Post-Game Thread: Minnesota Wins 5th Straight Bowl Game!

Donate To GopherHole






Feels good that even in a year where it never quite felt like we put it all together, and kinda kept stalling right when we would build momentum, we finished 9-4 with a bowl win over a P5 team. If this is what an average year is now, I think we're on the right track.
 


Horrid- Terrible field, a true abomination......PHX should be ashamed.
(Because of such)
Bad- a rather boring bowl game.
(Positive)
Good- GLAD WE ACTUALLY GOT TO PLAY THE GAME. (Had real fear this too would be canceled.)
Best- ANOTHER BOWL WIN FOR THE GOLDEN GOPHERS!!!! #RTB #SkiUmah
 





B1G should complain mightily about the field condition. Sure the parachuters were great but close the lid when it's basically turf placed on top of plastic 24 hours before.

That offered, great to get the win. WVU was just overmatched. Really the bottom line for this one.
 


D was amazing again - 7 straight games holding a team under 300 yards.

Offense ran the ball well. Freshman backs both over 100 yards, Faalele TD....

Field surface was a joke. Guys slipping all over the place. The pick was almost completely due to MBS totally losing his footing.

Nice way to wrap up the season.
 




Gopher028 said:
Horrid- Terrible field, a true abomination......PHX should be ashamed.
(Because of such)
Bad- a rather boring bowl game.
(Positive)
Good- GLAD WE ACTUALLY GOT TO PLAY THE GAME. (Had real fear this too would be canceled.)
Best- ANOTHER BOWL WIN FOR THE GOLDEN GOPHERS!!!! #RTB #SkiUmah
Click to expand...
Add Big Dan TD and Annextad's 2 pointer
 


All the bad weather games I've seen the past few years in rain, sleet and snow and I don't remember as much slipping as this one. Especially the Gopher skill players. Weird that I don't recall the WVU players slipping much. Maybe they had better footwear.
 

Defense was outstanding, top to bottom.

The offensive line and Irving/Thomas were outstanding. How many times this season did we see Bucky stopped with a shoestring tackle to take away a long TD run?

Kirk Ciarrocca cannot start working soon enough for me.

There NEEDS to be a wide open QB competition.
 

Season of “what could have been.” But pretty decent place to be for gopher fans. Bowls are no longer over achieving. I still remember 1999.

it will be a season of transition along with high expectations next year. Could be glorious or a complete mess. We’ll see
 

Will miss Big Dan and the other O-Linemen moving on.

Having Faalele go in for the TD has to count as trolling the opponent to some degree...not Jump Around class trolling but pretty close...then followed by Annexstad's 2-point conversion...classic.

Sorry for that Mountaineers...well, not really.
 

Torres9 said:
Season of “what could have been.” But pretty decent place to be for gopher fans. Bowls are no longer over achieving. I still remember 1999.

it will be a season of transition along with high expectations next year. Could be glorious or a complete mess. We’ll see
Click to expand...
The fact that we aren’t celebrating a 9-4 season is maybe a great thing.
 

Elite performance by the defense. It was really clear that the Gophers were going to win this game after the first drive by both teams, even with the missed field goal...barring something really strange happening. Unfortunately that "really strange" occurrence stayed a possibility for far too long due to some really poor play in key situations by the offense. The run game was great, but the turnovers, slips, rb's getting tackled by the ankles on potential long td runs, and some really conservative decisions turned a game that should have been an absolute blowout in to one that ended in just a two score game.

The Faalele TD was great and should be a signature bowl moment this year. The PJ timeout on 3rd and 20 to prevent a 3rd and 25 ... and subsequent give up run after said timeout was the type of thing you'd hope we could finally be past at this point in his coaching career. Rossi got a lot of milage out of rushing 4 but having one of the 4 be a safety/linebacker coming late. Coney Durr was awesome defending those back to back deep shots too.

Hopefully this team ends the year ranked. It's clearly a top 25 team in talent and I think they deserve it.

Going in to next year my biggest thought is I really, really want a QB competition. It won't happen, especially with Ciarrocca coming back, but I am absolutely convinced there should be one.
 



Really good season for the good guys. We won 9 games and finished over .500 in the Big 10. We're a good football team.

Takeaways:
(1) Field - obviously
(2) I hope JMS isn't seriously injured.
(3) The OL was awesome. It was cool seeing them hug it out at the end.
(4) The defense was great again.
(5) I thought Tanner played well considering the field. I think he was 8-13 and two of those (at least) were 100% due to the slip and slide field.
(6) I'm glad WVU didn't run the ball more with their RB. He was impressive.
(7) Nubin was everywhere
(8) Fun to see Joyner in there a bit more. I think he had a sack.
(9) Ruschmeyer is really good. One of our better run blocking OL.
(10) Bucky had some fresh legs. He looked great. It's part of the reason I'd like to keep his touches to around 12-16 maximum, keep those legs fresh.
 

Vandy said:
Defense was outstanding, top to bottom.

The offensive line and Irving/Thomas were outstanding. How many times this season did we see Bucky stopped with a shoestring tackle to take away a long TD run?

Kirk Ciarrocca cannot start working soon enough for me.

There NEEDS to be a wide open QB competition.
Click to expand...
Honestly, what did you see tonight that made you think this? I thought Tanner played pretty well.
 


Nax5 said:
The thing I'll remember most was that horrific field. My God. And right after our INT:

View attachment 16211
Click to expand...
Still cannot believe they put the parachute entrance over closing the roof with the rain . Film it, then fireworks after the game. Really poor decision to let the rain soak the field by stadium operations. Could have gotten someone really hurt from either team with wet surface. You have a roof, you don't open it with that potential for rain.conference and AD should complain behind closed doors about not caring about player safety enough. It's a no Brainer to close the roof before the rain. The slips were evident.
 
Last edited:

46Gophers said:
I bet Kirk C. is feeling good about leaving that train-wreck of an offense at WV and coming back to MN.
Click to expand...
I assumed he was eventually going to be their OC… he’s going to a much better situation.
 

I really enjoyed the game and loved it that the OL were recognised by being awarded the 'collective' player of the game award. Although we will have blips and setbacks, i am confident that our football program is in very good hands and hope PJF keeps Rowing the Boat in Minnesota for a very long time.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom