Since 1991 the Gophers have had 5 winning conference records

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UpAndUnder43

UpAndUnder43

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5. If fleck and co beat Indiana or wisconsin…that number will be 6. 2 of them will belong to PJ.

Only 8 since 1970 (if my counting is correct, this year would be 9)

Im disappointed with this season at this point but…also trying to keep some perspective.

And if your argument is that this team is too talented to not be better…you’re admitting Fleck has a talented team. He isn’t perfect but the ineptitude of the past 30-50 years has improved under him. Still frustrating.
 



Perspective always helps. I love this year in that I actually had expectations that were warranted. I remember in the past expecting great things and when they fell apart I realized my perspective was wrong. It is funny that this year is the first year when they fell apart my thoughts are the perspective of the coaches is wrong (which I do believe). I do appreciate the mindset that has been changed. Fleck has raised the water level of my expectations. Now it is time to get the right people guiding the boat to get us a West Championship.
 

fmlizard said:
I think the current team is more experienced than uncommonly talented.

The next guys up may be less experienced, but more talented. Time will tell.
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Will be interesting to see for sure. Fleck has talked up some of the young guys quite a bit in terms of how they look in practice. Plus in guys like Thomas, Bucky, and Walley, you can see the talent but they are still freshman and are definitely not finished products.

Exciting to think what they might develop into as they continue to add size and strength to go along with experience.
 




gophernut1 said:
Perspective always helps. I love this year in that I actually had expectations that were warranted. I remember in the past expecting great things and when they fell apart I realized my perspective was wrong. It is funny that this year is the first year when they fell apart my thoughts are the perspective of the coaches is wrong (which I do believe). I do appreciate the mindset that has been changed. Fleck has raised the water level of my expectations. Now it is time to get the right people guiding the boat to get us a West Championship.
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Don't bail on this season yet. Two games left. Weird stuff could happen (calling Illinois, Nebraska), although we have to take care of business
 

gophernut1 said:
Perspective always helps. I love this year in that I actually had expectations that were warranted. I remember in the past expecting great things and when they fell apart I realized my perspective was wrong. It is funny that this year is the first year when they fell apart my thoughts are the perspective of the coaches is wrong (which I do believe). I do appreciate the mindset that has been changed. Fleck has raised the water level of my expectations. Now it is time to get the right people guiding the boat to get us a West Championship.
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I see what you're saying but maybe our expectations were wrong; specifically, our expectations about the passing game. Tanner had such a great year in 2019 that we may have been tempted to think that he would be at least above average for the rest of his career here but our passing game has diminished significantly since then. We don't have quite the same receiving caliber corps as then and maybe Tanner just had one really good year in him. Our running game on the whole is better than it was two years ago even with the injuries.
 



If we end up in Nashville or Vegas I will be thrilled with this year...if NYC, not so much.
 

Crazy that in 30 years it was 5 times. 16% of seasons. That's not once per recruiting class cycle.
 

There have been three since 2014.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
5. If fleck and co beat Indiana or wisconsin…that number will be 6. 2 of them will belong to PJ.

Only 8 since 1970 (if my counting is correct, this year would be 9)

Im disappointed with this season at this point but…also trying to keep some perspective.

And if your argument is that this team is too talented to not be better…you’re admitting Fleck has a talented team. He isn’t perfect but the ineptitude of the past 30-50 years has improved under him. Still frustrating.
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Sure but let's give some credit to Kill/Claeys as well because they also had two of those seasons with winning conference records (2014 & 2016).
 




cjbfbp said:
I see what you're saying but maybe our expectations were wrong; specifically, our expectations about the passing game. Tanner had such a great year in 2019 that we may have been tempted to think that he would be at least above average for the rest of his career here but our passing game has diminished significantly since then. We don't have quite the same receiving caliber corps as then and maybe Tanner just had one really good year in him. Our running game on the whole is better than it was two years ago even with the injuries.
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I agree on the offense. Also losing Ibrahim this year has had some effect on the passing game. He just flat out drew a lot of attention.

Conversely, the defense has exceeded my expectations based on last year and the opener against the Buckeyes. Even the Iowa game where there were some lapses, they overall were solid.
 


It would be nice to have another Big Ten winning season. And, it's great to see the progress as a program since 2014. The OP said five winning seasons since 1991, but two of those five winning season occurred in 2 of the three years before PJ came, 2014 and 2016, so if this year is another that's four of the past eight. That's way better than 3 of the previous 22.

It did become a little easier to have a winning record in the Big Ten beginning in 2014 when the league expanded to 14. That said, it would be great to see 4 winning seasons in the past eight. The thing is, people weren't expecting 2019 every year but were hoping to avoid a season with losses like Bowling Green and Illinois. 7-5 would just like a lost season because what it could have been, despite a winning conference record. That's probably good that recent years have lead people to have higher hopes.

The next two weeks will tell a lot. If they beat Wisconsin the year would end on a high and it's easy to feel better about the year likely finishing 8-4. Fans would be excited about the future, especially those who aren't diehard.

The Indiana game is extremely important to keep average fans paying any attention. And, I do not know why anyone is taking this week for granted despite Indiana having a very poor year - Bowling Green and Illinois are teams that really had no business beating us. 7-5 is at least a winning season (3 of 5 for PJ, and two winning conference seasons in five years). 6-6 would mean PJ would have had only one winning conference season, and 2 of 5 overall. There is a drastic difference in how the general public will feel about the two.
 

Ozzy&Ray said:
It would be nice to have another Big Ten winning season. And, it's great to see the progress as a program since 2014. The OP said five winning seasons since 1991, but two of those five winning season occurred in 2 of the three years before PJ came, 2014 and 2016, so if this year is another that's four of the past eight. That's way better than 3 of the previous 22.
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Posting a winning conference record in four out of 8 seasons would be pretty remarkable, considering where we have been before that.

Ozzy&Ray said:
It did become a little easier to have a winning record in the Big Ten beginning in 2014 when the league expanded to 14. That said, it would be great to see 4 winning seasons in the past eight. The thing is, people weren't expecting 2019 every year but were hoping to avoid a season with losses like Bowling Green and Illinois. 7-5 would just like a lost season because what it could have been, despite a winning conference record. That's probably good that recent years have lead people to have higher hopes.

The next two weeks will tell a lot. If they beat Wisconsin the year would end on a high and it's easy to feel better about the year likely finishing 8-4. Fans would be excited about the future, especially those who aren't diehard.
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Exactly! Beating Indiana and Wisconsin means the world at this point. We'd be 8-4 and get a bid to an attractive bowl game. We would have the Axe, and we would be 2-2 versus Wisconsin since 2018. Win a good bowl game against a quality opponent and, at 9-4, we would almost certainly finish the season in the Top 25. All of these are highly desirable goals.

Ozzy&Ray said:
The Indiana game is extremely important to keep average fans paying any attention. And, I do not know why anyone is taking this week for granted despite Indiana having a very poor year - Bowling Green and Illinois are teams that really had no business beating us. 7-5 is at least a winning season (3 of 5 for PJ, and two winning conference seasons in five years). 6-6 would mean PJ would have had only one winning conference season, and 2 of 5 overall. There is a drastic difference in how the general public will feel about the two.
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Very true.
 

fmlizard said:
I think the current team is more experienced than uncommonly talented.

The next guys up may be less experienced, but more talented. Time will tell.
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I agree with that in many cases not all.
also some of our experience disappeared. Dunlap
Ibrahim

Jackson has missed games
CAB has missed games


We should try to win anyways. Bowling green and Illinois have been the two most disappointing games of the fleck tenure. Both this year.
Iowa marginally disappointing but am encouraged we out played them even though we lost
 

Some guy said:
I agree with that in many cases not all.
also some of our experience disappeared. Dunlap
Ibrahim

Jackson has missed games
CAB has missed games


We should try to win anyways. Bowling green and Illinois have been the two most disappointing games of the fleck tenure. Both this year.
Iowa marginally disappointing but am encouraged we out played them even though we lost
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I don't know if either BG or Illinois this year even make my top 5 as far as disappointments go.

Would have to say Iowa & Wisc in '19 were far more of a bummer. Either would have punched their ticket to Indy and also (likely) Pasadena. Additionally, the trio of defensive performances in '18 to Maryland, Nebraska & Illinois were leading me to believe the Gophers were a ship without a rudder.
 
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We used play Iowa and Wisconsin along with a combination of two of Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State every single year. We are on track to lose to Ohio State, Iowa and Wisconsin and beat middling to poor unranked teams with the exception of Purdue.
 
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goldengophers said:
We used play Iowa and Wisconsin along with a combination of two of Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State every single year. We are on track to lose to Ohio State, Iowa and Wisconsin and beat middling to poor unranked teams with the exception of Purdue.
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Put another way: We basically beat the teams below us and lost to the teams above us.
 

Ope3 said:
I don't know if either BG or Illinois this year even make my top 5 as far as disappointments go.

Would have to say Iowa & Wisc in '19 were far more of bummer. Either would have punched their ticket to Indy and also (likely) Pasadena. Additionally, the trio of defensive performances in '18 to Maryland, Nebraska & Illinois were leading me to believe the Gophers were a ship without a rudder.
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Yeah I agree with you. I was talking about disappointed in a I think the coaches cost them the game kind of way.
 


The Big Ten has been a little diluted with Rutgers and Maryland. I’m not going to call Nebraska dilution because passing up a rival with more resources that was supposed to dominate is big progress for Minnesota football that deserves due credit.

Also, it helps that Big Ten seasons can no longer end at .500. Division play that has reduced games vs OSU and Michigan also help.
 

fmlizard said:
The Big Ten has been a little diluted with Rutgers and Maryland. I’m not going to call Nebraska dilution because passing up a rival with more resources that was supposed to dominate is big progress for Minnesota football that deserves due credit.

Also, it helps that Big Ten seasons can no longer end at .500. Division play that has reduced games vs OSU and Michigan also help.
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I'd argue that adding Penn State is just as tough, if not tougher, than Michigan. Plus, OSU is much more dominant now than it was in the earlier decades. To your point, adding PSU and Nebby probably offset Maryland and Rutgers if one wants compare old records.
 

fmlizard said:
The Big Ten has been a little diluted with Rutgers and Maryland. I’m not going to call Nebraska dilution because passing up a rival with more resources that was supposed to dominate is big progress for Minnesota football that deserves due credit.

Also, it helps that Big Ten seasons can no longer end at .500. Division play that has reduced games vs OSU and Michigan also help.
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Minnesota and Ohio state have been in the same conference for over 100 years and have only played like 57 times

There has always been that dilution.
 

Some guy said:
Minnesota and Ohio state have been in the same conference for over 100 years and have only played like 57 times

There has always been that dilution.
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Not like now, that premise is incorrect. We've played a diluted schedule since East/West split was created
 

goldengophers said:
Not like now, that premise is incorrect. We've played a diluted schedule since East/West split was created
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How so?
We play Ohio state about half the time? We have always played Ohio state half the time.
We play Penn State half the time? We never used to play Penn State pre 1994
We play Nebraska every time? We play them about a third of the time before they joined?
We play Maryland and Rutgers? We used to play 8 conference games.
Maryland > Indiana as a program (the team we have missed the most)


The schedule is different now,
It’s about the same difficulty level as it’s always been. To say otherwise is maki g stuff up.


Look at Purdue 2000 schedule.
look at wisconsin 1994 schedule

Schedules didn’t used to be as tough as you think they did.
 

Some guy said:
How so?
We play Ohio state about half the time? We have always played Ohio state half the time.
We play Penn State half the time? We never used to play Penn State pre 1994
We play Nebraska every time? We play them about a third of the time before they joined?
We play Maryland and Rutgers? We used to play 8 conference games.
Maryland > Indiana as a program (the team we have missed the most)


The schedule is different now,
It’s about the same difficulty level as it’s always been. To say otherwise is maki g stuff up.


Look at Purdue 2000 schedule.
look at wisconsin 1994 schedule

Schedules didn’t used to be as tough as you think they did.
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I've Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V from above where it was clearly laid out.We used play Iowa and Wisconsin along with a combination of two of Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State every single year. We play more conference games along with one less top echelon B1G opponent, which fits the fact that the OP premise was devoid of context.
 

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