What’s your 2019 outlook at this moment?

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I'm expecting 8 or 9 wins.

Looking at some depth charts,
Fresno State is graduating their QB, 4/5 on the OL and 3 starting WR.
On defense they are graduating 2 LB and a CB.

Purdue graduates 4/5 of the OL, and the starting QB, RB and TE. Only graduate one starter on defense though.

Nebraska graduates 2 OL plus Stanley Morgan Jr and Ozigbo. 5 starters on defense and 3 subs were seniors.

Maryland graduates 4/5 of the O Line, along with 2 WR and a TE. 5 players on defense.

Penn State graduates McSorley and WR Thompkins and only 3 starters on D.

Iowa graduates 5 on D, 2 on OL, plus WR and FB.

Northwestern graduates 3 OL, QB and WR, plus 5 on defense.

Wisconsin graduates both OG, FB, 3/4 of their LB and the SS.

Way too soon guesses
Wins- South Dakota State, Fresno State, Georgia Southern, Purdue, Illinois, Rutgers, Maryland, Northwestern
Losses- Nebraska, Penn State, Iowa
Toss Up- Wisconsin

BUT I do think the Gophers could be good enough to beat Nebraska, Penn State, and Iowa, but they could be too inexperienced or unlucky enough to lose to Purdue, Maryland and Northwestern. Illinois will be a big revenge win.
 
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Is not Northwestern's quarterback eligibility up this year as well?
 


2019 outlook a/o 11/29/18

8-4 3rd in B1G West

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2019 theme should be demon exorcism.

I think the success criteria for this team in 2019:
- Beat Maryland and break this weird voodoo curse with AWJ.
- Beat Northwestern in Evanston. I still think the worst game I ever saw MN play was the 2015 game (27-0)
- Beat Iowa in Iowa City. Haven't won there since 1999.

Bonus points: Keep the axe.

If MN can win those games, it should indicate a successful season.
 


GridironGus said:
I'm expecting 8 or 9 wins.

Looking at some depth charts,
Fresno State is graduating their QB, 4/5 on the OL and 3 starting WR.
On defense they are graduating 2 LB and a CB.

Purdue graduates 4/5 of the OL, and the starting QB, RB and TE. Only graduate one starter on defense though.

Nebraska graduates 2 OL plus Stanley Morgan Jr and Ozigbo. 5 starters on defense and 3 subs were seniors.

Maryland graduates 4/5 of the O Line, along with 2 WR and a TE. 5 players on defense.

Penn State graduates McSorley and WR Thompkins and only 3 starters on D.

Iowa graduates 5 on D, 2 on OL, plus WR and FB.

Northwestern graduates 3 OL, QB and WR, plus 5 on defense.

Wisconsin graduates both OG, FB, 3/4 of their LB and the SS.

Way too soon guesses
Wins- South Dakota State, Fresno State, Georgia Southern, Purdue, Illinois, Rutgers, Maryland, Northwestern
Losses- Nebraska, Penn State, Iowa
Toss Up- Wisconsin

BUT I do think the Gophers could be good enough to beat Nebraska, Penn State, and Iowa, but they could be too inexperienced or unlucky enough to lose to Purdue, Maryland and Northwestern. Illinois will be a big revenge win.
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Nice work. Thanks for the data. Always nice to see facts along with the opinions.

JTG
 

Gopher Gildy said:
I’m very curious as to what GH thinks. At this moment in time, how are YOU feeling about the outlook of the 2019 season?

Here’s my $0.02, if anyone cares:

Context: Former GH writer, U of M alum, season-ticket holder who attends nearly all home games and at least one road game per year.

Overall: I am VERY optimistic about year 3 of the Fleck era. I foresee a mediocre B1G record and 7-9 regular season wins + legit bowl appearance.

QB: Passing offense went from 126.1 YPG in 2017 (remember Rhoda/Croft?!) to 215.2 YPG in 2018. Morgan + Annexstad are viable and largely pretty damn accurate for freshmen. Excited for year 2 + this Jacob Clark recruit.

RB: Imagine a stable of Shannon Brooks, Rodney Smith, and Ibrahim as RB1 - RB3. That means we could have our leading rushers from 2015, 2016, 2017, AND 2018 back for next season. The stars have aligned. The sky is the limit for this crew.

WR: Assuming Tyler Johnson doesn’t go pro, we will return the second-best receiver in the B1G, statistically speaking. In addition, we will have Bateman + CAB + Douglas back as sophomores, I believe.

SETH GREEN: He deserves his own category; he’s that important to this team. A short-yardage stud! He always falls forward, thus ensuring an extra yard or two. He would only be a junior, correct? Props to coaching staff for making him a touchdown machine.

DEFENSE: The loss of Cashman cannot be understated - we unfortunately will lose the soul and leading tackler of our 2018 defense. I have faith that Barber and Martin will fill in nicely at LB. Assuming he doesn’t go pro, we will return Coughlin on the line. He had 9.5 sacks this year, T-1st in the B1G. Most importantly, we will likely return Antoine Winfield Jr. I think his play speaks for itself - remember his punt return earlier this year? How about his game-winning pick versus Fresno? Absolute game-changer. Add him + Coney Durr + Terrell Smith + Chris Williamson, and you should see that the cupboard is not bare in the secondary.

SCHEDULE: We avoid Michigan and Ohio State. We get Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Penn State at home. We also play Rutgers. In addition, I see two likely wins in Georgia Southern and South Dakota State. Tough road games at Iowa and Fresno State.

If Gopher football were a stock, and I were a financial guru, I’d be screaming on Wall Street: Buy! Buy!



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I'll agree with you on the guess of number of wins but don't think we will get enough respect to earn a legit bowl game. We will no doubt have teams picked for better bowls ahead of us for whatever reason other than record.


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If we stay healthy and CC and TJ don’t enter the draft... The talent is there to give us roughly a 50% or better chance in every game... from a statistical perspective I’d imagine our expected wins would be something like 8.4, but we’ve got a special group of players and 10+ is certainly attainable. Not sure that I have a prediction yet, but excited to see what the future holds!
 

Question:

Barring injuries, does anyone see Bryce Williams redshirting next year?
 



Ski U Mah Gopher said:
Question:

Barring injuries, does anyone see Bryce Williams redshirting next year?
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I would expect him too, too many bodies.

We'll have 2 RS Seniors who've been very productive and Mo productive rs Sophmore next year. We'll be in good hands
 

Gopher Gildy said:
RB: Imagine a stable of Shannon Brooks, Rodney Smith, and Ibrahim as RB1 - RB3. That means we could have our leading rushers from 2015, 2016, 2017, AND 2018 back for next season. The stars have aligned. The sky is the limit for this crew.
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I have my doubts that Brooks, Smith & Ibrahim will all be on our roster next year. All are proven, and if all are healthy it wouldn't surprise me if at least one transferred. That might be too crowded of a backfield to retain everyone.
 

gopher7 said:
I have my doubts that Brooks, Smith & Ibrahim will all be on our roster next year. All are proven, and if all are healthy it wouldn't surprise me if at least one transferred. That might be too crowded of a backfield to retain everyone.
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Disagree on these three. It is the last go round for Brooks and Smith, assuming full recoveries, and Ibrahim has proven himself and has three years of eligibility remaining. They'd all be in the mix here next season.
 
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With two Sophomore quarterbacks with half a seasons starts, Olson, Andries, Faalele, Dunlap and whoever back on the o-line, three starting caliber running backs and hopefully an all-B1G receiver. We should be able to use those monsters up front to move the ball on the ground and really help our defense.

Defensively, we need the offense to keep them off the field so when they are on they can play all-out all the time.

SD State - W
@ Fresno State - w
Georgia Southern - W
@ Purdue - W
Illinois - W
Nebraska - W
@ Rutgers - W
Maryland - W
Penn State - ???? College Game Day?
@ Iowa - L
@ NW - L
Wisconsin - W

9-3 or 10-2 second place in the west.
 



salzie said:
I would expect him too, too many bodies.

We'll have 2 RS Seniors who've been very productive and Mo productive rs Sophmore next year. We'll be in good hands
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If we can keep 2/3 of the top 3 healthy for at least 11 of our 15 games, yes.
 


Georgia Southern is the non-conference game to worry about. I'd much rather open with them than have them sandwiched between the Fresno trip and the Big Ten opener. They got back to their option roots this year and have been very good, and figure to only get better next year...
 

Ski U Mah Gopher said:
Question:

Barring injuries, does anyone see Bryce Williams redshirting next year?
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Would make sense to do that if possible. Think we have a clear cut top 3 options so as long as at least 2 of them are healthy there would not be a lot of carries available for Williams next year. Saying that, I don't know if he was a key part of any special teams units this year.
 

There are still too many unknowns. Are TJ and CC both back? Are Rodney, Shannon and Winfield all fully recovered from injuries and still here? Do we land the two JUCO DTs (Schad and Daniels)? Do any contributors from this season or guys that redshirted and expected to play next year transfer? It could be a 2-3 game swing depending on how these fall out...
 

What do people think of the OL? Will Faalele move to LT and if so who is leading candidate to move in at RT. Is Schlueter a permanent blocking TE?

Olson to Center
Dunlap and Andries at Guards
Faalele at one T and one open spot.

Still good depth and competition for next year.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
What do people think of the OL? Will Faalele move to LT and if so who is leading candidate to move in at RT. Is Schlueter a permanent blocking TE?

Olson to Center
Dunlap and Andries at Guards
Faalele at one T and one open spot.

Still good depth and competition for next year.
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I think the O-Line is going to be really good next year. I'd imagine Faalele will remain at RT because why mess with something that's already working really well. You'd get no argument from me if they move him to the left side but my hunch is they'll leave him on the right. The offense has a real shot at being a high scoring, yard eating unit. If we can stretch the field better than we have this year it could be really exciting football to watch!
 

How in the world does next years schedule become easier? The BIG West was the worst division in Power five football. We go on the road to Fresno. Someone want to try and convince me otherwise?
 

MaxyJR1 said:
What do people think of the OL? Will Faalele move to LT and if so who is leading candidate to move in at RT. Is Schlueter a permanent blocking TE?

Olson to Center
Dunlap and Andries at Guards
Faalele at one T and one open spot.

Still good depth and competition for next year.
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Probably won't really know the answers to most of these until spring ball rolls around. Wouldn't shock me to see them try and shift Faalele to the left but a lot of that probably depends on the other guys in the system and how well he would be able to make the adjustment. Given how fast he took to Right Tackle chances are probably pretty good he could move to the left without a ton of trouble but who knows.

Schlueter really struggled as a OT, maybe the look to shift him back over there but will really depend on him and his ability to get the job done. Will be interesting to see how it all shakes out but plenty of reasons to feel like the line should be in good shape heading to next year.
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
How in the world does next years schedule become easier? The BIG West was the worst division in Power five football. We go on the road to Fresno. Someone want to try and convince me otherwise?
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Does anyone know which players will not be playing in the bowl games because it would be game 5 and thus lose their redshirt?
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
How in the world does next years schedule become easier? The BIG West was the worst division in Power five football. We go on the road to Fresno. Someone want to try and convince me otherwise?
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College football is really balanced outside of Bama and Clemson. Fine line between worst division/conference and being a top 10 team. I would say our schedule is easier next year because we play well at home and proved to ourselves in Madison that road wins are obtainable.

Fresno loses 8 starters on offense including the QB.

Again we lose 5 starters.
 

Pete smith said:
Does anyone know which players will not be playing in the bowl games because it would be game 5 and thus lose their redshirt?
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Spann-Ford is the only player that can't play to keep red-shirt.
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
How in the world does next years schedule become easier? The BIG West was the worst division in Power five football. We go on the road to Fresno. Someone want to try and convince me otherwise?
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Crossover games are better because you lose Ohio State and gain Penn State. Plus we have some of our tougher games at home where we seem to play a lot better. And 5 conference home games as opposed to 4.

I would say the schedules are pretty comparable to each other but overall next year's might be a little bit easier.
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
How in the world does next years schedule become easier? The BIG West was the worst division in Power five football. We go on the road to Fresno. Someone want to try and convince me otherwise?
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Rutgers is easier than Indiana. Nebraska, Illinois, Maryland, Wisconsin are easier because they're home. Fresno, Purdue and Northwestern are easier because their QBs graduate. Penn State at home is easier than Ohio State in the horseshoe. It's all speculation at this point but right now it looks easier.
 

I'm not going to count wins, but I'm excited.

The fact we beat the 2nd and 3rd place Big Ten West teams by such large margins shows we are a talented enough team to win.

At this point the inconsistency positively and negatively however is what could throw a wrench into any prediction.
Who predicted losing at Illinois and beating Wisconsin this year for example?

Floor should be 6-6.
Upside is really unlimited. (not likely), but close to unlimited.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Crossover games are better because you lose Ohio State and gain Penn State. Plus we have some of our tougher games at home where we seem to play a lot better. And 5 conference home games as opposed to 4.

I would say the schedules are pretty comparable to each other but overall next year's might be a little bit easier.
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Having the additional home game should help.
 

Face The Facts said:
I'm not going to count wins, but I'm excited.

The fact we beat the 2nd and 3rd place Big Ten West teams by such large margins shows we are a talented enough team to win.

At this point the inconsistency positively and negatively however is what could throw a wrench into any prediction.
Who predicted losing at Illinois and beating Wisconsin this year for example?

Floor should be 6-6.
Upside is really unlimited. (not likely), but close to unlimited.
Click to expand...

.500 next year would and should be disappointing.
 

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