Get over it.
We lost a game everyone on the planet thought we were going to lose. There are a lot of things we need to work on, no doubt, but it's going to take some time. The sky is not falling. We beat a Purdue team a week ago that owned tOSU today. Just show some effing patience for God's sake.
Next season has always been the year that the schedule favors the Gophers. This year's murderer's row of @Penn State, @Ohio State, @Iowa reverses next year with all the games at TCF.
This does matter...
Wisconsin's resurgence in 1993 looked like this:
Date Opponent Result
Sep 4, 1993 vs Nevada W 35 - 17
Sep 11, 1993 at Southern Methodist W 24 - 16
Sep 18, 1993 vs Iowa State W 28 - 7
Sep 25, 1993 at Indiana W 27 - 15
Oct 9, 1993 vs Northwestern W 53 - 14
Oct 16, 1993 at Purdue W 42 - 28
Oct 23, 1993 at Minnesota L 21 - 28
Oct 30, 1993 vs Michigan W 13 - 10
Nov 6, 1993 vs Ohio State T 14 - 14
Nov 20, 1993 at Illinois W 35 - 10
Dec 5, 1993 vs Michigan State W 41 - 20
Some notes: UW qualified for the Rose Bowl by virtue of a tie with Ohio State at 6-1-1 in conference with a head to head tie. They also tied in the first tiebreaker, overall record at 10-1-1. They got the nod because it had been 30 years since they'd been to Pasadena. Included in this record was a come from behind win at SMU where they were down late - lose that game and tOSU is in Pasadena. Also, at the time of the Ohio State tie, tOSU had no loss. Michigan had to defeat them on the last day of their season to open the door for UW. Finally, notice who was not on the UW schedule, Penn State (with Kerry Collins / KiJana Carter / Kyle Brady), and Iowa - who at the time owned a 16 game winning streak against Wisconsin that wouldn't be broken until 1997. Also noteworthy is that Wisconsin didn't qualify for a bowl in 1992.
My point is that sometimes
the stars actually do need to align to have a breakthrough season.
Even if the Gophers fail to win either of thier remaining road games, they can improve on their Big Ten record by finishing 4-4 in conference and they can win a bowl game. This in my opinion would be a nice step forward for this team.