The Bracket has been set and the Volleyball team will open up play tonight against North Dakota. They are the #2 overall seed in the bracket of 64. They will then face the winner of Hawaii/USC tomorrow night at the Pav.

What needs to be said about this team that you don't already know? The Tapp twins killed it this year, Sarah Whilhite was glorious. Molly Lohman was a beast at blocks. Samantha Swenson is probably the best setter in the country, and Rosado is great at getting low with those digs. This team has a great chance at winning the national championship. They will always be #1 in my heart no matter what the outcome of the tournament.

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Round Rock (Texas) Cedar Ridge lineman Shea Baker tweeted out an offer this evening. He holds offers from Air Force, Central Arkansas, and Southeastern Louisiana.

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Transferring from Notre Dame for grad school. Why not chase this guy?

SUNDAY POST:

Biggest news to share is that Jay Johnson will watch Jordan Ta'amu (Hudl) throw tomorrow afternoon. Ole Miss has been in contact with him and will be there to watch as well. Johnson will eval him and make a decision about whether or not to offer. The Gophers would take both Ta'amu and Glover.

Tracy Claeys, Jay Johnson, Bart Miller, and Dan O'Brien all flew down to Marshall to have an in-home visit with Blaise Andries and his family tonight. Here's what Andries told me: "We had a great meeting and snack and overall good time. We talked about a lot of things, but the main message was that I needed to keep working hard and enjoy the rest of my senior year with my friends and sports."

Tracy Claeys and Jay Sawvel are visiting Jaquarius Landrews tomorrow. UPDATE: the Landrews visit has been rescheduled to Thursday. Sawvel will also visit Pensacola (Fla.) Pine Forest linebacker Chris Bell (Hudl).

Poore is visiting Joshua Croslen tomorrow.

Phelps will visit Kendrick Green (Hudl) tomorrow. Last I heard, Green is still a strong Iowa lean, but maybe things have changed or will change with in-home visits. I'll try to have an update on him after the visit.

Either O’Brien or Sherels will visit Grant Ryerse tomorrow or Tuesday.

Brian Anderson is visiting Javan Hawes on Wednesday.

Anderson will visit Trey Creamer on Tuesday, and Georgia Southern will visit Creamer at some point this week as well. The Gophers like Creamer a lot, so I'm not sure why Georgia Southern still thinks they have a chance.

The Gophers will visit Nate Bursch at Woodbury next week. I'm not sure when his in-home visit will happen. Bursch tells me his ankle's doing better and is about at 80%. He had sprained it and stretched tendons in his foot.

Decatur (Ga.) Cedar Grove running back Grant Walker (Hudl), a Georgia Southern commit, will receive a visit some time this week. He's heard from Anderson and Schaekel recently.

One target I haven't mentioned before that may get a visit is former Michigan commit Chase Lasater (Hudl), a fullback/linebacker from Jacksonville.

MONDAY UPDATE:

Ole Miss will watch Jordan Ta'amu this afternoon, too.

Sawvel met with Knoxville DE Isaac Buell (Hudl) today and watched him practice. I'd expect Buell to be a name you hear more about moving forward.

Landrews' visit was rescheduled to Thursday. Both Claeys and Sawvel are expected to be there.

Sherels offered 2019 lineman Quinn Carroll today.

Ta'amu, on Johnson coming to watch him throw: "Throwing with Coach Johnson went really well. He liked my throwing, and we sat down and talked about my background. He showed me videos of the school and told me a lot about Minnesota. But he told me he will try to schedule a visit if the coaching staff decides to offer me."

Sawvel will likely meet with Mississippi State linebacker commit Aaron Odom (Hudl) this week and is calling him tonight.

Sawvel will visit Jackson (Miss.) Callaway cornerback Emanuel Dabney on Wednesday.

Hoping to have more later today.

Great choices...congrats gentlemen!

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I have a theory. I really feel like the expectations of how this year set up and the thought that this was our "one big chance to have a magical season" . . . has really done wonders on the pscyhe of a large chunk of regular Gopher fans, and created what has been described as a malaise and lack of normal interest as has been described on this board and elsewhere.

The fact that we entered the season with a very manageable schedule (first time in a long time), returned a senior qb, and had a solid Defense returning, led to very heightened expectations including myself. Then football and life happened. Our senior qb not only didn't take a good step forward in progress, he took a step backward. The wide outs didn't help him with multiple drops and an inability to get regular separation. We lost one of the most significant players on offense coming into the year, with Lingen hardly playing. We lost our 2nd and 3rd CB's for significant stretches to off field issues. Both coordinators had non-football interruptions with the loss of both of their fathers. Team has to deal with Sherels life-threatening illness and his absence early.

Football also happens and we lose 4 close and winnable games that could have turned on a play or two. Penn St. loss in particular was very painful as they had to create a semi-miracle to get it to OT and win (I painfully re-watched the 3rd and 10 play where the obvious hold on Huff is not called and McSorley and WR connect on a desperation play to save the game). We have 4th quarter leads in all 4 losses, and somehow lose all of them. I am reminded of how much football can be a game of inches, and how quickly a change in momentum to alter the game, especially on the road. The could of beens will haunt the team, coaches, and fans for a long time.

I don't outline this as excuses as some will likely point out, but just to highlight how and why this season has been harder on the fans than normal. Because of the incredibly long drought of "magical" seasons, the fact that it didn't happen as many hoped and/or expected really hit hard IMO.

It has hit so hard, that I think we have lost some context with how this season played out. It has been repeated on here ad nauseam how we didn't beat anyone significant: But consider how long it has been since we have had a season where:

1) We swept the non-conference schedule;
2) We beat all the bottom half Big 10 teams without any slip-ups;
3) Every game was competitive with a reasonable chance to win and no blow-out losses (+ 2 TDs).

The last time the Gophers had a season where that occurred? 1999, almost 20 years ago. Before that? 1968, almost 50 years ago. We have transitioned as a fan base to where the Illinois, Purdue games are not only winnable, but where there is no way we should lose to those teams. I attribute that to the brick by brick development that has occurred with this staff. I certainly wanted more for this season and disappointed we didn't get there. I am getting tired of the "accepting mediocrity" straw man position that is becoming almost automatic if you didn't want Claeys and staff fired. However, ultimately I don't believe this was "our one chance" and think 8-4 is our ceiling, and have reasonable hopes that we should be in the mix of the west division every single year.

Just my theory, you don't have to buy in.

Per the Indianapolis Star. 6 pm announcement

I feel like something holding the Gopher football brand back is never winning a BIG game.

The general public could care less about 8-4, they want the Rival wins, or a win over a ranked opponent.

Here is the most depressing stats I looked up. Teams that FINISHED the season in the AP top 25. Since winning AT Penn St in 1999, if the current AP poll stayed the same for year end, the Gophers are 0-55 vs. teams that finished in the year end AP top 25.

The last time the Gophers BEAT an opponent ranked in the top 25 at year end was 1999 @ Penn St.

The last time they won a home game vs. a year end top 25 team was 1996 vs. Syracuse.

We literally have not had a solid home win in 2 decades. My GOODNESS!

instead of.......................

Sad to hear that 76 were killed in a plane crash overnight. Reminds me of the Marshall football team. Thank god this doesn't happen any more frequently

Now I know how hardcore liberal Hillary supporters felt on election night....only this is worse. As John Wayne said, "I try to see both sides. But there's no both sides anymore. They're trying to wreck our g-damn country."

That's how I feel with Coyle and the Regents in charge of Gopher football. Only worse.

The Star Tribune is in on it too. In all their analysis by different columnists, NOT ONCE does any of them mention recruiting. Well other than to quote Jawan Hawes and making him out to be a top recruit....or some other irrelevant analysis like that.

There's no both sides to this argument. Here's the updated team recruiting rankings:

Ohio State: #2
Michigan: #8
Maryland: #13
Penn State: #21
Nebraska: #24
Michigan State: #30
Northwestern: #33
Wisconsin: #34
Rutgers: #35
Iowa: #45
Indiana: #57
Illinois: #65
Purdue: #67
Minnesota: #74

The 2 teams closest to us, Illinois and Purdue, are trying to do something about their situation. We are NOT. We are perfectly satisfied with this.

'There's no me and no you there's just us'

http://www.wdaz.com/news/4169717-more-2000-veterans-expected-form-human-shield-nd-pipeline-protest

Landrews will end up visiting Mississippi State this weekend. This recruitment is going to be close up until the end.

My opinion:

I think we have some great, young defensive players like Carter Coughlin and Kamal Martin, and should be good on that side of the ball again next year. Special teams guys are back too. The missing piece to this puzzle is finding a competent quarterback who can extend plays with his feet, and make all of the easy throws and some of the tough ones. That brings me to....



From Sid's column:


As for replacing quarterback Mitch Leidner, Claeys said: “I’d like to get to where we go to more of a dual-threat quarterback and I think we have those kids in the system right now. Seth Green has done awfully well. Demry Croft, we were able to keep the redshirt on him. We have Mark Williams here, who can play several positions. We’re going to work to get one signed this year and move more in that direction, which is the direction I would like to go."

I wouldn't put this on the other board because it'd get spun into a bunch of bitching. But I was dinking around with some sports trivia tonight and one was a quiz to name the Power 5 schools that have not had GameDay. Anyway, there are no SEC teams that have not hosted GameDay (shocker.)

The Big ten has the most teams.

Minnesota
Indiana
Illinois
Rutgers
Maryland

ACC
Virginia
Wake Forest
Duke
Syracuse

Big 12
Kansas
Iowa St.

Pac 12
Washington St.
Cal

Pretty motley crew.

Current Mood



'You met me at a very strange time in my life'

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In light of all the conversations about whether Claeys is right for the job and what direction we're headed, I thought this was an interesting look into the world of coaching big time football.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...e-dysfunctional-hell-of-becoming-a-cfb-coach#

I really enjoy these reads, its nice to get perspective from a coach's viewpoint as to what went wrong and what the strategy was going into the game. I know a lot of folks on here think Pitino is hot air, but I enjoy getting this type of insight from the HC. Would be cool to get something like this from football as well.

http://www.gophersports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/112916aaa.html

Good afternoon Gopher Fans,

After watching the Florida State game a few times and reflecting on the first seven games I thought this would be a good time to give a state of the union of where I think we are at as a basketball team right now.

Record (6-1) - Certainly happy with where we stand at this juncture. Obviously we dropped a tough road test versus a very talented Florida State team. We were physically manhandled by their bigs. Our front court needed to do a better job of matching their size and toughness. Our guards needed to get multiple paint touches but abandoned the game plan. That game was good for us because it had the feel of a Big Ten opponent. Our resume thus far is solid. Wins over Texas Arlington, St. John's and Arkansas will most likely be considered top 100 wins when the year ends. Saturday is extremely important. Vanderbilt is a talented, well-coached team that will only get better. They battled a very good Butler team recently. They play Tennessee State tonight at home. It will be another terrific test for our young basketball team. I thoroughly enjoy playing at the Pentagon in South Dakota. It is an amazing venue and a lot of fun to be a part of. Hopefully our fans outstate can make it!

Offense (Kenpom ranking of 85 in offensive efficiency) - This needs to improve! The better defense we play will allow us to get out on the break where I feel we can be productive. We have to improve our screening and cut down on live ball turnovers. Shot selection was a problem last game. I showed our guys our game vs. Florida State a few years ago in the NIT. They were blown away by their ball movement and spacing. We have to learn from that. We will get there in time.

Defense (Kenpom ranking of 39 in defensive efficiency) - This number has improved over the course of the season. The problem last game was live ball turnovers and fouls. Three point field good defense has gotten better as well. We have to finish a defensive possession with a rebound. We have to be more disruptive on this end. Foul trouble was a major issue for us last game at Florida State.

Overall (Kenpom ranking of 60 nationally) - We have a very good collection of guys. They are connected and truly want to win. With five new faces and a lot of youth we have to use the next month to drastically improve. Kenpom has us ranked 318 out of 351 in experience. Guys will have to grow up fast! They have taken pride in restoring the image of our basketball program on and off the court. By no means have we arrived but I like the direction we are headed. It's fun to see the seats in Williams Arena fill each game more and more. I am truly grateful for our loyal fans. Williams Arena is just as important as any player or coach in our program. We always have a chance when that building is alive. Our players feed off that energy.

Last Opponent - First and foremost give credit to Florida State. They played hard, physical and took us out of a lot of what we wanted to do. Jonathan Isaac has a chance to be a lottery pick. Special talent. Bacon also hit some very challenging shots. We weathered very tough foul trouble in the first half to take the lead at halftime. We showed great heart at the end to come back but it was too little, too late. [URL='http://www.gophersports.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/amir_coffey_1017598.html']Amir Coffey getting in foul trouble really hurt us. We needed his playmaking ability on the court. We simply weren't tough enough at every phase. The spacing and execution of the offensive game plan was poor. When we got multiple paint touches we got open looks. The guards needed to be tougher around the basket to finish. The bigs need to improve their screening and effort as it pertains to offensive rebounding. We collectively have to get tougher as a group if we want to compete with our schedule. This was a great eye-opener for everyone.

Next Opponent - Vanderbilt, Saturday in Sioux Falls at 7:00 PM. Talented and well coached. We have to do our best to improve this week as well as lock in on the details on the scouting report. I know our guys will be excited for this tremendous challenge.

Go Gophers![/URL]

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Jay Johnson offered Callaway (Miss.) linebacker Aaron Odom, a Mississippi State commit on an in-home visit today. I know Odom's been talking to Sawvel too.

tail parties....I'd do anything to extend my job. I'd keep a lousy coach before bringing my guy in and putting myself on the clock. Especially if I was the AD of a school in a state I wasn't from and had no interest in. Coyle is extending his job. He doesn't have to take any heat for at least 7 years now.

In 3-4 year, he can hire a new coach....and say "Wow, I finally have my guy!".

Coyle is worthless. And I told you so. I wanted Bob Stein or Justin Conzemius. Guys who love MN and don't need the money.

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/11/30/tracy-claeys-minnesota-gophers-football/


I'm on record saying that Coyle should have found a new football coach. This article basically explains to me just exactly why. While Jeff Wald begs us to give Tracy a chance, I just don't see him making the historic leap beyond the glory years of 8-4 seasons. (Disclosure: I would love to be proven wrong, however, I just don't see how I will be)

1) Zero Buzz Around the Football Program
-----TC just isn't endearing. The only way the buzz comes is if we do win 10 games and start beating our Trophy Game opponents. We beat 8 inferior opponents and frankly beat each in a non-eventful way. We never beat anybody real soundly and convincingly. We squeaked by 0-9 in the Big 10 Rutgers. We let everybody hang around. Great teams end games at halftime. We were 0-12 doing so this year. We will see a large decrease in season ticket holders again this year. The students will continue to be indifferent.

2) Tracy Claeys Needs A Program Promoter
-----See above #1. TC is so dry and boring. The typical fan has absolutely zero interest in getting to know anything about him. He doesn't seem to understand this and in today's world of college football and this can't be true. There's too many options out there and to take a fond stance towards something you must have passion about that. I cared about the Kill story. He was so endearing in the community and as a fan I wanted to see him battle and succeed. It wasn't just his illness. He was active in the community, he threw the Date Night events for Gopher Football, he was a great ambassador to Gopher Football. He's a great guy and you wanted to cheer for him. TC is the opposite. He gives you nothing about him to care about. His passion seems to be equivalent to a light pole. He displays no emotion and doesn't seem to fight any battles on the field. I love Gopher Football. However, somebody who is this dry just doesn't give me any reason to care about him.

3) Gophers 0-4 in Trophy Games
-----Enough said. Really, we are 0-7 in trophy games (yes, I count Nebraska as the author does also.

4) Quarterback Play ... Enough Said
-----I know this might not be TC's fault. However, somebody has to finally get us a quality QB on the field. The Kill regime has not be able to do it and I'm skeptical that TC will be able to also.

What would be your top questions if you were Coyle?

Here's 55's

1. Why do you think attendance dipped?
2. What can you do to help boost fan excitement?
3. What happened to our TE's in the offense?
4. Did Tyler Johnson get what he needed to have a breakout sophomore year?
5. What do you need from me to boost our program above mediocre/good?
6. How do you plan to improve as a coach/staff?
7. If your sisters soup is so good, can she get your chili hot?

What's going on with Glover?
Rumblings on whether or not we are offering Ta'amu?
Any plans to bring in both?

I hope and pray this is the right decision....We will see....I hope beyond hope he ups his energy
enthusiasm and recruiting and wears head phones during the games, so he can coach.

Lets hope !

Wren nice call on Extension.

Smith, Pirsig and Woli(press) on third team. Maryland & Rutgers shut out and press & coaches gave Yancey from PU 2nd & 3rd team WR. So at least we aren't on the bottom and a few our players made a great impression.

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools...f/2016-17/misc_non_event/16fbawardwinners.pdf