Um ... that's exactly how football works. Every close loss players and coaches look back at one or two plays and go, "If only." Otherwise, I agree with everything else you had. I do think something clicked for P.J. this season.
Every betting website had them at or around 5 wins.
So at 6 wins how are they underperforming? Because you think so? Not that talented of a team.
Did they underperform vs Rutgers? Start there.
Something has for about 60 years.
That thought process is what the “going 1-0” narrative tries to combat. Previous results are things to learn from and I don’t know if the same lessons would have been learned if they had “gotten away” with certain wins. Butterfly effect and all that.
Yup, but teams also go out of their way to peak with good classes. It’s the reason that Wisconsin is so bad this year. They are finding their guys for 3 years from now.
If you had asked a well informed CFB fan after the 2003 Sun Bowl who between Minnesota and Oregon was more like to win a championship in the next decade, people would have said Minnesota.
Yes. Pretty much ends there too. We were underdogs in every other loss. We were dogs vs USC and got a win.
So the betting line is your only criteria. Got it.
Coming into this season, I 100% would have agreed with you. However, what Indiana did this year so far is nothing short of remarkable. Now, this is not because Indiana is reinventing football so they can compete with inferior talent. What Indiana has done is get a lucky schedule and win the 50/50 games. There is absolutely no reason that Minnesota cannot accomplish the same thing. Don’t tell me Indiana Football has better recruiting grounds, better legacy, or better administration support.