Spartans Wire: Projecting best- and worst-case scenarios for every Big Ten team in 2022

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MisterGopher

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Projecting best- and worst-case scenarios for every Big Ten team in 2022

Check out our best- and worst-case scenarios for each Big Ten team this upcoming season
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Minnesota

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Jeffrey Becker/USA TODAY Sports

Best-case scenario: 10-2 (7-2 in Big Ten)

I’m bullish on the Golden Gophers entering the 2022 season and can see a path to 10-2 and a potential Big Ten Championship Game berth. To reach this best-case scenario, Minnesota would need to take care of business in every game they’ll be favored and split their four tough road games (at Michigan State, at Penn State, at Nebraska and at Wisconsin).

Worst-case scenario: 5-7 (4-5 in Big Ten)

Should Minnesota lose all of their toss-ups to tough games, then we could see them missing out on a bowl game. Colorado at home is their toughest non-conference game — the Golden Gophers should win that one but if they don’t then that’s how we find Minnesota missing out on the postseason.
 

I definitely see us winning @Neb and 1 of @UW, @PSU, @MSU. Unfortunately Bowling Green is still in my mind so I wont rule out dropping one to a lesser opponent.
 


TurfGopher said:
I definitely see us winning @Neb and 1 of @UW, @PSU, @MSU. Unfortunately Bowling Green is still in my mind so I wont rule out dropping one to a lesser opponent.
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That was an aberration - and staff, and probably other, changes have been made. If we collectively insist on self-flagellating over bad losses in 2021, please let’s do it over that stupefying scheme/effort vs. Illinois. That - at the time, and in retrospect - was the game that left a mark on still at the time was a “what could have been” season.

But oh, how we fans do love to wallow.
 

spermophilus said:
That was an aberration - and staff, and probably other, changes have been made. If we collectively insist on self-flagellating over bad losses in 2021, please let’s do it over that stupefying scheme/effort vs. Illinois. That - at the time, and in retrospect - was the game that left a mark on still at the time was a “what could have been” season.

But oh, how we fans do love to wallow.
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One the gf/wife who brings up long ahi settled issues, or so we thought - at some point you gotta let go of the past.
 


Nebraska is a "tough road game."

The mystique lives on.

All the pundits look at Nebraska and see this top team. I look at Nebraska and I see a mess.

Who's crazy, me or them?
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Nebraska is a "tough road game."

The mystique lives on.

All the pundits look at Nebraska and see this top team. I look at Nebraska and I see a mess.

Who's crazy, me or them?
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They have talent and it's a road game so in that sense, it's tough. Not Iowa or Wisconsin tough but still not a gimme by any means.
 

Word said:
They have talent and it's a road game so in that sense, it's tough. Not Iowa or Wisconsin tough but still not a gimme by any means.
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This. I know we all love to rip on Nebraska while they're down, but if anyone thinks going into Lincoln will be a cakewalk they are fooling themselves.
 

I think it says a lot about the progress of this program that 5-7 is considered a worst case scenario. I remember not that long ago we would all do cartwheels over an 8 win season. Now it just feels run of the mill.
 



Gophers1992 said:
This. I know we all love to rip on Nebraska while they're down, but if anyone thinks going into Lincoln will be a cakewalk they are fooling themselves.
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PS I'm looking forward to to my first Gopher road football game at Nebraska this fall. I've been on many hockey road trips, but never football.
 


Word said:
PS I'm looking forward to to my first Gopher road football game at Nebraska this fall. I've been on many hockey road trips, but never football.
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I've been wanting to go there for years now. Unfortunately this year doesn't work for me, but one day...

Enjoy!
 

If we go 4-5 in conference, and only win 5 games, that means we would lose 2 from Colorado, NMST, and Western Illinois.
 



If Gopher's play Michigan for Big Ten Championship, will the jug be on the line? If Morgan remembers he is Morgan and coaches don't hold him back we could be looking at Floyd, Axe, and Jug in 2022.
 

Word said:
They have talent and it's a road game so in that sense, it's tough. Not Iowa or Wisconsin tough but still not a gimme by any means.
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A place that cares as much about college football as Nebraska is not going to be bad forever. Very few of us who post here ever go into a football game against Illinois expecting a loss but they've beaten us in two of the last four games. I'm confident that if you asked 1,000 Iowa fans to count the number of expected wins this season, 80%-90% of them would count the game against Minnesota as one of those but we don't think that way and, more importantly, neither does our team.
 

HitMeAgainIAmStillMoving said:
If Gopher's play Michigan for Big Ten Championship, will the jug be on the line? If Morgan remembers he is Morgan and coaches don't hold him back we could be looking at Floyd, Axe, and Jug in 2022.
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In the past they have said it wouldn't be on the line, but they may change their mind if it actually happened.
 


Gophers1992 said:
I think it says a lot about the progress of this program that 5-7 is considered a worst case scenario. I remember not that long ago we would all do cartwheels over an 8 win season. Now it just feels run of the mill.
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I think the really shocking thing is the way our conference game expectations have changed. At this point most of us expect the team to finish over .500 in the Big Ten and in a lot of cases we expect them to finish multiple games over .500 (6-3, 7-2.....).

Since 1970 (50+ years ago) the program has finished 2 games or more over .500 in the Big Ten a whopping 8 times and 2 of those happened under Fleck. The number doesn't balloon much if you add in the .500 or 1 game over .500 seasons either.

That alone really shows how far we have come with still plenty of room for continued upward movement.
 

Gophers1992 said:
This. I know we all love to rip on Nebraska while they're down, but if anyone thinks going into Lincoln will be a cakewalk they are fooling themselves.
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Martinez is gone. The sky's now the limit for Nebbie...
 


short ornery norwegian said:
Nebraska is a "tough road game."

The mystique lives on.

All the pundits look at Nebraska and see this top team. I look at Nebraska and I see a mess.

Who's crazy, me or them?
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If the running back doesn't trip over his own feet, they beat us last year at home.

I never count on anything on the road.
 




kg21 said:
This one?

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You really think if the running back doesn't trip in the 3rd quarter, we lose that game? The game where both teams scored after that point? Come on. That's the lynchpin play?

Even if he did score there, which is not a given, nothing else changed all that does is send it into OT. Not guarantee a Nebraska win.
 

Obviously there's no way of knowing what would have happened if he did score on that play, but I think the overall point is that penciling in Nebraska as an easy win is foolish, especially on the road this year.
 

restovich said:
The Lincoln trip is a fun one, and a lot of Nebraska fans have been vaey gracious in the past. As our success against the Cornhuskers increases dramatically, that may change a little bit.
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It might change but we're talking about a fan base that had Nebraska fans at the Outback Bowl cheering on the Gophers. Most of them are pretty nice fans.
 

Gophers1992 said:
Obviously there's no way of knowing what would have happened if he did score on that play, but I think the overall point is that penciling in Nebraska as an easy win is foolish, especially on the road this year.
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I’ll let PJ and the boys know not to pencil it in!
 


Nebraska also hit a 50 yards fg and we turned it over twice to their none. Score was closer than it should have been. I don't view Nebraska as any more dangerous than Illinois or Maryland. Obviously these games aren't easy, and can be lost as we've seen, but I think we have to play poorly to lose them.
 

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