Shama: There should have been more capable and experienced defensive players in place to take over from last season’s seniors.

[HitMeAgainIAmStillMoving]

It is tongue in cheek, but if you look at the game logs, the guys who are starting for us this year did see time in some capacity. The issue is we played so many tight games early (our NC wins were by a total of 13 points) which really hurt their chance to see some snaps. During the midseason blowouts, they did see more time once we got big leads (which you can see reflected in the tackle logs in the games against Ill, Nebraska, Rutgers, and MD). Then it was tight games or getting pounded by WI the rest of the way. Us missing our NC schedule this year was devastating for that reason, and the same reason teams like LSU are getting wrecked defensively, as it's where you'd hope to have gotten these guys a bunch more snaps.

Nice breakdown with good information. It is true though that PJ acts like he has never seen any of the players on the defensive side of the ball before in his life.

 

[stocker08]

What an astute observation. He should let Fleck know so that next year goes better.

 

[tmvander]

The defense has looked better the last two games so that is somewhat encouraging I suppose. We also have started out seasons really slow every year under Fleck. Maybe this is no exception? These are really the only two things that help me sleep at night because Michigan was replacing more guys on both sides of the ball than we were and they looked like an NFL team against us while looking like children against their other opponents. Maryland was playing a new QB and replacing their best RB in many years and still managed to do whatever they wanted against us.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Maybe I read a different article.

I thought Shama's point was fairly clear. Fleck is in his 4th year. The players he recruited 3 years ago should be ready to contribute.

Fleck is the one who talks about out-recruiting the graduating class - bringing in new players who are equal to or better than the ones who graduate, so that you do not have a big drop-off in talent when the Seniors graduate.

I am NOT calling for Fleck's head. But I am suggesting that, as the HC and leader of the program, the construction of the roster is his responsibility. the current team is displaying a flawed roster. and the results speak for themselves.

2017 is a tough year to evaluate Fleck's on for recruiting due to the transition. As it worked out they found some really good offensive players in that class but had far less luck on the defensive side.

The top 2 defensive players in the 2018 class are out due to career ending injury in one case and opt-out in the other, so that takes a hit on your experienced depth. This class also had Oliver who is out for the year with an injury.

The 2019 guys have already shown some promise but are also very young still and the 2020 guys are true freshman who had limited to no training camp time to develop at all prior to their first taste of college football.

So there are some valid reasons for why our depth is where it is.

 

[MplsGopher]

Here's the thing:

- I believe our leaders on defense (Rossi and Harasymiak) are sound decision makers, play callers, and run a solid scheme
- we've just been kneecapped, far more than anyone realized, by the loss of play-makers, and guys either not stepping up and taking a while to get to that level themselves (guys like Mafe and Oto starting to come around).

So I think we're going to be fine on defense, perhaps by the end of this season, but I think realistically we'll be much better going into next season.


I think it's more likely that offense and special teams are going to be the dumpster fires that ruin Gopher football next year. Special teams has been awful for some time, and likely will continue to be under Wegner.

 

[1994Convert]

First off, I don't buy anyone's excuse about the lack of summer practice and non-conference schedule. All teams had to deal with those. The reality is that some teams handled it better and some did not.

Secondly, as others have stated, the 2019 players should be ready to go whether they had reps or not. The fact that Fleck is putting true freshmen in there shows a combination of failure to recruit quality players and to coach up those recruits from prior years.

Lastly, I like Fleck a lot despite his flaws. At a program like Minnesota's, we are lucky to get a coach with a system that gets kids to buy in. Fleck needs to keep re-assessing what truly is working. I read about him saying that there is no magic bullet for fixing things. That is incorrect. In 2018 he fired the DC and there was instant improvement. Now you may fire the wrong bullet but there are magic bullets out there. He just needs to keep searching in his ammo bin.

 

[MNVCGUY]

First off, I don't buy anyone's excuse about the lack of summer practice and non-conference schedule. All teams had to deal with those. The reality is that some teams handled it better and some did not.

Secondly, as others have stated, the 2019 players should be ready to go whether they had reps or not. The fact that Fleck is putting true freshmen in there shows a combination of failure to recruit quality players and to coach up those recruits from prior years.

Lastly, I like Fleck a lot despite his flaws. At a program like Minnesota's, we are lucky to get a coach with a system that gets kids to buy in. Fleck needs to keep re-assessing what truly is working. I read about him saying that there is no magic bullet for fixing things. That is incorrect. In 2018 he fired the DC and there was instant improvement. Now you may fire the wrong bullet but there are magic bullets out there. He just needs to keep searching in his ammo bin.

In your first paragraph, you are totally right that everyone had to deal with it and some have handled it better than others but it absolutely has had an impact on the Gophers and a number of other teams.

Could not disagree more with your comments about the 2019 players. Those kids are redshirt Freshman or true Sophomores, they should in no way shape or form be expected to be finished products fully capable of stepping in for departing seniors and playing at a high level. You can start making judgements like that about guys from the 2017 and 2018 classes but not 2019. Those kids still have a lot of developing to do.

 

[1994Convert]

I am not disagreeing that the lack of off-season and pre-season didn't hurt the Gophers, the point is that it was a handicap across the board for all teams. All teams had to deal with this.

You're right about the 2017 and 2018 classes. The reality is that we have to look at why the coaching staff is bypassing all of them in favor of true freshmen. Something is wrong there.

 

[Taji34]

I am not disagreeing that the lack of off-season and pre-season didn't hurt the Gophers, the point is that it was a handicap across the board for all teams. All teams had to deal with this.

You're right about the 2017 and 2018 classes. The reality is that we have to look at why the coaching staff is bypassing all of them in favor of true freshmen. Something is wrong there.

Not every team has a new OC and lost 7 starters on defense though. How do we compare to teams in similar situations?