BleedGopher
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per Lewis:
Time to Say Goodbye to Floyd?
As much as I find nothing redeeming about P.J. Fleck’s personality, there is no denying he has raised the quality of play for the Gophers since he started rowing the boat in the frozen lakes of Minnesota five years ago.
Consider this: In the entire 140-year history of the Golden Gopher football program, they have only won at least nine games four times, and two of those seasons belong to P.J. Fleck. He is 2-3 against Wisconsin, a mark that seems paltry before you consider that Minnesota was 2-20 against the Badgers in the 22 years before his arrival. He has set the floor for the Gopher program at a bowl game (he missed on his first season and the bizarre Covid year, but I am convinced those are aberrations) and they have flirted with a Big Ten title twice. (Had Iowa lost against Nebraska last year, the Gophers would have been in with a win against the Badgers.)
And yet victory over one team eludes P.J. Fleck.
While I hope he never beats the Hawkeyes, I can only puff my chest out so far. But for a few plays and the grace of lady luck in 2019 and 2021, Iowa escaped getting outplayed by the skin of their teeth. In both those games, Minnesota out-gained Iowa by more than 100 yards, and in 2021, Iowa even lost the turnover battle. It didn’t ultimately matter either time, but -100 yardage differentials will catch up with you eventually.
If there is something for the Gophers to work on, I suppose it's consistency. Defensively, they have finished in the top two in yard per game twice (not coincidentally, their two best seasons,) but they have finished in the bottom half in the per game category the other three times. Offensively they peaked in 2019, finishing 4th at 432 yards/game, before sliding into 5th and then 9th in 2021.
While some of the variance on offense is attributable to Kirk Ciarrocca spending a couple of years hunting for greener pastures in Happy Valley and Morgantown before coming back to the Twin Cities, the more crucial reason has to do with P.J. Fleck’s willingness to scratch where it itches. In 2019, the Gophers had two NFL wide receivers and a complementary running game, by 2021 those wide receivers were in the NFL, and with the talent at wide-out qualitatively lower, a fistful of incredible running backs and college football’s beefiest offensive line, along with a strong defense, the Gophers dialed their passing game way down and instead churned out games on the ground, yet another team spending their Saturdays livin’ in a Big Ten West paradise. No Big Ten team in 2021 attempted fewer passes than the Gophers. (Though the Gophers got pretty good mileage per pass when they did attempt them.)
So while a few passing plays saved the Hawks from getting out-Iowa’d by Minnesota last year, will we need something similar this year? Tanner Morgan is who we think he is at this point, namely an unimpressive quarterback. With the Gopher running backs being collectively excellent, if Iowa is going to win, it really needs to dominate this game at the line of scrimmage, and frankly, they probably should. 80% of that 2021 Gopher offensive line has graduated. A quality center remains, along with adding a couple of high-profile offensive line transfers from Notre Dame and Michigan, but it's highly likely the Gophers are worse at creating running room and protecting the quarterback than they were a year ago. Just as crucially, pretty much the entire Gopher defensive line is gone, save a couple of rotational holdovers on a defense that was even better than Iowa at stopping the run last year. Cutting in the Gophers' favor is this game coming towards the very end of the season, giving their green offensive line ten games to ripen into something special.
So why then, if I’m projecting a talent advantage for Iowa inside the trenches, is there any reason to worry about this game? I dunno, superstition, I guess. I’m comfortable with the notion that Iowa will have a better team in 2022, but that didn’t matter for Minnesota in 2019 or 2021, and with the hunt for a Big Ten West title likely coming down to the last couple of weeks, the stakes are probably sky high here. I can’t bank on the offense scoring points or the defense generating enough turnovers to blow-out the Gophers, and we have been playing with close-game fire long enough that we feel due for a “That’s football” burn. Mostly though, I am just pre-dreading the day when Floyd is defiled when P.J. Fleck puts his hands on our beloved pig. And I fear that is more of a when, not if question.
Homer Version: Iowa City is where Floyd belongs and in Iowa City is where he stays. Fleck continues the rebuilding year trend and a young Gopher squad struggles to make a bowl game, with a blowout loss to the Hawks doing him no favors.
www.goiowaawesome.com
Go Gophers!!
Time to Say Goodbye to Floyd?
As much as I find nothing redeeming about P.J. Fleck’s personality, there is no denying he has raised the quality of play for the Gophers since he started rowing the boat in the frozen lakes of Minnesota five years ago.
Consider this: In the entire 140-year history of the Golden Gopher football program, they have only won at least nine games four times, and two of those seasons belong to P.J. Fleck. He is 2-3 against Wisconsin, a mark that seems paltry before you consider that Minnesota was 2-20 against the Badgers in the 22 years before his arrival. He has set the floor for the Gopher program at a bowl game (he missed on his first season and the bizarre Covid year, but I am convinced those are aberrations) and they have flirted with a Big Ten title twice. (Had Iowa lost against Nebraska last year, the Gophers would have been in with a win against the Badgers.)
And yet victory over one team eludes P.J. Fleck.
While I hope he never beats the Hawkeyes, I can only puff my chest out so far. But for a few plays and the grace of lady luck in 2019 and 2021, Iowa escaped getting outplayed by the skin of their teeth. In both those games, Minnesota out-gained Iowa by more than 100 yards, and in 2021, Iowa even lost the turnover battle. It didn’t ultimately matter either time, but -100 yardage differentials will catch up with you eventually.
If there is something for the Gophers to work on, I suppose it's consistency. Defensively, they have finished in the top two in yard per game twice (not coincidentally, their two best seasons,) but they have finished in the bottom half in the per game category the other three times. Offensively they peaked in 2019, finishing 4th at 432 yards/game, before sliding into 5th and then 9th in 2021.
While some of the variance on offense is attributable to Kirk Ciarrocca spending a couple of years hunting for greener pastures in Happy Valley and Morgantown before coming back to the Twin Cities, the more crucial reason has to do with P.J. Fleck’s willingness to scratch where it itches. In 2019, the Gophers had two NFL wide receivers and a complementary running game, by 2021 those wide receivers were in the NFL, and with the talent at wide-out qualitatively lower, a fistful of incredible running backs and college football’s beefiest offensive line, along with a strong defense, the Gophers dialed their passing game way down and instead churned out games on the ground, yet another team spending their Saturdays livin’ in a Big Ten West paradise. No Big Ten team in 2021 attempted fewer passes than the Gophers. (Though the Gophers got pretty good mileage per pass when they did attempt them.)
So while a few passing plays saved the Hawks from getting out-Iowa’d by Minnesota last year, will we need something similar this year? Tanner Morgan is who we think he is at this point, namely an unimpressive quarterback. With the Gopher running backs being collectively excellent, if Iowa is going to win, it really needs to dominate this game at the line of scrimmage, and frankly, they probably should. 80% of that 2021 Gopher offensive line has graduated. A quality center remains, along with adding a couple of high-profile offensive line transfers from Notre Dame and Michigan, but it's highly likely the Gophers are worse at creating running room and protecting the quarterback than they were a year ago. Just as crucially, pretty much the entire Gopher defensive line is gone, save a couple of rotational holdovers on a defense that was even better than Iowa at stopping the run last year. Cutting in the Gophers' favor is this game coming towards the very end of the season, giving their green offensive line ten games to ripen into something special.
So why then, if I’m projecting a talent advantage for Iowa inside the trenches, is there any reason to worry about this game? I dunno, superstition, I guess. I’m comfortable with the notion that Iowa will have a better team in 2022, but that didn’t matter for Minnesota in 2019 or 2021, and with the hunt for a Big Ten West title likely coming down to the last couple of weeks, the stakes are probably sky high here. I can’t bank on the offense scoring points or the defense generating enough turnovers to blow-out the Gophers, and we have been playing with close-game fire long enough that we feel due for a “That’s football” burn. Mostly though, I am just pre-dreading the day when Floyd is defiled when P.J. Fleck puts his hands on our beloved pig. And I fear that is more of a when, not if question.
Homer Version: Iowa City is where Floyd belongs and in Iowa City is where he stays. Fleck continues the rebuilding year trend and a young Gopher squad struggles to make a bowl game, with a blowout loss to the Hawks doing him no favors.
Let's Fret: Minnesota
Fleck is Floyd-less in the last five years. Is that beautiful trend about to change?
Go Gophers!!
