Hill: Gophers fans should not feel bad about what happened against Ohio State

BleedGopher

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per Hill:

The Minnesota Gophers went into the Horseshoe and lost, but no one in Dinkytown should feel bad about what happened.
Looking at the box score of Saturday’s showdown at the Horseshoe between Ohio State and Minnesota makes it seem like it was a one-sided contest. Dwayne Haskins had bloated numbers that will ensure he remains in the Heisman conversation and the final margin of victory was more than two scores, but that wasn’t the whole story.

The Gophers are not a championship team. They will not be competing for a conference title this year and might very well go back-to-back years without a trip to a bowl game. But Ohio State is a title contender and could end up winning the National Championship, and the Gophers had them on the ropes for a good portion of Saturday’s game.

As a title contender should, the Buckeyes pulled away late and scored a garbage time touchdown to make the victory look more significant than it was. Some will argue that Minnesota simply caught Ohio State on a bad day, but that’d be overlooking what P.J. Fleck has brewing with his program.

One could dub the start of the Fleck era in Dinkytown as underwhelming. He came to town with such high expectations that missing a bowl game for the first time in five years seemed like starting on the wrong foot. But the Gophers shouldn’t be interested in limping into default bowl games, the Big Ten title is the goal. No college program, especially a Power 5 school, should be alright with settling for less and dashing its own national championship dreams.

Fleck has his work cut out, but the foundation is being laid for Minnesota to put to rest the mediocrity its become comfortable with and break into something better.

https://fansided.com/2018/10/13/minnesota-gophers-pj-fleck-future-bright/

Go Gophers!!
 



Ohio State is not a title contender. And yes, the Gophers should feel bad. Game was winnable.
 

But the Gophers shouldn’t be interested in limping into default bowl games, the Big Ten title is the goal. No college program, especially a Power 5 school, should be alright with settling for less and dashing its own national championship dreams.

We should settle for nothing less than a Big Ten title....but, we should still cheer on 'moral victories' where we lose by 2TDs to a team playing uninspired football coming off an emotional victory in the 2nd season of a new HC that is 2-10 in Big Ten play. From 2 years ago, the Gophers have regressed. From Any point in recent memory other than the Brewster era, we have regressed. At least those old regimes could point to lack of an on campus stadium, poor facilities, and an non-supportive AD. PJ's results are consistent with Brewster's but he doesn't have the excuses...but, his solution is the same...recruiting!
 


Ohio State is not a title contender. And yes, the Gophers should feel bad. Game was winnable.
Look at OSU's schedule. There's realistically at least a 25% chance they win out. I'd say they are title contenders.
 

Michigan looked good today (and WI looked horrible) so that will be a test as usual. However, I think there it is 50/50 if not better that they win out. That said, they don't go into each game with the same focus and intensity. I think that was the major factor in today's game.
 





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