Why Minnesota May Never Be Good At Football (And How That Relates to Nebraska Basketball)

by Jon Johnston on Feb 9, 2012 8:02 AM CST in Nebraska Husker Basketball

If there was one good thing that happened regarding Nebraska's game against Minnesota last Sunday, it was that Minnesota's staff came away from Lincoln, Nebraska blown away by their tour of the Hendricks Training Complex. The Star Tribune had an article about it, and Tubby Smith headed back north insisting that the Gophers need to upgrade their facilities. I guess it's nice that they were impressed with the facilities because they sure weren't with the Husker basketball team.

I suppose it's a fair trade with Minnesota. It's not like there are a lot of Husker football fans that would be impressed with Golden Gopher football. The football team has been bad for years, seeing some success under Glen Mason, but dropping below ground in the Tim Brewster era.

If you ask, Minnesota would say they've made a commitment to having a good football team. Facilities are no longer the excuse they once were. Minnesota just built itself a shiny new stadium, and if you went to the Nebraska game this year, you know it's a pretty nice place to watch football. It sure as hell beats the old Metrodome, which was like watching football at a rest home, or inside a toilet, whichever comparison you like best.

You might respond with wondering about the Jerry Kill hiring. He wasn't a name coach, a big money "splash" hire, but he worked his way through his first year despite suffering health issues and made some improvement along the way. Time will tell if he can turn their program around.

So why didn't Minnesota spend the money on a big name hire? It may because they don't have it, but it may also be that nagging excuse that Minnesota is just a stop on the way to somewhere else, so what's the point with hiring a big name that's going to build something then leave in three or four years?

I'd say the biggest obstacle facing Minnesota is lack of fan support. Gopher football fans aren't hard to find, but getting them to admit they're Gopher football fans is another story altogether. Minnesota has to get people into the mode that they're going to have some patience and let things work, but mostly, they're going to have to get over the fickle nature of "I'll go when they're good enough". The real question is - "What is good enough?". Is it good enough to be average, finishing in the middle of the conference all of the time, or do you expect to build a program that contends for conference titles? If you're goal is to be average, then, really, what's the point?

Fan support is key. If you don't' support the team you're not going to sway the recruits you need to consistently have a winner. Look at Nebraska - the Huskers stole Lydon Murtha and Nate Swift from Minnesota largely because of the Lincoln Game Day environment. There is NOTHING like fan support. Minnesota doesn't have that, and compared to Nebraska, probably never will.

If you made it this far, you're probably wondering why I'm spending all this time talking about Gopher football. Take everything I've just said about Minnesota football and apply it to Husker men's basketball.

Now tell me, what is Nebraska going to do to build a winning men's basketball team?

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Husker BB

It is a similar picture, isn’t it? What I hope is that Nebraskans have a slightly different mindset about success, enough to want to strive to be the best regardless. I don’t know if we’ve seen that with fans in seats, but when you live here, you don’t really accept second-best for anything, especially when it comes to the Huskers.

So that’s my hope, that after we let the good guy Sadler go away after this season, we make the financial commitment to bring in someone bigger who will not only get the “hidden” fanbase excited, but get better recruits interested as well. IF what I think about us is true, I think we can succeed and eventually reach a level where we are in the Top 25 year in and year out. I see no reason why we can’t because I think we have that passion to be better, to not settle.

Then again, maybe it’s just that…hope.

by JF1Husker on Feb 9, 2012 9:17 AM CST reply actions

I dunno if there is anything systematic that needs to be done with the program

outside of getting a new coach. While facilities matter, all in all, we are just unlucky with coaches and well, we were spoiled with Nee and didn’t realize how good we did have it. Not too many programs fire their most successful coach in their program’s history, outside of a major scandal. And while fan support matters, its really up to the coach to give fan a reason to cheer. Because what we have with football is pretty unique and something a program really can never expect, for honestly, I think we accept alot of crap from our fb program. Poor non-conference schedules, poor teams with Cahallan and Solich, and we still attend and watch. We are incredibly inelastic when it comes to quality.

Google's homepage celebrates too much shit.

by meatybob on Feb 9, 2012 9:35 AM CST reply actions

Minnesota's too stupid to do the obvious

The Nebraska/Wisconsin football model (though Nebraska had gotten away from this a bit, now coming back). Develop good, homegrown linemen and go to the coasts and cities to get your speed and skill.

They had limited success with this with Mason (Nebraska may remember from similar success at Kansas), but instead of allowing Mason to build on this, they fire him. This speaks a bit to fan apathy, but in a large metropolitan city where the professional teams are enjoying a measure of success, it’s to be expected. Can’t sell 7-5, 8-4, 9-3 when the Twins are challenging in the central and the Vike’s are competing for NFC titles, even though the Gopher’s seasons are laying a foundation for future success.

by rogerja on Feb 9, 2012 9:40 AM CST reply actions

We're working on it.

But…there’s one spectacular flaw here. Mason couldn’t spell “Defense”, and I hear that it’s an important part of the game.

Everyone fails. The successful learn from their failures. I just wish we'd quit giving ourselves so many learning opportunities.

by WhiteSpeedReceiver on Feb 9, 2012 7:01 PM CST up reply actions

It all comes down to fan apathy

Nebrasketball and Gopher football are very similar. Neither have been much good in the last 50 years, which leaves very few people currently alive to agitate for a return to the good old days (although I don’t think any such days ever existed for Husker basketball). The apathy created by long term suckage in these sports is only compounded by the presence of Huskers and Vikings football. It is in these programs that the fan bases of the programs in question place their true passion, and because Husker and Vikings football are generally successful enterprises, they’re willing to put up with a substandard product in their secondary rooting interests.

For Husker basketball, I think this switch over to the Haymarket Arena is a reasonably good chance to get people invested (they’re already financially invested since the good people of Lincoln voted to raise taxes on everyone visiting the city to pay for it), but I do think its a fairly narrow window. I’m not suggesting a particular plan of action, but I do think that if we’re still in a rut in 5 years, we’re probably going to stay there.

"My hardest job is to convince the people of Nebraska that 10-1 is not a losing season." - Tom Osborne

by jdhusker on Feb 9, 2012 12:16 PM CST reply actions

Well...

Neither have been much good in the last 50 years, which leaves very few people currently alive to agitate for a return to the good old days (although I don’t think any such days ever existed for Husker basketball)

The 90’s were decent enough with winning conference championships and tournaments but we’ve been stuck in a rut the past 12 years.

by Doc1028 on Feb 9, 2012 2:10 PM CST up reply actions

I guess with the Minnesota/Nebrasketball analogy

it’s beneficial for us that our problem is in basketball and not football. With basketball you are only starting 5 players and with one or two really good recruits/players you can easily build a good run and progress from there.

by Doc1028 on Feb 9, 2012 2:14 PM CST reply actions

I don't care.

In my five years as a college student, the last four at Good Ol’ Nebraska U, I attended one basketball game . . . when I was a freshman at U of Montana and came back to visit my parents over Christmas break and the Griz played in Devaney against the Cornhuskers. Other than that, I never had an ambition to walk the half mile to watch them play. Apathy? I guess so. But then again, I hate watching my daughter play basketball and she’s pretty good. The game sucks from my perspective. What watch it unless you want to see if your bracket choices are right and you have a chance to win a pretty good sum of cash in November. Nebraska still plays basketball? I didn’t notice.

by Todd Wolverton on Feb 9, 2012 2:52 PM CST reply actions

let's be honest

when we were there, it was Moe Iba, and the place was a morgue. A MORGUE. I remember standing up and screaming at Bill Jackman during a game, and the entire place looked at me as if I were some sort of deranged nutball.

Now at least the students look like they’re having fun crappy team or not.

We’d have gone more were that the case then.

Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
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by Jon Johnston on Feb 9, 2012 4:46 PM CST up reply actions

Hmm...

the entire place looked at me as if I were some sort of deranged nutball

I’m sensing a pattern here.

by Doc1028 on Feb 9, 2012 8:47 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs

Shoes!

and free throws are, sad to say, the two memories I have of Nebraska basketball during that time….the shoes were tossed when Jerry Shoecraft decided to make a good play and Jack Moore’s free throws were always a work of art to behold. BTW, Danny Nee’s previous stop, here at good ol’ Ohio U, still hasn’t fully recovered from his departure either. A run of pretty good teams and a couple of NBA draft picks from his successor, but then he was fired for not being astoundingly, as opposed to consistently, successful. Hmmm, maybe we fans are a little demanding?

by OhioHusker on Feb 10, 2012 12:13 PM CST up reply actions

Anything other than Nebraska Football?

Aside from baseball which has a decent following…does anyone in nebraska care about any other sports? (theoretical)
I spent the better part, lol, of 3 years in lincoln and in my experience the answer is, other than the athlethes of other sports and their friends, no.

by Conspiracy* on Feb 9, 2012 3:47 PM CST reply actions

that's true.

I guess what i’m saying is that if men’s basketball is to change, that attitude has to change. and if that’s true, how do you change it?

or do you just say the hell with it, and don’t give a flying shit that Nebrasketball is horrid, possibly the worst team in the Big Ten conference? We can’t really get rid of the men’s team, given that it makes money and that funds other sports that don’t.

And if that’s the case, why the hell did Lincoln just spend the money to build a new stadium? Why bother?

I’m not trying to be rude, but it’s a standard to say no one cares. Put yourself in charge – how do you do it?

Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
Corn Nation!
Follow @cornnation Twitter
cornnation@gmail.com

by Jon Johnston on Feb 9, 2012 4:44 PM CST up reply actions