We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 193

What the Big Ten scrapping divisions might mean for Minnesota, and Timberwolves news.

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Tweaking the Gophers' Uniforms

We all have uniform takes, and we are all totally convinced that ours are the correct ones.

I, for one, can generally be defined as a traditionalist. A team's colors should be their only colors. While new designs should always try to innovate, being different is not in and of itself a merit, and one should not sacrifice looking good for the sake of being different. A lot of uniforms that survive from generation to generation, or are resurrected after dalliances with whatever is "in" at a given moment, do so because traditional choices tend to look good. The basic tenets of design have existed for a reason.

Minnesota's current uniform set debuted in 2018 the second year of P.J. Fleck's tenure as head coach. It was unveiled on the ludicrously named hyprrelite.com, showing off garish "dart gold" helmets and the supposed ability to mix-and-match just about every part of the uniform, regardless of how a given combination looked. (It's a good thing that we've never seen anthracite jerseys on gold pants on the field.)

At the time, I was not a fan of the set. With time, and the memories that come with it, I have come to appreciate these uniforms. Not to love them, but to see their merit.

Generally speaking, that is. I am nothing if not a pedant and a nerd. I've been designing sports uniforms on my computer or in a sketchbook for years, and I have my own ideas of how to correct the Gophers' current aesthetic.

Rather than burning it all down and starting over, though, I think there are just a few adjustments you can make. Adjusting an element or two, and modifying how each element is deployed, can make the whole set better looking and more cohesive. As long as Fleck is head coach, there's no removing the "Row the Boat" stuff entirely, and the Gophers are going to try and wear 13 different uniform combinations in a season. But we can find compromises here and there, tweaking one part or emphasizing one look over another, all within the conventions of the current uniforms. We can also put in provisions to avoid uniform matchups that don't complement each other perfectly, or to maintain traditional looks in games with history.

Is this exercise self-indulgent? Fully. But it's the offseason, and we have to find something to do.

We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 192

Spotify roulette.

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We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 191

  

Timberwolves postmortem, Gophers spring football observations, and Big Thief.

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Minnesota Post-Spring Football Thoughts

Now that the Gophers' spring game has happened, there's some stuff to talk about at least for a little while before we enter the early-summer content wasteland. I was ready to write about it in full, as I did for the 2021 edition.

However, when the chance of lightning forced the game indoors, there was an issue: The camera angles on the television broadcast were terrible.

A year ago, I took stats and felt better about my ability to give the spring game a full, 10-point review, the way I do for the team's actual games in the fall. But that was not going to be possible here. What follows, then, is a series of observations and opinions on where the program stands entering the summer, which touches on some of the things we saw on display this most recent Saturday.

1. The Gophers don't want to run into another running back emergency.

Mohamed Ibrahim not playing in the spring game was not a surprise. He didn't play in the 2021 edition as a way of managing his workload. That he suffered a catastrophic injury just a few months ago made him an obvious candidate to sit again. On top of that, it was Ramadan; a practicing Muslim like Ibrahim couldn't eat or drink between sunrise and sundown, which naturally limited his ability to partake in sports during the day. Trey Potts and Preston Jelen also sat out, having encountering their own medical issues last year.

The Gophers' need to keep their tailbacks healthy is a little more urgent after the transfers of Mar'Keise Irving and Ky Thomas. The two combined for 1,523 yards and 10 touchdowns as rushers last season. Though each of their decisions are understandable — running back is a position with a short shelf life, and Ibrahim's return would have left both on the shelf longer than their talents deserve — it means the Gophers aren't so rich with options to carry the ball.