From end of 2019 season to now

[Some Day...Maybe]

PJ seems to have lost quite a bit of mojo from the end of the 2019 season to now. His career up to 2020 seemed to be shooting straight up, since the end of the 2019 season he seems to have lost his "mojo". What happened?

How much did the pandemic put a damper on it? How much did the George Floyd tragedy change it? How much did losing Kirk Ciarrocca upset the apple cart? I think all those things had an affect, however I think losing Ciarrocca had the biggest affect. I think PJ is needing to start over in a way. The depth we thought was there isn't there and the momentum built leading up to and through the 2019 season is clearly gone. Our receiving corps is clearly lacking. Also, the transfer portal took away 2 very good RB's.

I've never seen a Gopher team play 4 games like they did to start this season in my lifetime. Even against the shittiest of opponents. Like most people here, I was shocked to see how they played against Purdue. Like 2 different teams. I gotta give Bielema credit, he has hired two outstanding coordinators and he knows how to coach. He also nailed the transfer portal. That Illinois team was extremely well coached on Saturday.

I wish I could have faith in this team, but after the last 2 weeks I just don't. I hope they can prove me wrong. I'm cheering for them to prove me wrong and I'll be cheering for them every game as I always do. However I think PJ needs to get locked back in to the way he was prior to 2020. The intensity and recruiting seem to be falling off. Let's hope Tanner is ok for Penn St because we sure could use a win! Ski U Mah!

 

[short ornery norwegian]

2019 the Gophers had 2 NFL-quality WR's and a strong 3rd option in CrAB.

Now, the Gophers don't have a single WR who will ever get a sniff from the NFL. CrAB might have had a chance without the injuries, but that's iffy now.

I understand that it's hard to recruit top WR's to a school that is seen as a "run-first" program. But the offense needs that passing threat to compliment the running game. So one way or another, they have to get better WR's to MN.

(hint -- $$$$$$$$)

 

[GopherDog1]

Someone that seems to get overlooked in 2019 is Antoine Winfield. He cleaned up a lot of messy plays with great tackling and created some huge turnovers himself, basically winning a few games for the Gophers.

 

[Some guy]

Someone that seems to get overlooked in 2019 is Antoine Winfield. He cleaned up a lot of messy plays with great tackling and created some huge turnovers himself, basically winning a few games for the Gophers.

Yeah.
I think this defense is better than that defense but it doesn’t have Winfield.
He just makes winning plays.

I don’t think he gets overlooked though. He was national DB of the year and is revered as a top 5 gophers defender of the modern era (metrodome and after)

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Someone that seems to get overlooked in 2019 is Antoine Winfield. He cleaned up a lot of messy plays with great tackling and created some huge turnovers himself, basically winning a few games for the Gophers.

Yeah but it's not like defense is / has been the issue ...

 

[gopherbadgerman]

While I’ll agree fleck needs better talent and I am not a huge Morgan fan, he’s 16-10 overall and 10-9 in the B10 since the end of the 2019 season. 6 years ago people would have killed for those results.

 

[gophernut1]

My concern with PJ is that he is not developing his WR's at the level that was anticipated for a head coach who was a WR and started out developing/recruiting 2 NFL bound WR's. There are a lot of things to be excited about. More wins in B1G, more NFL drafted talent, more prestige in program than predecessors.

I think our biggest issue is that if not this year when? Next year we go into the season with very little proven production in our key offensive positions. After that then we have USC and UCLA added to the mix. This is hard because of an opportunity lost (we can still beat IA and WI). Still, we have a good enough core that a few key surprises and we could have a Northwestern type of year in 2023.

 

[Live in the now]

Someone that seems to get overlooked in 2019 is Antoine Winfield. He cleaned up a lot of messy plays with great tackling and created some huge turnovers himself, basically winning a few games for the Gophers.

That’s a great take. He saved a couple games as I remember but nobody talks about it. Good post

 

[Hates Monikers]

I don't believe losing Ciarrocca hurt that much; I'm one of the few here who isn't a big fan, although Sanford was a bad replacement. In fact, I'd say our passing game with Ciarrocca includes the minimum required amount of imagination.

Fleck's recruiting didn't capitalize on that 2019 season. It hasn't been bad, but it remained flat at best. But while the defense is still very good, the recruiting misses have been with the offense -- WRs for sure, and I'd include the OL, too. Plus, the QB has been average since 2019.

Add it up, and over the past three years we became the college football poster child for running well and throwing badly -- or hardly at all. You can be okay like that, but you won't win championships. And it makes it even more difficult to recruit skill position players. It will build on itself. Somehow, recruiting has to improve for the offense to help this team out.