biggentleben

I know I keep harping on Mason, but that's one thing he did. He kept on a couple coaches from Wacker who he knew were very highly regarded. He had already found a gem in Kansas in David Gibb and made him the D-Coordinator by bringing Gibb with him to Minnesota. It's okay to have guys smarter than you on your coaching staff. In fact, that should be a sign you have a competent staff. If you could drill each position group and coordinate all three facets better than anyone under you as a head coach, you're bound for bad things.

From someone who was part of that transition, there's been no coach handed a worse hand in the last 20 years than was Glen Mason. Mason brought the program farther than any coach has really since the 1960s. He struggled, however, to get the team from the second tier to the first tier in the Big 10. Folks thought that was on the coach, disposed of him, and since, plenty of work has been done to try to improve the edges of the program while not addressing that a competent coach was a huge issue. I truly believe that without his health issues, Kill was on his way there. The University ponies up for basketball and hockey. Instead of looking for the young, trendy coach...instead, why not go the route done with Mason and Kill, guys who took over programs at lower levels and showed sustained success (Fleck's quick rise is not sustained). Mason had built up Kansas before coming to the Gophers. Those are the guys who can walk in the door and coach. You want to recruit? Call in Tony Dungy, Ben Hamilton, Darrell Thompson, Eric Decker, and Marion Barber to walk into living rooms with you. Moreover, call in someone like Ben Utecht to come into a living room with you. Frankly, it's filtering more and more back to high school how insignificant the facilities you see truly are. Most impressive will be proper training facilities and medical facilities, not the lounges and oversized video rooms that were the focus of the most recent upgrades for the Gophers. You want to know why a number of smaller schools haul in some surprising recruits, look at the number of their strength coaches and/or athletic trainers that end up moving on to the NFL or other pro leagues. That's a significant piece for young people who know they are sacrificing their bodies for the betterment of a millionaire coach with no return for them most likely. Shiny toys attract the type of players who go out on Saturday and are not focused, cannot execute, and simply don't put the time in where it should be (the weight room and practice field rather than a lounge), so they fall apart whenever pressure is applied or they run into even comparable talent. One of the hallmarks of both Mason and Kill was the commentary about how obvious it was that their team was the less talented team on the field, but typically either right in the game or winning it. The raw talent complaint is not one that can be made right now. As far as I'm concerned, that goes to one spot...

Scott Frost

No one said they're not using their 85. However, there are 112 listed on their roster page currently.

I did not say never. It happens for many, though. Depending on the school, depending on the player's entry to the University, depending on so many things. For instance, I was walking on, without scholarship, and when offered scholarship, before eye surgery that same week ended that, that scholarship would have been for the fall semester of that year only, renewable in the spring. When my surgery didn't heal right and football was no longer an option, there was nothing there for me. A couple coaches provided kind invites to games along with the team, but the team officially had nothing more to do with me once I had the surgery. For most of those guys who are inspirational stories and get the t-shirt with their scholarship offer printed on it or other such things, they are also on a time-limited scholarship. Each scholarship also contains certain out clauses that allows the school to end the scholarship in the case of injury.

Some of them. While it's fun to see the awarded scholarship moments in a spring ball ceremony, there are many different types of scholarship levels a college athlete receives. For instance, nearly no college baseball player at the U of M is on full-ride. Football has a lot less full-ride scholarships as well because Minnesota values hockey and basketball more. That stuff all does matter. Not every player is getting a free education, and none of them has any free education the moment that they're no longer able to play the game.

As someone who has put on the pads, these are not grown men. No more than any college freshman is a grown man. They're also not part of any industry. They're pawns for an industry that makes billions of dollars off of their bodies, their minds, and their failures. Tens of thousands of players strapped up to play college football across this country last year. Roughly 300 were drafted or signed as an undrafted free agent into the NFL in April. Those are the 1% of all college football players who will even have a training camp at the next level, let alone play at that level. The players receive no benefit from the industry. When I played, over half of the team qualified for scholarships on their own merits coming out of high school, so trying to sell the "free education" is bull, especially when that education is not extended to the athlete when he/she leaves their chosen sport due to injury or pursuit of a professional career in that sport. To put it more clearly - if right now Annexstad said "F- you, Fleck, I'm out of here." He has no choices for another school in any FBS or now FCS school with new added regulations if he wants to be able to play in the 2019 season. He could pursue lesser competition for one season and then come back up for one season, but he doesn't get the ability to move. On the other hand, if Minnesota tells Fleck the same thing at the end of the season, they are on the hook for the rest of his contract, and he can pursue a job at any school he wants while still being paid the rest of his contract by Minnesota. The industry has nothing to do with the players on the field. You want to rip on the coaching, go right ahead, but click into the young men on the field, and that's where you'll get a big charge from me. Those guys are indentured servants, not "part" of anything profited from their actions on the field.

All that said, the Gophers are down two legit All-Big 10 caliber running backs. They also had a teammate for many of these players pass away over the weekend due to cancer, so that had to be hard to emotionally deal with. Add in Maryland getting a boost in that they expected to lose staff and/or players this week coming into the game, so they had a rallying point when that didn't happen, and it was really a perfect storm. Not saying this performance was "okay", but it's also not purely based on a talent differential, either.

The first season tried way too hard to incorporate too many things into one season - the back story, the reunification with family, the love story, etc... The second season had really one distinct focus, and it was much better because of that, in my opinion.

Rodney Smith is one I like a lot. Winfield is fun to watch, as is Barber. The receiver corps has some interesting pieces, but whether they'll be able to get the ball to them in the B1G conference remains to be seen. Good win last night, though.

The ending to Sharp Objects - holy hell. I've not enjoyed the end of a television series season more in a long time! Make sure you watch the credits, though!!

While this is true recently of Vandy, and Rocker would be well-served to head there (better such than Ethan Hankins, for instance), don't sleep on the Orioles. They made some personnel changes in their minor league system on the pitching side, and the results this year have been incredible at every level. Their Delmarva pitching staff at times has featured five starters with sub-2 ERAs and better than a 9 K/9 (promotions and such has changed who has been in the rotation at times, but still...). Now, if the Orioles would ever, EVER sign an international talent....but I digress. It is something to review those with commitments to a big-time school that often lands a good chunk of their commits, like Vandy guys. For reference, of the pitchers in BA's top 100, here are the breakdowns: Arizona - Liberatore Baylor - Ashcraft Florida - Denaburg, Lyon Richardson Georgia - Wilcox LSU - Jaden Hill Miami - Cecconi Mississippi - Hoglund Mississippi State - Stewart, Winn, Ginn South Carolina - Owen White Southern Cal - Chandler Champlain St. Johns - Torres Texas - Woods-Richardson Texas A&M - Grayson Rodriguez TCU - Kloffenstein Vanderbilt - Rocker, Weathers, Hankins, Becker, Northcut, Brett Hansen Washington - Schroeder

The Pirates and Orioles both like him a lot, and there are some who think he'd be in play if the Marlins go for another HS arm (which would be ridiculous). The Marlins have been after hitters primarily, but they've seen plenty of Rodriguez, Cole Wilcox, and Mason Denaburg lately. The Rays and Royals could also both grab Grayson as well as they both like him a ton. He's moved up big on boards this spring with his showing in spring ball.

I'd be very surprised if he made it there, but if he did, the Twins should jump all over that selection.

He's an extremely good 2B, but he needs time at Elizabethton. I think he was an even better get than Maitan. If I had to rank them coming from the Braves, I'd have had Yefri Del Rosario #1 and Severino #2. Maitan and Livan Soto would have been very close for #3, and then there was a big gap to the next player.

My nephew was over last night and had the chance to see the handbook, so he started thumbing into it. His eyes got big, and he looked up at me with surprise, and then he quickly thumbed forward in the book. His mom was curious what was up, but he kept shushing her, telling her that he would answer her in just a second. Then... "Did you know Ben has a story in this Twins book?! It's right here...and it's pretty good!" I'll take that.

Matt, I've shared with you before how much I love these, and I'm glad to see you posting them here again! The Molitor story in the comments is a big reason why....seems like there is something like that coming out of about one of your Twitter posts every 10 days or so as well. Great memories to share!

I also know from my work with the mentally ill that someone with borderline personality disorder is nearly 90% to report a rape or attempted rape within their lifetime. (Last numbers I saw before I left the field were in the upper 80s, but had risen 2-3% over the past 5 years or so, and that was 2 years ago) The town I live in has a high percentage of SPMI adults (severe and persistent mental illness - basically, the biggies, schizophrenia, bipolar, verifiable personality disorders), and in working at the jail part-time I was not surprised to find that there was nearly a 20% false report number. I worked with someone who made 11 reports of sexual assault or rape within one year. One had any merit. So right there are 10 claims that get added to the general number, but sans her mental illness, she most likely doesn't report a thing falsely, or at least nowhere near that frequently, and that can significantly skew the number, whatever the true number may be. Let's not utilize a number already skewed by those who do not have the capacity to understand their role in affecting the other persons who come forward to further victimize those who are brave enough to come forward in the first place.

Intriguing that the Twins site this morning before this broke had front and center an article about how pleased the Twins were with Sano's progress this winter so far. No such article anymore on the Twins front page....

And that, in the end, is what Myjah, myself, and TD are all offering to the degree we can each offer it - a platform for those same ideas to reach more eyes than an independent blog most likely would. It's not going to replace a day job, but there's a chance to see how you like it, and if you find your niche and want to grow it, you have a platform to grow that audience before you move elsewhere!

Took my time to read through this and think through how I wanted to answer/opine on this... I came to TD from BYTO originally as someone who had "friends" in the forum from that site. I'd written a few articles at BYTO, and not long after TD began, I got the opportunity to do my first writing. I've been spending the time since slowly building into my writing before really pushing into it a few years back. Finding my niche at that site led to a lot of great connections within the game that drove my passion even further and now has me editing two sites with FanSided. Of course, the downfall of that is recruiting for those sites, so I can completely understand the issues you're running into here at TD. I know that we've put out the feeler many times over that we're looking for writers at both sites, and bringing on writers is fairly slow, even though one of the two sites is a pay site. That said, one of the things that I have done with Call To The Pen (and I'd like to think that I offered with the one writer interested at Puckett's Pond) is intentional work with writers to help them gain views and understand what will help to drive views (and those search engine positions) on their articles. If the long-term intention with TD is to recruit and foster a team of writers that continues to grow, it'd probably be advantageous to consider one of the crew to be someone who intentionally oversees the blogs, promoting the blogs, coaching writers, and initiating first-time writers to the best ways to draw eyes so early on writers can see some success to spur the desire into further writing. I love the site, all, and I'll certainly be around on the forums!

Hear you there...not that I dislike Puckett, but I wouldn't keep the name if I had my drothers at PP....

I can speak for PP...not much for us to offer! LOL

I think with Fleck it's more what was in the cupboard already being so far from what he wants to have available that it's going to take that long. A similar case would be having an Alex Gibb running game system and going to a Wisconsin style system. You're going to require a whole different type of running back and lineman for each system and they really don't work in both systems outside of the rare freaks.

In chatting around, people who know of his system say it'll work in Minnesota long-term, but it's a 2-3 year process. I guess coming into the season, I enjoyed the energy, but I had no assumption that he would be coaching even a .500 team, let alone a conference contender.