BleedGopher
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per Alex:
When the Big Ten schedule came out, Minnesota at Penn State felt for all the world like it was going to be the premier game of Week 8.
Shoot. That much seemed true as recently as Oct. 1.
Both teams were likely to be ranked. With any luck, they’d both be undefeated, too.
It would require a Penn State upset at Michigan, but the Nittany Lions appeared capable of such a task. They’d proven themselves road warriors with wins at Purdue and Auburn. Last year, a much worse Penn State team gave a much better Michigan team all it could handle in Happy Valley.
ABC likely felt it had a potential dream Saturday night matchup lined up.
Instead, it’s got something between a dream and a nightmare: the bleakness of reality. Both teams are backsliding into this prime-time meeting.
The Golden Gophers are rusting before our very eyes.
Minnesota started out of the gates looking like a different animal from its Big Ten West counterparts — one capable of hanging with the elite in the East after a blowout win over Michigan State put the Gophers at 4-0.
Consecutive losses to Purdue and Illinois have squelched that notion. The Gophers scored a combined 24 points in those defeats.
Minnesota is a game behind the Illini and Boilers in the standings, and doesn’t have a tiebreaker over either. If Minnesota runs the table, it needs both Illinois and Purdue to finish 3-2. With another loss, the Gophers would need both of them to close out 2-3.
Thus seemingly ends the second straight year in which things lined up for it to be the year for PJ Fleck’s Gophers.
Last season, Minnesota had veteran quarterback Tanner Morgan and running back Mohamed Ibrahim coming back behind the nation’s most experienced offensive line.
Unfortunately, Ibrahim was lost for the season in Game 1. You couldn’t ask for a tougher break. But Minnesota headed into November with a 4-1 Big Ten record, and the lone defeat was to Ohio State. The Gophers overcame adversity and looked perfectly capable of reaching Indianapolis.
Then they choked.
Perhaps peeking ahead a week, Minnesota inexplicably lost 14-6 to an Illinois team still finding its way under first-year coach Bret Bielema. The Gophers followed it with a 27-22 loss at Iowa, dropping to 0-5 against the Hawkeyes under Fleck.
This year, the Gophers simply got a month head start on the back-to-back losses that effectively cook their division title hopes.
There was some bad luck involved with the Purdue loss. Ibrahim was scratched with an ankle injury. But scoring 7 points on 3 trips in the red zone was just as much a factor.
Luck and mistakes weren’t a factor in Minnesota’s loss at Illinois. The Illini are simply better.
And that fact must really get the goat of Gophers fans.
Bielema, a long-time Minnesota nemesis, needed just one offseason to get the Illinois program in a better position than Minnesota in Year 6 under Fleck. And the program Fleck inherited from Tracy Claeys was in phenomenal condition compared to the husk Bielema picked up from Lovie Smith.
So it merits asking if 2019 will remain the peak of what Minnesota can achieve under Fleck. Those Gophers dropped 2 of their last 3 to miss the Big Ten championship game, but beat Auburn in the Outback Bowl to finish 10th in the country.
With the core of sixth-year veterans leaving the program this offseason, a drop-off is inevitable. After that, Minnesota could potentially be stuck in a division or a scheduling pod with USC.
Fleck’s best shots to take Minnesota to the Big Ten title game may already be behind him. And the same could be true of his Penn State counterpart.
The sobriquet does not apply to Penn State coach James Franklin.
Following Saturday’s 41-17 beatdown at Michigan, Franklin is 2-14 against Top 10 teams in his coaching career. Against Top 25 teams, his record is 11-18.
Franklin can win the little games. But the Nittany Lions tend to shrink under the spotlight.
Franklin’s signature win remains an upset of No. 2 Ohio State in 2016 that gave Penn State the Big Ten East title. Since then, Penn State’s most impressive victory relative to where teams finished the season is over No. 15 Iowa in 2019.
Penn State’s 2016 is feeling a lot like Minnesota’s 2019 — the high-water mark under its high-energy head coach who talks a better game than he calls.
The difference for Franklin is in what he has arriving compared to Fleck.
Penn State’s stellar freshman class highlighted by quarterback Drew Allar and running backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen will be good enough to compete against Michigan and Ohio State if comparable talent follows in their footsteps.
It will take until 2024 for this potential Penn State Death Star to fully form, but at least the pieces are accumulating.
Maybe it’ll even give Franklin enough time to prove he can win another big game.
saturdaytradition.com
Go Gophers!!
When the Big Ten schedule came out, Minnesota at Penn State felt for all the world like it was going to be the premier game of Week 8.
Shoot. That much seemed true as recently as Oct. 1.
Both teams were likely to be ranked. With any luck, they’d both be undefeated, too.
It would require a Penn State upset at Michigan, but the Nittany Lions appeared capable of such a task. They’d proven themselves road warriors with wins at Purdue and Auburn. Last year, a much worse Penn State team gave a much better Michigan team all it could handle in Happy Valley.
ABC likely felt it had a potential dream Saturday night matchup lined up.
Instead, it’s got something between a dream and a nightmare: the bleakness of reality. Both teams are backsliding into this prime-time meeting.
The Golden Gophers are rusting before our very eyes.
Minnesota started out of the gates looking like a different animal from its Big Ten West counterparts — one capable of hanging with the elite in the East after a blowout win over Michigan State put the Gophers at 4-0.
Consecutive losses to Purdue and Illinois have squelched that notion. The Gophers scored a combined 24 points in those defeats.
Minnesota is a game behind the Illini and Boilers in the standings, and doesn’t have a tiebreaker over either. If Minnesota runs the table, it needs both Illinois and Purdue to finish 3-2. With another loss, the Gophers would need both of them to close out 2-3.
Thus seemingly ends the second straight year in which things lined up for it to be the year for PJ Fleck’s Gophers.
Last season, Minnesota had veteran quarterback Tanner Morgan and running back Mohamed Ibrahim coming back behind the nation’s most experienced offensive line.
Unfortunately, Ibrahim was lost for the season in Game 1. You couldn’t ask for a tougher break. But Minnesota headed into November with a 4-1 Big Ten record, and the lone defeat was to Ohio State. The Gophers overcame adversity and looked perfectly capable of reaching Indianapolis.
Then they choked.
Perhaps peeking ahead a week, Minnesota inexplicably lost 14-6 to an Illinois team still finding its way under first-year coach Bret Bielema. The Gophers followed it with a 27-22 loss at Iowa, dropping to 0-5 against the Hawkeyes under Fleck.
This year, the Gophers simply got a month head start on the back-to-back losses that effectively cook their division title hopes.
There was some bad luck involved with the Purdue loss. Ibrahim was scratched with an ankle injury. But scoring 7 points on 3 trips in the red zone was just as much a factor.
Luck and mistakes weren’t a factor in Minnesota’s loss at Illinois. The Illini are simply better.
And that fact must really get the goat of Gophers fans.
Bielema, a long-time Minnesota nemesis, needed just one offseason to get the Illinois program in a better position than Minnesota in Year 6 under Fleck. And the program Fleck inherited from Tracy Claeys was in phenomenal condition compared to the husk Bielema picked up from Lovie Smith.
So it merits asking if 2019 will remain the peak of what Minnesota can achieve under Fleck. Those Gophers dropped 2 of their last 3 to miss the Big Ten championship game, but beat Auburn in the Outback Bowl to finish 10th in the country.
With the core of sixth-year veterans leaving the program this offseason, a drop-off is inevitable. After that, Minnesota could potentially be stuck in a division or a scheduling pod with USC.
Fleck’s best shots to take Minnesota to the Big Ten title game may already be behind him. And the same could be true of his Penn State counterpart.
Little Game James
“Big Game James” was the nickname earned by former Los Angeles Lakers star James Worthy, who proved it with a triple-double in Game 7 of the 1988 NBA Finals.The sobriquet does not apply to Penn State coach James Franklin.
Following Saturday’s 41-17 beatdown at Michigan, Franklin is 2-14 against Top 10 teams in his coaching career. Against Top 25 teams, his record is 11-18.
Franklin can win the little games. But the Nittany Lions tend to shrink under the spotlight.
Franklin’s signature win remains an upset of No. 2 Ohio State in 2016 that gave Penn State the Big Ten East title. Since then, Penn State’s most impressive victory relative to where teams finished the season is over No. 15 Iowa in 2019.
Penn State’s 2016 is feeling a lot like Minnesota’s 2019 — the high-water mark under its high-energy head coach who talks a better game than he calls.
The difference for Franklin is in what he has arriving compared to Fleck.
Penn State’s stellar freshman class highlighted by quarterback Drew Allar and running backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen will be good enough to compete against Michigan and Ohio State if comparable talent follows in their footsteps.
It will take until 2024 for this potential Penn State Death Star to fully form, but at least the pieces are accumulating.
Maybe it’ll even give Franklin enough time to prove he can win another big game.
B1G Monday morning: Will PJ Fleck and James Franklin always be also-rans?
Saturday Tradition columnist Alex Hickey ponders whether Minnesota's PJ Fleck and Penn State's James Franklin will always play second fiddle.
saturdaytradition.com
Go Gophers!!
