Lack of talent or poor coaching?

Several people have expressed their opinion that the gophers lack talent. I feel the team has enough talent to go to a bowl game this year if the coaching turns out to be as good as I think it is. I am not sure what was going on with Brewster's staff but certainly the team played better under Horton, after Brewster was gone. I was especially critical of the defensive line play and the lack of coaching. I think Matt Garin and Wilhite both have the speed to be excellent outside pass rushers but they did nothing last year which I attribute to poor coaching. When in the last three years have you seen a Gopher D lineman use a swim move or any other technique? After hearing Limegrover's presentation at the Goal Line Club I am convinced he knows what he is doing and will adapt the O to the players he has. I don't know about Claeys but he has to be better than Cosgrove - what a disaster he was!

So... With good coaching do the Gophers have the talent to be in the top half of the Big 10?

Matt garin doesn't have the talent to be an "excellent" pass rusher. But I will say I would be more shocked by 8 losses than 8 wins.

I don't think that finishing with 6-7 wins is out of the question. That'd put the gophers right in the middle of the conference standings. 6th place is now a top half finish.

So much depends on what we don't know. How will the players adjust to the new schemes? How will Gray perform as the every down quarterback? Will the defensive secondary improve with the return of Royston? Where will our receiving yards come from? It's certainly plausible that we pull together a 6-6 or 7-5 season but there are a lot of unknowns right now.

In all fairness to Matt Garin he should not have seen the field last year as a RFreshman. Due to lack of depth and any lagitamite upper classman D ends he was fed to the wolves. This (2011) should have been the first year where he should have started to get some playing time in a program with depth. We can truly judge his pass rushing skills on what he does during his Junior and Senior years. In time with proper coaching, strength and conditioning and a solid defensive scheme I think he will do just fine on the field.

GopherSOB said:

In all fairness to Matt Garin he should not have seen the field last year as a RFreshman. Due to lack of depth and any lagitamite upper classman D ends he was fed to the wolves. This (2011) should have been the first year where he should have started to get some playing time in a program with depth. We can truly judge his pass rushing skills on what he does during his Junior and Senior years. In time with proper coaching, strength and conditioning and a solid defensive scheme I think he will do just fine on the field.

Click to expand...

+1, most Dlinemen are not ready to excel until they are juniors. The guy who should be better than he is, is Wilhite. He can be decent anyway, but therre has not been the drive there to excel consistently. The crew we have at Dline has several years of really poor coaching to overcome. They can improve a lot, but I have not seen any of them at spring ball look like they are going to be excellent pass rushers this year, maybe they can continue to improve at fall camp, but that position is still a big weakness given the premium Kil and Claeys put on that aspect of the defense.

Garin was lost this season, he was put in a bad position as a RSFR starting.

What I do remember though is that Garin was recruited by Ted Roof, who spoke to his pass rushing potential, even possibly as a linebacker.

Cosgrove's defensive scheme was shameful to throw 240 lb Garin into. 2009 it "worked" because our defensive ends were all 280+ lb upperclassmen.

If indeed we are going to see the Dline get turned loose, guys like Garin, Hageman, Wilhite, and KGM will be able to play faster and should see an uptick in production. I predict this year we'll see our D better at getting off the field on 3rd downs.

Gray

If Gray can have a productive season and limit turnovers 7 wins are possible. If he struggles with turnovers we could have just 2 wins again.

Lets say 55% passing 2500 yards 16 td 12 int with no fumbles.
750 yds rushing 5.7 aver 8 td

This could possible get us 7 wins.

But:

48% passing 1800 yards 11 td 15 int 6 fumbles
400 yds rushing 3.3 aver 3td ... low aver because of sacks

This would be 2 win season type numbers.

I believe that, no matter what, this team will be better prepared starting this season than they were last.

It might be wishful thinking but I believe if they improve their special teams play (mainly punting and field goals) and cut way down on their penalties they should win at least two to three more games just off of that. How many times over the last couple of seasons have we watched them shoot themselves in the foot with stupid penalties? It just drove me nuts.