Gopher Football Mediocrity: The Tradition Continues

Previously, we talked about the Bowl Championship Series, how we would attempt to fix it, and why it may never change.

Here in Minnesota, the BCS is not that big a deal. Not since the 1962 Rose Bowl has the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers been within sniffing range of a BCS bowl. Or any other bowl that people care about.

The Gophers ended the 2008 regular season with a 7-5 record, which is pretty good until you realize that their only significant victory was over Illinois. They dropped their last four Big Ten games, including a 55-0 blowout at the hands of Iowa that cleaned out the Metrodome by halftime, except for diehards and Hawkeye fans.

In Tim Brewster's second season as coach, 7-5 represents a marked improvement over 1-11 the previous year. He's trying to get the football program back to the heights enjoyed by Bernie Bierman and Murray Warmath, but so have other Gopher coaches who have come and gone over the past 40 years.

The reasons for this tradition of mediocrity vary: Some say it's the quality of players the program has been able to recruit in the face of football factories such as Ohio State and Southern California.

Others think it's the Metrodome, which the Gophers are leaving after 27 seasons for an on-campus outdoor stadium. But the slide began when they were still playing at Memorial Stadium, so that doesn't wash.

Still others believe it's the lack of commitment by university administrators past and present. No. The university's commitment is to provide a quality education for those who choose to enroll there, whether they are athletes or not.

It makes you wonder if the Gophers deserve to go to a bowl game at all after the season they've had. Their best shot appears to be the Motor City Bowl in Detroit, another third-rate bowl the team has been invited to over the years to go along with the Sun, Independence, Music City and Insight bowls. It's gotten to the point where, if the Gophers are invited to a bowl game, you'd know there are too many of them.

So what makes you think moving to an outdoor stadium will change things? Unless the University of Minnesota is serious about reviving its football program, the echoes of Bierman, Warmath, Bronko Nagurski, Bruce Smith (who won the 1941 Heisman Trophy) and Paul Giel will seem fainter than ever.