Ogie Ogilthorpe
Tattooed Millionaire
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Some Gopher attention and love on the Mailbag:
True or false: Minnesota goes 10-2 or 11-1 and wins the Big Ten West (briefly entering the top 10) before losing to Ohio State by four+ touchdowns in the Big Ten championship game and “settling” for a trip to the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 1961 season. — Eric R.
It’d be a heck of a story if that were to happen, made all the better if its opponent turned out to be California (last appearance: 1959).
Minnesota looks really good. The Golden Gophers are having exactly the kind of offensive renaissance I expected when P.J. Fleck brought back Kirk Ciarrocca, the OC from their 11-win season in 2019 who was fired after one season at Penn State and spent last season as an analyst for West Virginia. Tanner Morgan regressed considerably the past two seasons playing for then-OC Mike Sanford. Ciarrocca is an RPO wizard, and so far this season Morgan has seen his yards per attempt jump from 7.4 to 12.4, closer to the 11.1 mark he posted in that highly successful 2019 season.
But it’s not the QB. Getting back star RB Mo Ibrahim has been huge. He’s averaging a career-best 6.4 yards per carry. And as The Athletic’s Max Olson wrote this week, a pair of transfers, right tackle Quinn Carroll (Notre Dame) and right guard Chuck Filiaga (Michigan), have been huge in fortifying an offensive line that had to replace four starters. Meanwhile, Minnesota’s receiver room is deep enough to withstand the loss of veteran Chris Autman-Bell to a season-ending injury, as Michael Brown-Stephens and Dylan Wright are proven playmakers.
It’s not hard to see the Gophers getting to 10 wins, though back-to-back October trips to improved Illinois and Penn State will be tough. To achieve the scenario you laid out, though, I’d highly recommend getting to 11-1, because a second 10-2 Big Ten East team may justifiably finish higher than 10-2 Minnesota, and the Rose Bowl will take whoever is ranked higher.<<<<<
The second mention recently of the impact of the Carroll/Filiaga transfers bolstering the line. It's helped for sure, although Carroll hasn't exactly outstanding, and was in a dogfight for much of camp for the starting spot.
Certainly happy as hell to have them both but I don't know that it's the resounding impact that it's been made to be by folks outside the program. There is depth there, especially behind Carroll.
True or false: Minnesota goes 10-2 or 11-1 and wins the Big Ten West (briefly entering the top 10) before losing to Ohio State by four+ touchdowns in the Big Ten championship game and “settling” for a trip to the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 1961 season. — Eric R.
It’d be a heck of a story if that were to happen, made all the better if its opponent turned out to be California (last appearance: 1959).
Minnesota looks really good. The Golden Gophers are having exactly the kind of offensive renaissance I expected when P.J. Fleck brought back Kirk Ciarrocca, the OC from their 11-win season in 2019 who was fired after one season at Penn State and spent last season as an analyst for West Virginia. Tanner Morgan regressed considerably the past two seasons playing for then-OC Mike Sanford. Ciarrocca is an RPO wizard, and so far this season Morgan has seen his yards per attempt jump from 7.4 to 12.4, closer to the 11.1 mark he posted in that highly successful 2019 season.
But it’s not the QB. Getting back star RB Mo Ibrahim has been huge. He’s averaging a career-best 6.4 yards per carry. And as The Athletic’s Max Olson wrote this week, a pair of transfers, right tackle Quinn Carroll (Notre Dame) and right guard Chuck Filiaga (Michigan), have been huge in fortifying an offensive line that had to replace four starters. Meanwhile, Minnesota’s receiver room is deep enough to withstand the loss of veteran Chris Autman-Bell to a season-ending injury, as Michael Brown-Stephens and Dylan Wright are proven playmakers.
It’s not hard to see the Gophers getting to 10 wins, though back-to-back October trips to improved Illinois and Penn State will be tough. To achieve the scenario you laid out, though, I’d highly recommend getting to 11-1, because a second 10-2 Big Ten East team may justifiably finish higher than 10-2 Minnesota, and the Rose Bowl will take whoever is ranked higher.<<<<<
The second mention recently of the impact of the Carroll/Filiaga transfers bolstering the line. It's helped for sure, although Carroll hasn't exactly outstanding, and was in a dogfight for much of camp for the starting spot.
Certainly happy as hell to have them both but I don't know that it's the resounding impact that it's been made to be by folks outside the program. There is depth there, especially behind Carroll.
