What area of the Gophers are you confident in going in to 2021?

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EG#9

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Going in to 2020, I was confident the offense would be excellent again. I thought bringing back so many starters on offense along witht the 2nd team All B1G QB would equal a lot of points being put on the scoreboard. The defense was a question with so many of the playmakers leaving, so I was worried that a step back on that side of the ball was possible maybe even probable. I had no idea what to think of special teams, but hoped the aussie punter would be an upgrade.

I never thought we'd be going in to 2021 and I'd have serious questions about the quarteback and the entire offense as a whole, but here we are. The one thing I am confideng of is that IF Mo Ibrahim is back, the Gophers ground game will be at least above average in the conference. The regression of the rest of the offense has me wondering if it was due to some combination of Covid-19 issues and adapting to a new coordinator or if there are real structural issues with play design and game day play calls. There's no denying Tanner took a huge step back this year and whether that was due to issues unique to 2020 or him having a career year in 2019 and coming back to Earth will be a huge question in my mind that cannot be answered until we see the Gophers on the field next season.

Defensively things were absolutely brutal. I don't buy the Kill/Claeys recruits liine as a lot of these guys played a lot more football (not to mention their best football) under Fleck than they did the previous regime. Also, a lot of those same guys didn't do much under Robb Smith when the defense looked horrible but played much better under Joe Rossi. Still it's undeniable that the defense lost everyone who made plays at linebacker and dline in 2019 in addition to its best overall player and "mistake eraser" in Antoine Winfield Jr. Nobody stepped up to become a consistent playmaker at any level of the defense. Are any of the guys who played a lot in 2020 capable of being standouts in 2021? Boye Mafe comes to mind. Then I question the scheme, is it possible that the conference simply caught up to Joe Rossi? So many runs that went 40 plus untouched this year and we allowed the highest average rush in the conference by a wide margin (I believe over 6 yards a carry?). How much of the struggles were Covid-19 and/or injury related? There's just no way to know as an outsider.

Special teams were once again a disaster. Lantz ended up having surgery, he didn't have much of a leg as a Freshman, how will he be post surgery? Will we ever return a kick or a punt for good yardage again? The Australian punter Crawford was not as advertised, did his bout with Covid-19 play a role? In a season full of disappointments, the new kickoff guy was a bright spot. We finally put some in the end zone and had very few kicked out of bounds.

It's just wild to me that the only thing I can feel I can bank on with the Gophers is for Mo to be good and that I could see anything from a B1G West title to like 2-7 in conference play as outcomes in 2021. Feeling that ceiling being so high is nice, but it's also disappointing to be back in a position of fearing such a low floor.
 

I think we need more clarification who is coming back and who is leaving before really knowing where we stand at each position group heading into 2021 but based on what we know today:

QB - Feel confident that Morgan will bounce back to closer to 2019 levels. Will be interesting to see if there is any shakeup in the guys behind him as we really don't know much about what we have in any of them due to lack of playing time to this point.

RB - Mo coming back will be huge and so far he has indicated that is what he plans to do. Not a stretch to say that with him we have one of if not the best RB in the conference and maybe the entire country. Potts looked solid and there is decent depth at the position.

WR - Bell and Jackson both look solid. Need a speed guy and hopefully one emerges from a pretty deep stable of options. Think we are in good shape at this position heading to 2021.

OL/TE - Going to lump them together until we start throwing to the TE more since or TE are essentially extra lineman at this point. This position is the biggest question mark in terms of who will be back but I like our odds of having a really solid experienced starting unit based on the pool of players we have currently. If the vast majority (including Dunlap and Faalele) come back we could have some serious depth along the offensive line with a lot of starter quality players.

So on the whole I feel very good about where we are at on Offense heading to 2021 and think we get back closer to 2019 level with a more traditional off season.

DL - Has been a sore spot for the team for quite some time but we started seeing the makings of a strong DL emerge some in 2020. Carter and Mafe look like a really nice inside/outside tandem and there are others that showed some promise as well.

LB - Will be interesting to see how the transfer fits into the mix but assume they feel like he can help us right away. Oliver looked promising in 2019 and should be back in the mix, Gordon showed some flashes and Lindenberg also got in there as a true freshman. MSM will be steady so this position has a chance to be solid if the transfer can make an impact right away and even if he doesn't there are quite a few options plus some high rated guys that we haven't seen yet in the pipeline.

DB - Durr coming back is a big boost to the secondary. Means we only have to replace one corner as opposed to both which can be dicey when that happens. Big year for Nubin to really step up. He showed some flashes of the player he can be but he also struggled quite a bit as well. There is some depth and experience in the secondary, but this is one spot where we need some standouts to emerge alongside Durr.

Overall I feel pretty good about where the defense is at heading to 2021. Should be much better then what we saw early in 2020 and a more traditional offseason should really help this unit.

Not so Special teams.......I have no real clue what to make of our special teams. I feel like Covid just decimated this unit this season so I don't know if we really know what we have. The only thing that is clear is that our special teams units across the board need to improve. Need a reliable field goal/xp guy to emerge and hopefully Crawford can improve some as well as he was underwhelming. Would be awesome to see some threats emerge in the return game as well.

So as we sit here today I feel really good about our roster depth heading to 2021 and think the team as a whole should look much more like the 2019 version then the 2020 version. But until all the player movement is sorted out there is going to be a lot of uncertainty as well.
 

The team is set up really nicely for next year in my opinion! We got a lot of young players experience this year... I think we found some further o-line depth, Jackson and MBS both grew throughout, we have a lot of nice young RBs, MSM, Gordon, Mafe, and Nubin all seemed to improve their play from Game 1 to Game 7.

Add to the growth shown that our top recruits from the ‘18 and ‘20 classes were basically all unavailable this year (Bateman, Dunlop, Faalele, Jaqwondis Burns, Itayvion Brown). We had major Special Teams COVID issues, and Fleck’s comprehensive culture focus, paired with often interrupted season preparation led to a season that certainly wasn’t up there with last year.

That said I think next year sets up to really surprise some Gopher fans!
 

In Mo we trust! All others, will have to prove it on the field.

I never had any doubt in Mo and if he comes back, won't doubt he will be a stud forevermore.

Tanner struggled against defenses that clearly had a lot of game tape to go over against him. He also struggled not having 2 amazing receivers on the field at the same time. Being able to read defenses and knowing who's got what coverage and knowing that guy can beat said coverage is awesome. Take away the last part and it kind of sucks.

Offensive Line - This area should be fine as long as we have a full non-conference schedule to gel these guys into the fully functioning unit they end up as at the end of each Fleck season. Going right into the grinder was a tough spot for the line and poor Mr. Tanner this past season.

Running backs - as long as the line is there, it doesn't really matter as long as we have decent back-ups for Mo. Wisconsin West is what we should be.

Defense. Whoa Nelly! MSM and Coney Durr is a nice start! They did improve as the season went along. Good God do they need an easy non-conference to work out the kinks.

Special Teams. Don't even ask.
 

It may be carry-over from losing to WI, but I also have a lot of questions about 2021.

Morgan doesn't have to be great, but he at least needs to be steady. His pocket presence is still wonky at times - hate it when he runs backwards away from the line. I still believe that in the modern era of college FB, you need a QB who can be a viable running threat. that ain't Morgan.

RB - no prob assuming Mo back.

WR - maybe we're spoiled after TJ and Bateman, but someone needs to emerge as a deep threat and possible game-breaker. Speed kills - and the Gophs seem to have a lot of "route-runner" types who don't have great top-end speed.

OL - who's back?

On Defense - I think the key to everything is DT. If the DT's control the middle of the line, the LB's are free to flow to the ball, and the DE's should have opportunities to generate pressure. some of the DB recruits have to pan out in a hurry.

Special teams - somewhere in the vast expanses of the world, there has to be a kicker who can make a 40-yd FG. up to the coaches to find them.
 


most everything has been said, few thoughts

Morgan: I think people are being a little hard on him. Some of flaws he was were there his sophomore year too, but he's good QB. It was frustrating our rsJR QB didn't make some clutch plays vs Wi

RB-I believe we're set. I think Mo will be back, as I don't think Mo is a considered early draft pick. If it comes out he could go in 2nd, I'd expect him to leave

OL-They should be good. I expect just about everyone that contributed back


Defense and special teams need to make a jump
 

EG9 - I like the topic, but my answers depends on expectations. If your expectation for next year is that we can win the west, my confidence level in each group will be far different than someone who is expecting to go 7-5 or 8-4. My answers will also probably be different a month from now when we learn who is staying, going and coming (transfers).
 


The one area of the special teams that seemed to really solidfy nearing the end of the season was our kickoff kicker. I think most of his kickoffs in the last two games were in the endzone, and those that weren't were basically in the endzone. Hopefully he can keep it up.

Crawford is a bit interesting. I think he will be a solid punter next year. With the non-off season we have no idea how much punting practice he was able to get in, and by extension how much he regressed from lack of practice. In the last two games, while I'd like to see a bit more distance, his punts seemed pretty solid.

Place kicker was rough. We had our #1 our due to surgery, our #2 was still recovering from surgery, and #3 eventually ended up as the starter in our last 2 games (and honestly did better than I expected) but it was clear he was #3 when the pressure was applied unfortunately.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
It may be carry-over from losing to WI, but I also have a lot of questions about 2021.

Morgan doesn't have to be great, but he at least needs to be steady. His pocket presence is still wonky at times - hate it when he runs backwards away from the line. I still believe that in the modern era of college FB, you need a QB who can be a viable running threat. that ain't Morgan.

RB - no prob assuming Mo back.

WR - maybe we're spoiled after TJ and Bateman, but someone needs to emerge as a deep threat and possible game-breaker. Speed kills - and the Gophs seem to have a lot of "route-runner" types who don't have great top-end speed.

OL - who's back?

On Defense - I think the key to everything is DT. If the DT's control the middle of the line, the LB's are free to flow to the ball, and the DE's should have opportunities to generate pressure. some of the DB recruits have to pan out in a hurry.

Special teams - somewhere in the vast expanses of the world, there has to be a kicker who can make a 40-yd FG. up to the coaches to find them.
Click to expand...
We had a viable running qb in leidner. Been there done that. Oh wait you are waiting for us to sign the new Russell Wilson.... forget about that and shoot for a competent passer
 

I'm optimistic about next year, but then again, I almost always am! A lot of good points been made already, not worth rehashing all of them.

The passing game, I choose to believe a lot of the issues had as much to do with familiarity as they were with talent. Sure, TJ and Bateman are talented, but they also had a lot of time the last several years meshing with Morgan. I think we'll see some big steps forward from the younger guys like Jackson, MBS, et al as they get more time and reps with the first team offense.

Excited about the playing time all the young guys on D were able to get with the abbreviated season. That will go a LONG ways towards success next year. The LB corps looked rough, but a lot of guys getting their first real PT; Barber, Kamal Martin and even CC45 played a whole lot of snaps. Remember, one of the only LB's returning that saw any significant game action (outside maybe MSM) was Oliver and he wasn't available this fall.

How in the world Wenger still has a job managing Special Teams is beyond me. Sure, there were plenty of COVID and injury issues this year in that group but the red flags have been there before this fall. The lack of awareness by some players in certain situations on ST that we've seen is coaching, not talent. It's disturbing, and will cost them at some point critical
 

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