Why Minnesota will -- or won't -- make a bowl game: ESPN

[Iceland12]

Solid one-two punch on the ground: Shannon Brooks and Rodney Smith combined for 1,379 rushing yards and 5.0 yards a carry last season -- and that was during their freshman campaigns. (Smith redshirted in 2014.) Brooks is coming off a season in which he won B1G freshman of the week three times, and Smith impressed against teams like Michigan with 12 carries for 74 yards. There’s a lot of potential with these two and, even with a new offensive coordinator, the Gophers are built to run the football. Their success on the ground often follows their success in the standings. It’s no coincidence Minnesota won eight regular-season games in 2014, when it ranked No. 28 nationally in rushing offense, and won just five such games last season when it ranked No. 100. With the new offense, the pair should have more opportunities in space to make plays -- and that should translate in the stats and in the standings.

Easy nonconference slate: Based on FPI, Minnesota has the fifth-easiest nonconference schedule in the Power 5 with home games against Oregon State, Indiana State and Colorado State. Oregon State may be a Power 5 team, but it’s only expected to win three or four games – and the Gophers have a bye before playing Colorado State. Any way you look at it, Minnesota shouldn’t have a problem grabbing three wins here. That means it likely needs just three more B1G wins, though it managed to eke out a bowl berth last year with just a 2-6 conference record.

Why Minnesota won’t make a bowl game in 2016:

Secondary takes a step back: With so much of the spotlight last season on Iowa’s Desmond King and Michigan’s Jourdan Lewis, it was easy to lose sight of the Gophers’ talented pair of corners (Eric Murray and Briean Boddy-Calhoun). But they were some of the best in the nation, as evidenced by Minnesota’s No. 13 national ranking in pass defense. With their departures – along with safety Antonio Johnson -- it’s not going to be easy for the Gophers to move on. Said one B1G offensive coordinator: “Now that those players are gone, I think it’s going to be a challenge. Especially at corner, I’ll be surprised if the next group is quite as talented.”

Sputtering pass offense: Say what you will about Mitch Leidner -- but the tough senior is on the preseason watch list for the Maxwell, he’s a potential first-round NFL draft pick, and he took an obvious step forward last season. But talent in and of itself doesn’t necessarily equate to numbers or success. The fact is that Minnesota is sorely in need of a playmaker at receiver, and Leidner needs to improve his accuracy and TD-to-INT ratio (14-to-11 last season) to truly turn this offense around. In the conference last season, only Northwestern and Wisconsin threw fewer touchdown passes. Leidner’s QBR (64.3) was also slightly below the Power 5 average (67.7).

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/134362/why-minnesota-will-or-wont-make-a-bowl-game

 

[TruDat]

Awesome tell the truth.


Hack. Know nothing

 

[BleedGopher]

Will.

Go Gophers!!

 

[gophmeister]

To be honest, the reasons listed for not making a bowl don't worry me too much. We won't be as good in the secondary but Myrick and Hardin have played enough and will more than likely get more help up front this year with Jackson and Richardson collapsing pockets together. Someone will emerge as always whether it is Lingen, Wolitarksy or someone else. I worry more about the first two. Will the O-Line improve enough to actually make the 1-2 punch a reality and will our soft schedule not be as soft as it appears today. Half our opponents either have new staffs or huge turnovers in coaching staffs. What if everyone gets better and we don't?

 

[Some guy]

Sputtering pass offense shouldn't be a problem with a first round pick quarterback

 

[MNVCGUY]

To be honest, the reasons listed for not making a bowl don't worry me too much. We won't be as good in the secondary but Myrick and Hardin have played enough and will more than likely get more help up front this year with Jackson and Richardson collapsing pockets together. Someone will emerge as always whether it is Lingen, Wolitarksy or someone else. I worry more about the first two. Will the O-Line improve enough to actually make the 1-2 punch a reality and will our soft schedule not be as soft as it appears today. Half our opponents either have new staffs or huge turnovers in coaching staffs. What if everyone gets better and we don't?

I actually agree with their point about the secondary. We are going to need to get more from the defensive line this year in order to help those guys out. It is still amazing to me how great our secondary has been considering how pathetic our pass rush has been. Typically a great secondary is complimented by a line that gets lots of pressure and makes the QB uncomfortable. That has not been the case here which is a testament to just how great BBC and Murray were. They will be tough to replace but the staff has shown a good eye for DB's so hopefully the guys waiting in the wings can get the job done at close to the same level.

 

[bemidjigopher]

I think it will be a developing year for the corners, outside of Myrick we have a lot of true/RS frosh and sophomores in the two deeps. The potential is there as they were all more highly touted than BBC Murray and others coming out of HS, but they're young this year, we do have experience at Safety, which will help. As far as making a bowl we would really have to screw the pooch with this schedule to not go to a bowl, with our nonconference slate plus having Purdue, Illinois, Rutgers and Maryland, three of those teams with a new coach and Purdue being a bad as it gets if we can't get to six wins, than massive changes will be needed