Brian Bennett: Whether MN can take another step will come down to pulling upsets

[BleedGopher]

per the Big Ten Mailbag:

Craig from Braintree, Mass., writes: You and quite a few others have stated that the Minnesota 2014 team could be better than the 2013 team and have a worse record. What might be signs of improvement if that is the case: a win over Michigan or perhaps Wisconsin? The defense having similar ratings to last year?

Brian Bennett: Given the difficulty of the Gophers' 2014 league schedule -- crossover games against Michigan and Ohio State, road matchups at Nebraska and Wisconsin -- make it hard to forecast a better record than last year's 8-4 regular-season mark. But every time I talk to Gophers players and coaches, they sound confident that this could be the best team in the Jerry Kill era. The obvious area for major improvement is in the passing game, which really couldn't be more ineffective than it was last year. The offensive line and running game should remain strong, and the defense should be good if the Gophers make up for the absence of Ra'Shede Hageman. Whether Minnesota can take another step forward likely will come down to if it can pull of some upsets, like breaking those losing streaks against the Wolverines and Badgers.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/103307/big-ten-monday-mailbag-43

Go Gophers!!

 

[Deleted_User]

I find the term upset a term for the fans of other team to justify their loss. If Minnesota is good this year, victories will follow victories and the unexpected will simply be the expected.

 

[upnorthkid]

This team's pathway to a 7-1 start is not unfathomable. However starting at 5-3 or worse means that a bowl game may not be attainable. It will be interesting how the nation views the team if it does start hot and go 7-1 or even 8-0. do we get rocked for a weak schedule to that point? Looking at TCU's schedule, they have a rough opening half of the Big 12 with Okla, Baylor, and Ok St and Michigan could conceivably lose three or four games by the time we're 8 games in. At that point, even if we are having a good record, I'm guessing we'll be played off as being a team that's not quite there yet, even though we will have won as many games as last year. This is why I don't entirely get why they're saying that the "record" is going to be so difficult to achieve for this team even if we are better. Honestly if we have a better team than last year, I'm expecting us to be 6-2 at the worst (remember I said us being better) with 7-1 being my guess. At that point we have to beat one of Iowa, OSU, Neb, and Wisc or a bowl game against a mid tier team if we lose all 4 which I don't see as being ridiculous to expect.

I guess in short, I agree with what Dean said. This team's only real "upset" victories as the schedule projects out right now (which would be us losing by a projected 14 points) would be, imo, OSU and Wisc. The other games should all be within striking distance if we play our game. And if we excel, those 2 should not seem to be real upsets by the time those games roll around.

If this team is as improved as we're hearing, 9 wins should definitely be considered the expectation for this team from Kill and Co with wins over the entire Non Conf and Mich, NW, Pur, Ill, and one of the final four heading into the bowl season which really requires no "upsets" in the true sense of the word. Just my .02.

 

[Sparlimb]

What is pretty crazy to think about is the fact we were 8-5 on the season and 8-2 at one point with the crappy passing game we had. Our QB's weren't very good and our receivers were flat out awful. Granted we played several true freshman who shouldn't be expected to be all Big Ten performers. If the passing game get significantly better and most else stays the same, we will have a very solid team. What I like most is our team reminds me quite a bit of Michigan State about 4 or 5 years ago where they were built on defense. Once the offense came around they were challenging for titles. That's where we appear to be headed.

 

[Governor Sibley]

How are we going to score?

We still don't have enough skill position players on offense.

As of this very minute, I have a hard time putting a lot of imaginative points on the board.

Our QB situation is unenviable. Our WR situation is worse.

Hoping things will develop.

 

[ruppertflywheel]

I agree 55. To many unknowns. Take this team and add Eric Decker and Brian Cupito and I'd be looking at 9 or 10 wins.
I saw enough at the Spring Game that kept my prediction at 7 wins.

 

[husker70]

Often it is not who you play, but when. Is the opponent young, did the play a tough game the week before, did they win did they lose and who do they play the week after are they looking ahead, beyond the game at hand.

I took a look at the schedule from that angle.

Eastern Illinois faces Southern Illinois the following week
Middle Tennessee State opens with Savanah State and Western Kentucky the following week
@TCU they play Samford to open and SMU the following week
San Jose State plays @ Auburn before coming to TCF. They face Nevada the following week
@Michigan they faced Utah the previous week and are at Rutgers following us.
Northwestern has faced Penn State followed by Wisconsin before facing us. They face Nebraska the following week.
Purdue will have played MSU coming into the game and face Nebraska the following week
@Illinois they will play Wisconsin before us and face Ohio State after
Iowa faces Northwestern before and Illinois after
OSU faced MSU the prior week and will be playing Indiana after
@Nebraska they will have played Wisconsin the week before and will play Iowa the week after
Wisconsin will have played Iowa the week before.

two things I like. Playing Michigan early. Northwestern plays two tough games before facing us, and then has Nebraska. And the Nebraska game is sandwiched between Wisconsin and Iowa for them.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

couple of points:

1. I take the term "upset" to mean that the underdog won - i.e. if the bookies make Iowa a 2-pt favorite over the Gophers, then a Gopher win would be seen as an "upset" by the national audience and media. From that point of view, the Gophs may have opportunities for several "upsets" this year, because I wouldn't be surprised if vegas has them as an underdog against multiple B1G opponents.

2. and now, a profound statement - to win a game, you need to score 1 more point than the other Team! The Gophs do not have to put up 35+ points a game to win; IF the defense keeps them in games, they only need to score 1 more point than the other team. I think there may be a lot of close. gut-wrenching, nail-biting games this year - so stock up on Maalox and Tums.