Would you view 8-4 or 7-5 as a successful season at this point?

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MNVCGUY

MNVCGUY

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Looking at the remaining schedule there is still the very real possibility that this team could finish the regular season at 8-4 or 7-5. 8-4 would seem like a no brainer because it would mean a 5-4 conference record which in my book is decent even if the wins are not over marquee programs. Gets a little more interesting at 7-5. (Obviously if we pull off wins against Wisconsin and/or Nebraska the entire equation changes, but based on what we have seen to date it is really hard to see us winning either of those games right now).

Projecting out the rest of the year we could get to 7-5 with wins over Purdue, Rutgers, Illinois, and Northwestern. Combined those teams are 8-13 overall and 2-7 in the BIG right now meaning we could have 7 wins and not beat a single team with a winning record (all 3 of our non-conf opponents are hanging around .500 to this point).

Would be tough for me to call that a successful season, when the hopes coming in were to compete in the West but curious what others think. The other question is if 7-5, under the scenario above, is good enough to convince Coyle to keep Claeys around because if he does keep Claeys he will need to restructure his contract into something more long term.
 



I predicted 9 to start with, so 8 would be a gift at this point.
 

No I would not consider a 3rd or 4th place finish in the B1G west a successful season when you were expected to compete for a west title.
 


At the beginning of the season anything less than 9 wins was going to be a disappointment. Right now- getting to 6 wins would be a success. Expectations have been adjusted dramatically.
 

DougMN said:
At the beginning of the season anything less than 9 wins was going to be a disappointment.
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Only on Gopher Hole.

With a new coach, new coordinators, losing great defenders, etc holding a hard line at 9 wins was foolish. Especially with a team with the history of the Gophers.
 

DougMN said:
At the beginning of the season anything less than 9 wins was going to be a disappointment.
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Only for crazy people... who are probably disappointed in their investments every year since the .com days.
 

It'd be good, because we would have more wins than losses from now until the end of the regular season. More happy Saturdays than sad Saturdays to come.

Of course, I'm on the record and stand by my comments that the only successful season includes a win over Wisconsin. So if that happens to be one of the 7 or 8 (or 4, or 5, or 6) wins, it's of course a success. If it's not, it's still a good season by Gopher standards and one that we'd probably take most years, regardless of the level of competition.
 



I guess I'm crazy...5th year QB that some projected to be drafted. Two good RB's and the easiest schedule we will ever have. Didn't Einsten define Insanity as: 'Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.'? I think most people on this board would qualify...
 

I agree...a win over Wisconsin puts an * next to the season and would be successful regardless of the record.
 

DougMN said:
I guess I'm crazy...5th year QB that some projected to be drafted. Two good RB's and the easiest schedule we will ever have. Didn't Einsten define Insanity as: 'Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.'? I think most people on this board would qualify...
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You could set silly expectations on any team if you just randomly pick what you want to hear. If you were on the ML7 first round draft pick train, I question how many games you watched closely.

Even if you belive that you mentioned a QB and "two good rbs". That's not a football team.
 

Next 4 games are vs. arguably the 4 worst teams in the B1G. Even after stinking it up vs. Iowa, I don't know how anyone could look at those 4 opponents (Maryland, Rutgers, Illinois, Purdue) and say they wouldn't be disappointed if the Gophers don't win all 4.

My expectation (read: minimum acceptable) before the season was 8-4. Anything worse than that is an underachievement given the conference schedule.
 



Ski U Master said:
Only on Gopher Hole.

With a new coach, new coordinators, losing great defenders, etc holding a hard line at 9 wins was foolish. Especially with a team with the history of the Gophers.
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Coach Claeys disagrees with you:

Gophers coach Tracy Claeys calls this the best team since former coach Jerry Kill came aboard and that the Gophers can win eight or nine games.

“I do feel like it’s always hard to put a number on just as far as how many games you’re going to win, but I do feel like we’ve got six good years of work into this, and I do feel like it’s our best football team overall,” Claeys said. “My goal is, and ours will be this every year, is when we get to the end of November and the last weeks of the season, that we’re still in talks to play in the Big Ten Championship Game, in other terms have a chance to win the Big Ten West.”

Claeys said a team must win at least eight games in order to be in contention for the division title each year.

“There’s no question we’re excited about the fall getting here because we do feel like this is our best team. Two years ago we were one game away — we win at Wisconsin and we play for the Big Ten championship against Ohio State. I don’t think that’s that far off, considering this is our best team.”

Those goals are still in reach, I hope we get there.

Go Gophers!!
 

I wasn't on the Mitch First Round Pick train. No one that watches Gopher football was. I did expect him to be more than competent with the way he finished off last season with an injury- but played what I thought was very well after Kill's departure. I thought I saw enough from this team last year and with who was returning and I thought the teams on our schedule with what they were returning gave us an excellent chance to put together 10 wins. Iowa and Nebraska I thought would be losses for sure and I thought Wisconsin would take a step back this year- I was wrong about that. A relatively easy Non-conference along with a schedule full of lower half B1G teams could have easily translated into 9 or 10 wins. But....I am crazy. For expecting anything more than we always have...
 

DougMN said:
I guess I'm crazy...5th year QB that some projected to be drafted. Two good RB's and the easiest schedule we will ever have. Didn't Einsten define Insanity as: 'Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.'? I think most people on this board would qualify...
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With receivers that are average at best and an awful offensive line. New OC, new DC....lots of variables that needed to work out right to get to 9 wins.

Sent from my Commodore 64 using Tapatalk.
 

BleedGopher said:
Coach Claeys disagrees with you:

Gophers coach Tracy Claeys calls this the best team since former coach Jerry Kill came aboard and that the Gophers can win eight or nine games.

“I do feel like it’s always hard to put a number on just as far as how many games you’re going to win, but I do feel like we’ve got six good years of work into this, and I do feel like it’s our best football team overall,” Claeys said. “My goal is, and ours will be this every year, is when we get to the end of November and the last weeks of the season, that we’re still in talks to play in the Big Ten Championship Game, in other terms have a chance to win the Big Ten West.”

Claeys said a team must win at least eight games in order to be in contention for the division title each year.

“There’s no question we’re excited about the fall getting here because we do feel like this is our best team. Two years ago we were one game away — we win at Wisconsin and we play for the Big Ten championship against Ohio State. I don’t think that’s that far off, considering this is our best team.”

Those goals are still in reach, I hope we get there.

Go Gophers!!
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If you believe what coaches say in the media you're an even bigger fool.
 



This team is a mess right now, but has the *ability* to get better. We have many talented players and guys that will develop rapidly playing major minutes. Injured players will come back (Lingen et al) My biggest concern is the offensive line, and the coordinators. The defensive and offensive calls have been awful for too-long of stretches. Can they figure it out?

Anything can happen in the games vs Wisconsin and Nebraska. This is college football. We could still run the table. I am not giving up. Frustrated sure, but I see lots of potential for improvement.
 

If a Coach has low expectations, don't they just say- 'I like a lot of the things we are doing, and I expect us to be competitive this year'. Claeys fishhooked some of us with his comments.
 

Word said:
With receivers that are average at best and an awful offensive line. New OC, new DC....lots of variables that needed to work out right to get to 9 wins.
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Wisconsin went 10-3 with a new head coach from outside the organization last year. They also lost their star DC and have a new DBs coach. Not to mention they play a brutal schedule. Doesn't seem to be slowing them down at all.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Wisconsin went 10-3 with a new head coach from outside the organization last year. They also lost their star DC and have a new DBs coach. Not to mention they play a brutal schedule. Doesn't seem to be slowing them down at all.
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I don't know if you noticed but they seem to win a lot more often to begin with....
 

Ski U Master said:
If you believe what coaches say in the media you're an even bigger fool.
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When a coach flat out says he thinks this is his best team and one that should contend for the West title the play on the field needs to back that up. Claeys's comments don't fall under the realm of typical coach speech which tends to be vague and leave lots of room for interpretation.

All that said this team can still compete for the West title this year but the margin for error at this point is razor thin after dropping the first 2 conference games.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I don't know if you noticed but they seem to win a lot more often to begin with....
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Right, but my point is there is no reason Minnesota can't compete at the same level as Wisconsin. Coaches have come and gone, injuries happen, but they keep winning.

Meanwhile we're trying to pump ourselves up over the possibility of winning 7 or 8 games on our way to a 3rd or 4th place B1G West finish with our softest schedule ever.
 

MNVCGUY said:
When a coach flat out says he thinks this is his best team and one that should contend for the West title the play on the field needs to back that up. Claeys's comments don't fall under the realm of typical coach speech which tends to be vague and leave lots of room for interpretation.

All that said this team can still compete for the West title this year but the margin for error at this point is razor thin after dropping the first 2 conference games.
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Everything is coach speak....

Nick Saban regularly goes on the most obviously fake rants about their performance, and it's just a message to the players. Maybe Claeys wanted to talk up the players or something?

Folks looking for the coach to give them a hug and a talk about how things really are should look to someone they know, not someone with a mic in his face.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Wisconsin went 10-3 with a new head coach from outside the organization last year. They also lost their star DC and have a new DBs coach. Not to mention they play a brutal schedule. Doesn't seem to be slowing them down at all.
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True, but do you really think their foundation was the same as ours?
 

Word said:
True, but do you really think their foundation was the same as ours?
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Shouldn't it be after 5 years of Kill and now Claeys as an extension of the Kill program? Wasn't Kill's program supposed to be our version of Alvarez or Ferentz?
 


I'd begrudgingly take 8 wins.... now.

9 is still, ... possible.
 

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