This Gophers team is worse than last year. Next year's team will be better. Agree or disagree?

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SeaBee_Gopher

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I don't think we'll see many Gophers at all getting drafted or picked up as UDFAs this year. Last year, we had quite a few. The large majority of our best players will be coming back so we should be better next year. The only player that has a shot at being drafted in 2026 right now would be Anthony Smith and it might make sense for him to come back for another year of development.

If I had to compare this year's team to last year's, this is how it falls:

Offense

QB - same - Much better on long throws, worse in short game and experience.

RB - worse - Because of injuries. Could get better as the year goes on.

OL - much worse - We lost some good players to graduation and the NFL and then lost our highest ceiling OL, Daniels, to OSU. That was really unfortunate. Keeping an above average player like him on our line this year and filling in with the best remaining four would have helped a lot.

WR/TE - slightly better - I'm actually pleasantly surprised with our WRs this year. They have potential to get even better. We have better depth and more big play potential with less consistency. Unfortunately, they are still an average group at best for the B1G. That's an improvement.

Defense

DL - same

Linebacker - worse - Losing Cody was big!

CBs - worse - Our best starting corner, John Nestor, left Iowa because he couldn't get a starting job there. I'd like to see him at safety (big, strong and smart), but we obviously just have a huge need/deficiency at corner.

Safety - same

I'm not throwing in the towel on this season, most of our remaining games are toss ups just like every year. These are young kids. They can develop for the remainder of the year and just about all of them will be back next year, but my expectations have been lowered watching our first five games.
 



PMWinSTP said:
Correct. I continue to feel eight wins in the regular season is extremely doable. With a little luck, could go 9-3.
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Stealing the win vs Rutgers could be a big difference maker in a good vs OK or disappointing final win total.
 




Next year we will be much better - QB is the most critical position and I think we are set there for next year. Our bigger issue is if Lindsey plays lights out, he will jump for NIL dollars the year after. Yeah, I know this is looking way in advance but I think he is as good of a QB as we will ever see here.
 

MNVCGUY said:
"Stealing the win"?

We started really slow but after the slow start we were clearly the better team for the majority of that game.
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I didn’t mean stealing as in underdog situation. Objectively I don’t know how you say “better team for the majority of the game” when Rutgers only trailed for 7 total minutes of game time, had 4x the rushing yards, more total yards, first downs, TOP… it was a toss up win the Gophers certainly earned but had to eke out with a TD in the last few minutes - not much margin for error, they get stopped on that one drive and it’s most likely an L.
 

Unless this were a 1 win or no win team I don't know how one can make any pronouncements about a PJ Fleck team until the end of the year. Last year's team was what, 7-5? And 5-7 the year prior? PJ's teams start slow, always play ugly win or lose, and tend to improve as the season progresses. I'm no Fleckolyte, but there's nothing to suggest that this team is anything other than typical at this point and nothing to be learned from the weekend except that OSU is much better than us, which is no revelation.
 



I think they are about the same. Been about the same since 2018 with the exception of 2019. Not a huge difference between 6 wins and 8 wins besides a few bounces.
 

The OL didn’t run block worth a damn last year, either. That, or our schemes suck which may be the case. As we sit today the CB position is the biggest change for a negative. From two NFL types to I’m not sure what now. It would not have been nearly as easy for tOSU receivers against our two really good corners in ‘24.
 


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