SB Nation User Blog: GopherNation

Golden Nugz for 07-03-09

GopherNation — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:53:35 -0000

Happy almost 4th of July.

The McCloud County Chronicle has a nice story on Gopher's junior fullback, Jon Hoese. The former walk-on has bulked up considerably and is currently the first-string fullback.

Hoese walked on the University of Minnesota Gophers football team weighing 205 pounds.

Since then, he has become one of head coach Tim Brewster's big men.

Hoese, still a whisker short of his 20th birthday, now is a "true junior" at the U, weighing in at 235 pounds. Not only that, he has earned the right to wear a shirt that lists the numbers 330, 350 and 450 on the front and makes the statement IT'S A BIG MAN'S GAME on the back.

To qualify, Hoese had to meet Brewster's weightlifting specifications for big men at his fullback position: a power-clean lift of 330 pounds, a bench of 350 and a squat of 450.

As you may recall the Gophers switched to a "power run game" right before the Insight Bowl and Hoese was the benefactor of the switch scoring two touchdowns during that game. Hoese isn't talked about when discussing the 2009 season but he will be a very important cog in the Gopher offense.

A.J. Pettersen was named to Baseball American's first team Freshman All-American team.
Gopher wrestling has brought in the #1 ranked recruiting class for the second year in a row. With a long history of getting a lot out of his kids, one would expect J Robinson to have his boys fighting for a national championship again soon.
Athlon Sports lists Duane Bennett at the top of his list of Big Ten running backs who may be sleepers heading into the season. The list may be alphabetical but he is on top none-the-less.
The University of Minnesota is the birthplace of cheerleading so this is a sad day for all of us when Florida International announced they are cutting their cheerleading program in an effort to cut costs. Unfortunately the author of this post took an unnecessary cheap shot at your Golden Gophers.

A way too early look at the 2009 Schedule - Week 5 - Wisconsin

GopherNation — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:14:37 -0000

The battle for The Axe is the highlight game of the year, imo. A year ago the Gophers went down to Madison and played arguably their best game of the year, nearly pulling off the huge upset on the road. Instead the game was the last competitive game we would see out of the Gophers and 2008 finished in a tailspin not easily forgotten. 2009 cannot come soon enough for the Gophers and you can bet this game is one they are looking forward to winning.

This game is the Big Ten opener for TCF Bank Stadium, it is the longest rivalry in all of college football, ~~we have Brett Favre on our team now~~ and it is our anual chance to house Paul Bunyan's Axe where it rightfully belongs. I love this game and I love rivalries of this nature. I have queried a couple quality Badger blogs to get their thoughts on the Badgers. Bucky's 5th Quarter is an SBN sister and On Wisconsin is a lesser known blog full of great content. Let's get to the game...

The Badgers on Offense

Much like the Gophers the Badger offensive strengths lie with their skill position players. Dustin Sherer returns to likely start at QB, John Clay and Zach Brown should be one of the best RB tandums in the conference, Garrett Graham may be the best TE in the conference and the WRs with David Gilreath, Nick Toon and Isaac Anderson are all pretty good. Outside of Graham, those names are not going to be appearing on any All-American radar screens but they are all experienced and talented.

Where the Badger offense may struggle is along the offensive line. This group reminds me of the Gopher OL heading into last year. They are coming off a strong season from the prior year (2008) but have to replace three starters. All likely starters have experience and had started in the past just not full time. Neither B5Q or OnWisconsin seemed concerned but replacing three starters is a big deal. Here is college football expert, Phil Steele on offensive line returning starts...

When most folks judge a team for the upcoming season they look at the QB, RB and WR's that are returning. A few may take the time to look at star defensive players that are back (those with a lot of sacks or interceptions). Very few look at the offensive line and yet the team that controls the line of scrimmage wins the game more often than not. Now experience on the Oline is not the only criteria for an offensive lines potential for the next year. You have to add in Blue Chips, how last years line performed (YPC rushing and sacks allowed), size, etc.

Minnesota ranks 8th nationally with 102 returnings starts and Wisconsin ranks 95th out of 120 schools with 49 returning starts. I think this is a bigger issued than either of my respected blog-egues care to admit.

B5Q - Last year's offensive line wasn't all that special so I don't think it is that big of a deal that they lost some guys. The three new guys all have seen playing time in the past and sophomore RT Josh Oglesby should live up to all the hype he has received since high school. The point is that these guys are definitely good enough to allow John Clay to have a big season.

OnW - Of the three new starters, all have started in their careers, and all have logged many minutes. Oglesby was a 5-star recruit, Bscherer started over him their freshman year when injuries dictated the need, and Nagy started several games at guard last season. The first string will be fine. The concern is the depth. The second string has no experience, and I don't think there is a true two-deep at guard. Not counting incoming true-freshman, we don't have four guards. So the starters are fine, but injuries could pose a huge problem for the line.

I'm not convinced. The three starters they are losing all received some level of post-season recognition in the Big Ten. Kraig Urbik was 2nd team All-Conference and drafted in the third round, Andy Kemp and Eric Vanden Heuvel were both honorable mention. They weren't the most dominant players in school history or anything but they will be missed.

John Clay and Zach Brown return to form one of the deepest and more talented backfields in the conference. Assuming the OL can create some holes they should easily combine for 1,600 + yards on the season. Last fall in Madison the Gopher defense did a much better than expected job of containing this rushing attack. Clay was held to a season low 35 yards (with at least 10 carries) and PJ Hill had 117 yards but 38 of those was on one play with a missed tackle in the backfield. When the game was finished the Badgers had been held to their lowest rushing total of the season. This is a good ground game but for whatever reason the Gophers did a very good job gameplanning and executing in Madison.

Wide Receiver and Tight End are also areas of strength for the Badgers. David Gilreath was 2nd team All-Big Ten a year ago and keep an eye on sophomore, Nick Toon who may be their best receiver this year. Garrett Graham is an outstanding TE.

B5Q - As far as the receivers go, I think you are going to see a much improved group. Gilreath will continue to cause some problems and Kyle Jefferson should be healthy again. But the guy defenses should be worried about is sophomore Nick Toon who started to come on late last season and has the size and speed to be the best receiver on the team. True freshman Kraig Appleton could surprise too.

OnW - This is the best four-deep (Jefferson is the fourth) WR corps the Badgers have had in some time (at least since Williams/Orr). But the biggest concern opponents should have in the passing game is the Badger tight ends. Consider that the last three starting Badger TEs are playing in the NFL (Daniels was in the last pro bowl). Garrett Graham is the real deal and should be on all-American watch lists. Lance Kendricks is very athletic, and while slower than Beckum was, is bigger, approximating true TE size, but still fast enough to split wide. Finally, Turner is a decent true-TE, too. Expect a lot of two-TE sets that drive linebackers and safeties nuts in coverage. That's where the Badger passing game is toughest to defend. A competent quarterback could make this a very dangerous offense.

Hmmm, a compent quarterback huh? Dustin Sherer should be competent but unless he surpasses expectations he'll be in the bottom half of Big Ten QBs this season. I'm not going to spend a ton of time on Sherer as he isn't a game-changer. The 5th year senior is solid and reliable. Expect about 58% completions, slightly more TDs than INTs and somewhere between 180-199 yards per game. He'll be required to hand off more than most Big Ten QBs and hit open receivers. As long as he doesn't try to do more than that (be like Brett Favre) he'll be find and this offense will be potent.

The Badgers on Defense

The key figure on the Badger defense is 5 returning starters. They lose three on the line, two linebackers and one in the secondary. That is five of their front seven that need replacing. In 2008 the Badgers finished 5th against the run giving up 133 yards per game and the second most rushing TDs in the conference. Expect more yards to be allowed this year as the front seven is a major question mark. I asked Bucky's 5th Quarter to give me a breakdown of the position groups and here are his thoughts on the defensive line and linebackers.

LBs - Honestly we don't really know what to expect here. Jaevery McFadden is the lone returning starter, while Culmer St. Jean (who has seen playing time, but never played extremely well) takes over in the middle. Kevin Rouse, who has been one of UW's better special teamers the last two seasons, should start on the outside as well, but he wasn't exactly spectacular in the spring.
DL - Again, Wisconsin has to replace three starters, but the coaches love DE J.J. Watt and a number of talented freshmen could provide depth. Still, it will probably be a tough year on the defensive line, a problem that could end up being the Achilles heel of this team.

He doesn't sound too overly optimistic about the 2009 Badger defense. But On Wisconsin is downright negative.

As for the front 7? Oy. Your guess is as good as mine. Transfer J.J. Watt, at DE (and maybe moving inside on passing downs) is expected to be a spark on the line, but he's among three new starters, so who knows? Linebackers McFadden and St. Jean will be fine (McFadden is returning, but moving outside), but I'm worried about Blake Sorensen on the weak side, and it isn't as though the former two will be on any pre-season all-conference teams. As dangerous as the Badger offense could be (with a decent quarterback), the defense is a total question mark, and were I guessing, I would say soft against the run, especially inside.

All of this sounds good for Gopher fans. The secondary should be OK. They lose Allen Langford at CB who was 2nd team All-Big Ten a year ago, but the other three starters return.

B5Q - It looks like Niles Brinkley will be the other starting cornerback, which is kind of a scary thought when you consider how lost he was on the field last season. Still, the coaches insist he has improved immensely. At safety, the Badgers return a lot of experience but not a whole lot of talent. But Jay Valai, Chris Maragos, Aubrey Pleasant and Shane Carter all have logged a ton of playing time and should be more than adequate.

OnW - There aren't any serious questions about the secondary. It should be solid. Henry is a very good cover corner and Brinkley isn't bad. Valai is a big hitter, but in obvious passing downs you might instead see Pleasant at strong safety as he has better size and doesn't give up much in talent. Either Maragos or Carter is a good option at free safety.

While they return the most in the secondary it isn't exactly a scary group. On paper this looks like a defense that most teams will be able to run on and I'll take my chances with Weber/Decker/Green against this secondary as well.

What is going to Happen

Well prior to researching this post I figured we had a coin flips chance of winning this game, maybe slightly better since it is a home game. But upon further review I am more confident now than I was a week ago. If Brewster wants to show that this team is improved and that he is capable of winning with the upgraded talent then he absolutely needs to win this game.

I'm putting this game into the "must win" category for a number of reasons. First and foremost this is year three of the Brewster era and he has yet to win a rivalry game. I'm not overly confident about our trip to Iowa this year and we don't have Michigan on the schedule, which means if he wants to win any rivalry game in his first three years on the job then this is the game he has to do it. Secondly the schedule gets really tough following Purdue and Indiana isn't on the schedule so the Gophers want to get back to a bowl game this is a must win. Lastly the Badgers are a bit down (at least replacing a number of starters) and the Gophers have a good nucleaus returning for 2009, this is in the must win category because it is winable against a good program.

I think the upper-classmen will remember last year's gut-wrenching loss in Madison and you will see a Gopher team that will play a great game. The Gophers avoid any semblance of a 4th quarter melt-down and for the first Big Ten game in TCF Stadium the Axe will be hoisted high as the rouser is sung by 50,300.

Wisconsin - 20
Minnesota - 34

The rest of the questions and answers from Bucky's 5th Quarter and On Wisconsin after the jump...

TDG - Does this game make you nervous? The Gophers nearly stole one from you in Madison a year ago and the Badgers have been playing Russian-Roulette with near losses to the Gophers for a while now. Will the bullet finally fall into the chamber or do Badger fans just pencil in the W on their schedule as soon as they are printed?

B5Q - Yeah, this game definitely makes me nervous. The Gophers would have won last year if the game was in Minnesota and now they have a "real" home stadium where it won't be 60% Badger fans. I expect for Minnesota to be favored in this game and have a good shot at finally getting the Axe back.

OnW - I don't know about nervous, but I've marked it as one of two losses in my overly optimistic 10-2 pre-prediction for the season. The Badgers certainly didn't blow Minnesota away the last two games, but have gone 8-2 over the last 10 (including the remarkable finish in Minneapolis in 2005, but that wasn't they only way we might have won that game). I think Minnesota has a good chance in this game, but I think many Badger fans find that idea reprehensible and assume we'll indoctrinate TCF the right way. These are probably the same fans who wanted Alvarez fired in 2002. Don't get me wrong, I think the Badgers can and should win this game, but for now I have it down as a loss (you always have to pick one . . .)

TDG - I'll trade you any Wisconsin native on the Gophers roster for David Gilreath, what will it take?

B5Q - Hmm... backup kicker David Schwerman looks pretty good. Wasn't he on "Friends"? No offense, but the Wisconsin natives on the Minnesota roster are probably there because they weren't good enough to play for the Badgers (unless we're talking hockey and Phil Kessel).

OnW - Gilreath is overrated. He's the third best receiver on the team. Anderson and Toon are the true 1 and 2. Gilreath is speedy, but small, with mediocre hands. For all his speed, he hasn't been a hero in the kicking game (if I remember correctly he ranked 11th in the conference in return yardage last season). Anderson has better size, better hands, and isn't exactly slow; same for Toon.

TDG - The schedule is rather weak in Madison this year. Heading into the Big Ten schedule the Badgers host Northern Illinois, Fresno State and Wofford. Is this weak schedule going to keep the Badgers fresh or will the schedule do them a disservice by not adequately preparing them for Big Ten play?

B5Q - Actually this schedule is a step up from previous years. Northern Illinois and Fresno State will compete for a bowl game and the Bulldogs actually have some of the better running backs in the country. I hate the Wofford game, but it seems like everyone is scheduling FCS schools these days so you might as well play the better ones and Wofford at least is a competitive FCS team. I actually think the first three weeks will help this Badger team. Northern Illinois is a decent Week 1 opponent and Fresno State will beat you up physically (we saw that last year), so the new starters will get tested early while the team should still start 3-0. Wisconsin also ends the season at Hawaii.

OnW - The schedule is very weak. We get Michigan State and Iowa at home, we don't play Penn State or Illinois, and after Ohio State, our toughest road games are Northwestern and Minnesota. No offense to your program or theirs, but in the big picture of tough roadies, those aren't the two that normally get flagged. As for the weak schedule leading up the game at TCF? We open Big Ten play with Michigan State, in Madison, the week before so, I'm not terribly worried about the team being soft when it comes time for the trip west. The out-of-conference games should help keep the team healthy and hopefully will provide a little extra time for both lines to gel and for Sherer to get three more non-critical starts under his belt (though Fresno State has a history of pushing us). What concerns me more is the team's struggles on the road. Look at last season: nearly blew the Fresno State game, did blow the Michigan and Michigan State games, got annihilated in Iowa City, and folded in the Champs Sports Bowl. 2007? Losses at Illinois, at Penn State, at Ohio State, played you guys way closer than was appropriate in the Metrodome, and lost at the Outback Bowl vs. Tennessee. The road has not been kind to Bielema's Badgers.

Thanks be to B5Q and OnW, excellent responses from a couple of excellent blogs.

Poll

Who wins this critical match-up?

Golden Nugz 07-02-09

GopherNation — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:40:36 -0000

I've been researching a bit for my Badger game preview so the links today may be a little heavy on Badger links, but you'll make due.

Bucky's 5th Quarter had a good post this week on the rules of buying a Badger jersey. I enjoyed the read so I'm sharing it with you. There are 5 basic rules for buying a college team jersey..

1) If the player is a true freshman then he must be a No. 1 recruit who is not red-shirting and if he is a red-shirt freshman then he must be a starter and lead the team in at least one key statistical category. Too many highly regarded recruits fall flat on their face.
            Pass: ~~Ron Dayne in 1996~~ Lawrence Maroney 2003
            Fail: ~~Josh Oglesby in 2007~~ MarQueis Gray 2008 (you gt the idea)

2) If the player is a sophomore or junior then he must be a starter and lead the team (among returning players if it is the offseason) in at least one key statistical category. These are the guys you want to invest in. They have already proven themselves and they are going to be around for a while.
            Pass: ~~David Gilreath or John Clay~~ Adam Weber 2008
            Fail: ~~Kyle Jefferson~~ Brandon Green

3) If the player is a senior then he must be a Heisman/Player of the Year candidate or be a good candidate to have his jersey number retired at that player’s school. Sorry Garrett Graham fans, you missed your chance.
            Pass: ~~Alando Tucker in 2006-07~~ Maroney 2005
            Fail: ~~Kammron Taylor in 2006-07.~~

4) If the player plays football and wears No. 1, 7, 9, 12, 14, 18 or 80 then the previous rules do not apply to purchase the jersey, although the jersey can only be worn during seasons when the player currently wearing that number is a clear cut starter and leads the team in at least one key statistical category.
            Pass: ~~No. 12 Tyler Donovan in 2007.~~ - I'm not sure what he is getting at here, maybe those are retired numbers for Wisconsin?
            Fail: ~~No. 4 Allan Evridge in 2008.~~

5) Any former All-American is eligible for a jersey purchase, but the jersey must be from a year in which that player played.
            Pass: ~~Ron Dayne and Alando Tucker~~ - Kevin McHale
            Fail: ~~A No. 33 or No. 42 placed on a 2009 jersey~~

6) He forgot one rule.

Pass: Gopher Jersey
Fail: Badger jersey

A couple years back there was a post out in the blog-sphere giving the general rules about wearing a jersey (any jersey). His rules were things like don't tuck your jersey in, don't buy #69 (it's not that funny), don't wear average players no longer on your team (i.e. Brad Johnson, Vikings fans), etc.

Zombie Nation shares his Big Ten picks and he has Hassan Lipscomb as his pick to surprise the rest of the conference this year. Interesting.
Good article by Marcus Fuller on Mbakwe. This kid is going to help us a LOT next year.
On Wisconsin asked me a few questions, here are my answers.
This Badger sports fan thinks it will be a rough year for the Badgers, always good to read.

Golden Nugz 07-01-09

GopherNation — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:41:48 -0000

The recruits are rolling in this week. The Gophers have received a couple verbals in the last couple days.

Today the Gophers received a verbal from a kicker out of Colorado. Kip Smith accepted our scholarship offer and plans to be a Gopher next fall. According to Gopher Illustrated...

Smith is rated as one of the top ten kickers in the country by every reputable kicking service. Smith hit a career long field goal of 56 yards as a sophomore. During his junior season Smith had touchbacks on 47 of his 50 kick offs and one of the misses was an onside kick.

Zac Epping is another OT out of the state of Wisconsin to commit. The Kenosha native is a three-star recruit and after attending camp last week he recevied an offer. Epping has canceled his trip to a Badger camp since he has accepted our scholarship. Epping becomes the third verbal commitment out of the Badger state. Tom Parrish and Matt Eggen also plan to cross the border and play for the Gophers. Badger fans will tell you that it isn't a big deal as they did not have scholarship offers from the Badgers. But these guys are likely to be three of the top 5 or 6 players to come out of Wisconsin this year so to get them to come to the dark side is significant.

Brew Crew Report has a few pictures of the captains in the new locker room for promo pictures. They are all impressed with their new home.
I'll link to it again in case you don't scroll down. The Quad Blog has finally gotten around to ranking the Gophers this year but unfortunately we don't make the top 62 in the country. Our schedule is pretty tough and the record could be fairly ugly but I think we are one of the top 50 teams in the country at the very least.
The MN Daily has a nice article on the generosity of President Bruinicks and Maturi.

The Tim Brewster Era - Off the Field Issues...Academics are the key

GopherNation — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:36:35 -0000

Part 3 in a series of posts on the Tim Brewster Era.

Public Relations
Program Leadership
Off the Field Issues
Recruiting
On the Field
Year Three

Off the Field - few issues, academics are mixed

We touched on the EJ Jones case in part 2 and I'm not going to spend more time on it here. This occurred within months of Brewster taking over and I'm not sure you can fault him for the actions of someone else's players who acted out. Other than that there really have not been any off the field issues to speak of yet. Brewster's teams have been rather clean so far and it should be noted. I am quickly glossing over this largely because there is very little to speak of but for whatever reason (Brewster's leadership, recruiting good kids or nobody has been caught yet) the negative headlines have been non-existent in the Brewster era and he should be commended for that.

But there are two areas worth discussing. Academics and player attrition have become not only relevant but also connected because the two have combined to cost us scholarships.

I'll start with player attrition because that will directly tie into the academic side of this coin. When a coach takes over a program player attrition is expected. New coach didn't recruit current players and current players were not recruited by new coach, so there is often a disconnect between the two that is un-reconcilable. This happened when Brewster took over and I'm not too concerned about it. What is more concerning has been the seemingly high percentage of transfers from players he recruits. Here is a list of Brewster's initial recruiting class and where they are today...

Clint Brewster	QB	gone
Curtis Thomas	DB	gone
Damien White	WR	gone
Tray Herndon	WR	gone
Kyle Theret	DB	still here
Ralph Spry	WR	gone
Harold Howell	ATH	gone

That is 7 players recruited by Brewster, six are no longer with the program, 14.3%. In all fairness, Brewster had precious little time to get anybody to sign with the Gophers in just a couple months after being hired. To his credit the ones who stayed have been valuable. Theret has been starting since his freshman year and has been very valuable. And his second recruiting class (his first class with a full year to recruit) has seen 82.8% retained so far. Vincent Hill never made it to campus, WR's Broderick Smith & Xavian Brandon have transferred, John Nance is rumored to be transferring and Tramaine Brock is currently not enrolled because of academic issues.

Players transferring is part of the game and I understand the uniqueness surrounding Brewster's first class but all of this hurts the precious NCAA APR score.

The APR is calculated by allocating points for eligibility and retention -- the two factors that research identifies as the best indicators of graduation. Each player on a given roster earns a maximum of two points per term, one for being academically eligible and one for staying with the institution. A team's APR is the total points of a team's roster at a given time divided by the total points possible.

Players transferring out hurt the APR and enough years below the mandated 925 minimum can result in loss of scholarships and/or post season bans. The multitude of transfers, at least 12 over the last two seasons plus years of graduation rates ranking at or near the bottom of the Big Ten equaled negative three scholarships for the most recent recruiting class.

While I believe the tide of transfers is stemming, the next step is graduating the players currently on the roster. And this is an area where Gopher football that has been rather disappointing. According to NCAA's graduation success rate (GSR) which includes transfer data in it's calculation (data found here) the Gophers have been one of just two Big Ten teams that consistently graduate less than 50% of their players.

	2008	2007	2006	2005	4 Yr Avg
Northwestern	92	94	91	92	92.3
Penn St	78	76	80	84	79.5
Illinois	70	73	67	73	70.8
Indiana	68	67	71	77	70.8
Michigan	70	73	71	68	70.5
Iowa	75	73	65	58	67.8
Purdue	63	70	68	70	67.8
Wisconsin	63	61	62	67	63.3
Ohio St	52	53	55	54	53.5
Minnesota	51	49	44	41	46.3
Michigan St	51	43	45	41	45.0

This data takes the freshman classes over a four year span and I believe gives them six years to graduate. So the 2008 data takes the freshmen classes from the years 1998 - 2001. Any player who began their first season during that span on the Gopher roster must graduate within six years although it does allow institutions to subtract student-athletes who leave their institutions prior to graduation as long as they would have been academically eligible to compete had they remained. 2009 data is not yet available.

The GSR and APR are not the same thing and are used for different purposes. The APR is what the NCAA looks at to determine if schools/programs need a slap on the wrist before things get really bad, we are talking about student-athletes here. This is the reason we lost three scholarships this past signing period. The GSR gives us a number, factoring in the mobility of student-athletes today, so we have an idea how well or how poorly programs are graduating their players. As you can see by the data, the football program (particulary those recruited by and coached by the Mason regime) has not been very successful at getting it's players to earn their diplomas.

The intention of this post is to take a look at the two-year Brewster era and how he has fared in off the field issues, not to harp on the football program for having such poor grad numbers over the last decade or so. I am hoping to touch more on this issue to get a better understanding of resources are available to the athletes and what is being done to improve this grad rate. But that will be a longer post all on it's own.

Brewster has had very little opportunity to impact the GSR. The graduating class of 2007 was factored into the 2008 GSR so he has had minimal impact. Graduating the current roster is his responsibility but we will get a much clearer picture down the road when we see him bring in a class of recruits and see what percentage of his recruits leave the U of M with a dimploma. I believe things are looking up as this past fall more Gophers (29) earned Academic All-Big Ten than any other school in the conference. To be eligible you must be in their second year at the school, be a letter winner and carry at least a 3.0 GPA. Three of those 29 were Brewster recruits from that first class (Collado, Theret and Small). Clearly a step in the right direction for the program.

As far as grading Brewster? Overall he has kept his teams out of the police blotter, hopefully the transfer exodus is over and players will begin to earn their diplomas under Brewster. Off the field has been a moderate success. No news is good news when it comes to D1 football. The programs track record of poor GSRs has to change but it is impossible to know how Brewster will affect that for a few years.

The Quad (NY Times) ranks the Gophers #63

GopherNation — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:08:40 -0000

The Quad (NY Times) ranks the Gophers #63

A disappointing ranking to say the least. On the bright side we currently rank #2 for best former players to have played in the NFL.

Golden Nugz for 06-30-09

GopherNation — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:37:35 -0000

Last day of June, Gopher fans. July will be here tomorrow and football seemingly the day after that.

The Gophers finished 14th nationally in the finaly 2008-09 Director's Cup standings. This was their highest finish since 2003 and the third best among Big Ten Schools.

#5 Michigan
#10 Ohio State
#14 Minnesota
#19 Penn State
#20 Illinois
#27 Michigan State
#38 Purdue
#41 Wisconsin
#44 Northwestern
#45 Iowa
#55 Indiana

The Gophers traditionally finish well in the Director's Cup as this is their 14th consecutive year in the top 20 with one top 10 finish in 2002 (seventh place).

Gopher baseball finished 21st in the final Rival's top 25.
Your daily Seantrell Henderson update. The nation's most coveted OT is planning trips to South Carolina and Clemson this summer.
Lake the Posts has polled some of the finest Big Ten blogs to get their collective thoughts on the 2009 football season. As a group they predicted the Gophers would finish 8th in the league but we were also the pick to be the sleeper team to crack the upper tier!
Finally, I love this post giving us the 20 worst moments in Vikings history. Hard to argue and we could probably come up with a comparable list for Gopher football.

Golden Nugz for 06-29-09

GopherNation — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:25:04 -0000

The big news of the weekend concerning Gopher sports (one of the big items, at least) is the expansion of the WCHA (Boston Globe covering the expansion). Bemidji State becomes the fifth team in the state of Minnesota in the WCHA and Nebrasak-Omaha has also been aproved to expand the league to 12 teams. For Bemidji the move makes all the sense in the world. I would imagine that this wil greatly help with in-state recruiting battles and they should be able to capitalize in natural in-state rivalries with Minnesota, Duluth, St. Cloud and Mankato. And ultimately they'll see their revenue jump up.

For UNO the choice was also pretty obvious, the Omaha World-Heralds summed it up like this...

Start with 58 years of history and tradition. Add 36 national championships. Throw in overwhelming attendance figures at attractive arenas, and revenue potential from the conference tournament and other sources from a passionate fan base. Then consider that UNO sits squarely within the league's geographic footprint, giving it the opportunity to develop regional rivalries, save money on travel costs and capitalize on recruiting players within the same region — not to mention providing fans the chance to attend road games more easily.

2010-11 is when the new 12-team league will face off, should be interesting.

Gopher football landed another verbal out of the state of Wisconsin. Matt Eggen is a big lineman out of LaCrosse who is going to play for the Golden Gophers in the fall of 2010. Rivals has Eggen as a three-star with no other significant offers at this point other than Indiana. But at 6-5 and 285 Eggen has the size and strength to develop into very good lineman at this level.
I love seeing that everyone thinks they are in the Seantrell Henderson sweepstakes. Although he has never formally announced his top few schools I'll be shocked if he ends up anywhere other than USC, Michigan or Minnesota.
The U's Jordan Schroeder was taken 22nd overall by the Canucks in the NHL Draft. He fell a bit due to his lack of size but congrats on being a first round pick.
Finally I'd like to say that I am 100% on board with and excited about Ricky Rubio being a Minnesota Timberwolf. There is a lot of negativity around whether or not he'll play this year or if we'll trade him to New York, but we can wait a year and New York does not have enough attractive pieces to pull off a deal. La Pistola is going to be a star and he'll make a great combo with Al Jefferson. I like that pick a LOT.

Gopher cheerleader is SI's Cheerleader of the Week

GopherNation — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:15:29 -0000

Meet Toni Gabrielli. I thought for sure when asked who her celebrity crush was, she would answer "Gopher Nation." But I'll talk to her about it later.

The Daily Gopher is on vacation

GopherNation — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:40:31 -0000

See you on Monday. Don't talk about me when I'm not around.