The Comeback: Minnesota’s schedule sets P.J. Fleck to overachieve in Year 1

BleedGopher

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per The Comeback:

If Fleck can bring any sort of energy to Minnesota this year, it would be disappointing to see the Gophers start any worse than 7-0.

With a 7-0 start will come the obvious hype, for both Fleck and the Minnesota program. And in a program that hasn’t yet had a chance to recruit players for Fleck’s style, the hype and the belief that will come with it are absolutely what Minnesota needs. If the schedule was more spread out, I would expect Minnesota to maybe win one out of the Big Ten West middle trio of Iowa, Nebraska, and Northwestern, and I certainly wouldn’t expect a win over Michigan or Wisconsin.

The schedule absolutely sets up for Fleck to achieve more than this team should be capable of. And, importantly, this will let us use 2017 as a great barometer for how Fleck will be able to compete in the Big Ten. If he can’t get this team to start 7-0 (or at least 6-1, because it’s hard to be perfect for seven games), then it will raise serious questions about whether he can motivate a program like Minnesota with his “Row the Boat” attitude. But if he does start 7-0, like he should, then what he does after that will give us a great indication as to what he can do when he gets the team to really buy into his attitude.

At some point, if this team does overachieve, the bubble will have to burst. Whether that’s against Wisconsin in the regular-season finale, or possibly against Ohio State or Penn State in the Big Ten Championship Game, or maybe even against a Top 10 team in a New Years’ Six Bowl (if Minnesota can go 10-2 or better), the odds are that Minnesota will be overmatched against an opponent that just has more talent.

Then again, I saw Fleck take his Western Michigan team — which fully bought into his system — to the Cotton Bowl this year and play Wisconsin pretty close. The talent disparity in any games Minnesota plays this year should be less than what Western Michigan had to face in that game. I don’t know what Fleck will do in Minnesota, but I do know that his first year is the best set up he could have to do something really special to kick off his career there.

http://thecomeback.com/ncaa/minnesotas-schedule-sets-pj-fleck-overachieve-year-1.html

Go Gophers!!
 

I agree, I have them starting 7-0 and going in to Iowa with a good chance of winning to get to 8-0.
 

The key is to treat each game like a recruiting presentation.
 


"If Fleck can bring any sort of energy to Minnesota"? This guy really knows college football! Very insightful. Not sure if Fleck can bring any energy, jury is definitely still out on that one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


Wow. this is shocking. If you play a team that has more talent, you may be overmatched! Damn, I never would have thought of that.

Seriously, here is the entire article in Reader's Digest form. MN should beat the teams it's better than; has a chance to beat teams it's equal to; and will lose to better teams.

That's some brilliant analysis.

And now, today's household hint. When your grass gets too high, you should mow it.
 

Wisconsin fans made a million excuses about the Western Michigan
"players weren't engaged".....
"They recovered their own fumbles"...
" They got the breaks on all the call"s....
Yada...yada....yada...
 





That's weird. I thought I'd been told that Minnesota had less talent than Western Michigan which was why the Gophers were going to really struggle.
 

The ultimate story of 2017 will be if the Gophers upset Wisconsin. If PJF has only one B1G win and it is against Wisconsin, it will bring a big smile on my face. :drink:
 




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