Premature
(adjective) pre·ma·ture - occurring, existing, or developing
earlier than is expected, normal, or advisable
I was weary of the letdown game. The Gophers were coming off a big win at home to get bowl eligible, and Indiana desperately needed this game to have any realistic chance of joining us in the postseason. I don’t think anyone could have predicted how much of a rollercoaster this game was going to be.
You know, I could explain it using my words, but instead I
think I’ll just let Jerry Kill's facial expressions describe it for you:
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| The many faces of Coach Jerry Kill |
- Surprised Jerry – They came out with a flea-flicker? That was cool! Then the D started out well against the formidable Indiana offense and held them to a FG. If we can keep this up all day this game will be a breeze. Neat stuff!
- Mildly Concerned Jerry – Well, Indiana is kind of controlling the game now and our offense is looking stagnant. It’s still early, though.
- Happy Jerry – The switch to The LampLeidner worked again! (Well, other than a little carelessness with the football.) He fired up the offense and he fired up Nelson, who came back into the game spitting hot fire from his fingertips. Cobb is having the best game of his career! The defense was also making a supposedly dangerous Tre Roberson look pretty tame. 28 unanswered points!
- Legitimately Concerned/Nauseated Jerry – This Sudfeld kid can really sling it. Also, apparently Indiana has a running game too. What the hell is going on out there on offense? Two turnovers on downs in a row on offense, including an ill-advised fake punt? I think I’m gonna ralph.
- Outwardly Supportive but Inwardly Freaking Out Jerry – Great answer with the big TD pass to Double X after Indiana took their first lead of the game. There’s a lot of time on the clock, though…
- Angry Jerry – Indiana is just marching down the field again, come on you guys … THE BALL IS ON THE GROUND! THAT WAS A BACKWARD PASS! FUMBLE! FUMBLE! FUMBLE! WHY IS NO ONE REACTING!?!?!
- Elated Jerry – HOLY CRAP, HERE COMES AARON HI… (head explodes)
Jerry #4 is a face that many a Gopher fan are intimately
familiar with: it’s the feeling associated with watching a Glen Mason coached
team cling to a lead in the 4th quarter. Well, I feel like I’m partially to blame for
everyone having to go through that again.
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| Yeah, I'm not very good at Photoshop, yet. You're smart people, so I bet you get the joke anyways. You don't? It's supposed to be Beetlejuice with Mason's face, but I got frustrated after a while and ended up with this monster. You know Beetlejuice right? |
Wife – You guys
are playing great. Why aren’t you enjoying this more?
Me – (looking
at Bruiser) We can’t enjoy a 22 point lead this early. We lived through the Glen Mason era.
Now, I’m not a superstitious person, but sometimes I find
myself believing that stuff really works in the heat of a football game. (It’s kind of like the lifelong atheist who
suddenly finds religion on their death bed: what do you really have to lose at
that point?) I immediately regretted
saying it, and the dread built inside me as the momentum continued to shift
towards the Hoosiers. Luckily, this
current Gopher squad is not coached by Jim Souhan’s unicorn, and they found a
way to win in the end. I just hope Bruiser
has finally been able to clean up my brain chunks off of his curtains.
Onto the theme…
As you may have gleaned from the previous section, I
experienced both premature internal celebration and thoughts of defeat. With a heaping helping of luck, the Gophers
were still able to pull off a win. There
has been much celebration in the North Star state, but I’ll refer to Winston Wolf
to relay my feelings on this (NSFW audio):
At this point, the Gophers have won one more game than they
did last year. They’ve strung some wins
in a row here now and are really starting to click on offense. But those wins have come against a walking
dead Northwestern squad, a Nebraska team whose rusty QB played like garbage,
and an Indiana team that hasn’t lived up to expectations this year. However, you
can also look back to the Iowa and Michigan games and realize that Minnesota
was a team with a hobbled QB who hadn’t yet discovered their identity.
Basically, I don’t know what the heck to think yet. I'm enjoying the ride, though!
I still believe that this team can be special, and a win
Saturday would go a long way to proving that. I just hope that the Gophers takes the field thinking they
still have a lot more to prove, and that fans scream their heads off in support
of a game that is just has important as the last three.
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