2024 Minnesota football predictions: Ranked No. 72 by RJ Young

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
62,125
Reaction score
18,622
Points
113
Per RJ:

Conference ranking: 11th in Big Ten (+18000 to win conference)
Teams ahead of them: Marshall (71), South Florida (70), UNLV (69), California (68), Jacksonville State (67)
Teams behind them: Old Dominion (73), UCLA (74), Northwestern (75), Houston (76), Miami of Ohio (77)

RJ's take: Since Minnesota's banner 11-win season in 2019, P.J. Fleck's rowboat has faced little chop. There was that 3-4 season in the COVID year, but Fleck followed that with consecutive nine-win seasons before turning in last year's 6-7 — his worst since his first year on the job in 2017 (5-7). It's gonna be tough to get nine wins out of a schedule that not only features Michigan, Iowa, USC and Penn State but five conference games on the road.

On the other hand, if graduate transfer QB Max Brosmer ends up being the kind of impact portal addition I think he's going to be, nine wins are within reach.

At New Hampshire last season, Brosmer threw for 3,459 yards with 29 TDs and was a finalist for the Walter Payton Award — given to the nation's top offensive player in FCS. He also earned First Team All-America recognition by the AFCA. Brosmer threw for 300 or more yards in six games, including 493 with four TDs against Central Michigan.

The Gophers have been looking for a steady and productive quarterback to return the program to its 2019 heyday. Brosmer might be the man to lead them back in the most competitive year the Big Ten Conference has seen yet.


Go Gophers!!
 

I think the Gophs deserve to be ranked ahead of UNLV, U Cal at Berkeley, and Jacksonville State. But the author is a pundit and I’m not, so 🤷🏼‍♂️.
 

This kind of preseason diss used to really bum me out. The fact is Maryland and Rutgers are in the 30s and North Carolina is in the 40s, and we play them. They seem like very winnable games, though no guarantees. Win them and nobody remembers this. Then you look at Wisconsin at 27 and Iowa at 24, which don't feel insurmountable. It will work itself out.

If at the end of the season people think we belong in the 70s, I'll be depressed all next winter and spring.
 

Gophers ranked (by this guy) at 72; he ranks UNC at 46. Simultaneously, as we approach game day, Gophers are a 2.0 to 2.5 point favorite. Strange.
 



The text next to our ranking seems somewhat optimistic, but the 72 ranking feels like he's not high on us. But I checked the full ranking, and he has us only 11th in the Big Ten, which is lower middle of the conference. I assumed that 72 puts us among the worst teams in the power 4. He actually has Washington, Illinois, and Michigan state all below us. And he has no Big Ten teams between Rutgers at 36 and Minnesota at 72.
 


Gophers are unproven in some areas. We assume Gophers will bounce back. Writers will not assume that.
 




Top Bottom