ESPN: State of the program: Minnesota Gophers

[BleedGopher]

per ESPN:

Recruiting situation: Minnesota's 2016 class was destined to suffer at least slightly when Kill stepped down. But Claeys did an excellent job of rallying near the end. Three junior-college prospects could be starters this season -- Calhoun, Wright and defensive tackle Merrick Jackson. Eight prospects are from the state of Minnesota, including linebacker Carter Coughlin, who is considered one of the top recruits in the class. Securing in-state borders are always important in recruiting and a good sign moving forward.

Trajectory: Holding steady. It's too early to tell just how good Minnesota will be in 2016. But the Gophers do have the benefit of one of the easiest Big Ten schedules in the league. Plus, they get to play all three nonconference games at home. Minnesota's offense simply wasn't consistent enough last season -- the Gophers ranked 12th out of 14 Big Ten teams in total offense -- and it will have to be better. Minnesota made great strides under Kill. After taking a step back a year ago, the goal under Claeys should still be to compete for a Big Ten West title, though it could be difficult with the talent inside the division.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/131233/state-of-the-program-minnesota-gophers

Go Gophers!!

 

[GoldenRodents]

The Gophers will be the bull in the Big 10 China shop

 

[corcoran1]

Fair evaluation. I expect everyone but Purdue and maybe Illinois to be better this season, but I don't see anyone running the table like Iowa did, including them. They were consistent every week and were fortunate a couple of times, but really did a good job every week. I expect Iowa to lose two or three conference games this season, and no one else looks unbeatable. We need Mitch to play like a good senior QB every game. We also need to have a viable plan against Wisconsin on defense. As much as I like Claeys' D, Wisconsin has had his number every year except 2014 when we could not move the ball enough to help the D. With the guys we play on dline, we might have to use a 3DT, 1DE defense against them. (I know we were missing both starters, but we don't get enough penetration against them to keep them honest. They just call slow developing runs and our dline can't hold position.)