Row the Boat 2023

The opening spread for Saturday’s border battle in Mpls favors Wisconsin by 2.5 points. Its been 25 years since the Gophers beat both Iowa and Wisconsin in the same season, which last occurred in 1998.

Looks like Michigan beat OSU on a late FG to win the east, so the Wolverines will play Iowa next week for the Big Ten Championship.

Boat rowers currently up 14-7 in the second quarter on Bucky for the axe.

Typical Badger penalties doing the damage.

How can Kalimantan???????? Get worse every game? He couldn’t quarterback a good high school team at this point. He looks like he just want to sit down and cry.

I think you got a leaky boat

I think Dutchboy was right. They aren’t even qualified to make the Huggies Diaper Bowl.

Let’s get two things clear:

1. Neither of these teams are good
2. The new Big 10 could swallow one or both of these programs whole and make it so that just being bowl eligible is an uphill battle each year.

In regards to the game itself, the Badgers got some key runs from their QB when they needed it, along with a less than 100% Braelon Allen still being a load to tackle for 4 quarters. I liked the resiliency of being down early and not changing the gameplan or pressing on the road in a rivalry game. To me that said a lot about the staff.

Moving forward, both teams have a lot to figure out in the coming seasons. Fickell has a big task ahead of him, but one should reserve judgement as he’s running a system with all new coaches using mostly key players from the previous regime. Minnesota has some soul searching to do. These ARE PJ’s guys in HIS system with years of continuity now. I don’t see it playing out terribly well for them in the new Big 10. It could be equally bad for the Badgers, but it’s too early to tell or guess with the program under Fickell.

3rdtryguy wrote:

How can Kalimantan???????? Get worse every game? He couldn’t quarterback a good high school team at this point. He looks like he just want to sit down and cry.

My worry is that Athan is cemented in at starting QB. Same thing happened with guys like Leidner and Morgan; ok-ish QB’s that at times made the case for being the best QB on the roster, and once the coaching staff was committed to them they rode that train until the guy graduated without any real QB competition or experimenting.

What a boring team. Boring is fine when you win, but do something different when you are losing.
In his first few seasons I was impressed by the half-time adjustments. Now, it’s not even in the team’s vocabulary.

Now we know why PJ stresses good academics. Back door way to a bowl game. I heard a sound bite of his this morning (paraphrased): we could have our best team on the field for the bowl game as we get guys back.

buckybadger wrote:

Moving forward, both teams have a lot to figure out in the coming seasons. Fickell has a big task ahead of him, but one should reserve judgement as he’s running a system with all new coaches using mostly key players from the previous regime. Minnesota has some soul searching to do. These ARE PJ’s guys in HIS system with years of continuity now. I don’t see it playing out terribly well for them in the new Big 10. It could be equally bad for the Badgers, but it’s too early to tell or guess with the program under Fickell.

My thoughts exactly. Fickell is just getting started, and should be given some time to implement his new system and to bring in his own recruits. Give him a year or two so he can recruit his own players that fit his system. As you pointed out, Minn may be in a worse position being that Fleck has been there for awhile. Watched a few USC games and that team doesn’t look like any powerhouse especially given the fact their QB is supposedly the #1 pick in the draft.

Netguy wrote:

Now we know why PJ stresses good academics. Back door way to a bowl game.

Wouldn’t you know it, the NCAA needs one team to fill the final spot in a bowl game and there aren’t any 6-6 teams left, so they have to take a 5-7 team with the highest academics, which just happens to be the Gophers.

I’m all for having good grades, but this is embarrassing. At no point should a team that is not at least 6-6 qualify for a bowl, ever.

They will learn their fate on Dec 3, with the most likely destination in Detroit for the Quick Lane Bowl or in Las Vegas for the Vegas Bowl.

I’m sure PJ will toot his horn about making a bowl again. This one has to be with a * next to it though.

PJ needs to keep his mouth shut and figure out how to recruit.

PJ doesn’t tout making it to bowls he just comments how it’s good for preparing for next season. PJ recruits just fine probably has the best RB in the league but he got hurt. Had 6 freshmen starters on defense yesterday. That is not desirable obviously. There will likely be at least 1 1st round pick off this team.

CaptainMusky wrote:

PJ doesn’t tout making it to bowls he just comments how it’s good for preparing for next season. PJ recruits just fine probably has the best RB in the league but he got hurt. Had 6 freshmen starters on defense yesterday. That is not desirable obviously. There will likely be at least 1 1st round pick off this team.

The quarterback?

CaptainMusky wrote:

PJ doesn’t tout making it to bowls he just comments how it’s good for preparing for next season. PJ recruits just fine probably has the best RB in the league but he got hurt. Had 6 freshmen starters on defense yesterday. That is not desirable obviously. There will likely be at least 1 1st round pick off this team.

Agree with pretty much everything you said. As a team you get an opportunity for a lot more practices, seniors get to stay together as their playing careers are over soon, and underclassmen get more experience and hopefully keep the fire burning. What’s a coach supposed to say, “no I don’t want any of that?”

Gopher football this year was a joke, could’ve/ should’ve won the division by 2-3 games. But complaining about being the last in to a bowl game is completely misguided. So many bowls exist because corporations continue to want the exposure by sponsoring them. ESPN gets the vast majority of them and football trumps almost any viewing in this country hands down, so they want plenty of bowls. Relax a little on the personal hatred of PJ everyone, it doesn’t mean that every single thing comes back to him and him alone.

And yes Musky, Tyler Nubin. Had kind of a weak stretch of 3 games or so this year but I could see him as a top-45 pick for sure. Real good safety.

“As a team you get an opportunity for a lot more practices, seniors get to stay together as their playing careers are over soon, and underclassmen get more experience and hopefully keep the fire burning.”

So how many bowl games do you need before all this valuable experience starts showing up?

Maybe they will be playing in the Toilet Bowl. All kidding aside it is good for any program as the kids get additional practice time, otherwise their season and practice is done for the year I think after the last game of the season.

Can’t say I really care about a Gophers bowl game regardless if they won 5, 6, or 7 games. There’s like 3 bowls that I care about outside of the playoff, and it takes a 10-11 wins to make it to one of them. QB spot should be an open competition moving forward, same as the other positions. They also need to clear the Covid backlog, the hangers on don’t bring a lot to the table and take playing time from the younger recruits. Also, as mentioned earlier if they want to play in the big leagues, they need to compete on NIL $, and sounds like they are not even close at this point in time. Finally, just following up on the Brevyn Spann-Ford discussion earlier in the thread, he finishes with 25 catches 239 yards and 2 TD’s this season. Hopefully he can carve out a pro career as a blocking TE!

The gophers have offered a Transfer Portal QA already who had a nice year granted probably not very good competition. Sounds like other teams also offered.

Pig-hunter wrote:

KP wrote:
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Pig-hunter wrote:</div>
Wisconsin will be bad this season. Expect 6 wins max.

I smell a troll here!

The Badgers will have some learning curves of course with a new system and quite a few transfers but Fickell is a proven coach and has brought in a great staff. Pig Hunter please DM me because I will for sure take the over that the Badgers will have more than 6 wins. Lets make a bet!

Back to the Gophers I think it will be interesting to see how the offense is different this year. I think they will beat Nebraska but it will be a close game. I wonder if Nebraska will have half the stadium filled of their fans?

LOL. Nope, they were 6-6 last year and lucky to be that. Now they have a new system. Love watching you sconnies squirm. Honestly, the best thing that happened to your team was Mertz leaving. He was a godsend to the rest of the conference. Just a terrible QB.

PS You were ranked 18th to start the year last year too and were basically a Big Ten cupcake.

Hey, if you get more than that, good for you. But there’s a good chance you get less also! Have a fun season Skunk fans.

This aged well!

But in all seriousness I think both team under performed this year. The Badgers dont seem to be adapting to the new offense and I thought the Gophers QB would be way better than he showed this year. Glad this is rivalry game again because it really makes it better to watch and for some friendly banter.

CaptainMusky wrote:

The gophers have offered a Transfer Portal QA already who had a nice year granted probably not very good competition. Sounds like other teams also offered.

I heard this on KFAN this morning but they didnt say who it was. Is the transfer portal open already?

I really question the logic of Nebraska and Wisconsin going the way of the spread offense via HC hires.

I guess I don’t understand the logic of keeping your team together for more practices and how it’s hugely beneficial. Is extra practice good, of course. But Michigan, OSU, Penn State, Oregon, USC, Washington, teams that Minnesota can’t compete with, are also getting that extra practice time and they’re getting it for meaningful games. Underclassmen that can’t compete at top tier levels aren’t going to ever compete with those teams, no matter how many extra practices you give them. Especially when those teams are also getting extra reps.

Have to recruit better and have to get NIL money injected into the program.

Player development is just as important as recruiting in my experiance.
Lots of former 3 star recruits now play on Sunday.

KP wrote:

I heard this on KFAN this morning but they didnt say who it was. Is the transfer portal open already?

Yeah, I forget his name but its some kid from New Hampshire and had good stats. 20 something TDs, 7 ints and a few rushing tds too I believe. I think his first name was Max.

Brian Bezanson wrote:

Player development is just as important as recruiting in my experiance.
Lots of former 3 star recruits now play on Sunday.

This is the way. And something Fleck has historically been pretty dang good at.

5-7

Dutchboy wrote:

5-7

Now do his entire tenure.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Now do his entire tenure.

I think the point here is that a 5-7 team is not bowl eligible by any measurable standards. The went winless the entire month of November for cryin’ out loud. 3 of those 4 losses were by at least 14 points or more.

The over/under on this team was 7.5 wins before the season began. PJ will rah rah his win over Iowa for the first time in his career here and then play the angle that making any bowl is a great accomplishment.

They need a better QB or Kali needs much improvement. I say if they would of had a senior Leidner or Morgan in there, this team would have been at least 8-4, maybe 9-3 this season. PJ can recruit, but he needs to learn how to knock an opponent out… don’t let them hang around playing prevent football. As Michigan proved again… you gotta play for 60.