Gophers

Reading through the Espn headlines this morning and saw that coach Kill and the gophers are getting some love. They have a really nice story on Kill and his struggle and how he’s trying to change himself and the culture at Minnesota. I really enjoyed the read.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/10000275/minnesota-gophers-jerry-kill-changing-routine-deal-epileptic-seizures

Having said all of this and reading the article it does not change my feelings on the game, I still believe the Badgers are the better team and should win. I will be cheering my heart out for UW and that will never change. Above all I want this rivalry to be competitive again, I want to have to fear the Gophers a little bit, and for the first time in quite some time I truly am scared we might lose. If the Badgers do lose it won’t be the end of the world for me (granted our BCS chances will be demolished), because I have always had a soft spot for coach Kill and especially this year there is something special seemingly happening in the UM football team. Go Badgers!

Nice story about Kill and nice to get some respect from a national outlet for once. And I do mean for ONCE.

I agree that Wisconsin is the better team and on paper they should certainly win this game. Unfortunately for the Badgers there are two ways they can lose this weekend. 1. Lose outright and 2. lose by winning in an unconvincing way that puts questions of overranking in the minds of the BowlMeisters. The Gophers certainly know this and will be doing everything in their power to poop in the Badger’s orange punch bowl.

Anything other than a >14 point victory is a loss for Wisconsin this weekend and puts them at risk of getting downgraded out of the Orange bowl. Obviously, an outright loss would see Wisconsin out of the Orange bowl and probably downgrade them more than 1 bowl position overall depending on what other teams do.

Grouse

Grouse

Its hard not to root for coach kill. I think we finally got a coach and hope we keep him.

about a month ago, some wanted to throw him out all together…. he is a good coach/mentor and kids do want to play for him

Naw I never said anything about throwing him out. My stance is paying $800,000 to a team that might not even beat you is insane. It was Kills idea and the AD went along with it.

As far as Kill goes he seems to be headed the right way. I’m not willing to say they are ready to contend for anything yet. Their wins in the Big 10 are mostly unimpressive, but they are wins!

If they can stay within 17 points against Wisconsin maybe I’ll change my thinking a little bit.

Agree with everything stated but most of the human polls would reflect that the Badgers are actually underrated, the computers however are the opposite as of last week one of the computers had the Badgers un-ranked. Not saying we need more respect but the BCS system is just confusing as all heck sometimes. I was shocked when I saw that the Badgers are 15 point favorites this weekend, on the road in a rivalry game.

Normally I would chalk it up to a loss under Bielema, but Andersen has me convinced this Badger team will not underachieve consistently on the road like Bielema coached teams so often did. Also one other note, if and this is a big if, the Badgers get up big don’t expect them to let off the gas. Last weekend up 30 on Indiana Andersen kept the scoring going to impress the voters.

The proof things are heading the right way is right here…discussion. Kill gets the kids buying into the plan and that’s a big part of the battle I would think.
ESPN gameday will be in Stillwater on Saturday, not sure why not on campus.
I’ve been a Vikes fan forever but to see the Gophs become competitive would be extremely enjoyable. There’s just a whole different feel with the college game that I really like.
Not expecting a win on Saturday but this is one of the rare times a moral victory close game would be good.

Weather will be a factor.
High of 21, 14mph winds and chance of snow.

Who ever can run the ball better, without fumbling, is going to win.

How well each team runs, depends a great deal on how good the other team is at defending the run.

Badgers front line and line backers are almost entirely upper class men and they can play. (Vince Biegel is a red shirt freshman and he’s pretty darn good as well)

Badger defense stacks up better when it comes to stopping the run.

Equalizer is that its a rivalry game.

Should be a fun game to watch.

My prediction: Badgers win 45-17 over the Gophers.

Next year, just for fun, we should do a “Pick the Winner” contest for all Big Ten games. Best record at the end of the year could carry some sort of title. Maybe IDO sports wizard or something.

I love that idea, I already pick most of the big college football games every week as my roommates and I have a weekly and yearly contest. But picking for fun against guys on IDO would be really fun as well. My prediction is a little more conservative 35 to 17 although I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if it’s some ugly score like 22 to 9.

Unfortunately, the computers don’t take into account what happened against Arizona St for the Badgers. That loss will haunt them for the rest of the year. The Gophers are a feel good story. They have come a long way, but still have a ways to go. Badgers by 10-14pts. Would love to see the rivalry competitive again.