End of year 4 (3)

[RememberMurray]

we called 29 passes and 33 runs
It wasn’t a perfect game plan.


if you want that to be 40 passes and 20 runs...you’re going to need a new coach.

If you want a perfect game plan, you're not going to enjoy being a football fan most weeks. Perfect doesn't exist.

 

[RememberMurray]

I’d like a new OC. Not a huge fan of what we ran this year honestly. Simon would be a better choice in my opinion

So, that kind of blows the whole "no one here is calling for changes in the staff" argument... assuming anyone was making that argument.

At least one person here would prefer to see a new OC.

 

[RememberMurray]

No play caller is ever in the wrong. No criticism of play calling is possible.

Every play is designed to work. It can only ever not work if the players choose to fail.

Oh, I can assure you: it is possible to criticize play-calling! My, oh, my... is it ever possible!

 

[goldengophers]

Going into the Wisconsin game, the Gophers were pretty heavy underdogs in Vegas. I saw more than a few people here who seemed to feel that line was about right. Nobody that I can recall thought the line was outrageous.

If you had been given the option, before the game, of taking Wisconsin into overtime, on their field, and then letting it play out from there... would you have been happy with that option? Would you have taken it?

With their QB playing that poorly? No. I don't gamble on sports but given the actual scenario that played out the outcome was disappointing and avoidable offensively.

 

[Off-GridTNgopher]

I would not be sad to see sandford go and Simon as the o.c... I'm not expecting anything to happen however

 

[RememberMurray]

I didn’t really like what we did. But I’m guessing if fleck didn’t trust Simon enough to hire him, there was a reason

clear to me though that Morgan was uncomfortable in the offense all year. Hopefully that changes next year

I agree. The difference between Morgan 2019 and Morgan 2020 seemed obvious to my eyes.

I don't know if it was a difference in the offensive line/pass blocking, or losing Tyler Johnson, or the 'new' offense itself. But he seemed confident with his reads in 2019, and more hesitant in 2020.

 

[RememberMurray]

With their QB playing that poorly? No. I don't gamble on sports but given the actual scenario that played out the outcome was disappointing and avoidable offensively.

Avoidable... with the right play calls, of course. As opposed to the wrong ones.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Gee, the QB was more comfortable in the offense when he had two NFL-caliber WR's in the lineup at the same time, meaning that one of them was going to have single coverage. And the defense had to respect the threat of the deep ball, meaning that the safeties played deeper and could not come up as fast in run support.

That's the secret. Just need to always have two WR's who are good enough to be 1st-round draft picks, and everything will be fine.........

 

[goldengophers]

Avoidable... with the right play calls, of course. As opposed to the wrong ones.

The bold italics set this off, football is indeed a strategy based athletic contest and not a simulation.

 

[goldengophers]

Gee, the QB was more comfortable in the offense when he had two NFL-caliber WR's in the lineup at the same time, meaning that one of them was going to have single coverage. And the defense had to respect the threat of the deep ball, meaning that the safeties played deeper and could not come up as fast in run support.

That's the secret. Just need to always have two WR's who are good enough to be 1st-round draft picks, and everything will be fine.........

Tyler Johnson wasn't a 1st round pick, this is already known.

 

[Great Plains Gopher]

Well, fleck is going to continue to be conservative and continue to run the ball at a 70% rate on first down and 55% on second down.
He probably won’t go 12-0 next year.

Thoughts? Other than just complaining that we go into a shell too much? Because we are going to continue to go into a shell. We play the first half in a shell too.

The offense seemed a bit less conservative the last two games, even throwing on first downs a few times, Green throwing instead of running, but in general the O needs more imagination, more what-they-don't-expect to it. Your points are well made. Use tight end more in the passing game, Misdirection plays, passes to Mo, screens?

 

[Some guy]

Gee, the QB was more comfortable in the offense when he had two NFL-caliber WR's in the lineup at the same time, meaning that one of them was going to have single coverage. And the defense had to respect the threat of the deep ball, meaning that the safeties played deeper and could not come up as fast in run support.

That's the secret. Just need to always have two WR's who are good enough to be 1st-round draft picks, and everything will be fine.........

The Morgan problems had nothing to do with double coverage or run support. It had to do with them asking him to make more complicated progressions.

long term I think there is possibly more upside in that type of down field passing game but I also think it’s harder to reach that upside.

We ran a really simple and conservative offense this year. Were more complicated this year.

And the funny thing is that people accuse this year of being too simple and predictable. Lol

 

[Some guy]

The offense seemed a bit less conservative the last two games, even throwing on first downs a few times, Green throwing instead of running, but in general the O needs more imagination, more what-they-don't-expect to it. Your points are well made. Use tight end more in the passing game, Misdirection plays, passes to Mo, screens?

Tried to run a screen to Mo, blown up.
I liked that they threw the ball to the backs a bit yesterday.
Wish they had let green throw earlier in the year.

the throwback yesterday worked great, Morgan underthrew it then we missed the field goal and lost.

I think Morgan’s comfort level in the offense is probably at a week 9 comfort level. Usually a week 9’comfort level is after a few weeks of spring, a few weeks of two a days and going into a week one or week two game.


The lack of off-season killed us in switching offenses to something more complicated for the quarterback.

 

[ecoperson]

The offense seemed a bit less conservative the last two games, even throwing on first downs a few times, Green throwing instead of running, but in general the O needs more imagination, more what-they-don't-expect to it. Your points are well made. Use tight end more in the passing game, Misdirection plays, passes to Mo, screens?

I agree that we have been a little vanilla this season. I think the lack of practice time and non-conference games did not help. It is hard to throw wrinkles into your schemes when you have little continuity due to the game cancellations. I am sure every team was a little more conservative this year.

 

[noamfromm]

Agree that no one thinks he should be. Are there actually people who even posted that? Why did this thread even need to be started?

Some guy just wanted to give you an easy thread to hit your 16 post/day quota

 

[Some guy]

Some guy just wanted to give you an easy thread to hit your 16 post/day quota

Every time I take him off ignore I get into an argument where he has no idea what he is talking about but pretends he is 100% correct and I have to reignore him. Made the mistake today again.

 

[UpAndUnder43]

So, that kind of blows the whole "no one here is calling for changes in the staff" argument... assuming anyone was making that argument.

At least one person here would prefer to see a new OC.

The thread was about fleck. Not his staff. Obviously the special teams coordinator had a tough year.

 

[PMWinSTP]

You’re really just saying stuff everyone agrees with

This thread isn’t targeted at you. This thread is targeted at people complaining about conservatism. Because if they don’t think you can win with conservatism they should really want a coaching change right now

I'm on record, many times in many threads, that the defense needs to improve. Fleck is not conservative about using timeouts. How'd I do?

 

[Some guy]

I'm on record, many times in many threads, that the defense needs to improve. Fleck is not conservative about using timeouts. How'd I do?

Thanks for saying something literally everyone agrees with

 

[PMWinSTP]

I think probably 20-25% of this board thinks either an OC, Special teams coordinator, or head coach should be fired.
Would like them on the record.


just bitching about strategy but not wanting it to change is pretty stupid and “a joke”

There's a whole thread on ST coach.

 

[Some guy]

There's a whole thread on ST coach.

Yeah, I posted in it.


does the timeout thing bother you to the point where we should change coaches?

 

[GFBfan]

Every time I take him off ignore I get into an argument where he has no idea what he is talking about but pretends he is 100% correct and I have to reignore him. Made the mistake today again.

Is that similar to running the the same play over and over again and getting stuffed then wondering why it’s not working?

 

[NotAFanOfBecky]

I’ll play. Sanford should be gone. Make Simon the OC, his audition against Auburn was brilliant, one game I know but his one game was much better than than Sanford’s season if Sanford called the plays. As I’ll state again going RUTM, RUTM, then pass is not good (in the 2nd and 3rd against Wisconsin for example). You can still run and have variety. Go sweep, go reverse, off tackle but same play when they are overplaying that run is not good and too predictable. If you were gashing up the middle play after play then yes, keep that same play until they stop you. Too often this season it looked like a Limey/Kill offense with too much predictability. Would like for Tanner to run it a bit more but I know that’s not his game. Loved the pop pass on the goal line with Seth because that definitely was good creativity that most of us have been begging for them to do.

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

After reading these comments you would think the Gophers offense finished near the bottom of the B1G. Nope, they finished 5th. And that was with a new OC, with a limited offseason, after losing the best WR in program history, losing the entire right side of the offensive line, and with Morgan having a 'bad' season. The last two games they were playing without 3 of their top 4 WRs from last season.

It was Kirk Ciarrocca's game plan in the Auburn game last season, not Matt Simon. Ciarrocca was hired by Penn St only 5 days before that game, and Simon left the game plan alone. Both Ciarrocca and Simon had been with Fleck his entire HC career, and if Fleck thought Simon was the right OC to replace Kirk, he would have hired him.

Defense was the issue all year, not offense. If the Gophers had last years defense against Wisconsin on Saturday, they may have pitched a shutout. That was the worst Wisconsin offense I've seen in a long time.

 

[MGGopher]

After reading these comments you would think the Gophers offense finished near the bottom of the B1G. Nope, they finished 5th. And that was with a new OC, with a limited offseason, after losing the best WR in program history, losing the entire right side of the offensive line, and with Morgan having a 'bad' season. The last two games they were playing without 3 of their top 4 WRs from last season.

It was Kirk Ciarrocca's game plan in the Auburn game last season, not Mike Simon. Ciarrocca was hired by Penn St only 5 days before that game, and Simon left the game plan alone. Both Ciarrocca and Simon had been with Fleck his entire HC career, and if Fleck thought Simon was the right OC to replace Kirk, he would have hired him.

Defense was the issue all year, not offense. If the Gophers had last years defense against Wisconsin on Saturday, they may have pitched a shutout. That the worst Wisconsin offense I've seen in a long time.

Very well said. Minnesota had over 300 yards of offense on Saturday against an outstanding defense. Mo rushed for over 150 against a team that surrenders less than 100. Morgan looked sharp outside of 3 throws...which unfortunately cost MN the game.

The real problem was despite vast improvement from the defense from game 1 to 7, they still weren't good enough. Wisconsin gained almost exactly the same amount of yards as MN with vastly less talented skill players on O (albeit with a better OL).

 

[MplsGopher]

Matt Simon made the game plan for the Auburn bowl game. Anyone suggesting otherwise is just trolling.

 

[From the Parkinglot]

Very well said. Minnesota had over 300 yards of offense on Saturday against an outstanding defense. Mo rushed for over 150 against a team that surrenders less than 100. Morgan looked sharp outside of 3 throws...which unfortunately cost MN the game.

The real problem was despite vast improvement from the defense from game 1 to 7, they still weren't good enough. Wisconsin gained almost exactly the same amount of yards as MN with vastly less talented skill players on O (albeit with a better OL).

I’m not sure about that the WR’s are a toss up after CAB went down. Yes Minnesota has a way better running back but the o line difference is huge in Wisconsin’s favor.

In the two game Minnesota played against teams at or above 500 they scored 24 points combined.
The gophers were 6th in offense averaging 27.29 a game and 9th in defense allowing 30.14 per game. Of course those numbers were a little skewed at the beginning both for offense and defense but so it goes.

 

[Some guy]

I’ll play. Sanford should be gone. Make Simon the OC, his audition against Auburn was brilliant, one game I know but his one game was much better than than Sanford’s season if Sanford called the plays. As I’ll state again going RUTM, RUTM, then pass is not good (in the 2nd and 3rd against Wisconsin for example). You can still run and have variety. Go sweep, go reverse, off tackle but same play when they are overplaying that run is not good and too predictable. If you were gashing up the middle play after play then yes, keep that same play until they stop you. Too often this season it looked like a Limey/Kill offense with too much predictability. Would like for Tanner to run it a bit more but I know that’s not his game. Loved the pop pass on the goal line with Seth because that definitely was good creativity that most of us have been begging for them to do.

We threw the ball 45% of the time on 2nd down this year

it’s fine you feel the way you do. But you can’t pretend like we run run pass all the time.

 

[bonin21]

Noticed today that the uw game is counted in the standings as it should be. Think some thought the last week wouldn't count.

Every year my goal is the same: beat uw and finish ahead of uw in the standings. We almost did the second one with a big asterisk, but turns out that's not the case once again.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I’m not sure about that the WR’s are a toss up after CAB went down. Yes Minnesota has a way better running back but the o line difference is huge in Wisconsin’s favor.

In the two game Minnesota played against teams at or above 500 they scored 24 points combined.
The gophers were 6th in offense averaging 27.29 a game and 9th in defense allowing 30.14 per game. Of course those numbers were a little skewed at the beginning both for offense and defense but so it goes.

I'm not so sure about that this year and next year. I think they have better DL/LBers at getting off blocks.