Gophers Abilities are Limited by Facilities

More from Sporting Sota

Anyone who follows college sports knows winning starts and ends with recruiting. Of course, some coaches are able to extract the most out of their players and achieve occasional success, but year-in and year-out dominance revolves around wowing wide-eyed 18 year olds with modern facilities.

Currently, outdated facilities are the thorn in the side of Minnesota Gophers athletics.

According to ESPN.com, the Gophers football practice facilities are the fourth-worst in the Big Ten. Some would call them the worst. Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin ranked lower, but Wisconsin has improved since and Northwestern is ready to break ground on a $220 million upgrade.

“The biggest story of all is that we’re eating in a hallway right now, and we’re competing for the championship of our division,” Head Football Coach Jerry Kill said. “That is unbelievable. Like we told our recruits, ‘We’ll get this thing, get the shovel in the ground quickly, certainly before the summer is out,’ That’s the stride that we’ve been missing that we’ve had to overcome.”

Building beautiful TCF Bank Stadium was a huge start. How on earth were previous coaches able to recruit with home games at the Metrodome? What player in their right mind would want to play in an ugly 30-year old dome AND not have a place to eat lunch on long practice days? If an up-to-date football practice facility is built, recruiting will turn into a strength for coach Kill. Especially since he’s had success without such facilities.

Kind of justifies so many years of awful football for the maroon and gold, doesn’t it?

“Right now, we’ve got a beautiful stadium, a great place to play on Saturdays,” Kill said. “But we have to improve our practice facilities, strength training and academic facilities. This is a critical project for us.”

Things were even worse for Gophers Basketball Coach Richard Pitino when he took the job. They didn’t even have a practice facility and basically lived at Williams Arena. He’s since taken action by taking a court on campus (Bierman) and turning in into a fully functional practice facility. It’s nowhere near that of top programs, but it will get them by.

“My biggest thing when I got the job was I didn’t want to talk about what we didn’t have. I don’t talk about it with my players or recruits. We wanted to make the best of what we had,” Pitino said. “What we’ve done with Bierman, it looks great. The gym is awesome. The weight room is big time. My biggest thing was I didn’t like that the guys were all over the place on campus scattered around. Now they can go lift and stop into my office and see me.”

Fortunately, those days will soon be forgotten. Including a $25 million donation from Land O’ Lakes, the University of Minnesota has raised $40 million dollars towards building their brand new shiny athletics complex. Pardon my fanboy lingo, but it’s going to be unreal.

The new complex will feature will feature a Student-Athlete Center for Excellence, a Football Development Center, a Basketball Development Center and an Olympic Sports Development Center. When they raise the money, they’re going to do it right.

If you’ve made it this far in my post, you NEED to check out the website below. It features everything you need to know about the project including pictures, news and facts. It’s great.

http://www.nothingshortofgreatness.com/

Nov 18, 2014; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers head coach Richard Pitino looks on during the second half against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at Williams Arena. Minnesota defeated Western Kentucky 76-54. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

Home/Minnesota Golden Gophers