So, You've Lost Your QB 50 Days before NSD

Hi, Everyone! Y'all have a good night?

I was in training and mostly away from the 'tronz between six and nine last night and emerged to hear the Gopher program had imploded and we were selling off the stadium for scrap to Chadian brick dealers. After looking into it a bit, I learned that was because we lost a dude who wasn't even on the team yet. That's kind of odd, isn't it?

Yes, losing your quarterback 50-some days before National Signing Day isn't ideal. Some might even say that it's a bit of a Royale Poop with Cheese. But, Jesus in mango habenero sauce, people, it's not the damned end of the world.

QB's Out (Demry's Song)

The following parody is sung to the tune of Billy Joel's "Movin' Up (Anthony's Song)." If you aren't an old an you need a frame of reference, you can find the original song on YouTube.

"QB's Out (Demry's Song)"

Dem-ry plays as at football thrower
Savin’ his good throws for someday
Mama Heather left a note on the door
She said, Demry don’t dare get too comfy
Waitin’ too long will get you sack sack ack ack ack ack ack acked

You oughta know by now (You oughta know by now)

If you don’t throw you will just get sacked
But is that going to get you the money?

But he always takes too much time
He just can’t get the ball out
Demry just speed it up
Or juuuuust throw it out

Just throw it out

Coach PJ Fleck is always upbeat
But today he’d like to go on a bender
He works at Gibson/Nagurski just north of 5^th street
Watching the Guards and the Centers
But all he wants is a quarterback back back back back back back back

Which he should have had by now (He should have had by now)

He’s got more than he needs
In a Running Back
With Shannon & Rodney & Kobe

I Want to Win Tomorrow

While the season hasn't been a complete trash panda, it's becoming more difficult for me to look at the remainder of the schedule with much optimism. Of the remaining five games, we'll probably be favored in only one, Nebraska, slight dogs against the Nerds, while being touchdown-plus undies against Michigan, Wisconsin and tomorrow's game against Iowa.

That makes it close to a 50-50 proposition as to whether we'll get bowl eligible. I've always sort of considered that the baseline for an acceptable season. Yeah, I know we should aspire to more blah, blah, blah and I do, which is why I'm glad we canned Claeys and hired Fleck. But, man, those 15 extra practices you get for becoming bowl eligible are important as hell, especially at this point in the program with a new coaching staff and so much youth.

Taken All Wrong Podcast: Iowa Week

In this week's TAWPod, we're able to keep Matt but lose JD to the ether instead, I date myself by making a reference to Gallagher and we discuss whether Kobe is the best running back on the team right now.

Enjoy! 

A Brief History of Kirk Ferentz: President of B1G Coaches

As the longest-tenured currently-serving head coach in the Big Ten, we at Still Got Hope thought you'd appreciate a quick primer on Kirk Ferentz: who he is and how he came to be Iwoa's head football coach for the last 18 seasons. Our Gopher coaches never last that long, after all, so it was with wistful hearts that our crack research team put together this biopic. 

In essence, we wanted to understand how he'd managed to eke out such a successful career at a place as difficult to win as Minnesota. Much of it was what you'd expect - a good football mind, tenacity, a willingness to punt regardless of down, distance and field position - but we found other parts of his journey with the Hawkeyes surprising.

Without further ado, our #Hateweek special, an ode to Kirk Ferentz, President of B1G Coaches for life.

Why We Should All Pump The Brakes on Demry Croft

It’s a tale as old as time: the Minnesota fan base calling for a replacement QB.

The old joke is that the most popular player on a Minnesota football team is the backup QB. 

Gopher fans, Viking fans, I’m guessing Minnesota State Mavericks (is that what they’re called?) and UMD Bulldog fans are all about the same in this regard.

Last season we heard constant refrains of wanting to see Demry Croft on the field when Mitch Leidner was performing below standards. And this season, when Connor Rhoda was the lone QB under center for three games as Demry Croft served some sort of suspension, the entire fanbase pined for a change.

And it really doesn’t much matter who the change would bring. Get Demry off of suspension? Great. Seth Green? Bring it on. Tanner Morgan? Sure, why the hell not?!?! Heck, let’s throw Mark Williams out there while we’re at it. 

The screaming for a QB change in 2017 proves two very important things: 

1) The QB cupboard was pretty lacking when Fleck and Company came to Minneapolis.

2) As a fanbase we are NOT big picture thinkers.

But, all the same, halfway through a rainy Michigan State game which saw the Gophers unable to do anything meaningful on offense, sometime between me wishing I had worn rain pants and heading to the beer tent to try to continue the numbing process of my wet derriere, Demry Croft took the ball from Connor Rhoda.

What happened was magical. 

Remembering Jojo Garcia

Credit: Carlos Gonzales, Minneapolis Star Tribune

We learned yesterday that former 2016 Gophers football commit Jojo Garcia took his own life on Monday. Jojo was a favorite recruit of many of us fans, as we paired him up with fellow in-state commit Carter Coughlin to form 'CC and Jojo,' a play off the late-90s R&B duet, 'K-Ci and JoJo.' He was a highly-rated defensive tackle, who attended Cretin Durham Hall, East Ridge and Simley. He never wore the Maroon and Gold, as he decommitted shortly after Jerry Kill retired as Minnesota's head coach, later deciding to play for Iowa Western University in Council Bluffs. He was 19.

That he never played for the Gophers does not lessen my sorrow at his death. I didn't know him beyond following his recruitment on the Gopher boards. I was excited to have him on the team, but had no insight into his life off of the football field. Regardless of the connection, though, losing someone to suicide, particularly at such a young age, is a tragedy. It's worthy of a short post highlighting the risks, particularly for young men.

Suicide rates in the U.S. between the ages of 15 to 24 are 11.6 per 100,000, second only to those over the age of 65, which are at 16.6 per 100,000. The risk of suicide is higher for male youth than females. The reasons behind the gender disparity are myriad; but there is a stigma associated with male depression - one of weakness and an inability to control one's own life - that promotes feelings of hopelessness in way that is particularly damaging to the male psyche. 

I say all this to let readers in a state of depression or readers who are friends or family members of someone with depression to know that they are not alone in their situation. That there are resources available from traditional counseling, to medication, to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255 - available 24/7). That regardless of how you feel, you are a good person, worthy of love and there is a positive way out of your situation.

I'm available @StillGotHope1 if any of you want to chat at (mostly) any time. We may not know each other IRL, but I am here to help if you need it. That's how I'm choosing to remember Jojo today.

9-Win Season Sets An Attendance Record!!!

There are people in the Gopher fan base who would have you believe that 2016 was the pinnacle of Gopher football, and that the previous coaching staff should have been retained for winning 9 games alone.

The refrain of "DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TIMES THIS TEAM HAS WON 9 GAMES...." has been blasted all over the Gopherwebs. We've talked plenty about the issues with that 9 win season: a historically easy schedule, a team lacking discipline, a team whose academics were declining, recruiting that could cripple the program for years if it wasn't immediately fixed, etc.

Lawdamighty how depressing. Seriously, who knew a 9 win season could be completely joyless?

And that's what football games in 2016 felt like. If you attended a football game at The Bank in 2016, you know that the atmosphere was... lacking. There was no atmosphere. The place was a morgue. It was sad.

One that hasn't been mentioned as much is fan attendance.

Boy, a 9-win season must have really gotten the fans out in droves, right? Imagine the excitement! The thrill! The chance to play for a big time bowl game!

I wish there were a way we could look at a chart that plotted out attendance by game last year. I bet it's just a skyrocket going UP AND TO THE RIGHT!!!!

Oh man, and since that season was so historically significant, I bet it would be fun to look at it in comparison to previous seasons too. I bet the fan engagement was just magical.

WE DID IT!

Phew! Spared from the ignominy of a winless B1G campaign! Things were looking dicey there for a while, and I found my eyes occasionally drifting to the top of TCF Bank Stadium and running some calculations about whether eight stories at 9.8m/s^2 provides a lethal dose of sidewalk. Thanks to THE CELESTINE PROPHECY, though, I can file that nugget of info away for later use, probably the Wisconsin game.

I guess Croft ain't the answer, eh? Dude looked like a back-up dancer for Beyonce, hopping around in the pocket every time he dropped to pass. He seemed so poised against MSU, feeling pressure and escaping to make a solid decision. That was nowhere to be found this week, which was rife with bad decisions and seemingly less confidence in the pocket than Rhoda Boat. 

The Halfway Point

Apologies for no content yesterday. Occasionally dude's gotta get some work done, since the $0.21 in monthly revenue provided by this site doesn't support my Camo Silver Ice habit. My episode of Intervention will be second only to my buddy Allison, the duster huffer.

Anyway, we're now past the halfway point in the season at 3-3 and totally defeated in conference play. Huzzah! I wasn't expecting a division title or anything this season, but, rightly or wrongly, I figured we'd be, at worst, 6-1 or 5-2 after the first seven, after which shit gets a lot more serious. Losses to both Maryland and a Purdue hadn't really entered the realm of the possible for me, but, such is the life we're married to with this team.

Taken All Wrong Podcast: Illinois Week

On this week's Taken All Wrong Podcast, we talk about all the moral victories from the Michigan State game, whether we think Croft is the guy going forward, take some, uh, odd listener questions from the Twitterz and Matt gives us all an experience of what hallucinogenic drugs from the year 2076 will be like.

Enjoy!

The Forever War: Standers v. Sitters/Security

“A frustrating aspect of being a Gopher football season ticket holder is the lack of consistent atmosphere during football games. The student section is rowdy, but the rest of the stadium often sits on their hands and reserves their energy and passion for big 3rd downs in a close game. That is why this past Saturday during the MSU game I was pleasantly surprised to find my section, 105 rows 1 through 15, on their feet, making noise throughout the first quarter. Maybe it was the rain-soaked bleachers driving people to their feet, but fans were great. Then, sometime early in the 2nd quarter, two security officers came down to section 105 and started commanding people sit. When security received pushback from fans the officers said, “People behind you can’t see.” It immediately killed the vibe of the section. Some didn’t listen. Some, including my buddy I was sitting with, left the game in disbelief. Regardless, it killed the atmosphere. Now I understand the person who stands up the entire game for no reason while everyone else is sitting can be annoying, but this was a close game, a lot of people were cheering bringing needed energy to the game and it was muzzled by some crusty fans who couldn’t see. Again, unbelievable.”

I got this note from a reader (it’s always good to know there’s at least one) earlier this week and, while it didn’t surprise me in the least, it made me angry. I’ve written a bit on the game atmosphere, particularly around the fan’s and university’s culpability in how much it sucks. But experiences such as the above will kill any hope of ever establishing the loud, intimidating conditions the team needs to achieve what we all want it to.