Denver Post calls Minnesota/Colorado game "a massive “swing” game for both programs."

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per the Denver Post:

CU’s defense proved more than up to the task on a national stage, despite the Aggies’ fourth-quarter comeback. We’ll find out Saturday if a young offense can take a step forward when the Minnesota Golden Gophers (1-1) visit Folsom Field in a massive “swing” game for both programs.

www.denverpost.com

Best of the West College Football Top 25: Oregon Ducks make College Football Playoff statement, debut at No. 1

Forget about the Oregon Ducks knocking on the door of the College Football Playoff. You beat Ohio State in Columbus, you’ve pretty much kicked that door down.
www.denverpost.com www.denverpost.com

Go Gophers!!
 






Probably more of a swing Game for CU, these are the types of games you need to have while building program, I would say it's season defining for the Gophs. While it technically doesn't affect anything in conference, but mentally if these guys want to contend for the West and play meaningful games at Iowa and vs Wisconsin, this is the type of game to prove you're up to the task.
 

Fleckoff said:
Probably more of a swing Game for CU, these are the types of games you need to have while building program, I would say it's season defining for the Gophs. While it technically doesn't affect anything in conference, but mentally if these guys want to contend for the West and play meaningful games at Iowa and vs Wisconsin, this is the type of game to prove you're up to the task.
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I think that is potentially true. I think for a lot of people, the path to having a season that doesn't revert to Kill/Claeys level win totals involved a likely loss to OSU (preseason bravado aside), a long string of wins, and then 3 tough games to decide whether it was a disappointing, solid, or great season. Obviously, we could lose this Saturday and still potentially go 10-2, but I think it would be tough to come out of Saturday with a loss and expect more than 7-8 wins.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I think that is potentially true. I think for a lot of people, the path to having a season that doesn't revert to Kill/Claeys level win totals involved a likely loss to OSU (preseason bravado aside), a long string of wins, and then 3 tough games to decide whether it was a disappointing, solid, or great season. Obviously, we could lose this Saturday and still potentially go 10-2, but I think it would be tough to come out of Saturday with a loss and expect more than 7-8 wins.
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Are you saying that 8/9 wins is disappointing for a lot of people?
 

I think this is a "swing" game for Minnesota as well, but just in a different way. Colorado wants to show it is coming back. Minnesota is wanting to show everyone that is has a program that now has a floor of making a bowl game and will contend for national attention (top 25) routinely. If we lose this game, we would have to win our next 6 just to be considered relevant. If we win this game, we have a stretch of games where we can make ourselves relevant on a national conversation in a big way. Can you imagine the IA and MN game if we both go undefeated into the game?
 



Call it what you want but these are the type of games that we must expect to win with a Fleck hire. With the size of his contract and all the hype with the PJ hire, this should be a W. Fleck needs to elevate the Gophers to a program that is in contention for a BIG west title going into the last game of November.

Said that, I pick the Buffs.
 


noamfromm said:
Are you saying that 8/9 wins is disappointing for a lot of people?
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I mean claeys won 9 once
Kill won 8 twice

But yes, ironically, a lot of Kill Bobos will say fleck is a major disappointment if the team goes 8-4 this year
 

You'd like to win every game, of course, but the sky isn't falling if the team loses on Saturday. If they get embarrassed, then perhaps it doesn't bode well, but there's still 9 games remaining -- including 8 B1G games -- after this one. A lot can happen.

I personally feel decent about Minnesota's chances this week. I'm guessing we'll see the same balanced offense we saw against OSU as opposed to what we saw in the 2nd half against Miami. No reason MN shouldn't score 30 points. Obviously D is the big worry, but I didn't see anything from the CU passing game last week that really scares me. They'll undoubtedly score 20 (and make some big plays), but I feel good...
 



IMHO - We are all still trying to figure out who this team is. After two games, the Gophers have been the team we want in the first half and then maybe not the team we want in the second half. If we had been the same team in the second half as we are in the first, we would all be on cloud nine. The OSU game would have ended 28-20 for the Gophers and the Miami game would have ended 42-6.

I know a lot of folks are questioning whether or not we have the talent to win the B1G West. I for one think we do. I believe "in game" injuries (especially in the OSU game) and maybe not responding to halftime adjustments were more to blame for our second half performances.

Personally, I see us winning the first half 14-3 and (barring unfortunate injuries) winning the second half 17-7 for a final score of 31-10. That may sound crazy, but I believe in this team based on the first half of the last two games. They have showed us what they are capable of. If they play two first halves this week, we can call this a turning point.
 

Some guy said:
I mean claeys won 9 once
Kill won 8 twice

But yes, ironically, a lot of Kill Bobos will say fleck is a major disappointment if the team goes 8-4 this year
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I mean claeys won 9 once (in one full season)
Kill won 8 twice (in 4. 5 seasons)

fify

---

Regardless, I think you've strawmanned or inflated the amount of these alleged Bobos who are going to be disappointed by an 8-4 season. To speak for myself the disappointing thing about Fleck is the inverse of Jerry. Both have had a very difficult time recruiting and developing players on one side of the ball. If Claeys/Sawvel could find and develop DB's and LB's to the extent they were I think its disappointing that with higher rated recruits our back seven play is in the state it is.
 

New-RTB-Fan said:
IMHO - We are all still trying to figure out who this team is. After two games, the Gophers have been the team we want in the first half and then maybe not the team we want in the second half. If we had been the same team in the second half as we are in the first, we would all be on cloud nine. The OSU game would have ended 28-20 for the Gophers and the Miami game would have ended 42-6.

I know a lot of folks are questioning whether or not we have the talent to win the B1G West. I for one think we do. I believe "in game" injuries (especially in the OSU game) and maybe not responding to halftime adjustments were more to blame for our second half performances.

Personally, I see us winning the first half 14-3 and (barring unfortunate injuries) winning the second half 17-7 for a final score of 31-10. That may sound crazy, but I believe in this team based on the first half of the last two games. They have showed us what they are capable of. If they play two first halves this week, we can call this a turning point.
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I like this guy!
 

noamfromm said:
I mean claeys won 9 once (in one full season)
Kill won 8 twice (in 4. 5 seasons)

fify

---

Regardless, I think you've strawmanned or inflated the amount of these alleged Bobos who are going to be disappointed by an 8-4 season. To speak for myself the disappointing thing about Fleck is the inverse of Jerry. Both have had a very difficult time recruiting and developing players on one side of the ball. If Claeys/Sawvel could find and develop DB's and LB's to the extent they were I think its disappointing that with higher rated recruits our back seven play is in the state it is.
Click to expand...

I don't know why Kill/Claeys are in discussion but, despite 8-9 wins, the teams they coached never seemed dangerous (and often seemed incompetent), and that played out by never beating our rivals and by never beating a team that finished the season ranked. Their tenure was not successful.

The CO game is pivotal. This is a low/mid-talent squad from our most comparable conference/division. They played A&M close last week but neither team looked good - A&M definitely not a top 5 squad right now. I think we MN fans should expect to win this game and have every right to grouse if we lose, especially if the game features questionable play calling.

Looking forward to seeing the Gophs take over Folsom Field this weekend!
 

SamSquatch said:
I don't know why Kill/Claeys are in discussion but, despite 8-9 wins, the teams they coached never seemed dangerous (and often seemed incompetent), and that played out by never beating our rivals and by never beating a team that finished the season ranked. Their tenure was not successful.

The CO game is pivotal. This is a low/mid-talent squad from our most comparable conference/division. They played A&M close last week but neither team looked good - A&M definitely not a top 5 squad right now. I think we MN fans should expect to win this game and have every right to grouse if we lose, especially if the game features questionable play calling.

Looking forward to seeing the Gophs take over Folsom Field this weekend!
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well thats a take! Hopefully we don't lose our QB on the first series like TAMU and can take advantage of CO's secondary running into 9 man boxes
 

Some guy said:
I mean claeys won 9 once
Kill won 8 twice

But yes, ironically, a lot of Kill Bobos will say fleck is a major disappointment if the team goes 8-4 this year
Click to expand...
We went 8-4 in the regular season in three out of four years immediately preceding Fleck. It sounds like the consensus on the board was that the Kill/Claeys era was not very successful , so yes, reverting to that kind of season would be a disappointment.
 

noamfromm said:
I mean claeys won 9 once (in one full season)
Kill won 8 twice (in 4. 5 seasons)

fify

---

Regardless, I think you've strawmanned or inflated the amount of these alleged Bobos who are going to be disappointed by an 8-4 season. To speak for myself the disappointing thing about Fleck is the inverse of Jerry. Both have had a very difficult time recruiting and developing players on one side of the ball. If Claeys/Sawvel could find and develop DB's and LB's to the extent they were I think its disappointing that with higher rated recruits our back seven play is in the state it is.
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I don’t see your point at the beginning.
Second paragraph I 100% agree.

Defensive play sans Winfield has been abysmal at worst and average at best in the fleck era.
They need to produce some back end talent to have a contending defense.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
We went 8-4 in the regular season in three out of four years immediately preceding Fleck. It sounds like the consensus on the board was that the Kill/Claeys era was not very successful , so yes, reverting to that kind of season would be a disappointment.
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Disagree strongly.
kill era was successful to a point: not many people think it was unsuccessful.


If fleck wins 11 and 8 in two seasons (I don’t count last year for anything negative or positive for anyone due to the strangeness and how people approached it) I will still be wishing it was more than 8 but it won’t be some sort of failure.
 

New-RTB-Fan said:
IMHO - We are all still trying to figure out who this team is. After two games, the Gophers have been the team we want in the first half and then maybe not the team we want in the second half. If we had been the same team in the second half as we are in the first, we would all be on cloud nine. The OSU game would have ended 28-20 for the Gophers and the Miami game would have ended 42-6.

I know a lot of folks are questioning whether or not we have the talent to win the B1G West. I for one think we do. I believe "in game" injuries (especially in the OSU game) and maybe not responding to halftime adjustments were more to blame for our second half performances.

Personally, I see us winning the first half 14-3 and (barring unfortunate injuries) winning the second half 17-7 for a final score of 31-10. That may sound crazy, but I believe in this team based on the first half of the last two games. They have showed us what they are capable of. If they play two first halves this week, we can call this a turning point.
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I don’t think the team has the talent to win the west. Particularly on defense. That’s why I picked them 3rd.
I could see them realistically finishing anywhere 1st-4th. I think 4th is more likely than 1st.

I think they win 8-9 games. My opinion hasn’t changed much since the beginning of the season other than at the beginning I was thinking 8-9 but maybe if the defense showed something 10-11. I no longer think 11 is even a remote possibility of happening.
 

Seems like a easy distinction to me: 8-4 and a decent bowl win felt clearly like the ceiling under Kill, 8-4 this year would feel like a new average under Fleck. I acknowledge that this is more personal perception than a hard, data based argument, but I think that perception is fairly widespread.
 

This is a defining year for Fleck.
The depth chart has his recruits in it.
Can he recruit, can he develop players and can he manage games will be determined this year.
That does not mean he will or should be made redundant if MN does not win the West but a disappointing season will let some of air out of the balloon.
 

The Gopher schedule is a lot tougher than it looked a few months back. Winning seven will be a triumph.
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
The Gopher schedule is a lot tougher than it looked a few months back. Winning seven will be a triumph.
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Bowling Green, Northwestern, Nebraska, and Illinois all feel like teams where the biggest risk should be forfeiting because the team bus gets lost on the way to the stadium. So win those four (plus the Miami game we already won), and we can get to seven by going 2-4 in the other six games still in front of us. I don't think that should be the bar for "triumph."
 

beavergopher said:
Or when you’re living in a swingers community…..
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To be fair, it's a small step from this:
4107951219_942bdcbf56_b.jpg


to this:
1*vDBsFRgx7gLv-hDodTkeaA.jpeg



38euuq.jpg
 

It's not really any bigger than all the other toss up games remaining on the schedule (most of them), and in many ways less so because it doesn't count in the Big Ten standings. But it's an unfamiliar set of laundry to tackle and a stadium most of us haven't been to, so that part will be fun.

It's pretty much going to be Purdue in September, but with far better skiing.
For them, we're cold Arizona State.
 

Might not be defining as the program goes, but as the season goes, if we lose this one, the bandwagon will definitely become lighter. I expect them to win and will be disappointed with an L.

Colorado is OK, but if we are really about taking the next step or becoming consistent, we win this game on the road. Might be close, but has to be a W.
 

This is a swing game from the stand point that if the Gophers win they are on schedule and last week can be looked at as an aberration. Lose? The question of where this team and program is going becomes very real.

I don't think it's a "must win" game ("swing" is more accurate as there would be opportunities to swing the season back in a positive direction with a great November), but I could see how you could view it that way if you don't see them beating Iowa or Wisconsin. Dropping this game and finishing 8-4 or 7-5 with a repulsive 1-9 record against the rivals through 5 years AND knowing year 6 will be a start over year would be a really awful position for this program that seemed on the rise 2 years ago.

I think they win on Saturday. Colorado seems to be getting a lot of credit for a game they scored 7 whole points in and Texas A&M lost their QB early. Unfortunately, I feel (right now, lots of time for things to change) like they will lose to both Iowa and Wisconsin which will not have most us feeling good about the season or the direction of the program by the end of November.
 

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