Oh, it bugs me and is fair criticism of PJ
Could be. We are also losing Morgan and Mo though. Who is going to handle the rock next year? I think losing Bucky to the portal was a big blow.
The question is why? Aren’t we similar to at least Iowa and Wisconsin in terms of demographics? Is it the state’s obsession with hockey?
It's competition and the other programs are trying to do the same as us. Outside of Michigan, tOSU, and PSU the rest of the conference is looking to have our 2019 season as much as possible. To think we are going to dash 60 years of history is crazy thinking. Fleck has us playing in Nationally Televised prime time games and had an 11-2 season followed by 9-4 and we will see what this season ends up being. (Yes, I don't include 2020)
Agreed. West this year and thought next year would like this.
Would be nice to have bucky. We probably beat Purdue with him.
I think Bucky could've broken a tackle or two or made guy miss. There were opportunities in that game if RB could've done that. None of our RBs did
If not the single biggest reason, it's a huge contributing factor. And MN is becoming a pretty good basketball state as well (not that any of those kids go to the U.)
Your last paragraph is the story of Gopher football ever since about 1968! At least now, the Gopher program has a great on campus stadium, continues to be a member of the Big Ten Conference that is working hard to continue to provide revenue streams for the conference members and will have a voice in college athletics as long as ANY conference in the nation going into a new and constantly evolving future.
You have lots of faith in the 2023 QB. I think you'll see a significant drop-off in wins next year.
I mean it is kind of tough to disagree with that. Illinois is #1 or #2 in basically every single defensive category in the Big Ten and up near the top in all those categories nationally as well.
You expected us to win the west before the year began? That certainly wasn’t consensus as many were hemming and hawing about losses on the lines, and our rbs returning from injuries.
I was mostly kidding. The Minnesota motto wait until next year.
He has some pretty decent recruits
I’d be pretty impressed with a split.
Interesting take considering all the players they are losing. I was thinking they would take a step back and rebuild a little next year. I know everyone is down on Morgan right now but he has been around a long time. Gonna take a little bit to replace him and mo also.
Random thoughts: Pretty much agree with the above. The improvement of a program is not linear. There will be ups and downs, even if we are making progress overall. I do however think that what happened in the past does matter in a way (a different question). Some argue that what happened last year or the last 40 years has NO effect on what happens this year. They shout, "The coaches are different, the players are different, what happened in the past has not effect on what happens this year." Maybe that's true in theory, but why does Ohio State beat us all the time (well, 90+% of the time)? Because they have better players than us every year. So even if we are getting better, we will still almost certainly lose to Ohio State, and sometimes to Purdue and Illinois.