Let's start with PJ Fleck. Can the "Music Man" "Self-Promoter", "not a real coach", "phony", "fake" stuff stop now? The guy lost his offensive coordinator and defensive line coach before the bowl game and the team was coming off the most devastating loss this program has experienced in my lifetime. They responded with, arguably, their best performance of the season against, arguably, the best opponent of the season They did it without Faalale and Martin as well. He might never be an X's and O's guy himself, but if he puts the right people in place to do the jobs and motivates his players while recruiting his ass off, it literally doesn't matter. You don't get a performance like that from a team coached by a bad, or even average, football coach.
Joe Rossi: The Gophers gave up 2 offensive touchdowns all day to Auburn. The first was on a play where a great player, Carter Coughlin, had a free run at Bo Nix and couldn't make a play. The second was on a drive featuring numerous 3rd down conversions by the Tigers. When we needed a stop after the dubious 4th down that allegedly came up short, Rossi's defense responded with a 3 and out. Auburn ran the ball 26 times for 56 yards against the Gophers. They passed for 176. The Gophers gave up two passing plays over 20 yards all game. Imagine if/when this team has the type of defensive line that allows Rossi to get consistent pressure while rushing just 4?
Matt Simon/Brian Callahan/Offensive Staff: I don't know who deserves all/most of the credit for the offensive game today, but everyone did a great job of coming together and executing. Matt made the clutch calls when it counted and the passes to Witham were arguably the calls of the game. We'd be playing in the Rose Bowl today if those calls were made against Wisconsin. Nobody thought we could run on Auburn after the disappointing efforts against Iowa and Wisconsin in the run game. Brian Callahan had the big guys up front, without Faalele, winning the line of scrimmage and allowing this team to control the clock. Fantastic decisions to double Brown and be judicious with the pass game when it was clear our guys couldn't match up in pass pro consistently.
Mohamad Ibrahim: 20 carries for 140 yards and the run to essentially close the game to pick up a first down near the sidelines was vintage Ibrahim. It's hard not to wonder if he should have been the feature back at some other key moments this year in hindsight. The kid runs hard and never goes down easy.
Tyler Johnson: He already has plenty of "respek" from everyone here, but a certain NFL Draft Scout, may want to take another look.
Gopher team in general: They aren't some plucky team that got lucky. They beat the two best teams on their schedule fairly convincingly (PSU game would have been over early if not for the Brooks fumble) and ran through teams like Illinois, Nebraska, and Purdue that gave others much tougher games. They absolutely should have beat Iowa and played a terrible game against Wisconsin in the biggest spot of many of our lifetimes. This wasn't a team eeking out some 17-14 wins where their opponents fumbled multiple times and missed fg's. This wasn't some team of destiny that had everything go right, they were simply one of the top 10 teams in college football this year. Maybe that wasn't obvious before today (I'll admit it wasn't to me), but it should be now.
Ski U Mah Row The Boat
For those that don't get the reference (NSFW language)
Joe Rossi: The Gophers gave up 2 offensive touchdowns all day to Auburn. The first was on a play where a great player, Carter Coughlin, had a free run at Bo Nix and couldn't make a play. The second was on a drive featuring numerous 3rd down conversions by the Tigers. When we needed a stop after the dubious 4th down that allegedly came up short, Rossi's defense responded with a 3 and out. Auburn ran the ball 26 times for 56 yards against the Gophers. They passed for 176. The Gophers gave up two passing plays over 20 yards all game. Imagine if/when this team has the type of defensive line that allows Rossi to get consistent pressure while rushing just 4?
Matt Simon/Brian Callahan/Offensive Staff: I don't know who deserves all/most of the credit for the offensive game today, but everyone did a great job of coming together and executing. Matt made the clutch calls when it counted and the passes to Witham were arguably the calls of the game. We'd be playing in the Rose Bowl today if those calls were made against Wisconsin. Nobody thought we could run on Auburn after the disappointing efforts against Iowa and Wisconsin in the run game. Brian Callahan had the big guys up front, without Faalele, winning the line of scrimmage and allowing this team to control the clock. Fantastic decisions to double Brown and be judicious with the pass game when it was clear our guys couldn't match up in pass pro consistently.
Mohamad Ibrahim: 20 carries for 140 yards and the run to essentially close the game to pick up a first down near the sidelines was vintage Ibrahim. It's hard not to wonder if he should have been the feature back at some other key moments this year in hindsight. The kid runs hard and never goes down easy.
Tyler Johnson: He already has plenty of "respek" from everyone here, but a certain NFL Draft Scout, may want to take another look.
Gopher team in general: They aren't some plucky team that got lucky. They beat the two best teams on their schedule fairly convincingly (PSU game would have been over early if not for the Brooks fumble) and ran through teams like Illinois, Nebraska, and Purdue that gave others much tougher games. They absolutely should have beat Iowa and played a terrible game against Wisconsin in the biggest spot of many of our lifetimes. This wasn't a team eeking out some 17-14 wins where their opponents fumbled multiple times and missed fg's. This wasn't some team of destiny that had everything go right, they were simply one of the top 10 teams in college football this year. Maybe that wasn't obvious before today (I'll admit it wasn't to me), but it should be now.
Ski U Mah Row The Boat
For those that don't get the reference (NSFW language)
