With the non-conference complete, the Gophers are?…

With the non-conference complete, the Gophers are?…

  • Better than I expected.

    Votes: 97 68.3%

  • Worse than I expected.

    Votes: 2 1.4%

  • About what I expected.

    Votes: 43 30.3%
  • Total voters
    142
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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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With the non-conference complete, the Gophers are?…
 


Breakin' The Plane said:
Non-con has played up precisely like most people thought it would.
I have no idea if this team is real good or not.
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I disagree. After BG last year and the way we have played down to our opponents in the past there was some nervousness coming into the year. Plus we didn't know what to expect from Mo and Potts or the passing game.

Being 3-0 is not a surprise, the complete domination on display in those 3 games is a little surprising. Our opposition has been weak but we have done what good teams do against bad teams and dominated.

Bring on the Big Ten.
 

Remain concerned about our edge on defense...ends can't seem to hold it against run and our passing game even more now that CAB is gone for season.
 

GopherinPhilly said:
Remain concerned about our edge on defense...ends can't seem to hold it against run and our passing game even more now that CAB is gone for season.
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You know something about Bell that the rest don't because as far as I know nothing has been officially announced.

Will be interesting to see our D against a good team but I'm not too concerned at all about that side of the ball, think we are going to be very good again on D this year.
 




The opposition wasn't much, but I thought we looked better than I expected. Still a little ragged in the passing game, but we took care of business and the guys didn't mumble their statements.
 
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The Gophers are a lot better than I expected.

I know the competition has been weak but the dismantling has been thorough. Unlike anything we've seen since parts of the Mason era.

Look how many Top 25 schools have mucked around with FCS teams or lost to them. Top 10 Arkansas is losing to a FCS team as I write this. Look how past good Gopher teams have done the same.

Colorado isn't good but they are a Pac 12 school that beat Washington late last year. Minnesota beat them about as bad as you can beat a P5 team today.

We haven't seen them against even an average P5 team yet, but this kind of dominance is predictive.
 



fmlizard said:
The Gophers are a lot better than I expected.

I know the competition has been weak but the dismantling has been thorough. Unlike anything we've seen since parts of the Mason era.

Look how many Top 25 schools have mucked around with FCS teams or lost to them. Top 10 Arkansas is losing to a FCS team as I write this. Look how past good Gopher teams have done the same.

Colorado isn't good but they are a Pac 12 school that beat Washington late last year. Minnesota beat them about as bad as you can beat a P5 team today.

We haven't seen them against even an average P5 team yet, but this kind of dominance is predictive.
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Has been the best part of these early games. No doubt wins, they were all basically over in the first quarter. Defense never game opponents any reason to believe they could mount a comeback.
 

The Bowling Green loss last year fell equally on the players and coaches.

The players came ready for all three games against lesser opponents, and the coaches made sure that these opponents were taken out early.

Both didn't let off the gas until late in the games and destroyed the competition, which makes this an easy vote for "Better than I expected."

Bring on the Big Ten.
 





I thought going into our first three games that we should handle our opponents with pretty dominant performances, but even I didnt dream they would be this dominant. Go Gophers.
 


Even in the fantastic year of 2019, the non conference was a white knuckle experience (South Dakota state included). Haven seen the Gophs blow out each non conference opponent like this since…ever in my lifetime. Barring catastrophic injuries, this will translate to the conference. Although PJ and crew has coached through a crazy amount of injuries just in the short ended 2020 season, and on a lesser scale the RBs last year.
 

Better. We look great.

Now on to Michigan St Championship Week. We are 0-0.
 


I agree with the thread title…..The Gophers are a question mark.

Hard to glean much info from the non conference games, other than the Gophers are much better than three bad teams.
 

This non-conference slate is reminiscent of Mason's years but the wrinkle is there's a sound foundation in all three phases...offense, defense, and Special Forces.

With Mason after 1999 you could not count on the defense side of the equation.

We appear to have actual bonified, balance and competence this year coming out of the non-conference schedule. Very enjoyable to see up to now.

I agree with Coach every week is the Championship Week. At least coming out of the past 3 weeks each coming individual contest appears to be winnable. Been a long time since that could be said...
 


Build, yes sir I completely agree. Mason had a couple years of crushing non conference opponents with Cupito, Barber, Maroney, and the OL they had back in 03’-05’ and the conference season was fun to watch as well. The Defense is the big difference now let’s hope
 

They played these 3 games as I expected them too! They looked keyed in, focused playing with confidence and discipline! This is what I now expect from the Gophers against lesser teams. My hope is that they continue to play like this against better teams. My expectations will be exceeded if they beat MSU even more soundly then Washington just did!!!
SKI U MAH RTB GO GOPHERS!
 

If anybody expected Mo to be as good he's been, they're either lying or entered the season divorced from reality.
 

Can someone who's opinion turns out to be reality be divorced from reality 🤔
 



For some GopherHolers, the conventional wisdom coming into this season said that the Gophers under Fleck often struggle and play down to the opposition against lesser teams. They were certain, for example, that the point spread vs. New Mexico State was way, way, waaaaay too high.

Well, the Gophers out-scored their three non-conference opponents 149-17. Average score: roughly 50-6.

If those same people are now saying that the non-conference games went exactly as they expected them to go, and they aren't surprised by how dominant the Gophers were in these three games, they're not being truthful.
 

Nonconference went as I expected, big wins against inferior teams. I liked the fact that they did not play down to their opponent’s level as has happened so much in the past.

What I liked
  • Ibrahim and Potts return from season ending injuries
  • OL performance after losing so many guys from last season
  • Bryce Williams as back up RB. Nice to have that good a 3rd option
  • Defense looks good
Concerns
Run/Pass ratio – 70/30 Same as last year. Would like to have seem more passes in nonconference.
 

Don’t know how good they are but they did everything they could in the non conference schedule. I still have some doubts about the passing game, but if they can beat MSU and throw the ball on them I’ll be convinced this could be a B10 west winning club.
 

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