The Easy Schedule

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Gophers09

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There's a strong narrative that the Gophers had a very easy schedule in 2016, but is it possible that this is a bit overstated? Now I admit it was much easier than last year's juggernaut schedule, I admit that we did face 3 very poor teams by Big Ten standards in Rutgers, Illinois and Purdue, but looking back was it actually as easy as has been stated?

There were 4 top 25 opponents (2 in the top 10), 3 of which were on the road, Northwestern had a winning Big Ten record and beat or played well against some good teams, CSU actually had a pretty good year if you look at the strength of their schedule, etc.

There are arguements to be made about how certain opponents were playing at the time we played them, I just don't think the schedule was as easy as say Iowa 2015 which I hear it frequently compared to. Iowa played 2 top 25 teams (#21 and #23) during its regular season.

Thoughts?
 

It's Big Ten football. To say a schedule is going to be "easy" is foolish. However, there are going to be "easier" schedules from year to year depending on the crossover games. Landing Rutgers and Maryland this year made the schedule "easier." Next year gets more difficult when we sub Rutgers for Michigan St and Penn St for Michigan.
 

It turned out to be slightly tougher than it looked at the beginning of the season. I saw a stat that our crossover teams had a combined BT record of 11-16 I believe. PSU and Wisconsin had better than expected seasons. But also NW was worse than people thought. CSU helped our SOS with the win over San Diego St some also. Still, this is easier than what we'll see for the next two years IMO.
 

Gophers09 said:
There's a strong narrative that the Gophers had a very easy schedule in 2016, but is it possible that this is a bit overstated? Now I admit it was much easier than last year's juggernaut schedule, I admit that we did face 3 very poor teams by Big Ten standards in Rutgers, Illinois and Purdue, but looking back was it actually as easy as has been stated?

There were 4 top 25 opponents (2 in the top 10), 3 of which were on the road, Northwestern had a winning Big Ten record and beat or played well against some good teams, CSU actually had a pretty good year if you look at the strength of their schedule, etc.

There are arguements to be made about how certain opponents were playing at the time we played them, I just don't think the schedule was as easy as say Iowa 2015 which I hear it frequently compared to. Iowa played 2 top 25 teams (#21 and #23) during its regular season.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Iowa played and beat a top 5 team (#3 Michigan) and a top 20 team (#16 Nebraska), and lost to #10 wisconsin and #12 Pen State. And all of their easy opponents were on the road (Rutgers, Purdue, Illinois). We also got to play Maryland where they had to play Michigan. Their schedule was harder imo.
 

Gophers09 said:
There's a strong narrative that the Gophers had a very easy schedule in 2016, but is it possible that this is a bit overstated? Now I admit it was much easier than last year's juggernaut schedule, I admit that we did face 3 very poor teams by Big Ten standards in Rutgers, Illinois and Purdue, but looking back was it actually as easy as has been stated?

There were 4 top 25 opponents (2 in the top 10), 3 of which were on the road, Northwestern had a winning Big Ten record and beat or played well against some good teams, CSU actually had a pretty good year if you look at the strength of their schedule, etc.

There are arguements to be made about how certain opponents were playing at the time we played them, I just don't think the schedule was as easy as say Iowa 2015 which I hear it frequently compared to. Iowa played 2 top 25 teams (#21 and #23) during its regular season.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Iowa won all their games in 2015. The Gophers lost the 4 difficult ones. I don't really see the comparison.
 


Didn't we face a 2nd or 3rd string qb in 3 of the 4 wins over the weaklings of the b1g?
 

MaroonGold1 said:
Iowa won all their games in 2015. The Gophers lost the 4 difficult ones. I don't really see the comparison.
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Not saying the 2016 Gophers were better than the 2015 Hawks. Just making the point that I'm not sure the 2016 Gophs schedule was as easy as has been stated and using the most common schedule comparison I've heard as a reference point.
 

Gophers09 said:
There's a strong narrative that the Gophers had a very easy schedule in 2016, but is it possible that this is a bit overstated? Now I admit it was much easier than last year's juggernaut schedule, I admit that we did face 3 very poor teams by Big Ten standards in Rutgers, Illinois and Purdue, but looking back was it actually as easy as has been stated?

There were 4 top 25 opponents (2 in the top 10), 3 of which were on the road, Northwestern had a winning Big Ten record and beat or played well against some good teams, CSU actually had a pretty good year if you look at the strength of their schedule, etc.

There are arguements to be made about how certain opponents were playing at the time we played them, I just don't think the schedule was as easy as say Iowa 2015 which I hear it frequently compared to. Iowa played 2 top 25 teams (#21 and #23) during its regular season.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

It wasn't as easy as Iowa 2015 but it was an easy schedule by BIG standards. And if you want to factor in how teams were playing at the time we played them then you have to downgrade Penn State because they were not looking that great when we took the field against them, clearly they have gotten better and better as the season has gone on.

The bottom line is that we beat one team that finished over .500 in the regular season (CSU 7-5), 2 teams that finished .500 (Northwestern, Maryland), and 5 teams that finished well below .500 for the year (Illinois, Rutgers, Purdue, Indiana State, Oregon State). So 8 of our 12 games were against teams with marginal or losing records. Playing in the Big Ten there are always going to be some tough games on the schedule and we competed but ended up 0-4 in those games.

So while it wasn't a complete walk in the park it was an easy schedule overall where we beat the teams we were supposed to and fell short against the teams with a higher degree of difficulty.
 

gopher56 said:
Iowa played and beat a top 5 team (#3 Michigan) and a top 20 team (#16 Nebraska), and lost to #10 wisconsin and #12 Pen State. And all of their easy opponents were on the road (Rutgers, Purdue, Illinois). We also got to play Maryland where they had to play Michigan. Their schedule was harder imo.
Click to expand...

He's comparing the Gophers 2016 schedule vs. Iowa's 2015 schedule.
 



Gophers09 said:
Not saying the 2016 Gophers were better than the 2015 Hawks. Just making the point that I'm not sure the 2016 Gophs schedule was as easy as has been stated and using the most common schedule comparison I've heard as a reference point.
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I guess my point is, who cares? The teams the Gophers lost to in a couple cases were better than expected (Wisconsin, Penn St.) and the teams they beat were about as expected. Not good
 

The point isn't who you played and lost to, it's who did you beat.

Would it be better in your mind if we went 3-9 overall, winning 3 non-conference games but losing Big Ten games against teams ranked #1, #2, #4, #5,#7, #8, #9, #11, and #12 overall?

I don't get the logic in explaining how good teams are that you lost to, especially in cases where they beat you by 7 or 14 points. It's not like our losses were one point losses due to a last second extra point block for a return.
 

Gophers SOS was #69 in toughness this year.

Iowa's ranked #40 last year.

So... close, but not really.
 






dpodoll68 said:
Iowa lost one game in 2015.
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"There are arguements to be made about how certain opponents were playing at the time we played them, I just don't think the schedule was as easy as say Iowa 2015 which I hear it frequently compared to. Iowa played 2 top 25 teams (#21 and #23) during its regular season."

I know its a Monday morning, but try to keep up
 

MaroonGold1 said:
"There are arguements to be made about how certain opponents were playing at the time we played them, I just don't think the schedule was as easy as say Iowa 2015 which I hear it frequently compared to. Iowa played 2 top 25 teams (#21 and #23) during its regular season."

I know its a Monday morning, but try to keep up
Click to expand...

Oh, did you mean to say that Iowa didn't lose any regular season games in 2015? Perhaps that's what you should've said if that's what you intended to communicate.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Oh, did you mean to say that Iowa didn't lose any regular season games in 2015? Perhaps that's what you should've said if that's what you intended to communicate.
Click to expand...

Ummm. I replied to a post that was talking about the regular season, so yeah. Reading comprehension can be tough after a long holiday weekend. Throw on a cup of coffee and try to reboot
 

Gophers09 said:
There's a strong narrative that the Gophers had a very easy schedule in 2016, but is it possible that this is a bit overstated? Now I admit it was much easier than last year's juggernaut schedule, I admit that we did face 3 very poor teams by Big Ten standards in Rutgers, Illinois and Purdue, but looking back was it actually as easy as has been stated?

There were 4 top 25 opponents (2 in the top 10), 3 of which were on the road, Northwestern had a winning Big Ten record and beat or played well against some good teams, CSU actually had a pretty good year if you look at the strength of their schedule, etc.

There are arguements to be made about how certain opponents were playing at the time we played them, I just don't think the schedule was as easy as say Iowa 2015 which I hear it frequently compared to. Iowa played 2 top 25 teams (#21 and #23) during its regular season.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

We can't control the fact that Illinois and Purdue are ****ty, part of that is because we routinely beat them. We played the two division champs on the road, should have beat Penn State and unlike the 03 team we did beat a big ten team with a winning conference record.
 

MaroonGold1 said:
Ummm. I replied to a post that was talking about the regular season, so yeah. Reading comprehension can be tough after a long holiday weekend. Throw on a cup of coffee and try to reboot
Click to expand...

My reading comprehension is just fine. I replied to what you wrote. You said that Iowa didn't lose any games in 2015, which was wrong. Nothing is wrong with me at all - take a look in the mirror.
 

dpodoll68 said:
My reading comprehension is just fine. I replied to what you wrote. You said that Iowa didn't lose any games in 2015, which was wrong. Nothing is wrong with me at all - take a look in the mirror.
Click to expand...

Is it though? Seems like you are having a difficult time understanding that a response to a specific question or statement is just that, a response to that specific statement or question. Nothing a cup of coffee, or maybe even a power nap over lunch can't help
 

MaroonGold1 said:
Is it though? Seems like you are having a difficult time understanding that a response to a specific question or statement is just that, a response to that specific statement or question. Nothing a cup of coffee, or maybe even a power nap over lunch can't help
Click to expand...

I understood your post just fine. If you want to be understood in the way that you intended, perhaps you should write more clearly. I responded to what you wrote, which was and is wrong.
 

MaroonGold1 said:
Is it though? Seems like you are having a difficult time understanding that a response to a specific question or statement is just that, a response to that specific statement or question. Nothing a cup of coffee, or maybe even a power nap over lunch can't help
Click to expand...

Alright everyone....place your bets....how many pages with this classic back and forth battle go between dpo and MaroonGold? I am putting my bet on 2 more pages....buckle up....we all know how these turn out....
 

dpodoll68 said:
I understood your post just fine. If you want to be understood in the way that you intended, perhaps you should write more clearly. I responded to what you wrote, which was and is wrong.
Click to expand...

And now we're back to the whole reading comprehension thing. Its ok you didn't bother to read what I was responding to and fully understand it. It's a Monday morning, I give you a pass.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Alright everyone....place your bets....how many pages with this classic back and forth battle go between dpo and MaroonGold? I am putting my bet on 2 more pages....buckle up....we all know how these turn out....
Click to expand...

I'll take the under. The dimwitted troll doesn't like being told he's a dimwitted troll, he'll crawl back under his bridge soon
 

MaroonGold1 said:
And now we're back to the whole reading comprehension thing. Its ok you didn't bother to read what I was responding to and fully understand it. It's a Monday morning, I give you a pass.
Click to expand...

Again, I comprehended your post just fine. I absolutely read what you responded to and understood it perfectly. Your post stood on its own regardless of context. The statement was wrong. Deal with it.
 

Imagine Mason with this schedule!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

dpodoll68 said:
Again, I comprehended your post just fine. I absolutely read what you responded to and understood it perfectly. Your post stood on its own regardless of context. The statement was wrong. Deal with it.
Click to expand...

Ahh - perhaps you thought the Big Ten Championship game was a "regular season game"... Totally understandable. The issue there is, you may have noticed he never included playing #5 Michigan St, since again we were discussing regular season. It's ok, you've had a rough morning. Thanks for your attempt at helping, though.
 

MaroonGold1 said:
Ahh - perhaps you thought the Big Ten Championship game was a "regular season game"... Totally understandable. The issue there is, you may have noticed he never included playing #5 Michigan St, since again we were discussing regular season. It's ok, you've had a rough morning. Thanks for your attempt at helping, though.
Click to expand...

No, I'm fully aware that the Big Ten Championship game is not a regular season game. I neither stated nor implied otherwise. The content of his post is irrelevant. You never mentioned the words "regular season," which would've made your post correct. You didn't, so your post was incorrect. My morning has gone just fine. I wasn't attempting to help, I was pointing out how wrong you were.
 

dpodoll68 said:
No, I'm fully aware that the Big Ten Championship game is not a regular season game. I neither stated nor implied otherwise. The content of his post is irrelevant. You never mentioned the words "regular season," which would've made your post correct. You didn't, so your post was incorrect. My morning has gone just fine. I wasn't attempting to help, I was pointing out how wrong you were.
Click to expand...

Ohh you thought I was responding to a post discussing the entire Iowa 2015 season. Got it. Nope, was just responding to the regular season schedule like the OP discussed
 

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