Thoughts on 2026?

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ergopher said:
Realizing that this could be a chance to take in a massive trophy haul. We also had this chance in '24, but regrettably couldn't quite get there with Michigan and PSU and collapsed against Iowa. With how down the former two programs are and with Iowa at home, there's a good chance that we could add to the trophy case next year. At the very least, I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Very interesting schedule especially after the Michigan debacle overall, I don't see a game that's a sure loss this year. Closest to that would be Indiana, but with a lot of their stars headed to the draft they could fall back down to earth, or at least far enough that we can stand a chance. I'll be curious to see when we get our bye.
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Agreed - this is the year. Basically everyone is back. Do we know if Anthony Smith is sticking around? Huge if true
 


ergopher said:
Realizing that this could be a chance to take in a massive trophy haul. We also had this chance in '24, but regrettably couldn't quite get there with Michigan and PSU and collapsed against Iowa. With how down the former two programs are and with Iowa at home, there's a good chance that we could add to the trophy case next year. At the very least, I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Very interesting schedule especially after the Michigan debacle overall, I don't see a game that's a sure loss this year. Closest to that would be Indiana, but with a lot of their stars headed to the draft they could fall back down to earth, or at least far enough that we can stand a chance. I'll be curious to see when we get our bye.
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The gophers have only four home games and five on the road in the BTen. It all depends on how the gophers do in the transfer portal. We need to fill spots on the OL, a really good WR, another RB for depth, one or two DL guys, a LB and a one or two DB's. The way we played this year on the road was not good, very good at home. We could easily lose three or four of the road games and one or two of the home games. Indiana, Washington, Penn State, Michigan, and Iowa will be tough games. Purdue and Whisky will be better. Northwestern seems to play their best against us. If we can win all three non-conference games plus five conference games, a record of 8 wins and 4 losses would be pretty good. Mississippi State, Iowa, Michigan, Indiana, Penn State, Washington will be real tough games. Throw in Northwestern, UCLA, Purdue and Whisky and the nine game conference schedule will be a tough nut to crack. Washington is very good at home. Our QB, who was freshman should be better with a year of experience. I expect a record of 7 to 9 wins in 2026. If we go 9 and 3, that would be a very good year with the competition we are playing.
 

DRJ said:
The gophers have only four home games and five on the road in the BTen. It all depends on how the gophers do in the transfer portal. We need to fill spots on the OL, a really good WR, another RB for depth, one or two DL guys, a LB and a one or two DB's. The way we played this year on the road was not good, very good at home. We could easily lose three or four of the road games and one or two of the home games. Indiana, Washington, Penn State, Michigan, and Iowa will be tough games. Purdue and Whisky will be better. Northwestern seems to play their best against us. If we can win all three non-conference games plus five conference games, a record of 8 wins and 4 losses would be pretty good. Mississippi State, Iowa, Michigan, Indiana, Penn State, Washington will be real tough games. Throw in Northwestern, UCLA, Purdue and Whisky and the nine game conference schedule will be a tough nut to crack. Washington is very good at home. Our QB, who was freshman should be better with a year of experience. I expect a record of 7 to 9 wins in 2026. If we go 9 and 3, that would be a very good year with the competition we are playing.
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9 wins would be astronomical in my opinion. 7 wins next year would be solid. The gophers need a LOT to go their way to improve by 2 wins with a tougher schedule. They could be better but have the same record pretty easy...
 

gopherbadgerman said:
9 wins would be astronomical in my opinion. 7 wins next year would be solid. The gophers need a LOT to go their way to improve by 2 wins with a tougher schedule. They could be better but have the same record pretty easy...
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I am maybe dumbly optimistic but we only played worth a damn twice this year that seems like a low bar improve upon. We still won seven this year. Let’s say we play well in half our games next year beat the chumps. I could see us winning more in 26.
 



gopherbadgerman said:
9 wins would be astronomical in my opinion. 7 wins next year would be solid. The gophers need a LOT to go their way to improve by 2 wins with a tougher schedule. They could be better but have the same record pretty easy...
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Agreed. I think 8 wins when the Gophers were in the Big Ten West may be equivalent to 7 wins in the new 18 team conference without the protection of the Big Ten West. We got lucky this season with getting the majority of the bottom-of-the-league teams at home.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
9 wins would be astronomical in my opinion. 7 wins next year would be solid. The gophers need a LOT to go their way to improve by 2 wins with a tougher schedule. They could be better but have the same record pretty easy...
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I guess I don’t agree that the schedule is materially harder.

Washington on the schedule this year.
Beat UCLA
Purdue
Rutgers
Maryland
Illinois the one impressive win

Lost to Wisconsin


Indiana is no harder than Ohio State

Would you rather play Oregon, Michigan state, and Nebraska or Michigan, Penn state, and Washington
I guess it depends on how well they transition

UCLA is worse than Rutgers IMO

Iowa is iowa
Northwestern is northwestern
Purdue is Purdue
Wisconsin is Wisconsin



Might be slightly tougher but it’s more similar than different than the 2025 schedule
 
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TwistingMyMelon said:
Agreed. I think 8 wins when the Gophers were in the Big Ten West may be equivalent to 7 wins in the new 18 team conference without the protection of the Big Ten West. We got lucky this season with getting the majority of the bottom-of-the-league teams at home.
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the schedule has too much variability to make a claim like this.

Some years it’s going to be harder than a hard west year.
Some years it’s going to be easier than an easy western year.

The difference between the potential hardest and the potential easiest schedules in the conference is massive
 

Some guy said:
I guess I don’t agree that the schedule is materially harder.

Washington on the schedule this year.
Beat UCLA
Purdue
Rutgers
Maryland
Illinois the one impressive win

Lost to Wisconsin


Indiana is no harder than Ohio State

Would you rather play Oregon, Michigan state, and Nebraska or Michigan, Penn state, and Washington
I guess it depends on how well they transition

UCLA is worse than Rutgers IMO

Iowa is iowa
Northwestern is northwestern
Purdue is Purdue
Wisconsin is Wisconsin



Might be slightly tougher but it’s more similar than different than the 2025 schedule
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Everyone has their opinions I guess. To me it’s harder and they definitely will need to find a way to win multiple road games.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
Everyone has their opinions I guess. To me it’s harder and they definitely will need to find a way to win multiple road games.
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Well they definitely need to win a road game to match the conference record

They don’t need to win a road game to match the overall record
 





Some guy said:
I don’t think they would have.
They’d have played 9 games.
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I just find it amazing I everyone is discounting that team. Their schedule was the definition of a gauntlet. They had a better win vs ASU than any gopher win and played a lot of good teams tough.

I am by no means saying they are great but that are talented.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
I just find it amazing I everyone is discounting that team. Their schedule was the definition of a gauntlet. They had a better win vs ASU than any gopher win and played a lot of good teams tough.

I am by no means saying they are great but that are talented.
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I feel much better about the game knowing it’s at home.
But they’re a decent team who played a tough schedule.

They were 1-1 against Arkansas and Florida. And those are probably the two games you could best compare to the bottom of the gophers schedule
 

Some guy said:
I feel much better about the game knowing it’s at home.
But they’re a decent team who played a tough schedule.

They were 1-1 against Arkansas and Florida. And those are probably the two games you could best compare to the bottom of the gophers schedule
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I don’t think Florida is comparable to Purdue or Michigan State
 

gopherbadgerman said:
I don’t think Florida is comparable to Purdue or Michigan State
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I disagree with you on that.

Having high school talent doesn’t make you a good team.

Florida lost by 31 to Kentucky
Florida was 4-8

I suppose we can operate under the assumption that some teams always have talent. But I don’t think Penn state was a good team this year either
 

Some guy said:
I disagree with you on that.

Having high school talent doesn’t make you a good team.

Florida lost by 31 to Kentucky
Florida was 4-8

I suppose we can operate under the assumption that some teams always have talent. But I don’t think Penn state was a good team this year either
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I don’t think penn state and Purdue are comparable either so I judge more on talent, but I will totally agree than talent does not always make a difference.

My initial response in this thread was regarding the talent level of Mississippi State
 

gopherbadgerman said:
I don’t think penn state and Purdue are comparable either so I judge more on talent, but I will totally agree than talent does not always make a difference.

My initial response in this thread was regarding the talent level of Mississippi State
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I would think they’re probably pretty similar to Minnesota having not watched them at all.
How many of the games did you watch to inform your opinion?

I lied I did watch about a quarter and a half of the egg bowl
 

Some guy said:
I would think they’re probably pretty similar to Minnesota having not watched them at all.
How many of the games did you watch to inform your opinion?

I lied I did watch about a quarter and a half of the egg bowl
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ASU and the Egg Bowl.

But I’d say the majority of my opinion on talent level is based on recruiting rankings.
 

Some guy said:
I would think they’re probably pretty similar to Minnesota having not watched them at all.
How many of the games did you watch to inform your opinion?

I lied I did watch about a quarter and a half of the egg bowl
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Miss St is definitely more talented than us. They are not as disciplined however.

Since 2022 - 2026, as per 247:

Minn: 49, 45, 36, 47, 29

MS State: 26, 27, 29, 28, 27
 

mggoph said:
Miss St is definitely more talented than us. They are not as disciplined however.

Since 2022 - 2026, as per 247:

Minn: 49, 45, 36, 47, 29

MS State: 26, 27, 29, 28, 27
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why do you believe these?
The talent clearly has not materialized in a meaningful way for them. Have they finished top 30 in any poll at the end of any of these seasons?

My tin foil hat take is these recruiting rankings are artificially high for SE schools, these bias the pre-season and early season ranks (and metrics like FPI), and then bias playoff rankings (why was Tenn ranked for so long despite a pretty poor body of work).

These recruiting services operate primarily off a subscription service, and why would you tell your paying customer 1. Their teams ranking is not as high as they hope and 2. The teams they beat were ranked top 30 despite every actual football outcome showing they have been and will be dog shit.
 

mggoph said:
Miss St is definitely more talented than us. They are not as disciplined however.

Since 2022 - 2026, as per 247:

Minn: 49, 45, 36, 47, 29

MS State: 26, 27, 29, 28, 27
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What about their transfer class ranks and retention of recruits?

Recruiting class rankings alone have diminished as a measure of overall team talent.

Recruiting class rank +/- net transfer balance from each year is probably a better measure
 



fmlizard said:
What about their transfer class ranks and retention of recruits?

Recruiting class rankings alone have diminished as a measure of overall team talent.

Recruiting class rank +/- net transfer balance from each year is probably a better measure
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Not to mention wre talking tenths of a decimal point between being ranked 20th and 40th. There's really not much difference after the top fifteen. All about how you retain, deploy and develop and Mississippi State clearly sucks at that or they wouldn't be 1-7, will see if they can avoid 5-8 in their bowl game
 

GooningGopher said:
why do you believe these?
The talent clearly has not materialized in a meaningful way for them. Have they finished top 30 in any poll at the end of any of these seasons?

My tin foil hat take is these recruiting rankings are artificially high for SE schools, these bias the pre-season and early season ranks (and metrics like FPI), and then bias playoff rankings (why was Tenn ranked for so long despite a pretty poor body of work).

These recruiting services operate primarily off a subscription service, and why would you tell your paying customer 1. Their teams ranking is not as high as they hope and 2. The teams they beat were ranked top 30 despite every actual football outcome showing they have been and will be dog shit.
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I'm not saying that I do believe these. I'm just supplying data. I also agree that there is an SEC bias and a ratings subscription bias.

I watch Miss St a lot for many years now, and they are definitely very talented. But they aren't very disciplined. I would also say that SEC is more even top to bottom compared to BIG. Their schedules also include more cupcakes.
 


gopherbadgerman said:
I just find it amazing I everyone is discounting that team. Their schedule was the definition of a gauntlet. They had a better win vs ASU than any gopher win and played a lot of good teams tough.

I am by no means saying they are great but that are talented.
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So there more talented because some internet jack off gave their recruits a slightly higher decimal point. Lol if you want to call them wagon because they might have gone 3-6 with our schedule you go on ahead
 

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