Have we officially caught up to Wisconsin?

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MNVCGUY

MNVCGUY

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There has been a running gag around here about the demise of the Badgers for years. And while I don't think that demise is coming anytime soon, I do think that we have caught up to them after the win on Saturday.

2018 - Dominant win in Madison
2019 - Badgers returned the favor with a win over us at home
2020 - OT Loss in Madison
2021 - Convincing win at Home

So in 3 of the last last 4 years we have either beaten them or taken them to the wire. The Badgers days of bullying the West seem to be coming to a close as we enter a new era with lots of contenders for the division and no dominant program.

Still looking for that breakthrough win against Iowa. Oddly enough, our 3 matchups with them at Kinnick have all been close games while the ones in Minneapolis have been lopsided loses. Hopefully we reverse that trend in 2022 and get that monkey off our back by finally bringing the Pig back home.

So what do you all think......have we finally caught up to Wisconsin?
 



No. Got to string together a few wins and make it a common occurrence. But beating them not only to take the axe.....but to beat them in a game where they had the West on the line sure helps.
 

We're getting close.
Winning a Big Ten West might be the key factor to outline that turning point.
Otherwise you need to dominate the series 4 out of 5 years or routinely place above them in the standings by more than a tie-breaker.

The way PJ is building this team, I expect the year we win the Big Ten West to be the same year we win the Big Ten Title.
 



MNVCGUY said:
There has been a running gag around here about the demise of the Badgers for years. And while I don't think that demise is coming anytime soon, I do think that we have caught up to them after the win on Saturday.

2018 - Dominant win in Madison
2019 - Badgers returned the favor with a win over us at home
2020 - OT Loss in Madison
2021 - Convincing win at Home

So in 3 of the last last 4 years we have either beaten them or taken them to the wire. The Badgers days of bullying the West seem to be coming to a close as we enter a new era with lots of contenders for the division and no dominant program.

Still looking for that breakthrough win against Iowa. Oddly enough, our 3 matchups with them at Kinnick have all been close games while the ones in Minneapolis have been lopsided loses. Hopefully we reverse that trend in 2022 and get that monkey off our back by finally bringing the Pig back home.

So what do you all think......have we finally caught up to Wisconsin?
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If we can string two or three in a row with Wisconsin we can say we've caught and perhaps surpassed them. As far as fleck goes he's 34-23 and 21-22 in Big Ten play. Results are pretty favorable vs the division, been solid against the East, Iowa been a blackhole though
6-8 vs the East
4-1 vs Nebraska
4-1 vs Purdue
3-2 vs Illinois
2-2 vs NW
2-3 vs Wisconsin
0-5 vs Iowa
2-0 in Bowl Games
11-1 in non con games
 

Responses are for when we overtake Wisconsin.
Have we caught them?
We are 2-2 in the past 4 seasons.
In those years, we have tied them in B1G record twice and finished BEHIND them twice.
So, the answer is no.
We need to finish ahead of them the next 2 years to catch them in a 6 year period and obviously at least split the next two meetings.
Don’t get me wrong.
Great improvement from losing what? 16 consecutive matchups!
Good chance that when we do finally beat them in the standings without a tiebreaker, we will win the West.
 

Just to be clear, my premise here isn't that we have surpassed them or that they won't be a factor moving forward, only that the results on the field in 3 of the last 4 seasons would indicate there is not much separation between the two programs....and definitely not as much as there has been for quite some time in the very one sided rivalry over the last 20+ seasons.
 





If we go to Madison in 2022 and defend the Axe. Then we can start talking about "catching up".

Last time we defended the Axe, in Madison: 1994 (also the last time we defended the Axe, period).


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We’re right there… I absolutely love what PJ is building here. 2019 showed heights I had only dreamed about, and although 2020 hit different in MN with George Floyd and everything else that happened… PJ managed the team through that and has us right back in a position where we have 8 wins going into our bowl game and can likely count on 9+ wins next year… it’ll be interesting to see just how high he can take us!
 

PoockItInfor6 said:
We’re right there… I absolutely love what PJ is building here. 2019 showed heights I had only dreamed about, and although 2020 hit different in MN with George Floyd and everything else that happened… PJ managed the team through that and has us right back in a position where we have 8 wins going into our bowl game and can likely count on 9+ wins next year… it’ll be interesting to see just how high he can take us!
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Likely a season or 2 before consensus will be we caught them.
 

Reminds me of when Wisconsin beat Michigan a few years back and the reporter asked Bielema if he thought they were on par with Michigan as a program and he said this meant they had passed them.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Just to be clear, my premise here isn't that we have surpassed them or that they won't be a factor moving forward, only that the results on the field in 3 of the last 4 seasons would indicate there is not much separation between the two programs....and definitely not as much as there has been for quite some time in the very one sided rivalry over the last 20+ seasons.
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We've won two out of the last four against them, and four seasons is a pretty substantial sample size. One of our losses was in overtime, with our kicker missing a chip shot.

In those four games, we've suffered one blowout loss, and we've had one blowout, dominating win.

In a head-to-head matchup, on any given Saturday, we have now reached a point where we are right there with them. I don't think our team fears them anymore.

Mission One for 2022 is beating Iowa.
 

Getting closer every year. I think we will know when you see this board bitter with a 8-4 season because we didn’t win the west.
 

Bulldog13tv said:
Getting closer every year. I think we will know when you see this board bitter with a 8-4 season because we didn’t win the west.
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That is so true.

And there are already a few GopherHolers who have expressed disappointment with 2021's results: an 8-4 season that includes a win over Wisconsin.
 

Not sure we have quite caught the perennial top 10-15 WI. I think WI, which is starting to slip some, has finally "caught" the Gophers. WI ended the regular season ranked 26th in both AP and Coaches polls. Gophers ended up at 29 and 30 in those polls. WI's losses were all to good teams. Though we just drubbed the Badgers, our inexplicable loss in the game that cannot be mentioned still haunts the "rating" of this year's team, as it and the IL loss speak to some fundamental weakness either in the 2021 team's coaching intelligence or our player's ability to execute (I think it is the former).

Have we caught Iowa? I think we are damn close. There have been blow out games, but they have gone both ways. In many of the recent games we were right there, and ended up being beaten not by Iowa's physical dominance or play calling brilliance, but by Iowa's bulldog-like determination to win coupled with our inability to finish off. I think that both WI and IA are true rivalries going forward. We need to match Iowa in mental toughness (among coaches as well as players) and dogged determination, and we are there.

As much as I personally disfavor the coach of Neb, I think Neb might be about to get into the mix. It fired virtually all of its offensive side coaches. It has lots of talent (poorly used). It lost the most one score games in a season in modern major college history this year. And it played one of the most difficult schedules of the year. With a new QB and a perhaps running a system that doesn't make the QB the team's principal running back, Neb might stop killing itself with late game errors and could suddenly start winning some close games.
 

I guess some of us are talking about comparing the two programs face to face, on the field, mano a mano, rather than how many B1G West titles recently won by each team.

On the field, we're there with them. We saw that last Saturday. Winning two of the last 4 matchups against them is significant. It is not a tiny sample size.

That being said, in order to equal them in a recent historical sense, yes; we have to actually win the West a few times to get there in that type of comparison.
 


BarnBurner said:
Nope.

Win for decades like they have done and then lets talk.
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So, if Minnesota starts winning the Axe a majority of the time within the next decade, along with a few B1G West titles, would we still have wait at least another 10 years for the answer?
 

FredCoxRocks said:
So, if Minnesota starts winning the Axe a majority of the time within the next decade, along with a few B1G West titles, would we still have wait at least another 10 years for the answer?
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Have sustained success - like WI. Sustained means different things to people.
 

No, but getting closer and I need to see more it

Doubt we'll see a dominant stretch vs Wi like they had vs us anytime soon, but if we can win ~50 of time and win the west occasionally, we'll be close

but we need to start finishing ahead of them in standings more than once every 20 years.
 

BarnBurner said:
Have sustained success - like WI. Sustained means different things to people.
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Yes. And so does the word success.

I'd say beating them twice in four years indicates a level of success. It could easily have been 3 wins out of the last four.

In the game last Saturday, I thought the Gophers looked like the superior team. I thought so in 2018, too. In 2020, the two teams looked equal.

Four years is not a small sample size. I might even say it is a sustained pattern that indicates we're on a level with them.
 


Face The Facts said:
We're getting close.
Winning a Big Ten West might be the key factor to outline that turning point.
Otherwise you need to dominate the series 4 out of 5 years or routinely place above them in the standings by more than a tie-breaker.

The way PJ is building this team, I expect the year we win the Big Ten West to be the same year we win the Big Ten Title.
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You are describing a bunch of things the team would need to do to Pass wisconsin

but the question was about catching up not passing.
 

Some guy said:
You are describing a bunch of things the team would need to do to Pass wisconsin

but the question was about catching up not passing.
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yes, but I still think we're a bit behind
 


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