Expectations, Then and Now

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RememberMurray

RememberMurray

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Going into the 2019 season, there was one of those 'season win total' threads started here, asking GopherHolers for predictions on how the Gopher season might play out.

I predicted a 9-3 regular season, and if I remember correctly the majority of folks here (though not all) were pretty sure my expectations/prediction was/were too high.

The Gophers have now completed the 2019 regular season at 10-2 — above and beyond even my "overly optimistic" expectations.

Now I'm wondering (generally) if GopherHolers are happy with the 2019 season results. Did they meet or exceed your predictions and expectations?

I'm also curious as to how the 10-win 2019 season will impact your expectations going forward.

Your thoughts, fellow Gopher fans?
 

I was expecting and hoping for an 8 win season. Would have been thrilled with 9 wins. 10 wins with a chance at 11 wasn't anywhere close to on my radar.

So I am beyond thrilled with this year.
 

I said 8 was floor.
I said 10 was ceiling.

looks like we hit ceiling.

I thought we would beat all the mediocre and bad teams and hopefully steal a couple from some good teams.

I thought Nebraska would be a little better than they were.
I thought Penn state would be a little worse.
 

I predicted a 9 win season before the first game and then switched to 10 wins just before the opener. I obsess on this stuff like you all do and I thought the losses would be Iowa and Penn State. I wish I was wrong and we would go 11-1 but the Gophers will still get to 11 wins after the bowl game.

10 win seasons are great and I am happy with this record but the missed opportunity stings for sure.
 

I thought 8 wins was most likely. Glad to be wrong. It does make me more optimistic next year. Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin will all be tough, but we belong on the field with them. The question is whether we will continue to take care of the teams we should beat. And that will start those first few games where we should blow out some non-conference teams. That's the bellwether.
 


I thought 7 wins and then 8 if the football Gods blessed the Gophers.
 

I saw 9 wins being very doable. I’m ecstatic with 10 and 2.
I could of lived with 8 wins. But the opportunity hasn’t been there in a long time. We had the schedule, we won the games up until Iowa and Wisconsin. Hard to lose to them and with it your dream season.

The future. I think it is going to be difficult.
I expect 8 regular season wins and will be satisfied if we achieve that. More would be awesome. I much prefer to win bowl games than end the season with a loss and carry that around for 9 months.
 

I'm happy with the results.

But nervous about the OL and defense in the future.
 

Sparlimb said:
I thought 8 wins was most likely. Glad to be wrong. It does make me more optimistic next year. Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin will all be tough, but we belong on the field with them. The question is whether we will continue to take care of the teams we should beat. And that will start those first few games where we should blow out some non-conference teams. That's the bellwether.
Click to expand...

Well said.

You're right; we do, in fact, belong on the field with any of those teams. We have reached that point.

Doesn't mean we'll beat teams of that quality every time we play them, but I'm confident we'll compete with them most every time, and win against them some of the time.

Getting this far represents real progress. I don't think we've reached the final goal — I think Fleck believes we can rise above our current level — but we're moving in the right direction.

Looking ahead at our 2020 schedule, I'm fully expecting another 10-win season.
 



Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin are all better this year than they will be next year.

Wisconsin loses one of the best backs in the history of college football.
Michigan and Iowa both need new quarterbacks which isn’t always easy.

Gophers take a step back too with all the losses on defense.

Nebraska is your preseason big ten west champion
 

Some guy said:
Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin are all better this year than they will be next year.

Wisconsin loses one of the best backs in the history of college football.
Michigan and Iowa both need new quarterbacks which isn’t always easy.

Gophers take a step back too with all the losses on defense.

Nebraska is your preseason big ten west champion
Click to expand...

Well, yes... of course. Goes without saying, really.
 

I can't remember what I voted for, but this season blew my expectations out of the water -- especially after the lackluster start in non-con. 10-2 has never happened in my lifetime. I don't care about the schedule...talk to the hand. It was a fun ride. I hope it's the new normal.
 

Some guy said:
Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin are all better this year than they will be next year.

Wisconsin loses one of the best backs in the history of college football.
Michigan and Iowa both need new quarterbacks which isn’t always easy.

Gophers take a step back too with all the losses on defense.

Nebraska is your preseason big ten west champion
Click to expand...
We say this every year. Last year it was Iowa loses 4 guys early to the draft, two of which were first round TE's. Wisconsin lost 4 starting offensive lineman, their QB and 4 of their top defenders yet they ended up being way better this year.
 



Our record was about what I expected (I thought we would win the West) but position groups didn’t totally match. Tanner and the passing game exceeded expectations, but the o-line was a disappointment. I really thought we’d be able to run And protect against good defenses, but same old. Special teams was shockingly bad and defense was about what I expected (average).
I think we will take a step back next year (~8 wins) b/c of lost defensive talent and general lack of depth. Long-Term view very optimistic.
 

RememberMurray said:
Going into the 2019 season, there was one of those 'season win total' threads started here, asking GopherHolers for predictions on how the Gopher season might play out.

I predicted a 9-3 regular season, and if I remember correctly the majority of folks here (though not all) were pretty sure my expectations/prediction was/were too high.

The Gophers have now completed the 2019 regular season at 10-2 — above and beyond even my "overly optimistic" expectations.

Now I'm wondering (generally) if GopherHolers are happy with the 2019 season results. Did they meet or exceed your predictions and expectations?

I'm also curious as to how the 10-win 2019 season will impact your expectations going forward.

Your thoughts, fellow Gopher fans?
Click to expand...
A majority thought at least 9 wins.

 

I’m happy with 10-2. Really happy. Very fun season overall.

Expectations have been raised. I’m not saying 11 is expected, that is only true for a handful of programs in the country. But looking at next years schedule, 8-9 wins seems very doable. 8-4 or 9-3 would mean back to winning conference records which hasn’t been the norm here
 

Some guy said:
Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin are all better this year than they will be next year.

Wisconsin loses one of the best backs in the history of college football.
Michigan and Iowa both need new quarterbacks which isn’t always easy.

Gophers take a step back too with all the losses on defense.

Nebraska is your preseason big ten west champion
Click to expand...
And their QB is on Heisman watch...
 

We'll definitely learn who we are much quicker next year, with Iowa early on and Michigan and Wisconsin in October. Already looking forward to it!
 

fair said:
We'll definitely learn who we are much quicker next year, with Iowa early on and Michigan and Wisconsin in October. Already looking forward to it!
Click to expand...
I'm a bit worried about that.

So far PJ's teams have come out of the gate a bit slow... they get better but if we played those teams in October this year, not sure we'd be so excited at this point.
 

Some guy said:
I said 8 was floor.
I said 10 was ceiling.
Click to expand...

In retrospect, 12 was the ceiling. Just amazing. A stinker to close the season, but I think PJ is the real deal. Constantly promoting, not himself, but the U. I hope we soon reap what he’s sown on the recruiting front. He’s worked his butt off to promote our team.
 

The team definitely exceeded my expectations. Morgan and the receivers emerged and were elite and they were the main differentiator. This was a really fun season full of incredible plays, the O’Brien angle, etc.

How does 2019 affect expectations for 2020? Being pragmatic I’d say my expectations for the offense are to be even better in terms of the ground game. It will be hard to be better through the air but who knows? Add in Spann Ford, etc etc. On defense - who really knows what to expect? Winfield’s status is up in the air and a slew of new guys will be filling roles. Special teams is an issue a noted.

I’d guess preseason pundits will have an over/under at 8-9 games depending on the source. I’ll go with 9 right now and hope for more. Get Iowa at home and they’ll be breaking in a new QB. Wisconsin, probably going to be tough. Purdue, Nebraska, Michigan who knows?
 

To me expectations and predictions are two different things. I don't think it's fair to expect 9 wins in year 3, but I think it was a reasonable prediction given the schedule. Personally, I thought the Gophers were in a group with Wisconsin and Nebraska (whoops) that could win the B1G West. I was really disappointed and worried by the opener and was worried this season would fall far short of contention.

To me the biggest positives of the season were finally getting a big home victory at TCF (it's only been open a decade..) by beating a top 5 Penn State team and the fashion in which the Gophers achieved their other 6 conference victories. They didn't just beat teams, but they beat them decisively in the manner that a true top of the conference team would do so.

By far the biggest negative and the area where the Gophers fell far below my expectations were the rivalry games. I feel like those were clearly our two worst performances of the season and that's really disappointing since I felt they had turned a corner last year in Madison. They were somehow flat to open the game in Iowa City and in both games I had far more questions about the play calling (timeouts and decision making had kind of been shaky all year IMHO) than I had all conference season.

My expectation for next year is to continue to show a gap between the Gophers and the bottom half of the conference and to do no worse than split the Iowa/Wisconsin games. Hopefully, my prediction can be higher than that, but it depends on who leaves (both the Gophers and the other teams around the conference) and who the Gophers can add to the roster by Fall camp.
 

Saw 9 wins so very pleased.

Side note on I-O-W-A and UW. Hopefully Ferentz and Chryst completely forget their respective game plans for both of their games with the Gophers. Hawk and Bucky fans readily admit that the preparation and more aggressive calls on offense were not characteristic of their 2019 squads. If some kind of light bulb goes off and they move generally in that direction, then thoughts of their impending drop (based on turnover) may be premature.

Back to the topic, a great season that's still not done.

Progress.
 

I predicted the floor for this season to be 9 wins with loses to PSU, Iowa and Wisconsin. So I got more than I bargained for with the win over PSU and am very happy with 10-2, especially the way they beat the crap out of all the other B1G teams they played even without what was expected from the ground game.

Next year should be around the same. Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin are the biggest games but the non-conference schedule is a slight upgrade from this year and we have that long non-con unbeaten streak which is going to end sometime. Factor in Illinois being more of a threat and a road game.

Next season's floor should be 8 wins. A realistic expectation should be 10 wins with 1 win from among the big three. Ceiling is the fun part! Ceiling is 12-0! Just win Baby!
 

I'm impressed by all the optimism, but a bit surprised too.

The OL has been on and off all year. I don't feel like I've seen them show me anything to be sure more time means they'll improve.

The Defense has been on and off all year. I don't feel like I've seen them show me anything to be sure more time means they'll improve.

And we start earlier with the tougher games that this year I don't think we would have had a chance in if we played them earlier this year.

I duno guies...
 

Some guy said:
Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin are all better this year than they will be next year.

Wisconsin loses one of the best backs in the history of college football.
Michigan and Iowa both need new quarterbacks which isn’t always easy.

Gophers take a step back too with all the losses on defense.

Nebraska is your preseason big ten west champion
Click to expand...

Seems like every 3-4 years Wi loses an all time great RB that'll be hard to replace...than they replace them
 

My expectations this season we're ~8 wins. I said prior to season if we had 7 wins, but no blowouts and a rivalry win, I'd probably be content, so they've been exceeded

My long term expectations are still B1GW title and Rose Bowl. Next year, 8-10 wins to me seems reasonable. Purdue, Nebraska, Illinois are all making noise and we can't expect all 3 to stay doormats. Northwestern I expect to bounce back.

My expectation is our bad years are 6-8 wins and our good years are 8-11
 


2019 obviously was higher than any reasonable person was willing to predict. That's my opinion. I thought we'd go 7-5, but was hoping for 8-4. Nebraska, and especially Purdue and NW, were far worse than expected. I also expected Maryland and Illinois to put up more of a fight. Was hoping we'd get one win out of Penn St, Iowa, Wisconsin, and was not expecting it to be Penn St. Was hoping it'd be Wisconsin. Oh well, the Penn St game was the greatest Gopher football home game I've ever been to.

2020, like Chip said in his article today, 7-5 is not acceptable. The floor has to be 8-4, and that is absolutely achievable. Anything less than that has to be seen as a regression.
 

salzie said:
Seems like every 3-4 years Wi loses an all time great RB that'll be hard to replace...than they replace them
Click to expand...
Wisconsin always replaces them. But they aren’t a top 10 team every year like they are this year.
Taking a step back doesn’t mean they’re bad.
 

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