Great time for a Bye Week

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MNVCGUY

MNVCGUY

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Coming off of 4 emotional games....2nd half collapse against Iowa, coming up just short against Michigan....followed by 2 hard fought wins against USC and UCLA.

No doubt lots of guys are dinged and can use the week off to get their bodies right. Coaches get to hit the road recruiting coming off a few wins and especially out in California can really sell the way the team did against the California teams.

And the schedule coming out of the bye sets up well leading to the next bye week. Start with a home game against a very beatable Maryland team. Followed by a date with a good Illinois team but one that just gave up 49 points to a horrible Purdue team. Will be a tough game but one we can win if we play well. Follow that with the Kaliakmanis game and a Rutgers team that has been way way way overhyped and looks poised to quickly fall back to earth after their performance against Wisconsin this past weekend. Need to come out of this stretch 2-1 at least but 3-0 isn't impossible......though to be fair neither is 1-2 with the slim margin for error this team has this season.

Best of all the players and coaches should be feeling good heading into the bye week. Record is sitting at 4-3 which makes reaching a bowl seem very likely. Now they can self scout, work on the areas where they are struggling and get ready to finish the season strong.
 


Oline needs to improve and be better next year, but hey, I don't think the center caused a false start penalty this past game, so that's improvement!
 

I'm actually mildly hopeful for the return of Maverick Baranowski after the bye week. Saw him on the sidelines yesterday, so he traveled with the team, and additionally he had no cast or sling or anything on, so the shoulder injury might not be as I had initially feared. Time will tell though.
 

Word said:
Hopefully they figure out the O-line issues and get the run game going.
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I think we found that a more open run game where they’re running back picks his holes is working for us.
 


Going into the game I was thinking the same thing, if we can pull off a win and a California sweep it’s a really good time to have the team go to pie on a high note.
 

Taji34 said:
I'm actually mildly hopeful for the return of Maverick Baranowski after the bye week. Saw him on the sidelines yesterday, so he traveled with the team, and additionally he had no cast or sling or anything on, so the shoulder injury might not be as I had initially feared. Time will tell though.
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They said he was a game time decision yesterday, so I think we will see him back after the bye.
 

They do need the rest. Watching these past few games the gophers players hit hard. I am not sure Sturdivant caught another pass after taking a helmet to the inside of his thigh. Gopher D has been laying the wood to opponents.
 

I will be interested to see what happens if anything with the OL. Thinking about any common denominators between the tragedy that was the 23 season and this year it seems like the OL struggled all of last year and continues this year. So, whether a good chunk of these kids played last year or not seems irrelevant, they haven’t played very well. I’d like to see them shake things up; which is probably a pipe dream but 65 and 77 have not played well enough to where this shouldn’t be a question during the buy week. 65, in particular, seems to be regressing maybe a confidence issue now that he’s been getting his ass kicked regularly.
 



MNVCGUY said:
... Need to come out of this stretch 2-1 at least but 3-0 isn't impossible......though to be fair neither is 1-2 with the slim margin for error this team has this season.

Best of all the players and coaches should be feeling good heading into the bye week. Record is sitting at 4-3 which makes reaching a bowl seem very likely. Now they can self scout, work on the areas where they are struggling and get ready to finish the season strong.
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Agree with all you've said, esp. about the self-scouting exercise. Just will add: Somehow get the team prepared to play full rather than half games, and get receivers to haul in catchable downfield passes. Then the Gophs go 2-1 at least, maybe 3-0 in the coming stretch against non-ranked opponents. But, if the Gophs continue to play half games (instead of full), PLEASE let it be in the second half, as we did--after adjustments of strategy and/or attitude--against Michigan, USC and UCLA. No more crap second halves, like against Iowa. Go Gophers.
 

Gopherchase said:
I will be interested to see what happens if anything with the OL. Thinking about any common denominators between the tragedy that was the 23 season and this year it seems like the OL struggled all of last year and continues this year. So, whether a good chunk of these kids played last year or not seems irrelevant, they haven’t played very well. I’d like to see them shake things up; which is probably a pipe dream but 65 and 77 have not played well enough to where this shouldn’t be a question during the buy week. 65, in particular, seems to be regressing maybe a confidence issue now that he’s been getting his ass kicked regularly.
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I didn’t go back and watch everything, but I know there was one play where Johnson didn’t block anyone and the DT basically went untouched to the QB. That is some kind of blown communication or assignment, seems like the coaches should be able to clean that kind of stuff up. I haven’t watched enough to see if he has been getting manhandled physically, but if that is the case then that is much more concerning and tougher to fix in the short term.
 

btowngopher said:
I didn’t go back and watch everything, but I know there was one play where Johnson didn’t block anyone and the DT basically went untouched to the QB. That is some kind of blown communication or assignment, seems like the coaches should be able to clean that kind of stuff up. I haven’t watched enough to see if he has been getting manhandled physically, but if that is the case then that is much more concerning and tougher to fix in the short term.
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Saw that and while you were going glass half full, I kind of went glass half empty after that. He doesn’t look comfortable over the ball and gets no push to begin with and then if he’s continuing to struggle on reads and pick up responsibility that’s a bad combination.
 

It was a good time for a bye week if we go 3-0 or 2-1 in the next 3.

Go 1-2 or 0-3 it was a bad time for a bye week
 



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