Clearly Fleck is a good coach because we’re sitting here complaining about a team that has won 12, 9, and 9 games excluding the Covid stump year, has beaten WI 3 of 4, and brought Floyd home.
This was always a down season coming. Bielema is 10-0 against MN and only 3-0 against Fleck. The West is a mess all around.
Clearly Fleck is a good coach because we’re sitting here complaining about a team that has won 12, 9, and 9 games excluding the Covid stump year, has beaten WI 3 of 4, and brought Floyd home.
This was always a down season coming. Bielema is 10-0 against MN and only 3-0 against Fleck. The West is a mess all around.
I didn't realize Fleck coached the last defense. However with that said he needs to be in the DC's ear that the end of the NW and ILL games cannot continue to happen.
I watched none of the game cause I worked but unless people can tell me a better coach we can get I don't want to hear it. All the people whining will whine when the guy the replace him with is worse and then blame the U.
If you fire Fleck you better have his replacement locked up. A coaching search will be a disaster.
For the record firing him this season is stupid.
This would be a worse firing than when Nebraska fired Bo Pelini and I imagine the question hasn't even come up in the athletic dept.
Ya know, way back in the day I was one of the guys who called for the firing of Mason. It took a looooong time for me to get there but watching us lose in an atrocious way for the upteenth time was too much. (hint: it was a BADger game) I finally agreed with the people who said "we know where he can get us, it is time to see if we can find the guy to get us to the next level". By that point it was worth the risk...which admittedly lead to the worst hire imaginable. Of course now, we are better than we were when we fired Mason so this deja vu is even more frustrating...
Here is the problem we run into...because of what the Big Ten will become next year most of the teams are going to be stuck in the middle. Most of the old guard Big Ten is going to be fighting for scraps when it is all said and done. I know a lot of arrogant Big Ten fans want to believe the incoming Pac-10 schools will struggle but they have a ton of talent on those rosters and while they might not beat tOSU and Michigan right away they will have less issues with most of the mid tier schools like us, Iowa, Wisconsin...etc. and they have some serious recruiting advantages. Plus, no more divisions. (which...good god I hate) That is why many are upset, this was quite possibly our last best chance to ever play in the title game...even though we would have gotten smoked anyways.
All this to say, if you are in support of making a move (and while I am not I get the sentiment) you have to know what you are up against. when it comes to finding a coach. We are at best a second rung Big Ten school with no real NIL advantages and a fanbase that is pretty small. We are in a crowded market on a commuter campus in the middle of a city where the media is only friendly half the time. The program will likely never be able to recruit to a level that will put them in a position to be anything better than they are right now because of the nature of what the league and sport have become. So you are going to be limited in who is interested because of what they can accomplish and what they can get paid.
Now this is where someone will say "oh that is crap the U has the money and resources and the metro has X number of Forbes 500 businesses and blah blah blah" but the fact is none of that matters anymore. 20 years ago it did but now the league is set up to make sure that only the top teams with the huge fanbases and alumni cash and TV recognizability have any real shot. They don't want a 10-2 Iowa team with no offense in the CFP embarrassing itself against Alabama or something. (just random names) They want Michigan and tOSU there...and in a few years they will want USC there. (better chance UDub will be there but I digress) They want schools like us in the Citrus or Outback Bowl. They aren't eve hiding it anymore. The CFP has made it so competitive balance is a punch line. Football isn't basketball, Cinderella isn't going to the ball.
Wouldn’t really call the U a commuter school anymore. Maybe even a few decades ago but when I was going there in the middle of last decade almost everyone I knew was living on campus or just “off campus”. Dinkytown, Stadium Village, Como, Seven Corners on West Bank, etc.
The campus life and the surrounding neighborhoods were fun and lively and the students have shown since Covid that they can show up for a winner.
But I agree with a lot of other things you said. We’re already a second rung Big Ten program as is and we’re adding four more teams. Regardless of the caliber of those teams that still makes things even more difficult. If I was the U Athletic Department I would pour my resources into hockey and basketball. Hockey for obvious reasons and basketball because, as was mentioned, there’s at least a chance for a Cinderella. You don’t need a big roster, there’s actually a lot homegrown talent, and this state is starving for a successful basketball team.
BUT, as we’ve all previously stated, in the real world of college athletics you can’t just turn your back on football and put it on cruise control. That’s what brings home the bacon. Even if the team is underperforming on the field. Any school would give their left arm to be a “football school”. But for many reasons we’ve all already stated I just don’t see that in the U’s future.
It's still a commuter school...it's better than it was but even with all of the added housing I bet it isn't close. How many undergrads are at the U 25k?
Doesn't matter anyways...
And any AD who even flirted with the idea of overvaluing hockey resourcewise should be fired and blackballed from major college sports. You do that at UNH not a Big Ten school. Hockey and basketball can't fund a Big Ten athletic department half our non Rev sports would disappear overnight. Even a terrible football team is more valuable for a ton of reasons on levels hockey and basketball just can't. I get the sentiment but it just isn't feasible.
Yeah I agree with all of that, changing coaches wouldn’t change the fact that this program clearly doesn’t have the money to attract the high end talent that these other schools are getting. We’ve seen it with the basketball team too where they’ve changed coaches however many times now and they’re still middle of the pack on a good year and the best players in the state will play at Duke or whatever. Basically that needs to be solved if this team is ever going to move up a tier or whatever.
I'd love to see a stat that shows how many "on-campus" students each college has. I've visited a handful and I can't imagine Minnesota is at a serious disadvantage for on-campus population.
I'd love to see a stat that shows how many "on-campus" students each college has. I've visited a handful and I can't imagine Minnesota is at a serious disadvantage for on-campus population.
Compared to a college town? Come on...
Washington has the same issue being stuck in Seattle. (I lived on that campus and saw it first hand) Miami does as well. Urban campuses just have a different feel and setup than college towns do. It is exasperated at the U by other issues though...and it is only one factor in what puts the U behind the 8 ball when it comes to engagement and money.
It's still a commuter school...it's better than it was but even with all of the added housing I bet it isn't close. How many undergrads are at the U 25k?
Doesn't matter anyways...
And any AD who even flirted with the idea of overvaluing hockey resourcewise should be fired and blackballed from major college sports. You do that at UNH not a Big Ten school. Hockey and basketball can't fund a Big Ten athletic department half our non Rev sports would disappear overnight. Even a terrible football team is more valuable for a ton of reasons on levels hockey and basketball just can't. I get the sentiment but it just isn't feasible.
I hate what college sports has become 🙁
Right. I think we’re saying the same thing in different ways. In a world where all three of the U’s major sports brought in the same kind of money and national attention you could possibly do what I mentioned above but like you said in the world that we live in football is the most valuable commodity an athletic department has by a large margin for so many different reasons no matter how bad it is. Which, to be fair, I don’t think we’re a bad program but we’re in a transition year which was expected to have it’s bumps. But those bumps just hurt more because there were three times in the last four years where the chance to go further was right there for the taking.
I'd love to see a stat that shows how many "on-campus" students each college has. I've visited a handful and I can't imagine Minnesota is at a serious disadvantage for on-campus population.
Compared to a college town? Come on...
Washington has the same issue being stuck in Seattle. (I lived on that campus and saw it first hand) Miami does as well. Urban campuses just have a different feel and setup than college towns do. It is exasperated at the U by other issues though...and it is only one factor in what puts the U behind the 8 ball when it comes to engagement and money.
To each their own. My experience there it definitely didn’t feel like it was lacking in student life and engagement. But maybe that’s just me. Is it different than a college town? Absolutely. But there are a lot of things I got to do that a kid from Madison didn’t and vice versa.
Hey I agree. I lived on campus my entire time there and would not have traded it for the world. But I also have seen firsthand the negative aspects of that that places like Ann Arbor or Iowa City don't have.
I'd love to see a stat that shows how many "on-campus" students each college has. I've visited a handful and I can't imagine Minnesota is at a serious disadvantage for on-campus population.
Compared to a college town? Come on...
Again show me stats that UM has fewer on-campus housing than other B1G schools withing range of the the stadium. I would 100% agree when they played at the Dump. At the Bank? Not buying it.
btw student attendance at the Bank has never been better and in some cases takes up 3 or 4 sections lower and upper bowls. They don't suffer for a lack of students, it's that local non-students have so many other choices to choose from compared to the majority of Div I schools.
Ok fine let's say there isnt...what is the point you are trying to make? Just ignore the commuter school comment then and nothing changes.
Dude what? I fully accept the school is at a disadvantage in several ways including school and booster funding among others. But the claim it's a "commuter school" at a relative disadvantage doesn't ring true for me. I think otherwise on the whole we are in agreement.
I'd love to see a stat that shows how many "on-campus" students each college has. I've visited a handful and I can't imagine Minnesota is at a serious disadvantage for on-campus population.
Compared to a college town? Come on...
Again show me stats that UM has fewer on-campus housing than other B1G schools withing range of the the stadium. I would 100% agree when they played at the Dump. At the Bank? Not buying it.
btw student attendance at the Bank has never been better and in some cases takes up 3 or 4 sections lower and upper bowls. They don't suffer for a lack of students, it's that local non-students have so many other choices to choose from compared to the majority of Div I schools.
I don't know the exact breakdown, but the U has way more on-campus housing than it used to. I think a much smaller percentage are commuting than it was in the 90s when I was there. Is it a larger percentage th an most big ten schools, probably...but it's a much much smaller percentage than it used to be. My daughter is a sophomore there and everyone she is friends with lives on campus.
About 75 percent of University of Minnesota students live off campus. While this theoretically includes any student who lives in non-University provided housing, most students and faculty use this term for those who do not live within walking distance of campus. Of the Big Ten conference, the University of Minnesota has the highest percentage of off-campus students who commute by foot. In a survey conducted by the Council of Undergraduate Deans, 42 percent of students considered themselves to be this type of commuter student.
Then 2022:
At this school, 23% of the students live in college-owned, -operated or -affiliated housing and 77% of students live off campus.
The first one seems to have conflicting info but I read it as:
23-25% live on campus
42ish% live close
34% leftover would be commuters
I'm guessing the 34% number is still among the highest of the Big Ten schools.
I cant believe this topic is still going but...I gotta believe going by those definitions we would be the highest in the Big Ten. I cant think of one that would have 1/3 of the population commuting.
I cant believe this topic is still going but...I gotta believe going by those definitions we would be the highest in the Big Ten. I cant think of one that would have 1/3 of the population commuting.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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Hahaha. Down 13 -28 and he decides not to use his timeouts until 4th down. Which effectively gives us the ball back with 35 seconds left instead of 1:30. Can you coach any worse?
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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