BleedGopher
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Per Randy:
From workplace watercoolers to barstools at the local pub and even bleachers at the State Fair, Minnesota sports fans spend August speculating on how many games the Gophers football team will win.
It's a straightforward question with a complex answer. One might have an educated guess on how many games a team will win, but predicting the future is never 100% accurate.
P.J. Fleck begins his seventh season as Gophers coach on Thursday night against Nebraska at Huntington Bank Stadium. The season promises to be one of transition, with mainstays like Tanner Morgan, Mohamed Ibrahim and John Michael Schmitz having exhausted their eligibility. That trio, aided earlier by stars such as Antoine Winfield Jr., Tyler Johnson and Rashod Bateman, helped Minnesota compile a 29-10 record over the past three full seasons.
"We came here to win championships,'' Fleck said. "We came here to build something that hasn't been built here for a very long time.''
Toward that goal, Fleck has raised the bar. The Gophers' win percentage of 74.4% in those last three full seasons — excluding the 3-4 mark in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign — is the program's best three-season stretch since the 1960-62 teams went 22-6-1 (77.6%). With that comes heightened expectations, of which Fleck is well aware. Fans reveled in the Outback Bowl win over Auburn and the top-10 finish in the 2019 season, and they want more of that success.
Fleck was asked last week if he thought the program was where he hoped it would be at this stage of his career. His answer was telling in how the target is constantly moving.
"No matter what I say, people can poke holes in that piece,'' he said. "If we win one [Big Ten] West title, people will say, 'Why didn't you win two?' If we went to the championship and didn't win it, it would be, 'Why didn't you win the championship?'
"I think where we're at, we've gotten the most out of every single football team," he said. "As a coach, you've got to be able to say, 'OK, did you squeeze all the juice from the orange? Did you exhaust every option?' "
www.startribune.com
Go Gophers!!
From workplace watercoolers to barstools at the local pub and even bleachers at the State Fair, Minnesota sports fans spend August speculating on how many games the Gophers football team will win.
It's a straightforward question with a complex answer. One might have an educated guess on how many games a team will win, but predicting the future is never 100% accurate.
P.J. Fleck begins his seventh season as Gophers coach on Thursday night against Nebraska at Huntington Bank Stadium. The season promises to be one of transition, with mainstays like Tanner Morgan, Mohamed Ibrahim and John Michael Schmitz having exhausted their eligibility. That trio, aided earlier by stars such as Antoine Winfield Jr., Tyler Johnson and Rashod Bateman, helped Minnesota compile a 29-10 record over the past three full seasons.
"We came here to win championships,'' Fleck said. "We came here to build something that hasn't been built here for a very long time.''
Toward that goal, Fleck has raised the bar. The Gophers' win percentage of 74.4% in those last three full seasons — excluding the 3-4 mark in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign — is the program's best three-season stretch since the 1960-62 teams went 22-6-1 (77.6%). With that comes heightened expectations, of which Fleck is well aware. Fans reveled in the Outback Bowl win over Auburn and the top-10 finish in the 2019 season, and they want more of that success.
Fleck was asked last week if he thought the program was where he hoped it would be at this stage of his career. His answer was telling in how the target is constantly moving.
"No matter what I say, people can poke holes in that piece,'' he said. "If we win one [Big Ten] West title, people will say, 'Why didn't you win two?' If we went to the championship and didn't win it, it would be, 'Why didn't you win the championship?'
"I think where we're at, we've gotten the most out of every single football team," he said. "As a coach, you've got to be able to say, 'OK, did you squeeze all the juice from the orange? Did you exhaust every option?' "
P.J. Fleck's Gophers keep getting close. Can this year move the needle?
The Gophers football schedule will be unrelenting for a team in transition, but coach P.J. Fleck remains focused on his stated goal of winning championships.
www.startribune.com
Go Gophers!!
