Matt Opad: Golden Gophers are still not at Hawkeye’s level

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Opad:

Minnesota had a great year this football season. I will freely admit that I expected them to go no better than 9-3 (they went 10-2), with a loss to the Iowa football team of course.

Their hot start yielded a comparison that many Hawkeye fans didn’t buy.

2019 Minnesota is not the 2015 Iowa football team. It is actually a slightly worse version of the 2019 Iowa football team.

Minnesota was a win away from claiming the Big Ten West this season. Despite the game not occurring at the very end of the season, so was Iowa.

If Iowa football had beaten Wisconsin, they would have been in a three-team tie for the Big Ten West. With wins over the other two contenders, Iowa would have won the tiebreaker and earned the right to play Ohio State in Indianapolis.

While the failed 2-point conversion in Madison may haunt Iowa football for a while, it still reflects a team that is much closer to being at the top of the division than one that got pummeled at home.

dearoldgold.com

Iowa football: Golden Gophers are still not at Hawkeye’s level

This season’s Minnesota team had been compared to the 2015 Iowa football team all season, but they fell just short of that special season.
dearoldgold.com dearoldgold.com

Go Gophers!!
 

Nice spin. We will see what happens going forward.
 

I've never in a million years understood the Iowa fascination. They've never won a rose bowl. Rarely do they win the west. They are always a cute little team that plays in the weak west and they can't beat wisconsin. I just never get the Iowa thing. It's like we want to be Iowa. BOOOOORING!
 

“While Tyler Johnson’s wide-open drop at Iowa’s goal line may haunt Gopher football for a while...” We can play that game too! This guy writes about as well as he thinks.
 

Every season is so fluid, it's hard to make such sweeping generalities. Iowa scored what, 12 points against Penn St., in Kinnick. Gophers put up 31 despite turtle shelling the whole second half. Iowa also scored 3 points at Michigan when Michigan was playing horribly. They also scored 3 in the second half when we actually tried something daring on defense. WI lost to Illinois.

All three teams (IA, MN, WI) had good seasons. Can we just leave it at that and forgo the pissing matches?
 



Hmmm.....had to hold on for dear life to beat the Gophers in Kinnick. Lost to Penn State at home while the Gophers took down #4 Penn State at home.

The Hawks can enjoy the Holiday Bowl and then wait until New Years Day to see the Gophers play a premier SEC team.
 

Do they really think they are the better team? Other than that horrendous start the Gophers looked like the superior overall team. I think that the Gophers would win 7 out of 10 if they did that sort of thing. Iowa is a good team so are the Gophers. Wisconsin is better than both this year, sucks to say...but true.
 

I am grateful for IA winning in the last second over NE and killing their dreams of going to a bowl. But this is a NE team every team with a pulse put hundreds of yards on.
Putting IA out there as a powerhouse is simply not true.
 





He’s right, Gopher football is a level above iowa football, who was only 9-3 this year and was not co Big Ten West Champion. Maybe some day we’ll get to Iowa’s lower level. Probably won’t happen too often though.
 

Goldteam said:
I've never in a million years understood the Iowa fascination. They've never won a rose bowl. Rarely do they win the west. They are always a cute little team that plays in the weak west and they can't beat wisconsin. I just never get the Iowa thing. It's like we want to be Iowa. BOOOOORING!
Click to expand...

1959 Rose Bowl
Iowa 38
Cal 12

1957 Rose Bowl
Iowa 35
Oregon State 19

I think these were before they had indoor plumbing in the State Capital Des Moines though.
 




Let’s just let Iowa enjoy these little dig articles. Iowans don’t really have much in life to cherish. I just approach them the way I approach my wife, you just let them think they’re right, but deep down you know they’re off by a mile. And you keep that mental tally, you know the truth. Just gotta humor them.
 

He's right. The Gophers have lost 5 in a row to Iowa. They had never lost 5 in a row to Iowa until recently and I believe they have had 5 game losing streaks to Iowa 2-3 times now in the last 20 years. The last time the Gophers beat them, the board was filled with posters convinced Minnesota had past Iowa up (this was the trouncing at TCF) and they haven't won since. If they lose next year, it will be Minnesota's longest losing streak in the history of the series at 6 games. It will take far more than one year, especially one in which Minnesota lost to Iowa, to get to or exceed their level.

He's wrong that Iowa was the better team this year and it's cute that he thinks Iowa was a missed 2 point conversion in a game they never lead away from winning the West. No mention of needing Iowa State to drop a punt or the hundred ways Minnesota could of beat them including Tyler Johnson not dropping the ball or needing a 48 yard field goal to beat Nebraska as time expired, they played a coinflip game with Illinois at home where they were +2 in the take/give and a one score game with Purdue at home (without a successful onside kick skewing things). Iowa was much, much closer to a 4-5 B1G team than they were to 7-2. If they want to delude themselves in to thinking that the ball will just continue to bounce that favorably for them and focus on a missed 2 point conversion and not on the fact that they only had two convincing wins all conference season (Rutgers and Northwestern), that's probably good for Minnesota.
 

Iowa was actually the crucial game this year - had the Gophers won, they'd be West champions, regardless of the Wisconsin game. They lost only by four (1 a missed extra point) and a dropped pass on the four yard line in the final minutes, if caught, would have set up a Minnesota win. That game was winnable, while Wisconsin wasn't. It was the key game of the year.
 

I would agree that the Gophers are not at the on-field playing level that Iowa is. The W's and L's are the supporting evidence.

My question is:
Is Minnesota at Iowa's facilities level?
Is Minnesota at Iowa's recruiting level?
Is Minnesota at Iowa's coaching level?
Is Minnesota at Iowa's fan support level?

Once the Gophers surpass Iowa in a majority of the things on this list (and I'm sure some other tangibles and intangibles), then we will be at (or beyond) their level. Time will tell.
 


Goldteam said:
I've never in a million years understood the Iowa fascination. They've never won a rose bowl. Rarely do they win the west. They are always a cute little team that plays in the weak west and they can't beat wisconsin. I just never get the Iowa thing. It's like we want to be Iowa. BOOOOORING!
Click to expand...

Then why do you spend so much time on Hawkeye Report? We've missed you over there, buddy boy.
 

I don't really have an issue, we'll need some consistent years before we we're "at Iowa" level. I think this years team was better than Iowa, but had a bad game vs Iowa

I think Wisconsin is better than both mn/ia, but still hurts we couldn't pounce when iron is hot
 

BleedGopher said:
per Opad:

Minnesota had a great year this football season. I will freely admit that I expected them to go no better than 9-3 (they went 10-2), with a loss to the Iowa football team of course.

Their hot start yielded a comparison that many Hawkeye fans didn’t buy.

2019 Minnesota is not the 2015 Iowa football team. It is actually a slightly worse version of the 2019 Iowa football team.

Minnesota was a win away from claiming the Big Ten West this season. Despite the game not occurring at the very end of the season, so was Iowa.

If Iowa football had beaten Wisconsin, they would have been in a three-team tie for the Big Ten West. With wins over the other two contenders, Iowa would have won the tiebreaker and earned the right to play Ohio State in Indianapolis.

While the failed 2-point conversion in Madison may haunt Iowa football for a while, it still reflects a team that is much closer to being at the top of the division than one that got pummeled at home.

dearoldgold.com

Iowa football: Golden Gophers are still not at Hawkeye’s level

This season’s Minnesota team had been compared to the 2015 Iowa football team all season, but they fell just short of that special season.
dearoldgold.com dearoldgold.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
Winning will take care of all of this. "We" are at the point as a program that "we" matter. It is bittersweet for Iowa and Wisconsin that we are working toward being true rivals again. It helps them because we can truly test them and a win means something. The down side is now there is a legitimate chance we will beat them. Not only on the field, but for recruits. Though many fans won't admit it, they know that we may not be that easy win anymore. We may be the team going forward that sends their team to a lesser bowl.

Just win. Let them say what they want. Just win. It makes us matter. Even if they'll never admit it.
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
They won so they have bragging rights but as the poster above says, if we play a 10 game series the Gophers likely come out on top.
Click to expand...
Recent history is not on the Gophs side here. Gophs have won 14 times in the last 40 years, 6 times in the last 20 years, 3 times in the last 10 years.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Recent history is not on the Gophs side here. Gophs have won 14 times in the last 40 years, 6 times in the last 20 years, 3 times in the last 10 years.
Click to expand...

If we were playing with coach's and rosters from 40 years ago you might have a point but I was referring to the 2019 teams. Watched both teams quite a bit and think the Gophers squad this year was better overall.
 


DarrenTheGreek said:
If we were playing with coach's and rosters from 40 years ago you might have a point but I was referring to the 2019 teams. Watched both teams quite a bit and think the Gophers squad this year was better overall.
Click to expand...
I'm not that confident based on recent past...Iowa has won the last 5 games...and the fact that Iowa had the #6 ranked scoring defense in the nation this year, and only OSU had a better one in the B1G. That is about 30 spots higher than Gophs defense. Iowa held Gophs to more than 2 TDs below its scoring average.

Iowa is not flashy, for sure. It lost its three games by combined 13 points.
 

Is Minnesota at the same level on the football field as Iowa? Interesting question! These two teams are built completely different. Iowa is ahead of Minnesota on both sides of the line of scrimmage in the trenches, while Minnesota is miles ahead of Iowa in the skilled positions, specifically the "playmakers" on the field.

I believe Minnesota will not only surpass the Hawkeyes on the field in the near future, but we will fly by Iowa at 100 miles an hour while they are standing still.

Better line play and a few more athletes on the defensive side of the ball and Minnesota will start dominating the BIG West. It's coming soon to a theatre near you!
 

Iowa beat us playing their own game. Credit again to Ferentz. I would love to get players like Epenesa. I would love to have linemen on both sides drafted almost every single year.

I think we would've won at home.

To go to the Rose Bowl, we had to beat one of our two rivals. This fact sucks.
 

BleedGopher said:
per Opad:
If Iowa football had beaten Wisconsin, they would have been in a three-team tie for the Big Ten West.
dearoldgold.com

Iowa football: Golden Gophers are still not at Hawkeye’s level

This season’s Minnesota team had been compared to the 2015 Iowa football team all season, but they fell just short of that special season.
dearoldgold.com dearoldgold.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Hawkeye math. If Iowa beats Wisconsin and we still lose to Wisconsin, it's a two way tie for first place again, because Wisconsin would have 3 losses and Gophers and Iowa would have two. Iowa still wins tie-breaker.
 

Goldteam said:
They've never won a rose bowl.
Click to expand...

Actually, it's worse than that. They've been beaten like a drum every time they have gone to that bowl over the last 40 years.
 

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