Shipley: Fleck and the Gophers are distancing themselves from the rest of the Big Ten West Division also-rans

[BleedGopher]

Per Shipley:

While Frost struggles to resurrect Cornhuskers football, Fleck and the Gophers are distancing themselves from the rest of the Big Ten West Division also-rans, including once-mighty Nebraska.

Since the Gophers’ breakout season in 2019, Minnesota is 0-4 against West Division powers Wisconsin and Iowa but 9-0 against everyone else in the division (Illinois, Nebraska, Northwestern and Purdue). This is important, and it’s clearly rubbing some of the vanquished the wrong way.

John Shipley: P.J. Fleck and the Gophers put Nebraska in the rearview mirror

With a 30-23 victory on Saturday, the Gophers improved to 9-0 against Big West opponents not named Iowa or Wisconsin since 2019.

www.twincities.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[RememberMurray]

"Since the Gophers’ breakout season in 2019, Minnesota is 0-4 against West Division powers Wisconsin and Iowa but 9-0 against everyone else in the division (Illinois, Nebraska, Northwestern and Purdue). This is important, and it’s clearly rubbing some of the vanquished the wrong way."

He's right. This is very, very important.

To break through, we only need to beat one more opponent semi-regularly — either Iowa or Wisconsin. If we can do that on a fairly consistent basis while maintaining our current dominance against the rest of the West, we'll have achieved a lot. We will have established a "Big Three" in the West, rather than the current "Big Two".