CBS: Big Ten football grades - midseason report (Minnesota: D-)

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Per CBS:

Minnesota
All this entry really needs to mention is one game: Minnesota's overtime loss to Northwestern. To call what happened in that game a catastrophe would be disrespectful to catastrophes. The Gophers held a 31-10 lead entering the fourth quarter against a Wildcats team that's embroiled in controversy coming off a one-win season and led by an interim coach. Not only did they let Northwestern battle back and force overtime, they allowed a 25-yard touchdown pass on the Wildcats' first possession in overtime to lose the game 37-34. That alone is enough to call this season a washout, but Minnesota has looked pretty sorry in most of its other games. A Nebraska win is the only thing keeping it above water. Grade: D-

www.cbssports.com

Big Ten football grades: Michigan, Penn State earn high marks as 2023 season approaches halfway point

Grading each team from the Big Ten as the 2023 college football nears the midway mark
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Per CBS:

Minnesota
All this entry really needs to mention is one game: Minnesota's overtime loss to Northwestern. To call what happened in that game a catastrophe would be disrespectful to catastrophes. The Gophers held a 31-10 lead entering the fourth quarter against a Wildcats team that's embroiled in controversy coming off a one-win season and led by an interim coach. Not only did they let Northwestern battle back and force overtime, they allowed a 25-yard touchdown pass on the Wildcats' first possession in overtime to lose the game 37-34. That alone is enough to call this season a washout, but Minnesota has looked pretty sorry in most of its other games. A Nebraska win is the only thing keeping it above water. Grade: D-

www.cbssports.com

Big Ten football grades: Michigan, Penn State earn high marks as 2023 season approaches halfway point

Grading each team from the Big Ten as the 2023 college football nears the midway mark
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
The 🐈‍⬛ tastrophe line is priceless.
 

Save Ohio State we can beat every team we have remaining on the schedule, and most of all this season can still be a success if we can finally get over the hump and beat both Iowa and Wisconsin. This team still has many chances to turn the season around and prove this grade wrong, and I still have hope that they can do it.
 

BleedGopher said:
Per CBS:

Minnesota
All this entry really needs to mention is one game: Minnesota's overtime loss to Northwestern. To call what happened in that game a catastrophe would be disrespectful to catastrophes. The Gophers held a 31-10 lead entering the fourth quarter against a Wildcats team that's embroiled in controversy coming off a one-win season and led by an interim coach. Not only did they let Northwestern battle back and force overtime, they allowed a 25-yard touchdown pass on the Wildcats' first possession in overtime to lose the game 37-34. That alone is enough to call this season a washout, but Minnesota has looked pretty sorry in most of its other games. A Nebraska win is the only thing keeping it above water. Grade: D-

www.cbssports.com

Big Ten football grades: Michigan, Penn State earn high marks as 2023 season approaches halfway point

Grading each team from the Big Ten as the 2023 college football nears the midway mark
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
We didn't flunk!
 

BleedGopher said:
Per CBS:

Minnesota
All this entry really needs to mention is one game: Minnesota's overtime loss to Northwestern. To call what happened in that game a catastrophe would be disrespectful to catastrophes. The Gophers held a 31-10 lead entering the fourth quarter against a Wildcats team that's embroiled in controversy coming off a one-win season and led by an interim coach. Not only did they let Northwestern battle back and force overtime, they allowed a 25-yard touchdown pass on the Wildcats' first possession in overtime to lose the game 37-34. That alone is enough to call this season a washout, but Minnesota has looked pretty sorry in most of its other games. A Nebraska win is the only thing keeping it above water. Grade: D-

www.cbssports.com

Big Ten football grades: Michigan, Penn State earn high marks as 2023 season approaches halfway point

Grading each team from the Big Ten as the 2023 college football nears the midway mark
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
Somebody at CBS sports really hates the Gophers (Have they ever said anything good about the Gophers?). One game does not make a season. Now if they don't improve in the second half then they can make that argument.
 


ergopher said:
Save Ohio State we can beat every team we have remaining on the schedule, and most of all this season can still be a success if we can finally get over the hump and beat both Iowa and Wisconsin. This team still has many chances to turn the season around and prove this grade wrong, and I still have hope that they can do it.
Click to expand...
Yes, this team can "cram for finals".
 


ergopher said:
Save Ohio State we can beat every team we have remaining on the schedule, and most of all this season can still be a success if we can finally get over the hump and beat both Iowa and Wisconsin. This team still has many chances to turn the season around and prove this grade wrong, and I still have hope that they can do it.
Click to expand...
The D-, the writer's analysis, and this are all true.

Sorry season so far, but lots still to come.
 

STPGopher said:
Somebody at CBS sports really hates the Gophers (Have they ever said anything good about the Gophers?). One game does not make a season. Now if they don't improve in the second half then they can make that argument.
Click to expand...

That's why this is just a mid-season grade, they didn't get a D- in October for the whole season. A strong argument can be made that that one game does define the first half of the season.

But let's go on a big run, win the rivalry games, and finish with 8 wins and this grade will be much better for the full season.

Go Gophers!!
 



ergopher said:
Save Ohio State we can beat every team we have remaining on the schedule, and most of all this season can still be a success if we can finally get over the hump and beat both Iowa and Wisconsin. This team still has many chances to turn the season around and prove this grade wrong, and I still have hope that they can do it.
Click to expand...
I think we have horses to win every game except OSU. But our woefully ineffective passing game, and our inexperience across the board at LB, are very strong headwinds against us. Iowa's passing game is one of the few in FBS football that is actually as bad as ours. (Iowa is only good at throwing to TEs, but--unfortunately--we are mystified by how to cover TEs.) Ferentz knows the formula for beating PJ's version of the Gophers: score 10 points early while the Gopher offense is dithering--game over. Let's hope for a different script this year. There is some real individual talent on the Gophers this year, but it hasn't coalesced into effective group play for 60 minutes against any decent team. Maybe the bye will help the defense get healthy and gell, and help the offense find some form of balanced attack that puts some stress on opposing defenses. This is a real coaching challenge. Go Gophers!
 
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BleedGopher said:
That's why this is just a mid-season grade, they didn't get a D- in October for the whole season. A strong argument can be made that that one game does define the first half of the season.

But let's go on a big run, win the rivalry games, and finish with 8 wins and this grade will be much better for the full season.

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
Yes. We need to cram for the final.
 


Gophergrandpa said:
I think we have horses to win every game except OSU. But our woefully ineffective passing game, and our inexperience across the board at LB, are very strong headwinds against us. Iowa's passing game is one of the few in FBS football that is actually as bad as ours. (Iowa is only good at throwing to TEs, but--unfortunately--we are mystified by how to cover TEs.) Ferentz knows the formula for beating the PJ's version of the Gophers: score 10 points early while the Gopher offense is dithering--game over. Let's hope for a different script this year. There is some real individual talent on the Gophers this year, but it hasn't coalesced into effective group play for 60 minutes against any decent team. Maybe the bye will help the defense get healthy and gell, and help the offense find some form of balanced attack that puts some stress on opposing defenses. This is a real coaching challenge. Go Gophers!
Click to expand...
Iowa’s formula in general, especially this year, is extremely predictable and PJ has no excuse to lose this game. Our defense is more than capable of covering Iowa’s TEs and smothering the QB like we did vs Nebraska, especially with McNamara and Lachey out for the year. I do also feel that our defense has generally opened games better than they did last year, something they were terrible at last year.
 



STPGopher said:
Somebody at CBS sports really hates the Gophers (Have they ever said anything good about the Gophers?). One game does not make a season. Now if they don't improve in the second half then they can make that argument.
Click to expand...
One game - Northwestern was awful. So was MIchigan and North Carolina. And, other than Eastern Michigan where we looked ok, our wins against LA and Neb were only not awful because we ended up pulling out wins against bad teams. It has nothing to do with someone at CBS not liking the Gophs, it's them making an honest appraisal of the program right now. We have looked bad to awful in 5 of 6 games.
 

An honest appraisal! (But I wouldn’t buy gold from the author)
 

Tucker32 said:
One game - Northwestern was awful. So was MIchigan and North Carolina. And, other than Eastern Michigan where we looked ok, our wins against LA and Neb were only not awful because we ended up pulling out wins against bad teams. It has nothing to do with someone at CBS not liking the Gophs, it's them making an honest appraisal of the program right now. We have looked bad to awful in 5 of 6 games.
Click to expand...
While I agree with you, I have noticed a pattern from CBS going back multiple seasons. IMHO this is just more of the same from them. I just hope our Gophers can stop providing material this season.
 

STPGopher said:
While I agree with you, I have noticed a pattern from CBS going back multiple seasons. IMHO this is just more of the same from them. I just hope our Gophers can stop providing material this season.
Click to expand...
Got it - agreed.
 






BleedGopher said:
That's why this is just a mid-season grade, they didn't get a D- in October for the whole season. A strong argument can be made that that one game does define the first half of the season.

But let's go on a big run, win the rivalry games, and finish with 8 wins and this grade will be much better for the full season.

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
Which one game?
 

Possible wins: Mich. St., Iowa, Illinois, Purdue, Wisconsin. Sure loss: Ohio State.
Probable wins: Mich. St., Illinois, Wisconsin. 6-6, minor bowl.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
I think we have horses to win every game except OSU.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately this says as much about the poor quality of the B1G this year outside OSU PSU and Mich, than it does about the Gophers. You have to go back an entire generation to when ALL of the following were true: Wisconsin - an average non-factor, Iowa - below average with their current injuries, Illinois, Purdue, Northwestern, Nebraska AND MSU - all quite bad. Two of those teams with interim head coaches, two more with new head coaches. PJ with a 7th year program should be expected to beat most of that bunch. Struggling with Nebraska in their first game under Ruhle, losing to Northwestern…beating all the rest of the non OSU opponents would look like a good W-L record but it isn’t really proving much.
 

STPGopher said:
Somebody at CBS sports really hates the Gophers (Have they ever said anything good about the Gophers?). One game does not make a season. Now if they don't improve in the second half then they can make that argument.
Click to expand...
I think it’s a pretty fair assessment.
 




Great Plains Gopher said:
Possible wins: Mich. St., Iowa, Illinois, Purdue, Wisconsin. Sure loss: Ohio State.
Probable wins: Mich. St., Illinois, Wisconsin. 6-6, minor bowl.
Click to expand...
You have wisconsin as a probable win, and Purdue as a possible win? Huh? Using Sagarin we'd right now be a 9 or 10 point home underdog to Becky and a 2 or 3 point underdog at Purdue.
 

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