Minnesota is 7th in the country in tackles for loss per game.

[BleedGopher]

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Go Gophers!!

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I like it and I'm hopeful, but I mean Mason had some high ranking defenses coming out of OOC... and his defenses weren't good much of the time.

 

[Sparlimb]

I like it and I'm hopeful, but I mean Mason had some high ranking defenses coming out of OOC... and his defenses weren't good much of the time.

What I do give Mason credit for was he slaughtered most non-conference teams. After he left, they've all been pick'ems.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

What I do give Mason credit for was he slaughtered most non-conference teams. After he left, they've all been pick'ems.

I can't quite explain our lack of OOC smashing... and yet the the Kill / Claeys era teams seem on par or better than Mason teams... It seems like a dramatic difference and yet maybe not so much.

 

[Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0]

Feast or famine right now. Let's hope they keep feasting and start to limit the big plays on D more.

 

[Gopher07]

I can't quite explain our lack of OOC smashing... and yet the the Kill / Claeys era teams seem on par or better than Mason teams... It seems like a dramatic difference and yet maybe not so much.

Wonder if part of it is the tightening of talent between lower and upper tier teams. Seems like 10-15 years ago you didn't see major college teams being taken to the wire as much by lower-tier or D1-AA schools. That could just be bad memory on my part, but starting in the late 2000s (right around the time App State beat Michigan) things seemed to get closer between the middle of the P5 and the rest of college football.

 

[GopherinPhilly]

Wonder if part of it is the tightening of talent between lower and upper tier teams. Seems like 10-15 years ago you didn't see major college teams being taken to the wire as much by lower-tier or D1-AA schools. That could just be bad memory on my part, but starting in the late 2000s (right around the time App State beat Michigan) things seemed to get closer between the middle of the P5 and the rest of college football.

1992 is when the NCAA limited D-1 to 85 scholarships and D-1AA to 63 schollies. This moved a bunch of talent from the benches of top teams to starting line ups of second tier teams and from benches of second tier teams to the starting line ups of non-major conference D-1 teams and so on down the line bringing more parity to all D-1 now FBS teams and also to FCS teams.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Wonder if part of it is the tightening of talent between lower and upper tier teams. Seems like 10-15 years ago you didn't see major college teams being taken to the wire as much by lower-tier or D1-AA schools. That could just be bad memory on my part, but starting in the late 2000s (right around the time App State beat Michigan) things seemed to get closer between the middle of the P5 and the rest of college football.

Yeah I recall the Mason teams being able to physically push some of those OOC teams aside... not so much anymore.

 

[Vandy]

I'd happily give up a few of these tackles for losses in exchange for a few more holding the opposition to 3-6 yards when it is 3rd and 10 or more.

 

[gopher7]

TFL are fun, but we also have given up at least 23 points to 3 average to bad teams and have the worst red zone defense in the nation so far.