at the guy...
…any defensiveness or aggressiveness comes from having to defend the decision to fire him to people who point to the Brewster hire as the reason we should have been glad to keep Mase, the creampuff NC, and the lower level bowls. Those folks (mostly non-Gopher fans/national writers) never take the time to make the logical move of separating the decision to fire (IMO: valid decision) from the timing/replacement (IMO: Epic Fail).
I loved watching Mason’s teams play offense. The lack of in game adjustments and no defense were maddening, but on the whole, I enjoyed many games in his tenure. It was his unwillingness or inability to be self-critical in the press that made it easier to feel dislike/hatred towards him in the end. But for most folks I doubt those feelings stuck.
by GoAUpher on Sep 19, 2011 2:05 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
Exactly this.
It’s Brewster’s fault.
I didn’t even have to type that. It’s just ctrl-V at this point.
I don't have a lot of anger against Mason
I think it was pretty clear that the Mason-U relationship had gone about as far as it was going to go.
Mason did a lot of positive things for the program, he won 64 games, he helped to build TCF stadium, he beat the teams he was supposed to beat and occasionally pulled a shocker.
Once you make it to the peak of where your coaching abilities are going to take you (i.e. Saban in Alabama, not Saban in Michigan State, Mason at the U, not Mason for Ohio State) i think coaches tend to level out.
Unless you win and win big (Joe Pa, Beamer, Stoops), there’s only so much time before it’s probably time for a change. I think of Mason (64-57), Groh (59-53 at Virginia) or Friedgen (75-50 at Maryland) as the kind of coach that’s good enough to last a decade (unlike Brewster) but is ultimately going to be replaced.
.500 coaches don’t keep their job for 15 years.
Tommy the Tank
Anybody else enjoy his running over-the-shoulder catch fielding the kickoff? I mean, obviously, he should have let that one go to Stoudermire, but just the fact that a true freshman left tackle can make that play (athletically) was pretty impressive. If the O-line is going to underwhelm us anyway, and Olson is using up his frosh eligibility on kick returns, we may we well get him some reps in place of Orton or Bunders.
Journalism. Enhanced.
he's a few yards closer to Troy's B1G record.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Sep 19, 2011 11:50 AM CDT up reply actions
It's a bummer that Olson burned his redshirt already
Like you said, the starting offensive line is considerably below par for a Big Ten school; why not let Tommy build strength and work on technique with an eye on starting him next year as a RS freshman? There are nineteen offensive linemen on the listed roster – I think the Gophers could go two deep at every position without having to use Tommy.
It’s frustrating that the line is so bad at run blocking right now, the Gophers offense can’t work from any pro-style formations because opponents don’t respect the run.
by sportsnight on Sep 19, 2011 11:55 AM CDT up reply actions
General Comment-
You can probably remove Andre McDonald from the 2012 commit list banner….damn him to hell…ha ha ha…
Good discussion
Biggest disappointment is offensive line of gophers. They did open a few holes but where is the push? Are they capable of more, or are they doing their best? Two different issues. I would not be surprised to hear Kill announce soon he is retiring from coaching due to health reasons, not what I want to hear, but it seems inevitable.
by bobbyspringfield on Sep 19, 2011 4:48 PM CDT reply actions
nor the fact that after such a health scare he was on the sidelines this weekend
I would think if “health reasons” were to be used then he would have not been coaching this weekend.
"My love for Jerry Kill knows no bounds." - Jeffrick
by TheEvilProfessor on Sep 19, 2011 7:03 PM CDT up reply actions
Ah, I love the smell of unfounded speculation in the morning...
…it smells like, complete horse poo.
Bobby
Have you met coach? He will die in his office or on the football field and he wants it no other way. He would rather die than not coach.
by jimipig on Sep 20, 2011 8:14 AM CDT via mobile reply actions
Coach's health
The man is 50 years old, and has a family that he cares about. He has years of coaching behind him, he may be forced to retire if these daily seizures continue, that is all I am saying.
by bobbyspringfield on Sep 20, 2011 4:45 PM CDT reply actions
And I my dad might have to retire...
…if he starts having heart attacks again.
While my level of concern is much higher now given Kill’s admission of additional seizures then it was after the first public incident, I still don’t see the point in speculation. We don’t know all the facts. We don’t know all the medical pieces of the puzzle. So why are we bothering with “well, IF X happens then I think Kill should/could do Y”.
I wasn't actually worried...
…and I’m familiar enough with seizures to know that he can function fine with them and that they shouldn’t be life threatening in any way. But it was certainly easier to go “ok, he has a history with them no biggie” when it was a one time thing, that’s all. :)
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