Terry Hutchens column: Friday night is must-win for IU — and Minnesota

[BleedGopher]

per Hutchens:

Coaches are always hesitant putting any game into the must-win category.

It’s understandable. If you tell your team a certain game is a must-win affair and then it loses, well, you risk the chance of losing your team at that point.

But let’s face it. When it comes to Indiana-Minnesota on Friday night in Minneapolis, the Hoosiers are in a must-win situation. There just isn’t any way to sugarcoat it.

That’s dangerous enough when you’re you playing any game in the Big Ten and made even more difficult when it’s a conference road game.

And yet given new information that’s the reality IU faces.

The funny thing here is the Gophers are no doubt approaching Indiana in the very same light. Minnesota is going into Friday night’s game with the attitude that any scenario it has to get to six victories and win three games to get bowl eligible would have to include a victory over Indiana.

So Minnesota coaches face the same dilemma as Tom Allen and his staff. You don’t want to call the IU game a must-win contest for the Gophers, but it is just that.

And so you have two teams entering a game thinking exactly the same thing. It’s a little more desperate of a situation for Minnesota because it has to win two more games beyond this one. And the Gophers, after playing at Illinois next week, face Purdue, Northwestern and Wisconsin.

Still, make no mistake, the Indiana-Minnesota game Friday night is firmly in the must-win category.

For both teams.

http://www.heraldbulletin.com/sport...cle_e1ff6e3a-d7b3-11e8-8a22-03b43b41d944.html

Go Gophers!!

 

[GFBfan]

We won't have a must win game until 2020...according to some.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Arguably New Mexico State was a must win... don't want to lose that one..

 

[#2Gopher]

I don't believe it is a must win. Yet a win would help boost the team as to confidence etc., going into the next games. Indiana hung tough with Penn State so its going to be a tough game. I'm with the group we need patience at this point. Most people agreed with that before the season began and then once the season got going, people were flipping off right and left when we got beat.

 

[Gophers_4life]

**IF** we want to go to a bowl game this season ... if that's something that is important (which I will argue that it is critically important) .... then we absolutely must have this game.

If 5-7, 4-8, heaven forbid 3-9 are acceptable ... then fine. Don't play to win.

 

[37score]

We won't have a must win game until 2020...according to some.

I agree with this to a point.

No single game is a must win.
I'd be fine with losing out if the kids are improving even going into next year as they gain experience. But at a certain point it's difficult to show improvement without accidentally winning at some point.

 

[37score]

**IF** we want to go to a bowl game this season ... if that's something that is important (which I will argue that it is critically important) .... then we absolutely must have this game.

If 5-7, 4-8, heaven forbid 3-9 are acceptable ... then fine. Don't play to win.

I don't know if I've ever seen any team anywhere at any level with any coach that didn't try to win.

 

[Gophers_4life]

I don't know if I've ever seen any team anywhere at any level with any coach that didn't try to win.

Would like to think so.

But ... if Fleck sticks with an injured, painfully clearly not 100% ZA over a TM that gave us a nice performance in the 2nd half .... I would only be able to conclude he was doing it for the sake of future seasons.

 

[GFBfan]

I don't know if I've ever seen any team anywhere at any level with any coach that didn't try to win.

Did you watch the last two games of the season last year?

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

Did you watch the last two games of the season last year?

How again did the coaches not try to win those two games?

 

[scools12]

We won't have a must win game until 2020...according to some.

What is it a must win for? If it’s to get to 6 wins and a bowl then yes you probably need this game.

If you’re insinuating it has something to do with Fleck’s job status this is no where near a must win game.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Some guy]

I think you need 3 of next 5 to go to bowl.

Not beating Wisconsin.
Illinois is easiest.


Have to win 2/3 vs Purdue, Indiana, and Northwestern
Since they’re all at home this isn’t a must win. If Purdue or Northwestern were on the road I’d call it a must win.

 

[37score]

Did you watch the last two games of the season last year?

I did and my statement still stands.
I saw nothing in the game that would be conclusive enough to determine there was a player on the field or a coach on the sideline that was not trying to win that game.

 

[gopherveteran]

How again did the coaches not try to win those two games?

Did you see the Wisconsin game? There was no effort or game plan to win the game. Fleck wanted to get his team off the field and not lose by 50.

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

Did you see the Wisconsin game? There was no effort or game plan to win the game. Fleck wanted to get his team off the field and not lose by 50.

Please. Go back and look who started that game for us on offense. There's only 2 starters (would be 3 with Smith) that are currently starting on offense this year. The WRs couldn't catch balls that were hitting them in the hands, but I'm sure that was the gameplans fault.

 

[Great Plains Gopher]

It's a must win, but Indiana is a better team overall and it will be raining, too - quite a challenge. Also, will Brooks play?

 

[GFBfan]

Please. Go back and look who started that game for us on offense. There's only 2 starters (would be 3 with Smith) that are currently starting on offense this year. The WRs couldn't catch balls that were hitting them in the hands, but I'm sure that was the gameplans fault.

Hard to catch many balls when only 9 attempts were even made. When your "gameplan" is to run it most every down then maybe try to throw on once a series, you're really not given your team a chance are you? Especially against a top flight D like Wisc had.

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

Hard to catch many balls when only 9 attempts were even made. When your "gameplan" is to run it most every down then maybe try to throw on once a series, you're really not given your team a chance are you? Especially against a top flight D like Wisc had.

They did attempt to throw it nearly every series. They only had 10 possessions, and 6 of them were 3 and outs. Croft attempted 9 passes, was sacked twice, and scrambled a couple of times for no gain or a short game instead of throwing it. Of the 6 incompletions, nearly all of them were drops.

 

[Nax5]

Wisconsin and Purdue are losses. Which means the remaining 3 - this one included - are must wins (if we want to reach a bowl game).

 

[Gophers_4life]

I think you need 3 of next 5 to go to bowl.

Not beating Wisconsin.
Illinois is easiest.


Have to win 2/3 vs Purdue, Indiana, and Northwestern
Since they’re all at home this isn’t a must win. If Purdue or Northwestern were on the road I’d call it a must win.

This could be exactly correct, and is fair I would say. However, I disagree that Illinois is easier than Indiana, and then you throw in being on the road.

Indiana and Illinois are winnable. After that ... we gotta get some bounces going our way and some players have to STEP UP, that's just frankly the bottom line.

 

[Gophers_4life]

Wisconsin and Purdue are losses. Which means the remaining 3 - this one included - are must wins (if we want to reach a bowl game).

I'll grant you that it was the first game of the season for both teams ... but nonetheless, Purdue vs NW was a tough, tough game. I would put them about equal. And NW has a chance this week to show that Wisconsin isn't really above that tier either, this year. I could definitely see Bucky losing at NW, at Penn St, and at Purdue. Maybe we built up some confidence, figured some things out by then, who knows ...

 

[cjbfbp]

**IF** we want to go to a bowl game this season ... if that's something that is important (which I will argue that it is critically important) .... then we absolutely must have this game.

If 5-7, 4-8, heaven forbid 3-9 are acceptable ... then fine. Don't play to win.

Absolutely agree. Fleck said something fairly nonsensical the other day "win now or build for the future, difficult to balance." It's not difficult to balance at all. Win now (to the best of your ability) and that builds for the future. Sacrificing current wins for the future applies to pro sports where losing gets you better draft picks and going with more players on rookie contracts allows you to have money available to attract free agents once you start winning. Those conditions don't apply to college sports.

 

[cjbfbp]

Wisconsin and Purdue are losses. Which means the remaining 3 - this one included - are must wins (if we want to reach a bowl game).

I would say that is the long and short of it. I suppose it is possible that we could beat either Purdue or Wisconsin (they seem more vulnerable this year) if we are substantially improved by then but those are pretty doubtful.

Of course this game is extremely important for Indiana too in order to make a bowl. They need to pick up 2 wins from Minnesota, Maryland, Michigan, and Purdue remaining.

 

[cjbfbp]

Indiana is a better team overall

If they are, they're not better by much. We have had two common opponents so far. On the whole we did better against both Iowa and Ohio State than they did. Both teams also played Iowa at home and OSU away. If we can shut down their running, I think we have a good chance.