After a shocking 0-2 start to the 2020 season, for some faction of the Minnesota Gopher football fan base it appears we’ve already reached “If you have even the slightest doubts about PJ Fleck and the state of the program you’re a traitor and fair weather fan.” Cool cool cool cool cool. There are both political and religious connections to be made here to fanatical and blind following of a leader but with everything else going on this crazy ass year, let’s not go down that road today, shall we?
For the record, I am not out on PJ Fleck and I am not here to call for his head. However, I do have a few questions and comments and perhaps concerns about the state of the program and, well, this seemed as good a place as any to express them (sorry Frothy).
Watching a shockingly bad defense and a not-so-shockingly bad special teams these first two games I am reminded of how difficult it is to be a good football coach at the P5 level, and how especially difficult it is to pull off at Minnesota. A big part of the sheer terror for some of admitting everything isn’t as, um, “rosy” for Fleck and this program as we believed even just two weeks ago is exactly because of how hard it is to win at Minnesota. Since the glory years of the 60’s we’ve seen many different coaches with many different ideas try and fail to win consistently here. It hasn’t happened prior to PJ Fleck because he or the other coaches are bad, it’s just a reminder this is one of the toughest Power 5 jobs in the league.
Fleck’s background and mantra and strengths as a head coach are as a CEO and leader- he’s not considered an X’s and O’s guy on either side of the ball, and that’s ok. We’ve seen many examples of this type of coach being successful all over college football, with Dabo at Clemson being the most extreme positive example. But for that CEO coach to be successful he needs to be able to consistently recognize and bring in coaching talent onto his staff (especially at the offensive and defensive coordinators) and it also helps if he’s really good at recruiting and developing.
But the other really key thing that often gets overlooked for ANY head coach to have sustained success is they need to be adaptable. Time and again we see the hot shot head coach in college or the NFL who worked his way up through the ranks as an offensive or defensive guru and they have success at first or maybe even for awhile. But then the game shifts and they cannot or will not shift with it (Hi Chip Kelly! Hi Mike Zimmer!), OR whatever worked for them at lower levels just isn’t going to work as well at the Power 5 level.
A perfect example of this is actually the guy who came before PJ- well fine the guy who came before the guy who came before PJ- Jerry “Have I told you lately how much I hate PJ Fleck?” Kill. Country Jer was the epitome of the work your way up the ladder CEO coach whose track record said he should have succeeded not just at the P5 level, but he should have succeeded here. And health problems aside, for a time he did. But by year 4 it became apparent he was a little TOO loyal to his long-time assistants and that the real key to his success was Tracey Claeys and the defense. On offense Matt Limegrover was in WAY over his head as an OC (and perhaps even as a line coach) and he had no one on staff who could develop anything besides running backs (I give them no credit for that one generational TE- Hi Maxx!).
While he clearly wasn’t and isn’t cut out to be a head coach, Claeys and DB coach (and eventually DC) Jay Sawvel proved incredible and borderline miraculous at turning “MAC-level” defensive recruits into good players and even NFL draft picks at Minnesota. At least until they moved onto their next jobs at Wazzu and Wake and then suddenly they couldn’t. Which again speaks to how freaking hard and frankly weird coaching college football is. Everything a coach does works until it doesn’t and then we find out if they’re good enough to figure out how to make it work again.
Two games into Fleck’s fourth season, that’s where we suddenly find ourselves. Whatever worked for him last year in an awesome and wondrous 11 win season is so far not working at all this season. If you want to pick nits about the offense feel free, but I’m not here to do that today. And yes, I watched the 4th quarter prevent offense against Maryland that helped the Gophs eventually lose the game, but I believe that’s more about the HC’s philosophy than the OC’s at this point. Remember all those vanilla offenses we’ve seen in the non-con under Fleck with Kirk Ciarrocca? I think that’s more PJ than his OC, but I’m willing to wait and see on that one.
I’m also not going to talk about special teams because what is there to talk about? They were atrocious last year under Rob Wenger and they’re atrocious again this year under Rob Wenger. I’m going to go out on a very short and sturdy limb and say they will be atrocious as long as Wenger is the special teams coach, so until Peej realizes this and finds a new ST coach, I don’t know why we’d expect anything else.
But the defense? That is one of my two big questions right now for PJ Fleck- WTF is happening on defense? Or perhaps more accurately NOT happening on defense right now? DC Joe Rossi seemed like a revelation two seasons ago when he replaced Robb Smith near the end of the 2018 season. The D suddenly looked competent- including a win over Wisconsin!!!- and then they were mostly awesome last year. But thus far in two games it’s like Robb Smith has kidnapped Rossi and secretly replaced him because it looks exactly like the Robb Smith defenses we saw previously. Sure, we lost Winfield some key and very good players like Antoine Winfield Jr, Kamal Martn, Thomas Barber, and Carter Coughlin, so I was expecting a few bumps out of the gate. But these are not bumps in the road, this is the road spewing open a gateway to hell. This just looks like complete and total incompetence in all facets and I do not understand how we got here considering how Rossi had coached previously.
Fleck as CEO coach is going to be more dependent on how good his coordinator hires are, and we’re seeing that now- it’s too early to say on Mike Sanford, I don’t know what the hell is going on with Rossi but I’m worried, and it’s WAY past time to say on Wenger.
The other issue is one I didn’t think we’d need to be worried about but this one falls squarely on PJ- depth. He has without question improved Minnesota’s recruiting since he got here- the Gophs are consistently bringing in better recruits with not just better star ratings, but to me the mark that we’re getting better players is that their offer sheets consistently include other P5 schools. That’s a very good thing. That said, as we learned with Tim Brewster, recruiting rankings don’t mean anything if you can’t develop that talent. I’m not saying Fleck and his staff definitively cannot develop talent, but I am at least wondering whether we have an issue there, and if it’s more to do with his coordinators or position coaches or what. Kill and Claeys may have gotten “MAC-level” recruits but on defense at least it didn’t matter when Claeys kept turning them into good players and a good defense. Fleck has had three full recruiting classes now and we’re not seeing much in results thus far on D now that the Empire Class that Kill and Claeys recruited are gone. Some of that- a lot of that?- could be just scheme and maybe the talent is much better than what the results have shown but hoo boy when the results are THIS bad it has to leave you wondering at least a little.
On offense, the skill positions look great and that’s really all Fleck kids at this point, but O-line depth is rearing its ugly head yet again, a consistent and frustrating theme for every staff since Glen Mason got fired. For the first time since Mason we had 6 B1G quality O-linemen last year, which was great because we never had to really go past those 6. But in two games this season the right side of the O-line has been missing and it’s been a real problem as we appear to be left with just four good linemen and nothing else.
Why, and how do we fix it? That’s what PJ Fleck is now facing this season on defense, along the O-line and really at depth everywhere on the roster. In hindsight maybe B1G West champs were too high of expectations in a season with no spring or summer practices during a pandemic and we clearly underestimated the impact of losing some key contributors, but it still should be better than this. I still love PJ Fleck as the head coach of this team- I promise I’m not a traitor or a bandwagon fan- but the honeymoon is over. The mark of a good coach is not just having initial success, but when things stop working, can he figure out how to fix it? We’ll find out soon enough how good and adaptable Coach Fleck is with how well he rows the boat through some very tough waters the rest of the season.
Oh hi, I’m Outstate Biff. You’ve caught me writing an
escapist, self-indulgent blog post.
Big Ten football is back. And not like Texas…like, it’s
literally back.
The college football season, such as it is, has been bizarre
in ways not seen since the 1918-1919 seasons which is a weird
coincidence I’m sure someone will look into sometime. It remains to be
seen whether the Big Ten’s decision to postpone the start of the season will
add stability, but it can’t be much worse than what’s happened
so far. In retrospect, the decisions made by the Big Ten and PAC-12 to delay
their start dates may end up looking not so bad in the long-run.
I’m in an odd place. I work in healthcare (usual
disclaimers apply: I’m not a doctor, this isn’t medical advice, this should not
be construed as representing the views of my employer, etc etc), and the pandemic has dominated my waking hours. Do I believe we should be playing? Um...I…don’t
really know; I have my doubts. But I’m also sufficiently hypocritical to watch
the hell out of it, and I could use the distraction.
It’s been a tough year of relentless long work
weeks since February, always playing from behind. I’ve experienced death (my dad) and birth (my son). COVID robbed my family of much of the normal comforts that are supposed to come with those events, and free time has been rare. To cope, I’ve found other escapes, one of which will soon be Big Ten football.
Another has been Yacht Rock. Building something in the garage, watching a
sunset on the deck, driving to the store for a month of quarantine supplies…the
soundtrack has been Yacht Rock.
Now, I don’t mean the adulterated garbage
you get from the Sirius XM Yacht Rock channel or Fleetwood Mac cover bands in
captain’s hats. I mean the real thing, originated in concept in a 12-episode web series that
began in 2005, and further defined in a now-defunct (but
soon to be reborn) podcast and website
hosted by the web series creators.
The Yacht Rock Era occurred from the mid-70s to mid-80s, with a handful of more recent examples. The web series defined the genre
as music with high production value thanks to improved recording techniques
that became available in the mid-70s, a core group of elite studio musicians
with a lot of cross-pollination between bands, influences from jazz and R&B
like complex chord structures and “smooth” sound, lyrics often about
heartbroken and/or foolish characters, and rhythmic characteristics similar to
the gold-standard Doobie Brothers “What A Fool Believes” and Toto’s “Hold The
Line”.
What is Not Yacht (Nyacht)? The Eagles. Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)
by Looking Glass. Jimmy god-damn Buffett. They’re of the era, and sometimes
touch some of the characteristics but they lack enough of them to count. If
your Yacht Rock playlist includes them, you might be listening to soft rock,
adult-oriented rock, or the West Coast Sound, but it’s not Yacht Rock. I’m not
a purist about much, but This Is It.
So with Yacht Rock on the brain, football in the future, and
desperate for an escape, I’m taking a self-indulgent journey into a world where
Big Ten football programs are defined by Yacht Rock songs. To give us an even
20, talk some football-adjacent topics of interest too. I define “program”
however I want…an arbitrary combination of the characteristics of the school,
coaches, players, history, program image, recent record, fanbases, and my own
personal biases…the best KIND of biases!
Let’s set sail.
Nebraska The Song: Look Who’s Lonely Now (Bill LaBounty, 1982)
The Lyric: Look who’s lonely now Welcome to the other side
Falling to average or below-average from the greatest heights
is hard, and a mourning period is natural. History is replete with examples:
The Spanish Empire. Cadillac. Lead. The list goes on. That’s what makes it so
hard being a Nebraska fan.
It’s a comforting self-justification to tell yourself that
you’re actually WAY closer to getting back than everyone thinks! I can see how
that creates a predilection to be angry when the unenlightened-other doesn’t
see things the same way. Nonetheless for virtually a year straight the entire
Nebraska fanbase, coaching staff, and athletic department has seemed to be
dedicated to forcing even the most sympathetic outsiders to roll their eyes. Not
long ago Scott Frost was complaining about having to play the lower-rung Big
Ten football programs. After pitching a fit about the Big Ten’s season
cancellation and strongly-hinting at taking their ball and going…somewhere
else, Bill Moos is complaining about playing the same set of teams they would
have played if COVID hadn’t happened because they have to start with Ohio
State. Who
now is supposedly going to be their new rival? For…reasons? Oh, and they’re
TOTALLY responsible for bringing back Big Ten football.
Well, congratulations, you've whined your way to a uniquely lonely place among Big Ten teams. You've made me agree with Badger fans with uncomfortable frequency and I’m not sure how I come back from that. Enjoy the
winter.
Iowa The Song: Any Major Dude Will Tell You (Steely Dan, 1974)
The Lyric: I’ve never seen you lookin’ so bad my funky one You tell me that your super-fine mind has come and gone Any major dude with half a heart surely will tell you my
friend Any minor world that breaks apart falls together again
When I think of Iowa football I think stability. The Hayden
Fry and Kirk Ferentz eras have been remarkable for their consistency in success
and styles of play. Aside from a brief period in the late 90s, Iowa has been solid
fundamental football, good defense, regular mid-to-upper tier bowl games, and a
threat to punt at any time. So the internal program churn that has coincided
with the pandemic has made this the most challenging year for Iowa that I can
recall. I have no special knowledge or really any opinions on what is and isn’t
truth for the current challenges to the Ferentz Administration, but somehow I
doubt it’s going to be enough to bring the train to a stop. But then, I’m no
major dude.
Minnesota The Song: Sweet Freedom (Michael McDonald, 1986)
The Lyric: Always searchin’ for the real thing Livin’ like it’s far away Just leave all the madness in yesterday You’re holdin’ the key when you believe it
The 2019 season was a cleansing experience for Gopher fans
and the program overall, but it was neither the top of the mountain nor a sure
thing to be repeated. It did not remove doubt or prove that we’ve become Big
Ten elite. What it did do is show that the things we always thought we couldn’t
do were not actually impossible. We can
win the big game sometimes. We can
get Gameday to campus. Recruits will
come here. We can have a passing game
as long as it’s run by a CPA.
For Minnesota fans that means no longer having to believe
that we can never achieve more and that the 8-4 so many thought was the ceiling
was artificial. 2020 begins with another big game against Michigan for The Jug.
Minnesota has not beaten Michigan in Minneapolis since 1977, three stadiums
ago. It’s not a lock either way. But we can
win, and cut
one more head from the hydra.
Sweet Freedom.
Wisconsin The Song: What Cha’ Gonna Do for Me (Chaka Khan, 1981)
The Lyric: When the chips are down?
What cha’ gonna do for me?
As a Gopher fan coming of age in the late 90s and early
2000s, it seemed like Wisconsin really had it made. Going from nothing to
frequent Rose Bowls in less than 10 years, never having to doubt a bowl trip
(except for 2001), and a (earned) dismissive attitude towards what was supposed
to be their primary rival. Yet I’ve learned Wisconsin fans aren’t satisfied.
Every Big Ten Championship Game loss to Ohio State, every lost Rose Bowl, all I
hear is “same old Badgers, can’t win the big one”. Maybe that’s true…it’s a
situation I still wouldn’t mind being in, and maybe I’ll be lucky to feel the
same way in 2-3 years. Until then, for Wisconsin fans, it doesn’t seem like
it’s ever enough.
Illinois The Song: Lotta Love (Nicolette Larson, 1978)
The Lyric: It’s gonna take a lotta love, to change the way things are It’s gonna take a lotta love, or we won’t get too far
Lovie Smith supposedly has his best team at Illinois this
year. Reflect on that for a moment. I’ll grant you that the trend has
technically been upwards, but since 2016 Lovie has won 8 Big Ten conference
games (yes, I know one was against Minnesota) and 15 games total, but I won’t
be too rough since another one was last year against #6 Wisconsin. A chaos
season in 2020 presents Illinois a unique opportunity. However Illinois has
problems that go much further and deeper into their past than the current
coaching staff. From experience, that change doesn’t happen overnight; there
are still rough years ahead.
Northwestern The Song: Sailing (Christopher Cross, 1979)
The Lyric: It’s not far to never-never land/No reason to pretend And if the wind is right you can find the joy/Of innocence
again Oh, the canvas can do miracles, just you wait and see Believe me
It’s too easy but I’ll still take the cheap shot:
Northwestern is uniquely qualified for 2020 given that a non-trivial portion of
their fanbase has always been empty seats and tarps. Their nice campus on Lake
Michigan gives TV commentators convenient talking points as the camera pans
across the empty stadium even in good years, but I’ve found Northwestern fans
to be mostly good-natured about it and realistic unless they’re trying to
convince you their main rival is actually Iowa. Best to accept fate as it is;
Pat Fitzgerald is doing the best he can with what he can. When it’s good it’s
pretty good and when it’s bad it’s 2019. Rig up those tarps and set sail, the
lake breeze will make it all right again.
Purdue The Song: You Did Cut Me (China Crisis, 1985)
The Lyric: Hear my silence, see my blindness A love ascending, and never ending You did cut me, from the same tree A love incision, my inner vision
Jeff Brohm is the second highest paid coach in the Big Ten. He’s
17-21 in three seasons. Purdue fans and some notable commentators think this
might be the year. Purdue lost the core of their defense after last season. Jeff
Brohm is the second highest paid coach in the Big Ten.
Indiana The Song: One Step Closer (The Doobie Brothers, 1980)
The Lyric:
I know it’s risky now and then, what with all the what ifs
and the whens Who is there to say we’re wrong? To tell us it can’t be?
Tom Allen is the lowest paid coach in the Big Ten, and the
greatest bargain. Indiana’s 2019 season was fun and it really felt like a big
step especially for that program even without the bowl win they needed to break
a streak going back to 1991. Like Illinois, 2020 presents a special opportunity
for Indiana in a chaos season. Who knows if there will be bowl games at all,
but even if not, they can make noise in the East Division this year, and set up
nicely for 2021.
Michigan State The Song: Show You the Way (Thundercat, 2017)
The Lyric: Your heart is struggling baby Trying to believe that there might be something you just
couldn’t see But what if I told you that it’s all so easy
The departure of Mark Dantonio after the 2019 season was
like the final domino falling of many that affected the entire Michigan State
athletic department for the past several years. Most of their misery has been
of their own making, with tragic results far beyond win and loss records. MSU
is hoping that Mel Tucker can show them the way from this dark place, and I’m
sure it won’t take MSU fans much to believe that positive change is coming to
East Lansing and that on the edge of darkness there’s a brightest light. Just
remember that change doesn’t come without effort and pain.
Michigan The Song: Je Reviens (Gilles Rivard, 1981)
The Lyric:
I saw boredom, my enemy (J’ai vu l’ennui, mon ennemi) Got lost in unknown land (Me suis perdu enterre connue) Sleep during the day (Dormir le jour) Look for the night in avenues full of strangers (Chercher la
nuit dans des evenues plein d’inconnus)
Not going to lie, I mostly was looking for a way to shoehorn
this song in somewhere and Michigan, the Harvard of the West, seemed like the
most appropriate place to plop some Quebecois French. It’s convenient that the
lyrics, such as Google Translate interprets them, fit so well.
I feel like I’ve been hearing about Michigan being BACK
longer than Texas. I was a sophomore in high school when they shared the National
Championship with Nebraska, and it’s been a slow downhill since then. Michigan
remains stronger than Nebraska, and 2019 was actually a pretty good year, but
Jim Harbaugh still hasn’t won The Game and Ohio State’s chokehold on the East
Division remains unchallenged. For Michigan it feels like it’s been 9 straight
seasons of growing ennui, truly an unknown land for this program. Who are all
these strangers with us in the standings? What’s a Hoosier?
Ohio State The Song: Mornin’ (Al Jarreau, 1983)
The Lyric: Then higher still/beyond the blue until I know I can/like any man Reach out my hand/and touch the face of God
How can Ohio State possibly not feel good about where things
stand? The only Big Ten program that has consistently challenged the SEC for the
past decade (until Auburn ran into Minnesota, anyway) continues to reload.
Every season for tOSU is like a walk on a bright summer morning; even the bad
parts are pretty good.
Penn State The Song: Fragments of Time (Daft Punk feat. Todd Edwards,
2013)
The Lyric:
Familiar faces I’ve never seen Living the gold and the silver dream Making me feel like I’m seventeen And it’s crystal clear/That I don’t ever want it to end
If you’d told me 10 years ago that Penn State would be where
they are as a program right now I wouldn’t have believed you. The scandal that
brought down the Paterno dynasty seemed to be pretty definitive, but here we
are. James Franklin has done an extremely impressive job since coming to PSU
from Vanderbilt and though they remain second in line in the East Division, the
PSU program remains very strong and continues to head the right direction.
For a segment of the PSU fanbase, compartmentalization
remains the rule. There are two versions, of which the selective memory group picking the fragments of time they like and discarding those they don't is larger and less nasty than the “We Was Framed!” group, but it’s still a
shame. It prevents me from ever fully being able to pull for PSU.
Maryland The Song: Foolish Heart (Steve Perry, 1984)
The Lyric:
Foolish heart hear me calling Stop before you start falling Foolish heart heed my warning You’ve been wrong before, don’t be wrong anymore
Maryland hired Mike Locksely. He won 2 games in 2.5 seasons
at New Mexico and punched one of his coaches. Granted he’s won 4 games at
Maryland but, come on, we all know how this is going to end. I don’t know any
Maryland fans, so I have to assume they’re all just holding their breath. Don’t
get too attached, gang.
Rutgers The Song: Any World (That I’m Welcome To) (Steely Dan, 1974)
The Lyric:
I’ll be ready when my feet touch ground, where I come down And if the folks will have me, then they’ll have me
I’m not going to make fun of Rutgers; I’ve always had a soft
spot for them. You could make an argument that Maryland wasn’t gaining much
(other than that sweet, sweet cash) coming to the Big Ten but there’s not much
question this was a serious upgrade for Rutgers, and they seem pretty honest
about feeling lucky to have landed somewhere decent during realignment. Greg
Schiano, while a predictable hire, was also a decent one and he can’t do worse
than Chris Ash. If I’m a Rutgers fan I’m feeling fairly relieved right now.
Kevin Warren The Song: Nobody’s Business (Maxus, 1981)
The Lyric:
One way or another, I hope you discover We’re together but always alone It’s your attention I need, do you have trouble focusing?
My personal opinion, shared previously on #TAWpod,
is that the Big Ten was entirely justified in their original decision to cancel
the season, and also justified in reevaluating that decision once they had a
test and trace infrastructure. I was a vocal defender of this on Twitter. I
also feel that the decision belonged with the Presidents and Commissioner based
on medical advice rather than well-intentioned but less-informed ADs, coaches,
players, and parents.
All that said, would it have hurt at all to be more
transparent? To share background, medical reports, meeting summaries or even
minutes? The entire process was carried out behind a curtain and developed a
decidedly smoke-filled-room feel that only fueled further speculation. Was
Kevin Warren obligated to share more? No, but that was his choice and his
secrecy did not help his PR; it made a bad situation more challenging. That’s
ultimately on him; it didn’t have to be this way.
Clay Travis, Lou Holtz, and the Like The Song: What A Fool Believes (The Doobie Brothers, 1979)
The Lyric: But what a fool believes he sees No wise man has the power/To reason away
The origin song of all of Yacht Rock deserves a special
place, and these guys have earned it. Clay Travis has made a virtual second
career of misinterpreting and misrepresenting science, medicine, testing,
and epidemiology. The inverse
relationship between knowledge and self-confidence is a hallmark of our time.
Likewise Lou Holtz, whose single talking point has been comparing the risks college athletes, coaches, and fans would face from COVID to the risks faced by American soldiers storming the beaches of Normandy. Lou was 7 in 1944 and he's 83 now with the luxury of calling into ESPN from home so it's worth noting that neither risks are ones he has to take himself. If Lou ever starts selling insurance, you should pass on it because he clearly does not comprehend the differences in risk categories. National Socialism wasn't spread by aerosols and droplets, and the men at Omaha and Utah beaches were at least paid, knew what they were up against, and had the full force of American industry behind them. Comparing the risks they took to the the risk of playing football during a pandemic is both grossly disrespectful to those soldiers and symptomatic of the borderline unhealthy emphasis American society places on our entertainment.
I'd explore that last point further but I’m up late on a work night writing a blog post that will be read by 150
people about a college football season I’ll be watching on TV.
These guys are not serious or knowledgeable about these subjects. That they are so confident in their assertions is warning in and of itself.
Actual Sportswriters The Song: Lowdown (Boz Scaggs, 1976)
The Lyric: Hey boy, you better bring the chick around To the sad, sad truth The dirty lowdown
Actual sportswriters took a hell of a licking this summer
reporting the news as they learned it. The narrative that developed that they
somehow wanted the season to be cancelled and were skewing their reporting to
push it is so obviously wrong that it barely deserves mention, but I’ll bite.
What possible reason would these individuals, who work in an industry that is
far from financially stable to begin with, have to try and kill a season that
provides their very livelihood? If they were to be laid off as a result, how
likely are they to find similar work after the pandemic? Cui bono? Non ea. We
might not like the news they report, but that doesn’t mean there’s always a hidden
reasoning behind it.
I’m grateful for their dedication, for suffering the slings
and arrows of outrageous fortune, and happy that they will now have the
opportunity to report on one of the craziest seasons we’ll ever experience.
Fans The Song: Keep the Fire (Kenny Loggins, 1979)
The Lyric:
Believe the sun will rise with the dawn That’s all you need to go on But for tonight Just keep the fire burning bright
We get to have a season, no matter how weird. Maybe we won’t get a
full one. Who knows? Right now, December
might as well be a decade away. Let’s enjoy what we have while we have it,
and hope that everything turns out well. Someday things will be back to normal
and we’ll all be able to tailgate together and sit on uncomfortable benches in
the blazing hot August sun and bone-chilling November rain. Until then, keep
the fire.
Players The Song: Takin’ It To the Streets (The Doobie Brothers,
1976)
The Lyric: You, telling me the things you’re gunna do for me I ain’t blind and I don’t like what I think I see
The players stood up this year as a group in ways I haven’t
seen before. I respect them for recognizing that they have a unique platform to
bring awareness to racial injustice and privilege to groups who are often sheltered
from it. They’ve simultaneously highlighted the complex but very real issue of
college sports as a business for which they put in effort but receive limited
compensation, and the world going forward will be different after this. And
yes, even though I didn’t feel the decision should be made at the player’s
level, they advocated for their season as well. They found a voice (really,
several voices) this year, and I think we’ll all be better for it.
Sir Yacht The Song: Sunny Hills (Bobby Caldwell, 1982)
The Lyric: There’s nothing more to tell We wish you a fond farewell Maybe you’ll find someone you can talk to
I know someone who spent 14 straight years predicting
Minnesota would beat Wisconsin. Every year it was exactly the same
thing…Wisconsin is a paper tiger, this is the year they’re vulnerable, and if you don't believe it then you're part of the problem. Well, eventually it did, but when you’re 1 for 15 is that an
accurate prediction or is it just the odds? Given an infinite amount of time,
even the most low-probability event is likely to occur at least once.
In a long summer of non-stop prognostication and "insider" information Sir Yacht managed to be right about only one thing, and even then the details were wrong.
Anyway, this is a song about putting a troublesome relative away in a
retirement home and never visiting them again.
OK friends, that’s it. Minnesota 38, Michigan 27. Row The
Boat, Ski U Mah, Go Gophers!
