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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Dec 1, 2021 3:06:15 GMT
I feel like it's 50/50 at this point. Most ND people seem to love Freeman, but Fickell has the track record. It's funny that Brian Kelly has screwed us over again when we're having our best season ever. If Fickell does go to South Bend, I'm hopeful we can bring Freeman back here. He recruited a lot of the guys on the team and would keep the upcoming recruiting classes relatively intact.
In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the rest of this great season. I'll be at Nippert Saturday to see the AAC championship game against Houston.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 1, 2021 12:50:27 GMT
In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the rest of this great season. I'll be at Nippert Saturday to see the AAC championship game against Houston. Absolutely, and that's cool that you'll be at the game.
Unfortunately the Gophers missed the B10 title game: the disappointing losses to Illinois and Iowa really killed us. (Don't even mention the Bowling Green loss to me. Ohio State, I can obviously live with.) That we ended up in second in the B10 West is a miracle considering the two bad losses. At least we ought to have a decent bowl game.
Then in basketball, our team is suddenly 6-0 after beating Pitt on the road in the B10/ACC challenge. That game was UGLY. For a while it didn't seem like either team would be in double digits by the half. But as much as this team lacks talent, it plays smart and hard. That they move--both moving the ball, and moving when they're off the ball--is a pleasure to watch after years of Pitino's stagnant, iso-heavy non-offense. We may only get another six wins all season, and honestly that would be a decent season.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 2, 2021 12:30:44 GMT
I feel like it's 50/50 at this point. Most ND people seem to love Freeman, but Fickell has the track record. It's funny that Brian Kelly has screwed us over again when we're having our best season ever. If Fickell does go to South Bend, I'm hopeful we can bring Freeman back here. He recruited a lot of the guys on the team and would keep the upcoming recruiting classes relatively intact. Sounds like Freeman is the frontrunner based on this ESPN story. Though it also says Kelly is pursuing Freeman to be his DC at LSU. (However, considering Freeman's options, I wouldn't think he'd take that one.) Obviously that would also be a good resolution for Cincinnati.
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Dec 4, 2021 2:34:11 GMT
I feel like it's 50/50 at this point. Most ND people seem to love Freeman, but Fickell has the track record. It's funny that Brian Kelly has screwed us over again when we're having our best season ever. If Fickell does go to South Bend, I'm hopeful we can bring Freeman back here. He recruited a lot of the guys on the team and would keep the upcoming recruiting classes relatively intact. Sounds like Freeman is the frontrunner based on this ESPN story. Though it also says Kelly is pursuing Freeman to be his DC at LSU. (However, considering Freeman's options, I wouldn't think he'd take that one.) Obviously that would also be a good resolution for Cincinnati. Freeman got the job, which seems like all parties are happy about. Now we just have to worry about Oklahoma and we're in the clear for another year. If he hasn't left after this season, I think he'll be here for a very long time (aside from Ohio State).
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Dec 4, 2021 2:39:37 GMT
I feel like it's 50/50 at this point. Most ND people seem to love Freeman, but Fickell has the track record. It's funny that Brian Kelly has screwed us over again when we're having our best season ever. If Fickell does go to South Bend, I'm hopeful we can bring Freeman back here. He recruited a lot of the guys on the team and would keep the upcoming recruiting classes relatively intact. Sounds like Freeman is the frontrunner based on this ESPN story. Though it also says Kelly is pursuing Freeman to be his DC at LSU. (However, considering Freeman's options, I wouldn't think he'd take that one.) Obviously that would also be a good resolution for Cincinnati. Minnesota had an interesting season. I was really hoping they could have beaten Ohio State, then they had some close calls and losses against bad teams like you mentioned. I was rooting against them when Miami OH nearly beat them to help our SOS haha.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 4, 2021 11:57:14 GMT
Yeah, I don't know what to make of this Minnesota team. Even down to our fifth and sixth tailbacks, the team has plenty of talent to have had just the one (Ohio State) loss--and even that was a pretty good game. Losses to Illinois and Bowling Green were really embarrassing, and we certainly didn't do our best against Iowa. I put a lot of blame on the play-calling, a few big game decisions (punting, going for it on 4th, etc.), and the quarterback's inconsistent and often hesitant/slow play.
Yet that same QB was a legit All-American type player in 2019. Granted, he had two NFL WRs (Tyler Johnson of TB and Rashod Bateman of BAL), but this team has plenty of receiving talent and an even better line than '19. A 5th year senior can't be the problem, he has to be the solution. I'm really not excited that he's returning for his 6th year next year. We already lost two other QBs to the portal because of it, both with more eligibility remaining and with a lot of talent. All for a sixth year of mediocrity? He better be in '19 form next year...
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 7, 2021 12:52:13 GMT
The Gophers football team rehired Kirk Ciarrocca as offensive coordinator/QBs coach. He was in that role for three years before leaving to be Penn St's OC two years ago, which lasted one year. Last year he was an offensive advisor to West Virginia--ironically, our bowl game opponent! (He won't begin his duties here until after that game, to avoid the awkwardness/conflict of interest.)
Ciarrocca was behind the well-oiled machine that was our 2019 offense, when: QB Tanner Morgan completed 66% of his passes for 3253 yards, 30 TDs, 7 INTs; RB Rodney Smith ran for 1163 yards and 8 TDs (while the next two tailbacks ran for another 1012 yards and 9 more TDs); WR Tyler Johnson caught 86 balls for 1318 yards and 13 TD and fellow WR Rashod Bateman caught 60 balls for 1219 yards and 11 TD.
That team was 11-2. Hopefully bringing back Ciarroccaa brings back similar success.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Dec 16, 2021 12:51:24 GMT
The Ballad of Urban Meyer is a fascinating one, almost a soap opera. But, what I find most fascinating is the timing of the recent Notre Dame head coaching switch. Urb was an assistant coach at Notre Dame for several years, and he has said on numerous occasions that his "dream job" was to be the Head Football Coach at Notre Dame. I believed him. Who'd a thunk that Brian Kelly, who was very successful at Notre Dame, would resign as coach this year - less than a year after Meyer was signed to coach the Jacksonville Jaguars. That move by Urban Meyer could not have been a bigger disaster. But...what if Meyer would NOT have taken the Jacksonville job? Would have Notre Dame hired him? Probably. You need good timin'...
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 16, 2021 13:01:01 GMT
I'm glad Meyer didn't end up at Notre Dame. I think things worked out just fine there without him, and with his off-the-field exploits, it would have been a pretty bad look for ND.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Dec 16, 2021 13:04:17 GMT
I'm glad Meyer didn't end up at Notre Dame. I think things worked out just fine there without him, and with his off-the-field exploits, it would have been a pretty bad look for ND. Yeah, Meyer appears to be self-destructive, and it would've been just a matter of time (I'm full of BB cliches today!) before he did something to cause embarrassment to Notre Dame. They didn't need that.
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Post by carllove on Dec 22, 2021 14:00:18 GMT
Well - just after I warned my husband that we would be watching the KU/Colorado basketball game on ESPN2 yesterday evening - they announced the cancellation of the game due to "COVID-19 protocols within the Buff's program". My husband was ecstatic - he hates watching basketball. I just don't understand all of this worry, when young healthy athletes are exposed to COVID. The main harm I see is if they have family members whom they could infect - but - dang - we never did this with the flu! Kinda hoping they cancel the Chiefs game this weekend though. I guess we will see if any of the COVID positive players that have been vaccinated start testing negative.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 22, 2021 14:17:26 GMT
No cancellations yet here, knock on wood. But we are getting back to that, aren't we? NHL shuts down, NBA passed new replacement-player rules to keep its games going (with increasing numbers of anonymous players), NFL is heavily impacted, and college games are being postponed and cancelled...
This afternoon (4 pm start time!? Weird.) the Gophers host UW-Green Bay in what would normally be considered an obvious, predetermined win. But this Gophers team is a bunch of cast-off types, hastily assembled by our first-year head coach (and former Gophers player, and former MN HS standout) Ben Johnson. Much to everyone's surprise, we're 9-1 and 1-1 in B10 games! But it feels like we'll fall back to earth any moment... Still, I hope today is another win.
Honestly coming into the season, I wasn't sure we'd hit double-digit wins. We could reach that mark today before the conference season even really begins.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 22, 2021 22:37:06 GMT
Gophers have their hands full with UW-Green Bay, which is obviously not ideal...
But my main takeaway so far is, former Iowa Hawkeyes legend Jess Settles is a terrible commentator. First, he sounds like he's been smoking cigs nonstop for 30 years. Second, he keeps saying things that are just nonsense! I mean, a lot of them are positive for the Gophers, but they're insane. Jamison Battle has been very good this year after two strong years at (mid-major) George Washington, but he called him "unstoppable going left," "elite defending all five positions," and "one of the best players in the country." Uhhh...how about "the Gophers best player and surprisingly one of the better players in the Big Ten"? That would be a little more realistic.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 29, 2021 13:45:37 GMT
The Gophers finished off their season with an 18-6 bowl win over a not-very-impressive West Virginia team (which was without their top rusher, who, as part of a recent trend I hate with a deep, deep passion, skipped the game to prepare for the draft).
The Mountaineers' offensive line was barely there at all, so their poor QB was sacked 5 times and smacked around many more. They tried to use a quick-hitting spread passing game to compensate, but frankly it usually wasn't quick enough, and usually when it was, it was for little or no gain.
While Minnesota's rushing attack was typically great--21 carries for 144 yards and a TD for redshirt freshman Ky Thomas and 19 carries for 129 yards for true freshman Mar'Keise Irving--the passing game was again a serious question mark. Tanner Morgan did complete 8 of his 13 pass attempts (61.5%), but he didn't look sharp at all. If you remove the two longer completions to Dylan Wright, Morgan was 6-11 for just 51 yards and an INT. (If you add in Wright's catches, it was the aforementioned 8-13 for 109 and an INT.) This is a 5th year senior constantly praised for his intelligence and grit...and he can't really even take advantage of this situation?
He's coming back next year, which is a mixed bag for me. Yes, he's a known quantity, and at his best (2019) can use the weapons aroun him. His coaches and teammates do indeed seem to love him. He is tough. But he is slow to make reads, doesn't have a particularly strong arm, seems either to make wildly over-conservative decisions or wildly risky ones... As a 6th-year senior, he is costing younger, more talented QBs the chance to develop. We've already lost two to the portal because of it, and our two most talented QBs next year are probably a redshirt freshman and true freshman. Yet Morgan, seemingly a middle aged man by this time (he IS bald...), will be taking the snaps. I don't like it.
That said, I do love Gophers football. Even with our mediocre old-man QB and annoying-as-hell, cliche-dropping, attention-hogging head coach.
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Dec 31, 2021 19:18:50 GMT
Just over an hour until kick off at the Cotton Bowl and I couldn't be more excited! I'm not expecting a win or anything, but boy do I wish I could be in Dallas right now. I've heard we are majorly outnumbering Alabama fans. Here's to hoping I'll have a chance to go to Indy.
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