What grade do you give the Gophers regular season?

What grade do you give the Gophers regular season?

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B+ If you had told me before the season we'd be 8-4 (4-4), I would have been pretty effin' stoked. With that said, frustrating to see the O struggle (even against really good Wisc and MSU Ds), frustrating to see us play Iowa so poorly in what was definitely a winnable game. Just not there yet, but a HUGELY successful season given the players, system, off-field distractions, etc. Go out and win a bowl game, get to 9-4 and come in to 2014 with some hype.
 

Great season developed after Coach Kill not making Michigan and a bad loss. We are a good team but need more experience at QB which is developing. Getting a play maker at wide out would get us to a contender for the division.
 

We are legitimately sound. We are not legitimately good--yet.
 

A- Gophers did better than most people predicted. The defense gave us a legit chance of being 10-2 these last two weeks. The offense had opportunities the last two weeks, but I truly believe the youth of our quarterbacks and receivers prevented us from a 10-2 or 9-3 season.
 


There are a lot of things that have been frustrating as a Gopher fan over the years. One of my big pet peeves was being able to get off the field on 3rd down. Whether it was 3rd and 1 or 3rd and 20, the other team more often than not kept the chains moving. That wasn't the case this year. I really like the Gopher defense and can't help but feel excited for the future.
 

A- if we wouldve beat Iowa or Wisconsin instead of one of the other 4, so B+.
 

This is the best defense i have seen the gophers have since i have been alive. That being said the offense has a lot to improve on, although we found some playmakers for next in year in maxx, jones, cobbs, and woli. Therefore i give a grade of B+.
 

B+

8-4 is not what most expected, and for the most part, we were competitive in our losses. Would have liked to see more from our offense, but the defense looks really good.
 



Shocking, an offense with essentially no full time regular seniors (maybe you count Henry?) struggles against three defenses ranked in the top 10 in the nation all year. This is a surprise?

Nelson needs to take a BIG step forward next season but this offense will be very, very difficult to stop next season. Scary good.
 

I'll agree that I hate the constant media byline being that our offense is anemic. This is an easy thing to throw out given lack of points from the O. But reality is we're able to move the ball quite well against extremely stout defenses (MSU, Wisc) and just couldn't finish drives or connect on key plays (e.g. fourth downs). Another year of experience running plays every day in practice, specific skill development from position coaches, etc will make a big difference for WR, QB, OL (hoping RB is as solid as this year to a little better and we'll be fine on run game).

But I stick with the B+... lost all 3 meaningful rivalry games and given how we were playing should have stolen one from MSU or Wisc. Next year...
 

Studwell55 said:
We are legitimately sound. We are not legitimately good--yet.
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Couldn't have said it better. Foundation is laid. I'm more critical of the performance during the non-conference schedule than during the B1G season when we looked extremely uneven. I was figuring 6-6.
 

A. It could have ended even better, but when you compare how we did with all of our expectations in August, along with the "experts," an 8-4 season has to be an A. Most people had us as a "they'll improve, but they will probably win even less games than they did last year" team.
 



B+ really like the direction this team is heading. Coach Kill and staff are doing a great job building this program.
 

We were picked at the bottom if the B1G. Most couldn't figure which conference game we might win. Now we've finished 4-4 in conf play talking about the ones that got away. It was a very good season and nothing crazy about it. Best we've got every reason to believe the good times are just beginning.
 

Okie said:
A. It could have ended even better, but when you compare how we did with all of our expectations in August, along with the "experts," an 8-4 season has to be an A. Most people had us as a "they'll improve, but they will probably win even less games than they did last year" team.
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Okie,

Agreed. We had an athletic director (Joel Maturi) who led the German 6th Army into Stalingrad and then stubbornly refused to break out when outflanked and surrounded on 19 November 1942. Joel Maturi led us into the Kessel. 200,000+ went in, only 6,000 would return to Germany. What this man single handedly did to destroy Golden Gopher football makes this season all the more special. Our Defense gets an A++. I don't know how else to rank them. They have been superlative. Our Special Teams have been outstanding. I would give them an A. Our Offense has graduated to above average. So I give them a B. Overall, I give Jerry Kill, Tracy Claeys, Matt Limegrover, the football players, and the rest of the coaching staff a final regular season grade of A. Nobody, and I mean nobody, expected us to go 4-4 in Big Ten play this year. Nobody, and I mean nobody, expected us to beat Nebraska. Our last coach to defeat Nebraska was Murray Warmath. We have climbed out of the sewer this year. This is crucial for recruiting. We are now respectable. Nobody wants to play us. Thank you Golden Gopher football team for liberating yourselves and Golden Gopher football fans from the bondage that Joel Maturi led us into.
 

A-. If we could have beaten Iowa, Michigan, or Wisconsin it would have been an easy A.
 

How can it be anything but an A? The outperformed peoples expectations.
 

If I am grading where we are at based on where I thought we would be now either right after the Kill era or coming into this season, then A-. The staff and the players did a great job and this season was a lot of fun to watch, and they are coming along quicker than I would have thought.

If I am grading it as a B1G team on a scale where "C" is average, then I say C. We were 4-4 in the B1G, and .500 is about as average you can be. That said, we have been a below average B1G team for about a full decade, so it is nice to see us take this important step forward.
 

B. Have to compete against our Rivals to call it anything more. Lots of great things to build on though. Passing game can only get better.
 

Okie said:
A. It could have ended even better, but when you compare how we did with all of our expectations in August, along with the "experts," an 8-4 season has to be an A. Most people had us as a "they'll improve, but they will probably win even less games than they did last year" team.
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This. Going into the season, I thought the team would win 6, maybe 7 games, so to sweep the non conference and go 4-4 in the conference definitely exceeded my expectations. To me, that's an A.
 

6 Nov 1999 said:
Okie,

Agreed. We had an athletic director (Joel Maturi) who led the German 6th Army into Stalingrad and then stubbornly refused to break out when outflanked and surrounded on 19 November 1942. Joel Maturi led us into the Kessel. 200,000+ went in, only 6,000 would return to Germany. What this man single handedly did to destroy Golden Gopher football makes this season all the more special. Our Defense gets an A++. I don't know how else to rank them. They have been superlative. Our Special Teams have been outstanding. I would give them an A. Our Offense has graduated to above average. So I give them a B. Overall, I give Jerry Kill, Tracy Claeys, Matt Limegrover, the football players, and the rest of the coaching staff a final regular season grade of A. Nobody, and I mean nobody, expected us to go 4-4 in Big Ten play this year. Nobody, and I mean nobody, expected us to beat Nebraska. Our last coach to defeat Nebraska was Murray Warmath. We have climbed out of the sewer this year. This is crucial for recruiting. We are now respectable. Nobody wants to play us. Thank you Golden Gopher football team for liberating yourselves and Golden Gopher football fans from the bondage that Joel Maturi led us into.
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I did and so did many of the people I see at the open practices - if you mean professional pundits then, yes, I agree.
 

I was expecting 8 or 9 wins at the beginning of the season, I would have beenvery disappointed with less then 7 wins, I mean we returned nearly every starter on O from last year and a good amount on D so I was expecting us to make a big jump in progress, it really wasn't that surprising for me, and we do the same this year, return nearly every starter on O for next year and return a decent amount on D so next year I am expecting our D to play about the same but our O to average nearly 40 a game, our O wasn't that far off in our last 2 games, just a few plays in the pass game that would have gone our way
 

I give them an A.
If you thought this team was going to win 7 or 8 games coming into the season you were nuts. You should have put money on them.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

Face The Facts said:
I give them an A.
If you thought this team was going to win 7 or 8 games coming into the season you were nuts. You should have put money on them.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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Why was predicting 7 or 8 wins such a gutsy call at the beginning of the season? we won 3 games 2 years ago then won 6 last year and made a 3 game jump in progress, why didn't people expect that type of progress to be made from year 2 to year 3 that we made from year 1 to year 2, I mean we returned the second most amount of starters of any big ten team next to Indiana and we still had a lot of room for improvement, 8 wins seemed like the perfect call to me at the beginning of the season, not that lofty
 

We beat 2 helmet schools and had a 3 game winning streak against teams we were double digits underdogs to. Hard to pick anything else than an A-. If we had beat one of our 3 main rivals, it'd be an easy A.
 

I don't understand the notion that one's grade is dependent on performance versus expectations. Are those of you who rate the season highly because you expected less willing to rate a future 10-2 season as a failure because you expected 12-0? To me only performance matters. We finished 8-4. That's a B. It's a C in conference at 4-4 but winning all the non-conf games boosts the overall season to a B. While my expectations for next year are higher because of the improving trend and the return of many, especially on offense, if we finish at 8-4 (4-4) again next year, that will be another B.
 

A-. I believe I said we'd go 8-4 (very optimistic at the time) for the season. So, I am pretty darn pleased. We beat either Wisconsin or Iowa with the other wins we have, I give it an A. We beat both those teams this season with wins we already had, A+! All in all, fun season to be a part of this year. Now to look forward to our bowl opponent.
 

I picked them to get 6 W's and a bowl. What matters is how the season played out and not my uninformed pick.

I gave them a B (generous) as we were better than NE, PSU, NU, IU and probably Purdue and Illinois. but not well enough to get in the top 5 of the BT. Plus the O did not score a TD in 10 consecutive quarters which is very concerning going into the bowl game. But at least there were chances. The O clearly lacks star power at QB and WR spots and it showed against the top teams with a solid D.
 

nemosgold said:
How can it be anything but an A? The outperformed peoples expectations.
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In my book, a C is average so giving them a B+ is still saying they exceeded my expectations. I would have probably given them an A- if we would have played better against Iowa and Michigan.
 

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