So Joel Maturi is "retiring" as the athletic director at the University of Minnesota. Interesting, as we guessed that Maturi's ideals of a balanced athletic department where every sport is treated equally would differ from new president Eric Kaler's ideals of an athletic department where the revenue-generating sports produce, you know, revenue.

Also interesting because while Maturi won't be the school's athletic director after June, he'll sure still be getting paid like it. Some folks at in the Minnesota legislature are a wee bit puzzled why Maturi will still get his full athletic director's salary AND full benefits to be a special assistant to Kaler. It means that the University of Minnesota will be paying TWO people to do the job of athletic director, and you can bet whomever they hire isn't going to take less to do the job than what they'll be paying Maturi to NOT do the job.

Should that matter to Gopher fans? We're not the one's paying his salary, except that we kind of are with ticket sales and all the rest. And isn't the full AD's salary he'll be getting next year money that could be going to help fund Maturi's beloved NR's? Maybe there's a precedent here that I'm not aware of. Maybe there's plenty of other BCS schools who give their ousted AD's golden parachutes despite the athletic department needing revenue in a down economy. Maybe, but I'd feel better if Maturi were a special assistant on an assistant's salary, or, maybe he could just actually retire and live off what I'm sure is a hefty pension.

Gopher Hockey moves up in the rankings

As weekend's off go, the one the Minnesota Gopher hockey team just enjoyed was about as good as it gets. The boys got some time to rest up and prepare for the rest of the season while everybody else played some games, and the results for Minnesota were mostly good. Or about as good as expected. The Gophs started the weekend tied for 8th in the Pairwise Standings with a 5 point lead over UMD for first in the WCHA, with the Bulldogs holding two games in hand. UMD played those two games against UAA, and after the Seawolves and Bulldogs split, Duluth was able to only pick up two points on the Gophs. So not only is Minnesota still three points up in the WCHA, but they moved up one spot in the Pairwise too, now sitting tied for 7th with Merrimack.

Now down to fifth? That'd be UMD, and while the national polls don't mean much, it still looks good for the Gophers to be ranked second and UMD third. Or maybe it just feels good. Of course, we don't want our dear rival Bulldogs to fall TOO far, since they're still by far Minnesota's best pair of wins this year, and will be for the rest of the regular season. To keep moving up the Pairwise, Minnesota needs to keep winning, but really, so does Duluth- just not too much. Minnesota gets a chance to help themselves on the ice this weekend when they travel to Denver to play the #17 Pioneers, who are 4th in the WCHA and 14th right now in the Pairwise.

Big Ten's College Football Playoff Plan

How quickly things change; it wasn't long ago- like less than 2 months ago- when B1G commish Jim Delaney was squarely against the idea of a college football playoff. Yet according to the Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein, Delaney is not only now willing to listen to proposals for a playoff, he now has one of his own. Delaney wants a 4 team playoff where the top two seeds host, and the championship game site goes to the highest bidder, much like how the Super Bowl site is selected now. On the surface this seems like a relatively modest proposal, which is fine by me. I think anything more than 4 waters down the best regular season in sports, and this idea would also keep more of the big bowl games on or around January 1 where they belong.

But of course, this is a plan that benefits the B1G too. If the Big Ten gets a team in the top 2, it means someone from the SEC, Big 12 or Pac 12 is coming north in December to play in cold weather in a hostile environment. And if they get the third or fourth best team, well, then they'll just head down to a sunny, warm destination to play the semi-final game- you know, like they already do for bowl games. Sure, Death Valley or Bryant-Denny Stadium or Autzen or Oklahoma Memorial would be a lot tougher to play in than a neutral site like the Rose, Gator or Outback, but it's less of a disadvantage for the cold weather Big Ten teams to have to go south than the possibility of a southern school coming north- in December.

Not only that, but you can be guaranteed that if/when the B1G would place a team in the top 4 of the rankings and out of the regular bowl lineup, the Big Ten is NOT about to lose their Rose Bowl berth. The second best B1G squad would go to the Rose Bowl as I'm sure the second best Pac 12 school would take the place of Oregon or SC or Stanford if they made the top 4. So in Delaney's plan, the B1G gains a possible advantage by hosting a cold weather semi-final game AND still keeps its coveted tie-in with the Rose Bowl.

Now that's what I call a win-win.

Lost a bit amongst all the hoopla with the new jerseys was news that sophomore QB Tom Parish has decided to transfer. Parish was a three star recruit from the heart of Badger country, as he starred at Wisconsin high school power Arrowhead. At 6'3 with an accurate arm and good athleticism, he looked a perfect fit to run Jerry Kill's offense, but got lost in the shuffle as he dropped to third on the depth chart in 2012.

While it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that Parish could have fought his way to be MarQueis Gray's backup this year, he would have started the spring as the #3, and with a certain super-duper freshman already on campus, could have potentially slipped further behind. No word on where Parish will transfer to but we wish him the best (as long as it's not the QB needy Badgers, of course).

So with the loss of Parish, what does this do to the Gophers' QB depth chart? No change at the top obviously (or the bottom, for that matter) but there's some battles to be had for the 2-4 spots...

Starter: MarQueis Gray, senior (eligibility as of fall 2012)
Q is the unquestioned leader of the team, and the offense, for the upcoming season. He was far and away the team's most effective and dangerous runner, and that's not likely to change in 2012. Although having someone-or even several someones- step up as a viable option at running back to replace departed senior Duane Bennett is a must for this offense to make some progress. Where Gray needs to show improvement is in the passing game, as he completed only 50.6% of his passes in 2011. Performances like the Michigan State loss, where he completed 19 of 32 passes for 295 yards and 3 TD's, showed the potential is there to be a capable passer, and hopefully another full offseason will help him get there. Q showed last offseason that work ethic won't be an issue, so if the guys around him can put in the same kind of effort, we'll hopefully see the kind of jump in offensive production Jerry Kill's teams usually show from year 1 to year 2. If that happens, Q could be an all-conference quarterback.

Primary Backup: Max Shortell, true sophomore vs. Philip Nelson, true freshman
And here's where things get REALLY interesting...

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I'm not a fan of waking up on Saturday mornings and not having any college football to look forward to for the day, but at least on this Saturday morning we've got some things to talk about.

New Jerseys

The new uni's were unveiled yesterday and the collective response seems to be a bit of a sigh of relief. There was some concern that things were going to be over the top with this unveiling, but Nike stuck with maroon, gold and white, and a pretty classic look.

Personally, I'm a big fan of more classic looking jerseys, and these jerseys are right up my alley. I'm a big fan of the all-maroon and the all-white looks and I am ecstatic with the fact that there doesn't seem to be an all-gold look. I actually don't care for the gold jerseys at all, but like the gold pants, maroon tops look.

Okay, enough fashion talk... okay, one more. Very cool how the bricks were incorporated into the numbers.

Coaching Staff

That silence you hear? That would be the coaching staff NOT experiencing turnover.

Recruiting

There's a difference between recruiting in Brewster's days vs recruiting these days. Kill's staff is putting on plenty of miles, but the difference seems to be that they aren't trying to be flashy about it, and they are working to land the right kind of players instead of the right names. Heard any reports of Kill taking a helicopter to Hopkins to see Andre McDonald play?

Speaking of McDonald, while I'm sure that Coach Kill would be happy to have McDonald join the program, I bet he's no fan of the games that the Hopkins WR has been playing during his recruiting. His antics are, of course, nowhere near what we saw with the Seantrel Henderson saga, but the commit/de-commit game and all the talk of where he'll be going is nothing but a distraction away from what kind of a player he is.

One thing is for sure, if McDonald does choose to stay home and play for the Gophers, he's not going to get any special treatment from the Coach.

Lastly, even without McDonald, Kill has landed 6 of the top 10 (according to Rivals) players in the state.

Attrition

It's early in the off-season (sigh) and we haven't heard much about players leaving the program yet. We did learn, however, that Wisconsin native Tom Parish has decided to leave the U of M. Parish was a big "get" in the 2010 class as he was the 2nd rated prospect in Wisconsin that year, and a highly rated dual-threat QB across the nation. But Parish slipped down the depth chart when Max Shortell impressed everyone through camps last year.

Here's hoping Parish lands someplace where his talents are well-used!

A fun little event down at TCF Bank Stadium and I got a few pics of the uniforms. First a few thoughts on the uniforms...

• Kill was asked if he had any input into the design of the uniforms and he said he didn't really care except that it had to include tradition.
• I love the brick in the maroon numbers.
  
• I am not sure which combination I like the most. I like a lot of the unique features on the gold jerseys but I prefer the more traditional maroon and white ones. I think the maroon jerseys look the best, but I think I like the maroon pants as well. I'm just not sure I would like to see them together. White jersey and maroon pants are probably my favorite, the most classic look.
  
• The gold jerseys have "MINNESOTA" on the back instead of a last name, that I think is pretty cool.
• In addition to the uniforms, coach Kill stressed how much further along the team is from a strength and conditioning standpoint than they were a year ago. Mike Rallis looked it, his arms were huge.
• Gray told me that the have been spending much more time on the team's nutrition as well as working hard in the weight room.
• As I'm sure you have seen, there are a ton of pics available on the Gopher's official site.
• I am so glad that they got rid of the piping down the side, that is probably the best thing in all of this.

More pics after the jump

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I took a shot at projecting the 2012 Gopher Defense already, so it is only fair that I give the offense the same treatment. I have stated on multiple occasions that looking back at Kill's last few rebuilding projects, the most dramatic improvements have typically come on the offensive side of the ball. I've gone on record stating that offensive yardage should increase by 10-15% and scoring will increase by 25-30%. This is based on year 1 to year 2 improvements at SIU and NIU.

At Southern Kill inherited a team that was talent deficient and offensive production jumped dramatically. Northern had more talent on the roster and the offensive improvements were more modest. Minnesota is returning quite bit offensively, most notably is obviously MarQueis Gray at quarterback. Looking back at Kill's first two years at Northern he started Chandler Harnish in his first season. Harnish finished with over 2,000 yards of offense. In Kill's second season Harnish had fewer yards rushing but he completed 5% more passes, touchdowns went up and interceptions went down. I hope we can expect more of the same for Q but with rushing yards still a key piece of his game.

But the offense will be about more than one person. Let's take a look at who is leaving, who is returning and what new blood is coming into the program...

Players Lost
(in order of significance)

1 - Duane Bennett (RB) - The team's leading rusher who was actually a running back. Bennett finished his Gopher career with over 2,000 yards and was a leader on the team. His production was solid but he wasn't lighting the Big Ten on fire or a guy who could carry the offensive load. His leadership and consistency is what will be most missed.

2 - Da'Jon McKnight (WR) - I think people were expecting more this year out of McKnight but it should be noted that he did have 51 catches and 760 yards both improvements from his JR year. His touchdowns dropped off and other than the Michigan State and New Mexico State games his impact was rarely felt on the field. McKnight is a big receiver, capable of making big plays.

3 - Chris Bunders (OL) - Bunders started the season inside playing guard but when Jimmy Gjere was injured he moved out to RT and had a very good senior season. 40 starts over his Gopher career is impressive and you usually don't easily replace that.

(below this line are guys who played a high number of snaps but I view their loss is less significant)

4 - Ryan Wynn (OC) - Started 26 games in his Gopher career including all 12 games at center in 2011. The one position along the OL that worries me most this fall is center.

5 - Collin McGarry (TE) - Started all 12 games at TE and finished the season with 16 catches and 2 touchdowns.

6 - Eric Lair (TE) - Started just four games as a senior and had a disappointing season. As a junior Lair grabbed 39 catches for over 500 yards while starting all 12 games. For his senior year he had just 11 receptions for 168 yards. I think Lair is very talented but for whatever reason his skills were not properly showcased in 2011.

7 - Ryan Orton (OG) -Senior from Eden Prairie who was the starter for four games this past season and started 14 in his four years on the active roster.

(below this line are guys who added depth but were not regular contributors)

None. All of our "depth" will be returning in 2012.

Players Returning

Similar to the defense we have quite a few starters and all of our backups returning.

1 - MarQueis Gray (QB) - The offense will start and stop with Gray. He is in a group all by himself as the only real play-maker on this offense.

(below the jump are starters who we will be counting on but they are just not in the same class as Gray)

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Football season is now officially over and we are just days into the 2012 season. Which means I am late on starting to preview the 2012 Gophers. I've been perusing other fine Big Ten blogs and have seen some interesting ways of previewing their respective teams.

Some teams in the Big Ten have some drama going on, whether it is coaching issues or NFL departures or transfers or significant graduations or other drama. Iowa losing five running backs over the last year and a half is dominating their headlines along with the departure of six seniors on defense and Riley Reiff at LT. Penn State is losing seven seniors on defense, most of their offensive line and their first coaching change in decades is causing a bit of drama. Wisconsin is also losing most of their entire offensive line and nearly all of their offensive coaching staff has moved to Pittsburgh.

Illinois and Ohio State have the usual coaching staff changes to fill their offseason discussion points. Northwestern and Michigan State each are losing their QB starters for the past 13 years. Then you have teams like Michigan, Indiana, Purdue, Nebraska and Minnesota who are bringing back their key pieces and can just start looking forward to the 2012 season; drama free (mostly).

Yes, for what feels like the first time in years (though it probably wasn't really that long) the Gophers enter an offseason that appears to be drama free. We return most of our starters, there will be no major coaching staff changes for what really IS the first time in YEARS and we can just look forward to the development of everyone on the roster which should hopefully lead to improved play on the field.

So let's start to take a look at the 2012 Gopher defense. I want to start with the pieces that we lose, in order of importance.

Players Lost

1 - Kim Royston - the Big Ten's second leading tackler, Kim Royston was the one guy in the secondary that Gopher fans could rely on. He also made two huge plays that essentially won games for us knocking down Miami (OH)'s final pass attempt in the end zone and then recovering the onside kick as we beat Iowa (again). Royston will be missed for his leadership as much as his talent.
2 - Gary Tinsley - The team's starting MLB, 2nd leading tackler, led the team with 9.0 TFLs and 4.0 sacks. He started the last 24 Gopher football games, was a very good linebacker for the Gophers and one of the more underrated MLBs in the conference. Hopefully there won't be a huge dropoff with the highly anticipated Brendan Beal or Aaron Hill who has received quite a bit of playing time over the last couple years waiting to step into his starting role.
3 - Anthony Jacobs - Jacobs was a player who certainly improved over his four years on the field. He made 26 starts over his career and finished with five sacks. The Northfield native was a four-star recruit out of high school and while he never was as dominant as some were hoping he'd be, he was a very solid DT.
4 - Brandon Kirksey - Really had a disappointing SR season in my opinion but considering what is behind he and Jacobs on the depth chart, he will be sorely missed as a valuable starter. As a JR he recorded 28 tackles and 5.5 TFLs, as a SR his numbers dropped to 19 and 1.

(below this line are guys who played a high number of snaps but their loss is less significant)

5 - Kyle Henderson - starting corner who will be replaced by our more talented corner who missed most of last year with a broken arm. After transferring from D2 Mankato, Henderson started 10 games over his final two years of eligibility. Solid player but I do not believe we will be yearning for the likes of Henderson in the future. The play of his career was probably the sack and forced fumble in the Iowa game that kick started the Gopher comeback and victory.
6 - Christyn Lewis - JUCO transfer who started most of the games at safety in 2011. Lewis had good size but often appeared to be the man to blame on broken coverages and big pass plays. Youth will be replacing Lewis and the hope is that it will be an improvement.

(below this line are guys who added depth but were not regular contributors)

7 - Johnny Johnson - appeared in just eight games as a senior recording six tackles.
8 - Shady Salamon - started 2 game and appeared in 10 as a senior but was rarely a factor. Good team guy who moved from RB to the defense looking for any way to contribute and get on the field.

Players Returning

Five starters to replace isn't usually a great place to be but considering Henderson will very likely be replaced by Troy Stoudermire, Tinsley's replacement may be just fine and replacing Christyn Lewis is a good thing; the only major holes on defense will be at DT. So let's move on to who will be returning (in order of significance of course) starting with the guys who are going to be starters and guys that I have the utmost confidence in...

1 - Troy Stoudermire - getting Stoudermire back after a medical redshirt will be a gift from the football gods. The secondary wasn't very good last year, getting Troy back will be huge for both the pass defense and the return game. His 2 picks led the team and he only played in four games.
2 - Keanon Cooper - fastest man on the team has started 22 games in his Sophomore and Junior years. He was playing very well by the end of last year and I expect that with an offseason without any coaching or scheme changes he will excel in 2012.
3 - Mike Rallis - Edina kid with 18 career starts in the last 2 years. Rallis is a hard working kid who often seems to be making plays just by being where he should be, when he should be there. Not the most athletic or big linebacker in the league but he is reliable.
4 - Brock Vereen - Made some very nice plays in 2011 but also gave up a handful of big ones, but Vereen improved throughout the year and I expect he will also benefit from an offseason hearing the same voices and schemes and drills as he heard a year ago.
5 - Ra'Shede Hageman - Former TE turned DE turned DT, Hageman and his improvement will be vital to the succes of the Gopher defense in 2012. With the loss of our two starting DTs Hageman must be able to step in and be productive from the inside. His final game of 2011 saw him record 2 sacks and force a fumble in the win over Illinois so maybe he is starting to get it and will be primed for a breakout JR season.

(after the jump are starters who just have more question marks than the ones above)

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Gopher football received some monstrously good news late yesterday, as the Big Ten has granted corner/kick returner Troy Stoudermire a medical hardship waiver, meaning the senior will return for the 2012 season. Stoudermire broke his forearm in the third game of the year against Miami of Ohio, and tried to play a week later against the NATIONAL CHAMPION NDSU Bison (sorry I thought I'd feel better about the Gophs losing to NDSU if I wrote in really big letters that the Bison won the national championship, but it didn't help), but barely made it through one quarter. He missed the rest of the year, and while in his career he never used a redshirt season, there was still concern that Troy had played in too many games in 2011 to be eligible for the medical hardship. Thankfully the Big Ten made the right call, and the Gopher's top corner will be back next season.

The impact of his return simply cannot be overstated. No really, go ahead and try- you simply cannot make a big enough deal of how good this is for the team and the secondary in 2012. It was easily the weakest area of the team last season, and with the loss of leading tackler Kim Royston, could have potentially been even worse in 2012. Stoudermire is the team's best corner, and with Royston moving on, now their best defensive back, and it's not even close. It's not to put down the team's other corners, but yeah, Stoudermire's injury left a pretty gaping hole in the secondary and opposing quarterbacks filled it with completions all season long.

#11's return won't suddenly make the team's secondary a strength, but having him at the #1 corner spot means there's one less position to worry about. The Gophers bring back some experience to compete for the other starting spot and nickel corner, but we'll see how much talent is truly there. The coaching staff has been working hard to bring in some JUCO-transfer DB's that can play right away.

Still, this is great news for the 2012 team. Anytime you get your top defensive back, who oh by the way is also the Big Ten's all-time leader in kick return yardage, it's nothing but a good thing.

Ok so full disclosure: I meant to get this posted last Thursday or Friday. You know, before New Year's Day and the big bowls when the Big Ten fell flat on its face. But because of family commitments, work, and holiday laziness, it didn't happen. Still, a few days after the BCS bowls are done, and we await the national championship Monday, Big Ten fans are licking their wound after their schools got beat on the big stage. As Gopher fans we didn't have a team to root for, but our pride is a bit wounded as OUR conference got its ass kicked. Again. As members of the Big 10, we're inclined to root for our conference brethren this time of year, in a one-for-all and all-for-one mentality where B1G teams winning bowl games is somehow good for Minnesota.

I get that, I really do. I understand why you'd want to cheer for your conference and how it's great when they win and hurts a bit when we lose. But one thing I'll never understand is how Gopher fans can cheer for Wisconsin and Iowa in bowl games...

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