gophers/ncaa

Ahhhhh...the annual signs of spring! Lake ice melting, robins arriving...and articles about how Gophers football is finally going big time. And every year after the season starts I feel like Charlie Brown when Lucy pulls the football just before he kicks it. Sure, I'm only 50 and a lifetime Gophs fan, but this year, THIS YEAR, things will be different. I hope. Or rather, I pray. At least this coaching staff seems to know what it's doing.

Well put jsimple3! I am of a slightly older vintage ... I too have waited literally a lifetime. But the vibe is different. Even the way the sports reporters talk about the club, and the things they report on the club are different. Except for Lou 'the Leprechaun' Holtz and to a certain extent John Gutekunst, all the other coaches from Cal Stoll to Tim 'the blow hard' Brewster were smoke, mirrors, 'new look uniforms' and bombast. Unfortunately, their brands of perfume couldn't hide the stink. Kill and his staff have shot straight. No fluff. Basics, organization, structure ... you know- those elements haven't been in place with Gopher football for decades. The pyramids at Ghiza weren't built in a day and they were built from the bottom up. So it is with Gopher football. This season will be fun ... and 'Lucy' will be grounded by her mom! Go Gophers!

I am sixty-one years old, grew up in Northern Minnesota and have been a lifetime Gopher fan. For the last thirty-nine years, I've lived in Iowa. During the same week in the late 1970s, Minnesota hired Joe Salem as their football coach while Iowa hired Hayden Fry. Jerry Kill reminds me a great deal of Fry. Both Fry and Kill had been head coaches at early ages. Fry brought his entire staff from West Texas State to Iowa, just as Kill did his from Northern Illinois. Off of Fry's staffs came Bill Snyder, Barry Alveraz, Bobby Stoops and Kirk Ferentz. Fry and Alvarez are in the College Football Hall of Fame. Snyder and Stoops will undoubtedly be inducted after they quit coaching. Fry was innovative in his day. Kill is very much so today. Jerry Kill gives the Gophers the best chance to be a complete football team since Murray Warmath.

Heard it all before. Problem is the coach just doesn't have the talent of the other teams in the conference to compete. Better dust off the trick plays because until Kill can recruit some better players he is years away from a winning season. This group is nowhere near as good as the very average teams Glen Mason put on the field. At least those teams had a few future NFL stars to root for.

To quote Winston Churchill: "It's not the end, or the beginning of the end. But the end of the beginning"!

Hope springs eternal. Let's give Kill a chance, but as BCanniff correctly writes, he has got to upgrade the talent level and to date he and his staff have not been competitive recruiting versus the rest of the conference (12th out of 12). So we'll see how the on-field execution improves this year (it was awful last year) and then see if his third recruiting class starts to build something. It's way too early to tell but with a new AD, Kill won't have a lot of time to figure out how to win at this level.

Do a story on NDSU NATIONAL CHAMPS in spring ball please. thanks. good luck to gophers this year!

ndsulakes- why would they do a story on NDSU spring football when the myopic parochial homers at the Strib didn't even do a story on the actual championship? Bill G.

Go Gophers!

Be like a sundial. Remember only the sunny days. I remember Cal Stoll's victory over #1 Michigan. I was in Michigan stadium for Mason's victory at the Wolverine's homecoming. He also beat Ohio State at Columbus and Penn State four times with two other games taken away by the officials. I was at the drubbing we took in Michigan last year and had great fun with a classy bunch of Michigan fans. Hey, have some fun.