We may never be in this position again

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Go Gophs said:
Don't agree.

Just play better defense and we win both of those games. This Wisconsin game our DB's got torched on easy coverage to 1 receiver. Our D line and linebackers were excellent against Wisconsin's run game. They literally had that kid almost completely bottled up.

That and on offense, gotta catch the ball. Come on Johnson, be that NFL guy we know you are. Needed him to make a couple big catches he didn't make.

Iowa game they just came out flat. They were hungover from the PSU game. Second half Minnesota dominated the game. In fact, if you had one more quarter to that game, we win handily.
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I agree with you in spirit on your last thought, however Morgan got knocked out, as we know. I don't think he goes back in for the rest of that game.
 


Go Gophs said:
Yes, I would say so.

Rutgers couldnt' beat a good high school team and should be taken out of the Big Ten. They are a terrible athletic program.
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Well, Michigan and Penn St are roughly the same, so that's an even trade, as others have pointed out.
We still have Maryland.
So the main "downgrade" is that we'll get Mich State instead of Rutgers.
 

Go Gophs said:
Don't agree.

Just play better defense and we win both of those games. This Wisconsin game our DB's got torched on easy coverage to 1 receiver. Our D line and linebackers were excellent against Wisconsin's run game. They literally had that kid almost completely bottled up.

That and on offense, gotta catch the ball. Come on Johnson, be that NFL guy we know you are. Needed him to make a couple big catches he didn't make.

Iowa game they just came out flat. They were hungover from the PSU game. Second half Minnesota dominated the game. In fact, if you had one more quarter to that game, we win handily.
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5th quarter is reserved for the band. What you don’t get done in the first four quarters, is all talk and doesn’t count for diddly.

8/9 men in box can stop the run... but that configuration got NO pressure on the stinking badger quarterback. The stinking badger 8/9 men in the box was strong enough to take the run away from the GOPHER and also rush/hurry/hit and or sack TM. That basically gradually neutralized or took our skill players out of the game at about the 7 1/2 minute mark of the first quarter. It was a physical beat down in the trenches after that. Very demoralizing for the GOPHER team and crowd.

“...just play better defense...and we win both of these games...” sounds good. But, I have been watching Iowa and Wisconsin beat us up in the trenches for the past 15 years or longer (Hayden frye...ferentz...Alvarez, et al). When the GOPHER gets stronger in the o line and the d line the border battle outcomes will be much better for the GOPHER than they have been.

Never count on skilled receivers making all the catches they made in October when the rains and snows and winds of November help dictate who the conference division champions will be....
 

Hey Walrus. At least Nebraska and Purdue have new coaches that are relying on big plays from skill players more than we are.
 


jimbo morgan said:
Hey Walrus. At least Nebraska and Purdue have new coaches that are relying on big plays from skill players more than we are.
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Nebby’s got plenty of skill players and so does Purdue. But they don’t look like or play like top half of the conference teams. Neither one of them are solid in the offensive or defensive trenches. The same thing can be said about Illinois, Maryland, Northwestern this year.

The GOPHER is coming along. Right now, the Ohio State and Wisky probably are the strongest in the trenches. With their incredible defensive end, Iowa, Michigan and PSU come along next with The GOPHER not being too far behind. But it IS an area to concentrate on IF the GOPHER hopes to contend year in and year out...this, of course, is only my much less than adequate opinion. So, my guess is that for the next year or two the competition in the west will be the most heated between Wisky, Iowa and the GOPHER. Look out for Illinois if and when they improve offensive and defensive lines. Same with Nebby and Purdue. Fitz at NU usually has decent strength in the offense and defensive line + linebackers.
 

TALON - If the Gophers keep their coaching staff, win or come within 3 points in their bowl the Gophers should be able to recruit well and be a force in the Big 10 for years to come





EG#9 said:
The Gophers might win the West someday, but they likely will never again have a 2 game lead with 3 games to play. They likely will never be 9-0 with only a home game against Wisconsin looming as a potential roadblock to a perfect season. The Gophers were overwhelming favorites to win the West and head to Pasadena 3 weeks ago. Since that time they've lost to both rivals (when do we stop calling either of these games "rivalry" games? when was the last time the Gophers had the Axe and the Pig? how frequently have they had neither over the last 3 decades?) and in doing so lost the perfect season, the Rose Bowl, and the B1G West.

I was pretty shocked by the "it's ok" reaction some had to losing to Iowa a couple of weeks ago as if this exact nightmare end to the season didn't become very real with the poor performance in Iowa City.

Two things bother me most about the last 3 weeks:

1. A feeling that we weren't aggressive enough: Against Iowa, we had the early decision to try a long field goal instead of trying to convert a 4th and medium, then a decision to punt from a similar place on the field, and finally a decision to kick the field goal before half with 4 seconds to go instead of try for the touchdown. You can argue the merits of all of these decisions, but they certainly were not the aggressive approach. Against Wisconsin, we had the timeout followed by running the generic Seth Green play on 3rd and 2 and then the decision to punt on 4th and 2, then down 10 in the 3rd quarter we had the decision to run the ball on 3rd and 10 from the 22 yard line, finally we had the run play to end the 3rd quarter on 1st and goal from the 6 followed by another basic running play on 2nd and goal from the 4 to open the 4th. Again, any one of these plays can be defended in a vacuum, but we didn't go for it. To think that that we had all these short yardage plays in two critical games and NEVER brought the pass out of the Wildcat out of mothballs is especially disappointing. It felt like we were saving some plays all year for these critical situations...and then we never used them.

2. Dominated in the trenches: The Gophers offensive line really started struggling to end the Penn State game which played a big role in the near collapse (along with some conservative playcalling like above). Against Iowa and Wisconsin, we couldn't establish any sort of running game which put the rest of the offense in a bind. On defense, their Olines got the better of our Dlines which allowed them to be less predictable. Our defense for the better part of the year was try to get to 3rd down and then take a chance with a blitz to get off the field. We couldn't stop 3rd or 4th and short when it mattered on defense and we often didn't even try to convert on offense. This team got (mostly) great WR and QB play as well as good to great secondary play all year. It wasn't enough to overcome the deficiencies on the line in two of the three big games down the stretch. I tend to lean to this being more about size/strength/talent than effort, but that is almost more concerning when you try to project future contention for the Gophers.

It's great that the offensive line is coming back intact, but is there enough talent there to really make a jump? On the defensive line, we lose arguably our best pass rusher (Coughlin) and most consistent interior player (Renner). With tackling also being an issue, it's concerning to likely be losing Winfield in addition to Martin who were our best back 7 players when it came to actually getting a ball carrier on the ground.

This year was a great step forward for the program under PJ Fleck, but it also was a huge missed opportunity. We will either look back at this year as the turning point for the program or look back at these last 2 rivalry games regretfully for a long, long time.
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imthewalrus said:
Nebby’s got plenty of skill players and so does Purdue. But they don’t look like or play like top half of the conference teams. Neither one of them are solid in the offensive or defensive trenches. The same thing can be said about Illinois, Maryland, Northwestern this year.
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Umm... that's exactly what I was saying when I said they rely MORE on their skill players than we do. That means we are better in the trenches. I think Fleck, Brohm, and Frost seem to be focusing on offensive skill players more than they should. Maybe they aren't, and that is just the players that they attract to their systems? I don't know. Fleck may be benefitting from the empire class of defensive players more than anyone cares to admit, but I am very glad we aren't NE or Purdue right now. Their guys are pansies who won't even get into the trenches let alone excel there!
 




mjfelton15 said:
I’d like us to get to a point where we aren’t just deceptively good. where we get a weak schedule, with 2 bad crossover teams, a mostly struggling West division, and ending up with home field advantage for the toughest games. I’d like us to just get good. Period. Would I have loved to see us go 11-1? Make the championship? Rose Bowl at minimum? Yeah, of course I would. I’d like us to do it with us just being a kick ass team, not just getting it because of the softest schedule we’ve had in a long long time.

I think based on what we actually have right now, we’ll end up ranked where we deserve. I think we’ll get the bowl we deserve. I think we’re currently a team that can contend in big games. we can cause upsets. we are a top 25 team. But we’re not a top 10, CFP contender overall. not yet. I think that’s okay. I have high hopes, I was ready to buy tickets to Pasadena. But 10-2 in Fleck’s 3rd year is really solid. We could be sitting with Brohm or Frost, that would be utterly depressing.
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I don't disagree with the OP, but this ^ is where I'm at. If the Gophs had beaten Iowa and then still got thwacked by UW like we just did, I'd have such mixed feelings. Sure we'd be going to Indy, but arguably not deserving of it and subject to scorn--including from our own fans on this board--of only advancing because of our weak schedule. I too would rather be the best team in the West, and as much as I hate to say it, the Badgers are better and have been all year, their one hiccup notwithstanding. I, like you, want to get to the point where we are the best in the West, and we WILL.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I don't disagree with the OP, but this ^ is where I'm at. If the Gophs had beaten Iowa and then still got thwacked by UW like we just did, I'd have such mixed feelings. Sure we'd be going to Indy, but arguably not deserving of it and subject to scorn--including from our own fans on this board--of only advancing because of our weak schedule. I too would rather be the best team in the West, and as much as I hate to say it, the Badgers are better and have been all year, their one hiccup notwithstanding. I, like you, want to get to the point where we are the best in the West, and we WILL.
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I'm not totally convinced the game results aren't different on a dry fast track, but that's why they play the games. Looking forward to next year's earlier season game to test my theory (although the Gophs D will be much less experienced).
 


Bad Gopher said:
I don't disagree with the OP, but this ^ is where I'm at. If the Gophs had beaten Iowa and then still got thwacked by UW like we just did, I'd have such mixed feelings. Sure we'd be going to Indy, but arguably not deserving of it and subject to scorn--including from our own fans on this board--of only advancing because of our weak schedule. I too would rather be the best team in the West, and as much as I hate to say it, the Badgers are better and have been all year, their one hiccup notwithstanding. I, like you, want to get to the point where we are the best in the West, and we WILL.
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I don't want to go back and find the post you quoted, but I did want to say that Minnesota wasn't "deceptively good." They were really good. Period. They kicked the sh!t out of average B1G teams this year. They were on another level from that middle tier. Would anyone argue PSU was "deceptively good?" MN dominated PSU for 40+ min and was up by 2 scores most of the game.

I want MN to be the best team in the West as well. They didn't do it this year, but they were a damn good team. I believe they'll get there within the next couple years, and it looks like you agree with that.
 



The Coaches poll has the Gophers at #15 with at 10-2 record with the AAC Memphis team at # 16 @ 11-1. Since the P5 have a Conference championship & if the Gophers when their bowl you may make the top 10 yet!




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MGGopher said:
I don't want to go back and find the post you quoted, but I did want to say that Minnesota wasn't "deceptively good." They were really good. Period. They kicked the sh!t out of average B1G teams this year. They were on another level from that middle tier. Would anyone argue PSU was "deceptively good?" MN dominated PSU for 40+ min and was up by 2 scores most of the game.

I want MN to be the best team in the West as well. They didn't do it this year, but they were a damn good team. I believe they'll get there within the next couple years, and it looks like you agree with that.
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No argument. The Gophs are a legit top 20 team. Any ranked team is a really good team. But the conference is stacked, and being a division champion is a high bar.
 

The only thing we might never quite get back again is that feeling of being there for the first breakthrough. For a solid month, Minnesota football was the darling of the CFB nation, with a schedule scripted for the spotlight. That "OMG is this real?" feeling won't come back without another prolonged losing run which none of us want.

The good news is that we're much more likely to have some more excellent seasons coming up that might not surprise very many now that the program overall seems in really good shape. We may never get the magic of our "first" back again but someday soon the Gophers might finish first.
 

fmlizard said:
The only thing we might never quite get back again is that feeling of being there for the first breakthrough. For a solid month, Minnesota football was the darling of the CFB nation, with a schedule scripted for the spotlight. That "OMG is this real?" feeling won't come back without another prolonged losing run which none of us want.

The good news is that we're much more likely to have some more excellent seasons coming up that might not surprise very many now that the program overall seems in really good shape. We may never get the magic of our "first" back again but someday soon the Gophers might finish first.
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For many of us, we lost our “Gophers in the spotlight” virginity this year. Something you can never get back. I’ll always have a spot in my heart for my first ?
 

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