Reusse column: Gophers football heads in right direction — the West

[BleedGopher]

per Reusse:

Kirk Ferentz’s program at Iowa is tired. Wisconsin might have the wrong coach in Gary Andersen. And you look at the Gophers’ annual opponents in the Big Ten West and see new math:

Even if the one victory out of 10 vs. Nebraska is already out of the way, I put an improved Gophers program at four out of 10 vs. Wisconsin, five out of 10 vs. Iowa and seven out of 10 vs. Northwestern, Illinois and Purdue.

That’s 31-29 in annual games over a decade, which is much better than the 18-42 that seemed a reasonable estimate as the Gophers headed into the Legends division only four seasons back.

Geography is grand.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/280141862.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue

Go Gophers!!

 

[ruppertflywheel]

Really a good article by Patrick.

 

[SelectionSunday]

Really a good article by Patrick.

Agree. (the) West is best (place to be).

 

[BarnBoy]

Great article. Only point of contention is that I wouldn't write off Wisconsin just yet. God, I hate saying that.

 

[upnorthkid]

What a good article. Because teams don't ever change at all

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Great article. Only point of contention is that I wouldn't write off Wisconsin just yet. God, I hate saying that.

Why not? We do it every year in basketball.

 

[golden boy]

What a good article. Because teams don't ever change at all

That is kind of my gut reaction as well. It's dumb to test the wind and assume that the present wind is the prevailing one. This based off of almost one half of a season?

 

[Iceland12]

That is kind of my gut reaction as well. It's dumb to test the wind and assume that the present wind is the prevailing one. This based off of almost one half of a season?

More like a season and a half.

 

[golden boy]

More like a season and a half.

Well in that case he is further afield than I thought, because he seems to be crowning NE as the almost permanent champion of the west based on his reflection period. And while NE won the Gator bowl last year (which I admit was awesome), their most impressive in-season win was last week against NW. Not that they've been bad, but have they really done anything to merit status as the unquestioned champion of the West?

 

[golden boy]

I lost my browser history, could someone send me a link to the Ruesse column dismissing Wisconsin's 3 big ten championships during the leaders/legends era? After all they played in a division with guaranteed games against sanctioned and neutered historical powers, the 3 worst teams in the BIG, and also had a protected crossover game every year against Tim Brewster. Thanks in advance.

 

[Iceland12]

I lost my browser history, could someone send me a link to the Ruesse column dismissing Wisconsin's 3 big ten championships during the leaders/legends era? After all they played in a division with guaranteed games against sanctioned and neutered historical powers, the 3 worst teams in the BIG, and also had a protected crossover game every year against Tim Brewster. Thanks in advance.

Okay, pretend Ruess said your Badgers are the team to beat. Happy now?

 

[upnorthkid]

Why not? We do it every year in basketball.

 

[Governor Sibley]

Conference realignments have such unpredictable results.

 

[WanderingGopher]

He's estimating 1 win out of every 10 games going forward against Nebraska?? Does Reusse think this is still the 1980's?

 

[WanderingGopher]

I lost my browser history, could someone send me a link to the Ruesse column dismissing Wisconsin's 3 big ten championships during the leaders/legends era? After all they played in a division with guaranteed games against sanctioned and neutered historical powers, the 3 worst teams in the BIG, and also had a protected crossover game every year against Tim Brewster. Thanks in advance.

Not sure what your point is here. Reusse wasn't bagging on Wisconsin's conf titles, just saying (accurately) that there's nothing inherent about the program's history that means it'll be a power forever. The vast majority of fans (those of us over age 35 or so) grew up with Wisconsin being a perennial punching bag, and we'll always think of their relatively recent success as being temporary (yes, "recent" in the grand scheme of things includes 10-20 years ago). For most of the last 100 years Wisconsin has been mediocre to awful, and usually were looking up at Minnesota.

Overall it was a really stupid article, though. Projecting wins vs various teams years into the future is utterly ridiculous given the cyclical nature of sports teams.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

I thought this was another case of "damning with faint praise." As I read it, my take-away was that Reusse was saying the Gophers can't beat "good" teams consistently - they can only beat "bad" teams, so the Gophs are lucky they were moved to a weaker division.

 

[Winnipegopher]

It is stupid math. Outside of a couple years, you cannot predict who will be good or bad.