Gopher football

They start the Big $ season this weekend against Purdue. Thoughts?

My opinion hasn’t changed since last year so i’ll save you all the time of reading it.

For as poorly as they’ve played so far they sure are resilient. They showed that last season as well. Not a typical MN sports team trait. However they need to start playing better if they’re going to win in the Big 10.

Yeah these wins haven’t been pretty but like they say, they’re wins. Good to see so many receivers (Bateman, Johnson & more) doing so well with not great QB play. I swear the Vikes and Gophers in my lifetime have had QB struggles almost every year. Morgan got thrown into the spot due to the Annextad injury and he’s been kind of “meh.” I’m not a big fan of their RPO on offense, I just don’t think they have the athletes for it but they run it a lot. Morgan can’t run or throw extremely well and those RPO’s have been very slow to develop. Having said that he has made some HUGE throws (like Fresno State in OT) that came out of nowhere.

Gotta beat Purdue, The longer the season goes on the less the Gophers will be favored, but they do have a legitimate chance of winning the West.

Legitimate chance of winning the west?! Pretty sure they can’t hang with the likes of nationally ranked Iowa or Wisconsin. Whoever wins that matchup should win the west.

The gophers have played three very mediocre teams and even though they barely won all three, I don’t see that pattern continuing in big 10 play.

On maybe that was worded a little too strongly. National ranks are great but Iowa is typically ranked too high and Wisconsin was heavily favored last year and the Gophers owned them in Madison.

Gophers have a little easier schedule with no Michigan or OSU. IF they beat the team they should and score an upset or two winning the West is possible.

Looks like Shannon Brooks will be back good time to bring him back. Purdue shouldn’t be a problem but it’s Mn sports anything is possible. After firing the Def coordinator with I think 2 games left in the season last year. And def coming up huge against the badgers I was very optimistic for this year. Haven’t seen the def yet. So hopefully they can fix a few things this week and keep it rowing.

The gophers are at best 5th in the west this year. They’ll finish behind Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, and northwestern. They’ll beat Purdue and Illinois.

Matt Moen wrote:

The gophers are at best 5th in the west this year. They’ll finish behind Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, and northwestern. They’ll beat Purdue and Illinois.

If we just went by predictions, there’d be no reason to play the games. We could just determine the standings based on a consensus of predictions.

But there’s a good reason they do play the games, because you never know which team will show up to play that day. Thank goodness, because that gives us enough reason to watch even the “predicted” mismatches.

I predict the Gophers will win some and lose some…

Dan wrote:

On maybe that was worded a little too strongly. National ranks are great but Iowa is typically ranked too high and Wisconsin was heavily favored last year and the Gophers owned them in Madison.

Gophers have a little easier schedule with no Michigan or OSU. IF they beat the team they should and score an upset or two winning the West is possible.

A little?!?!?

The Gophers have the 95th ranked strength of schedule in college football. They will likely win 8+ games and have a measurably “worse” team than last year. Fleck is padding his resume and those who understand strength of schedule will see through it. They could be a 9-win team who never cracks top 25 rankings, and rightfully so.

All of the following teams have a more difficult schedule: Liberty, North Texas, App State, LA Monroe, Rice, Kent State, LA Lafayette, Western Michigan, Tulane, GA Southern, Toledo, Army, Ball State, Texas State, Middle Tennessee, Northern Illinois, Southern Florida, Arkansas State, Miami of Ohio.

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/ranking/schedule-strength-by-other

Northwestern is having a down year. Nebraska is very winnable. Iowa and Wisconsin will be tough. I think we go 2-2 in those games.

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matt Moen wrote:</div>
The gophers are at best 5th in the west this year. They’ll finish behind Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, and northwestern. They’ll beat Purdue and Illinois.

If we just went by predictions, there’d be no reason to play the games. We could just determine the standings based on a consensus of predictions.

But there’s a good reason they do play the games, because you never know which team will show up to play that day. Thank goodness, because that gives us enough reason to watch even the “predicted” mismatches.

I predict the Gophers will win some and lose some…

It’s why we love college football. The unpredictability of the game makes it fun.

I think the gophs still have a decent team but after Wisconsin, the division is pretty even. I don’t quite understand the fascination with Iowa right now. Northwestern always seems to bounce back after tough losses early. I think Nebraska is going to keep getting better.

I’d like to see the gophers have a successful season and make a bowl game. That’s achievable and a reasonable expectation for the season.

Dan wrote:

Morgan got thrown into the spot due to the Annextad injury and he’s been kind of “meh.” I’m not a big fan of their RPO on offense, I just don’t think they have the athletes for it but they run it a lot. Morgan can’t run or throw extremely well and those RPO’s have been very slow to develop. Having said that he has made some HUGE throws (like Fresno State in OT) that came out of nowhere.

RPO is not real believable when your QB is really no threat to run. Morgan is not equipped for that really so I agree with you there.
They definitely need to play better and that O-line with all its beef needs to really get their act together. They have been getting manhandled.
The teams they have played, they certainly should beat, but its not like they were pushovers either. Each of them won 10 games last year and Fresno has lost 4 games the last 2 years, 2 of which to the Gophers.
Saturday’s game will be a real test. Purdue has a QB that can throw and a WR that is shifty as heck, actually I think he is a RB, but he has done damage so far.

CaptainMusky wrote:

RPO is not real believable when your QB is really no threat to run. Morgan is not equipped for that really so I agree with you there.

Right. I don’t know/remember that much about Annexstad, but it seems like the offense was built around RPO play-calling and when Annexstad went down they put a different guy (Morgan) in there and expected to be successful in it. The run game is usually fairly solid so that helps set it up, but like you said it’s not real believable because who really cares if Morgan runs it.

Matt Moen wrote:

They’ll finish behind Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, and northwestern. They’ll beat Purdue and Illinois.

The Gophers should beat Illinoi, Purdue, and at least one of Nebraska/NW. Could possibly pull an upset on Iowa and/or Wisco. Nebraska barely beat the Illini who are terrible, and we don’t know how good Wisconsin is yet as they haven’t played anyone. Sure they beat Michigan but that program is a $hitshow right now, and Michigan barely beat Army and it was much closer than it should have been against Middle TN State.

Gophers biggest problems are on the line, on the OLine they are too slow and DLine is too small and inexperienced. The Oline could/should improve a fair amount, and the DLine will need some scheme help against the bruisers in the Big10. I’m looking forward to the season, it should be the Gophers best in quite a while.

Sounds like all the RBs will be ready for Saturday. Been pretty banged up there. Nice to see Brooks come back, even Ibrahim he had some great runs last year as well.
They have so many very good RBs, but they have been decimated by injuries. They should get some help with them being healthier now.

buckybadger wrote:

The Gophers have the 95th ranked strength of schedule in college football. They will likely win 8+ games and have a measurably “worse” team than last year. Fleck is padding his resume and those who understand strength of schedule will see through it.

Of the many things you can hang on Fleck, scheduling to pad his resume is not one of them. Non conference aside, which even then included Fresno State…they (the coach/program) does not get to choose who and when they play in the conference schedule.

Matt Moen wrote:

I’d like to see the gophers have a successful season and make a bowl game. That’s achievable and a reasonable expectation for the season.

Yes, and sadly that seems to be the most we can hope for them…year after year. Mediocrity.

CaptainMusky wrote:

They have so many very good RBs, but they have been decimated by injuries. They should get some help with them being healthier now.

No matter how good the RB’s are, the OL line still has to open the holes or they go nowhere.

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>buckybadger wrote:</div>
The Gophers have the 95th ranked strength of schedule in college football. They will likely win 8+ games and have a measurably “worse” team than last year. Fleck is padding his resume and those who understand strength of schedule will see through it.

This year’s non-conference games weren’t scheduled by Fleck. I think Clays did the Fresno Game and Fleck has bitched about it multiple times.

This Saturdays Purdue game I think will be another close game. I’m not a Gopher fan and I think they will win. Purdue has too many injuries already in this young season.

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

No matter how good the RB’s are, the OL line still has to open the holes or they go nowhere.

Yeah, I already mentioned the poor play of the O-line.

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matt Moen wrote:</div>
They’ll finish behind Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, and northwestern. They’ll beat Purdue and Illinois.

The Gophers should beat Illinoi, Purdue, and at least one of Nebraska/NW. Could possibly pull an upset on Iowa and/or Wisco. Nebraska barely beat the Illini who are terrible, and we don’t know how good Wisconsin is yet as they haven’t played anyone. Sure they beat Michigan but that program is a $hitshow right now, and Michigan barely beat Army and it was much closer than it should have been against Middle TN State.

Gophers biggest problems are on the line, on the OLine they are too slow and DLine is too small and inexperienced. The Oline could/should improve a fair amount, and the DLine will need some scheme help against the bruisers in the Big10. I’m looking forward to the season, it should be the Gophers best in quite a while.

.

By this logic the gophers shouldn’t win another game since they barely beat the jackrabbits.

Any team can beat another on a given weekend but the lines have been the Gophers strength the last couple years and they aren’t anymore. They have a couple skill position guys but they are going to get manhandled in the trenches. If they can’t run to setup the pass it could be a long year.

Purdue, Illinois and Rutgers should be wins. Then they have Maryland and northwestern as toss ups. 6 or 7 wins is the way this season shakes out.

I’d love to see the gophers challenge in the west at some point but it’s unlikely. The only time I would root against them is when they play Nebraska.

I think people saw their schedule and remember the win against Wisconsin and got really excited for this year. I just don’t see it but hope they can get to 8 wins.

As Andy said…..that’s why they play the games!

Matt Moen wrote:

As Andy said…..that’s why they play the games!

That’s the truth, and I try to be an optimist until it’s proven not to be! That Illini-Neb game took the wind out of my GBR relatives sails for this year.

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matt Moen wrote:</div>
As Andy said…..that’s why they play the games!

That’s the truth, and I try to be an optimist until it’s proven not to be! That Illini-Neb game took the wind out of my GBR relatives sails for this year.

I wasn’t real happy with it but they allowed 28 points off turnovers and had 140 penalty yards. Hopefully that’s an aberration. 700 yards of offense was a good sign though.

Gotta beat Purdue, The longer the season goes on the less the Gophers will be favored, but they do have a legitimate chance of winning the West.
[/quote]

Win the West? I would pick Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa before the Gophers even get in the picture. Sorry, but if you struggle with the likes of GA Somewhere and 1-AA South Dakota Something how do expect to compete in the Big Ten? Don’t see it.

They were just playing to the level of the competition. That’s the Minnesota sports way.

Is Sindelar playing for Purdue? If he is… I think Purdue wins. If he sits… I think Minnesota wins.

I think its funny the continual shade thrown toward Iowa. No respect. Did you know… that since 2001, Iowa has more wins and top 10 finishes than Michigan and Nebraska. I get it… they’re not sexy, they’re not a blue blood… but they win games.

That being said… injuries and other team dynamics impact matchups throughout the season. If Iowa played Minn tomorrow, I’d say they are a 2 TD favorite. By November 16th when they actually play… its anyone’s guess. The BIG west already looks vastly different than it did in August.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the Gophers perform now that all the excuses are gone. It’s showtime for Fleck. We’ve heard a lot about elite this and culture that and all the other rah rah. Time to come up with the goods.

The 3 “wins” in the NC schedule did NOT inspire confidence. As Fleck himself pointed out, we could easily be 0-3.

So on to the B10 season and no more excuses about how this “isn’t his [Fleck’s] team”, his culture, his whatever. Fleck owns it now, it’s time to cash the check.

The reason the Gophers football program has been in Hardtimesville for so long is that the U is way too accepting of BS rah-rah crap and way too unappreciative of real coaching talent.

If Fleck can’t put together a winning B10 record with what he’s got this year, then it’s time to call BS to all this elite culture crapola. IN the modern college D1 football environment the reality is MN is never going to pull recruits from the powerhouse HS football areas. So this team is totally representative of what any and all coaches at the U will have to work with. If that isn’t enough for Fleck, then he’ll always be a loser and we need to move on.

No more excuses, PJ. Time to prove you can win.

Grouse

You don’t need a bunch of 4 and 5-star recruits to win. Just look at Wisconsin, they only have 9 on their team this year.

I think how the Gophers closed the season out last year many people had some high expectations for them but people forget teams change year over year. It’s still very early in the season but I’m also curious to see how they do in the B10 schedule.

Regarding the Fleck thing the guy annoys me to no end. That said, I don’t care if middle aged fans like him and I honestly don’t even care if he can coach. All I care about is if he can get talented 16-18yo athletes interested in playing football here. Hire position coaches and coordinators to do the actual coaching. College football comes down to talent/athleticism and scheme. Let Fleck jabberjaw his way into kids living rooms to take care of the former and hire competent people around him for the latter. My $0.02

I’ve been disappointed in this team’s lack of run blocking and shaky defense so far this year. Passing game is limited a bit by Morgan but he’s got the weapons to be decent. If they can establish the run like they have in years past they’ll compete against even middling-to-good B1G opponents. Gotta stop the gashing runs on defense

moustachesteve wrote:

Regarding the Fleck thing the guy annoys me to no end. That said, I don’t care if middle aged fans like him and I honestly don’t even care if he can coach. All I care about is if he can get talented 16-18yo athletes interested in playing football here. Hire position coaches and coordinators to do the actual coaching. College football comes down to talent/athleticism and scheme. Let Fleck jabberjaw his way into kids living rooms to take care of the former and hire competent people around him for the latter. My $0.02

This is what the majority of the Fleck haters refuse to appreciate. YOU get it! It doesnt matter what WE think of him, its what the KIDS think of him and the results on the field. The kids love him and they compete for him and each other.
One thing the first 3 games of this season has shown is they dont quit! They are resilient and find a way to win.
Too many people fall into the trap of “oh, they barely beat an FCS team” or whatever. FCS teams are beating FBS teams on a fairly regular basis each year.
I care less about that the games were close against teams they should have beaten and more about how they needed a final drive to get a TD with under 3 mins to go, no timeouts and facing a 3 and 30 and somehow find a way to get a TD and win. Previous Gopher teams would have folded.

CaptainMusky wrote:

This is what the majority of the Fleck haters refuse to appreciate. YOU get it! It doesnt matter what WE think of him, its what the KIDS think of him and the results on the field.

Sorry, but if the kids were really falling for this Fleck rah-rah crap, why aren’t the Gophers ranked in the top 10? Surely Fleck is an elite BS artist, so where are all these wide-eyed blue-chip recruits that should be falling for it?

The kids are a LOT smarter than you guys are giving them credit for. Anybody the U is interested in has multiple other offers and they are being influenced way more by HS coaches and camp coaches and websites than they are by this Fleck’s rah-rah BS.

As I said, time for Fleck to produce the goods. We’ve heard all the excuses. Wins talk, BS walks.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Sorry, but if the kids were really falling for this Fleck rah-rah crap, why aren’t the Gophers ranked in the top 10? Surely Fleck is an elite BS artist, so where are all these wide-eyed blue-chip recruits that should be falling for it?

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

As I said, time for Fleck to produce the goods. We’ve heard all the excuses. Wins talk, BS walks.

Ok I’m sorry Grouse, but cmon. Really? Flecks first recruiting class was the highest ranked for the Gophers.. ever. 24 of the 25 recruits he pulled ranked higher than their average recruit ranking the previous 5 years before him. Dunlap was already committed to his hometown Florida Gators when Fleck flipped him. Programs stopped contacting Bateman because they thought he was going to stay in Georgia to play for the Kirby, until Fleck flipped him too. Faalele had offers from Bama, Auburn, UGA, FSU, LSU, and Michigan when he chose Minnesota. His first recruiting class are now sophomores/redshirt freshman. Dont look now but hes got a top 30 class coming in next year and a top 10 class, so far, in 2021 (including a big time QB recruit).

Bouncing from coach to coach, recruiter to recruiter, like the Gophers did for a few years there will kill any program. Then add on all of the sexual assault allegations? I’m not for all the rah-rah Fleck has to offer, but you cannot question his recruiting. Cant build a football program overnight. Patience my friend.