no apparent challenger for Sitkowski; Gophs a dark horse to win Big Ten West

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swingman

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The guy who Annexstad beat out at IMG apparerently is not being challenged by anyone at Rutgers this Spring...Rutgers beat guy ranks the Knights 14th in Big Ten QB situation:

14. RUTGERS: Scarlet Knights fans looking for a quarterback competition might be out of luck. It's certainly looking like Artur Sitkowski will be the runaway starter in 2019, and that will give many pause after he tied for the national lead in interceptions as a freshman. There is real uncertainty about whether Boston College transfer Johnny Langan will be eligible this fall - he's still waiting on the NCAA to make its waiver decision - and even if he is able to play, the first half of spring ball suggests Sitkowski is comfortably ahead. The other passers on the roster are freshmen (true and redshirt) with no college experience. Head coach Chris Ash hasn't ruled out adding a graduate transfer, but Rutgers would have a hard time landing one. It doesn't look like there's any turning back with Johnathan Lewis at tight end, either.

he calls Gophers a threat to win the Big Ten West if QB steps up:

12. MINNESOTA: The Golden Gophers have Zach Annexstad and Tanner Morgan both returning with experience; Morgan rates as the favorite after leading Minnesota to a win in its bowl game, but it has been declared an open competition. The key for P.J. Fleck: He needs one of the passers to emerge as the clear guy in 2019. If so, Minnesota can be a dark horse to win the Big Ten West.

https://expo.nj.com/sports/g66l-201...tate-moves-up-concerns-at-purdue-rutgers.html
 

Certainly interesting to see different perspectives on Gopher QB situation

New Jersey guy: Gophers 12th out of 14
Overheard on GopherHole: better than Ohio State
 

Tanner's better than that! Way too low.
 
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Dark horse? Who should be favored over us? It'll be a horse race and I don't see us as the dark one. I'll predict it here and now. Gophers are the Champions of the B1G West! Rossi puts us over the top.
 

diehard said:
Dark horse? Who should be favored over us? It'll be a horse race and I don't see us as the dark one. I'll predict it here and now. Gophers are the Champions of the B1G West! Rossi puts us over the top.
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And I will see you in Pasadena!

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk
 


I doubt we'll finish 12 in QB rankings..
 

Well, he’s right about Sitkowski but the rest of it reads like Tom Dienhart’s hilarious dissing of Sawvel’s secondaries year after year despite those teams being loaded with future NFLers.

That’s the problem with lazy sports writing - a dollop of hopeful projection (Fields, Johnson, Mertz, Sindelar, whomever Maryland goes with), disregard for on field results (Lewerke). I’m not sure why Peyton Ramsey is projected to be better than Morgan. Arm strength? Superior mechanics?

This writer actually does better than the one that put Fields #1 (over pretty good incumbents in Patterson, Stanley, Martinez), a guy some have penciled in as the best QB in a generation before he starts a game or plays in a game that matters versus good competition.





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diehard said:
Dark horse? Who should be favored over us? It'll be a horse race and I don't see us as the dark one. I'll predict it here and now. Gophers are the Champions of the B1G West! Rossi puts us over the top.
Click to expand...

My prediction, for what it's worth.....

Minnesota
Iowa
Nebraska
Northwestern
Purdue
Wisconsin
Illinois
 




The author essentially has a question mark for Penn State, but just plops them in at number 8?
And like most writers outside of the Midwest, he did the "I don't know anything about Minnesota other than what I read in some other outdated article, so I will just put them near the bottom" thing.
Lazy.
 

WinLoseOrTy said:
Certainly interesting to see different perspectives on Gopher QB situation

New Jersey guy: Gophers 12th out of 14
Overheard on GopherHole: better than Ohio State
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I think 12th is too low on this list, but can't really believe there would be many thinking we have a better situation then Ohio State.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I think 12th is too low on this list, but can't really believe there would be many thinking we have a better situation then Ohio State.
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Been posts arguing Morgan will be better than Fields this year.
 

I think this is at least the second non-local writing to rank the Gopher's 2019 QB prospects to be very low within the conference - lower than incoming freshmen, returning players with worse statistics, teams with question marks at receiver and TE, etc. After all is said and done people will always make assumptions based on the past. It is taking the easy way out and that is what most people do, especially for fluffy mostly meaningless off season pieces.

Gopher QB's are being ranked low mostly because they did rank low in past years, not because of anything to do with Morgan or Annexstad.
 



Gophers are low on my list........but THEY MIGHT WIN!!!

Am I a sporstwriter now!?
 

WinLoseOrTy said:
Been posts arguing Morgan will be better than Fields this year.
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One has to define the metric of “better”. I can certainly see a scenario where Morgan is statistically superior while acknowledging Morgan is not the athlete Fields is or have the stronger arm.

Fields has the benefit of a strong supporting cast but history tells us roughly half of highly rated QBs will be mediocre or worse. Time will tell. I’ve never seen Fields play. I’ve seen Morgan play.
 


MNVCGUY said:
I think 12th is too low on this list, but can't really believe there would be many thinking we have a better situation then Ohio State.
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I remember seeing a post showing Morgan's calculated rating in his games which were all against B1G teams plus GT and he was like 3rd or 4th in the conference. Dont remember who posted that, but it seems that if that is a true reflection of his capabilities, then the "12th" ranking is ridiculous and purely based on Minnesota's inept past rather than ranking the future....

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

Schnauzer said:
I must be getting smarter because I know what "better" means (in the general context it was written in) without a metric definition.
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Ok, then define it for dummies like me. What are you looking at, specifically?
 

Maverick said:
I remember seeing a post showing Morgan's calculated rating in his games which were all against B1G teams plus GT and he was like 3rd or 4th in the conference. Dont remember who posted that, but it seems that if that is a true reflection of his capabilities, then the "12th" ranking is ridiculous and purely based on Minnesota's inept past rather than ranking the future....

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
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Along those lines...

WinLoseOrTy said:
Some perspective...

Morgan finished season with 147.6 passer rating. That would have ranked 30th in FBS if he had enough attempts to qualify.

His "6 start extrapolated to 13 games" passer rating of 149.9 would have ranked 24th in FBS and 2nd in B1G behind only Haskins (Patterson had 149.8).

If he improves on that extrapolation in 2019...
by 10% ---- 164.9 rating (8th in FBS)
by 20% ---- 181.4 rating (3rd in FBS)
Click to expand...
 


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