This is a BIG week my friends. A truly big week.
It all starts on Tuesday. What is going on in Gopher Nation on Tuesday you ask? Nothing. Tuesday night is the season premier of LOST! If you are not into LOST, I'm sorry for you. But for the rest of us Tuesday night is a pretty big night.
Then we all go to bed and wake up on Wednesday. Wednesday is National Signing Day! This is a fun day where hope springs eternal and the next wave of future Gopher greats officially put their names on the dotted line. Some are holding their breath that Seantrel Henderson will save the day and give us something to look forward to. If he does in fact choose to stay here his nickname will be "Cornerstone".
- Gopher fans are used to local players leaving Minnesota to play elsewhere. But this year the Big Ten is experiencing a similar problem as many of the Midwest's best players are leaving the Midwest.
- Many of you have probably seen this but Bill Simmons ranks the Viking's fanbase as the second most forlorn fanbase in the US. I loved the following line...
Every 10 years or so, they rip the intestines out of their fans. Happened in 1975 (the Hail Mary), 1988 (Darren Nelson), 1998 (Gary Anderson) and 2009 (12 men). ... By the way, none of those were the four lost Super Bowls.
He failed to mention the 41-doughnut. The older generation Vikings fans have been tortured by Super Bowl losses and the next generation has been ripped apart by the NFC Championship game losses.
- Oh, and did anybody see the indefensible defensive effort by the Gophers yesterday? 49 points at halftime and allowing 73% shooting for the game is just unacceptable. We were able to hide the loss of Nolen for a couple games but against athletic teams like OSU he will be sorely missed.
- GameFace on the STrib has an easy to see rundown of the top players from Minnesota and how many of them actually played for the Gophers.