2013 Football Schedule

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Rosemountian said:
I like the idea of a 4-0 start....BUT
I think our team next year will be no better than they were this year.
UNLV we barely beat.
New Mexico State beat us recently and it is on the road.
San Jose State is a really solid team.

I think we win all 3, but it is possible we could lose a game or two in there.

Our conference home schedule will be fun, but that also means our most winnable games are on the road. Which concerns me.


Will be an interesting year. I have heard even a few in the national media say we could be a surprising 8 win team next year, but honestly I will be kinda surprised if we get to 6.
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I have missed your positive insight and cheerful outlook. I can understand why you might be a little grumpy after waking up from your winter nap but this team will be better. There are all kinds of reasons for that but it will start with an offensive line that is a year older and should be healthier. I know that you are not a fan of Jerry Kill but you need to get used to the fact that he isn't going anywhere. Maybe that is why you are feeling so negative.
 

This may seem early but I would like to put in an early claim to tickets for the 9/28 Iowa game. My college roommate and I get together for 1 game a year at home. This game falls on my birthday and so far I am 3-0 in games we have attended. So if anyone already thinks they cannot make the game and would like to sell some tickets, we are looking for two. Send me a message.
 

beavergopher said:
SJ State lost their coach to Colorado.
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Ohio State had a new coach this year.
Michigan did last year.
New coach doesn't necessarily mean terrible regardless of the results of our last two coaching changes.
That game is not an automatic win by any means.

We beat UNLV in 3 OTs last year and beat Western Michigan by 4.

We might win all 4, it is hardly a lock.
 


Killjoy said:
I have missed your positive insight and cheerful outlook. I can understand why you might be a little grumpy after waking up from your winter nap but this team will be better. There are all kinds of reasons for that but it will start with an offensive line that is a year older and should be healthier. I know that you are not a fan of Jerry Kill but you need to get used to the fact that he isn't going anywhere. Maybe that is why you are feeling so negative.
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Care to name a couple of positions where we will be better?

QB - Likely a little better
RB - Roughly the same
WR - Worse (than the middle of the year - the same as the end of the year)
OL - Likely a little better
DL - Likely a little worse
LB - Roughly the same or a little worse
DB - Likely a little worse

Schedule - Much tougher


I think 6 wins should be seen as a real positive.
Do you think 6 wins would be a bad year?
 



I think it's fair to say that we will be better next year, and may still have about the same record. The schedule will be tougher (no Illinois or Purdue), and I think some people are really underestimating what a struggle it was to get to 6 wins last year. We barely beat UNLV and Western Michigan, while really only coming close to NW in any of our losses (in the regular season).

I would take a much more competitive 6-6 next year, meaning that we beat teams like UNLV by 2-3 touchdowns, and we have much more competitive matches against Wisconsin, Michigan, etc.
 

Rosemountian said:
Care to name a couple of positions where we will be better?

QB - Likely a little better
RB - Roughly the same
WR - Worse (than the middle of the year - the same as the end of the year)
OL - Likely a little better
DL - Likely a little worse
LB - Roughly the same or a little worse
DB - Likely a little worse

Schedule - Much tougher


I think 6 wins should be seen as a real positive.
Do you think 6 wins would be a bad year?
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How could our defensive line be worse? We lost one player (two, if you include Garin). A great player, mind you, but with a rotation of 6-8 guys, I'll take another year of training and conditioning. Ditto the offensive line. There are some positions where player development might not be that great, but along the lines is not one of them. Not only do we bring back almost everyone, we're also adding Bobek, Pirsig, and Hayes to the rotation.

I'm not terribly bullish on the team just yet because there are holes in the back seven and the passing game needs a lot of work, but I don't think there's any question that we'll be better in the trenches next year.
 

It might be somewhat easier to get a quality coach to Michigan or OSU than San Jose State.
 



Gopherprof said:
How could our defensive line be worse? We lost one player (two, if you include Garin). A great player, mind you, but with a rotation of 6-8 guys, I'll take another year of training and conditioning. Ditto the offensive line. There are some positions where player development might not be that great, but along the lines is not one of them. Not only do we bring back almost everyone, we're also adding Bobek, Pirsig, and Hayes to the rotation.

I'm not terribly bullish on the team just yet because there are holes in the back seven and the passing game needs a lot of work, but I don't think there's any question that we'll be better in the trenches next year.
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Outside of Hageman and the guy who is no longer here...I was not very impressed with the guys in that 6-8 man rotation. So I would say that losing one of the top 2 from the rotation and replacing him with someone who wasn't in the top 6-8 last year would be a downgrade. That is just my logic though. Maybe we have some guys who didn't play last year that are going to replace that production. I can't see anyone who was in the rotation already being that good. There is always a chance that someone improves drastically.
 

pharmacygopher said:
It might be somewhat easier to get a quality coach to Michigan or OSU than San Jose State.
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I am not saying that they are going to be national champions or anything. I am simply saying that people who assume San Jose State is going to be an easy win simply because they are replacing their coach are being pretty ignorant of the reality that not all 1st year coaches have terrible years.
 

Rosemountian said:
Outside of Hageman and the guy who is no longer here...I was not very impressed with the guys in that 6-8 man rotation. So I would say that losing one of the top 2 from the rotation and replacing him with someone who wasn't in the top 6-8 last year would be a downgrade. That is just my logic though. Maybe we have some guys who didn't play last year that are going to replace that production. I can't see anyone who was in the rotation already being that good. There is always a chance that someone improves drastically.
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Then I have to question how much you watched the team. Michael Amafuela and Ronald Johnson were both players that looked really good at times last year. They don't have the stats to reflect it, but they were often in the backfield disrupting plays, and were the two strongest d-lineman against the run. In limited time as true freshman, Alex Keith and Scott Ekpe both looked like they belong as well. In fact, I would expect Keith to be starting as a true sophmore next year.

It's also worth pointing out that Whilhite was essentially doing nothing until his senior year. A few sacks later and he's irreplaceable.

I'm not concerned about the defensive line at all.
 

Gopherprof said:
Then I have to question how much you watched the team. Michael Amafuela and Ronald Johnson were both players that looked really good at times last year. They don't have the stats to reflect it, but they were often in the backfield disrupting plays, and were the two strongest d-lineman against the run. In limited time as true freshman, Alex Keith and Scott Ekpe both looked like they belong as well. In fact, I would expect Keith to be starting as a true sophmore next year.

It's also worth pointing out that Whilhite was essentially doing nothing until his senior year. A few sacks later and he's irreplaceable.

I'm not concerned about the defensive line at all.
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Well I am glad you have the confidence. As it is, I will be surprised by a winning record. We will see who is right in the fall.
 



Rosemountian said:
Well I am glad you have the confidence. As it is, I will be surprised by a winning record. We will see who is right in the fall.
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I just said above that I wouldn't expect more than 6 wins. I just don't understand how you can be down about practically everything without some form of bias. We return about 85% of the team.
 

Rosemountain the reason I believe that we should win against San Jose State is that they graduated something like 30 seniors. They are not exactly the type of team that reloads, combine that with coaching turmoil, you can then expect the team to take a big step backwards.
 

Gopherprof said:
I just said above that I wouldn't expect more than 6 wins. I just don't understand how you can be down about practically everything without some form of bias. We return about 85% of the team.
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And I expect 5 wins. So you expect one more win than me and you are calling me so down on the team I must have some form of bias?


We return 85% of a team that wouldn't have gone 6-6 against next years schedule.
 

nsmike said:
Rosemountain the reason I believe that we should win against San Jose State is that they graduated something like 30 seniors. They are not exactly the type of team that reloads, combine that with coaching turmoil, you can then expect the team to take a big step backwards.
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I expect us to beat San Jose State too, but the fact that they have a new coach doesn't necessarily make the game any easier.


What would you consider a major step back?

I expect 5 wins, and wouldn't consider it a major step back.
 

Rosemountian said:
And I expect 5 wins. So you expect one more win than me and you are calling me so down on the team I must have some form of bias?


We return 85% of a team that wouldn't have gone 6-6 against next years schedule.
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No I'm calling you down because you see the team as worse at pretty much every position next year. It doesn't make any sense. You think our senior class was that important and there will be no growth on the team otherwise? We return every runningback and offensive lineman and you don't see improvement in the running game?

I often cringe at the homerish posts some people make, but this is almost forcing negativity for the sake of being negative.
 

Gopherprof said:
Then I have to question how much you watched the team. Michael Amafuela and Ronald Johnson were both players that looked really good at times last year. They don't have the stats to reflect it, but they were often in the backfield disrupting plays, and were the two strongest d-lineman against the run. In limited time as true freshman, Alex Keith and Scott Ekpe both looked like they belong as well. In fact, I would expect Keith to be starting as a true sophmore next year.

It's also worth pointing out that Whilhite was essentially doing nothing until his senior year. A few sacks later and he's irreplaceable.

I'm not concerned about the defensive line at all.
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Ron Johnson is coming back? Sweet!
 

Gopherprof said:
No I'm calling you down because you see the team as worse at pretty much every position next year. It doesn't make any sense. You think our senior class was that important and there will be no growth on the team otherwise? We return every runningback and offensive lineman and you don't see improvement in the running game?

I often cringe at the homerish posts some people make, but this is almost forcing negativity for the sake of being negative.
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I said we would be better at QB and OL...thats like 6 positions.

I do not think we have the guys on the roster that will be able to play at as high of a level as some of the guys we are losing.
I think positions like linebackers might be more athletic next year but they will definitely have some learning to do because of lack of experience.
I think we are going to have a problem replacing both corners, we do not have much experience at corner and I was not overly impressed with our depth at the position last year.
I think we will be similar at the running back position where we have a couple of guys who can do some nice things but no real standout.
I think our WRs are really bad and the of the two guys we need the most from, 1 is coming off knee surgery and the other one sat out the bowl game.
I think our TEs could be pretty good next year and didn't mention them as a position group.

I do think there will be growth. There is always growth. I do not think there will be enough growth to have a winning record against a tougher schedule. I think we will win 5 games, that is one less than you think.
 

I believe the whole offense will be much better next year. I look at the Texas Tech game as how they want to play. Getting 31 pts and leaving another 10 on the field easily. I like they opened up the long ball on some play action passes this will loosen up things for run or pass. Nice to have one QB the main man and not throwing 3-QB's out there which hurt the offense.
I like our skilled guys next year with Kirkwood, Williams, Cobb and Engel, DCT, Haribson , and McDonald as big plays guys. I know with a good run and pass game teams will be guessing lots more. I also like Nelson with a year of experience and getting more accurate. I like his running ability also. We will have lots of weapons. Hopefully we can get some good production out of the new JC LB's and beef up that position. Both lines are much better this year with a year of experience. I like us to go 7-5 minumum but could be a nice 8-4 goal. I like the way we played at the Bowl game. The special teams need to improve allot and should be better with Jerry coaching again.
 


Gopherprof said:
No I'm calling you down because you see the team as worse at pretty much every position next year. It doesn't make any sense. You think our senior class was that important and there will be no growth on the team otherwise? We return every runningback and offensive lineman and you don't see improvement in the running game?

I often cringe at the homerish posts some people make, but this is almost forcing negativity for the sake of being negative.
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Thank you. For what ever reason Rosemountain seems to enjoy being this blogs Debbie Downer.
I have to admit I am not very tolerant of negative people. Life is to short to be like that. Here is a link to a Saturday Night sketch of Debbie Downer.

http://www.hulu.com/#!watch/274181
 

Killjoy said:
Thank you. For what ever reason Rosemountain seems to enjoy being this blogs Debbie Downer.
I have to admit I am not very tolerant of negative people. Life is to short to be like that. Here is a link to a Saturday Night sketch of Debbie Downer.

http://www.hulu.com/#!watch/274181
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Life is too short to call a below average football team a below average football team?
How many wins do you see?
Lets see who is closer.
 

Killjoy said:
Thank you. For what ever reason Rosemountain seems to enjoy being this blogs Debbie Downer.
I have to admit I am not very tolerant of negative people. Life is to short to be like that. Here is a link to a Saturday Night sketch of Debbie Downer.

http://www.hulu.com/#!watch/274181
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I would much rather bicker with Rosemountain than Pantherhawk....now there is a disturbed guy full of hate.
 

Rosemountian said:
Life is too short to call a below average football team a below average football team?
How many wins do you see?
Lets see who is closer.
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You and I are not even close to being on the same page. The number of wins are important but what I am primarily looking for is improvement in those things that are needed to build a strong program. This is a journey that does requires patience. I am not talking about wins but I am talking about changing a culture. That is what I am interesting in measuring.

For example, look what Kill has accomplished this winter in upgrading the walk-on program recruits for this coming fall. This takes time and requires a lot of hard work. If Kill continues to do the right things the wins should come.

But your whining isn't doing anything but making you feel bad. Get a grip on yourself man, by being at least somewhat positive you might actually notice what is going on and enjoy it. The choice is yours.
 

Rosemountian said:
Care to name a couple of positions where we will be better?

QB - Likely a little better
RB - Roughly the same
WR - Worse (than the middle of the year - the same as the end of the year)
OL - Likely a little better
DL - Likely a little worse
LB - Roughly the same or a little worse
DB - Likely a little worse

Schedule - Much tougher


I think 6 wins should be seen as a real positive.
Do you think 6 wins would be a bad year?
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How exactly is the schedule "much tougher"? The non-conference schedule is basically the same. IAA team at home, road game out west against a bad team, UNLV at home instead of WMU (easier) and SJSU instead of Syracuse (push). All that changes in the conference season is Illinois and Purdue out for Indiana and Penn State. Penn State was better than Purdue this year, but the sanctions are going to start to show sooner rather than later.
 

There are no FCS (1AA) teams on next years schedule. If your thinking NMSt they are a WAC team.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
How exactly is the schedule "much tougher"? The non-conference schedule is basically the same. IAA team at home, road game out west against a bad team, UNLV at home instead of WMU (easier) and SJSU instead of Syracuse (push). All that changes in the conference season is Illinois and Purdue out for Indiana and Penn State. Penn State was better than Purdue this year, but the sanctions are going to start to show sooner rather than later.
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Considering our only two Big Ten wins came against Illinois and Purdue, I'd say it's a big deal that we aren't playing either next year. People that are looking at Indiana like a pushover are wrong.

Indiana > Illinois, Penn State > Purdue. When our margin for error is already so small, that does make a difference.
 


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