A.J. Barker = Team MVP?

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WhoFellDownTheGopherHole?

WhoFellDownTheGopherHole?

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This Gopher squad looks like a completely different team when he's in the game and healthy. I'm not sure if there might be some coincidence with the level of opponent and the timing of his health, but the difference in our offense just seems to be night and day dependent on his status. Also, his level of play seems to be without regard to whom is manning the QB spot.
 

WhoFellDownTheGopherHole? said:
This Gopher squad looks like a completely different team when he's in the game and healthy. I'm not sure if there might be some coincidence with the level of opponent and the timing of his health, but the difference in our offense just seems to be night and day dependent on his status. Also, his level of play seems to be without regard to whom is manning the QB spot.
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Yeah, we are a much different team with Barker.

Keep in mind, that passing today was going to be almost impossible. But we had a lot of guys out or injured, Barker was out, Engel was out, Fruechte just got back, Gray is hobbled, etc. We were without a lot of passing weapons and had a lot of them injured (as well as OL). That makes it tough to pass the ball, especially in that wind.

Also keep in mind, our offense in the 2nd half was actually pretty decent and a big help to our defense. From the 2nd quarter on, we had 3 drives of over 10 plays. We scored 2 TDs and a FG (out of 5 drives).
 

I was surprised how often Illinois was playing two deep safeties, especially when we weren't having any success throwing the ball.

Time of possession was well in our favor which is a good thing. I think we had it over 34 minutes.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I was surprised how often Illinois was playing two deep safeties, especially when we weren't having any success throwing the ball.
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+1
We were having no success throwing, I did not understand why they didn't stack the box a little more often- even post-snap.
 

Barker, M. Carter, Wells, and maybe Kirkwood would be in the mix for MVP.
 





Studwell55 said:
Can we get the ball to Gray please?
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I'd still like to see us use him in the backfield on a few plays and even give him the ball once in awhile on the end around. The defense might have to be cautious in case he passes it.
 





Buck_Buchanan said:
The answer is yes once he learns to run a route other than a 7 yd slant.
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Today was a wash for the passing game. At work we go out and throw/punt, and the other day we went out in a stiff wind and my God! With and especially against, a wind like that really wreaks havoc.

I think his ankle/knee are still an issue. We simply don't have any other able bodies at this point.
 




balds said:
Today was a wash for the passing game. At work we go out and throw/punt, and the other day we went out in a stiff wind and my God! With and especially against, a wind like that really wreaks havoc.

I think his ankle/knee are still an issue. We simply don't have any other able bodies at this point.
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Good points made. Plus, I forgot about the vertical he ran vs Purdue.
 

Forgotten in the MVP discussion is #99 for soaking up all of those double teams.
 

balds said:
Forgotten in the MVP discussion is #99 for soaking up all of those double teams.
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Yeah, Hageman is our best player. His ability to collapse the pocket from the interior has really made our DE's look good as well because the QB can't step up to avoid the outside pressure.
 

Right on in the other post about Keith. He looks A) big enough and B) pretty good. Roland Johnson just makes plays. Is it a stamina issue, because he should be in almost every play?
 

balds said:
Right on in the other post about Keith. He looks A) big enough and B) pretty good. Roland Johnson just makes plays. Is it a stamina issue, because he should be in almost every play?
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Claeys loves to rotate his defensive line. He plays the defensive line almost like a hockey coach. I think he just wants those guys to be able to go completely all out on a few plays in a row. We seem to be playing:

We play like 10 DL quite a bit: Wilhite, Hageman, Ekpe, Botticelli, R. Johnson, Keith, Amafula, Perry, Cockran.
 

They missed Barker in the punt return game today as much as anything else. Jones was not nearly as comfortable back there and letting at least two punts hit the ground was a HUGE mistake. You HAVE to field those. It cost the Gophers some serious field position
 

balds said:
Right on in the other post about Keith. He looks A) big enough and B) pretty good. Roland Johnson just makes plays. Is it a stamina issue, because he should be in almost every play?
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Roland Johnson has quietly been getting better and better every game. The D Line next year could be scary good. Very impressed with how far Johnson has come from Game One to this game.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I was surprised how often Illinois was playing two deep safeties, especially when we weren't having any success throwing the ball.

Time of possession was well in our favor which is a good thing. I think we had it over 34 minutes.
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Tough to say, as the reason we were having trouble throwing the ball may have been because they were playing two deep safeties. My guess is that going into the game, Illinois probably felt good about their ability to stop the run with only their interior players so they left both safeties out of the box. This wasn't a bad plan based on what we had shown lately.

I would have to go back and watch again, but I did notice that we had some success running off-tackle. This tells me that Illinois sent most of their pressure inside the tackles and we made them pay. For those of you questioning the playcalling or Limegrover's ability, this game was an example of him being good. You call plays according to what the defense is giving you and hope your kids execute. Today, they did.
 



GopherInPittsburgh said:
Team MVP to team cancer with the click of a submit button.
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lol

OMG, I lol'd hard enough I got dizzy.

This sucks. Huge black eye for our program. And I'm just waiting for the sieve to open and the rest of the self-entitled kids on the team to speak out, throwing more eggs in the face of the program.

Awesome.
 

Formo said:
lol

OMG, I lol'd hard enough I got dizzy.

This sucks. Huge black eye for our program. And I'm just waiting for the sieve to open and the rest of the self-entitled kids on the team to speak out, throwing more eggs in the face of the program.

Awesome.
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Exactly. There are a few things that can happen. The team can rally and prove Barker is not bigger than the team. Or this can start an enormous sh!tstorm with teammates lashing out as well.

This is the last thing we needed.
 

GopherInPittsburgh said:
Exactly. There are a few things that can happen. The team can rally and prove Barker is not bigger than the team. Or this can start an enormous sh!tstorm with teammates lashing out as well.

This is the last thing we needed.
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There is a good thing about the timing.

Barker could have waited until after the MSU game to announce his transfer, leaving this cloud over the whole bowl preparations. This way we get to see how the team reacts to this on Saturday vs MSU.
 

I take all of the blame and accept full responsibility for this mess. It's obvious that AJ saw this thread here on GopherHole and it all went to his head.


On the other hand, I guess now we know the answer to this question is a resounding 'NO'.
 

WhoFellDownTheGopherHole? said:
I take all of the blame and accept full responsibility for this mess. It's obvious that AJ saw this thread here on GopherHole and it all went to his head.


On the other hand, I guess now we know the answer to this question is a resounding 'NO'.
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I thought you might have been his mom's friend.
 


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