From TDG By GopherNation
(At last, a real football discussion.)
After what was universally considered a successful season in year four of the Jerry Kill era, and with spring practice starting next week, it is about time to start looking ahead to 2015. The Gophers had a pretty basic roadmap for success in 2014 and it worked rather well. Play very good defense, win field position with special teams and run the ball on offense utilizing an effective play-action at key times; but mostly run the ball and do that well. There are a few critical questions facing the offense heading into 2015. The list below are my initial questions facing each position group.
Overall the Gopher offense ranked somewhere in the middle of the Big Ten, actual rank varied depending on your metric (scoring offense, total yards, advanced stats, etc). The rushing offense was pretty good behind David Cobb's 1,626 yards while the passing offense finished 13th in yards per game. Next year should be an interesting season with only a few departures who happen to be very key departures. But guys will step in and a spark may be needed to jolt this offense and allow us to be balanced and keep defenses on their heels.
For the most part I am going to avoid talking about incoming freshmen, typically offensive freshmen have been redshirting so it seems unlikely most of them will contribute in 2015 anyway. They key group of newcomers will really be those who redshirted in 2014.
http://www.thedailygopher.com/2015/...to-2015--questions-on-offense-spring-practice
(At last, a real football discussion.)
After what was universally considered a successful season in year four of the Jerry Kill era, and with spring practice starting next week, it is about time to start looking ahead to 2015. The Gophers had a pretty basic roadmap for success in 2014 and it worked rather well. Play very good defense, win field position with special teams and run the ball on offense utilizing an effective play-action at key times; but mostly run the ball and do that well. There are a few critical questions facing the offense heading into 2015. The list below are my initial questions facing each position group.
Overall the Gopher offense ranked somewhere in the middle of the Big Ten, actual rank varied depending on your metric (scoring offense, total yards, advanced stats, etc). The rushing offense was pretty good behind David Cobb's 1,626 yards while the passing offense finished 13th in yards per game. Next year should be an interesting season with only a few departures who happen to be very key departures. But guys will step in and a spark may be needed to jolt this offense and allow us to be balanced and keep defenses on their heels.
For the most part I am going to avoid talking about incoming freshmen, typically offensive freshmen have been redshirting so it seems unlikely most of them will contribute in 2015 anyway. They key group of newcomers will really be those who redshirted in 2014.
http://www.thedailygopher.com/2015/...to-2015--questions-on-offense-spring-practice