Biggest game of 2012 season?

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we will win this week?

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Hands down it has to be Western Michigan. We need to lock down all the recruits that will have offers from this school and ours. Actually I was looking at next year and smiled to see that the Western Michigan pipeline is on our schedule.:cool:
 

It's Iowa for me. I think WMU is going to be more difficult than Syracuse, but as long as there's some carryover in confidence from physically dominating Illinois, I think there's a real good chance that the Gophers head into Iowa City at 4-0.
 

Just a hunch, but I think it's the last game against Sparty...
It's always good to go into a bowl game behind a win.
 

I'm gonna say Northwestern. It's homecoming and the first conference home game sandwiched between road games at Iowa and Wisconsin. They need to win this game. Starting 0-3 in conference is not an option.
 

The Stinkin' Badgers. With Wilson gone, big turnover on the UW coaching staff, and key losses on the offensive line, I have a hunch that the Gophs may have a fighting chance to get the Axe back this year. Nothing would make me happier than to have an image of MarQueis carrying the Axe across the field at Camp Randall as my new screen saver.
 


Side note, will this Iowa, Wisco, Nebraska all being away or home every year continue? It seems like a really odd way to schedule our 3 biggest rivalries and not have them split up.
 

"Biggest game of 2012 season?"

To me, obviously is the 1st game. After that, the biggest game of the 2012 season is the next game. After that, yadda, yadda, yadda.

One game at a time. Give us excitement, hustle, pound and hit opponents hard as hell, and beat the living $hit out of them.

One game at a time.

Until then, let's go to UNLV, kick some butt, and come home and get ready for the next game.

Go Gophers!!!
 

I'm thinking @Iowa.

There's a good chance the Gophs go 4-0 in nonconference. A win at Kinnick setting us up at 5-0 heading into homecoming would be huge.
 

Curseislifted33 said:
Side note, will this Iowa, Wisco, Nebraska all being away or home every year continue? It seems like a really odd way to schedule our 3 biggest rivalries and not have them split up.
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With the B10 scheduling in two year increments and the 2013 schedule out it will continue until 2014
 



Has to be the Badgers. It's for the Axe and it can definitely help out when recruiting both sides of the border.
 

Not to rip on any of you guys, but over the past couple offseasons, there were a lot of 'Holers who were quick to dismiss the idea of going anything worse than 3-1 in the forthcoming non-conference season. After losses to the likes of South Dakota, NDSU, and New Mexico St., I've learned that it's silly to look past anyone given the state of our program. We're getting better (and I agree that we should be able to beat each non-conf. opponent we face this season), but I like how Dr. Don plans to approach things: Take things one game at a time and show marked improvement over the course of the season.
 

Got to start with that first step. I consider UNLV a must-win. A loss kills the confidence of our team. A win boosts it.
 




920/414 Gopher said:
Not to rip on any of you guys, but over the past couple offseasons, there were a lot of 'Holers who were quick to dismiss the idea of going anything worse than 3-1 in the forthcoming non-conference season. After losses to the likes of South Dakota, NDSU, and New Mexico St., I've learned that it's silly to look past anyone given the state of our program. We're getting better (and I agree that we should be able to beat each non-conf. opponent we face this season), but I like how Dr. Don plans to approach things: Take things one game at a time and show marked improvement over the course of the season.
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I learned this many, many, many years ago. When I was in High School, we went from my freshman year through my senior year without losing one football game. In fact, in my junior year, we went unscored upon for the whole season.
 

If I was on the team, coached for the team, or was in any way really involved with the team other than a fan I'd say UNLV.

But since all I have to do is stumble to the game in Vegas, I don't think my looking past that game will really affect the outcome. :)

I think the biggest game is Iowa. To me, it seems like how they play in that game is going to define the rest of the season. Even if they drop some NC games, I think they can bounce back if they play well in Iowa City. And if they do go 4-0 but lose badly to Iowa it may snowball the rest of the year. Especially in a year where the NC schedule is pretty weak, that first "real" competition is a big deal.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
The Stinkin' Badgers. With Wilson gone, big turnover on the UW coaching staff, and key losses on the offensive line, I have a hunch that the Gophs may have a fighting chance to get the Axe back this year. Nothing would make me happier than to have an image of MarQueis carrying the Axe across the field at Camp Randall as my new screen saver.
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Take that you stinkin badgers --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYMTMqei5AY
 

I'm gonna go a little bit different and go with New Hampshire. Kill talks about no more Minnesota nice at the Bank, it starts there. Whip on them, and that could set the tone for home games going forward.

Three seasons in the Bank, and fans have seen a grand total of three non-conference wins (3-6) and only one in the last two seasons. And they were all nail biters. IMO it just sets up a bad atmosphere for later in the season when you struggle at home in what's supposed to be your "tune-up" games.
 

Monty519 said:
I'm gonna go a little bit different and go with New Hampshire. Kill talks about no more Minnesota nice at the Bank, it starts there. Whip on them, and that could set the tone for home games going forward.

Three seasons in the Bank, and fans have seen a grand total of three non-conference wins (3-6) and only one in the last two seasons. And they were all nail biters. IMO it just sets up a bad atmosphere for later in the season when you struggle at home in what's supposed to be your "tune-up" games.
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I agree with this. The losing to the USD's and NDSU's of the world has to stop.
 

gophmeister said:
I'm gonna say Northwestern. It's homecoming and the first conference home game sandwiched between road games at Iowa and Wisconsin. They need to win this game. Starting 0-3 in conference is not an option.
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I was looking at the schedule the other day, and figured that we'd be fortunate to come out of that stretch of 3 games going 1-2. I'd rather The W came vs. Wisky but I'm not choosy. Actually, I really hate losing to NW, especially since we tend to do it in truly heartbreaking fashion (remember that hail Mary on the last play about 10 years ago?). And their Chardonnay sippin' fans are soooo freakin' smug after they win.
 

Dr.Don said:
I learned this many, many, many years ago. When I was in High School, we went from my freshman year through my senior year without losing one football game. In fact, in my junior year, we went unscored upon for the whole season.
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Not as impressive once you consider the fact that the forward pass wasn't invented yet so scoring was always very low. :p
 

Dr.Don said:
"Biggest game of 2012 season?"

To me, obviously is the 1st game. After that, the biggest game of the 2012 season is the next game. After that, yadda, yadda, yadda.

One game at a time. Give us excitement, hustle, pound and hit opponents hard as hell, and beat the living $hit out of them.

One game at a time.

Until then, let's go to UNLV, kick some butt, and come home and get ready for the next game.

Go Gophers!!!
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I'm with you, Dr. Don. One game at a time.
 

Dr.Don said:
I learned this many, many, many years ago. When I was in High School, we went from my freshman year through my senior year without losing one football game. In fact, in my junior year, we went unscored upon for the whole season.
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It's sad but true. In my 4 years of high school my schools team went undefeated and went to state the first 3 years, promptly losing the first game at state despite having the number 1 ranking in Class A because the team was always looking past that first opponent. Then my senior year we lose the first game of the year to Tyler Marz and Springfield, then go on to win state and one thing you hear from all the players is they didn't look past a single opponent.
 

I almost always look straight past my opponents, out the window, and then back down to the chessboard. Doesn't seem to affect the outcome of the match at all.
 

Having won only 6 games in the past 2 yrs, the most important game BETTER be our first one, and so on and so on. We can't afford to look past anybody, even as fans. If we can take up where we left off last Fall, it should bode well for a good start to next season. Let's hope!
 

Dr.Don said:
"Biggest game of 2012 season?"

To me, obviously is the 1st game. After that, the biggest game of the 2012 season is the next game. After that, yadda, yadda, yadda.

One game at a time. Give us excitement, hustle, pound and hit opponents hard as hell, and beat the living $hit out of them.

One game at a time.

Until then, let's go to UNLV, kick some butt, and come home and get ready for the next game.

Go Gophers!!!
Click to expand...
+1
 

most important game to this team and their psyche is UNLV. if they don't win that one you will see heads hanging and what ifs flying around. I know, I know, Coach Kill won't/shouldn't let that happen but it always does to any good team when you lose one you are picked to win. If they win that one, they can ride that momentum through a relatively easy NC sked and hopefully have 3-4 wins. As far as conf sked, the Iowa game will be huge for the exact same reason as UNLV. If they can get a big win against Iowa and start riding the feel good train this team is dangerous as we all saw towards the end of the season.
Confidence is a dangerous thing and let's hope they can use it all the way to a bowl game!
 


This is the time of year when we can look at the season as a whole. When the season gets here it will be time for one game at a time. That being said, I'd have to say that the biggest game is UNLV. The Gophers need to demonstrate that they can put away the teams that they are supposed to. The Gophers figured it out in the second half of the season, and this game will show us if they still have it figured out.

One thing that really struck me looking at last year's statistics was the sacks. In the first half of the season, the Gophers were giving up a lot of sacks, and weren't getting any sacks. In the second half of the season, both were turned around, and that was against tougher competition than in the first half.
 

Come on folks, let's quit the pusedo-coach crap and answer the OP's question. Of course the next game is always the most important one, we get that.

I think the answer is two-fold. The two most important games are Western Michigan and Iowa. Cannot lose to a MAC team at home. Just sets a bad tone for the team, fanbase and media in town. If you get past W. Mich, then Iowa is clearly the most important game IMO. Minnesota did not win a road BT game last year, has beaten Iowa 2 straight years and this is the BT opener this year. Could create a ton of positive momentum in town...
 


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