This was the best regular season of my life

[UpAndUnder43]

Let me start by saying that disappointed is not a strong enough word to describe how I feel after the wisconsin loss or even the Iowa loss. It hurts. It sucks. So much potential for a historic (not just really good) season and it was not realized.

However, this season was a blast. I believe this season will be seen as the one that turned around the fan base. More people care. More people turned into diehards. Gopherhole got much busier. Casual fans went to games. Season ticket sales will go up. And we had a ton of fun watching our favorite team win TEN regular season games.

It wasn’t always pretty but man when it was pretty it was gorgeous. The destruction of Nebraska. Our sophomore QB throwing all over Purdue. The revenge game against Illinois who saved our 2018 season and we thanked them by spanking them at The Bank. The Maryland game was a laugher. The Rutgers game was simply boring.

Will we ever forget the Penn State win? Casey O’Brien inspiring a nation? Tyler Johnson and Rashod Bateman dominating all season? Antoine Winfield Jr intercepting Fresno St in the end zone? CAB in the corner somehow getting that foot down?

It was fun. Really damn fun. Most fun I’ve had watching a football team. Didn’t end the way we wanted it to. Maybe not even the way it should have. But next year we start 0-0 and will look to go 1-0 in Florida Atlantic season. Until then, we get to go to a warm weather bowl game, we get to bring in another strong recruiting class and return most of our offense. And we still have P.J., we are still on the boat and my oar remains in the water.

Row the Boat, Ski-U-Mah, Go Gophers

 

[WriterGoph]

Great post. Totally agree with ya!

 

[Some guy]

There is zero doubt this was the best regular season of the modern era.
If OSU beats Wisconsin we are essentially tied for second in conference with Penn State and Wisconsin while splitting the season series with them.
When is the last time we were second in conference? Before I started watching.

 

[2727Gopher]

Best regular season, yes. We need to win the Bowl game to be better than 2003 as a whole season.

 

[Great Plains Gopher]

Best season since 2003, arguably since 1967. A great season, great fun, and not over yet!

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

No question this is the best regular season outcome for decades.

I honestly wondered if we would be able to win more than a handful of B1G games at one point the results have been outstanding.

 

[Panthadad2]

As good as this year was, the Gophs have a chance to at least match their accomplishments next year in conference play when comparing to the 2020 schedules of this year's top 3 West teams. The Gophs crossover games are probably slightly favorable to WI in that they get Michigan at home. Iowa's crossovers will be a meat grinder.

It will come down to improving the o-line and successfully replacing several good defensive players (barring injury of course). Per the most recent depth chart starters, WI only graduates 2 linebackers, 2 o-lineman and maybe lose Jonathan Taylor so they will definitely continue to be really tough. Iowa graduates 8 starters and (hopefully) Epenesa goes pro.

Minnesota	Wisconsin	Iowa
at Maryland	at Michigan	at Ohio State
at MI State	at Maryland	at Penn State
Michigan	Indiana	MI State
at Wisconsin	at Iowa	at Minnesota
Iowa	Minnesota	Wisconsin

 

[Some guy]

As good as this year was, the Gophs have a chance to at least match their accomplishments next year in conference play when comparing to the 2020 schedules of this year's top 3 West teams. The Gophs crossover games are probably slightly favorable to WI in that they get Michigan at home. Iowa's crossovers will be a meat grinder.

It will come down to improving the o-line and successfully replacing several good defensive players (barring injury of course). Per the most recent depth chart starters, WI only graduates 2 linebackers, 2 o-lineman and maybe lose Jonathan Taylor so they will definitely continue to be really tough. Iowa graduates 8 starters and (hopefully) Epenesa goes pro.

Minnesota	Wisconsin	Iowa
at Maryland	at Michigan	at Ohio State
at MI State	at Maryland	at Penn State
Michigan	Indiana	MI State
at Wisconsin	at Iowa	at Minnesota
Iowa	Minnesota	Wisconsin

People always want to talk about schedule, but in the history of the big ten west the crossover has never impacted the outcome. Had the gophers defeated Iowa, it still wouldn’t have because it was the Wisconsin- Illinois game that would’ve put Minnesota over the top.

 

[mjfelton15]

As good as this year was, the Gophs have a chance to at least match their accomplishments next year in conference play when comparing to the 2020 schedules of this year's top 3 West teams. The Gophs crossover games are probably slightly favorable to WI in that they get Michigan at home. Iowa's crossovers will be a meat grinder.

It will come down to improving the o-line and successfully replacing several good defensive players (barring injury of course). Per the most recent depth chart starters, WI only graduates 2 linebackers, 2 o-lineman and maybe lose Jonathan Taylor so they will definitely continue to be really tough. Iowa graduates 8 starters and (hopefully) Epenesa goes pro.

Minnesota	Wisconsin	Iowa
at Maryland	at Michigan	at Ohio State
at MI State	at Maryland	at Penn State
Michigan	Indiana	MI State
at Wisconsin	at Iowa	at Minnesota
Iowa	Minnesota	Wisconsin

Man, Iowa is going to be tested big time with that cross over. Road games against OSU AND PSU...that could be nice for us. Wisconsin at Michigan could help us. I actually don’t mind our chances getting to play Michigan here. They’re a great team obviously, but they don’t always do so great against ranked teams (hoping we are at that point) and Harbaugh is kind of a choke artist. I think it really helps us to have Iowa at home.

Michigan State on the road could be very iffy for us..they’re an odd/tough team for me to figure out still.

Wisconsin starts their season with their first game being against a quickly improving Indiana team that returns its QB, RB, and top WR, as well as many other key positions. That could be an early conference L for Wisconsin. Then they have Appalachian State, 11-1 this season and ranked #20. They’re known for giving good teams a tough time (ask Michigan). They then have to go to Michigan in week 4. So they have two games really early on, that could be extremely competitive. If Taylor does not return, they’ll likely be trying to figure out what their new system looks and feels like still. We could be looking at a Wisconsin team that is 0-2 in conference by week 4. The schedule doesn’t get easier after Michigan. They have Notre Dame right after that, in a Primetime deal that appears to be set to go down at Lambeau Field. I don’t envision that being anywhere close to an automatic W for Bucky. Then Wisconsin gets us at home, they could be either very pumped up after some impressive W’s or totally disheartened after L’s in a couple or even a few of the games I’ve listed. They could be 0-2 in conference, and as bad as 1-4 or 2-3 in their overall record going into their game with us. And I can say that without being called a total nut job. They do not have an easy schedule by any means in the first half of their season. After us it’s an easy stretch in comparison to the first 6 games. They could go undefeated in the next 5 until they go on the road to Iowa. It’d be nice to see Wisconsin suffer to the curse of November in Kinnick. Could end up being a huge deal breaker for our fate next season (exciting).

I actually think Gophers stand a chance of finishing ahead of Wisconsin next season. Iowa has tough schedule with an early road game against us. Then a few weeks later they have back-to-back road games against OSU and PSU.

If the Gophers can beat Wisconsin and Iowa in 2020, we could seriously SERIOUSLY see Iowa AND Wisconsin sitting with 3 conference losses by October 17th. Wisconsin being 0-3 in conference, and Iowa being 1-3 (giving them a W against Michigan State).

Gophers have to show up next season ready to go. Offense returns everyone with key losses being Johnson, Smith, and Brooks. I feel confident that Bateman, Autman-Bell, and Douglas or the 4 star freshman coming in will fill in nicely. Losing Smith and Brooks will hurt, but we return an extremely promising Ibrahim and have yet to see what Potts, Wiley, and Williamson can really do. Not to mention we have Bryce Williams, who had moments where he looked decent last season. Biggest questions are:
how do we improve on both O-line and D-line?
does Winfield Jr. come back?
Can we see improvement at LB even after losing Martin?
How do we look without Coughlin?