The Athletic has the Gophers ranked 22.

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Cobra

Cobra

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The 2021 offensive game plan was “Three Yards and a Cloud of Turf Pellets” as the Gophers led all Power 5 teams with 46.2 runs per game. Conversely, their 19.8 pass attempts represented the fewest in the Power 5. You had to wonder if Tanner Morganwas on a pitch count as P.J. Fleck’s team managed to eke out four games in which it had single-digit completions. I believe the sixth-year senior Morgan can recoup some of the pluck that led him to toss 30 touchdowns in 2019, and I believe Dylan Wright will triple his production to 50-plus catches. The former top-70 recruit, who transferred from Texas A&M a year ago, has too much length and strength to go unused.
 







Some guy said:
Hopefully sophomore year and not freshman or junior year
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I'm so interested to see what's going to happen this year. The bear case is that Morgan was only good because he had Johnson and Bateman. The bull case is that Sanford offensive scheme was so ridiculously bad that Morgan and the entire offense are going to have a huge bounceback year.

I'm a bull on this, but I'm fascinated to see how this plays out. There were so many plays last year where the route was still developing while Morgan was running for his life. Ciarocca's offense didn't have that problem and he _relentlessly_ attacked single coverage when safeties started cheating up. Hope that's the case again.
 

hello-world said:
I'm so interested to see what's going to happen this year. The bear case is that Morgan was only good because he had Johnson and Bateman. The bull case is that Sanford offensive scheme was so ridiculously bad that Morgan and the entire offense are going to have a huge bounceback year.

I'm a bull on this, but I'm fascinated to see how this plays out. There were so many plays last year where the route was still developing while Morgan was running for his life. Ciarocca's offense didn't have that problem and he _relentlessly_ attacked single coverage when safeties started cheating up. Hope that's the case again.
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My take on two years of Sanford is that fleck brought in Sanford to enhance the passing game…be more complicated and elaborate than the KC era.

But then it became abundantly clear that he never taught Morgan how to be successful with it. So basically Morgan was late with the football for two years and the team went into a shell because of it.

Sanford brought in to open up a bit more, but so little cohesion with the Oc/QB it actually produced the opposite result.

I expect the offense to be schematically simpler but to appear more aggressive because they’ll actually trust the QB to open up the simple offense again.
 

Some guy said:
My take on two years of Sanford is that fleck brought in Sanford to enhance the passing game…be more complicated and elaborate than the KC era.

But then it became abundantly clear that he never taught Morgan how to be successful with it. So basically Morgan was late with the football for two years and the team went into a shell because of it.

Sanford brought in to open up a bit more, but so little cohesion with the Oc/QB it actually produced the opposite result.

I expect the offense to be schematically simpler but to appear more aggressive because they’ll actually trust the QB to open up the simple offense again.
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I heard Ryan Burns talk on a recent GRR podcast episode where the theory is that KC has an established rapport with Fleck, so when Fleck wants to go conservative, KC can overrule and is afraid to go against Fleck in playcalling. (Think that 2018 Indiana game..."Coach, how about we just go win the damn game", calls play-action pass bomb to Bateman)

Sanford either lacked the stones go against the head coach or just hadn't earned Fleck's trust enough.

KC's offensive playcalling scheme is a work of art when its humming, like in 2019. Lots of counter plays, and then counters to the counters when defenses adjusted. Sanford seems to have lacked that approach to gameplan.
 




jonnyganas said:
I heard Ryan Burns talk on a recent GRR podcast episode where the theory is that KC has an established rapport with Fleck, so when Fleck wants to go conservative, KC can overrule and is afraid to go against Fleck in playcalling. (Think that 2018 Indiana game..."Coach, how about we just go win the damn game", calls play-action pass bomb to Bateman)

Sanford either lacked the stones go against the head coach or just hadn't earned Fleck's trust enough.

KC's offensive playcalling scheme is a work of art when its humming, like in 2019. Lots of counter plays, and then counters to the counters when defenses adjusted. Sanford seems to have lacked that approach to gameplan.
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The reason I said what I said was because in the first half of 2020 the offense was clearly running more 7 step drops vertical passing game. Morgan was holding it and getting sacked/pressured. Then the gophers went into a shell for a year and a half and they fired Sanford
 

Regardless of Sanford’s subpar tactics in 2021, it was bizarre how many top receivers were missing or limited for a chunk of the season. It was frustrating watching inexperienced receivers seldom get separation. The passing game has nowhere to go but up.
 

Panthadad2 said:
Regardless of Sanford’s subpar tactics in 2021, it was bizarre how many top receivers were missing or limited for a chunk of the season. It was frustrating watching inexperienced receivers seldom get separation. The passing game has nowhere to go but up.
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I agree with that. But the biggest issue the last two years wasn’t wideouts…it was Morgan holding the ball too long whether it be confidence or confusion or what.
Need to get the ball out on time
 



Some guy said:
I agree with that. But the biggest issue the last two years wasn’t wideouts…it was Morgan holding the ball too long whether it be confidence or confusion or what.
Need to get the ball out on time
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Correct. Morgan was never in rhythm because we ran the ball so much, that when he eventually was called upon to throw, it was not on time.
 

22 is about where I think the Gophers should start out this year. I haven’t declared my official prediction on the season but I’m leaning toward 9-3.
 

So fun to talk about predicted opening rankings. IMO, we are not close to the top 25. Too many questions to answer first that can only be answered starting with Colorado.
 


jonnyganas said:
Correct. Morgan was never in rhythm because we ran the ball so much, that when he eventually was called upon to throw, it was not on time.
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Bingo. Morgan has always been good once he gets into a rhythm. Even in 2019, there were at least a few games where he started with some terrible throws/INTs in the opening drive because he hadn’t gotten in his rhythm yet. Once he did find it, he was making NFL-caliber throws. Sanford’s offense never gave him a chance to find that flow.
 

corcorangopher said:
Nice to see some press. But, shouldn’t the winners of the West be higher than 22.
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They will be at the end. The issue is if people think different teams will win the west it doesn’t aggregate very well.

The winner of the west will probably be around 10-15 (higher if they have one loss or zero)
Second place will probably be 5-10 spots lower than that.



I would pick the division:
1) Minnesota
2) Wisconsin
3) Purdue
4) Iowa

I would probably have Minnesota in the 15-20 range and Wisconsin in the 15-20 range as well. I’d have to write it all down to see if I would have Purdue in my top 25.
 

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