Row the Boat 2023

Smoke and Mirrors. Its almost that time again. 10 days from now PJ Fleck and his roster of sailors will take the field at home against Nebraska, Thursday, August 31 7pm at “The Bank.” Media and coaches poll have the Gophers finishing third in the Big Ten West behind their two biggest rivals, Wisconsin and Iowa. Minnesota has the 5th toughest schedule in the entire country.

This is the final year of traditional east vs west divisions. Next year, USC and UCLA will be joining the conference, and the Big Ten Championship will be the top two teams in the conference regardless of what division they are in. Michigan is the highest ranked team in the Big Ten to start the season, at #2 in the country, and Ohio State is ranked #3. Wisconsin is the highest ranked team in the west division at #19.

Here is the schedule. The official over/under is 7.5 wins. I think they can get to 7 wins in the regular season and qualify for another no name bowl game, and perhaps win that. PJ Fleck has yet to beat Iowa while he has been head coach at the Gophers.

Nebraska
Eastern Michigan
at North Carolina
at Northwestern
Louisiana
Michigan
at Iowa
Michigan State
Illinois
at Purdue
at Ohio State
Wisconsin

I take the over… 9 wins Ski-U-Mah

9 wins would be a fantastic season with this schedule, but I wouldnt put it past them. Fleck has has pulled together 8 plus win seasons in 3 of the last 4 with the only outlier being the covid year. Row The Boat, Ski U Mah and Go Gophers!
That controversy that was that smear article sure died out quickly.

Last year they had a cake walk of a schedule and they couldn’t get it done. This year they are going to get curb stomped. I look at the schedule and my honest assessment is 5 wins.

Alex Fox wrote:

Last year they had a cake walk of a schedule and they couldn’t get it done. This year they are going to get curb stomped. I look at the schedule and my honest assessment is 5 wins.

Agreed. If they lose to Nebraska off the bat then I see no more than 3 wins.

They’re not going to beat Wisconsin for the next 10 years, or as long as Fickel is the HC. Belima is building a solid team in Illinois too.

stout93 wrote:

Belima is building a solid team in Illinois too.

The Gophers have not beat Bret Bielema yet, whether he was the coach at Wisconsin or the coach at Illinois. Their all time record against him is 0-7.

I’ll give Fleck some credit even if he hasn’t won the Big Ten West. His players stay out of legal trouble, they generally beat the teams they should, he’s beaten Wisconsin 2 out of the last 3 seasons, and he’s won every bowl game he’s coached in. Its certainly a lot better than it used to be. Now if he can just figure out a way to beat Iowa.

CaptainMusky wrote:

That controversy that was that smear article sure died out quickly.

I can’t remember if there was a thread on that or not. If you’re referring to the one that came out within the past month or two, that was beyond a joke. Some of it was downright laughable-some former players were complaining that they weren’t allowed to be individuals as much as they’d like because Fleck was big on the team concept. They also pointed out things such as “physical punishment for being late to class”…….wow, imagine those horrors

Even Ben Leber, who isn’t really a fan of Fleck’s shtick, immediately tweeted that there was nothing to the article, and expanded later on KFAN that the idea of running extra sprints for being late for class or practice has been around forever, and he acknowledged that it seems like a certain group of former players seem to try and bring this stuff up every year.

As far as the season goes….yeah awful tough schedule. I think they’re got a chance to realistically be in most games but the Michigan and Ohio State games will likely not even be close. I’m prepared for this to be something like the 3rd-place B10 West finish that Gimruis referenced, so I’m more looking forward to see a full season of Athan K. (I’ll get around to figuring out how to spell that one of these days). And there’s still some good talent on this roster as I could see at least three of them get drafted next spring.

I really like that young QB Athan Kaliakmanus. It sucked to see Tanner go down last year, but it gave us a glimpse of what this kid can do and he opens up a lot more options with the offense that Tanner just doesnt have the skills for. I love the kid though, he is gone through a lot with the loss of his dad.

Minnesota is favored by a 7 points against the Corn Huskers on Thursday night. Apparently Nebraska has an enormous fan base that travels well, so I would expect to see a large amount of red in the stadium.

gimruis wrote:

Minnesota is favored by a 7 points against the Corn Huskers on Thursday night. Apparently Nebraska has an enormous fan base that travels well, so I would expect to see a large amount of red in the stadium.

Yeah the game sold out early and it sounds like its due to a large Nebraska contingent. I expect Nebraska under Ruhle to be a more competitive team this year in all games. Frost was just a terrible coach.

Woooo. Where did you get anything credible listing MN as the “5th toughest schedule in the country?!?” Sure, this is a much more legitimate schedule than the past few years but let’s not just get crazy.

A quick google search shows their strength of schedule nowhere near that.

Sports Illustrated has them as the 25th toughest schedule.

FanSided doesn’t list them in the top 30 toughest schedules.

College Football News has them as the 36th toughest schedule.

buckybadger wrote:

Where did you get anything credible listing MN as the “5th toughest schedule in the country?!?

They said it on KFAN. More than once too. Seemed high when they said it but they’ve kept at it. Maybe trying to beat the radio drums lol

Iowa has a pretty weak schedule, comparatively. They do not play OSU or Michigan as their crossover opponents against the East division. Minnesota does, and their game they play against Iowa is at Iowa, where they haven’t won since 1999. That’s a sizable advantage on paper.

gimruis wrote:

Minnesota is favored by a 7 points against the Corn Huskers on Thursday night. Apparently Nebraska has an enormous fan base that travels well, so I would expect to see a large amount of red in the stadium.

Give me the Gophers, 24-14

I think he meant 5th toughest in the BIG conference.

I am not all that much of a college football fan. I am not much of a Fleck fan either. The gophers have always been and are still a Average big 10 team at the best. I get tired of hearing that it hard to recruit in Minnesota Because of the weather and such. Like its so much better in Michigan, Wisc, and Iowa.

NCAAF Strength-of-Schedule Rankings

South Carolina has the toughest strength of schedule in the nation this year, and the top six are all from the SEC
No Group of Five team has a schedule tougher than 25th (Houston Cougars)
The 2023 college football season is set to begin with Week Zero on Saturday, August 26. The charts and graphs below set out the strength-of-schedule rankings for the season.

Even more so than strength of schedule calculations in the NFL, SOS in college football should not be based too heavily on last season’s power ratings. There is far too much roster turnover from year to year. The calculations and rankings below factor in opponents’ efficiency ratings from last season plus how much production teams are losing, recent recruiting rankings, and major incoming transfers.

Use the rankings below in conjunction with the NCAAF win totals to find soft spots in the underbelly of the college football futures.

2023 NCAAF Strength-of-Schedule Rankings
TEAM RANK SOS TOTAL
South Carolina Gamecocks 1 128.1
Mississippi State Bulldogs 2 125.4
Alabama Crimson Tide 3 115.9
Florida Gators 4 112.0
Ole Miss Rebels 5 105.1
Missouri Tigers 6 105.0
Minnesota Golden Gophers 7 103.7
Utah Utes 8 103.7
Purdue Boilermakers 9 102.9
Michigan State Spartans 10 102.3
Ohio State Buckeyes 11 94.5
California Golden Bears 12 94.5
North Carolina Tar Heels 13 92.5

I think one of the biggest question mark for this team is RB. That has been a strength for them ever since Mo was there and had decent depth. Bryce Williams is the only one I recognize on the roster.

fishthumper wrote:

I am not all that much of a college football fan. I am not much of a Fleck fan either. The gophers have always been and are still a Average big 10 team at the best. I get tired of hearing that it hard to recruit in Minnesota Because of the weather and such. Like its so much better in Michigan, Wisc, and Iowa.

Actually, the main excuse was the facilities. Since the new stadium and the athletic complex, we are recruiting much better. This all started when Kill was here… PJ is using it now !

(Always been avg ? 18 Conference Titles & 7 National Championships)

I think the Gophers will contend in the West. They will need consistent QB play and utilize their defense to bend but rarely break as they have the past few seasons. Ultimately their schedule is not a cupcake this go round, but the top few Big 10 West teams are very similar in roster talent and aren’t likely blowing any relevant teams out of the water.

I’m a Badgers guy and like a lot of the moves, but everything is new for them. Schemes, coaches, some key players and transfers, etc. I look for them to flash at times while also dropping a couple games they shouldn’t.

Iowa is Iowa. You can hear anything from “this is their year” to “.500” as an expectation. They’re generally disciplined and hard-nosed in key spots that will keep them in any game.

I’d not be shocked to see any of these 3 win the West. I’ll also go ahead and predict they absolutely get their doors blown off in the championship game by Ohio State.

big_g wrote:

(Always been avg ? 18 Conference Titles & 7 National Championships)

None of those have been this century. Many of us here weren’t even around for that era.

I don’t care for Fleck and his shennanigans either. But you can’t argue with the results. He led this team to an 11-win season and a win against Auburn in the Outback Bowl in 2019. He’s beaten Wisconsin a couple times, something that doesn’t occur often. He’s kept his players out of legal trouble. He’s won every bowl game he’s coached in. So there are certain obvious positives and improvements during his tenure that his predecessors did not have regularly.

That being said, there’s more work to do. Iowa seems to be a massive hurdle that they just can’t overcome. And lately they can’t beat Bret Bielema, whichever team he is coaching.

Are they going to compete every year with the likes of Michigan and Ohio State? Certainly not. But there’s no reason they can’t compete every year with their two biggest rivals, Iowa and Wisconsin.

I like Fleck. Rah, rah

Let the smoke and mirrors tour begin!

big_g wrote:

Always been avg ? 18 Conference Titles & 7 National Championships)

I will change that to recent times. I would not count a 1967 last Big 10 championship and a 1960 last National championship as recent.

Rhule has alot to prove and will come out swinging. I’ve got the Huskers.

So many different polls giving you so many different answers. Believe them or not. Here is one of them:

Below are the top 25 toughest 2023 college football schedules as ranked by the ESPN FPI. To view the full list of rankings, head over to ESPN and check out the “REM SOS” column.

1. Ole Miss
2. Minnesota
3. Florida
4. Maryland
5. Auburn
6. Arkansas
7. Michigan State
8. Tennessee
9. Rutgers
10. Indiana
11. South Carolina
12. Texas
13. Kentucky
14. Penn State
15. LSU
16. Texas A&M
17. Purdue

Go Gators!

Using your guys analogies, do you say, there has never been dinosaurs.. because it was so long ago…

big_g wrote:

Using your guys analogies, do you say, there has never been dinosaurs.. because it was so long ago

Yep, I believe in Dinosaurs, I believe they were around about the same time as the Gopher football team last won a Big 10 championship or a National championship. I also believe they have a better chance of returning before the Gophers win another national championship.

So your saying they have a chance at a BIG Championship ?

big_g wrote:

So your saying they have a chance at a BIG Championship ?

No.

big_g wrote:

So your saying they have a chance at a BIG Championship ?

Big 10 West. Yes.

Anything else…no

Anything else after this year with the realignment….he*l no

The Badgers/Gophers better swing for the fences this season and maybe stumble into a back door Rose Bowl after winning the West when the Big 10 champ goes to the playoff…because it’s going to be a lot tougher road for the rest of eternity after the Big 10 adds everyone