BleedGopher
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per Shipley:
In 2013, Minnesota started the conference schedule 0-2 only to win their next four — with Claeys filling in for ailing Jerry Kill — on the way to an eight-win season. The previous five times they started 0-2, the Gophers went a combined 9-31 in conference play. History is not on their side, nor is time.
For decades, teams trying to break the Big Ten caste system have learned it’s a lot easier to lose ground than to gain it. Iowa all but begged Minnesota to win Saturday, a week after the Gophers ceded a 13-3 halftime lead in Happy Valley. For anyone just looking at the scores, it was business as usual, and maybe it is.
The Gophers have seven conference games left, and their next four opponents — Maryland, Rutgers, Illinois and Purdue — are teams they believe are in the rearview mirror. Now they have to win four straight conference games to prove it. Only then can they think about upsetting Nebraska or Wisconsin to prove they’re still climbing.
It will be a great story if they do.
http://www.twincities.com/2016/10/08/john-shipley-gophers-losing-hard-won-big-ten-territory/
Go Gophers!!
In 2013, Minnesota started the conference schedule 0-2 only to win their next four — with Claeys filling in for ailing Jerry Kill — on the way to an eight-win season. The previous five times they started 0-2, the Gophers went a combined 9-31 in conference play. History is not on their side, nor is time.
For decades, teams trying to break the Big Ten caste system have learned it’s a lot easier to lose ground than to gain it. Iowa all but begged Minnesota to win Saturday, a week after the Gophers ceded a 13-3 halftime lead in Happy Valley. For anyone just looking at the scores, it was business as usual, and maybe it is.
The Gophers have seven conference games left, and their next four opponents — Maryland, Rutgers, Illinois and Purdue — are teams they believe are in the rearview mirror. Now they have to win four straight conference games to prove it. Only then can they think about upsetting Nebraska or Wisconsin to prove they’re still climbing.
It will be a great story if they do.
http://www.twincities.com/2016/10/08/john-shipley-gophers-losing-hard-won-big-ten-territory/
Go Gophers!!