ESPN: Freshman Jeff Jones holds importance in Minnesota push for top spot in West

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per ESPN:

Inevitably, conversations this spring about 2015 in the Big Ten boiled down to a few topics.

Ohio State's brewing quarterback drama topped the list, followed by the potential impact of three new head coaches in the league -- notably Jim Harbaugh at Michigan.

Here's a question I heard a few times that continues spin in my head as summer grows near: Who's the favorite to win the West? The easy answer is to pick Wisconsin or Nebraska, the best-resourced, most well-positioned programs.

But I saw the Badgers and Huskers up close this spring, and neither team has convinced me yet that they possesses the firepower to receive the label of division favorite in the first season after a coaching change.

So how about Minnesota? The Gophers get Wisconsin and Nebraska at home next fall. If not for the most difficult crossover schedule (Michigan, at Ohio State) of the top three in the West, Jerry Kill's team might be the popular choice of the summer predictions. And Minnesota still may get my vote.

The obvious challenge for the Gophers is to replace the production of running back David Cobb and tight end Maxx Williams. Watching Williams land in the second round of the NFL draft Friday with the Ravens and Cobb on Saturday in the fifth round to the Titans only served as a reminder of the problem.

Jeff Jones offers a possible solution.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/118571/spring-breakout-player-minnesota-golden-gophers

Go Gophers!!
 

By far the most hype we've had going into a season in a long time. Let's hope the team can handle it and make it happen
 

From spring practice it looks like our offense will have a lot more short passes than the last couple years and hopefully Jeff Jones will be able to make the first guy miss every time. I agree we have the toughest crossover schedule but all we have to do is beat michigan at home (i know that is no small task) and then finally get the wisconsin monkey off our back and we will win the west. But honestly with the schedule wisconsin has (assuming they would be the favorite) it may take only 1 B1G loss to win the West... If the team continues to improve as they have each year the past couple years we should know pretty early in the season whether they can win the west or not... but man our schedule is brutal. Nebraska then michigan then ohio state then iowa... woof. plus we have one of the toughest non-conference schedules...
 

bottlebass said:
From spring practice it looks like our offense will have a lot more short passes than the last couple years and hopefully Jeff Jones will be able to make the first guy miss every time. I agree we have the toughest crossover schedule but all we have to do is beat michigan at home (i know that is no small task) and then finally get the wisconsin monkey off our back and we will win the west. But honestly with the schedule wisconsin has (assuming they would be the favorite) it may take only 1 B1G loss to win the West... If the team continues to improve as they have each year the past couple years we should know pretty early in the season whether they can win the west or not... but man our schedule is brutal. Nebraska then michigan then ohio state then iowa... woof. plus we have one of the toughest non-conference schedules...
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3 of those 4 aren't even projected top 25 teams.
 

With our style of grind it out offense, all it takes is a handful of explosive plays to make a big difference.
Roderick will be the workhorse type Cobb was, he'll get his carries and be over 1000 by the end of the season. Our passing game will be better but I don't expect huge numbers.
If Jones/Edwards/Maye can produce 2-4 40+ yard plays a game it might be enough to keep us winning even with our schedule.

I for one expect tradition is keeping nebraska and wisconsin ahead of us in the predictions, with Iowa IMO taking a final nosedive before ferentz is replaced. Add in an improved but probably still not dangerous Michigan team and I think we set up well to win every game besides @OSU and possibly the opener against TCU. Even still openers tend to be weird games. Thinking back to our close loss at USC in 2011, our game at syracuse in 09, the UNLV triple OT game. Weird things happen when teams have a whole offseason to cook up goofy plays or strategies.
Should be a fun season.
 


Ole said:
With our style of grind it out offense, all it takes is a handful of explosive plays to make a big difference.
Roderick will be the workhorse type Cobb was, he'll get his carries and be over 1000 by the end of the season. Our passing game will be better but I don't expect huge numbers.
If Jones/Edwards/Maye can produce 2-4 40+ yard plays a game it might be enough to keep us winning even with our schedule.

I for one expect tradition is keeping nebraska and wisconsin ahead of us in the predictions, with Iowa IMO taking a final nosedive before ferentz is replaced. Add in an improved but probably still not dangerous Michigan team and I think we set up well to win every game besides @OSU and possibly the opener against TCU. Even still openers tend to be weird games. Thinking back to our close loss at USC in 2011, our game at syracuse in 09, the UNLV triple OT game. Weird things happen when teams have a whole offseason to cook up goofy plays or strategies.
Should be a fun season.
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I agree with this whole post. I no longer fear our schedules. 2014 should have taught us that. Our opponents should fear Minnesota. That said, most openers are really toss ups for the reasons you list.
 

We are several consecutive winning seasons from getting the respect this team deserves. That is fine with me. Just beat'em boys.
 

Step 1 - We've ask to divest noncon cupcake teams from our schedule. Now we've got it - two challenging preseason noncons in TCU & Colorado State. This two preseason games will be the litmus test as to how good this edition of the Gophers will be. Strangest things have happen, and what looks good on paper may not be the case once games are played.

Step 2 - Win the B1G West.

Step 3 - Improve incoming quality of recruits even further. Kill will still evaluate prospect and sign hidden gems, but top talent does matter to stay in the upper tier. So far for 2016 recruiting class, we've got Coughlin, Foster, and Garcia.

Step 4 - Skies the limit once we start winning. Winning is infectious. A B1G Title, Rosebowl appearance...

If we have that many players potentially being drafted next as people are speculating, we will get lots of looks from high caliber players that never gave us a chance.

If Jeff Jones is able to deliver and the offense starts clicking, the Gophers may become a two-headed monster that nobody wants to play against.

Teams used to like to schedule us for their homecoming weekends as the cupcake of choice.
 

Having JJ on the field should help. But he is a rookie, has to do his job well and we have to hope that our QB's can get him the ball.

But the key to the offense is Mitch and the OL; not JJ. Mitch has to improve his accuracy and the OL must improve in pass protect and dominate up front.

Plus the D needs to do better against the run if we are to make a serious run at a BIG West title.

The teams that have the best OL and DL will compete for the West title.
 



Didn't ESPN read the posts on here about how surprised we'll all be by how little JJ is used this year? Hacks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Spoofin said:
Didn't ESPN read the posts on here about how surprised we'll all be by how little JJ is used this year? Hacks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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And I'd also expect ESPN to know that he will be a sophomore.
 


bottlebass said:
Neither are we. One of them also happens to be projected numero uno. So yes, that is a brutal stretch.
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Actually, I have seen Minnesota on multiple preseason top 25 lists. TCU is almost universally #2, with some rare exceptions at #1. The Gophers should be favored over all three of Nebraska, Michigan, and Iowa.
 



We need to avoid the Illinois game from last year from happening again.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Actually, I have seen Minnesota on multiple preseason top 25 lists. TCU is almost universally #2, with some rare exceptions at #1. The Gophers should be favored over all three of Nebraska, Michigan, and Iowa.
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They aren't on the AP top 25. But I guess the only one that matters is the the CFP rankings and those don't come out until mid season. Even though I think the Gophers should be favored over Nebraska and Michigan I doubt they will be. Better chance against Michigan if they stumble early in the year. Nebraska would have to lose games they aren't suppose to lose for us to actually be favored (and i'm talking the perception of non gopher fans here..)
 

bottlebass said:
They aren't on the AP top 25.
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No one is, because it doesn't exist at the moment. When the preseason poll comes out in August, it is 100% certain the Gophers will be receiving votes and a possibility that they may be in the Top 25. Nebraska will likely be receiving votes, Michigan might (based solely on reputation), and Iowa definitely will not. The Gophers should be favored in all three games, so I disagree that it's a brutal portion of the schedule. I also disagree that Nebraska and Michigan will be favored over us - we beat them both on the road last year (Michigan quite handily) and both have 1st-year coaches while we have one of the longest-tenured coaches in the conference. We also get them both at home.
 

dpodoll68 said:
No one is, because it doesn't exist at the moment. When the preseason poll comes out in August, it is 100% certain the Gophers will be receiving votes and a possibility that they may be in the Top 25. Nebraska will likely be receiving votes, Michigan might (based solely on reputation), and Iowa definitely will not. The Gophers should be favored in all three games, so I disagree that it's a brutal portion of the schedule. I also disagree that Nebraska and Michigan will be favored over us - we beat them both on the road last year (Michigan quite handily) and both have 1st-year coaches while we have one of the longest-tenured coaches in the conference. We also get them both at home.
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There is the Kill shot....
 

dpodoll68 said:
No one is, because it doesn't exist at the moment. When the preseason poll comes out in August, it is 100% certain the Gophers will be receiving votes and a possibility that they may be in the Top 25. Nebraska will likely be receiving votes, Michigan might (based solely on reputation), and Iowa definitely will not. The Gophers should be favored in all three games, so I disagree that it's a brutal portion of the schedule. I also disagree that Nebraska and Michigan will be favored over us - we beat them both on the road last year (Michigan quite handily) and both have 1st-year coaches while we have one of the longest-tenured coaches in the conference. We also get them both at home.
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If we beat TCU and are undefeated going into that stretch then I can see us being favored over Nebraska and Michigan. If we lose to TCU, I don't know if the national perception of the gophers will be high enough for us to be favored over Nebraska, maybe Michigan. Maybe we are talking about different things. I'm saying the gophers will be 3 point dogs to nebraska, maybe a pick em. Time will tell. I will be happy if I'm wrong on this one.
 

bottlebass said:
If we beat TCU and are undefeated going into that stretch then I can see us being favored over Nebraska and Michigan. If we lose to TCU, I don't know if the national perception of the gophers will be high enough for us to be favored over Nebraska, maybe Michigan. Maybe we are talking about different things. I'm saying the gophers will be 3 point dogs to nebraska, maybe a pick em. Time will tell. I will be happy if I'm wrong on this one.
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You'll be happy. :)
 

bottlebass said:
...I don't know if the national perception of the gophers will be high enough for us to be favored over Nebraska...
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Nebraska opens at home against BYU, then has South 'Bama at home, goes to Miami, pounds Southern Miss, goes to Champaign, wisconsin at home, then to TCF. They could be 3-3 coming in.
 

Unregistered User said:
Nebraska opens at home against BYU, then has South 'Bama at home, goes to Miami, pounds Southern Miss, goes to Champaign, wisconsin at home, then to TCF. They could be 3-3 coming in.
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We could easily be 3-3 too. Lose to TCU, lose to Colorado state, then have to play our first two conference games on the road.
 

Unregistered User said:
Nebraska opens at home against BYU, then has South 'Bama at home, goes to Miami, pounds Southern Miss, goes to Champaign, wisconsin at home, then to TCF. They could be 3-3 coming in.
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I hope Phil Nelson's dad didn't already buy tickets for that game in Lincoln.
 

I think the Gophers need to have one more solid season to really move up in the perception of the national media. if they can come up with 9 wins or more - and win a bowl game - then by this time next year, you should see the Gophers in the thick of the conversation as a solid top-20 team nationally, and a top contender in the B1G. Considering the change in schedule for 2016, that could potentially be the year that this program really goes over the top.
 

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