Saturday Tradition: Our way to early 2024 Big Ten Power Rankings (16. Minnesota)

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Not sure how anybody can argue with our spot. We were bad. We lost good players. We lost a DC recognized as being a top rated coach. Our QB is unproven and has no experience playing Top 50 teams in the country. We couldn't run the ball consistently. We were worse at passing and catching it.
Can we do better? For sure! But it's hard to pick us any higher. We gotta show some people we are better. Until we do they won't believe us.
 

I can see why one would rank us at #16. It does not seem illogical to think that Rossi was the defense, especially to an outsider. Then you have the whole QB room leave. If you think the defense takes a major downturn and the Offense is one of the worst in the B1G and consider our schedule it is not to much of jump to think we are the worst team in the B1G.

However, from someone who is optimistic. We see that our QB room is probably getting an upgrade and we see a lot of starters coming back. Fleck's track record of excellence goes beyond just a few years and I am sure he will figure it out. I do think hiring someone to replace Rossi will be hard though.
 


We earned that by playing some of the shittiest football this year possible. If they ranked the teams for how aesthetically the games were on Saturdays, we’d be 16th, too. It’s a new day today let’s see if PJ has changed his best.
 



Compared to the state of Indiana, we look pretty good.
 

I’d say anywhere from 7-16. That would be the expectation for about 10 teams 😉

The new 1 division will lead to a lot of end of year tie breaks and hypothetical what if arguments. Should be fun when they dole out bowl games.
 

60's Guy said:
Not sure how anybody can argue with our spot. We were bad. We lost good players. We lost a DC recognized as being a top rated coach. Our QB is unproven and has no experience playing Top 50 teams in the country. We couldn't run the ball consistently. We were worse at passing and catching it.
Can we do better? For sure! But it's hard to pick us any higher. We gotta show some people we are better. Until we do they won't believe us.
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Sure you can. Way too early rankings are just massive piles of off season fluff. Heck, rosters aren’t even finalized so no telling who else is going to transfer in an out across the conference, who is going to go pro early, or what other off season drama is going to take place.

picking us to win the big ten would be foolish but after the top 5-6 spots the rest of the conference is a complete crap shoot next year at this point, with a ton of teams in similar situations.
 

goldenboy said:
I think you could take 9-18 (maybe even 6-18), pull them out of a hat, and do as well. Way too many unknowns and typical surprises to have any confidence in ranking any except the top 4-5.
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This. The top 4 will be solid as they always are.

Washington is an interesting one. 36th ranked recruiting class (behind Iowa and 2 slots ahead of us). Penix is gone and I'd expect Odunze and McMillan to do the same. They have a bunch of seniors on defense as well

Iowa will be Iowa. I guess their offense can't be worse but the defense loses Castro and likely Dejean as well as 3 LBers

USC loses Williams and has 20+ seniors and a defense that was already horrible against the run.

I don't know why everyone is so high on UCLA either. 71st ranked recruiting class, Moore (their best QB) leaves, Loya (best WR) graduates, Latu (13 sacks) is gone, their best DB transferred to USC. There is nothing about UCLA that looks worrisome.

MD loses Tagovailoa as well as most of their OL, their top WR, and most of their back 7.

Nebraska is Nebraska. Will Raiola fix their QB issues? They return a ton next year so will be interesting to see

Wisconsin unloads a lot on defense and we'll see if their QB play is any better with Van Dyke (or the rest of the backups).

Michigan State had a worse recruiting class than us, lost to us, and still has no QB (Chiles looked about as mediocre as they come playing behind a dominant Oregon State line and couldn't take snaps from DJ)

NW has the 98th ranked recruiting class and has 40 (!!!) rostered seniors this year.

Rutgers loses almost their whole line plus their whole linebacking core. Their QB is who he is and they're not going to magically get more explosive overnight.

Illinois loses most of the OL and secondary but otherwise returns a lot.

It isn't hard to make the outlook look extremely bleak for many teams but as mentioned, after probably the top 4 who recruit in the top 15 every year and have massive NIL funds, the rest is going to be a crap shoot year after year. USC would be the one team who I'd peg to sit in the top 5, but then again they just managed to blow it with a guy who is going to be the 1st or 2nd pick because Riley can't recruit an OL or a defense other than accumulate athletes. Maybe Washington is here to stay now, but having the Heisman runner up certainly makes life easier at a place that historically has a winning percentage right around 60 (Minnesota's is 57 and OSUs is 75 for reference). Will be interesting to see how it plays out given this is a massively new era with NIL and how recruiting (and retention) will change, but for anyone to claim that outside the top 4 that this won't be a crap shoot most years seems more than a little bit of a fools errand.
 



I get how you could be down on the gophers
Not sure how you could be up on Michigan state, Nebraska, Illinois, etc

But then again, teams 6-16 are all about the same this year
 

On second thought...

After seeing that opening BG drive....
 

Some guy said:
I get how you could be down on the gophers
Not sure how you could be up on Michigan state, Nebraska, Illinois, etc

But then again, teams 6-16 are all about the same this year
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All three have really good coaches compared to us.
 

SHGopher said:
They just woke up and think AK is still the QB, it looks like.

Lame, lame, lame effort by this rating.

The right answer is #9-10, although I want to see what the secondary and WR's look like to know more.
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This ranking is spot on, 16.
 

SHGopher said:
They just woke up and think AK is still the QB, it looks like.

Lame, lame, lame effort by this rating.

The right answer is #9-10, although I want to see what the secondary and WR's look like to know more.
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What? How do you honestly figure 9 or 10?
 


Who TF is "Saturday Tradition" and why should I even give them a click?

Never heard of them
 



upnorthkid said:
This. The top 4 will be solid as they always are.

Washington is an interesting one. 36th ranked recruiting class (behind Iowa and 2 slots ahead of us). Penix is gone and I'd expect Odunze and McMillan to do the same. They have a bunch of seniors on defense as well

Iowa will be Iowa. I guess their offense can't be worse but the defense loses Castro and likely Dejean as well as 3 LBers

USC loses Williams and has 20+ seniors and a defense that was already horrible against the run.

I don't know why everyone is so high on UCLA either. 71st ranked recruiting class, Moore (their best QB) leaves, Loya (best WR) graduates, Latu (13 sacks) is gone, their best DB transferred to USC. There is nothing about UCLA that looks worrisome.

MD loses Tagovailoa as well as most of their OL, their top WR, and most of their back 7.

Nebraska is Nebraska. Will Raiola fix their QB issues? They return a ton next year so will be interesting to see

Wisconsin unloads a lot on defense and we'll see if their QB play is any better with Van Dyke (or the rest of the backups).

Michigan State had a worse recruiting class than us, lost to us, and still has no QB (Chiles looked about as mediocre as they come playing behind a dominant Oregon State line and couldn't take snaps from DJ)

NW has the 98th ranked recruiting class and has 40 (!!!) rostered seniors this year.

Rutgers loses almost their whole line plus their whole linebacking core. Their QB is who he is and they're not going to magically get more explosive overnight.

Illinois loses most of the OL and secondary but otherwise returns a lot.

It isn't hard to make the outlook look extremely bleak for many teams but as mentioned, after probably the top 4 who recruit in the top 15 every year and have massive NIL funds, the rest is going to be a crap shoot year after year. USC would be the one team who I'd peg to sit in the top 5, but then again they just managed to blow it with a guy who is going to be the 1st or 2nd pick because Riley can't recruit an OL or a defense other than accumulate athletes. Maybe Washington is here to stay now, but having the Heisman runner up certainly makes life easier at a place that historically has a winning percentage right around 60 (Minnesota's is 57 and OSUs is 75 for reference). Will be interesting to see how it plays out given this is a massively new era with NIL and how recruiting (and retention) will change, but for anyone to claim that outside the top 4 that this won't be a crap shoot most years seems more than a little bit of a fools errand.
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I agree with you on Washington being interesting. They lose what I think was the best quarterback in college football and the rest that you mentioned. They could be way overhyped for 2024.
 

SeaBee_Gopher said:
I agree with you on Washington being interesting. They lose what I think was the best quarterback in college football and the rest that you mentioned. They could be way overhyped for 2024.
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They remind me an awful lot of 2023 TCU

Heisman finalist level QB play leads team deservedly so to a top 4 finish.
Doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be perennial top 10 team moving forward though.

Pennix being on Indiana bought Tom Allen tens of millions of dollars
 


SHGopher said:
Are you declaring that Maryland, Wisconsin, Iowa and Northwestern will be better? How can anyone say that.

At least Gophers have a legit QB -- that I strongly believe - and Darius Taylor.

QB is by far the most important position.
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Cool. Thats not an unreasonable take at all, although not one I agree with.

How about we bet a gopher sweatshirt I say they do not finish in the top 9.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
Cool. Thats not an unreasonable take at all, although not one I agree with.

How about we bet a gopher sweatshirt I say they do not finish in the top 9.
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Let me see what happens in te transfer portal. Check back in 10 days.
 


SHGopher said:
Are you declaring that Maryland, Wisconsin, Iowa and Northwestern will be better? How can anyone say that.

At least Gophers have a legit QB -- that I strongly believe - and Darius Taylor.

QB is by far the most important position.
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In addition, I predict a very sold D. We will have stars on all three levels in Joyner, Lindenburg and Walley.
 

This is so predictable. Even when the Gophers come off a good season, the pundits are generally unimpressed. A bad season seems to erase prior successes and the Gophers have to start from scratch in rebuilding credibility. Granted, the Big 18 is now more challenging but the negativity here seems like more of a knee-jerk response rather than a considered one.
 

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