It is my turn to do the Nugz again and I'm turning to the Purdue blog-sphere for some material. While I was hoping for a little bulletin board material, instead I found someone trying to butter us up a little bit.
My first stop for all things Purdue was Off the Tracks where we find Travis talking about what it will take for Purdue to get to Detroit and the Motor City Bowl for the holiday season. Talk about a roller coaster of expectations!
I keep expecting there to be one game where everything comes together and it all finally clicks as it is supposed to. With five teams already bowl eligible and teams like Iowa and Illinois close to gaining it themselves even if we do get to six wins there is no guarantee of a return to Detroit. It’s not much, but let’s face it, it would be a triumph at this point.
Then he goes on to describe how this week is just unwinable for the Boilermakers...
And we will fall to 2-6 now. Our fate was sealed today when all the major polls put Minnesota at the bottom. This is a most unexpected game to be facing a ranked team, but nothing I saw yesterday short of handing the ball to Kory Sheets 40 times will give me any confidence in beating a ranked and rest Gopher squad. Sadly, I know I am going to spend my week getting excited about having a good chance to end our streak against ranked opponents. Then I’ll go to Ross-Ade on Saturday and watch us get pantsed at our homecoming by yet another team that Tiller has historically owned. This isn’t a farewell tour, it’s a revenge tour for all the teams Joe beat repeatedly to get his record.
After their expectations are lowered then butters up Gopher fans by ranking Minnesota third in his weekly Big Ten power rankings. THIRD?
This is probably a little high at this point, but again, we come to an area of clear separation in the conference. Ohio State and Penn State are out in CBS territory, and the Gophers already have a leg up on the rest with a win over Illinois. They would need some help in the form of two Ohio State losses and at least one Penn State loss, but the rest of the schedule isn’t very hard either in terms of making a run for the roses. It’s hard to believe, but the Northwestern-Minnesota game could decide a New Year’s Day bowl bid.
It is a little high and dreams of a New Year's bowl bid will be crushed with a loss to Purdue. What Travis fails to recognize is we are going on the road, we have tradionally struggled with Joe Tiller and the bye week could just spell complacency for the Gophers. We'll chat with Travis later in the week.
- Next stop was Boiled Sports, but he has moved on to basketball for now!
- This is getting a little out of control, but a Washing State blog is hoping his Cougars are using the Tim Brewster blueprint for success. After a lengthy rundown of Minnesota's 2007 season,
So why this review of Minnesota? Well....the story takes a big turn. Have you seen the Golden Gophers in 2008? With one year under Brewster's belt, and a couple of recruiting classes in place, what do you know, Minnesota is 6-1! One of the surprise teams in the Big 10, their only loss a road game at Ohio State.
The blueprint is working but let's give this some time before other BCS programs are calling Maturi for tips on hiring the next big thing.
The point to this seemingly endless rant? Friends, there IS hope. Even in this dark season where seemingly everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong, there is always tomorrow. And look at how quickly Minnesota has turned it around. They went from a 1-win laughing stock to now the surprise team in their conference, all in one year. And with a guy nobody ever heard of, a head coach with zero BCS head coaching experience. - And the Golden Gopher football team has done the impossible. Not only did they receive a quasi apology from Reusse, but they almost made Down with Goldy speechless!
In any case, they should end up at a top tier bowl, probably against an SEC team where they’ll get crushed, but it wouldn’t be an embarrassment to anyone. This season has already exceeded most people’s wildest expectations for this team. I’d love to make a smartass comment here, but I just can’t. I’m pretty happy over here.
- From the Barn did a nice job covering Tubby's Tip Off. Check it out.
- One key to the rest of the season will be to do things exactly like they've been doing it, ONE PLAY AT A TIME. The Gophers have kept things in perspective through the first seven weeks and now the hope is that they don't believe the hype of being a "top 25 team."
''I think it would be hard for anybody not to look at the whole season now,'' (Eric) Decker said last week, as he and his teammates were using the bye week to catch their breath and heal their wounds. ''It's hard not to pick your games, what you can win or not.''
That is our job, Eric, you just keep being undefendable and lead this offense to many points. He does go on to give the "we're 0-0" line and he was just being honest with Kent Youngblood, but I sincerely hope he has things in perspective. Brewster's quote is a little bit more frontal and I'm assuming this is his message to the team.
''We've accomplished what we have because we're a hard-nosed football team that prepares," he said. "If we, for a second, think we're anything more than that, that would be a major mistake on our part.''
I hope they hear it.