I think that the majority have voted for B is fair and rational and a sign that the program has risen as others have pointed out.
I've had season tickets for more than 20 years and do not ever recall going into a single game feeling as though the entire feeling of the season was riding on it more so than on Saturday. A loss to Wisconsin would have made 7-5,0-2 against rivals again, and a home loss to an atrocious team in Bowling Green, with what in IMO was the co-best roster (with Wisconsin) in the Big Ten West. That is depressing to even type out, and I recall how depressing things were following the Iowa game.
On the other hand, with the win, it is objectively the second to fourth best season MN has had since '03 at 8-4/6-3, with its key moment obviously the win over a solid Wisconsin team ending the grotesquely long home losing streak to the program's 1a rival.
And thank goodness they won, because it was a top fan moment, but also because it has certainly allowed for a more positive and rational evaluation of the season.
Of course I was very frustrated during/after the BGSU/ILL/IA games for many of the reasons discussed here, however, the more I've thought now about 2021 compared to 2019, the more similar I think they actually were, with the team having generally positive luck (or breaks if you prefer that term) in 2019 and generally negative in 2021.
The 2019 team had pretty good injury luck overall on both sides of the ball and avoided a lot of narrow misses early to grow into the season. The Gophers absolutely did a lot of winning things against SDSU, Fresno State, Georgia Southern and Penn State that helped their cause, but I also think it's fair to say they got generally positive breaks in each game that were important to the outcome. The publicized run of opponent back up QB's in October was also factual, even if MN won by margins in those games that made the point moot. I don't recall feeling like we'd been unlucky to lose either of the two losses that year (only that we'd played poorly).
Conversely, in 2021 the offense had bad injury luck in the RB room to historic levels, but the WR room as well. In all four losses, the team certainly did a lot of losing things, but one can also point to significant negative breaks in all 4 that were important to the outcome. To my recollection, I don't remember any of the 8 wins being reasonably attributable to lucky breaks.
It's interesting to think how different the general feelings would be if the two years had been flipped, creating a nicer/linear progression for the program. Anyhow, that's my take a few days removed - grateful for a wonderful moment to end the season - thanks for reading.
TLDR Version: It's amazing how different 10-2 and 8-4 can feel but how similar they can actually be from a team/performance perspective. The more I've thought about it, the more similar the 2019 and 2021 seasons feel to me. Grateful for the great ending to an up/down season. I'm certainly excited about the future of the program.
