Hi friends. Many of you have been creepily caring about the televised recruiting decision of local star footballer Quinn Carroll. It’s completely understandable, as Quinn is a talented and sought after talent. No seriously, you’re not being judged, we too were watching this announcement closely (well not me but I was tired and in the wrong time zone).

However, if I just described you, then you are also likely aware than Quinn did not choose the Minnesota Golden Gophers footballing squad as his college destination last night on KARE-11 news. I’ve seen a number of Gopher fans react to this information negatively and I’m here to help. In fact, if this news upsets or surprises you greatly, then I suggest you take some introspective time. Why?

It’s ok that Quinn Carroll preferred Notre Dame

No, seriously. The kid is actually allowed to have his own autonomy and choose a school that isn’t Minnesota despite his dad being an alum and his living in Twin Cities. Frankly, “I want to go somewhere not near home” is reason enough to justify his pick and to prevent idiots jackasses horrible people who should question their life choices from tweeting at him.

But in case you’d forgotten, there are a few other good reasons this sort of thing happens:

• I hope you’re already seated, but Notre Dame is seen as a better footballing destination than Minnesota. I know that’s hard to hear, but once you’ve picked your jaw off the floor and thought about it I hope the simple truth of the statement will sink in. Really good Top 100 national ‘croots often choose to play for helmet schools like Notre Dame.
• Minnesota hasn’t had an offensive lineman drafted since 2006 while every left tackle Brian Kelly has had at Notre Dame was a 1st round draft. Quinn Carroll plays offensive tackle. I wonder if something that like might have weighed in on the thinking...

I wish Quinn well and truly hope he finds a way to terrorize Michigan defensive lineman on his way to making a lot of money in the NFL.

Quinn Carroll coming to Minnesota would have been a big deal, but the Gophers are still ok

While losing Quinn to Notre Dame in no way dooms the Gophers under Fleck, let’s not pretend that his coming to Minnesota wouldn’t have been a huge deal. It would have been. Unequivocally and without question.

I have no doubt that Quinn will be a very talented lineman at Notre Dame and I’d really prefer he had taken his talent to Dinkytown. But a single offensive lineman doesn’t make or break a program. For example, if the Gophers keep trotting out a revolving door of MEH at quarterback and never field more than 1 standout wide receiver at a time for the next 4 seasons than Quinn Carroll wouldn’t have been able to carry the Gophers to victory regardless. The Gophers are likely to be worse off without Quinn. They are also perfectly capable of winning just as much (or not) without him as with him.

Wait, was I supposed to complain about KARE-11 now?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This isn’t even the dumbest Sweeps Week thing a local TV station has done re: Gopher athletics (/thinks back to the days when underage hockey players drinking was treated like Watergate). There are more important things to worry about than how a local TV station covered this news. Like, I dunno, this freakish occurance:

TL;DR

Quinn Carroll wants to play football at Notre Dame. It would be better for the Gophers if he wanted to play for them, but Minnesota can succeed without him.

Don’t tweet at recruits.

If you’re going to freak out about high school kids pursuing their dreams on Twitter at least make sure you know how to spell.

Sweeps Week = dumb overhyped local TV news stories.