With 5 or 6 games left, what do you need to view this season as a success?

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I've actually been pushing that we should start having some expectations for this staff, but I'm afraid many of you are going to be dissapointed if you think 2 more wins is an easily attainable goal.

Yes, we won 2 Big Ten games last year, but that Iowa win was very fluky.

I thought we would win 5 games this year, and I can accept that as progress. 6 wins would be a successful season.

I would also like to see us be competitive against Michigan/MSU/and Nebraska. No more embarrassing losses like against Wisconsin if you want to send the signal that this will be a different team next year.
 

It is always a success if you win more games than the previous year. Kill did it.
 

4four4 said:
It is always a success if you win more games than the previous year. Kill did it.
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So the overall win total is improved. How do you clasify the drop in conference wins as a success? Is it a success if you go from beating Miam (OH), Illinois, and Iowa to beating UNLV, New Hampshire, Western Michigan, and Syracuse? I know of those groups I would much rather have the three win team that beat two BIG teams then the 4 win team that beat two crappy teams and two ok teams.
 

All forms of hope to how many wins went out the window when Kill and company decided to make this a rebuilding year by starting a freshman quarterback. We are back to same old and the prediction of 0-8 in big ten by someone in the national media looks more realistic.I do not recall his name. Maybe getting Nelson used to playing in the big ten will help us next year.
 



2 B10 wins, preferably at home. .400 football the rest of the way. Maybe .666 at home? And a bowl game one slot better than we could otherwise expect (+2 b/c of PSU & OSU, -1 b/c B10 is down).

The above + no more blowout losses and I'd view the year as a big success.
 

Even if we win 0 games, it's a success if we get better. Granted, it'd be hard to say we got better if we can't beat a team like Illinois.
 

Not black and white simple

I don't know that in our case you can make it as simple as wins and losses.
Success is subjective. Different standards for each of us. 4 wins is better than 3.

Having said that, you gotta factor in the injuries we have had. We are not at a stage to absorb those. "Everybody has injuries" is not something we can overcome right now.

One Big Ten win would be nice. Two Big Ten wins has to satisfy everybody everything factored. That's a bowl game. Obviously 7 and 6 would be bombs bursting given the adversity.

But 4 and 8 is progress. It is positive but it is not success. 5 and 7 a notch up, but not success. I'd say 6 and 6 is success, whatever happens in the bowl game.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Incorrect.
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I agree with you that it is fallacious to say that the 8 conference games are the only ones that matter. However, I still care a lot more about games against our conference peers than I do against 1 FCS team, 2 non-BCS FBS teams, and 1 team from the worst BCS conference.
 



bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I agree with you that it is fallacious to say that the 8 conference games are the only ones that matter. However, I still care a lot more about games against our conference peers than I do against 1 FCS team, 2 non-BCS FBS teams, and 1 team from the worst BCS conference.
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It was my mistake. I forgot that everything is taken literal. I should have said in the conference games only matter to me in the grand scheme of things that way it would be correct. You said it much clearer in your response then I did. I just don't get excited about overall record when your conference record sucks and the non-conf wins were against crap opponents.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I agree with you that it is fallacious to say that the 8 conference games are the only ones that matter. However, I still care a lot more about games against our conference peers than I do against 1 FCS team, 2 non-BCS FBS teams, and 1 team from the worst BCS conference.
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They are not the only ones that matter, but I don't think anyone would complain with 8-4 (8-0) and a BTCG appearance.
 

Rosemountian said:
Even if we win 0 games, it's a success if we get better. Granted, it'd be hard to say we got better if we can't beat a team like Illinois.
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LOL - You really are not happy unless you can end your comment with a negative are you. You should change your moniker to Joe Btfsplk.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Agree with that assessment, Stan. Two wins with what the Gophers have remaining (Purdue, Illinois, possibly MSU because of its offensive woes) is a reasonable expectation. Just getting to a bowl would be progress.

But anything less than that (1-7 or a B1G doughnut) has to be considered a significant step back, especially after winning 2 B1G games last season. If the Gophers can't beat/outcoach Purdue/Danny Hope and freefalling Illinois/Tim Beckman, I'd be concerned.
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Give me a break.

You will be concerned after 2 years for Kill, and yet wont say "boo" about tubby and the epic struggles of the bb team. For the past 5 years.

Hollow.
 



Success... (6-6) and bowl game. 5 wins is disappointing. Going (1-7) in the Big Ten would be pathetic.
 

Not counting on this team to win another game. At this point, that would be a pleasant surprise. Rather, I just want to see a consistent, competent effort for a full 60 minutes. If they can do that in a few games down the stretch, some progress will have been made.
 

Monty519 said:
A bowl game is the obvious answer, to me at least, and it sounds like many others. That was the goal coming in, and that goal is still reasonably doable. I consider 4 out of the last 5 "gettable" games. The only game I'm not looking at with hopeful eyes is @Nebraska. I consider all home games winnable now, I don't care if the matchup sucks. I fear what Denard will do to our run defense, but whatever. Realistically, 3 of those 5 are definitely winnable games. We need to find two wins out of there. Conventional wisdom says Purdue and Illinois are the ones.

Interesting with MSU though, they could possibly be playing that last game needing it just to make a bowl game themselves. They have @Sconny, Wisconsin, Northwestern, then us. I don't think anyone would be shocked to see them lose their next two. That'd leave them at 4-6 needing to win their last two to get to a bowl game. That would be a very interesting setup, if both teams need that win to simply make a bowl game at all.

Simply put, this game Saturday is HUGE.
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I am pretty upset that we have to play MSU in back-to-back weeks. :)

In response to the original topic, I think you need to look at how the team played. Did they improve? If the team has improved, it is easier to handle losses, because you have hope for the future. Getting to a bowl game is a good goal; the extra practice helps the following year.
 

I'd consider 5-7 with no blowouts in the remaining five games in this injury plagued season at this stage of Kill's tenure a success. Nelson's development and the the experience that the Gophs playing as a team going into next year is critical. A 6-6 record and a bowl game will be over the top for me this season. It is quite possible to see Nelson & the Gophers surprise a couple of B1G teams before the season is over.
 

I don't think I could ever call a 2-6 conference record "success", but I think that is the minimum bar to hurdle to claim progress is being made. The third year obviously needs to show some real improvement as another 2-6 certainly wouldn't cut it.
 

TAW said:
I am pretty upset that we have to play MSU in back-to-back weeks. :)
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Haha, whoops. But yeah, Sconny & NW could be two L's for MSU, which would make their last two weeks must win. Could be a big game for both teams if it comes to that.
 

Thought this was worth revisiting now that we've grabbed our first B1G win. With a win against Michigan, that would leave no metric that I measure teams by where we did not improve. My metrics are (1) postseason (quality of game and whether or not we win it), (2) B1G record/standings, (3) rival/trophy performance, and (4) overall record.

Taking them one at a time:
1: We did not play in postseason last year, so one more win gets us there and that would be a definite improvement.
2: Sitting at 1-3, but four games left include a possibly Denardless Michigan, an offensively inept MSU who we have had success with in the past, and a road game against Illinois High School. I think we at worst match last year's 2-6 and I still think we will see 3-5.
3: Michigan's the big one, if we take it, we repeat last year's 1-2 trophy game performance (with PSU off the schedule both years, that saves us the argument of whether or not Penn State is a real trophy game.
4: We've already beaten last year's 3-9 mark, 5-7 at worst this year, if we go 3-5 (very doable) and possibly beat a team in a bowl game, that could leave us 8-5.

If we lose out, I would not consider it a successful season, but with how we looked Saturday, I am not really concerned about that happening.
 

Killjoy said:
LOL - You really are not happy unless you can end your comment with a negative are you. You should change your moniker to Joe Btfsplk.
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Killjoy wins the Best Obscure Pop Culture Reference of the Day award!

It appears Rosemountian and I agree to some extent. Where the program is right now, I think "how" the team wins or loses is more important than whether they win or lose. Purdue was a huge step forward. Coaches saw some weaknesses on film and exploited them in the game planning and the team executed the plan extremely well. Something to build on.

Sure, a bowl game would be nice and I think we can get to one if the team plays well the rest of the way. We look like we did against Northwestern and that probably won't happen.
 

I would say now that we officially have more big ten wins than most of the experts/national pundits have predicted the season is a success. In my opinion we have already over achieved and any more wins will simply be icing on the cake.
 

CentralGopher said:
I would say now that we officially have more big ten wins than most of the experts/national pundits have predicted the season is a success. In my opinion we have already over achieved and any more wins will simply be icing on the cake.
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The Talking Bobble Heads on ESPN, The experts at SI, and other insignificant creatures predicted us with ZERO B1G wins. Let's show those "mush for brains" babblers where the bear $hits in the buckwheat, and kick ass this Saturday versus Mitchigun.
 

CentralGopher said:
I would say now that we officially have more big ten wins than most of the experts/national pundits have predicted the season is a success. In my opinion we have already over achieved and any more wins will simply be icing on the cake.
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I don't use idiot talking head predictions as the barometer for success. Many picked 0 Big Ten wins because they looked at our previous 2 seasons' records and decided the Iowa and Illinois games (both years) were flukes. Did no analysis of our talent of Kill's history.

Regardless, more wins are not "icing on the cake" for me. We won 2 B10 games last year. That should be the case this year. We got our first in good fashion on Saturday and have one very winnable game left (Illinois), one possible game (MSU), and another possible win if Denard is still out next week. I would be shocked to see a road win against Nebraska (especially once Burkhead is back in action against our run D).

Success can be measured by improvement over last year (the 4-0 non conference did this, 2-6 in the Big Ten would be equal, therefore improvement and possibly more with a bowl win). It can also be measured by fan interest and building for the following year. If we don't win another game this year, 1-7 in the Big Ten will make it even more of an uphill climb to continue to bring in fan interest for next year. 2-6 with a bowl helps (especially a bowl win). 3-5 and a better bowl (possible win) would be amazing.

Who knows, we might just win out and take the Legend's Division title and play Wisconsin in a rematch of our game and win it, going to our first Rose Bowl in 51 years :)
 

If we could find our way in to the Heart of Dallas bowl on New Year's day then I would consider that a success. The little caesar's bowl in Detroit would be kind of a let down. No bowl at all would be a horrible underachievement.
 

afurry91 said:
If we could find our way in to the Heart of Dallas bowl on New Year's day then I would consider that a success. The little caesar's bowl in Detroit would be kind of a let down. No bowl at all would be a horrible underachievement.
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I was looking yesterday and flights are less than $340 to Dallas!!!! Just saying!

Detroit would be a step forward, which I'd be pleased about. However, Detroit? In December? I'll watch it on the NFL Network.
 

Bowl of any kind= success.

Better-than-crappy-bowl= outstanding for year 2.

No bowl game this year= mild disappointment with optimism for next year.
 

afurry91 said:
If we could find our way in to the Heart of Dallas bowl on New Year's day then I would consider that a success. The little caesar's bowl in Detroit would be kind of a let down. No bowl at all would be a horrible underachievement.
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At this point I don't know if I'd say no bowl would be a "horrible underachievement" but I'd be disappointed. As far as Detroit, I don't think that will be an option.

I realize technically Wikipedia isn't a source, but I'll use it since I'm too lazy to look it up elsewhere:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_bids_to_college_bowl_games#Big_Ten_Conference

Also, here are the current B1G standings:

http://espn.go.com/college-football/conferences/standings/_/id/5/big-ten-conference

So Penn State and tOSU are ineligible.

Looking at their schedules, I see no chance for Illinois or Indiana making a Bowl. IL would have to win 4 straight and IN would have to win 3 of 4 with some very difficult teams remaining. Not happening. Purdue needs to win 3 of 4 but has IL and IN meaning they'd have to beat PSU this weekend or at IA next weekend and sweep IL and IN. Unlikely at best.

Assuming that's correct, the worst MN could do if they are eligible is the TicketCity Bowl in Dallas (assuming the B1G sends the 7 remaining teams to Bowls).

Wisconsin, Nebraska and Northwestern are already Bowl Eligible.

Michigan, Michigan State, and Minnesota all have 5 wins and need one more. Michigan has MN, NW, IA and tOSU left. Sparty has NE, NW and MN. MN has MI, IL, NE and Sparty. Michigan would be surprising not to win one out of those four. Sparty could be needing a win at the Bank to get in. MN would be disappointing not to at least see a win vs. IL.

That leaves Iowa with 4 wins needing two out of IN, PU, MI and NE. Unfortunately, chances are they at least beat IN and PU to get 6 wins.

If things played out just right, it could be possible that the B1G only sends 4 teams to Bowls. Pretty unlikely (MI and Sparty lose out and IA loses to IN, PU and NE while beating MI somehow), but mathematically possible. Regardless, I'm liking our chances of a non-Detroit Bowl Game!
 

The Lansing State Journal is projecting MSU for no worse than the Gator Bowl (Jan. 1), as long as it beats Northwestern. The LSJ is assuming Michigan, Nebraska, and Wisconsin all will be ahead of Sparty in the bowl pecking order (Rose/Capital One/Outback), given those schools' tradition and/or travel history. That would leave Iowa, the Gophers, and Northwestern (and/or longshots Indiana & Purdue) for the remaining B1G bowls.

At this point it looks like no B1G team should have to worry about going to Motown for the the Pizza/Pizza Bowl.
 

Lakeville Goldy said:
Assuming that's correct, the worst MN could do if they are eligible is the TicketCity Bowl in Dallas (assuming the B1G sends the 7 remaining teams to Bowls).
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That's good to hear, I hadn't done the math, so it's good to hear that Detroit doesn't look like an option. Would love to play in the Heart of Dallas (That's what the TicketCity Bowl is now called). It would be a good experience for the kids and a pretty good low tier bowl game at that with its new year's day exposure.
 

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