To Open Their New Stadium, The Gophers Will Face ..

Nebraska? No. Notre Dame? Nope. North Dakota State? We want to win the first game at TCF Bank Stadium, don't we?

While Tim Brewster has talked a lot about improving the Minnesota schedule, and rightfully so, the Gophers will face Air Force to open TCF Bank Stadium in the second game of the 2009 season. I'm not going to complain about this because opening against Air Force brings a little charm along with it. As was mentioned at the Star Tribune's Gophers blog in a post by Chip Scoggins, the Air Force tilt will likely provide for a kick-ass flyover to begin a new, outdoor era in Minnesota football.

And while it would have been nice to open the new stadium against Notre Dame or Nebraska, or someone with a higher profile, the Gophers could have done worse than Air Force. I'm thinking Florida Atlantic, the University of Minnesota-Duluth, etc.

What are your thoughts? Who would you like to have seen open the new stadium?

Say It Ain't So, Joel

Just when you think Tim Brewster might right the Gophers' ship, Joel Maturi pulls you back down.

I read with great pleasure an item in the Fargo-Moorhead Forum earlier this month that suggested Brewster had no intention of scheduling North Dakota State in the future. The Gophers will face the North Dakota State for a second straight season when the Bison head to the Dome later this year, in a game that the national television networks are fighting for the rights to televise. You see, Brewster would like to schedule a big-time opponent for the maroon and gold. Texas, perhaps--a team he has some history with. Once upon a time, the Gophers and Notre Dame were no strangers.

Now, Glen "Mediocre" Mason made a living by schedling cream puffs for the Gophers to beat. In order to be bowl eligible, a team must win 6 games. Last year, Mason's squad finished 6-6 during the regular season, with the help of a 10-9 win over NDSU. Without that win, the Gophers wouldn't have had a chance to blow a 98 point lead to Texas Tech in a December bowl game.

“We have to ask ourselves, ‘Does NDSU really help us?’ ” Brewster said. “I want to make sure our nonconference games benefit the University of Minnesota more than the team the Gophers are playing.”

This is not a new issue here at PJS. In our short existence, we've harped on the Gophers' football schedule here and here. So, it was with great satisfaction to see Brewster showing he has a sense of what Gopher Nation really wants. From the same article, Brewster continues to sum up the thoughts of pretty much every Gopher fan I know.

“When we’re recruiting nationally, and a young man says, ‘Who are your nonconference games this year?’ and we say ‘Bowling Green, Miami of Ohio, Florida Atlantic and North Dakota State,’ what do you think the reaction is?” Brewster asked, rattling off Minnesota’s nonconference schedule this fall. He answered his own rhetoric by slumping his shoulders and letting out a disappointed groan, mimicking how a blue-chipper might react.

As much as NDSU fans, coaches and administrators might not like what Brewster is saying ... he's exactly right.

But Maturi essentially bitch-slapped Brewster for working to give Gopher fans what they want. In a differnt article in the Forum, Maturi puts Brewster in his place.

"In the end, it’s my decision,” Maturi said. “Much of this is financial and doing what’s the best thing for your program in looking at the big picture.” Maturi said he and Brewster have a great relationship, but they have yet to sit down and talk about scheduling philosophies. The Bison and Gophers play next fall, but have nothing set after that.

So, Maturi just undermined Brewster and admitted to not having discussed scheduling with his new coach. Certailny, there are financial realities not available to PJS, and Maturi certainly received calls from NDSU's administration. If nothing else, it'd be nice, if Maturi and Brewster were on the same page.

And in a perfect world, it'd be nice to have another reason to tune into a Gophers nonconference football game. Perhaps to tune in and see the type of program Brewster is talking about turning Minnesota into.

It's Nice To Dream About

Updating a previous item, Tim Brewster agrees his team's nonconference schedule doesn't do much for the program Glen Mason rose to mediocrity. Senile Sid has the confirmation.

"I think it's very, very important for us in recruiting, to get to where we want to get, that we play a marquee opponent in a nonconference game, a nationally televised game," he said. "I'd like to play a Texas, I'd like to play UCLA, I'd like to play a big-time opponent in a nonconference game. I don't want to play three or four big-time opponents, but I think that young kids -- and coach Bobby Bowden from Florida State told me this awhile ago -- when they really turned the corner at Florida State was when they really upgraded their nonconference schedule. ... So that's certainly something that we are in the process of addressing and I am looking forward to playing a very, very outstanding nonconference schedule."

A good follow-up question for Sidney could have been: Did you ask Coach Bowden about an autumn trip to Tallahassee?

Florida Atlantic, Not International.....Sheesh

A quick glance at the 2007 Golden Gophers football schedule leaves much to be desired. To be fair to Brew's Crew, the former administration—known as the Mediocre Masons—are to blame.

The conference schedule is what it is. And while the Big Ten has went away from a balanced schedule, Gopher fans can't do much complaining about facing Ohio State, Penn State and traditional rivals Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan.

What we can complain about is the nonconference schedule. The highlight, to this observer, is playing in Dolphins Stadium. Any chance to revel in Daunte Culpepper's failures is worthwhile. But it's not like the Gophers are facing Miami, Florida State or even Daunte's alma mater, Central Florida. Nope, our rodents are heading south to play Flordia Atlantic. This would steer some viewers away from an Ultimate Fighting Championship event had it been against Florida International of brawl with Miami U. fame.

Two weeks earlier, during the Gophers' home opener, as the perhaps excited fan base feeds off the momentum that Tim Brewster has brought to the team, our rodents face none other than perennial BCS contender Bowling Green. In week two at the dome, the maroon and gold face another team that is sure to get Gopher Nation off its collective rear ends: Miami ..... of Ohio.

Yawn.....

Look forward to 2008, you say?

A to be determined MAC opponent opens the season at the dome. A week later, the Brew Crew will renew our longstanding rivalary Bowling Green. But wait, Gopher fans, it gets better. To round out the 2008 nonconference grind, our lads will face always-tough Montana State before rounding out the home-and-home with Florida Atlantic.

In 2009, the first season at TCF Bank Stadium, and presumably the first season Brew's Crew can be credited or blamed for the nonconference schedule, our rodents will host California. Decent, I suppose. Then again, the Gophers have also scheduled a mid-November tilt with border rival .... North Dakota State. For a second I thought I had called up the men's hockey schedule. Alas, I was wrong.

As a die hard Gopher fan who admittedly has suffered from waning interest in Gopher football—based almost solely on lackluster performances and poor coaching (note: punting mishap against Wisconsin, Texas Tech embarrassment etc....)—it would be nice if Brewster would schedule some intriguing opponents. It's been reported he has tried to convince Notre Dame to open the season in TCF Stadium. That isn't happening. Keep trying, Tim.

The out years of the football schedule show some improvement. The lads will face Colorodo and Washington St and Oregon St. But those tilts are a half-decade or more down the road.

For Brewster to really turn a bored Gopher football fanbase into a rabid one headed for Pasadena, we need to see more BCS schools on the schedule, less second-tier Ohio teams and please, please, no teams from North Dakota or Montana. And if we're going to schedule an also-ran Florida school, can we at least make it the brawlers from International instead of the Owls of FAU?