2021 Minnesota Game Poster No. 8: Northwestern

Click to enlarge.

Previous game posters:

Ohio State

Miami (OH)

Colorado

Bowling Green

Purdue

Nebraska

Maryland

In honor of Halloween, this week's Gophers game poster is based on the cover artwork for one of the most acclaimed horror video games of all-time, 1999's Silent Hill. Goldy Gopher takes the place of protagonist Harry Mason, staring off into the snowy Evanston night. (Disclaimer: It's not supposed to snow Saturday. Nor is it a night game.) In place of Harry's daughter, Cheryl, is Willie the Wildcat, who walks past the eerily glowing entrance to Ryan Field. P.J. Fleck's face can be seen where police officer Cybil Bennett's is on the original cover. In the fog is the ghostly image of Joseph Medill, the namesake of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. I've added branding in imitation of a PlayStation game's jewel case and the old Konami logo.

I don't know if this is my best game poster, but it is among my favorites. Like the Colorado poster, I made this with a drawing pad, tracing images as best I could to fit the style. Goldy is the best-looking object in the picture — vitally so, seeing as how he is the most prominent. I wanted him to look less like the modern Goldy and more like that from 1999, so I found old gameplay footage of an old NCAA Football game to trace over. This helped me get a three-dimensional-looking shading better than probably anything else I drew. Fleck and Medill look a little more "drawn" than I was hoping, but they each are significant improvements from where I started. I had to tone down the detailing to make sure they looked more feasibly like they were created on a computer in 1999.

Similar to Purdue Pete's cameo on the Purdue poster, maybe my favorite detail I threw in is Medill. It's just a dumb nod to all the Northwestern alumni in media who have been the subject of internet jokes beginning with "As a Medill grad...". I have no strong opinion on Medill grads, but I thought it would be a decent bit.

Now, to answer an important question: Is Ryan Field scary enough for a Silent Hill parody? Not really, no, unless wealthy suburbanites frighten you. Especially not this year, with Northwestern's shoddy play. The place is usually a haven for visiting fans. But the Wildcats have seen some weird peaks, and the height of their stadium's natural playing surface has been mythologized as helping even the odds against superior competition. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to work in the grass. But let it be known that I did want to include it.

With a game against Illinois next week, there will be an Illinois poster next week.

We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 171

                                                     

The Rolling Stones, Minnesota's 34-16 win over Maryland, and what to expect from a poor Northwestern team on Saturday.

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Midweek Review: Maryland 16-34 Minnesota

For once, the Gophers made it easy. Saturday's 34-16 win over Maryland was not flawless, but it was a far smoother game than Minnesota has had since trouncing Colorado, and it was over a likely better team than those now 2-5 Buffaloes. It was a game where Minnesota's experience along the lines dominated, and where the team's running backs romped for more than 300 yards. And it was a win that puts the Gophers on the doorstep of a bowl and increases their odds of finishing near the top of the Big Ten West. Not a bad place to be after seven games.

1. Minnesota's rushing attack delivered a beating.

If P.J. Fleck has a vision of what a perfect game looks like for his team, it might resemble this one. Using their behemoth offensive line, the Gophers plowed over the Terrapins with little resistance. Nearly three-fifths of Minnesota's runs gained at least 4 yards, and only three carries failed to gain yardage.

While the Gophers gained plenty of yards between the tackles, they created their biggest plays attacking the edge. Outside zone calls and intelligent cutbacks led the Gophers' running backs into open space for chunk plays like this one:

We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 170

                                                    

Thoughts on Minnesota's win over Nebraska and the misfortunes and flaws of Maryland.

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

2021 Minnesota Game Poster No. 7: Maryland

Click to enlarge.

Previous game posters:

Ohio State

Miami (OH)

Colorado

Bowling Green

Purdue

Nebraska

In this week's game poster, it's a parody of Mario Kart, with Goldy speeding away from Testudo at the finish line. In the place of Lakitu is P.J. Fleck, brandishing an oar instead of waving a checkered flag. Minnesota's stadium is in the background.

For this one, I referred to different iterations in the Mario Kart series rather than using just one. The original uses an aesthetically unappealing double-box setup to display both the map and the player. That would not look good as a poster, so I instead used the map overlay that appears in future games. Though the simple backdrop is meant to resemble Mario Circuit, I based the track on the roads going around the stadium. The turn onto Oak Street from 6th Avenue in the northwest corner is a bit sharp, but a player could navigate it smartly by drifting.

I came to the idea when thinking of turtles in video games, to represent Testudo. Bowser was an obvious comparison. It might have been too obvious, but I thought basing the poster on Mario Kart rather than on one of the battles against Bowser in a core game was a workaround. While I used Bowser as the base for Testudo's sprite, I "painted" Goldy on top of Yoshi.

Come back next week to see a game poster befitting a game the day before Halloween.

Midweek Review: Nebraska 23-30 Minnesota

Minnesota's bowl chances are a lot higher after beating Big Ten west rivals Nebraska Saturday. The Gophers never trailed, but it ended up anything but easy thanks to a second-half Huskers surge. Though much of that was down to execution, better coaching in the second half might have made the game more comfortable in the end. Regardless, it was a solid win in many ways, beginning with the Gopher offense's dominant first half.

1. Mike Sanford Jr. had his best half as the U of M's playcaller.

From the start of the game, the Gophers broke from their usual tendencies. On their first play, instead of handing the ball off, Tanner Morgan threw a quick hitch to Chris Autman-Bell out of a six-lineman set. On the next 1st down, Morgan threw again. When his pass fell incomplete, the Gophers didn't try to just make 2nd-and-manageable and run the ball; Morgan threw a slant that picked up 10 yards for the conversion.

As the Gophers continued driving down the field, they used six different personnel groupings on 14 snaps and never ran on more than two plays in a row until within the red zone. When faced with 4th-and-1 from the Nebraska 5-yard line, P.J. Fleck didn't hesitate in leaving the offense on the field. Then, sub-package quarterback Cole Kramer finished off the drive with his first college completion, finding a wide-open Brevyn Spann-Ford in the end zone.

We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 169

                                                   

Gophers news items, previewing a scary Nebraska team, and finding just one good football game to watch Saturday night.

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

2021 Minnesota Game Poster No. 6: Nebraska

Click to enlarge.

Previous game posters:

Ohio State

Miami (OH)

Colorado

Bowling Green

Purdue

This week's poster is straightforward: It's the player selection screen from NBA Jam, but with players from the Gophers and Cornhuskers. The original hardwood backdrop is now turf, the teams are all from the Big Ten, and the basketball-related attributes are now for football. Each player's portrait is pixelated like in the actual game. Minnesota and Nebraska's logos are true to the era, with football-toting Goldy and the Tom Osborne-era "Huskers" script over the N.

I have only a couple of things to point out about my process here. The first is that Adrian Martinez has been so good that this week, I had to change the attributes I gave him in May, when I first finished the poster. I thought if I had to change anything, it would be because he played poorly enough to be benched. Instead, I had to bump his throwing and speed ratings to not look like a fool.

The second item is the concept of the ratings and how I imagined a two-on-two football video game looking. I thought of how backyard football games go and what the traits are you need in those: You have to run, you have to catch, and you might have to avoid being tackled and fumbling. Sometimes, you have a real quarterback, and sometimes you don't. Imagine Big Ten Jam (an incongruous pairing, I know — a game that is loudly fun and an organization that is stodgily self-important) as something like that: backyard football, but with superhuman leaping catches and over-the-top jukes. You can run the option or throw the ball. Most attributes are self-explanatory. We'll say strength determines how often a player fumbles or forces a fumble. Maybe Gus Johnson does commentary. I think that sounds alright.

Next week, Minnesota hosts Maryland, and you can once again expect a game poster in this space.

We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 168

                                                   

Taking a look around the Big Ten and thoughts on the Gophers' win at Purdue.

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Midweek Review: Minnesota 20-13 Purdue

In a rainy West Lafayette, the Gophers got their first win of Big Ten play on Saturday. With an idle week upcoming, we'll have to wait a while to see if this foreshadows Minnesota's season getting back on track. But for now, the Gophers are above .500 after beating a competent opponent.

1. Minnesota went deep a lot. (By their standards, anyway.)

Tanner Morgan's first two completions of the day signaled how the Gophers would approach the rest of the day: They would use lots of play-action, they would throw short (as on a 6-yard gain through Ko Kieft), and they would go deep (as on a 32-yard touchdown to Chris Autman-Bell), with little in-between.

On the day, Morgan attempted 18 passes, and seven traveled at least 30 yards downfield. Three of those ended in completions, and if not for an Autman-Bell drop, another would have. Though he underthrew his receivers a couple of times — probably not a product of avoiding overthrows like the one he had last week, but potentially — and he was hardly asked to make intermediate throws, Morgan was accurate and kept the ball out of danger of being intercepted. It was a fairly sharp performance from a quarterback that has taken a lot of criticism since last year.

The reason Morgan could take so many shots downfield is that his offensive line kept him clean most of the day. After getting pressured on nearly half his dropbacks and sacked four times against Bowling Green, Morgan only dealt with six pressures against Purdue (according to Pro Football Focus) and was never sacked. The Boilermakers' George Karlaftis and Branson Deen each got in a couple hits, but that wasn't often enough to significantly impact Morgan's performance. His blockers did well, which allowed him to do well.