Fleck: "I think we can be a really good football team next year."

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Vandy said:
Perhaps our unreliable, inexperienced placekicking game had something to do with the choice?

We'd been spoiled the previous 10-15 years with pretty good kickers. Please get us a placekicker that can be fairly reliable from 45+ when we need it.
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Find one for the Queens while you are at it. Wait?? They had one. Carlson
 

If we're really good next year, it will be because the defense is carrying us. Tough for me to see that, right now, but with the right transfers and younger guys stepping up, it could happen.

Sanford broke Morgan. And it's impossible for me to see us bench Morgan next year, unless he falls off a cliff.


This right here, tells you all you need to know about the prospects for our passing game next year:

Jordan Love
YearSchoolConfClassPosGCmpAttPctYdsY/AAY/ATDIntRate
*2018Utah StateMWCSOQB1326741764.035678.69.4326158.3
*2019Utah StateMWCJRQB1329347361.934027.26.42017129.1


Tanner Morgan
YearSchoolConfClassPosGCmpAttPctYdsY/AAY/ATDIntRate
*2019MinnesotaBig TenSOQB1321031866.0325310.211.1307178.7
2020MinnesotaBig TenJRQB710618357.913747.57.075128.2
 

ie, Sanford is 2-for-2 in breaking QB's that had exceptional years the year prior to his arrival.
 

RememberMurray said:
WOW!!!!!

So... we're at a point where losing by 3 points, in overtime, at Wisconsin is unacceptable?

If that's the case, we have dramatically upped our expectation game recently, as fans.

When did the bar get raised to the point where we can't accept losing by 3 in Madison? What exactly are our shiny, new, higher expectations these days, anyway? Have we suddenly taken things to a level where eleven wins is the 'new normal' here at Minnesota? Sub-.500 seasons will simply not be tolerated?

Holy whiplash, Batman!
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It’s about taking advantages of opportunities. Last year was the year to go to the rose bowl. Schedule was fairly easy and they won crazy games to start the year. Had to beat either Iowa or Wisconsin and they failed.

this year the Wisconsin team was absolute garbage and the gophers failed to take advantage of it. Michigan was terrible and they got destroyed. As it turns out Maryland was not real good either and terrible 4th quarter offense meant they lost that game too.

look at next year you start the season with Ohio State, so you are basically assured of 1 big ten loss. The gophers need so many stars to aliagin that when they do you better be ready to take advantage of them.
 

bonin21 said:
What do you expect him to say
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Oh I don't know. Fleck has downplayed their chances every year except for 2019 season. When he very guardedly talked about how they "could be good".

Fleck saying they "can be very good" next season is a huge step from him.

Now go along and focus on getting the Hockey team into playoffs. This time, if you see Holy Cross, Alaska-Anchorage, Colorado College or some other National Powerhouse that was taken them out before, we'll all be cheering for the Gopher Hockey team to win.

Unlike you. Who's seemingly always most active when the Gopher Football team loses.
 
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GFBfan said:
Wisconsin offense was 89 in the country down top 2 RB’s and WR’s a starting OL with their #2 Qb playing as bad as could be and then having to play most of the 4th and OT with a third stringer and you want to praise the D for holding them to 20?
sorry that doesn’t cut.
I’m not at all saying fire PJ. This season was not good though. All three phases of the game were not even close to as good as 19. Mo was the one exception.
The OL did play well as the year went on and we have some DL who improved through the year.
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What are you saying?
You’re saying this season was a disappointment? Agreed
 

John Galt said:
I want PJ to change his best and put a better product on the field. Better talent, better retention (the 2018 class is nowhere to be found), better player development, and better coaching.
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Don’t we all?


as long as it isn’t a kick returner you want more talent on the field
 





Some guy said:
Don’t we all?


as long as it isn’t a kick returner you want more talent on the field
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at the same time, have to factor in -
Depth thin in experienced WR's
and - CAB already shaken up once in game!

Given that - if CAB is the only player on the team you trust to run back a kick, you've got problems.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
at the same time, have to factor in -
Depth thin in experienced WR's
and - CAB already shaken up once in game!

Given that - if CAB is the only player on the team you trust to run back a kick, you've got problems.
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You have to ask the coach, but I don’t think he was back there to return a kick. He was back there to fair catch a kick. It bounced, he couldn’t fair catch off the bounce. Whoops.

I just think it’s funny we have a thread on first page saying special team coordinator should be fired and at the same time we have dozens of people complaining the guys we have on special teams are too talented
 

Every team in the nation is able to keep all players from this season. Every good team, this year, will remain good next year. Will Fleck take this team and somehow surpass those good teams?
 



MennoSota said:
Every team in the nation is able to keep all players from this season. Every good team, this year, will remain good next year. Will Fleck take this team and somehow surpass those good teams?
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I’m not sure what you just said is true.
I’m going to assume more stick around than usual but that a whole nfl draft worth of players will leave.

I think the really good teams will be helmet by guys leaving more than the above average teams.

The seniors who stick around are non-nfl seniors who are good enough to be told they can get an extra year of scholarship
 

Some guy said:
I’m not sure what you just said is true.
I’m going to assume more stick around than usual but that a whole nfl draft worth of players will leave.

I think the really good teams will be helmet by guys leaving more than the above average teams.

The seniors who stick around are non-nfl seniors who are good enough to be told they can get an extra year of scholarship
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Let me clarify. Iowa and Wisconsin will be better next year than they were this year. How did we do against those teams this year? Fleck has failed to win trophy games in two straight years. He needs more than just rhetoric.
 


MennoSota said:
Let me clarify. Iowa and Wisconsin will be better next year than they were this year. How did we do against those teams this year? Fleck has failed to win trophy games in two straight years. He needs more than just rhetoric.
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Yeah. If we play like we did this year it won’t go well next year
 



jonnyganas said:
Key returning players who didn't play this year
Braelin Oliver
Curtis Dunlap Jr
Daniel Faalele

I also don't think we will lose any significant starter for next year.

Also all the studs who were in the 2020 class like Ky Thomas, Tank Brown, Burns, Ersery, and others have had an extra year to develop.

If MN can have actual workouts, Spring Ball, Summer training, Fall Camp, and don't have to deal with covid absences week after week in 2021, I think they could be poised to be a lot better than this year.
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I want to like a lot of what you are saying but we don’t know how all this shakes out yet. Oliver, Dunlap, Faalele and Teague would all be very helpful additions but are they healthy and will they return?
Lose no starters? Bateman and St Juste are gone. We don’t know how many more will follow. Seth Green pretty big part of the team, will he return? Treadway, Geary, Justus Harris, Schad, Ko Kieft, P. Howard, Conner Olson and Sam Schluetter were all seniors and would have to decide to stay and be welcomed back. Our O-Line could be awesome with experienced people or feature a lot of new guys.
Really too early to know.
Durr news is great news.
But, say we go with 100 scholarships next year. We think that would help but most others will have 100 scholarships too. We’d need to win the transfer game to be significantly better.
 
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going on a bit of a rant here.

was thinking about the people who say after every season that "our young players will be better next year."

that drives me bleepin' nuts.

every team in the conference has young players, and they all think their young players will be better next year.

so, for MN to get an advantage over WI or IA, then MN's young players have to improve more than the young players at WI or IA.

If the young players at WI improve 20% - then MN's young players need to improve by 25% to get an advantage, and so forth. and if - as the standings imply - MN is behind WI and IA, then MN's young players probably have to show even more improvement to not just close the gap, but move ahead of those other teams.

because the other teams are not standing still. they're trying to improve too.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
going on a bit of a rant here.

was thinking about the people who say after every season that "our young players will be better next year."

that drives me bleepin' nuts.

every team in the conference has young players, and they all think their young players will be better next year.

so, for MN to get an advantage over WI or IA, then MN's young players have to improve more than the young players at WI or IA.

If the young players at WI improve 20% - then MN's young players need to improve by 25% to get an advantage, and so forth. and if - as the standings imply - MN is behind WI and IA, then MN's young players probably have to show even more improvement to not just close the gap, but move ahead of those other teams.

because the other teams are not standing still. they're trying to improve too.
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I agree with you.

That same logic applies to when our team doesn’t make a good play call. Because the other team are trying to make good calls to.

The gophers were 3-4 this year. 2 plays away from being 5-2. Probably 2-3 plays away from being 1-6 as well. So yeah, they have to get better at a faster rate than Wisconsin so we make that 1 play to beat them. Bigger gap with Iowa.
 

60's Guy said:
I complained hard about the OC early. I do think he is responsible for Tanner going backwards. But, PJ has his thumb print on the offense up to his elbow. Could not have been any fun for Sanford. Not s
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BilldGopher said:
Pretty much considering Game 1 next season versus tOSU a loss out of the gate.

I'm hoping we're competitive and heck would love to win, but the mantra of "on any given Saturday" would really have to be the gameday speech before that game.

Assuming we have the rest of the season as slated, 11-1 is the best we'll do (not saying that is WHAT we'll do). If the tOSU game were Game 5 or 6 might have a different attitude.

Regardless, any year we play the Buckeyes is a tough nut that week. Hoping Coach is correct though on all fronts.
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I look forward to seeing you at the game.
 

Our team was decent to end the year. Got a lot better. We'll be good to go next year. I want more but I think the expectation for a normal amount of games would be 8+ wins next year.

I thought Morgan and Sanford were better the last couple games. Morgan had a couple blunders in the game this past weekend, but I think they'll be good to go next year.

Jackson and CAB are solid. I expect at least another receiver or two to be good to go in the 3/4/5 spots. It was good to see Jackson get some real time and make some plays.

Mo is an absolute stud. Wiley made progress behind him and Potts too.

O-Line will be solid even if we lose Faal or Dunlap, ideally not both. Would like to get both back which is the most likely outcome I would think.

Nice to have LB from D-1AA coming in. Sori-Marin made strides. Oliver should be back. Younger LBs like Gordon IV made strides as well.

Nice to see Coney back. Need better play from safeties. Wouldn't be surprised to see those spots become competitive heading into next year.

Mafe is good and I like what we saw from our DTs towards the end of the year. Could use another end to make a difference and put more pressure on opposing QBs.

I like where we're headed and looking forward to getting back to real college football next season. Rock the bank.
 

It is simple logic to understand that if you are behind in the product you are putting on the playing field you have to incrementally be better to finally take the lead.
If you believe the numbers in the 2021 class in the BIG West WI is #1 and 3# in the BIG. In the BIG MN is #8, NE is #7and IA is #6.
If IA and WI are already better than MN then the future does not look like unicorns and roses.
 

Plato said:
It is simple logic to understand that if you are behind in the product you are putting on the playing field you have to incrementally be better to finally take the lead.
If you believe the numbers in the 2021 class in the BIG West WI is #1 and 3# in the BIG. In the BIG MN is #8, NE is #7and IA is #6.
If IA and WI are already better than MN then the future does not look like unicorns and roses.
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That been the case pretty much every year.

I don’t think anyone on the planet would disagree with you that the program needs to get better in order to consistently beat Wisconsin and Iowa.

Is there someone arguing that the program doesn’t need to get better that I missed?
 

Some guy said:
That been the case pretty much every year.

I don’t think anyone on the planet would disagree with you that the program needs to get better in order to consistently beat Wisconsin and Iowa.

Is there someone arguing that the program doesn’t need to get better that I missed?
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Yes. The 30% of posters that graded our 2021 recruiting class an A.
 



Plato said:
It is simple logic to understand that if you are behind in the product you are putting on the playing field you have to incrementally be better to finally take the lead.
If you believe the numbers in the 2021 class in the BIG West WI is #1 and 3# in the BIG. In the BIG MN is #8, NE is #7and IA is #6.
If IA and WI are already better than MN then the future does not look like unicorns and roses.
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The recruiting rankings do not necessarily reflect whether the product is incrementally getting better. See NW.
 
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