ESPN Early Power Rankings for 2011

Donate To GopherHole

Can't really argue with the rankings as of now.. Until either the spring game or if the Killer signs a few 4 and 5 star recruits, we can't really prove we belong at a higher ranking.

I will say this, though.. I have a great feeling about these next few years..
 

I also think we will be better than that, but I don't see it as an impossibility either. There is just so much unknown with how the team picks up the new schemes and systems.
 

After last season, I'm not making any declarations about the validity of any preseason ranking the media decides to give us LOL
 

I think he clearly gets it. At least at the top.
 


We performed 50% better than many had us projected last year. :D I don't mind such a low projection, it just gives us an opportunity to outperform expectations, and perhaps sneak up on a couple teams.
 

I think one thing that plays to our benefit is that the stable, established powers in the conference are all in the East. When you think of the word "stability" in the Big Ten, who comes to mind? Penn St., Ohio St., and Wisconsin. I would've put Iowa there as well not too long ago, but I'll explain more below. My point is that all the programs in our division have major questions entering next season:

Minnesota - How will the players and new coaching staff fit with each other? Will having all of our defense returning make it a unit good enough to sustain victories next year?

Iowa - The inmates are running the asylum. It won't take much more before the whole thing implodes in on itself. Actual on-field personnel is less of an issue here than you'd think, but they did end the regular season in a major tailspin prior to their respectable bowl game showing.

Michigan - If they hire a spread guy, they'll be dangerous. If they hire a pro-style guy, they're looking at another 3- or 4-win season next year.

Michigan St. - They lose a ton on D, and they were pretty much smoke and mirrors last season anyway. I don't see them having a sustained run of success.

Nebraska - The way they ended the season was suspect, and who knows how they'll handle an adjustment to a brand-new conference? They could be national title contenders, or might be a .500 team. It'll be interesting to see which team shows up.

Northwestern - Their defense might be even worse than ours. Even when things are going well, their margin for error is very small.


I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't look at any teams in our division as a guaranteed L. We'll probably be lucky to win 2 or 3 of these, and call me crazy, but none of these teams intimidate me with the possible exception of Nebraska.
 

dpodoll68 said:
I think one thing that plays to our benefit is that the stable, established powers in the conference are all in the East. When you think of the word "stability" in the Big Ten, who comes to mind? Penn St., Ohio St., and Wisconsin. I would've put Iowa there as well not too long ago, but I'll explain more below. My point is that all the programs in our division have major questions entering next season:

Minnesota - How will the players and new coaching staff fit with each other? Will having all of our defense returning make it a unit good enough to sustain victories next year?

Iowa - The inmates are running the asylum. It won't take much more before the whole thing implodes in on itself. Actual on-field personnel is less of an issue here than you'd think, but they did end the regular season in a major tailspin prior to their respectable bowl game showing.

Michigan - If they hire a spread guy, they'll be dangerous. If they hire a pro-style guy, they're looking at another 3- or 4-win season next year.

Michigan St. - They lose a ton on D, and they were pretty much smoke and mirrors last season anyway. I don't see them having a sustained run of success.

Nebraska - The way they ended the season was suspect, and who knows how they'll handle an adjustment to a brand-new conference? They could be national title contenders, or might be a .500 team. It'll be interesting to see which team shows up.

Northwestern - Their defense might be even worse than ours. Even when things are going well, their margin for error is very small.


I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't look at any teams in our division as a guaranteed L. We'll probably be lucky to win 2 or 3 of these, and call me crazy, but none of these teams intimidate me with the possible exception of Nebraska.
Click to expand...

I actually agree with this post. The world may be coming to an end.
 

dpodoll68 said:
I think one thing that plays to our benefit is that the stable, established powers in the conference are all in the East. When you think of the word "stability" in the Big Ten, who comes to mind? Penn St., Ohio St., and Wisconsin. I would've put Iowa there as well not too long ago, but I'll explain more below. My point is that all the programs in our division have major questions entering next season:

Minnesota - How will the players and new coaching staff fit with each other? Will having all of our defense returning make it a unit good enough to sustain victories next year?

Iowa - The inmates are running the asylum. It won't take much more before the whole thing implodes in on itself. Actual on-field personnel is less of an issue here than you'd think, but they did end the regular season in a major tailspin prior to their respectable bowl game showing.

Michigan - If they hire a spread guy, they'll be dangerous. If they hire a pro-style guy, they're looking at another 3- or 4-win season next year.

Michigan St. - They lose a ton on D, and they were pretty much smoke and mirrors last season anyway. I don't see them having a sustained run of success.

Nebraska - The way they ended the season was suspect, and who knows how they'll handle an adjustment to a brand-new conference? They could be national title contenders, or might be a .500 team. It'll be interesting to see which team shows up.

Northwestern - Their defense might be even worse than ours. Even when things are going well, their margin for error is very small.


I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't look at any teams in our division as a guaranteed L. We'll probably be lucky to win 2 or 3 of these, and call me crazy, but none of these teams intimidate me with the possible exception of Nebraska.
Click to expand...

I've been having a debate with a good Gopher buddy on this. He thinks MN got the shaft on conference alignment. I think they got the better end of it. While I think the West (fine...Legends) is better top to bottom then the Leaders, I think it will be harder to get over the hump and win the Leaders division simply because OSU is there. In other words, I think its better to be in the division of parity versions of the division of top heavy dominance.

Of course, what this means is that all the teams on our side of the imaginary line will answer their questions with dominant performances while Indiana, Purdue, and Illinois roll over and play dead on the other side. In other words, I will probably be totally wrong.
 



dpodoll68 said:
I think one thing that plays to our benefit is that the stable, established powers in the conference are all in the East. When you think of the word "stability" in the Big Ten, who comes to mind? Penn St., Ohio St., and Wisconsin. I would've put Iowa there as well not too long ago, but I'll explain more below. My point is that all the programs in our division have major questions entering next season:

Minnesota - How will the players and new coaching staff fit with each other? Will having all of our defense returning make it a unit good enough to sustain victories next year?

Iowa - The inmates are running the asylum. It won't take much more before the whole thing implodes in on itself. Actual on-field personnel is less of an issue here than you'd think, but they did end the regular season in a major tailspin prior to their respectable bowl game showing.

Michigan - If they hire a spread guy, they'll be dangerous. If they hire a pro-style guy, they're looking at another 3- or 4-win season next year.

Michigan St. - They lose a ton on D, and they were pretty much smoke and mirrors last season anyway. I don't see them having a sustained run of success.

Nebraska - The way they ended the season was suspect, and who knows how they'll handle an adjustment to a brand-new conference? They could be national title contenders, or might be a .500 team. It'll be interesting to see which team shows up.

Northwestern - Their defense might be even worse than ours. Even when things are going well, their margin for error is very small.


I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't look at any teams in our division as a guaranteed L. We'll probably be lucky to win 2 or 3 of these, and call me crazy, but none of these teams intimidate me with the possible exception of Nebraska.
Click to expand...

Very good points dp. Word is Hoke is headed to Michigan, can't recall the offense he runs, but either way, its an adjustment period involved with that. I think MSU is in pretty decent shape, despite the two beatings they took, but definitely nothing to sit there and worry about as far as dominance. Watching this kind of play out over the next two seasons will be very interesting, cause I think people are going to be surprised about how things end up, and that's not even referring to the Gophers place in all of this.
 

Monty519 said:
Word is Hoke is headed to Michigan, can't recall the offense he runs, but either way, its an adjustment period involved with that.
Click to expand...

Hoke more or less called the spread a sissy offense and made fun of coaches who ran it - the whole "basketball on grass" bit and saying it's soft. If he really ends up being the coach, they will probably be really good again within 3-4 years, but will suck terribly the first year or two. Interestingly, he runs the same 3-3-5 that the Big Ten has been carving up during DickRod's 3-year tenure. Pretty much anyone he hires will be better than Greg "I continue to get jobs and a salary because Mack Brown hired me 7 years ago" Robinson, but I still think any variation of a D with six men in the box is doomed to failure in the Big Ten.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Hoke more or less called the spread a sissy offense and made fun of coaches who ran it - the whole "basketball on grass" bit and saying it's soft. If he really ends up being the coach, they will probably be really good again within 3-4 years, but will suck terribly the first year or two. Interestingly, he runs the same 3-3-5 that the Big Ten has been carving up during DickRod's 3-year tenure. Pretty much anyone he hires will be better than Greg "I continue to get jobs and a salary because Mack Brown hired me 7 years ago" Robinson, but I still think any variation of a D with six men in the box is doomed to failure in the Big Ten.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. I couldn't remember if that was him or not lol.
 

According to these power rankings and looking at schedules for next year the B1G will be exciting.

Nebraska has to play the top three teams in the other division OSU/WIS/PSU.

Iowa and Illinois catch a break in that they get to play an even # of teams above and below them.

Games against teams ahead of them in PW Ranking

OSU -0
WIS- 1
NEB- 2
MSU- 3
PSU-3
NU- 3
IA- 4
IL- 4
MI- 6
PUR- 6
MN- 8
IN- 8
 



I hate to say it, but another huge question mark for the Gophers, and one that will keep the predictions low for this team, is Gray. Yes, he's a great athlete and a great fit for Kill's system, but (1). it's a new system (2). Gray's been working out more at receiver (3). he's got exceedingly little experience at quarterback and (4). he's only completed something like 3 passes (5) his leadership skills are unknown. Obviously, if we can get the running game going, that will help Gray quite a bit. At least he's got experience being out on the field, but I think most of the experts will view him almost like they would a very promising redshirt freshman in a new offense. That said, he could be one of the biggest surprises in the Big Ten next season.
 


Duluthguy said:
I hate to say it, but another huge question mark for the Gophers, and one that will keep the predictions low for this team, is Gray. Yes, he's a great athlete and a great fit for Kill's system, but (1). it's a new system (2). Gray's been working out more at receiver (3). he's got exceedingly little experience at quarterback and (4). he's only completed something like 3 passes (5) his leadership skills are unknown. Obviously, if we can get the running game going, that will help Gray quite a bit. At least he's got experience being out on the field, but I think most of the experts will view him almost like they would a very promising redshirt freshman in a new offense. That said, he could be one of the biggest surprises in the Big Ten next season.
Click to expand...

Good points. From what I've seen, his passing will make us wish we could have Weber back at some points. However, I think his running will make up for it.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Good points. From what I've seen, his passing will make us wish we could have Weber back at some points. However, I think his running will make up for it.
Click to expand...

I will concede that his passing abilities are an unknown quantity at this point, but let's not start clamoring for the Weber ankle-high screen pass just yet.
 

As I've said before, if anyone can make a case for who the favorite in the "Legends" or whatever it's going to be called is, I'd love to hear it.
 

I think we'll win 3 in the conference, maybe 4; three in non-conference. So we'll be higher than he thinks.
 

Hard to argue with a lot of Rittenberg's analysis. The only thing I'd add is that the bottom two-thirds of the conference is tightly-packed in terms of talent. Whoever wins their "winnable" games will be Bowl-bound. There's likely to be a close game or two amongst the bottom two-thirds of the conference. Hopefully, Kill can reduce some of the on-field brainlock problems that plagued Brewster's teams (and coaching staffs).
 

dpodoll68 said:
Interestingly, he runs the same 3-3-5 that the Big Ten has been carving up during DickRod's 3-year tenure.
Click to expand...

I thought Rich Rod switch over to the 3-3-5 for the first time last year. He decided he was going to go down with his style of defense, which of course he didn't get enough time to flip it over.
 

monk10 said:
I thought Rich Rod switch over to the 3-3-5 for the first time last year. He decided he was going to go down with his style of defense, which of course he didn't get enough time to flip it over.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that has been his defense from Day 1. I think he used it at WVU too.

At the very least I think he made Greg Robinson run it the past 2 seasons after he didn't like what his 1st year DC did.
 

dpodoll68 said:
I think one thing that plays to our benefit is that the stable, established powers in the conference are all in the East. When you think of the word "stability" in the Big Ten, who comes to mind? Penn St., Ohio St., and Wisconsin. I would've put Iowa there as well not too long ago, but I'll explain more below. My point is that all the programs in our division have major questions entering next season:

Minnesota - How will the players and new coaching staff fit with each other? Will having all of our defense returning make it a unit good enough to sustain victories next year?

Iowa - The inmates are running the asylum. It won't take much more before the whole thing implodes in on itself. Actual on-field personnel is less of an issue here than you'd think, but they did end the regular season in a major tailspin prior to their respectable bowl game showing.

Michigan - If they hire a spread guy, they'll be dangerous. If they hire a pro-style guy, they're looking at another 3- or 4-win season next year.

Michigan St. - They lose a ton on D, and they were pretty much smoke and mirrors last season anyway. I don't see them having a sustained run of success.

Nebraska - The way they ended the season was suspect, and who knows how they'll handle an adjustment to a brand-new conference? They could be national title contenders, or might be a .500 team. It'll be interesting to see which team shows up.

Northwestern - Their defense might be even worse than ours. Even when things are going well, their margin for error is very small.


I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't look at any teams in our division as a guaranteed L. We'll probably be lucky to win 2 or 3 of these, and call me crazy, but none of these teams intimidate me with the possible exception of Nebraska.
Click to expand...

DP-

I agree with you about the BT West. I think it is more wide open than some people think. The way Nebraska ended the season was not good, and I do not think they are going to come in here and run all over the conference.

For the BT East, I personally do not think of PSU as stable. I know they had a pretty good 5 year run prior to this year, but they were largely unimpressive this year, had the horrible start to the 2000's and Paterno eventually will retire, which will most likely lead to a period of instability.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom