Pioneer Press: Minnesota’s passing offense ranks 116th among 130 FBS programs

Donate To GopherHole
BleedGopher

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
60,745
Reaction score
16,090
Points
113
per Greder:

First-year coach P.J. Fleck fends off any comparison to Gophers teams of yesteryear, but fans have endured similarly poor passing offenses year after year.

With a quarterback combination of Demry Croft and Conor Rhoda, Minnesota’s passing offense ranks 116th among 130 FBS programs this season. Croft completed 31 percent of his passes for 139 yards, no touchdown and a red-zone interception in Saturday’s 17-10 loss at Iowa.

Fleck said he saw improvement from Croft against the Hawkeyes, but it wasn’t enough to beat their rival in the battle for Floyd of Rosedale. Croft likely will get his third straight start at Michigan next week.

http://www.twincities.com/2017/10/29/as-passing-game-struggles-so-do-gophers/

Go Gophers!!
 

But somehow its all Flecks fault the previous coach left the Gophers with next to nothing at QB and WR.
 


Chucklehead said:
But somehow its all Flecks fault the previous coach left the Gophers with next to nothing at QB and WR.
Click to expand...

What did the gophers passing offense rank last year? And we still won 9 games...
 



12 spots behind Michigan with 4 more TD passes than the Wolverines
1 spot behind Maryland
3 spots ahead of Notre Dame
 

Unregistered User said:
12 spots behind Michigan with 4 more TD passes than the Wolverines
1 spot behind Maryland
3 spots ahead of Notre Dame
Click to expand...

And those teams are all .500 or worse, right? I mean, you can't be a winning program without a strong passing game.
 

Chucklehead said:
But somehow its all Flecks fault the previous coach left the Gophers with next to nothing at QB and WR.
Click to expand...

We get the point..

Chucklehead: - Reusse stinks! All good college football coaches are self-promoters. How else do they get hired? I can't remember the last football coach of the gophers he actually liked. Give Fleck time and the gophers will be good."

- "This is why I don't support the star tribune. Bad article from a columnist who should have retired years ago. Comparing Fleck to Brewster is ignorant and been beaten to death.

I understand the frustration of them not winning. I'm close to 50 and with the exception of a handful of years, the Gophers have been bad. I think Fleck is doing the right things. This year's team wasn't gonna win 9 games this year with either coach. Gophers had no QB with experience. Its always darkest before the dawn.

- "Yes but the secondary was depleted of a lot of experience. Leidner wasn't a great QB but he had a lot of experience. They have no QB with any experience at the beginning of this year. WR's is a pretty thing group after losing Drew. Fans are unrealistic if they expected a repeat of last year's record. This was the year that Kill's and Claeys's recruiting mistakes would stand out.

- "Maybe Streveler will be like another QB who struggled at first then transferred and become a decent NFL QB. I think Aikman was his name but I could be wrong."

:rolleyes:
 

dpodoll68 said:
And those teams are all .500 or worse, right? I mean, you can't be a winning program without a strong passing game.
Click to expand...

127 - Navy: 5-2
128 - Georgia Tech: 4-3
129 - Army: 6-2

And I'm not even going to go through all the teams in the passing top 25 with losing records, although #4 UCLA is 4-4, #7 New Mexico State is 3-5, etc. etc. etc.
 



Unregistered User said:
127 - Navy: 5-2
128 - Georgia Tech: 4-3
129 - Army: 6-2

And I'm not even going to go through all the teams in the passing top 25 with losing records, although #4 UCLA is 4-4, #7 New Mexico State is 3-5, etc. etc. etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks! It's almost as if people tying the ineptitude of our passing game to our record have no idea what they're talking about!
 

Unregistered User said:
127 - Navy: 5-2
128 - Georgia Tech: 4-3
129 - Army: 6-2

And I'm not even going to go through all the teams in the passing top 25 with losing records, although #4 UCLA is 4-4, #7 New Mexico State is 3-5, etc. etc. etc.
Click to expand...

So is it time for us to enact the triple option offense?
 






Johnnyboy18 said:
Yeah Fleck recruited the QBs and receivers who can't get open and throw the ball.
Click to expand...

He didn't recruit them but he's not making them better either. Isn't that a coaches job, especially one that was a receiver?
 

Triple D said:
He didn't recruit them but he's not making them better either. Isn't that a coaches job, especially one that was a receiver?
Click to expand...

The receivers are better but lack speed and agility to get open in the Big Ten.
 

Omaha World-Herald took shots at Gopher passing ineptitude in two different articles this week. One said the forward pass was allowed in 1906, but Minnesota seems unaware, the other chided Croft for hitting 9 of 29 against Iowa. You have to be able to pass enough to open up the running game and occasionally to make really big plays (which are very rare with us). Teams that pass all the time often have bad records because they have no running or ball control. Triple option teams rarely pass, but they are the service teams + Ga Tech, whose coach was at Navy for a long time. Doubt if you could win in the B1G with the triple option. We need a much better passing game than we've had for a decade or so, to complement our running game.
 

Triple D said:
He didn't recruit them but he's not making them better either. Isn't that a coaches job, especially one that was a receiver?
Click to expand...

Sure, if the player has the ability, then it is the coaches job to bring it out of them and get the most of it. Of course there are the players that just don't have the ability, like say a 6'5" QB who no other power 5 team wanted or maybe a walk-on QB who was never meant to see the field, or another backup QB who was being looked at as a TE by the power 5 team he was committed to. Guess you could hand the reigns to the guy straight out of high school and hope he is ready. We did lose the JC guy they had committed, of course he went back to JC and from what I can tell is currently a WR.

And on the WR side, we have gotten next to nothing out of Kill's guys that were left on the roster with the one exception of Johnson who is having a nice year. Douglas was looking good before he got hurt, the rest are just not good enough. That isn't Fleck's fault that is Kill/Claeys who proved over their time here that they could recruit really well at some positions and fail miserably at others.

Your right that the coaches job is to get the most out of the players he has but there is only so much you can do when what you have available at the most important position on the field can't get the job done. Remember how much we all complained about Mitch last year, we begged the staff to give someone else a shot, and they still ran him out there week after mediocre week. Why would they do that....probably because they knew what we are all seeing play out in front of us.....the guys behind him were not good enough.
 



Croft completed 31 percent of his passes for 139 yards, no touchdown and a red-zone interception in Saturday’s 17-10 loss at Iowa.

Ah yes, the above is “improvement”. Can’t wait to see the “improvement” this week.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Some Day...Maybe said:
Croft completed 31 percent of his passes for 139 yards, no touchdown and a red-zone interception in Saturday’s 17-10 loss at Iowa.

Ah yes, the above is “improvement”. Can’t wait to see the “improvement” this week.


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

There were 5 or 6 of those in completions that hit the receivers in the hands. Not Crofts fault
 

Taji34 said:
There were 5 or 6 of those in completions that hit the receivers in the hands. Not Crofts fault
Click to expand...

Yep, he certainly did not play a good game overall but the drops were killers. Have to make the catches when he actually manages to make a good throw. Both units will hopefully see some major upgrades in the coming years.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Yep, he certainly did not play a good game overall but the drops were killers. Have to make the catches when he actually manages to make a good throw. Both units will hopefully see some major upgrades in the coming years.
Click to expand...

It would be interesting to see what his stats would be had the drops that weren't his fault been completed.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom