A huge concern

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Minnesota really has never been a running school since Glen Mason.

The Gophers have called a lot of running plays because they work decently well to control the ball and get wins, but at no point has the team ever been really efficient at it. The Gophers haven't had a RB get regular NFL carries in 20 years and have barely had any OL drafted in that span.

Minnesota in the Kill-Claeys-Fleck era is a defensive program, particularly a pass defensive program that creates a relative pipeline of NFL DBs.

Hell, I personally think of Kill-Claeys-Fleck as an era across two very different program cultures simply because it's the era when the Gophers finally started to play defense.
 

After what I saw in the second half on Saturday, in no way, shape, or form do I want the Gophers to go back to what they were doing before that.

That hurry-up passing was fun to watch, it was working, and it made the game exciting. Usually that doesn't happen for Fleck offenses.
 

We've played UNC, Iowa, and MI - all of which are incompetent offenses. We found a way to lose all three (finding ways to lose being the core of our identity).

We've lost 7 or 8 straight against P4 opponents.

We're too weak and slow to focus on the run, so the passing schema better get a whole lot more clever because it's our only chance to hang now that we'll start to see some actual capable opposition offenses.
 



Let Taylor get a head of steam and try to hit a hole. He has no chance on these slow developing handoffs where he gets the ball at a dead stop with guys already in the backfield. One of the only times we did this, he took it 82 yards for a TD.
 

GopherTheJugular said:
After what I saw in the second half on Saturday, in no way, shape, or form do I want the Gophers to go back to what they were doing before that.

That hurry-up passing was fun to watch, it was working, and it made the game exciting. Usually that doesn't happen for Fleck offenses.
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Glad we are starting to exploit what is there for the taking.
 

STPGopher said:
Glad we are starting to exploit what is there for the taking.
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Our offensive line has performed better this year in high-tempo mode, because it stops the deeply talented teams from rotating in different DL for situational play. Keeps the same DL on the field. They get tired. The best run stoppers don't have time to be rotated out for the best pass rush DL. Problem with high-tempo is that you need a confident, experienced QB to run it. What the heck: We have that QB (for the remainder of one year).

Against some of the nation's best defenses, Brosmer has moved the ball well in high-tempo mode. The offense has floundered, with Brosmer getting sacked often, in PJ's normal offense: strangle the clock, waste time, let the defense rest and recompose its personnel each play. Given the strengths of our QB which to date have manifested better in high tempo, and the fact that our OL seems to perform better in high tempo, I sure hope that high tempo remains part of our offense. Our defense, with the exception of one half, is pretty good this year. We shouldn't feel we need to run a tortoise style, eat the clock offense to minimize the time our defense has to be on the field.
 



RememberMurray said:
Minnesota is second to last in B1G rushing. Unfathomable for a P.J. Fleck team.

Granted, we've played Iowa (second best in rushing defense) and Michigan (third best in rushing defense).

We need to get the run game going.
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As you've written, we have played two very good defenders against the run so we'll see how it goes when we move on from those teams. USC is ranked #16 in the league in rushing defense giving up 5 yards per carry.

Having said that, it's apparent after 5 games that we don't have the same kind of offensive team that Fleck has had during most of his tenure here. While they can't abandon the run, neither should they keep squandering downs in hopes that their running game improves. We probably have the second best passing team of Fleck's tenure and we saw how effective it could be in the 4th quarter of the Michigan game when we were forced to use it.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
As you've written, we have played two very good defenders against the run so we'll see how it goes when we move on from those teams. USC is ranked #16 in the league in rushing defense giving up 5 yards per carry.

Having said that, it's apparent after 5 games that we don't have the same kind of offensive team that Fleck has had during most of his tenure here. While they can't abandon the run, neither should they keep squandering downs in hopes that their running game improves. We probably have the second best passing team of Fleck's tenure and we saw how effective it could be in the 4th quarter of the Michigan game when we were forced to use it.
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I believe our running game is better when Brosmer is running a high tempo offense. Frankly, many of the short passes he completes are essentially substitute running plays. DT is catching a lot of passes out of our high tempo offense. Keep giving DT lots of touches at the second level--good things could happen.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
I believe our running game is better when Brosmer is running a high tempo offense. Frankly, many of the short passes he completes are essentially substitute running plays. DT is catching a lot of passes out of our high tempo offense. Keep giving DT lots of touches at the second level--good things could happen.
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Last season, Gopher running backs caught 27 passes over 13 games. This season, Gopher running backs have caught 34 passes over 5 games.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
Our offensive line has performed better this year in high-tempo mode, because it stops the deeply talented teams from rotating in different DL for situational play. Keeps the same DL on the field. They get tired. The best run stoppers don't have time to be rotated out for the best pass rush DL. Problem with high-tempo is that you need a confident, experienced QB to run it. What the heck: We have that QB (for the remainder of one year).

Against some of the nation's best defenses, Brosmer has moved the ball well in high-tempo mode. The offense has floundered, with Brosmer getting sacked often, in PJ's normal offense: strangle the clock, waste time, let the defense rest and recompose its personnel each play. Given the strengths of our QB which to date have manifested better in high tempo, and the fact that our OL seems to perform better in high tempo, I sure hope that high tempo remains part of our offense. Our defense, with the exception of one half, is pretty good this year. We shouldn't feel we need to run a tortoise style, eat the clock offense to minimize the time our defense has to be on the field.
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I feel like I must be watching different games then some of you because we still have people acting like the offense is operating in slow motion waiting till the last second to snap the ball on every play and I am not seeing that at all. We have definitely done that in the past but in 2024 that hasn't been the case.

Now it can definitely be argued that we should go up tempo even more than we do but we are not running the extreme clock control offense that we have in previous years (constant sideline checks, bleed the whole play clock.....).
 



The fact that we don’t play tempo even when running the ball is one of the biggest critiques I have of PJs system. Get on the line either way. It punishes the defense by making them stay on the field and is advantage OL. Huddling is pointless unless you need it because crowd noise is too loud you worry about your qb communicating the call to your line. You can snap the ball at 25 or at 2, but it keeps the d on the field when you just get to the ball
 

RememberMurray said:
Minnesota is second to last in B1G rushing. Unfathomable for a P.J. Fleck team.

Granted, we've played Iowa (second best in rushing defense) and Michigan (third best in rushing defense).

We need to get the run game going.
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Block somebody.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
I believe our running game is better when Brosmer is running a high tempo offense. Frankly, many of the short passes he completes are essentially substitute running plays. DT is catching a lot of passes out of our high tempo offense. Keep giving DT lots of touches at the second level--good things could happen.
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Darius Taylor catching 13 passes in a game is pretty much extending the running game to the edges. He caught a few downfield, which shows he is a good receiver, but the majority were long handoffs.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I feel like I must be watching different games then some of you because we still have people acting like the offense is operating in slow motion waiting till the last second to snap the ball on every play and I am not seeing that at all. We have definitely done that in the past but in 2024 that hasn't been the case.

Now it can definitely be argued that we should go up tempo even more than we do but we are not running the extreme clock control offense that we have in previous years (constant sideline checks, bleed the whole play clock.....).
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And wasted time outs to avoid delay penalties.
 


upnorthkid said:
The fact that we don’t play tempo even when running the ball is one of the biggest critiques I have of PJs system. Get on the line either way. It punishes the defense by making them stay on the field and is advantage OL. Huddling is pointless unless you need it because crowd noise is too loud you worry about your qb communicating the call to your line. You can snap the ball at 25 or at 2, but it keeps the d on the field when you just get to the ball
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What's overlooked is that high tempo offense is vulnerable to mistakes. Bad formations, movement, missed snap counts ... Notable under Brosmer and Harbaugh is that we are running the up tempo offense with very few mistakes.

They've worked on it in practice and Brosmer knows how to handle it. Good coaching and good QB play.
 



The first drive of the Michigan game, we had some good running. What happened as the game went on to cause that to quickly go away?

Did the Michigan DL adjust? Did our OL get tired? Did we stop calling those running plays in favor of other running plays? Did our RBs get tired/banged up?

I still think this all stems from poor OL play. Switching to up-tempo as an adjustment to compensate seems to work, but IMO that's a bandaid. We need to fix the root cause of the poor OL play.
 

The offensive line is a concern as mentioned. At this point I'd be more concerned if we kept lining up and running when it is failing. We are at least seeing that the coaches understand it's not working that well so they are passing more. I've seen that as a positive thing and showing they are less stubborn (maybe the stubbornness in the past was only due to the roster and what they can do. Whole different convo about recruiting and evaluating players there). Obviously you need some balance or you are going to run into a buzzsaw down the road.
 

Dakota2 said:
One guy who is certainly 100% is Jaren Mangham. In my opinion he has earned a lot more than one carry a game.
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Hilarious. He comes in for a carry, hits the hole hard and gains 8 yards....and is banished to the bench for the rest of the game. Now that's coaching. Major is so over-hyped but he still gets a ton of playing time.
 

We hadn't run tempo before & Michigan was unprepared for it. We've run it now, other teams have seen it & will expect it. That may make it less effective in the future.
 

GopherGuy82 said:
The offensive line is a concern as mentioned. At this point I'd be more concerned if we kept lining up and running when it is failing. We are at least seeing that the coaches understand it's not working that well so they are passing more. I've seen that as a positive thing and showing they are less stubborn (maybe the stubbornness in the past was only due to the roster and what they can do. Whole different convo about recruiting and evaluating players there). Obviously you need some balance or you are going to run into a buzzsaw down the road.
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He looked hurt.
 

Jack jones said:
Can you say offensive line.
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We are playing a really good player at Center, who by reports had never played the position at any level until this year. That's a lot for a true sophomore. Add in that the guards seem to have taken a step back. We were able to take the OL for granted in the run game for a number of years.
 

Taji34 said:
The first drive of the Michigan game, we had some good running. What happened as the game went on to cause that to quickly go away?

Did the Michigan DL adjust? Did our OL get tired? Did we stop calling those running plays in favor of other running plays? Did our RBs get tired/banged up?

I still think this all stems from poor OL play. Switching to up-tempo as an adjustment to compensate seems to work, but IMO that's a bandaid. We need to fix the root cause of the poor OL play.
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The root problem is needing better players. Fixing the root cause of the poor OL play is to put better players on the field. That is not going to happen this year. Going up tempo is not a bandaid, it's a strategy.
 

tpbeight said:
Hilarious. He comes in for a carry, hits the hole hard and gains 8 yards....and is banished to the bench for the rest of the game. Now that's coaching. Major is so over-hyped but he still gets a ton of playing time.
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He was injured on that play.
Pay attention.
 


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