What grade would you give the Gophers in the season opening win vs SDSU?

What grade would you give the Gophers in the season opening win vs SDSU?

  • A

    Votes: 4 2.5%

  • B

    Votes: 11 6.7%

  • C

    Votes: 66 40.5%

  • D

    Votes: 69 42.3%

  • F

    Votes: 13 8.0%
  • Total voters
    163
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C+
Games against FCS teams always seem to be lose lose scenarios when it comes to analysis. If you win by a lot, you simply beat up a cupcake. On the other hand if you win by a small margin or lose, the criticisms seem to be more because the team is from another division.

With all that said, I gave a C+, based on my expectation that the Gophers just beat a seemingly good South Dakota State team. Whether it was the interception return or the two point conversion, the team did what it needed to when it counts, which is important. Can certainly be a teachable moment. Lot of things to work on, both sides of the ball, but at the end of the day they got the W.
 

Thanks to some home cookin by the stripes and them pooping out at the 55 minute mark, they out played us on the line and special teams. They play cleaner and they whoop us last night. Kicking to the 8 yard line will not cut it.
 

Some Day...Maybe said:
I could never give a win (especially over one of the best programs in FCS) less than a B. If this was one of the worst teams in FCS, ya maybe. But it's a win. Tough to give any win less than a B.
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I thought it was pretty easy to give it less than a B.
 

gopherjay said:
Thanks to some home cookin by the stripes and them pooping out at the 55 minute mark, they out played us on the line and special teams. They play cleaner and they whoop us last night. Kicking to the 8 yard line will not cut it.
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I don't know if there was any home cookin. They had to call that hold. It ended up not being needed, but if the KR would have bounced outside, it would have mattered.

But other than that I agree with you. They were better than us and our win was pretty flukey.
 

Not sure how anyone can give a win an F. Wasn't pretty and there is a ton to work on but we did still win the game and people need to stop getting hung up on the FCS label in front of SDSU because that was a very solid football team we played last night and one that should be in the mix for the FCS National Championship. The top teams in FCS are capable of springing upsets over FBS teams. This isn't like playing some crap FCS team that you should blow out of the water.

I went with a C. Will be very interesting to see what strides are made from week 1 to week 2. Hopefully many of the issues we saw last will get cleaned up as we move forward with the season.
 


I can't give a win lower than a C, since we technically met the expectations of pulling out a win. That being said, it was a super shaky C with a lot of room for growth if we wanna get that final fall term grade up.
 

WAGopher said:
Grade: D.

The Good:
- Bateman played like the senior.
- The running backs played well, but not great.
- Tanner Morgan played well, but had a few RPO read mistakes and threw the INT.

The Bad:
- The team wasn't ready to play.
- Both Sam's had an underwhelming game, and they were starters.
- Tyler Johnson had dropped two catchable passes.
- Kicking game suspect for both kicks and coverage.
- Defense was on it's heals most of the night.

The Ugly:
- SDSU's Rozeboom's extra long hair getting stuck in his helmet straps.
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One more good:
The Maxipad...er I mean oar... was not on the helmet
 


I give them a B for the win. Not sure what people were expecting. Usually the biggest improvement for teams is from the first game to the second game.
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
I don't know if there was any home cookin. They had to call that hold. It ended up not being needed, but if the KR would have bounced outside, it would have mattered.

But other than that I agree with you. They were better than us and our win was pretty flukey.
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I thought the officiating was consistently solid, other than a spot or two, that didn't matter in the end. Quite unusual actually.
 

OddStack said:
One more good:
The Maxipad...er I mean oar... was not on the helmet
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Well, the blade wasn't, which is great.

But the center stripe is still the "handle" of an oar.

20190829_bjh_0218.jpg
 

Vandy said:
I thought the officiating was consistently solid, other than a spot or two, that didn't matter in the end. Quite unusual actually.
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That blindside penalty on the WR screen was pretty bad. Not sure what else he was supposed to do there. But the Bateman TD doesn't happen without that call so I guess it worked out in the end.
 

B

First, SDSU is a good football team, they played as advertised. Secondly, the Gophers showed nothing last night and SDSU put everything they had on film. We will see a very different team scheme wise next week at Fresno, you can count it. The blocking was abhorrent last night, that won't happen again. The coaching staff still mystifies me when it comes to clock management. Since Fleck has arrived here, that part of the game deserves a D-.
 



Vandy said:
I thought the officiating was consistently solid, other than a spot or two, that didn't matter in the end. Quite unusual actually.
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On one of South Dakota's first down plays that lead to a TD there was a BRUTAL hold they didn't call. That was terrible, but overall I didn't see much bad from the refs.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
On one of South Dakota's first down plays that lead to a TD there was a BRUTAL hold they didn't call. That was terrible, but overall I didn't see much bad from the refs.
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I thought the Gophers had at least two pass interference calls that weren't called.
 



Sparlimb said:
D. You got pushed around by an FCS school. We've all seen games where you lose even though you outplayed the other team. In this one, we won despite being outplayed. I know turnovers are part of it, but SDSU pissed it away.
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Bingo
 

Some Day...Maybe said:
I could never give a win (especially over one of the best programs in FCS) less than a B. If this was one of the worst teams in FCS, ya maybe. But it's a win. Tough to give any win less than a B.
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Well then logically any loss shouldn't receive higher than a D and I don't think that is true.
 

D

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

I gave a C, the team obviously needs to get their sh*t together for Fresno St next week and for the rest of the season.

However, it isn't the end of the world. In 2016 Iowa lost to FCS NDSU and still went on to have a final record of 8-5, placing 2nd in the West division. No need to worry . . . yet.
 

Taji34 said:
I gave a C, the team obviously needs to get their sh*t together for Fresno St next week and for the rest of the season.

However, it isn't the end of the world. In 2016 Iowa lost to FCS NDSU and still went on to have a final record of 8-5, placing 2nd in the West division. No need to worry . . . yet.
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You are objectively WRONG and I can prove it:

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I agree with some others that people are wayyyyyyyyyy too obsessed with "FCS." South Dakota State showed last night that they have a good football team. I gave a C. Definitely some issues, but it was the first game of the year. I'm sure Fleck will be giving the OL and DL a heavy dose of film to get them playing better.
 

gopherguy15 said:
I agree with some others that people are wayyyyyyyyyy too obsessed with "FCS." South Dakota State showed last night that they have a good football team. I gave a C. Definitely some issues, but it was the first game of the year. I'm sure Fleck will be giving the OL and DL a heavy dose of film to get them playing better.
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I feel like from the Mason era type games to now... "lower level" teams physically and just coaching wise are potentially far better than the past. Their weakest links aren't as weak (or they have adapted) and you see a lot better teamwork on those teams.

I feel like we unperformed and SDSU REALLY committed to each play defensibly (all in run D to one side here or there) and we failed to see it and take advantage to it... but when they did their thing they were good at it.
 
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C: Gophers averaged 3 yards per run, showed little imagination in play calling, but Morgan had a good night passing. The Gophers did make some big plays on both offense and defense and that saved the day. Overall, they were outplayed and outcoached by SDSU. But big plays win games - and we won.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Not sure how anyone can give a win an F. Wasn't pretty and there is a ton to work on but we did still win the game and people need to stop getting hung up on the FCS label in front of SDSU because that was a very solid football team we played last night and one that should be in the mix for the FCS National Championship. The top teams in FCS are capable of springing upsets over FBS teams. This isn't like playing some crap FCS team that you should blow out of the water.

I went with a C. Will be very interesting to see what strides are made from week 1 to week 2. Hopefully many of the issues we saw last will get cleaned up as we move forward with the season.
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I went with a B only because they found a way to win their first game against a team tough FCS team that played TCU tough for 2-1/2 quarters in a 59-41 loss in 2016. This is a quality opponent who is in contention for a national title. This was SDSU superbowl and as mentioned, they threw everything in but the kitchen sink.

This game is a gut check for the Gophers.

Move on to Fresno State. That will be a tough test for the Gophers.
 

D+ for what Tommy Boy got. Our line looks Chris Farley slow but we're still winning.
 

Anyone know what SDSU’s talent ranking is?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

I forgot to prepare for this poll. I couldn't remember if I don't give D's or C's. So close to a loss and an F. D
 

I gave a D grade as we didn't win the game as much as SDSU gave it to us with their two costly TO's and the KO Return TD being called back.
 

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