Gophers open as -27.5 point favorites against Colorado

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GopherWeatherGuy said:
Stats never lie, and what I said is a fact. Plus I agree that we are in a better place now which I've said several times.

We would have covered a 27.5 pt spread at Colorado last year with a Sanford led offense though, yet people are saying that we couldn't move the ball with him...which just isn't true.
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I don’t think we’re going to see eye to eye on this. “We could not move the ball” at times seems like a legitimate observation of 2021 season.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
I don’t think we’re going to see eye to eye on this. “We could not move the ball” at times seems like a legitimate observation of 2021 season.
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And neither could half of the other B1G teams, including Iowa who won the west with a worse offense than us, even with a NFL running back the entire season. We were also 3rd in all of college in time of possession last season, how do you do that without being able to move the ball?

Ciarrocca is a much better OC than Sanford, especially when it comes to passing. But Sanford was not as bad as everyone makes him out to be, especially in regards to the running game. You can make a pretty good argument that half of the other B1G teams had a worse OC than Sanford last year.
 
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GopherWeatherGuy said:
And neither could half of the other B1G teams, including Iowa who won the west with a worse offense than us, even with a NFL running back the entire season. We were also 3rd in all of college in time of possession last season, how do you do that without being able to move the ball?

Ciarrocca is a much better OC than Sanford, especially when it comes to passing. But Sanford was not as bad as everyone makes him out to be, especially in regards to the running game. You can make a pretty good argument that half of the other B1G teams had a worse OC than Sanford last year.
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I mean, OK..

Like I said, we’re not going to see eye to eye. I saw things that I’ve never seen before. Sure, Kirk Jr is worse.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
And neither could half of the other B1G teams, including Iowa who won the west with a worse offense than us, even with a NFL running back the entire season. We were also 3rd in all of college in time of possession last season, how do you do that without being able to move the ball?

Ciarrocca is a much better OC than Sanford, especially when it comes to passing. But Sanford was not as bad as everyone makes him out to be, especially in regards to the running game. You can make a pretty good argument that half of the other B1G teams had a worse OC than Sanford last year.
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Worse OC or worse offense?
I would judge an OC by if their team over performed or underperformed. I would say our offense underperformed with the talent we had. PJ agreed too.
 

Word said:
Worse OC or worse offense?
I would judge an OC by if their team over performed or underperformed. I would say our offense underperformed with the talent we had. PJ agreed too.
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Again, I don't disagree. There's a big difference between underperforming and 'not being able to move the ball'.
 


jonnyganas said:
I think KC is doing in the non-con what Sanford failed to do: take what the defense gives you. W Illinois stacked the box all day? We're going to throw on you. Sanford stuck to the vanilla run game in the same scenario, which allowed a team like BG to beat us at home.
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To be fair 19 the NC games were to close for comfort.
 

Some guy said:
As does every coach who watches our film
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Disagree watching film gives the level of insider insight that Sanford has about our current defense and defensive personnel.

That doesn't mean he'll be able to actually do anything about it. I'm not saying he will. Just that he has the information.
 
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noamfromm said:
Insider information withstanding, I don't think Mike Sanford can move the ball with his current crop of quarterbacks and skill players.
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Also, his overall inability to be a good offensive coordinator.

The scheme he installs, how he coaches the QB to run the offense, and/or the plays/routes he calls ... just don't work.
 

tjgopher said:
Upward trajectory to where? He was at Notre Dame as the offensive coordinator at 35 years old, about as high up as you can get as an assistant. He went there from Boise State, Stanford and others. He was a Division I HEAD COACH at age 37. He has made big money. His contract at Colorado is for three years. Usually if they fire you, they have to pay you for the entire contract, or there is some high dollar buyout to get out early.

He would have been an absolute fool to turn down PJ's offer and told him he was unqualified so he would stay at Utah State to worry about an upward trajectory. What would he have learned at Utah State to make him better and to protect a career arch to where? Meanwhile, he will net him more than $2 million in real money in 3 years after taking PJ's offer.

He is 40 years old and probably has $8m-$10m in the bank with many more years of earning potential. There are 60 year old assistant coaches who could only wish they had Sanford's recent career trajectory.
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Every move he has made since being the Notre Dame OC has been a move down in level or a lateral move.

Except coming to Minnesota. He failed at Utah State the season before ... and failed upward to Minnesota.

PJ will, of course, never give an honest answer about why that happened. Oh well, moving on
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
I think we're all happy that Sanford is gone but let's be at least be a little realistic. The Gophers moved the ball on the ground enough to have the 27th best rushing offense with the 5th and 6th string RBs for half of the season last year. They also won 9 games and beat Wisconsin. 6 years ago he would have been praised on this board for having that type of season.
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Sanford was not calling plays towards the end of last season.

Bank it
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
And they were still basically even with Wisconsin and Penn St, and ahead of Iowa, Illinois, Rutgers, Indiana, and Northwestern. They were a middle of the road B1G offense despite being down 4 RBs.

Sanford is a terrible OC when it comes to the passing game and I'm happy he's gone. But he wasn't as bad as some are making him out to be either, especially when it comes to the running game.
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You're right. He wasn't as terrible as some claim. In one of the team's losses last season, Iowa, his offensive game plan was pretty good (better than Iowa!) but the defense had some rare lapses and those were the primary reasons for the loss. I think the bottom line for most, though, is that the differences between a good and great year in 2021 were Bowling Green and Illinois. The offense was pathetic in those games and adjustments needed to be made far sooner than they were. Of course, he's also being compared to his predecessor/successor who gave us one of our best offensive years.
 



Pompous Elitist said:
Most of us are judged not only by our best moments but also the worst. There were moments of extreme WTH last year. The team could have been, should have been better.

The Gophers’ offense ranked 99th in total offense and 83rd in scoring offense at the end of Sanford’s second year with the program per Daily Gopher.
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This is a good take.

I think what happened was:
Sanford tried to do some shit in 2020 that was higher level passing game. More complicated. Didn’t work.
tried it again. Didn’t work.
Fleck told him to simplify. He didn’t know how to do that either.

I kind of see him as the Robb smith of OCs but the difference is PJ meddled more. I think if PJ was a defensive guy we would’ve thrown it a lot more but been equally as ineffective. Sanford just couldn’t teach the QB what he wanted him to do. Morgan in 2019 was confident and decisive and is again.
2020-2021 Morgan was late, indecisive, and thus…not as effective.
 

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