P.J Fleck on Minnesota having weak schedule: 'There are no easy games in the B1G'

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I don't blame anyone for being excited this year.

I do wonder if not for one win last year ... if people would be far less excited.
 


Jeshurun said:
In 3...2...1... some smartass will point out that 8-4 got Claeys fired in year 1.
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Well, I guess on a superficial level that is a fact, but we all know that Claeys was fired despite a 9-4 record, not because of that record. He was a good coach and I hope he gets another head coaching job someday. I'll never forget that Holiday Bowl victory - one of the best defensive efforts by a college football team I have ever seen.
 

cjbfbp said:
Yes, it's a favorable schedule because we don't have to play OSU or Michigan and we get PSU at home in a year after they lost some very significant players. It's still challenging. The schedule is very similar to 2016. So, the expectation should be that we go 8-4 (just like 2016). Anything beyond that would be great!
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It's 2019. Why on earth wouldn't I (or any other Gopher fan) have expectations for 2019 that represent improvement from 2016?
 



A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I don't blame anyone for being excited this year.

I do wonder if not for one win last year ... if people would be far less excited.
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Hmmm... couldn't you apply the exact same logic, in the opposite direction? The "If Not For" scenario.

What if they had made the coaching change sooner? What if they hadn't lost to: Illinois, Maryland? Nebraska? If Not For the loss to Ohio State at the Horseshoe... imagine that possibility!

After all, that game was closer than the final score would indicate.
 

The other, seldom-mentioned factor that is creating optimism is the sheer dominance the Gophers displayed in beating Purdue, Wisconsin and Georgia Tech.

I can't remember the last time the maroon and gold completely destroyed three decent teams in the span of four games.
 




Gophers_4life said:
Optimism good. Excitement good. Does not equal expectation. Logic fail.
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I don’t think you understand how logic, or expectations, work. The reasons for optimism and excitement are the same reasons people have high expectations.

I am optimistic and excited because we return more talent on offense, and have more weapons, than any gopher offense this millennium. As a result, my expectations for offensive output are raised.
 



SPEGOPHER said:
As a result, my expectations for offensive output are raised.
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Of course.

That’s not analogous to what’s happening here.

The correct analogy would be: “we ran for 250 yards per game last season, and we return our running back and have improved, therefore my expectations have raised to 600 yards per game for this upcoming season”.
 



RememberMurray said:
Hmmm... couldn't you apply the exact same logic, in the opposite direction? The "If Not For" scenario.

What if they had made the coaching change sooner? What if they hadn't lost to: Illinois, Maryland? Nebraska? If Not For the loss to Ohio State at the Horseshoe... imagine that possibility!

After all, that game was closer than the final score would indicate.
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Nobody cares about moral victories.
 

Gophers_4life said:
Of course. That’s not analogous to what’s happening here.
The correct analogy would be: “we ran for 250 yards per game last season, and we return our running back and have improved, therefore my expectations have raised to 600 yards per game for this upcoming season”.

I think we are going to have to agree to disagree, but I’ll just point out that expectations are both based on a comprehensive view of all factors, not just one, and expectations are subjective. Reasonable minds can differ.
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SPEGOPHER said:
I think we are going to have to agree to disagree, but I’ll just point out that expectations are both based on a comprehensive view of all factors, not just one, and expectations are subjective. Reasonable minds can differ.
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Yes they’re subjective, but that alone doesn’t excuse you from forming one with an unreasonable basis nor shield you from being called out for doing that.

The example I gave above is essentially the same thing as what’s going on here. People are claiming they have an expectation that is way too high and unreasonable. They give flimsy, at best, logic to support it.

An expectation is a strong belief. My counter argument is that if you really believed it that strongly, you’d be willing to risk something to prove your belief. None of them will. That’s telling, in my book.


At the end of the day, it’s a bunch of message board rubes, rube-ing it up. It costs them nothing to throw something out, so they do for entertainment.
 

RememberMurray said:
The other, seldom-mentioned factor that is creating optimism is the sheer dominance the Gophers displayed in beating Purdue, Wisconsin and Georgia Tech.

I can't remember the last time the maroon and gold completely destroyed three decent teams in the span of four games.
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Don't know that it is seldom mentioned since I think this is the main reason why people are optimistic about this season (I know it was a huge factor for me). Had we closed out the year with our usual whimper people would have had much lower expectations for this season.

The GT game was huge to me because it showed that our defense just might be for real and not just riding the new coordinator buzz. GT had weeks to study film of those last 3 games and they were not able to find ways to exploit what Rossi was doing. That hopefully bodes really well for the coming season. On the flip side, Rossi had to plan for a very difficult offense to defend and he had the guys ready to go.

If this team is not competing for the BIG West title late in the season it will be really disappointing. We may not end up winning it but there is zero reason why we shouldn't be a factor as long as we stay relatively healthy at the key spots on the field.
 

MNVCGUY said:
If this team is not competing for the BIG West title late in the season it will be really disappointing. We may not end up winning it but there is zero reason why we shouldn't be a factor as long as we stay relatively healthy at the key spots on the field.
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I’d ask you to define what “competing for” and “a factor” means ... but I’m pretty sure I’d just be disappointed.

It still bewilders me that people are posting this.


I’ll give you this: to base your hope for this season on the last four games of last season .... you either must be a perpetual true believer, or you’re just that desperate for a 9+ win, division champion team.
 

Gophers_4life said:
I’d ask you to define what “competing for” and “a factor” means ... but I’m pretty sure I’d just be disappointed.

It still bewilders me that people are posting this.


I’ll give you this: to base your hope for this season on the last four games of last season .... you either must be a perpetual true believer, or you’re just that desperate for a 9+ win, division champion team.
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OK - do you base it off the Illinois game? What is the allowable collection of games to base the hope for this season off of?

I mean, they made a few substantial changes late in the season, the team played 4 good teams and demolished 3 of the 4 and were competitive with the other team. Nothing in the first 8 games tells about Joe Rossi at DC, nothing before Indiana tells about Morgan at QB. Nothing before Nebraska (?) tells about the O-Line with Faalele playing, etc.

Based on that, I don't think it's unreasonable to use those games to extrapolate this season's performance. I don't see those games as smoke and mirrors. I mean, if Illinois and Wisconsin's records were reversed, then there'd be a little more reason to be cautious. But as it stands, I think those games should be more representative of this team's performance than the first eight.

And this is coming from someone who has been consistently shaking his head at some of the folks' predictions. I'm not the guy saying 15-0. I'm not saying less than 8 wins is unacceptable. But I still expect the level of play to be similar to what we saw in those last 4 games.
 

Gophers_4life said:
I’d ask you to define what “competing for” and “a factor” means ... but I’m pretty sure I’d just be disappointed.

It still bewilders me that people are posting this.


I’ll give you this: to base your hope for this season on the last four games of last season .... you either must be a perpetual true believer, or you’re just that desperate for a 9+ win, division champion team.
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To your first part, competing for the title to me means being in the mix with a few games left in the season with a realistic (not just mathematical but with a chance to actually happen) path to winning the division. Being more than just an also ran.

To the bold part I actually don't think I fall in the category of true believer or desperate for a championship. I will freely admit to being higher on the teams prospects this year then previous years because I saw something different down the stretch. It wasn't just beating Purdue, Wisconsin and Georgia Tech that has me excited, it was how we beat them. It wasn't smoke and mirrors or lucky bounces, it was flat out domination. No guarantees that continues this year but there was also very little that was flukey about how we played so the chance is there that it continues and this team takes the next step.

May not end in a division championship this year but it isn't out of the realm of possibility if things break right.
 

Lakeville Goldy said:
OK - do you base it off the Illinois game? What is the allowable collection of games to base the hope for this season off of?

I mean, they made a few substantial changes late in the season, the team played 4 good teams and demolished 3 of the 4 and were competitive with the other team. Nothing in the first 8 games tells about Joe Rossi at DC, nothing before Indiana tells about Morgan at QB. Nothing before Nebraska (?) tells about the O-Line with Faalele playing, etc.

Based on that, I don't think it's unreasonable to use those games to extrapolate this season's performance. I don't see those games as smoke and mirrors. I mean, if Illinois and Wisconsin's records were reversed, then there'd be a little more reason to be cautious. But as it stands, I think those games should be more representative of this team's performance than the first eight.

And this is coming from someone who has been consistently shaking his head at some of the folks' predictions. I'm not the guy saying 15-0. I'm not saying less than 8 wins is unacceptable. But I still expect the level of play to be similar to what we saw in those last 4 games.
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Actually, g4l chooses to use the MD game last year as the basis for most of these posts.
 

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