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

GopherHole Staff

GopherHole Admin
Staff member
Joined
Nov 3, 2008
Messages
5,104
Reaction score
1,257
Points
113
What grade would you give the Gophers 2018 regular season?
 

Too soon to answer this one... I'm gonna sit on it for a day.
 

I went B - Thought anything from 4-8 to 8-4 was possible coming into the year... QB play looks as good as it has in a good minute. D looks much improved since Rossi took the reigns... This boat will row far in my opinion!!!!
 

Like a film it had a good beginning, an emotionally devastating middle act, and a triumphant finale. Solid B for me. My preseason range was 4-8 wins and we hit the middle range but importantly defeated Wisconsin, righted the boat on defense, and gave us reason to be excited for the next film in the series. If the team wins the bowl game that is further huge momentum going into 2019.
 

Wow, this is tough. I went with "C", but almost any grade except A and F is justifiable IMO.

If you'd told me before the season we'd finish 6-6, I would've been slightly disappointed and voted C

If you told me we'd do it without Rodney, Shannon, Winfield, OJ Smith, and Shenault for most of the year (not to mention Annexstad who looked so good in the non-con, as well as Mo for a few games and others here and there), I'd say the team overcame a lot and would vote B.

If you told me we'd go to a bowl despite getting SMOKED by Illinois, Nebraska, and Maryland, I would've voted D.

If you told me all of the above happened, but we beat Wisconsin, I'd land on C.
 


I went with a B. I thought they would win 5 or 6 on the season so that would've been a "C" to me, but beating Wisconsin is worth a letter grade bump.
 

6-6. I would have had C, but we beat Wisconsin. That alone is a bump of a grade.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

C, no brainer. Extra credit for beating Wisconsin but points deducted for blowout losses to Nebraska, Maryland and Illinois.
 




Could have been a lot better, and hopefully will be in the near future. Gotta beat teams like Maryland, Illinois, Iowa and Northwestern consistently.

Got the Axe though. Something I haven't seen since highschool.

B
 

B-

6-6 isn’t great but it was an improvement and the season ended on a high note.
 

In an early pre-season thread, I accurately picked every game for a 5-7 record (except today's win vs Wisconsin).

The reason it's better than expected is that we beat two of the top 3 Big Ten West teams soundly, and if we had played a clean game against Northwestern (and been on the warm sideline) maybe we win that one as well.

The original Def Coord proved to be a bigger issue than I ever would have guessed at the start of the season, and this makes me sad, but good for PJ for making the change, something that cost Bielema his job by not changing quicker.

I expect us to overmatch a similar record opponent in a Bowl Game, and if we play well, it's definitely a B. If we lose, then maybe a C+.
 




Went with a "B" for "B"eating "B"ucky.

Like others noted Maryland sucked...and Illinois really sucked...but played tOSU much tougher than anyone expected and beat Fresno State soundly.

All in all an inconsistent team but this was to be expected in Year 1.

Today's win made up for a lot. "B" is an okay grade.
 

C. Let some winnable games get away but ended up bowl eligible.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

B

- let me down a lot

-beat the NC teams

-Beat a big rival in Wisconsin, rest does not matter
 

For those calling out the bad losses, let's also remember our wins over decent teams weren't last second FG's or fluke plays. We have a couple teams solid beatings.
The Indiana game of course was on track to be one until Robb Smith's 4th quarter defense made that closer than it needed to be.
 

I gave it a B. If you would have told me at the beginning of the season we would make a bowl and beat Wisconsin I would have taken it 10/10 times and been thrilled. The awful losses to Illinois, Nebraska, and Maryland however were embarrassing and will hurt the quality of bowl Minnesota gets. Even tho there is only 1 win difference from last year the on field quality of this program is leaps and bounds better than last year. I'm excited for the bowl game and even more excited for next season
 

I gave it a B. If you would have told me at the beginning of the season we would make a bowl and beat Wisconsin I would have taken it 10/10 times and been thrilled. The awful losses to Illinois, Nebraska, and Maryland however were embarrassing and will hurt the quality of bowl Minnesota gets. Even tho there is only 1 win difference from last year the on field quality of this program is leaps and bounds better than last year. I'm excited for the bowl game and even more excited for next season

Exactly, only one more when overall, but compare our last three games last year to this year.
 

Tough one....I went with C but easily could be talked into a B.

Main thought on C was just because of the inconsistency of it all. Some ugly loses to mediocre teams like Maryland, Nebraska, and Illinois up agains two really impressive wins against Purdue and Wisconsin. Tough team to get a read on this year with all the inexperience but tough not to be really excited about the future of the program considering almost everyone will be back next year.
 

Exactly, only one more when overall, but compare our last three games last year to this year.

Yep, if we protect the ball a little better against Northwestern we are riding a 3 game winning streak into bowl season. Far cry from getting blanked in the last 2 games last season.
 

I gave it a B. If you would have told me at the beginning of the season we would make a bowl and beat Wisconsin I would have taken it 10/10 times and been thrilled. The awful losses to Illinois, Nebraska, and Maryland however were embarrassing and will hurt the quality of bowl Minnesota gets. Even tho there is only 1 win difference from last year the on field quality of this program is leaps and bounds better than last year. I'm excited for the bowl game and even more excited for next season

Agree with everything but especially the last part. The way last year ended I was worried P.J.'s methods were turning off more and more players. This game, especially, I think takes care of any of those concerns.
 

Would have been a C, but the curve installed when beating Wisconsin lifts that to an A.
 

PS: Did I mention we beat Wisconsin for the first time in my adult life?


The first rivalry matchup I attended was as a college Freshman in 2005 (yeah, the year of the punt fiasco). We hadn't beat them since. I can't even put into words how sweet this victory is.
 

Remember many a Gopher team has gone fetal in November...

That's worth something in the evaluation...
 

Wow, this is tough. I went with "C", but almost any grade except A and F is justifiable IMO.

If you'd told me before the season we'd finish 6-6, I would've been slightly disappointed and voted C

If you told me we'd do it without Rodney, Shannon, Winfield, OJ Smith, and Shenault for most of the year (not to mention Annexstad who looked so good in the non-con, as well as Mo for a few games and others here and there), I'd say the team overcame a lot and would vote B.

If you told me we'd go to a bowl despite getting SMOKED by Illinois, Nebraska, and Maryland, I would've voted D.

If you told me all of the above happened, but we beat Wisconsin, I'd land on C.
I believe you miscalculated and beating Wisconsin gets you to at least a B

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 

"B" for these four reasons:

1. Quality wins. 6-6 (3-6 in conference) with solid wins against Fresno and Purdue is a C. Toss in a HUGE win @ Wisconsin and you get bumped into B territory.

2. Losing star players Smith, Brooks and Winfield Jr. for most of the season due to injury. One main guy on both sides of the ball, basically.

3. Robb Smith defensive regime issues clearly were Robb Smith issues, not player issues. Something really weird was putting team behind 8-ball there.

4. Being in year 2 of a new regime (culture, recruits etc.) puts things on a little bit of a positive grading curve.
 
Last edited:

B-

6-6 isn’t great but it was an improvement and the season ended on a high note.

Great minds . . . Well, you have a great mind. I went with B- myself. Hard to look past the blowouts and I still can't figure out what Robb Smith was actually trying to do when he was defensive coordinator. If you are going to play as vanilla as he schemed, you have to have a lot more talent and experience than we have.

I thought going into the season 7-5 tops (but that was counting wins against 2/3 out of the Illinois, Maryland, and Nebraska trio and losing to Wisconsin), so the team came up a bit short there. But, and I know the rhetoric gets tired and it sounds like an excuse, this is a young team and it's young at some key positions. The foundation looks solid and we'll see if there's more there in the future. As for this season, we overcame some pretty big injuries to end up where we did, but we still managed to cr*p the bed big-time in several games.
 

We beat wisconsin. We trounced wisconsin. We dominated Wisconsin in Wisconsin. We have the Axe, we chopped their goalposts. This gets an A based of expectations coming into the season and the injuries we had to deal with.

In the grand scheme of things its more like a C season. 6-6 is the bare minimum expectation so it should be a D but we beat wisconsin so it's a C.
 

C. There was a lot of improvement on the offensive side of the ball but the defense struggled as a whole most of the year. Expectations were for improvement. we got it but barely with a 6 - 6 record. That negativity aside, if you do not see the signs of future of Gopher Dominance, you are not paying attention. Its gunna be fun.
 




Top Bottom