ESPN: Biggest upset opportunities for Big Ten (No. 1: TCU (at Minnesota on Sept. 3)

Donate To GopherHole
BleedGopher

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
60,762
Reaction score
16,152
Points
113
per ESPN:

No. 1: TCU (at Minnesota on Sept. 3)

Bumping the Crimson Tide out of the top spot is no small feat, but the program Gary Patterson has built and the talent he has assembled deserve it heading into the 2015 season. The largest upside of an upset undoubtedly belongs to the Gophers heading into a primetime affair on the first Thursday of the season, both because it would give Jerry Kill a signature victory for his rebuilding effort and for the blow it could deliver to the Big 12 when the playoff bids are handed out in December.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post...yfive-biggest-upset-opportunities-for-big-ten

Go Gophers!!
 

Well if Ward says we should win the game, we might as well do it
 

upnorthkid said:
Well if Ward says we should win the game, we might as well do it
Click to expand...

Ummm yeah....he didn't say we should win the game. The basis of the story is which upsets would gain the most for the conference if they were to happen and I think it is pretty easy to put our game against TCU at the top a list like that, followed closely as it is in the story, by Wisconsin vs. Alabama.

Barring something crazy happening between now and the start of next season I will be shocked if any National (or local for that matter) Media pick us to win that game against TCU. But man it will be awesome if the team figures out a way to pull it off.
 

I'm not so sure he's right - I strongly suspect that beating TCU would lead to a lot more "TCU is disappointing this year" stories than "Minnesota is on the rise" stories. Now, if TCU recovers and has a great season, then there will be a lot of retroactive "big win for Minnesota" mentions in late season articles, but it will take a while before we'd really get credit for it nationally.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Ummm yeah....he didn't say we should win the game. The basis of the story is which upsets would gain the most for the conference if they were to happen and I think it is pretty easy to put our game against TCU at the top a list like that, followed closely as it is in the story, by Wisconsin vs. Alabama.

Barring something crazy happening between now and the start of next season I will be shocked if any National (or local for that matter) Media pick us to win that game against TCU. But man it will be awesome if the team figures out a way to pull it off.
Click to expand...

Should as in we should win so the Big Ten gets respect. Not as in sure we are the better team.
 


2727Gopher said:
I'm not so sure he's right - I strongly suspect that beating TCU would lead to a lot more "TCU is disappointing this year" stories than "Minnesota is on the rise" stories. Now, if TCU recovers and has a great season, then there will be a lot of retroactive "big win for Minnesota" mentions in late season articles, but it will take a while before we'd really get credit for it nationally.
Click to expand...

That would have been the case last season if we beat them, it won't be the case this year. They are going to enter the year as a top 3 team that is returning most of their squad from the year before. Based on the improvements here the past few years, if we score the upset against them it will reflect very well on us being a team on the rise and not them being a team in decline. The scenario you laid out above is a typical Minnesota fan way of seeing things in that the assumption is always that we won't get any credit but I truly believe that if, and it is a massive if, we can beat TCU the win won't be taken lightly by anyone.
 

MNVCGUY said:
That would have been the case last season if we beat them, it won't be the case this year. They are going to enter the year as a top 3 team that is returning most of their squad from the year before. Based on the improvements here the past few years, if we score the upset against them it will reflect very well on us being a team on the rise and not them being a team in decline. The scenario you laid out above is a typical Minnesota fan way of seeing things in that the assumption is always that we won't get any credit but I truly believe that if, and it is a massive if, we can beat TCU the win won't be taken lightly by anyone.
Click to expand...

Agreed. If we beat TCU, we will become the odds on favorite to win the West and will be ranked, likely in the top 20
 

I didn't like the earlier ESPN article stating CSU could upset us, but this one I like.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Spoofin said:
I didn't like the earlier ESPN article stating CSU could upset us, but this one I like.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

They didn't say would, they said could. And that is true that they could.
 



Dr.Don said:
They didn't say would, they said could. And that is true that they could.
Click to expand...

Hardly even said could. Being #1 on this list essentially means biggest underdog that has a >1% chance.
 

2727Gopher said:
I'm not so sure he's right - I strongly suspect that beating TCU would lead to a lot more "TCU is disappointing this year" stories than "Minnesota is on the rise" stories. Now, if TCU recovers and has a great season, then there will be a lot of retroactive "big win for Minnesota" mentions in late season articles, but it will take a while before we'd really get credit for it nationally.
Click to expand...

This is an interesting comment when you think about this past season. The comments this past season were along the lines of: Now if TCU has a great season, then there will be a retroactive "not such a bad loss for MN" mentions late in the season. This is the scenario that played out as the season progressed. At the time of the loss, there was a lot of doom and gloom. Funny how perceptions can change over the course of a few weeks.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom