Big Ten Spring Power Rankings (8. Minnesota)

[MNVCGUY]

Not sure the lackluster special teams had anything to do with the yards per rush. Gophs were #102 in rushing defense, and only three teams had worse average yards per rush.

The first two games of the year REALLY skewed this stat. We gave up close to 10 yards per rush in those two. It wasn't great over the remainder of the games but it was far better than those first two games.

Nobody would argue that the defense played well last year, but they did show lots of signs of improvement as the season went on. With a full off season, spring ball, and fall camp, combined with nearly the full unit coming back along with some key transfers....I like our chances of having a solid defense this fall.

 

[BilldGopher]

These are the Spring Rankings which is fine.
2020 will go down in the history books as a giant asterisk... *

Hopefully we all live long enough where the youngsters ask us about "The Year Almost Without Football." Me...myself...I can only hope I live that long...

If the Gophers are lucky they will pick up right after 2019...even with the personnel changes...that will indeed make 2020 a blip.

Very much agree that Special Forces need an upgrade. Hoping Coach reads GH.

 

[PMWinSTP]

The first two games of the year REALLY skewed this stat. We gave up close to 10 yards per rush in those two. It wasn't great over the remainder of the games but it was far better than those first two games.

Nobody would argue that the defense played well last year, but they did show lots of signs of improvement as the season went on. With a full off season, spring ball, and fall camp, combined with nearly the full unit coming back along with some key transfers....I like our chances of having a solid defense this fall.

Still pretty bad. Somewhat ironically, Wisc was lowest at 4.9 per carry.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Still pretty bad. Somewhat ironically, Wisc was lowest at 4.9 per carry.

Definitely wasn't great for the other games but those first two were historically bad in regards to the yards we were giving up on the ground.

The important thing to me was being able to see the D improving as the season went on. Still lots of room for improvement but some of that should be expected from first time starters with limited off season time to get ready.

Excited to see what the D looks like this fall. I think there is a decent chance we will like what we see from that unit.