5 Bullet Points / Takeaways for each of us...

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Spoofin

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You only gets 5...
1. EM31 is very very good
2. RS24 is going to be our #1 RB
3. Very surprised our stable of RFr WRs had zero catches and have all been passed by a true Fr
4. I no longer understand pass interference
5. Need our OL to get healthy
 

^ Good observations. I also thought KJ was a surprisingly good possession receiver.
 

  1. First glance. Rodney Smith has the "it" factor. He's going to be good.
  2. Our defense is going to be very, very good.
  3. Rashad Still looks nifty.
  4. Mitch's passes are hard to watch, but I think he gives us the best chance to win. I don't buy that a 3-star true freshman QB can make the reads, manage the game, and not get flustered, no matter how creamy smooth his passes are in practice.
  5. Nate Wozniak looks really big.
 

1. Where did julian huff come from?
2. Hank and Theiren were quiet for the most part.
3. Limegrover has two left feet and no rhythm
4. Rodney Smith needs to be our RB
5. Our OL is a tire fire right now
 

1. Turnovers are going to kill you every time.
2. Leidner looked very much like he did last season.
3. Julian Huff had a nice debut.
4. Special teams was very special, except for that onside kick.
5. Come back quickly Josh Campion.
 


mkAz said:
1. Turnovers are going to kill you every time.
2. Leidner looked very much like he did last season.
3. Julian Huff had a nice debut.
4. Special teams was very special, except for that onside kick.
5. Come back quickly Josh Campion.
Click to expand...

That fair catch around the 5-yard line wasn't exactly special.
 

Jeff Jones did not look happy on the sidelines and was standing all alone at times. I wonder what he's thinking.
 

mkAz said:
1. Turnovers are going to kill you every time.
2. Leidner looked very much like he did last season.
3. Julian Huff had a nice debut.
4. Special teams was very special, except for that onside kick.
5. Come back quickly Josh Campion.
Click to expand...

Really like your list.
1. Defense will keep us in most games. Holding TCU to 23 is very impressive.
2. Smith looks like a #1 back and will hopefully get a chance to prove it.
3. Nice to see us not look clueless running the 2 minute drill, no huddle looked solid
4. Passing game was underwhelming at best, young WR were not that impressive, Leidner average at best.
5. Margin for error remains slim but should absolutely contend in the West.
 

I refuse to follow format as I have too much to say.
-ML didn't lose us that game. He was alright. Hit some tough ones (progress) and missed some easy ones. Reads were ok and he missed some there which honestly might be his greatest weakness at this point (presnsp reads)
-Rodney is our rb and for f's sake YOU CANNOT FUMBLE AT THE GOAL LINE AND BEAT A TOP 5 TEAM
-our wrs are much improved. Going up vs this secondary has helped tons. Wolit showed some flashes. KJ good in possession. Still needs to learn to judge a ball in flight but should be a contributor
-OL was terribly sporadic. Some truck holes. Tons of penetration. Awful in blitz pickup. Weak pass protection. LT was a critical weak link. They need to get healthy and come together for this o to click
DL was far too quiet and I think that's why EM got roughed up in the secondary from time to time. You can't cover wrs of that caliber for that long. They must improve in pass rush
-our lbs were hit and miss. Lynn and huff impressed me. Poock disappointed me. Tons of missed tackles by him. Campbell showed good speed which we needed tonight.
-our secondary is by far our best unit. Pretty solid in coverage but killed by lack of rush/scrambling a few times and those are the best crop of wrs we'll face all year by far. Great tackling from then as a group too
-lot of respect for Boykin after today. Lots of toughness. No he won't win the heisman but he was the reason their offense kept moving.
-TCU defense showed our o line what was up all game and it wrecked anything we could get going. They deserved to win this game.
-refs were strange tonight. Did a good job letting them play mostly but really slow on review and to initiate review. The pi calls were confusing to say the least.
-coaching was fine. Had to minimize their sites advantage which we did very well in order to stay in it.

Overall we hung with a very good team and if we show up we look like we'll beat every team from here on out except osu with coin flips vs wi and neb and I will take that. Was really impressed with our increased team speed. That tcu team will run many teams off the field this year and even with our o struggling, our d hung with them. I can see some shut outs in b10 play as very possible
 




1. Can't turn the ball over and make the mistakes we made and beat a top 5 team.
2. Smith needs to start. Nugget was/is a let down.
3. Our OL. smh. just bad. People gotta stop dogging Leidner, he had zero time to even drop back. When he did, he was fairly good.
4. Our defense is THE REAL DEAL. nuff said
5. Where were our redshirt freshman receivers that would have contributed in our bowl game? They were no where to be found.

I know it isn't as simple as this but if nugget doesn't fumble on the goal line we could have won that game 24 - 23... Or at least been relying on our defense to make the game winning stop (which is our strength) vs the offense needing to drive against a better than average defense.

ALSO GREAT F'N CROWD TONIGHT PEOPLE!!! THE STUDENT SECTION WAS PACKED 10 MINUTES BEFORE KICK OFF AND LOUD! BRING IT LIKE THAT EVERY WEEK
 

Will offer no bullets but on the way home after the game heard on ESPN Radio (national broadcast) about the "near upset" of TCU by Minnesota.

The Billds were vocal but not sure if what happened was a "near upset..."

That said...we'll take it. This aligns with the feelings of the TCU fans behind us. They were pretty pissed, but not how I might have expected. They thought Coach Patterson underestimated the Gophers' defense...and frankly were alarmed that we made it to within a touchdown to win. Lot's of fun anticipating the onside kick at the end...too bad a lot of folks were gone and could not enjoy the lead-up to that part of the game.

In reading the Strib's accounts we need to get healthy on the O-Line yesterday. It showed tonight. At Colorado State is going to be interesting.
 

1. BBC didn't do too well, gave up some critical plays
2. Rodrick should only be used on goal line or short yardage plays
3. Where was Jeff Jones?
4. Leidner was his same up/down self, not very accurate. Missed some critical throws, missed some easy throws.
5. Defense dodged a few blown coverages that could have been very bad.
 



1. Didn't make the plays that were there to be made. If Mitch leads Maye on the flea flicker, If Rodney holds on to the football, If Eric Carter comes down with the pass, If Campbell picks off that pass, and so on and so on. Certainly can't make them all, but to beat TCU the Gophers couldn't leave that many plays on the field.

2. Defense holds TCU to 23 points. I thought in the most optimistic scenario, the Gophers would need to put up 28 to win, it turns out 24(!) would have done it. Now it must be said that Boykin missed a couple throws himself that could have added to that score total, but the defense exceeded expectations.

3. Have to get more out of the quarterback position. If a guy is going to be erratic, he at least needs to be dynamic at times. Pocket presence and accuracy are nowhere near where you'd hope they'd be at this point.

4. Loved the addition of the hurry up to the offense. This offense badly needed a wrinkle or two to in order to become more dynamic and this was a step in the right direction. Your ceiling is only so high if your goal is to shorten the game and hope you can win the close ones.

5. Huff really flashed as a true freshman and Smith had some nice runs as a redshirt freshman. I thought Myrick had a nice night for as frequently as he was targeted as well.
 

I'm not sure where the hate for the O line is coming from.

2015 O line vs TCU >> 2014 O line vs TCU. Not a high hurdle.

Lauer gave up a few hits on Leidner in the first quarter, but most of the bad passes were just that, bad. Throw in a few drops to add salt to the wound. Maybe there were a lot more hits on Leidner than I remember.

Regroup and go get em.. I'm actually very encouraged by what I saw. If Lauer and Campion are out beyond the preseason we might be in trouble. But all in all, thought they did ok and were much improved at opening holes vs 2014. TCU may just have been down with injuries but we heard how they had 8 quality players on the defensive line.
 

1) Eric Murray is a beast. Forced fumble, interception, 8 tackles. His biggest "weakness" IMO is that he gets a little too physical at times and pushes the limits of PI. The PI along the MN sideline where the TCU WR went down looked like a complete dive to me, but they called PI because Murray was making slight contact. The WR felt the contact, saw the throw was slightly overthrown, and dove like a soccer player. Besides the PI calls he crushed it tonight.

2) On a related note, the defense is legit. TCU tonight: 2 TDs (one from 15 yds out), 3 FGs, 1 interception, 1 FF, and 6 punts. $10 says TCU scores 30+ in every other game this year.

3) Rodney Smith is the real deal, too. I think it's too soon to proclaim that he is gonna be the guy and get 20 carries a game, but he deserves to be starting next week. However, keep in mind we struggled to run between the tackles tonight for most of the game and Nugget will likely be more effective against weaker defenses later this year.

4) I mentioned this in another thread: Mitch looked OK, but he had at least 5 throws that were complete ducks. I can handle a few accuracy issues and a low slant pass, but some of his passes wobbled like crazy. I was at the game and didn't notice until I watched the replay, and you obviously won't see any of these passes on the highlights. I'm not as concerned as many here on GH, but I wasn't exactly inspired either.

5) The crowd was stellar tonight. Besides one grumpy old man behind me who sat the entire game and got mad when I stood up, everyone was pumped up all game. I enrolled at the U in 2011, graduated in May, and that's the best crowd I've seen since I picked up season tickets Freshman year.
 

BarnBoy said:
  1. First glance. Rodney Smith has the "it" factor. He's going to be good.
  2. Our defense is going to be very, very good.
  3. Rashad Still looks nifty.
    [*]Mitch's passes are hard to watch, but I think he gives us the best chance to win. I don't buy that a 3-star true freshman QB can make the reads, manage the game, and not get flustered, no matter how creamy smooth his passes are in practice.
  4. Nate Wozniak looks really big.
Click to expand...

Mitch can't do any of those things either...

I mean all the other notes that people are making are great. Our receivers aren't great, but I think they have some promise. O- Line was banged up and running game took a while to get going.

With all that said, it's all about #7. QB impacts too much of the game to be so incompetent. He seems like a nice guy and a hard worker, but he just can't be the QB of this team if it wants to take the next step. He impacts the running game, passing game, and the defense especially.
 

EG#9 said:
1. Didn't make the plays that were there to be made. If Mitch leads Maye on the flea flicker, If Rodney holds on to the football, If Eric Carter comes down with the pass, If Campbell picks off that pass, and so on and so on. Certainly can't make them all, but to beat TCU the Gophers couldn't leave that many plays on the field.

2. Defense holds TCU to 23 points. I thought in the most optimistic scenario, the Gophers would need to put up 28 to win, it turns out 24(!) would have done it. Now it must be said that Boykin missed a couple throws himself that could have added to that score total, but the defense exceeded expectations.

3. Have to get more out of the quarterback position. If a guy is going to be erratic, he at least needs to be dynamic at times. Pocket presence and accuracy are nowhere near where you'd hope they'd be at this point.

4. Loved the addition of the hurry up to the offense. This offense badly needed a wrinkle or two to in order to become more dynamic and this was a step in the right direction. Your ceiling is only so high if your goal is to shorten the game and hope you can win the close ones.

5. Huff really flashed as a true freshman and Smith had some nice runs as a redshirt freshman. I thought Myrick had a nice night for as frequently as he was targeted as well.
Click to expand...

Comments:

1) Yes, there were some missed opportunities, but the same thing could be said for TCU. We just missed more I guess.

2) Agree that the defense was about as good as could be expected against such a high powered offense and that bodes well for most of the rest of the schedule when we won't be facing offenses like this. The defense wasn't perfect but should be plenty good enough for the rest of our opponents (except maybe OSU, of course). Like last year, the pass rush still doesn't pressure quite enough and the defense is still vulnerable to giving up sizable runs.

3) It must be said that Leidner was much better than he was in last year's TCU game and he didn't throw any interceptions. Of course, he suffered in comparison to Boykin but even Boykin had a few poor throws. For the first game of the season against very high level competition, I thought Leidner had a fair game. I think he suffered from the offensive line's difficulties and the fact that the team couldn't get the running game going until the second half. He threw 35 passes last night and that isn't the natural state for an offense that depends on getting a certain kind of rhythm going.

4) Agreed

5) Yes, those two newcomers had fine games. I would add Poock to that list. Myrick was good and Maye looks like he might become one of the team's offensive stars.
 

1. Mitch Leidner is still a below average QB
2. Rodney Smith should be the #1 RB by the time conference play starts
3. The Defense is the legit
4. Jalen Myrick is going to be picked on a lot
5. One of the WRs besides KJ Maye and not named Drew Wolitarsky needs to step up and make plays on a consistence basis
 

1. If that defense shows up every game, we will win 9-10 games this year before the bowl game. During the game, I wanted more pressure on the QB, but in hindsight, we did the bend-without-breaking thing pretty well against an offense that is used to torching defenses.

2. RB's: Nugget disappointed, Smith impressed. The story here though, is that Nugget needs the line to perform in order to get yards, Smith doesn't. Once our line is healthy and grinding like we expect, I would say it will be a closer comparison.

3. Mitch, oh Mitch! I'm gonna give him a pass on this one. This is the best (non-tOSU) defense he will face. His O-line was banged, had no time to settle in, and running game was sputtering at best. He had his bad moments, to be sure, but I thought he managed the game well. He did not rise to the occasion on that last "drive", although it was because of an excellent previous drive of his that that opportunity existed at all. I blame it on the lack of mitchbeard.

4. TCU is good. It's been a pleasant buildup with their fans all offseason, their team plays good clean football, coach is a great guy, and deserves his shot at the Playoffs. I think, even if not for selfish reasons, we ought to pull for the Frogs the rest of the year.

5. Looked like an awesome atmosphere out there, although too many people left early. Still, the students looked great and I think even some old people were standing on third down. Also - we just lost and Gopherhole is not in meltdown mode - Country Jer's biggest victory yet!!

Bonus!!! 6. It's week one. We knew nothing concrete about any teams after week one last year. Let's string some wins together and get back in this B.
 

1. If TCU is the #2 team in the country, we might be pretty good, too.
2. We're not deep enough in talent to miss front-line players against elite teams. We need to get and stay healthy.
3. Did anyone say turnovers would be the difference? Mitch's fumble was big, but he can't be worried about his blind side on a three-step drop. Roderick's was a really difficult lesson in ball security. Toss in the TCU fumble that wasn't allowed and that's 3 huge plays in determining the outcome.
4. Mitch is our QB. Over the course of this year his confidence will grow, our receiving corps will develop, and our offense will be a force.
5. Everything we want to accomplish is still within our grasp. Get on track next week and we still have a chance for something special.
 

RolGnav said:
1. BBC didn't do too well, gave up some critical plays
2. Rodrick should only be used on goal line or short yardage plays
3. Where was Jeff Jones?
4. Leidner was his same up/down self, not very accurate. Missed some critical throws, missed some easy throws.
5. Defense dodged a few blown coverages that could have been very bad.
Click to expand...

Over/Under on how soon he transfers? I say before our bowl game.
 

1. Chill out with Rodney Smith starting. Everyone is making it sound like he got 3 carries. He got 16 compared to Roderick's 9 in his first game. After last night, it's pretty obvious he's the better back and will continue to get the majority of carries. But there's also a place for nugget.
2. Mitch took a step forward. He's not Boykin, but few are. 19-35, 197 yards, 1TD with 0 INT against a stout defense is not bad. He still missed some throws, but last year he had stat lines against good defenses along the lines of 6-17, O TDs, 2-3 INTs (I think that was pretty close to his OSU stat line). His offensive line did him no favors.
3. I thought the offensive game plan was way too vanilla. The biggest play of the night was the flea flicker, which caught TCU off-guard. We knew they had a lot of new players starting at LB and DB, and we did little to try and confuse them. No motion or shifts the whole game, we just lined up and ran pretty basic plays. Given our struggles at O-line, I realize that long developing plays weren't going to work, but we could have been more creative pre-snap.
4. We need the O-line and Plsek healthy. Lauer, Campion, and Plsek might be the 3 best blockers on the team (along with Pirsig). I think it's a different game if we had all of them out there.
5. We only gave up 23 points to a really, really good TCU offense and 7 of those were because of the Leidner fumble. After that performance, does anyone else (other than OSU) put up 20 on us all season?
 

1. OL really hurt us particulary in first half. (pass-pressure and not much running room created)
2. Two very Costly mistakes killed us (Gift TD to TCU in 1st quarter when we fumble on our own 10 yard line, and fumble going into for our score = 14 pt swing)
3. Rodney Smith looks good, but still a way to go. Does not have Cobb vision (yet), cut the wrong way a number of times on runs where Cobb goes for another 10-15 yards.
4. Mitch just all too often throws an "Ugly ball". (many wobblers, ducks, and grounders) (Even the flea-flicker was horribly underthrown - short and wide, nice play was made by WR and TCU DBs were beat badly)
5. Our no-huddle looked good for the most part, moved the ball more consistently than when we huddled.
 

John Galt said:
1. Chill out with Rodney Smith starting. Everyone is making it sound like he got 3 carries. He got 16 compared to Roderick's 9 in his first game. After last night, it's pretty obvious he's the better back and will continue to get the majority of carries. But there's also a place for nugget.
2. Mitch took a step forward. He's not Boykin, but few are. 19-35, 197 yards, 1TD with 0 INT against a stout defense is not bad. He still missed some throws, but last year he had stat lines against good defenses along the lines of 6-17, O TDs, 2-3 INTs (I think that was pretty close to his OSU stat line). His offensive line did him no favors.
3. I thought the offensive game plan was way too vanilla. The biggest play of the night was the flea flicker, which caught TCU off-guard. We knew they had a lot of new players starting at LB and DB, and we did little to try and confuse them. No motion or shifts the whole game, we just lined up and ran pretty basic plays. Given our struggles at O-line, I realize that long developing plays weren't going to work, but we could have been more creative pre-snap.
4. We need the O-line and Plsek healthy. Lauer, Campion, and Plsek might be the 3 best blockers on the team (along with Pirsig). I think it's a different game if we had all of them out there.
5. We only gave up 23 points to a really, really good TCU offense and 7 of those were because of the Leidner fumble. After that performance, does anyone else (other than OSU) put up 20 on us all season?
Click to expand...
Great take on Plesk. Totally overlooked his presence as a blocker.
 

MrGopher said:
their team plays good clean football, coach is a great guy, and deserves his shot at the Playoffs. I think, even if not for selfish reasons, we ought to pull for the Frogs the rest of the year.
Click to expand...

I actually thought this same thing during the game. I commented on how clean the game seemed. No jaw-jacking, no after the play stuff. Don't know if extra stuff was said by both teams about respect for the opponents, but I'm with you here.

1. The OL needs to get healthy. Then again, they probably won't see this type of speed in the opposing Front 7/6 except for OSU.
2. ML is not the reason for the loss, but it still wasn't superb by any means. I'd go C+/B-. Good moments, bad moments. Consistency is the goal. Always wanting Iowa/Nebraska/Missouri ML, not Wisconsin/OSU/Illinois ML. That said, he's our QB, not the others.
3. Echo the thoughts about Rodney Smith. Hopefully the other RB's can step up their game.
4. Nothing more to say about the D that hasn't already been said. I thought the LB's didn't play too poorly. They were pretty much on an island with QB & RB just as much as the DB's were against their WR's. Hopefully the D can hold up to physical O's as well as they played tonight. I worry about all of the Gophers' opponents, but I'm less worried about Purdue now.
5. Atmosphere was awesome. Just wish people would stay any time the Gophers are within 2 scores. However, it was a late, late night, so it's hard to get too upset about it. I'm super fired up for the Halloween night game!
 


1. Rodney Smith looked very good and I think last night earned him the majority of the carries again next week.
2. Very solid debuts for Huff, Poock, and Rogers on defense all stood out to me.
3. The ball probably won't ever look real pretty coming out of Leidner's hand but he was alright last night. Missed on 4-5 throws you need to make but WRs/TEs had 4-5 bad drops too.
4. Tackle is a concern for me right now need Campion and Lauer to get healthy. Think the pressure really started to effect Leidner also looked like the TCU DE's got pretty good jumps most of the night off that clap snap count.
5. When is the last time a walk-on true Freshman didn't redshirt was surprised to see Blake Cashman doing that but he looked pretty solid on special teams.
 

1. Defense did well, but they still need to get far more pressure on the QB. Boykin's Interception came after he was hit why throwing. That was too rare.
2. D-Backs had a good night particularly when you figure in whole long they had to hold coverage. Tough to come back and make a tackle on a running QB when you're still following your man downfield.
3. BIG holes for TCU runners, not many of those for the Gophers. That said TCU's longest run from scrimmage was only 19 yards according to today's stats. While the D-lne didn't stop them, the guys in back did. On the Gopher side Smith made the most of those few wholes.
4. Seen it many times but very pleased to see again how the Gophers Defense just does not panic. They seem to have the attitude of "We'll get this done". Nice to see.
5. Stupid play by the Punt returner making that fair catch, but did anybody else notice that on the next punt deep into Gopher territory he DIDN'T try to catch the ball. Good job and good coaching. That ball then hit the ground, went straight-up and landed around the 4 yard line.

Great game, but some very strange moments.
 

I'll go in a different direction

1. People who buy tailgate lot parking passes should not show up at 7:00 and expect real tailgaters to move everything to actually get into a spot. (that's for you Mr. BMW)
2. If we are going to see regular attendence at these levels as the program improves, they need more beer stands. The lines were too long
3. The University and cell providers need to figure out how to get even third world-level reception in the stadium
4. If they want us to actually sing the "Alma Mater" have someone who knows how to operate the prompts to put the words up BEFORE we are supposed to sing them
5. Can the U get a brain surgeon to figure out how to get the TVs to all play the live game and not have half of them on a 15 second delay? With long lines for concessions, it would be nice to be able actually watch the game.

And one football related one...the health and play of the O Line is the single most important contributing factor to how good this team can be this year.
 

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