Postgame Thread: Gophers Lose to North Carolina

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MZBKA1 said:
I don't understand why anybody thought the Gophers would win today. Fleck doesn't recruit at the level of UNC. We don't have the talent to compete with Top 25 programs right now.

We're a middling team with, unsurprisingly, middling recruiting. Our last few years' easy schedules and a few upsets have spoiled us. With a real schedule this year, I guess some fans are in for a reality shock.

We had the worst recruiting class in the Big 10 last year. Forget about clock management or burning TOs, Fleck's recruiting has been his biggest failure.

Fleck has to recruit better players if he wants to win more football games. If we keep recruiting at the level of Rutgers, in three years, that's against whom we'll be most competitive.
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Except we were 9th in the B1G in recruiting last year, not even close to last. The only position UNC had a better player was at QB.

Go lie and troll somewhere else loser.
 

kisarazu said:
Defense: Not concerned. We stopped the run, had some big play miscues by inexperienced guys, and this is the best QB the Gophers will play against for years. Barring injuries North Carolina will likely finish in the top 15 at the end of the year.

Offense: I admire patience, particularly in college football, but without an accurate QB and competent OC expect 6-6 to 9-3 seasons.
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In the next ten years, I'd expect NIL and transfers to result in the power teams getting better and the rest of us getting worse. Given the recruiting difficulties UM football suffers, I'd say we're doing pretty well lately but 9-3 seasons I expect will be rarer than the 6-6 you expect to be the bottom.
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
- Receivers need to be the strength of the offense they were expected to be. (BSF not playing like a high round draft pick)

- Need someone to emerge at RB next to Taylor.

- Gousby got burned way too much.
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BSF was never going to get close to the NFL. He wouldn’t even play at a lot of other schools.
 


FanSinceTheFifties said:
In the next ten years, I'd expect NIL and transfers to result in the power teams getting better and the rest of us getting worse. Given the recruiting difficulties UM football suffers, I'd say we're doing pretty well lately but 9-3 seasons I expect will be rarer than the 6-6 you expect to be the bottom.
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Yeah, I think it just helps to elevate a few more blue bloods each year.
 









Rough game and hard to watch at times.

1) Poor offensive play calling
2) More dropped passes (seems to be becoming a theme this year)
3) Multiple defensive breakdowns, leaving wide open receivers
4) Athan really struggled and should have had two more interceptions, but they luckily were dropped

I think the defense will be fine, but it seems like the offense could really lower the ceiling of this team. Need to get that fixed soon. The worst part is NC was pretty much begging the Gophers to score touchdowns in the 2nd quarter with multiple interceptions by Maye, but of course the offense couldn't do anything with those turnovers.
 

Something I haven’t seen a ton of commentary on, but in regards to Athans development, he’s had a rotating door of coordinators. I saw a lot yesterday (and all season) of him being a beat late on his crossers, throwing it a step or two post break rather than just when the guy goes into the move. He’s not as talented a guy as Maye who has that presnap anticipation so he needs to know where the ball goes and the when. The prior system with Kirk was a window throwing offense (you hit the dig either first or second window, which is what Tanner did well). AK seems to be wanting to make sure guys are “open” rather than trusting his read and it’s hurting us.

On an aside, the drops and slips are absolutely crippling to an offense who struggles to move it vertically. One of the things we really miss with CRAB out is his relative aurehandedness. Spencer’s drop in particular was a massive momentum killer
 

He’s been inaccurate on short, intermediate, and deep throws. Bad form could account for some of it. Speaking from some personal experience many many moons ago and what ultimately stemmed from rotator cuff and elbow overuse stuff I compensated with a change in motion but accuracy suffered. I wonder. He doesn’t look like the same thrower this year.
 



Great Plains Gopher said:
Athan has been mediocre to bad in all four outings this year, including the Spring game. QBs (the passing kind) are a little like baseball pitchers - no shame in pulling one and putting another in. Let Cole have a long run against somebody, at least two quarters.
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Kramer is not the answer. The gameplan needs to improve greatly as many have posted. Just one example would be going to your big all-college TE on high percentage quick short passes 8-10 times a game.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Kramer is not the answer. The gameplan needs to improve greatly as many have posted. Just one example would be going to your big all-college TE on high percentage quick short passes 8-10 times a game.
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Will he catch them?
 


Again, only saw the 2nd half and this really doesn't relate to yesterday's game, but is Bateman the last WR we had that could beat the DB right at the line-of-scrimmage?l Could be scheme issues, but none of WRs appear to be particularly explosive.
 

A new QB, RB, and OL, and aged hobbled veterans at WR and TE who did poorly.
PJ is rigid in his philosophy of clock control.
The season's first game against a good team and an away game.
So the loss should not be a shock.
The conference schedule, which is the only W/L record that counts, is challenging.
The end of this year will tell if this is all we can expect from PJ as a recruiter and coach or is there hope to actually make the playoffs next year.
 

Actually encouraged by Fleck’s postgame presser. Seems like there is a sense of urgency.

AK’s inaccuracy is getting concerning. He missed some deep balls that would have changed the game. Our inability to make any explosive plays (run or pass) is such a killer. How many plays over 40 yards have we had the last two years?
 

SPEGOPHER said:
Actually encouraged by Fleck’s postgame presser. Seems like there is a sense of urgency.

AK’s inaccuracy is getting concerning. He missed some deep balls that would have changed the game. Our inability to make any explosive plays (run or pass) is such a killer. How many plays over 40 yards have we had the last two years?
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this year we have zero.
Last year we had 2 vs WIU, 1 vs PU, 1 vs Ill (rush), 1 vs PSU, 1 vs RU (rush), 1 vs NE, 1 vs IA (rush), 2 vs WI. 40 yards is a bit on the long side for CFB but those are the numbers for this year and last year
 

upnorthkid said:
this year we have zero.
Last year we had 2 vs WIU, 1 vs PU, 1 vs Ill (rush), 1 vs PSU, 1 vs RU (rush), 1 vs NE, 1 vs IA (rush), 2 vs WI. 40 yards is a bit on the long side for CFB but those are the numbers for this year and last year
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prior year
1 vs OSU (rush), 1 vs BG (rush), 1 vs Purdue, 1 vs NE (rush), 1 vs NW (rush), 1 vs IA, 1 vs IU, 1 vs WVU (rush)
 

Wide receivers were open all over the field yesterday, Kramer missed a post for a TD and AK misses Brockington on a deep crossing route which surely had TD written all over it. Those are two that stick out for me. As far as what plays were called it didn’t matter, every throw was an adventure. Next two weeks will be critical to get the passing game dialed in before we hit the gauntlet
 



- At the 6 minute mark of the 3rd quarter, Athan scrambles for a first down and appears to get a lower body injury. Not good when that's maybe his best attribute right now. The announcers are commenting on how we have the momentum and have scored the last 10 points. The score is 21-13.
- A the 5 minute mark Athan underthrows an open receiver at the NC 5 yard line. If we score the touchdown there, we're likely down one point, 21-20. He is visibly limping after the play so in comes Kramer. Athan has accuracy issues, but if he isn't hurt, maybe he gets more juice on the ball, completes that throw and we're right in the game!
- At the 3 minute mark of same drive at the NC 34 with Athan on the bench, Kramer throws a terrible pick in the end zone. Game over.

https://www.google.com/search?q=min...ate=ive&vld=cid:d20cb181,vid:tD7CwV5qO6c,st:0

- Even with all of Athan's missed throws and the drops and defensive mistakes, we very easily could have been down only one late in the third quarter. I still think we lose because Athan likely couldn't run affectively anymore and Drake Maye is an awesome college quarterback.
- As someone else stated, if you swap starting quarterbacks and give us Drake Maye and give Athan to NC, we beat NC. Drake was easily the best player on the field. I did not see a large talent difference between the rest of the players. If Athan can improve A LOT over the next couple years, maybe we can have a poor man's version of Drake Maye at some point. Like Drake, he has good speed and a strong arm.
- Appalachian State is probably a pretty good team. They are 2-1 with their only loss to NC.
- NC could very well be a top ten team by the end of the year. They probably should be now given no one has played a more difficult first three teams. They stomped on what is probably a pretty good South Carolina team. South Carolina was leading #1 Georgia at the half this past week! How would you like to be South Carolina by the way? They played the #1 team and another team that should be top ten (according to me) in their first three games. Yikes! That's a tough way to start the year when everyone else is playing cream puffs!
 

Maybe someone already mentioned, but interesting that PJ said Kramer's interception play was supposed to go to the right side of the field and it was open. It was a screw up on the throw.
 

SeaBee_Gopher said:
- At the 6 minute mark of the 3rd quarter, Athan scrambles for a first down and appears to get a lower body injury. Not good when that's maybe his best attribute right now. The announcers are commenting on how we have the momentum and have scored the last 10 points. The score is 21-13.
- A the 5 minute mark Athan underthrows an open receiver at the NC 5 yard line. If we score the touchdown there, we're likely down one point, 21-20. He is visibly limping after the play so in comes Kramer. Athan has accuracy issues, but if he isn't hurt, maybe he gets more juice on the ball, completes that throw and we're right in the game!
- At the 3 minute mark of same drive at the NC 34 with Athan on the bench, Kramer throws a terrible pick in the end zone. Game over.

https://www.google.com/search?q=min...ate=ive&vld=cid:d20cb181,vid:tD7CwV5qO6c,st:0

- Even with all of Athan's missed throws and the drops and defensive mistakes, we very easily could have been down only one late in the third quarter. I still think we lose because Athan likely couldn't run affectively anymore and Drake Maye is an awesome college quarterback.
- As someone else stated, if you swap starting quarterbacks and give us Drake Maye and give Athan to NC, we beat NC. Drake was easily the best player on the field. I did not see a large talent difference between the rest of the players. If Athan can improve A LOT over the next couple years, maybe we can have a poor man's version of Drake Maye at some point. Like Drake, he has good speed and a strong arm.
- Appalachian State is probably a pretty good team. They are 2-1 with their only loss to NC.
- NC could very well be a top ten team by the end of the year. They probably should be now given no one has played a more difficult first three teams. They stomped on what is probably a pretty good South Carolina team. South Carolina was leading #1 Georgia at the half this past week! How would you like to be South Carolina by the way? They played the #1 team and another team that should be top ten (according to me) in their first three games. Yikes! That's a tough way to start the year when everyone else is playing cream puffs!
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I also thought AK looked hobbled and it impacted his play. Apparently, he wasn't the only one cramping. You'd think the team would be filling up the players with supplements the whole week.
 

glass half full: a lot of season left to play. lots of room for improvement. most of the teams in the West look very beatable.

glass half empty: are Athan's problems fixable in mid-season? can you teach "touch?"

bottom line: barring a complete collapse, this team should win at least 7 games. meaning the overall results will come down to.......................who else..................Iowa and Wisconsin.
 



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