Omaha World Herald: 10 potential upset specials in BT (Mdl TN St over MN; MN over wi)

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per the Omaha World Herald:

Minnesota vs. Middle Tennessee State: The Blue Raiders can score points by the bushel — try nearly 40 points per game last season — and upsets over Georgia Tech in 2012 and Missouri in 2016 show MTSU is capable of wrecking a Power Five Conference team.

Wisconsin at Minnesota: P.J. Fleck is the Gophers’ new coach, and he’s likely to turn the annual game against Wisconsin — the Badgers have won 13 straight — into a big cause. Sooner or later, Minnesota’s winning this game. Probably not this year, but still.

http://www.omaha.com/huskers/blogs/...cle_60fd1f24-6a6a-11e7-9562-ff6946985439.html

Go Gophers!!
 

Possible. Kinda shows how variable this season might be...
 

Middle Tenn. defense has been pretty awful. Even with a shut-out win last year, opponents still averaged almost 40 points a game.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Middle Tenn. defense has been pretty awful. Even with a shut-out win last year, opponents still averaged almost 40 points a game.
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It would be nice to see us beat someone up a bit more often.... but I've said that about a lot of non conference games and the results haven't been consistent.
 

Hopefully Fleck isn't the type of coach who is obsessive about not showing anything in the Non-Conference season. More "Mason-like". Got the impression from Kill that if he thought he could win a non-conference game 3-0, he'd be perfectly content to go 3 and out again and again.
 


Should also note that this game was listed too. :cool:

Nebraska at Purdue: It’s already happened once, in 2015, and this Boilermaker team, at least on paper, will be better than the 2015 squad. Purdue’s quarterback, David Blough, returns, and he’s had good experience against NU, playing well in two games.
 

Iceland12 said:
Hopefully Fleck isn't the type of coach who is obsessive about not showing anything in the Non-Conference season. More "Mason-like". Got the impression from Kill that if he thought he could win a non-conference game 3-0, he'd be perfectly content to go 3 and out again and again.
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I do miss those games...100+ yards rushing before the half.
 

Iceland12 said:
Hopefully Fleck isn't the type of coach who is obsessive about not showing anything in the Non-Conference season. More "Mason-like". Got the impression from Kill that if he thought he could win a non-conference game 3-0, he'd be perfectly content to go 3 and out again and again.
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Really? What explosive offense were they hiding in the non-conference that they suddenly unleashed on B1G opponents?
 






Iceland12 said:
Hopefully Fleck isn't the type of coach who is obsessive about not showing anything in the Non-Conference season. More "Mason-like". Got the impression from Kill that if he thought he could win a non-conference game 3-0, he'd be perfectly content to go 3 and out again and again.
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Yes, according to Mason, sometimes he would run trick plays knowing he'd never run them again just to give opponents something to prepare for.
 





I'm sure PJ will have some trick plays MTS? .....I think the Gophers will rush for 300 yards and the game will be over by the start of the 4th quarter.
 

Iceland12 said:
Rrrrrriiightttt..

Now go back and find a thread where you said that at the time.
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2 years ago:

GopherWeatherGuy said:
I'm with you and I don't buy the holding things back. Sure our offense is more vanilla before B1G play but it doesn't change that much. Are the Gophers that scared that they can't show anything on film, because it will be that easy to stop once it is? If that's the truth this offense/coaching staff has some serious issues.
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http://www.forums.gopherhole.com/boards/showthread.php?63883-It-s-Time-For-a-Change/page4
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
2 years ago:



http://www.forums.gopherhole.com/boards/showthread.php?63883-It-s-Time-For-a-Change/page4
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I stand corrected. "It's Time for a Change" was an interesting thread that you started there, and you were quite confident in your posts. Particularly on how lousy Leidner was as a QB. Looks ike we'll find out about Croft this year.

- "The play calling has been horrific.
The offensive line has been a swinging gate.
Leidner continues to badly under throw receivers.

The offense cannot get any worse than what we've seen the last three weeks. Sure Limegrover and the offensive line deserve much of the blame. But opposing teams are constantly stacking the box, daring us to throw.

It's time for Croft. At this point there is zero downside and only the potential for improvement."

- Today's offense will not win the Gophers another game this year. How could it get worse?

- All that tells me is that the play calling is a function of the limitations at QB. Once again reiterating the fact that this offense can only go forward and not backward with a new, more athletic QB running the show.

- Your forgot to add the current QB also sucks...which is one of the reasons why the offensive line sucks, and the play calling sucks.

- I don't know who's saying clean house, but something has to change. Whether it's a new QB, better play calling, or something else, this offense needs a spark or the Gophers will lose to Ohio on homecoming next week.

- Leidner has a better chance of getting hurt than Croft because he can't move as well. So I don't really buy that as an argument, especially because this is pretty much the same offensive line we had last year.

- I've had the same thoughts on why is the offense so much different than it was at Northern Illinois. It doesn't make sense. Were their skill position players that much better? How after 5 years have they not been able to recruit better players on offense at a Big Ten school compared to a MAC school?

- "Yet as I've said before this is a veteran offense of line that only lost 1 player off of last year's line."

- "Bingo. Leidner is no longer mobile and his weakness is short, accurate passing. A QB who can do this would be more successful and help alleviate some of our OL issues.

http://www.forums.gopherhole.com/boards/showthread.php?63883-It-s-Time-For-a-Change
 


Iceland12 said:
I stand corrected. "It's Time for a Change" was an interesting thread that you started there, and you were quite confident in your posts. Particularly on how lousy Leidner was as a QB. Looks ike we'll find out about Croft this year.
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I'm always confident in my posts. :)

I've never said Leidner was a great QB. At that time he was also more hurt than anyone realized.

The main point was that I thought Croft had to be better because Leidner was so bad, it couldn't get any worse. But now after nearly 2 full seasons, neither Croft nor anyone else could beat him out. This is why I have my doubts that the QB play will be any better this year.

I was also ripping the poor offensive line play and lack of talent at skill positions. Both things that were still major problems last year under different offensive coaches. Leidner was far from the only problem.

This is why I think it's much more of a talent issue on offense than a coaching issue, and why I think it'll take a few recruiting classes of better QBs, WRs, and OL before we see significant improvements.
 

So I'm clear, you said then things couldn't get any worse than Leidner, but you're certain they will be worse this year.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
So I'm clear, you said then things couldn't get any worse than Leidner, but you're certain they will be worse this year.
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At that time, that's what I thought. That was coming off of scoring 10 points against an awful Kent St team where Leidner also threw 2 picks.

Still a year and a half later, no one beat him out even with new offensive coaches. I think that's telling. I'm not certain they'll be worse this year, but I'm not certain they'll be better. No one knows what we have at QB. In very limited time, neither Croft or Rhoda looked better than Leidner.
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
At that time, that's what I thought. That was coming off of scoring 10 points against an awful Kent St team where Leidner also threw 2 picks.

Still a year and a half later, no one beat him out even with new offensive coaches. I think that's telling. I'm not certain they'll be worse this year, but I'm not certain they'll be better. No one knows what we have at QB. In very limited time, neither Croft or Rhoda looked better than Leidner.
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Ok, so at the time despite nobody beating him out you felt someone had to be better, i.e. the coaches weren't playing the best player.

That seems like quite a philosophical shift. You and others have repeatedly (and wrongly) stated that because Croft was redshirted he is automatically a worse QB in Ciarrocca's scheme.

Perhaps with time you will change your tune about that the same way you've changed your mind about Leidner and the previous staff. Perhaps you'll be proven right and the QB position will be historically bad this season. For Fleck's delicate ego's sake I hope not.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Ok, so at the time despite nobody beating him out you felt someone had to be better, i.e. the coaches weren't playing the best player.

That seems like quite a philosophical shift. You and others have repeatedly (and wrongly) stated that because Croft was redshirted he is automatically a worse QB in Ciarrocca's scheme.

Perhaps with time you will change your tune about that the same way you've changed your mind about Leidner and the previous staff. Perhaps you'll be proven right and the QB position will be historically bad this season. For Fleck's delicate ego's sake I hope not.
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Where have I changed my mind? After that game he bounced back and was decent against Ohio, then the Northwestern bloodbath occurred and Croft saw his first action. It is possible to have a bad QB still be the best option. And 2 years later that appears to have been the case.

How am I wrong about Croft being worse than Leidner in Ciarocca's scheme? Leidner still completed 60% of his passes in 2015 and 56% passes last year. In limited action Croft's is 41%. Rhoda's is 50%. Could Croft end up being better? Sure. But as of today, there is nothing that guarantee's he will be better.
 


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