2023 Gophers Position Previews: Receivers and Tight Ends

If you can believe it, football is almost here. Seriously. For the third year running, Ski-U-Blog will have previews of every position group entering Minnesota's season. Here is the first preview, concerning the pass-catchers.

Likely Starters

In recent years, P.J. Fleck has become more and more active in the transfer market. This season, the wide receiver position reflects that as much as almost any other on the team. Dylan Wright and Michael Brown-Stephens have been displaced in the starting lineup by transfers, which also led to the departure of a potential future starter in Ike White. For all the handwringing from coaches and college football media about players leaving, Minnesota's staff showed this offseason that those coaches are often just as willing to give up on players as the players are accused of being quick to give up on their teams.

The churn, however cynical it may be, has produced results for the Gophers in the past: Chris Williamson, Nyles Pinckney, and Chuck Filiaga are just a handful of the program's recent successful transfers. Going into 2023, it's hard to say that this tactic has not improved the receiver room.

The most exciting transfer is Elijah Spencer. I'm uncertain that Spencer will technically be a starter, but he will receive starter-level snaps and could be just as vital as those who happen to be on the field for the first play of each game. The former Charlotte 49er finished 5th in Conference-USA in receiving yards in 2022, and spring game performance indicated this wasn't a fluke. He was Athan Kaliakmanis' top target, accumulating more than 100 yards and scoring a touchdown.

It is somewhat hard to evaluate Spencer's work at Charlotte when his team's quarterback and offensive line play were so suspect, but he still made plays. He drew a couple of pass interference calls against South Carolina, and in that game and the one versus Maryland, he demonstrated he knew how to get open on a scramble drill.

What's enticing about Spencer is his suddenness. He has impressive short-area quickness and footwork, which means he has a great release off the line and is adept at making space for himself on short routes.

My 75 Favorite Rush Songs

My favorite music writer, Steven Hyden, has gotten into ranking various artists' best songs over the last few years. He's gotten to some artists whose work I really love. However, he has not yet gotten to my favorite artist of all-time: Rush. Inspired, I decided that I was going to put out my own list before he could.

Hyden really should have beaten me by this point. I first started putting together this blog post in the fullness of the pandemic and have only gradually pieced it together since 2020. I'd pick it up for a short while once I finally knew what to say about a song or three, and then I'd put it back on the shelf for weeks or months at a time. Then I'd decide to scrap what I'd written about one song and start over, and that would take at least 20 minutes. In other words, this process has been drawn out for a while.

This isn't the first time I've written about Rush on the internet, though. I did so plenty when I was younger, usually in Facebook notes, or even once for my high school newspaper. A big project like this, something approaching my final word, was going to happen at one point or another. Because while several other bands I listened to in my youth are not as important to me as they were then, Rush is a band I continue to hold dear. Even as other artists have become the subject of my fervor, and I look forward to hopefully decades of attending those artists' shows and seeing them evolve, this one still offers me regular comfort. There is not any musical act that I have thought more about in my life, even though their final performance was nearly a decade ago.

In the interest of time, I won't say much more before starting. Just note that this is about favoritism at least as much as quality, if not moreso. I've been ranking Rush's songs for years, because I am that kind of person, but that exercise has evolved. Only in the last few, though, have I ranked so many songs and used a spreadsheet for that purpose, and the exact spots are always changing. Give it a few months, and they'll be different again. Constant change is here to stay, et cetera.

We begin.

We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 234

The music-related stuff we've been doing over the last few weeks and the next decades of Gopher football.

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Predicting the Future of Gopher Football

One year from now, the Gophers' football program will be more or less as we recognize it. The team will have made a bowl, but a difficult 2023 schedule and major turnover on the defense has meant a middling record. P.J. Fleck is still the head coach. Joe Rossi, on account of his unit's slight but notable decline, is still the defensive coordinator. Tyler Nubin, Brevyn Spann-Ford, and Daniel Jackson have recently been selected in the NFL Draft. There is healthy enthusiasm for the program, which makes the university plenty of money on the back of the Big Ten's new media rights deal.

Three years from now, the story is similar but a bit different. Fleck remains the head coach, having maintained a program that is successful by their standards. He has beaten Iowa twice in a row — winning each of Kirk Ferentz's last two Floyd games — but Luke Fickell's ascendant Wisconsin holds Paul Bunyan's Axe after two consecutive victories. Rossi and Matt Simon have left to begin their head coaching careers. Athan Kaliakmanis is now backing up Bryce Young in Carolina, having missed out on Round 1 of the NFL Draft but becoming the first Gopher quarterback selected since Craig Curry in 1972. The new Big Ten schedule is difficult, but Minnesota is managing.

Five years from now, cracks have begun to appear. Losing Rossi has proven a serious blow to the defense, and Minnesota's rivals have not shown signs of slipping. Fickell has the Badgers competing for Big Ten titles (but has not yet made it to Indianapolis), and LeVar Woods has kept Iowa running at a respectable level. Fleck continues to rely heavily on transfers to replenish the roster, which has created a cycle of bringing in experienced players to replace those leaving, which is in turn at the expense of younger players, who transfer out and leave a thin depth chart. The Gophers' streak of making bowls (in non-pandemic seasons) has been interrupted by a 5-7 season.

A Proposal for the State Flag of Minnesota

There is an ongoing effort to get rid of the current flag of Minnesota. This is warranted. Several flags in the Union only consist of the state seal on a blue field, perhaps with some text added, which is neither distinct nor good-looking. At a glance, basically nothing sets the Minnesota flag apart from those of, say, Nebraska or Idaho. There are finer details, of course, but that belies the point: The finer details should not matter for a flag. It should be distinct at a glance from almost any other flag, and certainly from all other state or territorial flags within the same country.

Minnesota has long needed a new flag. Here is my proposal to replace it.

The grey outline is for visibility on a white background, not part of the design.

In the interest of full disclosure, I did submit a description of my design to the folks at Minnesotans For a Better Flag, the organization linked above. There are some striking designs included on their site (and some less good ones), the best of which is Rev. William Becker and Lee Herold's North Star Flag from 1989. I also greatly admire the ingenuity of John Palenschat's Loon Flag, even if I think it is a little too complicated for actual use.

Minnesotans For a Better Flag have not gotten back to me about my design, which probably means they aren't interested. Which is fine! I'm surely not the only other person who has submitted an idea, and they are very much allowed to not like mine. I still thought I would share my design here.

The flag is a tricolor in bright green, midnight indigo, and white. In the middle of the indigo stripe is a white roundel containing a 10-pointed star in indigo. Each element contains the following symbols:

Green stripe - representing the glow of the northern lights and Minnesota's luscious forests and prairies

Midnight indigo stripe - representing the night sky and the state's many lakes and rivers

White stripe - representing Minnesota's frigid winters

10-pointed star - standing for the Land of 10,000 lakes and representing L'Étoile du Nord; contained within the roundel, it somewhat resembles a compass or the eight-pointed star in the Capitol

As you may have been able to tell, the tricolor is supposed to represent two different images of nature in Minnesota. In one, the white functions as the icy ground below a dark, starred sky and a brilliant green aurora. The other works as a representation of the seasons, viewed from above: A dark river flows through the middle, and on either side is a shoreline in summer — the kind of gorgeous green that amazes this born-and-raised Texan every time he returns from a sabbatical down south — and one in winter — coated by all-consuming snow.

This color scheme would also be unique among U.S. state flags: Only Washington currently features green prominently, and it is a significantly darker shade. While many contain blue, none contain indigo. It is admittedly hard to consistently replicate one kind of purple across different applications, but this color leans much closer to navy blue than purple and is dark enough for most derivations from the "standard" indigo to not be too noticeable. While I could have used navy instead, giving the darkest color on the flag with a tinge of red lends it some distinctiveness and provides the slightest nod to the place purple has in our state's culture: Prince, some of our sports teams, and again the vibrant, multi-colored aurora. (Is that bit a stretch? Possibly, but it is an honest stretch.)

If there is one aspect of my design that I think is lacking, it is the lack of any nod to the Native Americans who have called Minnesota home. However, I ultimately decided that I could not do so; I am no expert in indigenous cultures, and any attempt at representing those cultures would likely have fallen flat. I am, in the end, a dumb white guy. And dumb white guys should know what they don't know.

This will not become the next flag of Minnesota, or even ever be considered for it. However, I feel the combination of simple, relevant symbols and bespoke, contrasting colors makes it a design that stands for Minnesota's many natural wonders. If our state ever does replace its flag, those are the qualities we should want in its successor.

We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 233

Picking our all-21st century NBA teams. The rules:

1. Teams must consist of five starters and three bench players
2. No players are allowed who have won Most Valuable Player
3. Players must be at least 30 years old or inactive
4. Players must be "primarily" of the 21st century — a subjective requirement, but based roughly on how much of a player's peak in performance and impact on the sport occurred within the 21st century
5. Teams must make basketball sense

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We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 232

The Big Ten schedule announcement, Teemu Pukki potentially joining Minnesota United, and Aaron's trip to the Riverbend Festival in Tennessee.

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Examining the Relationship Between Teemu Pukki's Hair and His Effectiveness at Norwich City

Minnesota United are reportedly working to sign Finnish striker Teemu Pukki. Pukki, 33 years old, comes to MLS after an extraordinary five-year stint at Norwich City in England, where he was one of their most prolific goalscorers ever. He ranks 4th in club history in goals, only trailing Iwan Roberts among players whose careers occurred within the last 50 years. Additionally, he is the top scorer in the history of the Finnish national team. He is as beloved a Canary as they come, as demonstrated by the ovation he received in his final game this May.

Supporters will miss him deeply, even if his successors manage to approach Pukki's greatness. I speak firsthand: As a Norwich fan, even one on a different continent, I've so appreciated his intelligence, hard work, and clinical finishing, which was never better showcased than with Emi Buendía on his right wing. Though Pukki is too short to be a traditional target man, there are few better at playing off a defender's shoulder and perfectly timing his run onto a through ball. Buendía was the perfect partner, assisting Pukki on 16 of his 88 Norwich goals. In the 2020-21 title-winning season, with Todd Cantwell completing the Norwich front three, they combined for some of the prettiest stuff the Championship has ever seen.

Pukki has been analyzed plenty: his traits on the pitch, his best goals, where he ranks among Norwich's greats, and what could have made his Premier League stints more successful.

Today, we're going to talk about his hair. Like other athletes I've written about here, Pukki doesn't have a lot of it. This wasn't always the case; in his younger years, Pukki sported a thick, unkempt shag. But by the time he arrived in East Anglia at the age of 28, his hair was starting to thin, and he's since had to keep it short, if not shaven. Sometimes, he has gone long stretches without a cut. He's also sported a beard, which he sometimes trimmed and regularly let grow all the way out.

What we are here to do is find a connection between the amount of hair he had — on the top of his head or on his face — and his scoring proficiency in a Norwich shirt. This is important work.

I have attempted to define his beardedness and baldness on a four-point scale, and divided his shooting and finishing statistics based on those ratings. It's not totally scientific, since there are grades within each of the grades I've identified, and even discerning which rating applies is hazy. I couldn't always find clear photo or video for a given game, which meant had to base my decisions for that game on a few frames from a 4-minute highlight reel. Weather, lighting, and video quality probably led to a few misclassifications. But over the course of Pukki's five seasons, I think those judgement calls balanced out, and we can find some trends.