NCAA Football FanHouse

YouTubesDay: Drinking Too Much in Minnesota

Tom Fornelli — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:39:00 EST

Filed under: Minnesota Football, Big 10, MAC, NCAA FB Fans, NCAA FB Video, Bowling Green Football

Michigan fans weren't the only Big Ten fans to have to suffer through an upset in their team's season opener. Golden Gophers fans had to deal with seeing their team fall behind 21-0 to Bowling Green in the first half, and as a result, it took some of the life out of their fans.

Take this guy for instance. It would seem that our friend here dabbled a bit too much in the pre-game warmups, and couldn't find the energy to root his team on.

For his sake, I hope he slept through the second half as well. Waking up to see the Gophers battle back only to lose in overtime probably would have made him puke.

YouTubesDay: Drinking Too Much in Minnesota originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:39:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Brandon's Moxie Spoils Brewster Debut

Bruce Ciskie — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:45:00 EST

Filed under: Minnesota Football, Big 10, MAC, Bowling Green Football

After an incredibly slow start, the Minnesota Gophers were able to stage an impressive second-half rally at the Metrodome Saturday night. They trailed 21-0 to Bowling Green at halftime, but the Gophers forced overtime, thanks to 17 fourth-quarter points.

Unfortunately for Minnesota, a gutsy two-point conversion decision by Bowling Green coach Gregg Brandon and the subsequent conversion gave the Falcons a 32-31 win. The loss spoiled the head coaching debut for Minnesota's Tim Brewster.

Brewster must have been horrified by what he saw in the first half. The Falcons scored three first-half touchdowns and appeared to be on their way to an easy win. Minnesota showed quickly and decisively that they couldn't stop the Falcons' pass-happy spread offense. At the same time, freshman starting QB Adam Weber looked lost in the first half, mixing bad throws with bad reads while the running game lay dormant.

That running game, keyed by Weber and returning starter Amir Pinnix, struggled to make any big dents in the Bowling Green defense in the first half. Pinnix busted off a 58-yard run, but it was followed up on the next play by a Weber fumble inside the BG 20.

With the score 21-0 at halftime, hope seemed lost for Minnesota. Give credit, however, to this team. They drove 80 yards in 11 plays on their first possession of the second half, capped by a Pinnix touchdown run. After a quick defensive stop, the offense went back to work, driving 64 yards and scoring early in the fourth quarter to pull within seven. The Falcons missed a field goal, and Minnesota answered with the tying touchdown, as Weber drove them 75 yards and capped the drive with a toss to Pinnix.

After the Gophers hit a late field goal to take their first lead, Bowling Green went into their two-minute offense. Despite having some success generating pressure on QB Tyler Sheehan, the Gophers went soft, letting Sheehan pick them apart with shorter passes while trying to avoid giving up any big plays. Sheehan matriculated the football down the field to set up the tying field goal with :03 left in regulation.

Pinnix scored on the Gophers' first overtime possession, but Bowling Green needed just two plays to punch it in and make it a 31-30 game. With everyone assuming that a second overtime was on the way, Brandon made the decision to go for two, and Sheehan completed a pass into the end zone to Freddie Barnes, who was the Falcons' opening-day starting QB last year. Brandon told the media after the game that it wasn't a tough decision to go for two:

"We talked about it that if we got to overtime on the road and that decision came up we would go for it. We made this decision long before tonight. In a hostile environment and the way the crowd was into it, we have to go for it."

Credit Bowling Green on a number of fronts. Most notably, they went into a Big Ten stadium and won a game that they looked to have let slip away in the second half. Brandon showed a ton of confidence in his team by not even wavering on his decision to go for two after Minnesota called a timeout to set up their defense.

From the Gophers' perspective, it's a tough loss. This was a game they expected to win, and it's probably a game they'll look back on late in the season, as they are chasing a sixth win to be bowl-eligible.

There were some good things for Minnesota. Namely, the Gophers may have found themselves a leader at quarterback. Weber was hardly sharp early in the game, but he showed great character and toughness by leading the Gophers out of that 21-point hole. Yes, he turned the ball over three times, but he also made some very nice throws and appears to be more than capable of taking off and running when necessary.

Pinnix had a good game running, going for 167 yards and an average of 6.0 yards per rush. He's durable, tough, and also looks to have a pretty good grasp of the new offense. Senior Ernie Wheelwright made some tough catches, but needs to keep getting better. With his size (6'6"), he should be Weber's unquestioned favorite target, but that won't happen if he keeps with his trend of playing uneven football.

Defensively, not many good things happened. They toughened up for a time in the second half, but Minnesota allowed over 400 yards passing, couldn't make the stop on the two-point play, and didn't force a turnover all night against a QB who threw four picks in 43 pass attempts last year.

The best thing about last night's game for Minnesota? The announced crowd of almost 50,000 was much larger than I would have guessed they could draw after years of inconsistent play followed by a coaching change. Brewster appears to have succeeded in igniting some passion in this long-apathetic fan base. For them to keep coming back, they're going to need to tighten up the defense and stop waiting until halftime to show up on offense.

Next week: vs. Miami (Ohio) (1-0), 12pm CT, Metrodome (Big Ten Network)

Brandon's Moxie Spoils Brewster Debut originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:45:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Major College Athletic Departments Issued Subpoenas in Loan Probe

Brian Grummell — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 22:49:00 EST

Filed under: Auburn Football, Georgia Tech Football, Kansas Football, Louisville Football, Oregon Football, Pittsburgh Football, UCLA Football, UCF Football, Rutgers Football, NCAA FB Scandal, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Oregon, Pittsburgh, Texas, Arkansas State Football, Bowling Green Football, Central Michigan Football, Colorado State Football, East Carolina Football, Florida Atlantic Football, Houston Football, Ohio Football, Oregon State Football, South Florida Football, TCU Football, Tulane Football, UAB Football, UTEP Football

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has issued subpoenas for 39 collegiate athletic departments in a probe of their relationships with student loan providers. At its most basic, this investigation is asking whether or not cash, kickbacks, gifts and other bribes or misleading measures were communicated between various student loan providers and the cited athletic departments.

Cuomo is investigating whether athletic departments at these universities agreed to promote SFS loans to students in exchange for kickbacks.

"Students trust their University's athletic departments because so much of campus life at Division I schools centers around supporting the home team," said Cuomo. "To betray this trust by promoting loans in exchange for money is a serious issue, especially when Division I schools already generate tremendous revenue from their student athletes. Today's action is an important new step as we continue to examine the unethical conflicts that pervade the student loan industry.

"The Attorney General's office is specifically investigating whether athletic departments evaluated UFS interest rates before recommending their federal loans, or if their endorsement of UFS was based purely on payments from the lender. Such an arrangement would constitute revenue sharing, which is a violation New York state consumer protection laws, as well as a violation of federal law.

D-IA football schools named (prominent schools in bold): Arkansas State, Auburn, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Colorado State, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Georgia Tech, Ohio, Oregon State, Rutgers, TCU, Tulane, Alabama-Birmingham, UCLA, UCF, Houston, Kansas, Louisville, Oregon, Pittsburgh, USF, UTEP. See link for complete list.

Of note: USC and Texas have also been scrutinized in a similar probe, but to my knowledge it has not been linked to their athletic departments but rather the university-wide financial aid offices of the schools.

It's good that athletic departments have an awareness of and working relationship with loan providers, but obviously there's a problem when that relationship gets too cozy and bad loan options are pressed upon students and student-athletes.

(Via: Yahoo!)

Major College Athletic Departments Issued Subpoenas in Loan Probe originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Wed, 01 Aug 2007 22:49:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Gopher Coach Brewster Wants Better Schedule

Bruce Ciskie — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:25:00 EST

Filed under: Minnesota Football, Big 10, NCAA FB Coaching, Bowling Green Football

In this era of cupcake scheduling (most of which is lamely blamed on the 12-game schedule), Minnesota football coach Tim Brewster should be considered a breath of fresh air.

Brewster appeared at the annual meeting of the Minnesota Associated Press Sports Editors, and he told the audience that he wants improvements made to Minnesota's non-conference scheduling.

I am sure this comes as a complete shock to most of you, but apparently Brewster doesn't see Bowling Green, Miami (Ohio), Florida Atlantic, and North Dakota State as much of a non-conference slate.

Perhaps he looked ahead to 2008 and saw that intimidating foursome of TBA (MAC team at home), Bowling Green, Montana State, and Florida Atlantic.

Don't fret, Coach. You host California in 2009. Of course, you also host South Dakota State in 2009. Washington State, Oregon State, and Colorado all appear for home-and-home series between 2010 and 2015. There's still room for North Dakota somewhere in there, too. Oh, wait. The Gophers won't play North Dakota until they change their nickname from "Fighting Sioux".
Brewster told the assembled sportswriter types that he thinks every non-conference game "should help us in recruiting". He might be in his first year at Minnesota, but he's not an idiot. He knows that a crowd of 35,000 or so in the 60,000-seat Metrodome isn't going to make a recruit think "Oh, crap. I have to play here. This is great!". In fact, one has to wonder how much the horrible atmosphere at the Metrodome has contributed to guys bolting Minnesota to play college ball elsewhere.

North Dakota State fans, whose opinion of their program may have been artificially inflated by last year's nailbiter at the Metrodome (Minnesota won a 10-9 epic by blocking an NDSU field goal attempt on the game's final play), weren't pleased to hear Brewster say he doesn't like the fact that NDSU is on the schedule. He doesn't think playing the Bison October 20 at the Metrodome will do anything to help recruiting.

You might not sell out the Metrodome for a game against, say, Iowa State. But you're much better off playing them than you are playing Bowling Green. Right now, Minnesota is non-sensically wasting non-conference road trips on places like Kent State (last year), Florida Atlantic (this year), and Bowling Green (next year). Why not head to Louisiana-Lafayette while you're at it?

(Actually, Minnesota played at ULL in 2002. They have visited Ohio and Tulsa in recent years, too, though at least the Tulsa team they pounded in 2005 ended up being pretty good.)

Brewster's comments are somewhat contradictory to what athletic director Joel Maturi has said about the issue. Maturi likes the idea of scheduling a regional opponent from Division I-AA (sorry, the Football Championship Subdivision) with the extra home game they get out of a 12-game schedule. Then again, after last year's game against NDSU, where the Bison badly outgained the Gophers and absolutely should have won, maybe he should reconsider the philosophy before the football team suffers an embarrassment like the men's basketball team did a year ago.

Previously at FanHouse
The Bill Snyder Scheduling Award: Big Ten Edition (Hint, the Gophers came in second)

Gopher Coach Brewster Wants Better Schedule originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:25:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments