BleedGopher
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per Baltimore Sun:
A year ago, Minnesota’s 3-0 start seemed to be a sign that the magic first-year coach P.J. Fleck had performed in turning Western Michigan from Mid-American Conference doormat into a national story would continue immediately with the Gophers.
The team’s unbeaten season ended with a 31-24 defeat to Maryland, which upset Minnesota in Minneapolis behind third-string quarterback Max Bortenschlager. The Gophers quietly returned to the norm — mediocrity — in finishing Fleck’s first season 5-7.
Minnesota gets a chance to rewrite that script Saturday, when the Gophers visit Maryland Stadium. With three straight victories to start the 2018 season, Fleck and his players know what happened last fall doesn't matter.
Still, the rebuilding of Minnesota under Fleck has parallels to what he did at Western Michigan, where he took a team that won a single game his first season in 2013 to 8-5 records his second and third years, before starting 13-0 in 2016 and losing to Wisconsin in the Cotton Bowl in what turned out to be Fleck’s final game.
“A long time ago, I was told comparisons steal your joy, because there are so many expectations when you compare yourself to somebody,” Fleck said on Tuesday’s Big Ten coaches’ teleconference. “The one similarity we do have from our second year at Western Michigan is we played an enormous amount of freshmen.
"I think we’ve played 30 freshmen at this point. The 60 out of the 110 that are on our team are freshmen. We’re very, very young and very inexperienced at key positions. … I think the big difference is, in the Big Ten, being young and being 18 years old is a little different than being 18 years old in the Mid-American Conference in terms of the physicality up front.”
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/terps/tracking-the-terps/bs-sp-minnesota-maryland-0920-story.html
Go Gophers!!
A year ago, Minnesota’s 3-0 start seemed to be a sign that the magic first-year coach P.J. Fleck had performed in turning Western Michigan from Mid-American Conference doormat into a national story would continue immediately with the Gophers.
The team’s unbeaten season ended with a 31-24 defeat to Maryland, which upset Minnesota in Minneapolis behind third-string quarterback Max Bortenschlager. The Gophers quietly returned to the norm — mediocrity — in finishing Fleck’s first season 5-7.
Minnesota gets a chance to rewrite that script Saturday, when the Gophers visit Maryland Stadium. With three straight victories to start the 2018 season, Fleck and his players know what happened last fall doesn't matter.
Still, the rebuilding of Minnesota under Fleck has parallels to what he did at Western Michigan, where he took a team that won a single game his first season in 2013 to 8-5 records his second and third years, before starting 13-0 in 2016 and losing to Wisconsin in the Cotton Bowl in what turned out to be Fleck’s final game.
“A long time ago, I was told comparisons steal your joy, because there are so many expectations when you compare yourself to somebody,” Fleck said on Tuesday’s Big Ten coaches’ teleconference. “The one similarity we do have from our second year at Western Michigan is we played an enormous amount of freshmen.
"I think we’ve played 30 freshmen at this point. The 60 out of the 110 that are on our team are freshmen. We’re very, very young and very inexperienced at key positions. … I think the big difference is, in the Big Ten, being young and being 18 years old is a little different than being 18 years old in the Mid-American Conference in terms of the physicality up front.”
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/terps/tracking-the-terps/bs-sp-minnesota-maryland-0920-story.html
Go Gophers!!