The 8-5 2002 team would have been a great team if the season ended in October and then they played their Bowl Game. It didn't. They went 0-4 in November and were outscored by an average of 22 points a game.
The 2004 team went 3-5 in the Big Ten. They played 3 ranked teams and lost to all of them. They lost 5 out of their last 6 Big Ten games. They beat ALA in the Music City Bowl but dpodoll was right. The Tide ended-up being a 6-6 team but yeah it felt so good at the time.
The Holiday Bowl Trophy win against WSU was a bigger win to anybody who was actually paying attention.
The 2005 team? 4-4 Conference team but did have the wins against #11 Purdue and #21 Michigan. If they had held on to that lead against the Badgers or Mason had told his punter what to do with a muffed punt in the end zone against WI it might be worth a "best of" list. But he didn't and it was the week after the big win at Michigan making it even worse. They proceeded to lose 4 of their last 6 games.
The 2013 team beat #21 Nebraska at HOME, were 4-2 in the Big Ten, then lost their last 3, including a crushing loss to Wisconsin and a "should have won" loss against Syracuse in Texas.
The 2016 team went 9-4 and they were within 7 points on 3 of their 4 losses. The went 5-3 in the Big Ten. They WON 6 out of their last 8 games. Something that Gopher teams regardless of schedule just haven't done. It was the off field troubles that made the season feel so bad. Nothing wrong with saying that. It's true, but pretending that it wasn't a good team or a good record is sophistry at it's most transparent.
This is how I'd rank them.
1999 team
2003 team
2014 team
2016 team
2013 team
That's the only really decent teams in 20 years. No make that 45 years!!!!!
That's just god awful.
