DT > Mo ?


I'd like to see a full season of DT before making that judgement, but it's definitely in the realm of possibilities
 






Mo had an unparalleled durability factor.
idk that I’d say unparalleled… definitely had his own injury struggles. That said over the long term he was crazy productive. Built thicker than DT, but less juice in my opinion
 

Way too soon to put Taylor (can't call him DT because we already have a famous RB nicknamed DT) in the rarefied air that Mo occupies.

That said, if Taylor can stay healthy and produce the way he did this year in the 5 games he played.....holy crap the sky is the limit.
 

Now it would be interesting to see how the discussion would go if the thread title was actually referring to the original DT - Darrell Thompson and comparing him to Ibrahim.

Mo has the yardage and TD records.....but DT played for a significantly worse Gopher team that was probably behind a lot and couldn't lean on the run game the way the Gophers could during Mo's years.

I would probably lean towards giving Mo the crown but I think a strong case could definitely be made for DT.
 



Now it would be interesting to see how the discussion would go if the thread title was actually referring to the original DT - Darrell Thompson and comparing him to Ibrahim.

Mo has the yardage and TD records.....but DT played for a significantly worse Gopher team that was probably behind a lot and couldn't lean on the run game the way the Gophers could during Mo's years.

I would probably lean towards giving Mo the crown but I think a strong case could definitely be made for DT.
🤔 shall we??
 


Give this roster 3 more years, specifically the trenches, and we might be cooking. Michigan lite.
The Michigan Lite caught my eye. It's crazy how true this is. Harbaugh tries to win games very similar to what Fleck tries to do. Defense, run the ball and complimentary football. Michigan obviously has better talent.



I pulled some stats from champions over the 10 year playoff.

Michigan was the first champion to average less than 400 yards of offense per game.
However they tied 2021 Georgia for best scoring defense at 9.5 points per game.
Eight of the 10 champions gave up less than 20 points per game.
LSU in 2019 and tOSU in 2014 were at 21.2 per game.
6 of the 10 Champions gave up fewer than 300 yards per game.

Only 2 of 10 offenses passed for over 350 yards per game.
LSU in 2019 at 401 and and 2020 Alabama at 358.
7 of the 10 offenses rushed for over 170 per game.

Championship type teams on average
Offense:
280 yards passing
204 yards rushing
484 total yards

Defense
Give up 15 points per game
Give up 291 yards of offense
 

Interesting stats - thank you for making the effort to organize them.
 




If Mo had average speed he would have had an extra 1,00 yards. So many runs ended being tackled from behind. When the tv announcer said Mo is fast you knew to press mute.
 

Now it would be interesting to see how the discussion would go if the thread title was actually referring to the original DT - Darrell Thompson and comparing him to Ibrahim.

Mo has the yardage and TD records.....but DT played for a significantly worse Gopher team that was probably behind a lot and couldn't lean on the run game the way the Gophers could during Mo's years.

I would probably lean towards giving Mo the crown but I think a strong case could definitely be made for DT.
I know I'm old, but I think the original DT is our best all-time rb. He had both speed and power, and as you said, played on much worse teams.
 

I know I'm old, but I think the original DT is our best all-time rb. He had both speed and power, and as you said, played on much worse teams.
100% correct. I played against Kent Kitzmann back in the day ... he was pretty good too.
 



In the fall, I hope we are talking about how Fleck uses mutiple RB's on each possession. Hmm, where did I get that idea? Maybe Michigan's first drive of the natty game where they used three different RB's. Obviously Corum got the majority over the whole game. I wish we would do that. DT can get the most but stop running the RB's into the dirt. Mix it up and use them for their strenghts. Also some wild cat please.
 

The Michigan Lite caught my eye. It's crazy how true this is. Harbaugh tries to win games very similar to what Fleck tries to do. Defense, run the ball and complimentary football. Michigan obviously has better talent.



I pulled some stats from champions over the 10 year playoff.

Michigan was the first champion to average less than 400 yards of offense per game.
However they tied 2021 Georgia for best scoring defense at 9.5 points per game.
Eight of the 10 champions gave up less than 20 points per game.
LSU in 2019 and tOSU in 2014 were at 21.2 per game.
6 of the 10 Champions gave up fewer than 300 yards per game.

Only 2 of 10 offenses passed for over 350 yards per game.
LSU in 2019 at 401 and and 2020 Alabama at 358.
7 of the 10 offenses rushed for over 170 per game.

Championship type teams on average
Offense:
280 yards passing
204 yards rushing
484 total yards

Defense
Give up 15 points per game
Give up 291 yards of offense
This is why I scoff at people clamoring for the air raid offense. You'll end up with similar W-L records, but look flashy doing it! Balanced complimentary football and great defense is the blueprint for championship football IMO.
 

Mo had an unparalleled durability factor.
Mo is easily one of my all-time favorite Gophers but I am not sure I 100% agree with this. He missed an entire year and missed another game his last year vs. Purdue. He did prove he could tote the rock 30+ a game, which is durable and for the most part held up nicely.
 

MO was Fantastic if he had not ruptured his Achilles tendon in the 1st half of the Ohio state game I believe he would have had over 300 yards & a Gopher's victory. Sadly, we were robbed of his history making performance. He played like a human bowling ball.
 

I played for Austin HS and he was at Rochester JM.
THE Best in my humble opinion.


And the late, great Ray Christensen with the call....


Also, just a damn fine human....

Post NFL career Thompson is the President and CEO of Bolder Options, a youth mentoring nonprofit organization that serves youth in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Rochester.
 
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I know I'm old, but I think the original DT is our best all-time rb. He had both speed and power, and as you said, played on much worse teams.
In his first two years he was as violent a runner as the Gophers have ever had. We had seats fairly close to the field and first you'd be in awe of the power and speed and then you'd wince at the collision. Darrell didn't believe in running out of bounds early as a Gopher though I think he ran smarter later on.
 

In his first two years he was as violent a runner as the Gophers have ever had. We had seats fairly close to the field and first you'd be in awe of the power and speed and then you'd wince at the collision. Darrell didn't believe in running out of bounds early as a Gopher though I think he ran smarter later on.
Yeah agree. That 95 yard run against Michigan was a thing to behold. As impressive as any I've seen at any level.
 


there's talent - there's durability - and there's longevity.

getting a back with 2 of those 3 qualities is good. finding one with all three is great.

Taylor clearly has the talent. now we wait to see whether he demonstrates durability.
 

If Mo had average speed he would have had an extra 1,00 yards. So many runs ended being tackled from behind. When the tv announcer said Mo is fast you knew to press mute.
Yet Mo had a lot more long runs than DT had if comparing first years.
 

I actually hope he isn’t. Not that I don’t want him to be great, I just don’t want PJ to have any more reasons to call football games the way he has been.

We got promising WR’s and QB’s. I want to see an Oregon style offense 😭
 




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