Gophers SOS just improved.

Donate To GopherHole
everybody knows my name

everybody knows my name

Freakishly Hyperintelligent
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
2,655
Reaction score
491
Points
83
Colorado State, who the Gophers beat 31-24, beat UNLV to improve to 4-4 on the season.

Penn State, who needed overtime to beat the Gophers 29-26, beat #2 Ohio State 24-21 in regulation to improve to 5-2.

Maryland, whom the Gophers trounced 31-10 just last week, turned around and beat Michigan State 28-17 this week, improving their record to 5-2.

And of course the Gophers turned back an unexpectedly tough Rutgers squad this week, 34-32. And they did it with a number of freshmen making important contributions, and without 5 suspended players and without Jack Lynn, who was ejected after a questionable targeting call. The win brings the Maroons' record to 5-2 with very winnable games against Illinois and Purdue coming up, making 7 wins the minimum expectation this year.

I'd say things aren't looking so bad this morning.
 

Colorado State, but point made. +1


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

CSU beat UNLV
Oregon State got taken to the shed by Washington
 


everybody knows my name said:
Colorado State, who the Gophers beat 31-24, beat UNLV to improve to 4-4 on the season.

Penn State, who needed overtime to beat the Gophers 29-26, beat #2 Ohio State 24-21 in regulation to improve to 5-2.

Maryland, whom the Gophers trounced 31-10 just last week, turned around and beat Michigan State 28-17 this week, improving their record to 5-2.

And of course the Gophers turned back an unexpectedly tough Rutgers squad this week, 34-32. And they did it with a number of freshmen making important contributions, and without 5 suspended players and without Jack Lynn, who was ejected after a questionable targeting call. The win brings the Maroons' record to 5-2 with very winnable games against Illinois and Purdue coming up, making 7 wins the minimum expectation this year.

I'd say things aren't looking so bad this morning.
Click to expand...

This season hasn't been a disaster but in spite of the 5-2 record it has also not been impressive to this point either. The two loses to this point are frustrating because the games were extremely winnable (especially Penn State) but the team failed to make the plays needed to get the W. I think Maryland is a lot like us where their record looks good but the team itself is not playing at a very high level at all.

The Rutgers game yesterday was a near disaster. People can spin it any way they want to but the reality is that Rutgers is a terrible football program right now and there is no way we should have needed a last second field goal to get the win. All three phases really struggled and we were extremely fortunate to end up with the victory.

The way the season has gone to date really any of the games left on the schedule are winnable but I don't think any of them are a sure thing either.

Been said in other threads, the biggest issue with this season is going to be that no matter where we finish record wise I don't see how anyone can not view this season as a massive missed opportunity with the loses to Iowa and Penn State in the way in which those games played out.
 


That's a fair assessment, MNVCGUY. I'm not trying to sugarcoat the season, but I think the pendulum has swung too far the other way - people need to recognize that we're 5-2 with a probability of reaching 7-2 in the next couple of weeks, and it bears acknowledging that our strength of schedule is looking better this week than it did last week.
 

I think we need to get used to the idea that in college football things may be a bit less predictable than in the past.
 

Does strength of schedule really help in college football when you're looking at around an 8 win season? Do our chances at a better bowl game or getting picked over another Big Ten team with 7-8 wins go up every time CSU wins a game?
 

tmvander said:
Does strength of schedule really help in college football when you're looking at around an 8 win season? Do our chances at a better bowl game or getting picked over another Big Ten team with 7-8 wins go up every time CSU wins a game?
Click to expand...

Might change how you look at some games in hindsight and the performance so far.
 



tmvander said:
Does strength of schedule really help in college football when you're looking at around an 8 win season? Do our chances at a better bowl game or getting picked over another Big Ten team with 7-8 wins go up every time CSU wins a game?
Click to expand...

It should color our assessment of our team's performance, if nothing else. In the big picture, it's taken into account by recruits, by writers, and to some degree by the bowl selectors.
 

everybody knows my name said:
That's a fair assessment, MNVCGUY. I'm not trying to sugarcoat the season, but I think the pendulum has swung too far the other way - people need to recognize that we're 5-2 with a probability of reaching 7-2 in the next couple of weeks, and it bears acknowledging that our strength of schedule is looking better this week than it did last week.
Click to expand...

I am not sure anything has happened with our opponents that should really change how our season should be viewed to this point.

Coming into the season I viewed Colorado State as a solid non power 5 school, not great but not a joke either. Through 8 games they are 4-4 and seem about in line with what I think most thought they would be this year. Oregon State may not be the dumpster fire they were last year but they are still bad. Indiana State is still FCS and not a top tier FCS. Bottom line is those all looked like teams we should beat before the year and they still look the same today.

In the Big Ten: Penn State probably looks better then they did when we played them, especially coming off the Ohio State win. On the flip side Iowa probably looks a little worse. Penn State's win against OSU makes our loss to them more frustrating because we had them and let them get away. Both are solid middle of the pack Big Ten teams and we lost to both of them in competitive games.

Like us, Maryland really doesn't have a quality win on their resume yet this season. Heading into the year a win against MSU would have been viewed as a great thing but that team is in complete free fall right now and looks like a shell of what they have been in recent years. Rutgers on the other hand is a team that looks as bad as most thought they would be heading into the season yet they gave us everything we could handle and more and we were extremely fortunate to get out of there with the win. Looking at Rutgers remaining schedule they maybe win 1 or 2 Big Ten games tops this year if they catch a few breaks.

Coming into this season there were 7 wins basically sitting there for the taking with the non-conf games and the Big Ten games against Maryland, Rutgers, Purdue, and Illinois. We have won 5 of those and the remaining 2 still look very winnable as both of those teams have not looked that good to this point at all. Assuming those games all ended up in the W column the season was going to hinge on the other 5 games. So far in those we are 0-2 and the other 3 (Northwestern, Wisconsin, Nebraska) all look a little daunting with Northwestern suddenly looking like they may have figured a few things out.

With the schedule I felt that 8 wins would be a minimum total to see this season as any sort of a success given the way the schedule laid out. Given how teams have played I would still say that is still the case. Overall teams don't seem too much different then what we thought they would be going into the season.
 

In case anyone is still awake, Oregon State is wiping the walls with Leach's 5-2 Washington State team. It's 21-0 in the 2nd quarter, and it doesn't seem that close.
 





SOS makes a difference in Sagarin which is used to post the first point spreads.
Teams in the BIG go to the premier BIG bowls based on their standing in the BIG.
After that teams with similar records go to bowls that rightly or wrongly are based on teams that have been perceived to travel well or not.
 






I'm thoroughly enjoying the season. Win, lose, or draw there are always interesting things to talk about.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom