“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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It was going to be a down year. It was a 6-7 win season based on schedule and talent losses. But tonight’s was bad. No excuse for giving up 31 to NU. Defense let the team down. Very unlike a Rossi D.
What an astonishingly horrid, pathetic loss. I've been realistic in expectations about the Gophers for well over 50 years now, but this one is incredibly awful. Last week was bad, but I thought "Okay, win today and next week and at least you're 4-1 and 2-0 in the conference heading to the Michigan game, which will probably be heinous". Now, I wouldn't even put a dime on the Louisiana game. Ugh.
This game the Gophers will cover and have their chance to win, but choke it away in the closing seconds... similar to the Michigan/Gophers at TCF on Halloween night in 2015.
You know what, crap happens. I'm over the NU loss. Was it bad? Yes. Should it have happened? No. But it was a bad (very bad) quarter of football to a desperate team. Doesn't need to define a season that we knew would be a down season.
It's a really young secondary due to injuries, Autman-Ball hasn't taken more than 12 snaps in a game and isn't back to his normal self, we have a true freshman at running back, Spann-Ford is not playing nearly to his potential... We're in a down cycle year which have been fewer and farther between with Fleck. After back to back 9 win seasons and 9+ in 3 of 4 seasons, we were bound to have a setback year.
We're in a down cycle year which have been fewer and farther between with Fleck. After back to back 9 win seasons and 9+ in 3 of 4 seasons, we were bound to have a setback year.
Let's just get after it!
I think this is the future of Gopher Football, with the expansion of the BIG, NIL deals and the transfer portal. Can Minnesota become an elite like WisconSIN and Iowa has become since the early 90s... Sure. Can they become like Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State... Probably not. With the way college football is trending, they are going to behind the 8 ball every year.
“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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Gonna be weird when teams like Oregon and USC join. Even Ohio St will have a tough time winning the Big 10.
First Penn State & later Nebraska were going to "own" the B1G when they joined.
USC, (the real) UW, Oregon, etc. may do very well and I'm certainly not suggesting they won't have success but I’ve seen this movie
“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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On his weekly radio show, Fleck opened a vein a little bit about the NIL. Talking about Darius Taylor and how we have to pay him to keep him here. Said there's one RB who we didn't pay and he left for money. I'm assuming he's talking about Bucky Irving with Oregon. It was a slight moment where he seemed really frustrated that he recruited a player and left in the portal.
The U according to a previously shared stat is getting have the amount of NLI$ as Wisconsin. If that's accurate they have to close that gap or they're going to be hurting all over the board outside of perhaps hockey.
On his weekly radio show, Fleck opened a vein a little bit about the NIL. Talking about Darius Taylor and how we have to pay him to keep him here. Said there's one RB who we didn't pay and he left for money. I'm assuming he's talking about Bucky Irving with Oregon. It was a slight moment where he seemed really frustrated that he recruited a player and left in the portal.
Listened to this also. He literally said they will become a “AAA” ball club for other teams if they don’t get NIL money quickly.
It's going to be a pool of 20 schools that will be competitive because they have donors with big $. The Gophers have always been a step behind in raising funds. We fans don't support as much as other schools. Maybe having sucked up so much money to build a stadium and an athlete's village, the donors feel like they've been sucked dry? The recruits of late are a step below what PJ could get before NIL became a thing.
It may also be happening in hockey. Lots of money in Boston.... and also lots of high end commitments lately.
Unfortunately, it was inevitable. The NCAA was acting monopolistic by imposing bans on earning income outside of your athletic endeavor.
But as we all know it opens up the wild west for the SMUs of the world where well-heeled donors want to "buy" a team. That is the new reality, like it or not. Unfortunately, for UMN and others like it-- a dollar going to a NIL from a donor is NOT going to the university, so it will require the U to adjust as well. It is going to hit your mid-majors really, really hard (most of those are already being subsidized by student fees, and as athletes continue to get segregated from the student body, the appetite to do that will decrease rapidly).
Next up will be actual compensation for athletes, and the B1G and $EC will jump on board with that, making it a true minor league for the NFL, which will all but kill the non-power 4 schools.
I have a hunch the evolution of the NCAA and its inability to plan forward will become a case study in grad schools for years to come.
“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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, it was inevitable. The NCAA was acting monopolistic by imposing bans on earning income outside of your athletic endeavor.
But as we all know it opens up the wild west for the SMUs of the world where well-heeled donors want to "buy" a team. That is the new reality, like it or not. Unfortunately, for UMN and others like it-- a dollar going to a NIL from a donor is NOT going to the university, so it will require the U to adjust as well. It is going to hit your mid-majors really, really hard (most of those are already being subsidized by student fees, and as athletes continue to get segregated from the student body, the appetite to do that will decrease rapidly).
Next up will be actual compensation for athletes, and the B1G and $EC will jump on board with that, making it a true minor league for the NFL, which will all but kill the non-power 4 schools.
I think it'll eventually kill off half of the Power 4 schools as well.
NIL would be fine if there was regulation over it. Max amounts, parity ensured across schools (i.e. a salary cap equivalent), etc. If a student could be capped at 125% of cost of school or 100% of a full scholarship, or some sort of protection from getting stupid "endorsement" money for eating a burrito it would be fine. We went from 0 to 500 mph in a nanosecond and it's going to ruin college sports.
NIL would be fine if there was regulation over it. Max amounts, parity ensured across schools (i.e. a salary cap equivalent), etc. If a student could be capped at 125% of cost of school or 100% of a full scholarship, or some sort of protection from getting stupid "endorsement" money for eating a burrito it would be fine. We went from 0 to 500 mph in a nanosecond and it's going to ruin college sports.
For as annoying and brain-dead as the NCAA is, this really isn't their fault.
Remember that the NCAA cannotput such a regulation in place. Regulations limiting compensation of student-athletes (especially outside of their athletic field) would be an antitrust violation, which the SCOTUS declined to grant an exemption to the NCAA in the Alston case a year or so ago.
This whole time the NCAA really wanted to make some rules, but weren't able to. They went to Congress to ask for an exemption to do so. Congress said no also. What are they supposed to do?
Now, if student-athletes win the ability to collectively bargain, then there is the possibility of a CBA which could have those types of restrictions in place. But that would mean we treat student-athletes as employees, which entails compensation, workers compensation, overtime, etc. A brand new set of issues gets unveiled there.
NIL would be fine if there was regulation over it. Max amounts, parity ensured across schools (i.e. a salary cap equivalent), etc. If a student could be capped at 125% of cost of school or 100% of a full scholarship, or some sort of protection from getting stupid "endorsement" money for eating a burrito it would be fine. We went from 0 to 500 mph in a nanosecond and it's going to ruin college sports.
For as annoying and brain-dead as the NCAA is, this really isn't their fault.
Remember that the NCAA cannotput such a regulation in place. Regulations limiting compensation of student-athletes (especially outside of their athletic field) would be an antitrust violation, which the SCOTUS declined to grant an exemption to the NCAA in the Alston case a year or so ago.
This whole time the NCAA really wanted to make some rules, but weren't able to. They went to Congress to ask for an exemption to do so. Congress said no also. What are they supposed to do?
Now, if student-athletes win the ability to collectively bargain, then there is the possibility of a CBA which could have those types of restrictions in place. But that would mean we treat student-athletes as employees, which entails compensation, workers compensation, overtime, etc. A brand new set of issues gets unveiled there.
Yea that wasn't aimed at anyone in particular - but just at the idiocy that is all of those organizations who don't seem to think through decision making consequences (much further reaching than impact on college sports).
“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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How is Rob Wenger still the special teams coach? What a total embarrassment
The lad needs to understand where on the field he is.
This drive is looking better. I've probably jinxed it....
“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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The stand up and get blocked pass rush is not cutting it.
“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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special Teams being special again. Luckily, Bryson managed to get the ball there. No clue how.
The onside should not have been a surprise.
But...the win is procured.
“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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It wasn’t a surprise, we had our hands team out there, we just couldn’t execute on special teams very well. Surprising I know.
At the end of the day, we won what could have been a letdown game. Our defense got back on track after that 1st quarter (Louisiana gained 131 of their 349 total yards in Q1) minus that would late TD run they gave up, and the offense seems to be at least progressing somewhat.
No expectations for next week. Get at least 10 points and don’t allow more than 40?
