Sid Hartman still in denial

[phxbison]

In the jottings section of his column in the Star Tribune on Thursday Sid writes " How do you figure this one out ? Last Saturday North Dakota State crushed South Dakota 38-16 at the Fargodome, two weeks after the Coyotes edged the Gophers 41-38 at TCF Stadium."
He obviously beleives that the Gophers are and should be (because they're a member of the FBS and a member of the Big 10) the the preeminent football power in the tri states and he still can't beleive that any other team in the tri states should even come close to challengeing their superiority. Well ya know what, he's right !! It should be alot easier to recruit to Mpls. rather than to Vermillion or Grand Forks ! It should be easier to recruit better athletes to a Big Ten school and to an FBS school (most kids want to play at the hightest level they can). It definetly should be easier to win football games when you have 20 more sholarships a year. Here's why they arn't ! The Gophers need to win to get the best athletes to play for them and the top recruits arn't going to play for them until they start winning, a real catch 22.
What Sid hasn't learned is that there is alot more parity than he thinks between lower caliber FBS teams like the Gophers and FCS teams. The smaller schools may have to work alot harder to identify and recruit they're players (players who feel snubbed by bigger schools, with something to prove or just a kid that was overlooked because of their size or speed). Give me the marginal kid that's not a premadonna that will give 120 % on every play everytime and we'll win with him. The difference between a lower caliber FBS and FCS players is neglible. Wake up Sid, the Gophers are probably never going to be a great football team!!

[NDSUstudent]

Sid might be but it was music to my ears hearing on KFAN today that Bohl out recruited Brew in-state last year.

[Kermit]

Sid might be but it was music to my ears hearing on KFAN today that Bohl out recruited Brew in-state last year.

Who said that?

[NDSUstudent]

Who said that?

Pretty sure it was Justin Gard. He was also saying Bohl should get a serious look if Brew gets canned.

He also talked about how high school coaches have a ton of respect for Bohl in MN.

[mebisonII]

That's got to be close to a toxic job posting by now, if Brewster does get canned. Like Sid says, they've been turning over coaches since the 1970s and it hasn't helped them much.

[cbline]

Not sure if Sid is in denial or if senility is fully engaged.

[gotts]

Who said that?

Call that starts the talk comes in at about the 2:20 mark.

Link (http://kfan.com/cc-common/mediaplayer/player.html?redir=yes&mps=KFAN_PADubay.php&mid=http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/MINNEAPOLIS-MN/KFAN-AM/PA_10-1_HR3.mp3?CPROG=PCAST?CCOMRRMID&CPROG=RICHMEDIA&MARKET=MINNEAPOLIS-MN&NG_FORMAT=&NG_ID=&OR_NEWSFORMAT=&OWNER=&SERVER_NAME=www.kfan.com&SITE_ID=612&STATION_ID=KFAN-AM&TRACK=)

[CaBisonFan]

Sid has been this way for decades. Here's a typical Sid type of logic:

"Mark Olberding (real person) averaged 16 pts a game last year. The Gophers lost by 14 to a poor Purdue team last night. If Olberding had stayed...this one would be in the win column for the Gophers...and an NCAA birth would be possible. Maybe the geniuses in charge of the university will lower the grade standards so that we can compete with the rest of the Big Ten someday. My good friend Bobby Knight called and told me that Minnesota is one or two players away from a national championship."....:rofl:

As history would remind some of us...Clem Haskins found a way to lower the educational standards.

When we beat them...the thing was...it was the worst Gopher team in history. So I ask...have they had the worst team in history every year that Punky has been there?

As a former Gopher fan during my teaching days in MN...I say 'no.' I say that the Gophers have had many teams like this. One of the fundamental characteristics of the program has been being adept at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. If there's a way to lose...they find it. It's decades worth. It's not all Punky's fault...really.

Another common thread is their seeming desire to recruit a kid from Miami or Texas rather than look down or up the interstate a ways. They have little to no connection with rural Minnesota. It's mostly suburban recruits and players from the football hotbeds...meaning they take the 4th or 5th tier athlete/student out of those areas 'over' a blue-chip kid from a town like Alexandria, Willmar, etc. So they give up the 'state' connection.

Sid lives in 'thee' state of denial in terms of the Gophers...but most Minnesotans are so fed up with it that they could care less. It's about the Twins, Vikings, & Wild for them.

[cyborgg]

CA your obsession with midwestern farm boys is noted. How about those two Arizona kids you landed yesterday. They just stole two spots from local kids. I say we get together a mob and run them out of town. Or maybe Bohl knows what he's doing and you don't.

[westnodak93bison]

Sid is a typical Big Ten blow hard fan. He tries his best to make the U of MN relevant.

[mebisonII]

CA your obsession with midwestern farm boys is noted. How about those two Arizona kids you landed yesterday. They just stole two spots from local kids. I say we get together a mob and run them out of town. Or maybe Bohl knows what he's doing and you don't.

:confused: You have a fascinating obsession with following around a poster on a messageboard. Especially when that messageboard is for a team you don't follow. And on a thread discussing an opponent you don't play. :confused:

[bisonmike2]

Has he ever called for a coached to be replaced for any of the Minnesota teams? I've never seen it.

Sid would be the best boss to work for. You could f up all you wanted to and he wouldn't care. You'd just have to tell him that you think your making progress, that you're going to make progress soon. You could even make up bogus stats about how much peers are getting paid and he'd even go to bat for you to get a raise.

[KC Bison]

I've made as much fun of Sid as anyone. To see his rah-rah for any team in the Twin Cities is beyond humorous. However, I might be the only one who is wondering if I wouldn't mind seeing some type of Fargo version of him with all the crap we've seen and heard over the years from the all the outlets of the Forum.

[CaBisonFan]

CA your obsession with midwestern farm boys is noted. How about those two Arizona kids you landed yesterday. They just stole two spots from local kids. I say we get together a mob and run them out of town. Or maybe Bohl knows what he's doing and you don't.

Oh my God cy...you didn't understand what I wrote...or you chose not to.

I was writing about Sid Hartman, his decades-long tendency for rationalizing everything concerning Twin Cities athletics, writing stupidly about it, and about how the 'outstate' people feel about the elitist attitude of the U of M.

I've been a fan of the Twins, Vikes, and more often than not...the Gophers in DI...most of my life. I just know what Hartman does to feed his flock. It's a simplistic look at how a university should run it's athletic program. Contrary to popular opinion, the man 'does' have power.

You're a Cyclone fan...right? You're from Iowa...and you don't understand the attitude from the big city up north? Whoa...but maybe if you were a Hawkeye fan you'd appreciate it more.

I love the state of Minnesota...but I worked and lived there long enough to know that it's really two states. It's the triangle from St. Cloud, to the Cities, to Rochester...and then there's the rest of Minnesota. Most rural Minnesotans know all about it. The U of M is not 'their' team. It's an elitist crowd.

Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and some of the good programs understand the politics, the fan base, and how to get motivated players. The U of M has been clueless...is clueless...and unless a truly great leader comes to coach them...they always will be.

Man, I hate teaching MN politics 101.

[CaBisonFan]

I've made as much fun of Sid as anyone. To see his rah-rah for any team in the Twin Cities is beyond humorous. However, I might be the only one who is wondering if I wouldn't mind seeing some type of Fargo version of him with all the crap we've seen and heard over the years from the all the outlets of the Forum.

The Forum is really bad. Hartman is really stupid. He's not all positive though. He will take out someone if they cross him. You do it Sid's way...or you won't be in town long. He 'does' have friends in high places. He'll put up with a loser for a while if it's his loser. He owns the situation. Powerful man. He hurts Gopher athletics with his insanely stupid involvement. He tries to affect the professional teams, but they're not quite as vulnerable.

It isn't just his writing. The man 'is' involved in high places.

[bisondad]

"I love the state of Minnesota...but I worked and lived there long enough to know that it's really two states. It's the triangle from St. Cloud, to the Cities, to Rochester...and then there's the rest of Minnesota. Most rural Minnesotans know all about it. The U of M is not 'their' team. It's an elitist crowd.

Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and some of the good programs understand the politics, the fan base, and how to get motivated players. The U of M has been clueless...is clueless...and unless a truly great leader comes to coach them...they always will be."

I can hardly believe how accurate you are on this!!!!! You have hit the nail on the head!!!!

[bisonranch]

Indeed. I lived in rural southern MN and Iowa. They seemed to care a lot more about SDSU and NDSU than UM (probably NDSU since the place I worked at recruited NDSU heavily for engineers). They didn't like the 'citiots' and their politics.

When I moved to Iowa, every other house in the town near I lived had a Hawkeyes or Cyclowns flag out front during football season. Completely different respect for college athletics 5" across the border.

[Capn_Cat]

In the jottings section of his column in the Star Tribune on Thursday Sid writes " How do you figure this one out ? Last Saturday North Dakota State crushed South Dakota 38-16 at the Fargodome, two weeks after the Coyotes edged the Gophers 41-38 at TCF Stadium."
He obviously beleives that the Gophers are and should be (because they're a member of the FBS and a member of the Big 10) the the preeminent football power in the tri states and he still can't beleive that any other team in the tri states should even come close to challengeing their superiority. Well ya know what, he's right !! It should be alot easier to recruit to Mpls. rather than to Vermillion or Grand Forks ! It should be easier to recruit better athletes to a Big Ten school and to an FBS school (most kids want to play at the hightest level they can). It definetly should be easier to win football games when you have 20 more sholarships a year. Here's why they arn't ! The Gophers need to win to get the best athletes to play for them and the top recruits arn't going to play for them until they start winning, a real catch 22.
What Sid hasn't learned is that there is alot more parity than he thinks between lower caliber FBS teams like the Gophers and FCS teams. The smaller schools may have to work alot harder to identify and recruit they're players (players who feel snubbed by bigger schools, with something to prove or just a kid that was overlooked because of their size or speed). Give me the marginal kid that's not a premadonna that will give 120 % on every play everytime and we'll win with him. The difference between a lower caliber FBS and FCS players is neglible. Wake up Sid, the Gophers are probably never going to be a great football team!!


Well, phx, the only thing I can say is that one has to remember who his audience is. It ain't NDSU fans or USD fans, right?

[02Bison]

Sid is just a senial old man...nothing more, nothing less

[CaBisonFan]

Sid is just a senial old man...nothing more, nothing less

Who's been writing the same garbage for approximately half a century...with a huge following...and very powerful friends. To his credit...he shares in some of the responsibility for the Twins & Vikings coming to town. He was involved. Heavy politics. Heavy hitters. Big money. That's what Sid is about. He still carries a big stick in Twin Cities politics, mostly regarding athletics. He has hired and fired more coaches at the U of M than you'd ever imagine. Hell...athletic directors have been muscled out of town by Sid. The admin. at the U hates him. He writes like a simple old man...but he ain't simple.

[02Bison]

Who's been writing the same garbage for approximately half a century...with a huge following...and very powerful friends. To his credit...he shares in some of the responsibility for the Twins & Vikings coming to town. He was involved. Heavy politics. Heavy hitters. Big money. That's what Sid is about. He still carries a big stick in Twin Cities politics, mostly regarding athletics. He has hired and fired more coaches at the U of M than you'd ever imagine. Hell...athletic directors have been muscled out of town by Sid. The admin. at the U hates him. He writes like a simple old man...but he ain't simple.

Garbage is correct. The media waves would be better of without both him and Patrick Reusse!

[WYOBISONMAN]

Sid is a senile old man. I think he is the only living creature older than Cher......who we are seeing at Ceasars tomorrow night.....LOL!

[Herd]

I agree with Sid from the standpoint that firing a coach has a deep impact on a program . . . but wow, how can you continue on this course.

The guy looks so lost in coaching this team each saturday, that you wonder how long it can continue. It is both sceme and intensity that are significantly lacking, but mostly the mental part of the game. I'm afraid that regaining the a tough mental attitude is not likely to happen in 2010.

He's got 8 games coming up, I think he's got to win 3 minimum to stay. That would leave him at 4-8, ouch . . . that's still really ugly.

[WYOBISONMAN]

I agree with Sid from the standpoint that firing a coach has a deep impact on a program . . . but wow, how can you continue on this course.

The guy looks so lost in coaching this team each saturday, that you wonder how long it can continue. It is both sceme and intensity that are significantly lacking, but mostly the mental part of the game. I'm afraid that regaining the a tough mental attitude is not likely to happen in 2010.

He's got 8 games coming up, I think he's got to win 3 minimum to stay. That would leave him at 4-8, ouch . . . that's still really ugly.

I am heading to the sportsbook to watch the NWestern game. It is kinda like watching a train wreck. It is stunning how hapless Brew is.

[Herd]

I am heading to the sportsbook to watch the NWestern game. It is kinda like watching a train wreck. It is stunning how hapless Brew is.

Like I said before . . . I believe that Brew thinks that you win on the recruiting trail in the spring. He does not understand that you win on the field in the fall. Winning on the field, X's and O's, unifying a team, is obviously not his strength. His "tactics", precisely orchestrated, seem to be more devisive than unifying. His teams in MN have never seemed to respond to them.

[overquota]

Brewster's recruiting and X and O: at the end of the 1st quarter, Northwestern has given the Gophers two turnovers and Northwestern is still up 14 - 7

[Tatanka]

Again, please, PLEASE keep this man in his current job. He's doing great!