Wildcats, Hawkeyes surprise thus far - Detroit News

[Iceland12]

Many believed this could be the year Minnesota would break through and reach the Big Ten title game, but the Golden Gophers have been unimpressive. And Wisconsin, the one consistent performer in the West, started with a loss to Alabama and followed with three ho-hum wins over lesser opponents.

Nebraska was the other contender coming into the season and might still be a factor, but the Huskers have suffered heartbreaking losses to BYU and Miami (Fla.).

The surprises, so far, have absolutely been Northwestern and Iowa.

The Wildcats were coming off two straight 5-7 seasons that were known more for numerous injuries and off-field issues. However, Northwestern opened the season with one of the biggest upsets yet by beating Stanford and then winning on the road against Duke two weeks later.

The offense has been far from stellar, ranking 13th in the Big Ten in scoring offense (25 points), but the defense has been outstanding. The Wildcats lead the Big Ten by allowing only 8.8 points a game and are third in total defense (266 yards).

Considering Clayton Thorson threw three touchdown passes against Ball State and Justin Jackson ran for a career-high 184 yards, it looks like the offense is starting to come around and the Wildcats are back to being a major factor...

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sp...wildcats-hawkeyes-surprise-thus-far/72953074/

 

[gopherdudepart2]

Many believed this could be the year Minnesota would break through and reach the Big Ten title game, but the Golden Gophers have been unimpressive. And Wisconsin, the one consistent performer in the West, started with a loss to Alabama and followed with three ho-hum wins over lesser opponents.

Nebraska was the other contender coming into the season and might still be a factor, but the Huskers have suffered heartbreaking losses to BYU and Miami (Fla.).

The surprises, so far, have absolutely been Northwestern and Iowa.

The Wildcats were coming off two straight 5-7 seasons that were known more for numerous injuries and off-field issues. However, Northwestern opened the season with one of the biggest upsets yet by beating Stanford and then winning on the road against Duke two weeks later.

The offense has been far from stellar, ranking 13th in the Big Ten in scoring offense (25 points), but the defense has been outstanding. The Wildcats lead the Big Ten by allowing only 8.8 points a game and are third in total defense (266 yards).

Considering Clayton Thorson threw three touchdown passes against Ball State and Justin Jackson ran for a career-high 184 yards, it looks like the offense is starting to come around and the Wildcats are back to being a major factor...

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sp...wildcats-hawkeyes-surprise-thus-far/72953074/

That's right were not any good because we have a STUBBORN coach, a bad offensive coordinator that doesn't know how to call plays, and a QB who couldn't play on most local High School teams, and if you believe the 30 different BS threads about not being a D1 QB. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let them think Minnesota is bad because they didn't win with style points or flash.

Minnesota is unimpressive yet we had a chance to beat TCU and held them to 23 points? Just because we had one bad game against Kent State, and a couple close wins, everyone is underestimating the Gophers just as I thought. To me the Gophers are battle tested and primed to make a run in the Big 10 conference. This team is not anything less than what the off-season prognosticators thought would be a good team.

Let the Big 10 Network and Conference media beat the drum rolls for the Hawkeyes and the Wildcats, will make beating those teams butts that much more fun. When it's the Gophers in Indianapolis come November, they can continue to call the Gophers unimpressive. Going to be fun kicking some Purple Kitties butts on Saturday.

 

[DougMN]

We will find out more about Iowa this weekend. I'm OK with the 'unimpressive' Gopher victories. They sting a little- but a few Big 10 wins will make everyone forget a tight margin of victory in the nonconference. Every game we were supposed to win- we have. And we played the #2 team in the country extremely competitive. I'm excited to see where we are at this weekend. If Dirt Ball State took Northwestern down to the wire in Evanston- I figure we can do just as well.

 

[Ron Johnson Super Fan]

Many believed this could be the year Minnesota would break through and reach the Big Ten title game, but the Golden Gophers have been unimpressive. And Wisconsin, the one consistent performer in the West, started with a loss to Alabama and followed with three ho-hum wins over lesser opponents.

Nebraska was the other contender coming into the season and might still be a factor, but the Huskers have suffered heartbreaking losses to BYU and Miami (Fla.).

The surprises, so far, have absolutely been Northwestern and Iowa.

The Wildcats were coming off two straight 5-7 seasons that were known more for numerous injuries and off-field issues. However, Northwestern opened the season with one of the biggest upsets yet by beating Stanford and then winning on the road against Duke two weeks later.

The offense has been far from stellar, ranking 13th in the Big Ten in scoring offense (25 points), but the defense has been outstanding. The Wildcats lead the Big Ten by allowing only 8.8 points a game and are third in total defense (266 yards).

Considering Clayton Thorson threw three touchdown passes against Ball State and Justin Jackson ran for a career-high 184 yards, it looks like the offense is starting to come around and the Wildcats are back to being a major factor...

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sp...wildcats-hawkeyes-surprise-thus-far/72953074/

Those two bolded words are the most important in the article.

 

[MNBadgerGuy]

That's right were not any good because we have a STUBBORN coach, a bad offensive coordinator that doesn't know how to call plays, and a QB who couldn't play on most local High School teams, and if you believe the 30 different BS threads about not being a D1 QB. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let them think Minnesota is bad because they didn't win with style points or flash.

Minnesota is unimpressive yet we had a chance to beat TCU and held them to 23 points? Just because we had one bad game against Kent State, and a couple close wins, everyone is underestimating the Gophers just as I thought. To me the Gophers are battle tested and primed to make a run in the Big 10 conference. This team is not anything less than what the off-season prognosticators thought would be a good team.

Let the Big 10 Network and Conference media beat the drum rolls for the Hawkeyes and the Wildcats, will make beating those teams butts that much more fun. When it's the Gophers in Indianapolis come November, they can continue to call the Gophers unimpressive. Going to be fun kicking some Purple Kitties butts on Saturday.

Why do you get so bent out of shape by some perceived lack of respect for the gophers by the media?

The season is 4 games old, with an entire conference schedule ahead. If the gophers win games in the B1G, they'll get the respect from the media that so many people crave.

Now people will talk about how the lack of media respect correlates to the polls, and the lower the team is in the polls the worse chance of a good bowl game, etc. The fact of the matter is if you win the Big Ten conference you have no choice but to go to the playoff or the Rose Bowl, regardless of what the media thinks.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Why do you get so bent out of shape by some perceived lack of respect for the gophers by the media?

The season is 4 games old, with an entire conference schedule ahead. If the gophers win games in the B1G, they'll get the respect from the media that so many people crave.

Now people will talk about how the lack of media respect correlates to the polls, and the lower the team is in the polls the worse chance of a good bowl game, etc. The fact of the matter is if you win the Big Ten conference you have no choice but to go to the playoff or the Rose Bowl, regardless of what the media thinks.

Couldn't agree more. The Wildcats and the Hawkeyes have been the surprise teams in the West so far and we have for the most part been unimpressive to this point. Doesn't make a prediction on who will with the West or say we are out of it, just points out what has happened to this point. Some posters here look real hard for a reason to be offended even when there isn't one.

 

[gopherdudepart2]

I'm not mad at this article per say.

It's not a lack of respect for the Gophers that I am annoyed by or touting Northwestern or Iowa, it is the local columnist telling us that we should start a true freshman QB, the 25 threads on Gopherhole that we do not have a D1 QB, that our coach is stubborn and needs to be replaced threads, our offensive coordinator cannot gameplan threads, and the fact the Twin cities media makes it sound like the Gophers are just not very good while at the same time piling on heaps of praise for the Vikings.

Gophers are touted by the radio talk show hosts as not a very good team when they are in fact 3-1 which is exactly where everyone thought the Gophers would be, 3-1 with the expected loss being to TCU. Ohio was a good football team and because they were from the MAC the Gophers escaped with a win. Last week that was a hard fought well played football game(exception being special teams punt returns) by two teams gunning for a win.

I'm allowed to be grumpy about the fact that I think the Gophers have a good football team and they are being painted or perceived to be mediocre.
The season's gonna play out, the Gophers will get on a roll and the rest of this stuff will be a moot point anyway.
Nobody will remember that we beat Kent State 10-7 after we kick some Nebraska tail in October and when we are playing a ranked Michigan team on Halloween in a rocking TCF stadium.

 

[MNVCGUY]

It's not a lack of respect for the Gophers that I am annoyed by or touting Northwestern or Iowa, it is the local columnist telling us that we should start a true freshman QB, the 25 threads on Gopherhole that we do not have a D1 QB, that our coach is stubborn and needs to be replaced threads, our offensive coordinator cannot gameplan threads, and the fact the Twin cities media makes it sound like the Gophers are just not very good while at the same time piling on heaps of praise for the Vikings.

Haven't seen anyone calling for Kill's head

And a lot of the hand wringing about the offense has died down a little after they finally did something against Ohio.

And you are correct that at 3-1 the team is right were it was expected to be. The reason people are not more excited is because of the way we have gotten to 3-1. Needing a late TD and OT to get by Colorado State (CSU just barely beat UTSA last week by 2 points), looking inept on offense in squeaking past Kent State, and then needing another late TD drive to beat Ohio. None of that will matter if we run off a bunch of Big Ten wins but to this point the team has been fairly mediocre in getting to where it currently sits.

How we do on Saturday will go a long way towards telling us where this team is at this season.