A turnaround this fall?

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Great Plains Gopher

Great Plains Gopher

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Decommits notwithstanding, we have a veteran DC, a veteran OC - both from winning programs next door, plus a younger, energetic HC who is a dynamic recruiter, plus lots of young talent coming up. Maybe the Gophers will surprise and win 7 or 8, on the way to a really good season in 2011. It could happen.
 

I think that we'll see a much different Adam Weber this fall. I think that Horton is
going to really help straighten him out, and I think the offense will be of a similar
bent, only much simplified.

Adam Weber should have been a strong contender for All Conference honors in
his junior season, but we all know how this past season went.

Just having him back to where he should be will be a big help.
 

I think it all rests on the lines and the defenders that replace all the seniors we lost, particularly the LBs.
 

The replacements for our seniors will be even better than the seniors were. The D will be tougher and more athletic. Bank it!
 

metrolax said:
I think that we'll see a much different Adam Weber this fall. I think that Horton is
going to really help straighten him out, and I think the offense will be of a similar
bent, only much simplified.

Adam Weber should have been a strong contender for All Conference honors in
his junior season, but we all know how this past season went.

Just having him back to where he should be will be a big help.
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Nothing on Adam Weber can be fixed, he sucks. It is Gray time or Brewster will never be around to see Gray play. Weber will be a coach killer if he starts again this year.
 


I agree with metrolax. if anything, Horton should do nothing but help Weber. Hopefully he can get him back to the form of '08 when he was 2nd team all conference.
 

diehard said:
The replacements for our seniors will be even better than the seniors were. The D will be tougher and more athletic. Bank it!
Click to expand...
It's possible, but if said defenders were better than the guys ahead of them last year, and they weren't getting more playing time, that's arguably worse.

I think there is a lot of potential in the younger guys that we saw last year, but experience is hard to overrate in college football. To say anything is a lock is just wishful thinking.
 

metrolax said:
I think that we'll see a much different Adam Weber this fall. I think that Horton is
going to really help straighten him out, and I think the offense will be of a similar
bent, only much simplified.

Adam Weber should have been a strong contender for All Conference honors in
his junior season, but we all know how this past season went.

Just having him back to where he should be will be a big help.
Click to expand...

I hope you are right. He should show improved comfort level if for no other reason than experience with the offense. But I don't expect much in terms of passing accuracy. It is what it is.
 

bankonit said:
Nothing on Adam Weber can be fixed, he sucks. It is Gray time or Brewster will never be around to see Gray play. Weber will be a coach killer if he starts again this year.
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He just had his sophmore jinx year in his junior year. A year late is all. He'll be fine.....
 



Tough schedule set for 2010 and the only way they best the 2009 record is by better schemes, discipline and a little luck. Again, the O was terrible this year and they got 6 wins.

My guess is Weber will be told to run more.
 

I'm not sure what would constitute a "turnaround" from last year's 6-6 season. In terms of the difficulty of our schedule, I would say that 2010 is about as close to 2009 as we could get - the exact same Big Ten lineup (albeit with a different home/road mix) a though Pac Ten team that we would be fortunate to beat, a Dakota school and a couple of bowl-worthy lower-tier teams.

I guess I would talk about an "improvement" rather than a "turnaround". Its pretty simple...
3 or fewer wins = failure
4 or 5 wins = regression
6 wins = failure to improve
7 or 8 wins = improvement
9+ wins = vast improvement

For me to stay on the train in November, we need to have won at least 6 games and feel pretty good about how we did it.
 

To me, our offense can't get worse. There have been so many issues over the last couple years but it all goes back to our o-line. They have opened few holes and the pocket collapses way too early. If they can be a middle of the road unit this year, we go bowling. If our o-line plays as poorly as it did in 2009, we're screwed on offense.
Defensively, we should be quicker and more athletic, but also inexperienced and that will probably be exploited by good teams. I hope I'm wrong but I can see a good OC finding what underclassmen can be exploited. Then again, our upperclassmen through the years haven't shown too much. But I am encouraged by what I saw this past year. Hopefully these young guys step in and build on the last two years.
 

We have a defense. It's not a great defense, but it's a defense, and I'll take that. If the defense can stay the same, and we get some offensive improvement, (mediocre would be an improvement), we'll be better.

That's the opposite it has been in the past, where I hoped for the offense to stay the same and the defense to be improved. Any offensive improvement will make the defense look a lot better. One thing I would like improved on defense is pulling in interceptions. There have been many times where the defenders had the ball in their hands, if we can start pulling some more of those in, it would be a great help.
 



I think an offseason without Decker being the focus will prove beneficial for the offense. I think you'll see more balance, and I think an experienced guy like Horton will pay dividends in creating more consistency out there. It will pretty much come down to line play on both sides of the ball, however, in regards to how high the potential ceiling of this team is. If we get solid O-line play (specifically run blocking, pass blocking improved late in the year), you will see a better offense and one that should be able to keep the chains moving more consistently. The defensive line has a lot of potential guys, but they need that potential to turn into reality if they want to make noise. If that happens, suddenly your defense will become even more of a factor, and then your seeming lack of depth in the secondary won't be as dire because they won't have to cover as long, and the other team's QB will be made more uncomfortable because of the rush.

It's very possible that those things can take place. If they do, a "turnaround" isn't out of the question.
 

diehard said:
The replacements for our seniors will be even better than the seniors were. The D will be tougher and more athletic. Bank it!
Click to expand...

If that is the case, ,then people are expecting some really dramatic improvements in just one off season. Something that I think is unrealistic and unfair to expect.

People's ideas on how our young defenders progressions are too over the top.
 

We had an experienced defense last year, but it wasn't all it could be with just a few more athletes at some spots. Next year there will be more athletes on the field, problem is, they won't be as experienced, so I think you're gonna see games where the defense is dynamic, flying all over the place and making plays, holding down the offense. But then there's gonna be days where the defense bites on a play action hard and gets burnt, or they get fooled by a dynamic offense, or over-pursue on a play and get gashed. When those mistakes happen will be key in determining the end result next year. If they can somehow limit those mental errors, or keep them limited to fewer games, that would be huge.
 

Lets stop pretending that we won't miss our LB core. They were really good and all three of them are getting replaced by two unknown players and Keenan Cooper, who has a ton of promise but has yet to show that he can can be consistently good.
 

RaT said:
Lets stop pretending that we won't miss our LB core. They were really good and all three of them are getting replaced by two unknown players and Keenan Cooper, who has a ton of promise but has yet to show that he can can be consistently good.
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Keanon Cooper and Gary Tinsley are haed and shoulders more talented than the guys they are replacing. And that is saying a lot about Cooper because Simoni Lawrence was extremely talented. We have not seen this type of speed before from our Linebackers
 

OK......so you actually want to be on record saying that Cooper and Tinsley will be better than Lawrence and Campbell.

You realize that there is more to the game than being fast. While Lawrence wasn't all that big, he still would make Cooper look like a midget. And Tinsley might be decent, but he still couldn't beat out Campbell last year. You're assuming both progress a great deal. What if they don't improve? What if they regress?

All I know is that Lee Campbell doesn't get enough credit for being a hell of a MLB.
 

Tinsley could not beat out Campbell last year because Campbell was a Senior and could not beat his experience but he could beat Campbell in every measurable there is.
 

bankonit said:
Tinsley could not beat out Campbell last year because Campbell was a Senior and could not beat his experience but he could beat Campbell in every measurable there is.
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According to gophersports.com

Campbell, Lee LB 6-3 246 Sr.

vs.

Tinsley, Gary LB 6-1 220 So.

So are you again just referrening to overall speed. Or feel free to mention the other measurables to where you can say Tinsley beats out Campbell.
 

A look at the schedule tells me that the toughest Big Ten opponents Minnesota will face will be at home (Penn State, Ohio State, and Iowa).

After a likely loss to USC, the Gophers will have to rebound well and take care of Wisconsin and Purdue on the road to have the Gopher fans pumped and ready to be a formidable crowd at TCF while hosting Penn State and Ohio State.

I could see them going around 9-3 or 8-4. If not, I'm afraid the natives will get restless and call the season a wash.
 

Unknowns are just that, unknown. There's no reason to assume that the unknowns will turn out to be good unknowns, or to assume they will turn out to be bad unknowns. We'll have to wait and see.

Offensive improvement will help the defense out a lot. This defense would look really good if it was paired with the good offenses of the past. If we can't get both clicking in the same year...
 

Sounds like last year when our hopes were soaring only to be crushed by the fall. Let's all get relaxed and temper expectations some (maybe a lot) and maybe then final outcome will be a lot more fulfilling and less disappointing.
 

RaT said:
According to gophersports.com

Campbell, Lee LB 6-3 246 Sr.

vs.

Tinsley, Gary LB 6-1 220 So.

So are you again just referrening to overall speed. Or feel free to mention the other measurables to where you can say Tinsley beats out Campbell.
Click to expand...


top end speed, vertical jump, speed burst, broad jump, shuttle run. I am talking pure athleticism
 

Not really sure how you, an average rube, would know this.

That is unless you are just assuming, or guessing, or you know what......maybe you actually went on campus and administered a Presidential Physcial Fitness test. That must be it.
 

RodentRampage said:
Unknowns are just that, unknown. There's no reason to assume that the unknowns will turn out to be good unknowns, or to assume they will turn out to be bad unknowns. We'll have to wait and see.

Offensive improvement will help the defense out a lot. This defense would look really good if it was paired with the good offenses of the past. If we can't get both clicking in the same year...
Click to expand...

You hit the nail on the head.
 

[censored] said:
A look at the schedule tells me that the toughest Big Ten opponents Minnesota will face will be at home (Penn State, Ohio State, and Iowa).

After a likely loss to USC, the Gophers will have to rebound well and take care of Wisconsin and Purdue on the road to have the Gopher fans pumped and ready to be a formidable crowd at TCF while hosting Penn State and Ohio State.

I could see them going around 9-3 or 8-4. If not, I'm afraid the natives will get restless and call the season a wash.
Click to expand...

What about this team leads you to believe they can beat Wisconsin at Camp Randall?
 

RaT said:
Not really sure how you, an average rube, would know this.

That is unless you are just assuming, or guessing, or you know what......maybe you actually went on campus and administered a Presidential Physcial Fitness test. That must be it.
Click to expand...

Lets call it a hunch that a 3 star 41st best Linebacker in the country is a tad more athletic than a 2 star unranked Linebacker. Also maybe go see them stand side by side, and watch their play on the field.
 

streetfighter said:
What about this team leads you to believe they can beat Wisconsin at Camp Randall?
Click to expand...

What an idiotic question.

Anyone can beat anyone. Will they? The odds are against it, yes, but can they? Give me a break.

How about this? How about the fact that every game over the last several years has been close, whether here or there. Does that do anything for you?

Lest you forget, Sconnie, Minnesota still leads the overall series by a healthy margin. They did actually play football (poorly) at Wisconsin before Barry Alvarez arrived.
 

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