What grade would you give the Gophers 2013 football season?

[GopherHole Staff]

What grade would you give the Gophers 2013 football season?

 

[50PoundHead]

I gave them a B+ after the regular season and I'm sticking at B+.

 

[SickAndTiredOfLosingToWI]

B-/C+. Better record than expected, decent defense, flashes of brilliance on offense, offset by general offensive ineptitude and no real signature wins other than #24 Nebraska.

 

[tmvander]

Solid B...8-4 was probably better than most expected but the loss tonight shouldn't have happened.

 

[nemosgold]

B+

 

[gopherinpain]

B-/C+ Better than expected, but the non-existent offense in the 3 game losing streak to end the season should give no one optimism for next year.

 

[gopherbadgerman]

Solid B. but if expectations can change over course of the season then a C-

 

[JMWZ]

A. You guys are still upset about the loss. We were 8-5! Almost anyone with half a brain thought six wins would be a struggle this year and we had 8. Great season with a slightly disappointing end.

 

[McGopherFan]

I went with B. I think if anything the season had far more quiz level challenges than usual. Those are health/coaching related challenges which the players and staff handled with poise and overcame quite well. I almost wish that the Gophers could have had a rematch with Iowa or Michigan at bowl time to see which team improved the most since those loses.

It is patently unfair to otherwise move a standard of expectation for the purpose of evaluation.

I think that the team is at and becoming stable at a Mason-like level. The good news is I do not think that Kill and staff are satisfied with the Mason-like level.

Solid B. but if expectations can change over course of the season then a C-

 

[howeda7]

The pathetic showing tonight, 13 quarters without a TD and 3 straight losses downgrades it to a B.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

As always, depends on if we were factoring in expectations. We were an average B1G Team, so I give us a C. 4-5 against BCS teams is not going to cut it. However, our record against directional Illinois teams and games broadcast on AggieVision was unblemished this year, so props for that.

We slightly exceeded my expectations coming into the year (expected 7, got 8 wins), so I give them a B if that's the metric. Lost some big ones: the axe, the pig, the jug, and the bowl, and that was frustrating.

 

[Breakin' The Plane]

It's a B-. It's slightly above average. For this program, that means a better than .500 winning percentage. They can hammer home the "Brick by Brick" edict, but until there's a solid cornerstone, who knows if the foundation will hold?

 

[beatles]

A. You guys are still upset about the loss. We were 8-5! Almost anyone with half a brain thought six wins would be a struggle this year and we had 8. Great season with a slightly disappointing end.

You can't go 0-3 against your biggest rivals and finish on a 3 game losing streak and call it a great sason.

C+ overall. A step in the right direction.

 

[Some Day...Is Coming!]

A if we win the bowl game. So B.

 

[CDH27]

B for the season. An F for the Bowl game. The Bowl Game was a very poor effort by the entire team. Offense was bad, defense was bad, special teams were bad and the coaching was bad. Very ugly ending to an otherwise pretty strong season.

 

[die hard gopher]

i was expecting 8-9 wins, i mean we returned 18 starters from last year and dominated Texas Tech at the LOS, there was no reason to expect that this team wouldn't make as big of a jump in progress from year 2 to year 3 and we did from year 1 to year 2, actually there was probably a better chance to make a bigger jump in progress from year 2 to year 3 then from year 1 to year 2, i never understood the crowd that thought we would win only 6-7 games next year

 

[John Galt]

C after the bowl game. What a truly embarrassing performance. Everyone that went down there should be issued a refund from the university. I saw a team that was lethargic and played with no passion, and was completely unprepared. The worst game I've witnessed in the Kill era. Next to Michigan year 1, which wasn't entirely his fault.

 

[Nax91]

B before the bowl game. C+ afterwards. Going to be generous and stay with B for the vote.

But dang, that was an embarrassing and revealing game for the Gophers. Team will be fighting the naysayers all the way into the 2014 season now.

 

[Gopherprof]

C after the bowl game. What a truly embarrassing performance. Everyone that went down there should be issued a refund from the university. I saw a team that was lethargic and played with no passion, and was completely unprepared. The worst game I've witnessed in the Kill era. Next to Michigan year 1, which wasn't entirely his fault.

Oh come on....that's not even in the top 10. New Mexico State? Hell the games against Michigan and Iowa this year were worse.

 

[gopherdudepart2]

I said B because they did better than most experts and prognosticators had predicted. Just a little let down because this team played well enough at times to be a nine or ten win team and man were they flat tonight. Obviously being in Houston two years in a row didn't help. You could see from the start we kind of seemed bored and disinterested. Wasn't the same team I saw the last two games of the Big 10 season.
To me they could have been better than 8-5 and maybe that is a little ahead of schedule.
When Victory is there for the taking the Gophers need to learn how to snatch it. This team needs some guys that refuse to lose and can turn it and close the door. We still need a quarterback to emerge
and take charge of the offense. Right now we do not have that on the team.

 

[imthewalrus]

Pretty darn decent, if you ask me!

 

[Spoofin]

B. One (very) bad game doesn't change the fact it was a good season.

 

[John Galt]

Oh come on....that's not even in the top 10. New Mexico State? Hell the games against Michigan and Iowa this year were worse.

Michigan and Iowa were good teams, and we came out ready to play at Michigan. That Syracuse team was bad.

 

[scools12]

Can't let an expected flat performance in the bowl game take away from the season as a whole. Gave the season a B grade.

 

[everybody knows my name]

A big smiling A (yeah, that's me) for exceeding all expectations. I thought 8 wins was just barely possible, if everything went perfectly.

 

[Gopherprof]

Michigan and Iowa were good teams, and we came out ready to play at Michigan. That Syracuse team was bad.

We lost by almost 30 points to a Michigan team that went 7-5 and almost lost to Akron and UConn. That game was awful, despite the way some people have tried to spin in.

 

[Gopherprof]

Seriously though, I like you Galt, but it's crazy to say that's the worst game a Kill team has played.

1) 0-55 Michigan (2011)- And the game wasn't even that close.
2) 17-45 Purdue (2011)- We lost by 38. To Purdue.
3) 21-28 New Mexico State (2011)- New Mexico State. We lost to New Mexico State.
4) 13-31 Iowa (2012)- Losing by 18 to a team that finished 4-8? That's our rival? Yeah that blows.
5) 13-42 Michigan (2013)- This wasn't even a good Michigan team and we lost by almost 30.

-Some might argue losing to North Dakota State as well. The loss to Iowa this year is close in my mind.


Those are my 5 worst losses under Kill. Losing by 4 points to Syracuse doesn't even come close to touching any of those. Let's have some perspective.

 

[tikited]

Mind blowing that some people voted A or D. How in the world can a season in which you lost to the worst bowl opponent be considered an A?

How could a team that won two more games than most homers predicted be a D?

B final grade from me. When was the last time a Gopher team got higher than a C?

 

[John Galt]

Seriously though, I like you Galt, but it's crazy to say that's the worst game a Kill team has played.

1) 0-55 Michigan (2011)- And the game wasn't even that close.
2) 17-45 Purdue (2011)- We lost by 38. To Purdue.
3) 21-28 New Mexico State (2011)- New Mexico State. We lost to New Mexico State.
4) 13-31 Iowa (2012)- Losing by 18 to a team that finished 4-8? That's our rival? Yeah that blows.
5) 13-42 Michigan (2013)- This wasn't even a good Michigan team and we lost by almost 30.

-Some might argue losing to North Dakota State as well. The loss to Iowa this year is close in my mind.


Those are my 5 worst losses under Kill. Losing by 4 points to Syracuse doesn't even come close to touching any of those. Let's have some perspective.

Let me put context around it. 2011 was year 1 for Kill and we all knew that team was terrible. It was a minor miracle that we ended up with even 3 wins, so those losses, while painful, weren't that surpising.

Iowa in 2012? We were down by 11 points midway through the 4th quarter and driving in Iowa territory, then Max had a pick 6. It was disappointing, but not altogether shocking given that we haven't won at Iowa since I believe 1999.

Michigan this year? Come on, Kill unexpectedly didn't make the trip, we were down by 3 or 6 at the half to a team that we've beaten in Ann Arbor how many times in 50 years? That game looks worse in hindsight since Michigan was nothing special this year, but it was closer than the score.

Syracuse is different. It was a bad Syracure team that was 1 play away from not making a bowl. We were going to the same bowl/location that we were at last year, so there was a level of familiarity. It was a neutral site game, not a road game. Kill talked about the importance of getting to 9 wins for the last month, so you would have thought we would be motivated to play. We were favored. And we came out absolutely flat and unprepared. For 3 quarters. And it was the final game of year 3 for Kill, so there are none of the year 1 and 2 excuses that could be made, because we saw earlier this year what the team is capable of.

 

[Gopherprof]

You said it was the worst game you've seen under Kill. By any standard that is not true (unless you just started watching Gopher football about 3 days ago)

Now, was it the most disappointing? Obviously that's much more subjective, but there's little doubt in anyone's mind that the team who played the other night would still clean house against the team that lost by 55 to Michigan.