Let me be the first to say, 12-0 is a possibility. As is 6-6.
A lot of this may depend on how Fleck approaches the season. If he believes he needs one more year and that 2020 will be the year he makes his statement, and lets the nation know he and the Gophers are and will be for real and a player on the national scene as long as he is there, then he might play some incoming frosh over some more experienced players in the ooc games. Could we be next year's NW? Lose a lot going into the conf schedule only to win a West Div Title? The games vs FSU and SDSU and even Georgia Southern are not gimmes and if Fleck plays a lot of frosh, could end up being losses. And the conference schedule seems favorable, but a lot of things could happen. We lost to Illinois, so it could happen again. We beat Purdue, but next year will be a road game and they will want revenge. Both Iowa and NW beat us this year and next year they are both road games. I haven't seen anyone who thinks PSU won't be a clear favorite next year. So if we start out 1-2, even going 5-4 in conf games will only get us to 6 wins.
But maybe Fleck thinks he'll have a good enough team next year to redshirt some new guys and go with older and more experienced players and go for the 3-0 ooc record and for the banner season? And maybe we'll beat everyone we beat this yr, and be the ones getting revenge for losses this year?
Fleck seems to be a systematic guy, a planner, a guy who doesn't do anything without some reason for it, some plan as for how it will benefit the program down the line, etc.. At his previous gig, there was no improvement from season 2 to season 3, as far as wins and losses went. I'm curious as to whether some of the fans questioned him or not? But apparently he knew what he was doing, because we all know how he did in year 4.
So maybe we go 6-6 next year? Maybe he opts to play lots of younger players again, but if you KNEW that we'd go 12-0 in 2020, would you see that as a failure, or as just Fleck doing things very deliberately and banking on future results as a payoff for short term not being as good?
Personally, I'm going to predict that Fleck looks at next year as THE YEAR, the year he makes his mark, the year he shows everyone he's legit and can take Minnesota to the next level. Part the reason I feel this way, is because of certain circumstances, including injured players that we otherwise wouldn't have next year, that we'll have, we all hope. So I think he'll pick his starters& who he redshirts, with that in mind. Next year he'll play to win and not play younger players unless they are clearly the far better player. And he may seek to bring in 1 or 2 JUCO type players to bolster any positions that need the most help. But I am no expert, so I could easily end up wrong.
But back to my original statement, I'm going to predict 10-12 wins. 10 being the floor, 12 being the ceiling.
