Gophers debut at 34th in Coaches Poll - will final ranking be better or worse?

How will the 34th ranking compare to where we finish the year after bowl season?

  • We will finish higher than 34th in the Coaches Poll

    Votes: 80 86.0%

  • We will finish lower than 34th in the Coaches Poll

    Votes: 12 12.9%

  • We will finish 34th in the Coaches Poll

    Votes: 1 1.1%
  • Total voters
    93
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The first Coaches Poll is out and we start the year at 34th. How will this compare to where we finish the year after bowl season?
 



Shower thoughts:
When you finish higher in the polls, you actually have a lower number.
 



What do various records rank the team at?
based on last years P5 final results

11-3 or better - 1-12
10-3 - 9-15
9-4 or 10-4 17+
8-5 - 22+
7-6 - out
 

34th is likely in the area of us finishing 8-5 including the bowl game. i think we do one better than that, and finish 9-4 which should put us on the verge of the top 25. if we can finish 10-3 that is likely borderline top 20
 

The TCU game is unfortunate. Be careful what you wish for. Jerry should have just played UNC. They were one year behind us with a coaching transition. The B1G did us no favors with the first schedules of the new divisions by scheduling both of the tradition powers. We have a very tough schedule and it will probably be like last year, a better team but the same record. Need to get the Axe.
 

beavergopher said:
The TCU game is unfortunate. Be careful what you wish for. Jerry should have just played UNC. They were one year behind us with a coaching transition. The B1G did us no favors with the first schedules of the new divisions by scheduling both of the tradition powers. We have a very tough schedule and it will probably be like last year, a better team but the same record. Need to get the Axe.
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Losses- TCU and OSU

2-3 losses from these games: @NW, NEB, MICH, @IOWA, wis

8-5 or 9-4. Sounds about right. Better team and same result, possibly a game better. If we get a couple chips to fall our way we could come away with 10 wins.
 



Love the way 13/14 sec teams received votes.

Lol
 


Granted, I am a Gopher homer, but I envision everything coming together this year. I don't think tOSU beats us twice. 2 loses worst case going into the bowl game. Bowl game depends on the draw.
 

bronco.jpg

Two surprise wins and one surprise loss. They end up at number 30.
 



diehard said:
Granted, I am a Gopher homer, but I envision everything coming together this year. I don't think tOSU beats us twice. 2 loses worst case going into the bowl game. Bowl game depends on the draw.
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:confused:
They would probably take 8/9 out of 10 from us, and the game is in Columbus
(Of course, only need to win one which is the beauty of football)
 


Can't see all this optimism with a brutal schedule, Cobb and Maxx gone, and a 51% passer with rookie receivers. Six or seven wins with the 7th maybe being the bowl game.
 

BroncoRedux said:
View attachment 3644

Two surprise wins and one surprise loss. They end up at number 30.
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2 surprise wins and 1 surprise loss and we are only at 30? By my count the only surprise wins would be beating tcu, tOSU, or wisconsin. I wouldn't be surprised to beat Nebraska/iowa/Michigan/NW. I'm not saying I expect us to win and it would be a surprise loss of we lost to them, but it would be no surprise to beat them. If we take 2/3 from tcu, tOSU, wisconsin we better be in the top 10 (top 15 depending on your surprise loss).
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
Can't see all this optimism with a brutal schedule, Cobb and Maxx gone, and a 51% passer with rookie receivers. Six or seven wins with the 7th maybe being the bowl game.
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*Flashback to this time last year

Can't see all this optimism with a brutal schedule, Hageman and Vereen gone, and no QB and with 1 decent receiving threat. 6 or seven wins with the 7th maybe being the bowl game. *

People said the same thing last year. Things worked out pretty well last year and I have no doubt we win at least 8. This team is getting better.
 

bottlebass said:
2 surprise wins and 1 surprise loss and we are only at 30? By my count the only surprise wins would be beating tcu, tOSU, or wisconsin. I wouldn't be surprised to beat Nebraska/iowa/Michigan/NW. I'm not saying I expect us to win and it would be a surprise loss of we lost to them, but it would be no surprise to beat them. If we take 2/3 from tcu, tOSU, wisconsin we better be in the top 10 (top 15 depending on your surprise loss).
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bronco.jpg

Sorry, I hate Iowa too but Minnesota hasn't won there for quite a while, maybe 1999 was the last time. So yes, in my book that will be a surprise win but no shock. Our history with Nebraska has not been sterling either so for the Gophers to win three in a row takes us back a very time. Again, a surprise albeit a pleasant one. The unexpected loss, my guess is Northwestern.
 

Here's my breakdown (with percent chance of a victory):

Losses (2):
TCU (10%)
@OSU (5%)

Victories (4):
Kent St (95%)
Ohio (95%)
@CSU (65%)
Illinois (65%)

Toss-ups (6)
@Purdue (60%)
@ Northwestern (55%)
@ Iowa (50%)
Michigan (50%)
Nebraska (45%)
wisconsin (40%)

I'm inclined to predict we split the 'toss-up' games in some fashion, which leaves us at 7-5. If you take the importance of rivalries and trophies out the picture, I think our biggest game of the year is @ Northwestern. It's our first conference game, and it will be important to get off to good start as we are probably just as likely to start 0-4 in conference as we are 4-0. @NW, @Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan does not offer us any easy victories (the point spread in all 4 will likely be +/- 3 points).

Of course, all predictions will be altered by injuries, disappointments, and surprises. Purdue and Wisconsin could possibly be easier than I'm predicting, but what Purdue did to us last year and our recent history against wisconsin fuels my predictions. There will be some that would view a 7-5 season as a catastrophe but we need to remember that we are the University of Minnesota and that anything short of disaster is, at least, treading water.
 

GopherHomer said:
Here's my breakdown (with percent chance of a victory):

Losses (2):
TCU (10%)

Toss-ups (6)
Michigan (50%)
wisconsin (40%)
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Thanks for this interesting post. My disagreements are minor. I think that we have a slightly larger chance of beating TCU (anything can happen in the 1st game of the the season), and slightly lower chances against Michigan and Wisconsin (historically=MI/recently=WI, poor results against both). Go Gophers!
 

GopherHomer said:
Here's my breakdown (with percent chance of a victory):

Losses (2):
TCU (10%)
@OSU (5%)

Victories (4):
Kent St (95%)
Ohio (95%)
@CSU (65%)
Illinois (65%)

Toss-ups (6)
@Purdue (60%)
@ Northwestern (55%)
@ Iowa (50%)
Michigan (50%)
Nebraska (45%)
wisconsin (40%)

I'm inclined to predict we split the 'toss-up' games in some fashion, which leaves us at 7-5. If you take the importance of rivalries and trophies out the picture, I think our biggest game of the year is @ Northwestern. It's our first conference game, and it will be important to get off to good start as we are probably just as likely to start 0-4 in conference as we are 4-0. @NW, @Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan does not offer us any easy victories (the point spread in all 4 will likely be +/- 3 points).

Of course, all predictions will be altered by injuries, disappointments, and surprises. Purdue and Wisconsin could possibly be easier than I'm predicting, but what Purdue did to us last year and our recent history against wisconsin fuels my predictions. There will be some that would view a 7-5 season as a catastrophe but we need to remember that we are the University of Minnesota and that anything short of disaster is, at least, treading water.
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I can’t fault your analysis. Despite my belief that we will once again be improved as compared to last year, a 7-5 record, or even worse, is certainly a possibility. I can live with that. What disturbs me is the implication in your last sentence that we are likely condemned to mediocrity in perpetuity. I suspect that I am considerably older than you, and that you have never experienced a time when we had one of the best football programs in the country. That was the case, however, for the first 60 years of Gopher football, and I had the privilege and pleasure to have been a student at the U the last time we won the National NCAA title in football and the last two times that we went to the Rose Bowl. I was there for both games.
There is reason why our revenue sports declined into mediocrity after that period. It’s because as an institution, Minnesota made a conscious decision to de-emphasize inter-collegiate sports. It isn’t because we don’t produce enough Division I athletes, that we have a cold climate, or other such reasons. Just in the past few weeks, Minnesota has been named the country’s best workplace and the best place to do business, among numerous other similar honors. Those honors simply reflect the quality of life that Minnesota has to offer and we should be embracing that fact; not despairing, as one poster claimed, that “Minnesota is the hardest place in the country to recruit to.” There is no reason why that should be true. We have a lot to offer.
Myron Metcalf grasped the problem with insufficient institutional support when he was a beat reporter for the Star-Trib, and it’s a theme he loves to harp on even today. The problem with Myron, is that he, and many Gopher fans, fail to recognize that things are finally beginning to change. We now have a university president in Eric Kaler and an AD in Norwood Teague who, I believe, are committed to that change. It’s something I haven’t previously sensed since the de-emphasis decision in the early 60s. I firmly believe that with renewed support, we can get back to where we once were in football, and get the basketball program to that level as well.
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
Can't see all this optimism with a brutal schedule, Cobb and Maxx gone, and a 51% passer with rookie receivers. Six or seven wins with the 7th maybe being the bowl game.
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In the end, the schedule is nearly identical as last year in my opinion. We played two top 5 teams and we'll do the same this year. The two toughest west opponents are Wisconsin and Nebraska. We played them both on the road last year and will play them both at home this year.
 

GophersInIowa said:
In the end, the schedule is nearly identical as last year in my opinion. We played two top 5 teams and we'll do the same this year. The two toughest west opponents are Wisconsin and Nebraska. We played them both on the road last year and will play them both at home this year.
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I'm hoping this makes a difference for us this year. The wisconsin game at the end of the year could shape up to be important on so many levels.
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
Can't see all this optimism with a brutal schedule, Cobb and Maxx gone, and a 51% passer with rookie receivers. Six or seven wins with the 7th maybe being the bowl game.
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How is the schedule any worse than last year? If anything it's better with Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska at home.

I've heard people say it's brutal a handful of times and I simply disagree. The two brutal games we have were on the schedule last year and we won 5 conference games with an egg at Illinois.
 

denguegopher said:
Thanks for this interesting post. My disagreements are minor. I think that we have a slightly larger chance of beating TCU (anything can happen in the 1st game of the the season), and slightly lower chances against Michigan and Wisconsin (historically=MI/recently=WI, poor results against both). Go Gophers!
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Why Michigan blows and were at home. Sconnie will be close with in the polls and at home . That a at least 50/50. Michigan gets too much respect every year. That beat down last year wasn't a fluke. I'm more worried about northwestern than I am Michigan and Nebraska thus year. Trap game on the road. Same week they upset Wisconsin last year.
 

Were on the verge of success. 9-3 6-2 in conference and we win the west. Losses to TCU and Ohio state and a third hick up somewhere else. Best case scenario 10-2 and I really don't think think can finish worse than 8-4. Even in the spring game we looked bigger faster and stronger than last year.what really impressed me was our back uos in the secondary looked liked starters and the third stringers could've started on brew or masons defenses.that will allow clays to be more aggressive up front
 

I think we finish 18th after a nice bowl win.
 

bemidjigopher said:
Were on the verge of success. 9-3 6-2 in conference and we win the west. Losses to TCU and Ohio state and a third hick up somewhere else. Best case scenario 10-2 and I really don't think think can finish worse than 8-4. Even in the spring game we looked bigger faster and stronger than last year.what really impressed me was our back uos in the secondary looked liked starters and the third stringers could've started on brew or masons defenses.that will allow clays to be more aggressive up front
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uhhhh
 

There are twice as many teams in the top 10 that lost their last game to a Big Ten team as there are Big Ten teams in the top ten.
 

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