Brian Bennett: It might not be an upset if San Jose St won at Minnesota

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per Bennett:

San Jose State at Minnesota, Sept. 21: The Gophers had better be on full upset alert against a team that won 11 games in 2012 and can really pass the ball. On second thought, it might not really be an upset if the Spartans won.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/79765/ranking-b1g-nonleague-games-nos-34-21

Craig from Braintree, Mass., writes: Regarding your thoughts about Minnesota vs San Jose State: I guess you are saying that the Gophers won't recover from their loss of their senior DBs from last year. Is that right?

Brian Bennett: Not at all. I think Minnesota's secondary will be good. I saw that a couple of people took issue with my take that a San Jose State win at Minnesota wouldn't be much of an upset. People must be underestimating the Spartans, who went 11-2 last year, won a bowl game and have an outstanding, possible NFL first-round quarterback in David Fales. This is clearly the best team on Minnesota's nonconference schedule, and even though I like the Gophers to get back to a bowl game this year, this won't be easy.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/79851/big-ten-thursday-mailbag-92

Go Gophers!!
 

who the he77 is Brian Bennett. He's from Louisville and commenting on the Big 10? Come on, Man. He could not identify the secondary, defensive line, nor linebackers. I doubt he could name the starting running backs. This was a cheap shot, and it should not stand.
 

husker70 said:
who the he77 is Brian Bennett. He's from Louisville and commenting on the Big 10? Come on, Man. He could identify the secondary, and I doubt he could name the starting running backs. This was a cheap shot, and it should not stand.
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Best way to shut Brian Bennett up is for the Gophs to go out there and win the game.
 

He has been one of the B1G bloggers at ESPN for a while now. While I don't agree with many things he writes, he isn't completely clueless.
 

husker70 said:
who the he77 is Brian Bennett. He's from Louisville and commenting on the Big 10? Come on, Man. He could not identify the secondary, defensive line, nor linebackers. I doubt he could name the starting running backs. This was a cheap shot, and it should not stand.
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Bennett's actually been pretty heavy on the Gophers/Kill bandwagon. Earlier this year, he predicted the Gophers to win 8 games this year.
 



He's not incorrect, so what's the problem exactly?
 

Gopherprof said:
He's not incorrect, so what's the problem exactly?
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Not sure. The main thing SJSU has going against them is they have a new coach. We'll see how the first three weeks play out, but I sure would be surprised if the Gophers are favored by more than a field goal heading into the game.
 

Saying it wouldn't be an upset if the Gophers lost this game is in no way unrealistic. Please note, he didn't say it would be an upset if the Gophers won either. We should be very happy if we do win this game, I know people point to them having a new coach, but then you should be thinking that we should be favored over the Badgers too.
 



Even with the coaching change, I think SJS is going to score points. The question is whether the Gophs can win a shootout, or trade punches in a (potentially) high-scoring game. Should be a good test for the Gopher Defense - and also a big challenge for the offense. For the Gophs to win this game, I think they will need to be able to play ball-control - pound away with the big RB's, and put some long drives together. Time of Possession may be the most important stat in this game.

And I have no problem with Bennett's take. If San Jose can fill some graduation losses on defense, they could be as good or better than several B1G teams this year.
 



With MacIntrye gone, I am not nearly as nervous as I would have been. Their team last year was very aggressive offensively. This is a game where Coach Claeys steps up with interesting blitz packages and could easily be the coming out party for Cockran. The pressure will allow the DBs to get very aggressive.
 



SJSU lost key contributors on offense and defense. Plus the new staff is switching from the pistol to a pro set and on defense to the 3-4. That's a lot of change. If it were the same coaching staff as last year, I'd be less confident, but right now I don't see how SJSU is so much better than us that it would not be considered an upset if they won. It's not the same team coming to town that went 11-2.
 

Also Fales got sacked 26 times last season and was close to being sacked a dozen more times (ie he got maybe a yard before being tackled). With his left tackle and Eskeridge (his last line of defense) gone it's hard to see him getting as much time to throw the ball as he did last year. He was running for his life against competent or better defenses from Stanford, Utah St and BYU. Imagine what our defense can do against him.
 


Breakin' The Plane said:
Not sure. The main thing SJSU has going against them is they have a new coach. We'll see how the first three weeks play out, but I sure would be surprised if the Gophers are favored by more than a field goal heading into the game.
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This. I'll wait to see how the first three weeks play out before making any bold predictions one way or the other. SJSU has two weeks to get ready for the Gophers, but that can work against them too while they're implementing new systems on both sides of the ball and adjusting to new coaches.

I see the Gophers building some serious momentum into that game through the first three weeks. I think they'll be ready for that game.
 

wait!what? said:
within 5 min of the 1Q SJS will have 7.
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If I recall correctly, you said that New Hampshire would score on their first possession. Technically, they did, their QB was sacked in the end zone for a safety, two points for the Gophers.
 

Looking at some box scores from last year and team previews from this year:

> SJSU was OUTGAINED by their opponent in three of their victories last year; Texas-San Antonio, BYU, and San Diego State all outgained SJSU in total yards
> They also gave up almost 500 yards to Louisiana Tech in a shootout victory
> They trailed vaunted Texas State at halftime of that game.

They lose 5 starters on defense on a defense that wasn't that great
As mentioned earlier in the thread, they lost their starting LT, who was drafted in April.

It looks like they'll start an O-Line with all 5 starters being seniors, but they weren't great last year either, and they appear to average about 285. As also earlier noted, they gave up a ton of sacks and QB Fales just plain isn't a very mobile QB.

I'd be the last one to downplay an opponent but at the end of the day, SJSU lost some big impact players (particularly the starting DE's), are rolling with a new coaching staff and it appears new schemes on both sides of the ball, and it really looks like they had a lot of things go their way last year on the way to 11-2. They were tied for 9th in the country in forced TO's, but tied for 77th in coughing it up. I'd be more inclined to believe they'll keep turning it over than I would that they will continue to FORCE the same frequency of TO's.

Hit Fales early and often. Gophers win.
 

And......the Brian Bennett we know and love returns!!
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
Looking at some box scores from last year and team previews from this year:

> SJSU was OUTGAINED by their opponent in three of their victories last year; Texas-San Antonio, BYU, and San Diego State all outgained SJSU in total yards
> They also gave up almost 500 yards to Louisiana Tech in a shootout victory
> They trailed vaunted Texas State at halftime of that game.

They lose 5 starters on defense on a defense that wasn't that great
As mentioned earlier in the thread, they lost their starting LT, who was drafted in April.

It looks like they'll start an O-Line with all 5 starters being seniors, but they weren't great last year either, and they appear to average about 285. As also earlier noted, they gave up a ton of sacks and QB Fales just plain isn't a very mobile QB.

I'd be the last one to downplay an opponent but at the end of the day, SJSU lost some big impact players (particularly the starting DE's), are rolling with a new coaching staff and it appears new schemes on both sides of the ball, and it really looks like they had a lot of things go their way last year on the way to 11-2. They were tied for 9th in the country in forced TO's, but tied for 77th in coughing it up. I'd be more inclined to believe they'll keep turning it over than I would that they will continue to FORCE the same frequency of TO's.

Hit Fales early and often. Gophers win.
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Good observations, sir. :clap: :clap:
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
Looking at some box scores from last year and team previews from this year:

> SJSU was OUTGAINED by their opponent in three of their victories last year; Texas-San Antonio, BYU, and San Diego State all outgained SJSU in total yards
> They also gave up almost 500 yards to Louisiana Tech in a shootout victory
> They trailed vaunted Texas State at halftime of that game.

They lose 5 starters on defense on a defense that wasn't that great
As mentioned earlier in the thread, they lost their starting LT, who was drafted in April.

It looks like they'll start an O-Line with all 5 starters being seniors, but they weren't great last year either, and they appear to average about 285. As also earlier noted, they gave up a ton of sacks and QB Fales just plain isn't a very mobile QB.

I'd be the last one to downplay an opponent but at the end of the day, SJSU lost some big impact players (particularly the starting DE's), are rolling with a new coaching staff and it appears new schemes on both sides of the ball, and it really looks like they had a lot of things go their way last year on the way to 11-2. They were tied for 9th in the country in forced TO's, but tied for 77th in coughing it up. I'd be more inclined to believe they'll keep turning it over than I would that they will continue to FORCE the same frequency of TO's.

Hit Fales early and often. Gophers win.
Click to expand...
This is out of Phil Steele's mag., but Fales was 38/50 against Utah State for 467 yards and 3 TDs. They got smoked by 22 points, but that was probably mostly due to the fact that Fales was sacked 13 times in that game. So yeah, they take a lot of sacks.
 

Unless you are new to watching this program, I don't see how a loss to any D-1 team could be considered an upset. I mean, what Gopher loss in the past 20-30 years have you really said to yourself "Wow, what an upset! I can't believe we lost to _______________."
 

I was surprised by the loss to New Mexico two years ago. Maybe I shouldn't have been (new coach for us and all), but I was. The early Brewster loses ater the bowl year (non-con) also had some surprises. Of course, that is why he is gone (and 20/20, it wasn't a surprise)
 



gophmeister said:
Also Fales got sacked 26 times last season and was close to being sacked a dozen more times (ie he got maybe a yard before being tackled). With his left tackle and Eskeridge (his last line of defense) gone it's hard to see him getting as much time to throw the ball as he did last year. He was running for his life against competent or better defenses from Stanford, Utah St and BYU. Imagine what our defense can do against him.
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You bring up a good point. A lot of our success all year will depend on getting to the QB, or at least forcing him into bad throws. While we showed improvement last year, our pass rush will have a lot to do with how many wins we have at the end of the year. If Hageman ends up as a first round NFL draft pick, it probably means we won at least 7 or 8 games.

FWIW, I laugh when I see people getting their undies in a bunch about predictions like this. Maybe if we stop gacking up games against schools with the word "Dakota" in their names we'll get a little more respect
 


I'm expecting at least 14 sacks from Hageman in this game.
 

SJSU will be a very very bad defense, one of the worst the Gophers play all year. 50+ carries, 275+ yards rushing by the running backs would be a great goal for this game. I'd love to see it.
 

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