--Win over MTSU. Dwight Dasher makes some nice plays but our superior athleticism on defense causes constant problems for MTSU's talented skill position players. On offense the O-line's improvement is clear as they push around a vastly undersized/undertalented MTSU front 7.
--lopsided Win over a SD team that makes last year's SDSU jackrabbits look like world beaters. In this one Weber and the O get up big early leading to Gray playing most of the second half. Alipate even gets in a few snaps.
--Win over Northern Illinois. NI is always a solid team. Luckily the Gophers know this and won't take it for granted. The Gophers win a game that is uncomfortably close for 2-3 quarters before the Gophers get up 2 scores. This is the game where one of the freshmen RBs seizes the starting gig and doesn't look back.
--L to USC. Lane Kiffin makes a ridiculously idiotic comment before the game disparaging the Gophers. His players show up unmotivated and entitled. The Gophers look great early and are ahead. Unfortunately, while running a KR reverse, for the 2nd year in a row Hayo Carpenter runs into his own blocker negating what should have been an 80+ yard TD. USC starts playing up to its ability sometime late in the 4th Quarter and find a way to score quickly.
(Truthfully, I think the Gophers have a better chance of an upset here than most people do. I think there's a decent chance Lane Kiffin is entirely too smug about his new gig at USC early in the season and/or USC gets 'the death penalty' causing a massive exodus and lack of motivation). If Kiffin makes the mistake of allowing his players to adopt his arrogant attitude the Gophers have a small chance. If USC gets the death penalty the Gophers' have a larger chance. If BOTH happen I will be predicting an upset for the maroon and gold. And if neither happens we have almost no chance.
-a Win over Northwestern (who is always easier to play early in the year before Pat Fitzgerald has figured out how best to hide his glaring athleticism gap). Remember how the Gophers ran the ball on the 'Cats and moved it at will in the second half? Minnesota will again be the first truly big/athletic opponent Northwestern faces. I am so glad we don't have to play these guys late in the year (like Iowa and Wisconsin usually do). Also, they lose 3 all Big-Ten players in the secondary (S Phillips, Smith, CB-McManis). Northwestern isn't the kind of school that just reloads in the back 4. The secondary will struggle (particularly early).
--W over Wisconsin. Wisconsin will be a power running play action pass machine again this year. But, the Badgers no longer have underrated S Chris Maragos and all-world DE O'Brien S. This means the Badgers awful CBs will be exposed a lot more this year than they were last year. It also means the Badgers will have serious issues getting to the QB and increased difficulty stopping the run. JJ Watt is solid but he can't do it alone. The Gopher D line will prove their worth in this game by doing enough to allow the Gophers to limit the inevitable damage of the formidable Badger running game.
--Two bonus points that forecast a Gopher victory against Bucky in the fall. First, Horton knows the Badgers inside and out and is a QB guru. He will give our QBs an increased advantage against the Badger D.
--Second, after the fall of Curt Phillips the Badgers have no depth at QB. Bucky's new backup looked terrible all spring, confused, mistake prone, unathletic, and totally unable to execute. If starter Scott Tolzien goes down the Badgers are in much worse shape than most other Big Ten teams (including the Gophers)
Purdue--Win, Robert Marve is probably a very nice player, but the Boilers had 20 starters miss all/most of spring ball including 10 starters. Star RB Ralph Bolden is gone for 2010. They also are competing with Indiana, (and possibly Northwestern and Michigan State) for the Big Ten's worst secondary award.
Penn State--L (with serious upset potential). Penn State will have a total disaster for a passing game and will probably turn the ball over a fair amount. They had been counting pretty heavily on having Pat Devlin at the helm this year, and without him they are torn between a walk on, a guy who is worse than a walk-on, or one of two true freshmen phenoms. We could see any of 4 guys at QB when we play them. That said, they will probably run the ball well, and they will definitely have another suffocating Defense similar to the one that blanked our Gophers last year. I am hopeful about this game, but can't predict anything other than a Loss until I've seen how bad PSU's QB play ends up being.
L--Ohio State--This team is unreal on both sides of the ball. If TP and the D-line stay healthy this squad is winning next year's National Title.
Coin Flip (L) Michigan State. They might be really good. They might be really bad. They will probably be inconsistent. After last year's bizarre game I have no idea what to expect. MSU will have an explosive offense. The question is whether they will have the same secondary that was lit up by everyone they played (including Adam Weber and the Gophs to the tune of 416 yards and 5 TDs). Because of the Gophers' historic bad luck I will predict this coin flop as a loss, the kind that shows that while we're improved we haven't arrived.
W--Illinois--Gophers will be focused after last year's embarrassment. Illini will still be in total disarray. Ron Zook, it's been fun but I have a feeling Illinois will be done with you long before Tim Brewster, Bill Lynch, RichRod, or Mike Dantonio is fired.
L--Iowa--I hate writing that.
So I'm saying Minnesota is 7-5, 4-4 Big Ten (with the Michigan State coin flip game possibly pushing the Gophers to 8-4 and 5-3 respectively). This will be the year Brewster's squad wins a Bowl Game too.
Some of the Gopher 'fans' on this board will claim this isn't good enough and Brewster should be fired for not beating both Wisconsin and Iowa, and winning the Big Ten since everyone should have expected the Gophers to have a more definitive breakthrough season in year 4 under Brewster.
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rexy B
