Will next year's team be improved over this year's team?

Granted, this year's recruiting has not been finalized and there might be a few changes the next several months, but right now things are looking very good. Many casual fans (not Gopherholers) think this program is stagnant or mediocre but there is a great deal of optimism on here and those in the know. The Big Ten should be on notice that this is a program on the rise and could be a very improved team next season.

QB - Morgan and Annexstad have a year under their belts and SHOULD be improved. They also get Clark coming in for competition and Seth Green is now established as a very good wildcat QB and short yardage specialist. This position is in much better hands than where it was a year ago. Slight improvement forecast next year.

RB - Ibrahim turned in a solid season but the additions of Smith and Brooks coming back from injury add to a stable and depth we just did not have. MAJOR improvement next year.

WR - All major components - Johnson, Autman-Bell, Douglas and Bateman give a lot of weapons returning. All have looked good and I expect slight improvement from this unit next year.

OL - We lose Greene who looked very good particularly in the Wisconsin game and Weyler at center but the rest return. Fleck has done a good job of upgrading the quality and depth here and I feel much better about this unit than I have the past 2 years. Usually it is nice to get that year of redshirting under the belts, but I feel Faalele really needed to get that game experience to improve and he should be a beast. Dunlop should take over a spot and he should be ready to go next year. With the added horses, I will go with slight improvement with a couple question marks. I think it will be in great hands as the season goes on, barring injuries.

K - Losing Carpenter is a loss - hopefully someone steps in and does the job, but slight downgrade for next year.

DL - Fleck is infusing a lot of incoming talent which should help provide depth and talent immediately. Slight improvement early - but will get a lot better as they gain more experience.

LB - We lose Cashman and Huff - two very good tacklers but Barber, Martin and possibly Coughlin step in. Slight downgrade but with incoming talent this could move up to a wash. The DL help will help the LB's immensely next year.

DB - Just getting Winfield back next year will help us improve quite a bit overnight. It will have a little more experience next year as they continue to upgrade from the scandal era which decimated the entire group. Moderately better.

P - Herber returns - I expect this to be as good as last year.

So -- offense looks to be quite a bit better and defense should continue to improve. Maybe Rossi will be the greatest addition for them, but in the end - this team should come into next year quite a bit better than last year with a lot better depth than it has had in some time. I like what I see!

If Winfield, Smith, and Brooks are healthy, that is a huge infusion of talent. I know it's a big if, but next year could be really fun if those three stay healthy.

If they had played this year they probably would have been our best 3 players. Certainly in our top 5 if they had stayed healthy. Actually, without Winfield we might have lost to Fresno St and without Brooks we might have lost to Indiana! So they DID help even though no eligibility was lost! lol.

Gold Rush said:

If they had played this year they probably would have been our best 3 players. Certainly in our top 5 if they had stayed healthy. Actually, without Winfield we might have lost to Fresno St and without Brooks we might have lost to Indiana! So they DID help even though no eligibility was lost! lol.

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Yeah, I think that's fair. I don't think we beat Fresno or Indiana without those two.

I'm as optimistic for next season as I get, but it's the Gophers so I'm always going to GH hoping there's no bad news. Can't avoid injuries; just hope it's in places where we have depth and they're not season ending for anyone. It's the shock of losing guys for off the field stuff that is so deflating and make you question why you care so much.

On paper, yeah - it's easy to see a scenario where this team improves next year.

BUT (there is always a but), I guarantee you that something unexpected will happen next year. It always does. Injuries can change a season in a heartbeat. One of the top goals of this program has to be to develop enough depth so that one injury to a Winfield or someone else does not derail a season.

IF the team stays reasonably healthy, and IF the young players show improvement, and IF a few of the incoming FR provide immediate help, then yeah, this could be an 8-win team or even better next year.

BUT (the final but) I also guarantee that fans of every other team in the conference are saying the exact same things about their teams. "we're gonna be better next year."

Hope for the best, but plan for the worst, just in case. good advice in business, or in football.

If TJ comes back, we should be better at every single position, with the possible exception of LB. We should definitely be better.

I'd would also add as most of these players will be back, they will be stronger and smarter next year. Also we have our new defensive coach for the whole year.

They should be

will they be?

Older teams typically are better. We are getting older each year. Fleck has shown that guys improve from year 1 to year 2. Also older teams don't typically get injured as much either as their bodies are more developed and able to take grind of the season. We were young and pretty injured last year. I'd guess we will be older and not as injured this upcoming season. No improvement would be a shock at this point.

manderson1984 said:

Older teams typically are better. We are getting older each year. Fleck has shown that guys improve from year 1 to year 2. Also older teams don't typically get injured as much either as their bodies are more developed and able to take grind of the season. We were young and pretty injured last year. I'd guess we will be older and not as injured this upcoming season. No improvement would be a shock at this point.

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I agree. I do not think there are many teams that lose as little as we do and gain as much (think Winfield, Brooks and Smith for starters)
The coaches have got to get everyone on board with working hard during the off season to get better. The new recruits should bolster the depth, especially on the defensive line.

manderson1984 said:

Older teams typically are better. We are getting older each year. Fleck has shown that guys improve from year 1 to year 2. Also older teams don't typically get injured as much either as their bodies are more developed and able to take grind of the season. We were young and pretty injured last year. I'd guess we will be older and not as injured this upcoming season. No improvement would be a shock at this point.

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When players move out to make room for the new signees, we will be the youngest team in America. LOL! This will go on forever.

If next year’s team isn’t better with:

Experience upgrades all over including QB
Improved depth all over
The return of arguably the 3 best players who missed almost all season
Another year of stability
Rising to the mean on turnover margin
A slightly easier schedule
No more Robb Smith

Then something is terribly wrong. Next year needs to be an 8+ win season.

The biggest improvement may be the loss of Robb Smith.

I do wonder sometimes if Seth Green is content with his current role. Great athlete, absolute short yardage beast and invaluable to the team but seems underutilized as a pass catcher. Wonder if he’ll be worked in to the offense more in that role as that seems to be his future at the next level, of if he’s chomping at the bit to be more of a feature and will transfer.

One year further from YEAR ZERO. We better be better!

Pompous Elitist said:

The biggest improvement may be the loss of Robb Smith.

I do wonder sometimes if Seth Green is content with his current role. Great athlete, absolute short yardage beast and invaluable to the team but seems underutilized as a pass catcher. Wonder if he’ll be worked in to the offense more in that role as that seems to be his future at the next level, of if he’s chomping at the bit to be more of a feature and will transfer.

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I see him doing more next year.

I expect Gophs to be better in every aspect, especially the on the field results. They should be 8-4 right now. I expect them to better that in 2019. Will be pretty disappointed if they don't.

Yes

PMWinSTP said:

I see him doing more next year.

I expect Gophs to be better in every aspect, especially the on the field results. They should be 8-4 right now. I expect them to better that in 2019. Will be pretty disappointed if they don't.

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Seth Green had 8 rushing TDs while learning how to play WR from possibly the 2 best WR coaches in the big ten. Do you really think he wants to go back to FCS to play QB??? Pretty sure this is textbook of how streveler could’ve been handled.

8 wins should be the minimum.

Pompous Elitist said:

The biggest improvement may be the loss of Robb Smith.

I do wonder sometimes if Seth Green is content with his current role. Great athlete, absolute short yardage beast and invaluable to the team but seems underutilized as a pass catcher. Wonder if he’ll be worked in to the offense more in that role as that seems to be his future at the next level, of if he’s chomping at the bit to be more of a feature and will transfer.

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They can just introduce him to Marquise Gray as an example. He is already on the radar for the NFL.

There's no doubt next year's team should be better on paper. I agree anything less than 8 wins would be a disappointment. Our offense should only get better and the odds of us having the disastrous defensive performances that we had under Smith should be a lot less.

I think next year's Fresno team won't be as good - they lose almost their whole starting offense, but it is a road game so there's that.

theUSDgopher said:

Seth Green had 8 rushing TDs while learning how to play WR from possibly the 2 best WR coaches in the big ten. Do you really think he wants to go back to FCS to play QB??? Pretty sure this is textbook of how streveler could’ve been handled.

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Did you mean to respond to a different post? Not sure how this is remotely related to my post.

Word said:

There's no doubt next year's team should be better on paper. I agree anything less than 8 games would be a disappointment. Our offense should only get better and the odds of us having the disastrous defensive performances that we had under Smith should be a lot less.

I think next year's Fresno team won't be as good - they lose almost their whole starting offense, but it is a road game so there's that.

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I think 8 games would be a pretty fair expectation. Lost a few key players, but most of our players are returning and will be one year older.

Word said:

There's no doubt next year's team should be better on paper. I agree anything less than 8 games would be a disappointment. Our offense should only get better and the odds of us having the disastrous defensive performances that we had under Smith should be a lot less.

I think next year's Fresno team won't be as good - they lose almost their whole starting offense, but it is a road game so there's that.

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If 8 is your over/under for games played, I'll take the over.

PhillyGopher said:

If 8 is your over/under for games played, I'll take the over.

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I would too. How about 8 wins?

PMWinSTP said:

I see him doing more next year.

I expect Gophs to be better in every aspect, especially the on the field results. They should be 8-4 right now. I expect them to better that in 2019. Will be pretty disappointed if they don't.

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I could argue we overachieved at 6-6 by beating Fresno and Wisconsin.

If we are as inconsistent next year as this year...in another words with the addition of 25 more of PJ's chosen guys...the possible return of our 3 most heralded players, the maturation or infusion of more talent at QB, the defense playing a better scheme for the talent under the post Illinois "new defensive coordinator" and we just stay the same....we win 8 games because the schedule is that much more favorable.

I'm going to stick my neck out a bit at say 7 wins should be the expected floor for this team if everyone stays healthy / no major issues.
They could be very good, but I fear some inconsistency yet.

We play well at home....5 home Big Ten games next year!

The non conference games will be tougher than they sound, all three had 10+ wins this year.

We will be better and I think our record will be better as well.

John Galt said:

I could argue we overachieved at 6-6 by beating Fresno and Wisconsin.

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Of course you would. 75% of GHers per the Rossi poll believe Gophs would have won at least 8 games this year.

http://www.forums.gopherhole.com/bo...-conference-record-be-if-under-Rossi-all-year