Hate to say this

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calminnfan

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and truly hope I am wrong, but I am a little nervous about this weeks game...I am not sure if it is due to WM being a little bit unknown or the concern that a very young Gophers team might not take this game as serious as it should. Probably the latter...Am I alone in this feeling?
 

Cal-

I am nervous and have an odd feeling about this game. It is not that the Gophers will not take it seriously, for me it is the lack of any quality competition to this point. I hope the WMU team that played Illinois shows up...
 

I am very nervous, because after all, we're Minnesota. This is a better opponent than their name would indicate to the average joe. I really hope we play our best game of the year to date for this one. We'll need to.
 

Stan The Caddy said:
Cal-

I am nervous and have an odd feeling about this game. It is not that the Gophers will not take it seriously, for me it is the lack of any quality competition to this point. I hope the WMU team that played Illinois shows up...
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That is one of the reasons why I would like the Gophers to play at least one legitimate team during the non-conf. part of the schedule.
 

Stan The Caddy said:
Cal-

I am nervous and have an odd feeling about this game. It is not that the Gophers will not take it seriously, for me it is the lack of any quality competition to this point. I hope the WMU team that played Illinois shows up...
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Nobody should be over-confident in any of the remaining games.
This week I think we match up well. IF:
1)Our pass D can weather an early storm
2)Our running game can get yards when they have 8 in the box, and grind the clock.
3)We open our playbook up a bit, just a bit.
4)We continue to punt well.
 


I agree. I am nervous about this game as well. If we continue to improve each week, like Coach Kill is striving for, I think we will win this game. But I think it is going to be a 3-7 point win. I really hope our Gophers prove me wrong and we win by a bigger margin....
 

It seems that WMU's focus will be on stopping the run and daring Gray to pass. That should open up some good opportunities for play action. If he can hit on play action, they will be forced to respect the pass, and that should open up the running game.

I was concerned going into the New Hampshire game, so don't feel bad about being concerned about this one.
 

Nervous! There is absolutely no reason at all to be over confident going into this game.

None! Zilch!

The Gophers are not a good team. Not saying they may not be down the road, but thus far there are lots of things that they have to do better. This squad will be hard pressed to go 4-0 in the NC.
 

I think that's just a trait of being a Gopher fan right now. EVERY game on the schedule brings concern cause frankly, we're just not that good. If we play well (pressure from front line, Gray hitting his marks, running continues to at least be a little consistent) then we will probably win cause physically, I think we have the advantage. But just like in any football game, it's not often teams play their absolute best, so mistakes will be critical. Keep the penalties and TOs down, and win 3rd downs.
 



No Big Ten team should ever feel overconfident taking on a MAC team. This is absolutely a game the Gophers can and should win if they play well but it will by far be the toughest opponent to date and if they don't execute the Gophers can easily end up losing this one. Bottom line is if they come out ready to play and execute the gameplan they should be 3-0 heading into next Saturday's game against Syracuse. Sloppy play, stupid penalties, lack of execution and we are looking at 2-1.
 

Just an FYI, we're not alone. Vegas only has us favored by 2.5 at home against a team from the MAC. Generally the home team gets spotted 3 points for home field advantage. That should tell you something. I am, however, comforted by the fact that Coach K is somewhat familiar with this team because I'm certainly not.
 

Ole said:
Nobody should be over-confident in any of the remaining games.
This week I think we match up well. IF:
1)Our pass D can weather an early storm
2)Our running game can get yards when they have 8 in the box, and grind the clock.
3)We open our playbook up a bit, just a bit.
4)We continue to punt well.
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I do not think that will be a problem. The gameplan will look a lot more like UNLV than it did against New Hampshire. The Gophers obviously knew they could just go "ground'n'pound" on New Hampshire and come away with a stress free victory. I think you will see much more innovation and play selection on Saturday.
 

The defense has played well this far, it will be interesting to see how they do against three step drops where it is going to be read and react for the defensive backs and linebackers.
 



I'll take my hand off the fire alarm and quit being nervous when the Gophers can show over time that the losses to FCS and MAC teams are far away in the rear view mirror.

I don't see that happening for any non conference game through at least next year and maybe the year after (assuming all wins).
 

I was nervous that vermont was going to blow our doors off like south Dakota did so I am definately nervous that we will be overmatched vs a good mac team.
 


NMSU is all anyone needs to say. That aside, I listened to the Senser's Coach Kill show and he sounds like Minny is going to kick WMU in the teeth.
 

We need to relax a little and appreciate the journey

Grant said:
I was nervous that vermont was going to blow our doors off like south Dakota did so I am definately nervous that we will be overmatched vs a good mac team.
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I cannot believe how people on this site keep on acting like Chicken Little. The sky is not falling and there was no chance that we were going to lose to Vermont this year! Get a grip on yourselves people!:)
 

Easily the best team, both offensively and defensively, that they've played so far. This will be a really good indicator of where they're at across the board. I expect we'll know a LOT more than we do now.

If the defense can continue to get a pass rush and keep WMU's offense in check, that will be a good sign.

Offensively, if Gray can make some major progress and avoid the fumbled snaps, running himself into sacks, and wild over-throws, the offense might be able to develop some flow and continuity. The offense just hasn't seemed to find any rhythm up to this point.

If I were WMU, I would just about throw the game tape away from the Gophers/UNH game, at least for while the Gophers were on offense. They'll run a LOT more of the playbook than they ran against UNH, where they basically ran a handful of plays and kept things pretty vanilla. I would suspect that we'll see quite a bit of the playbook that we haven't yet seen under Kill/Limegrover.
 

The major concern for the Gophers is the WMU passing game and an experienced QB, however WMU graduated their top 3 receivers who accounted for over 250 receptions last year. That is a staggering amount of production to take away from the offense and it has to be difficult for a vetern QB to adjust to new receivers, especially freshman receivers.
 

Magic said:
Western Michigan is terrible this year. The Gophs will win by at least 10. I just hate playing this kind of nonconference schedule. You lose any of these four cupcake games and many fans will jump ship before the Big Ten schedule even starts?
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What kind of schedule would you play instead? I don't want to stick up for the bandwagon jumpers but if the team goes out and shows it can't beat the cupcakes then is there really much hope for them to do well during the conference season? Your assessment of WMU being terrible...is it based on the mistake filled loss to Illinois or the blowout win over a weak team? Is there that much reason to assume we will roll based on a squeeker win over a bad team or a blowout win over an even worse one?

We are playing a team that like to throw led by an experienced QB. We will get a really good taste of just how far the defense has come this week. And I believe we will win this game but I won't be surprised if it comes right down to the wire.
 

from his show today it sounded like the coaches really got after them this week and the team had some good practices. they will be jacked up and put a beat down on directional michigan
 

Until they prove me wrong, I'm going to be nervous about every game on the schedule. Over 40 years as a Gopher fan has me very gun-shy when people start proclaiming that "We're a different team this year." I've heard it all before.

I would like to believe - heck, I would LOVE to believe that this coaching staff and this team is truly different - but I need to see a little more evidence before reaching that conclusion.
 


Gray fakes the hand off, fakes the the run and then goes over the top over and over again.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Until they prove me wrong, I'm going to be nervous about every game on the schedule. Over 40 years as a Gopher fan has me very gun-shy when people start proclaiming that "We're a different team this year." I've heard it all before.

I would like to believe - heck, I would LOVE to believe that this coaching staff and this team is truly different - but I need to see a little more evidence before reaching that conclusion.
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You are not alone in feeling that way. And I don't know that outside of a big win over a top non-conf opponent that there is anything we could see in the early games that would erase that lingering doubt. It is going to take a few years of consistent success in the conference to get people to really believe things have changed.

I haven't been around 40 years but I can think of a bunch of comments from coaches and players, Kill included about rebuilding the program, being the group to turn it around, changing the culture, getting the players to buy in.....it all sounds the same, now we just need the words and actions to start matching up. When that day finally gets here this state will go nuts for this team but it is going to be a tough sell to get people on board.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Until they prove me wrong, I'm going to be nervous about every game on the schedule. Over 40 years as a Gopher fan has me very gun-shy when people start proclaiming that "We're a different team this year." I've heard it all before.

I would like to believe - heck, I would LOVE to believe that this coaching staff and this team is truly different - but I need to see a little more evidence before reaching that conclusion.
Click to expand...

Spoken like a true Norwegian Shorty. I lived there for several years and it always made me laugh how stoic they could be. The past is just that - past. If you would let go of it you might find that the present isn’t that scary.
 

Magic said:
Western Michigan is terrible this year. The Gophs will win by at least 10. I just hate playing this kind of nonconference schedule. You lose any of these four cupcake games and many fans will jump ship before the Big Ten schedule even starts?
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Vegas has the Gophs by 2 to 3 over Western Michigan, that is pretty close to being a tossup, I don't see a blowout, bad game and they could be on the short end of the stick.
 

Magic said:
Western Michigan is terrible this year. The Gophs will win by at least 10. I just hate playing this kind of nonconference schedule. You lose any of these four cupcake games and many fans will jump ship before the Big Ten schedule even starts?
Click to expand...

Gimme a break. They put up 631 yards in one game. Before you say 'that was against a weak E. Ill team' -- we only put up 412 yards against N. Hamp.

We need to respect them. Kill knows them, and they know Kill's schemes.
 

A strong majority seem to be nervous and scared about WMU because this is by far the best team we have played so far.

I will stick with a minority that WMU should be nervous and scared about U of M because this is by far the best team they have played so far.

GO GOPHERS!!!
 

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