What grade would you give the Gophers 2018 regular season?

What grade would you give the Gophers 2018 regular season?

  • A

    Votes: 15 9.6%
  • B

    Votes: 82 52.2%
  • C

    Votes: 55 35.0%
  • D

    Votes: 3 1.9%
  • F

    Votes: 2 1.3%

  • Total voters
    157
Bowl eligible is minimum wage. We were lucky to be a D going into the game yesterday. The Axe is worth 1 or even 2 grade levels as a regular season finale. I went with 1 to a C because of the 3 terrible loses we had.
 

Graded a C. After reading through this, it’s certainly a B. Took too long to let zrobb Smith go, but the Purdue, Fresno St and Wisconsin wins elevate.
 


C. Too many bad losses to be a B or A. Beating wisconsin keeps it from being a D
 

The team gets an A from me...It's a young team which overcame lots of adversity and played the whole season without most of its best players. The guys got great grades and stayed out of trouble. They made the news doing positive acts of service. If they had beaten Illinois and lost to Wisconsin, it wouldn't have been as awesome. They won the axe in Wisconsin...something not done in 25 years. They are going bowling. A for grades, A for acts of service instead of getting in trouble with the law, A for going bowling, A for hiring Rossi and making the future bright, and A for an absolutely huge signature win that we will all remember.
 


I wold have said "C", because a .500 record (with a trophy win) seemed like a reasonable goal considering our youth. Throw in the injuries, and getting to .500 was a much more daunting task.

So ... beating Bucky begets a B.

JTG
 

I give it a B. If you'd told me at the start of the year we'd get 6 wins and a bowl game, with a W over the Badgers, I'd have said that's a successful season.

A lot of people were not happy going from 9 wins to 5 last year, and I get that. However, you simply cannot judge a new coach after one season - there are way too many things that change with a coaching change, and the results on the field in year one simply are not reflective of whether a coach will eventually succeed or not. The results in year two are only slightly more indicative of eventual success. I believe four full years are truly needed to evaluate a coaching change - unless the program is a complete dumpster fire after year three, in which case it may make sense to make a change at that point.

That said, going from 5 wins in year one to 6 wins in year two represents tangible forward progress under Fleck. The best part is, rather that starting out red hot and then withering at the end of the season, we actually finished the year on a high note, winning 2 of our last 3 and beating Wisconsin. That will give us great momentum going in to the offseason - it gives fans hope, gets the media to back off of their criticism of Fleck, and definitely helps with recruiting, which is the most important part of this. I imagine the coaches are planning to hit the road tomorrow to meet with recruits. They'll have a lot of positives to talk about.

If our 2019, 2020, 2021 recruiting classes are the caliber of our 2018 class, we'll be in a great spot to challenge for a B1G West title.
 

It's a C. Interesting that 75% of GHers ( Rossi Poll) feel this team would have won at least 8 regular season games, yet close to 2/3 give the season an A or B.
 

.500 gets a C, all the blowout loses drags it down.. But getting the AXE back = C+

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Went with a C
Losing to Illinois in such a fashion was a real low spot.
Beating Wisconsin handily on the road to secure bowl eligibility and the Axe a real high spot.
Switching to Morgan and Rossi saved things.
 

I had to go to a B, more likely a B-. Certainly close on the border of a C. However, There are some things to consider.
-A win over a good Fresno State team to start the season, yes they're G5, but they've proven to be a talented squad.
-The way the team has won. Four of the wins were by double digits. Was nearly the same case with Indiana, but the Hoosiers have that high powered offense.
-Improving the win amount. Wasn't a huge jump, but the team has increased its win total from last year. Extra points for bowl eligibility.
-Earning the Axe back, huge win. Not just a victory, but a a moment that's great for the development of these young players.
-Doing all of this with a depleted roster. Hard to look at the list of names and not see Winfield Jr., Smith and Brooks as some of our most talented guys, and we lost them all relatively early. We can never know what the season would have looked like if they had been healthy and played. We can't say that we automatically would have won more games. However, I do think their absence made our margin of error much smaller. So, for the team to still reach bowl eligibility despite the injuries should count for something.

The blowout losses were rough for sure, but in the last three games, the team had a good bounce back, losing only to the West Division Champs which are currently on a hot streak. Again, I'd say barely a B-, close to a C, but last night brought things into perspective for me.
 

Went with a C. I'd consider missing a bowl game an F, and would generally consider just barely getting in at 6-6 a D. Gave some bonus points for beating Wisconsin, almost got back to a D for getting killed by three bad teams (Maryland, Nebraska, Illinois).
 

A "B" which is a composite of two dimensions:

1) Performance: C+

2) Developmental: A-

The performance was a roller coaster of extreme highs and lows. It would be a bit lower if not for the last three games.

The developmental part, at least on offense, was one of the best I've seen in recent memory. I haven't been a Gopher fan as long as most here but I haven't seen an offense that relied so heavily on freshman and redshirt freshman as this one. For the most part, they really came through and gave reason for more optimism about the future of the team's offense than I've felt in years. On the whole, Morgan was pretty good for a relatively unheralded rookie and could develop into a very solid QB. Bateman was one of the better wideouts of the last six years and the best rookie wideout in that time. Ibrahim is better at this stage of his career than either Rodney Smith or David Cobb were. And Faleale is a mammoth who should worry every defensive lineman who faces him next year.

It's harder to evaluate the development on defense. That side of the ball wasn't as reliant on underclassman and, for the majority of the year, we had a defensive coordinator whose presence actually appeared to have made things worse than they would have been without him.
 



C: Swept the NC, bi-polar in the B1G, 1-1 in trophy games, bowl eligible. That's passing, but not good.
 

I’d go B-, the Wisconsin win alone does a lot to cover the horrible losses. It’s a step forward in aggregate, though a small one.


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B... B- if it were available. Improvement from 5-7 to 6-6, marked improvement on offense, and defense has made huge strides late.

Giving a little latitude given the early losses of Winfield and Rodney Smith, plus the subsequent loss of Brooks following his brief return to service.
 

B+, they won the Axe and are going bowling. They crushed wisconsin and brohm.


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The Wisconsin win elevated it from a C to a B!
 


Spoofin hit it on the head.

Beating WI bumps this season to a B.
 

Solid C with a + for beating Whiskey. I'll vote A when they put at least a Big Ten West title on the TCF Bank banner ring. Looking back, I would put 2016, 2014, 2003, and 1999 seasons in the B category with my favorites being 1999 (Mason elevating a laughingstock of a program and going to a nice Sun Bowl) and 2014 (going to New Year's Day bowl, a Jug and a Pig).
 

Went B.

Obviously the record isn't what many of us were hoping for. Defense struggled (being kind). Those are my cons.

Pros. Offense seemed to take the next step. Seem to have two competent (with room for growth) QBs. Found a new D-coordinator and D played well. Made a bowl game. BEAT WISCONSIN.
 

B
Signature win against Wisconsin before 70,000 plus in Randle Stadium.
Many Key injuries
Asking alot for two freshman quarterbacks and running backs.
Line came along ways.
Defense stepped it up
Special teams did well.
Clearly raised the bar for next year as to performance on the field as to wins.
 

Solid B. Moving in the right direction. Eye for talent, there is a culture and to beat UW at UW !
 

B-
Had they not won the Axe, I would have given them a D. Should not have lost to Illinois and Nebraska. But beat a very good Fresno State team as well. Winning the Axe made this season for me.
 

I gave a B.

6-6 is a C

But rival win ups it. Wisconsin win out does clunkers


I'm pumped
 

We're 6-6. Only one non-conference game was against a competitive team. We went 3-6 in the B1G. The last game was against a rival that had owned us. We are better today than 4 weeks ago. Fleck is right, this was the greatest rollercoaster season a person can recall in a long time.
The data suggests that this season gets graded as a D. However, yesterday's win and the projected trajectory causes me to call it a C.
 

Beating Wisky hands down makes it a B grade. It would be higher if they won a couple more games. If Rossi can keep coaching the D like he has and the team continues to develop the young guys the future is bright.
 

I’ll go with B. If you would’ve told me before the season we’d go 6-6 with a win over Wisconsin I’d say that the year would be a success. A little frustrating to think about what could’ve been had Smith not mucked up our defense so bad. Regardless we have undoubtedly improved throughout the year on both sides of the ball which bodes particularly well considering our youth. I think next years offense could be the best (and most balanced) gopher offense of my lifetime.
 

B. It's been far too long since we've beaten the badgers. There is no game that I look forward to more than the badgers game, so losing year after year is tough.

And there were a few other bright spots as well. The game ending INT against Fresno was great. The Bateman bomb to beat Indy was fun after it was looking like a typical Gophers collapse. And the smackdown we put on Purdue was a nice surprise. Sure....we had some letdowns....but we also lost a few of our best players for the year. We have a lot to look foward to. This is an improving team and we have a bowl game to look foward to.

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