Big Ten Power Rankings - Week 2 Thread

BleedGopher

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Journal Courier is first out of the gate:

No. 8 Minnesota (2-0)

Last week: Beat Fresno State 38-35 (2 OT)

In a sentence: The Gophers were self-destructing all over the place with six fumbles and penalties but Antonie Winfield, Jr., saved the day with an interception in the end zone.

Up next: Saturday vs. Georgia Southern, 3:30 p.m. (BTN)

https://www.jconline.com/story/spor...l-power-rankings-maryland-rolling/2235246001/

Go Gophers!!
 

Chicago Tribune chimes in:

8. Minnesota (9)

While you were sleeping (or partying), the Gophers extended the nation’s longest nonconference winning streak to 17 games in wild fashion. They saved the game with a fourth-and-13 completion to Chris Autman-Bell in the back corner of the end zone and won it in overtime when Antoine Winfield Jr. turned a potential Fresno State winner into a walk-off interception.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/spor...0190908-lxcjdtruqrgells555zzpyrhoa-story.html

Go Gophers!!
 

Hodger chimes in:

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Go Gophers!!
 

The annual off-season Nebraska hype only lasted two weeks into the schedule this year.
 




Hawk Central chimes in:

11. Minnesota (2-0)
Last week: 13. Color us slightly impressed with the Gophers, who found a way to win on the road in double overtime. But when you consider that was winless Fresno State, it takes a little steam off the momentum. A nice day for Rashod Bateman (seven catches, 105 yards, one touchdown), too.

Next up: vs. Georgia Southern, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, BTN.

https://www.hawkcentral.com/story/s...ll-michigan-football-nate-stanley/2267121001/

Go Gophers!!
 

247 chimes in:

9. Minnesota (2-0)

Purdue bounced back from a loss to Nevada with a victory over Vanderbilt thanks to an impressive effort out of Elijah Sindelar, who passed for over 500 yards. ... The Golden Gophers will be halfway to bowl eligibility if they beat Georgia Southern on Saturday with very little to show for it in terms of quality. Minnesota was lucky to win its opener and survived Fresno State in Week 2 in double overtime. Wins are wins no matter how you crack it, but the Golden Gophers look to be the weakest unbeaten thus far in the conference.

https://247sports.com/LongFormArtic...-power-rankings-Top-25-135405203/#135405203_2

Go Gophers!!
 

MLive.com chimes in:

8. MINNESOTA (2-0)
While Big Ten country was sleeping, the Golden Gophers survived in overtime against Fresno State, 38-35, thanks again to an Antoine Winfield interception against the Bulldogs. Tanner Morgan threw for 234 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another, while the combination of Mohamed Ibrahim and Rodney Smith totaled 149 rushing yards and two scores. Morgan hit Chris Autman-Bell with a fourth-down TD pass in the final minute of regular to force overtime. (Last week: 8)

https://expo.mlive.com/sports/g66l-...n-plummets-as-offense-continues-to-stall.html

Go Gophers!!
 



Detroit Free Press chimes in:

11. Minnesota (2-0)
Last week: 13. Color us slightly impressed with the Gophers, who found a way to win on the road in double overtime. But when you consider that was winless Fresno State, it takes a little steam off the momentum. A nice day for Rashod Bateman (seven catches, 105 yards, one touchdown), too.

Next up: vs. Georgia Southern, 3:30 p.m. Saturday, BTN.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/...-michigan-football-michigan-state/2257909001/

Go Gophers!!
 


The Big Lead chimes in:

13. Minnesota (2-0)
Last Week: W 38-35 @ Fresno State (2OT)
Top Performer: DB Antoine Winfield Jr, (4 tackles, 1 sack, 1 INT)
This Week: Saturday vs. Georgia Southern (3:30 p.m., BTN)

Is there any more tenuous perfect mark in the nation right now? The Gophers are undefeated, but a combined 10-point victory margin over South Dakota State and Fresno State is not reassuring. One more tune-up and a bye week precede the commencement of conference play against Purdue.

https://thebiglead.com/2019/09/09/big-ten-power-rankings-week-2/

Go Gophers!!
 

Bucky's 5th Quarter chimes in:

9. (13) Minnesota (2-0), W - 38-35 2OT at Fresno St., Next Week: vs. Georgia Southern

After a sloppy week one win over South Dakota St., P.J. Fleck’s team went out west and earned a road victory over Fresno State on Saturday night. The Golden Gophers came from behind and forced overtime with a touchdown pass with 56 seconds left. A game-winning interception by cornerback Antoine Winfield Jr. in double overtime sealed the victory for Minnesota. The Gophers have a favorable home matchup with Georgia Southern this weekend.

https://www.buckys5thquarter.com/20...sin-badgers-maryland-ohio-state-nebraska-iowa

Go Gophers!!
 




Maize n Brew chimes in, with the Gophers dropping 3 spots after winning on the road:

13. Minnesota 2-0 (Last Week: 10)
I tried to give Minnesota the benefit of the doubt after its slow start in week one, but the Gophers looked terrible again in week two, needing overtime to beat Fresno State. PJ Fleck is lucky the schedule is so easy this year for Minnesota or he’d be in real trouble.

https://www.maizenbrew.com/football/2019/9/10/20857767/big-ten-football-power-rankings-week-3

Go Gophers!!
 

Fair minds can differ as to how you want to value our two wins so far, so I can understand there being a wide range of results, but 13 seems absurd.
 

Funny that Minnesota goes to 13 after unconvincing wins over SDSU and on the road at Fresno, but Michigan stays at 3 after an unconvincing win at home against Army.
 

If the Gophers keep winning, they might be taken off the board and replaced with a MAC team in the B1G power rankings.

As I have said elsewhere, despite finishing in the top 20 last season with a 12-2 record in the toughest group of 5 conference, Fresno State is seen as an equal to Richfield High School by these guys.
 

Funny how Hawk Central and the Detroit Free Press have the same verbatim write-up of the Gophers! Talk about mailing it in!

Yes, we barely beat the 3rd ranked FCS team. Yes, we barely beat a team that finished last year in the top 20 at 12-2 who almost beat ranked USC at USC the week before but are winless.

I'm still pretty happy we are 2-0!

Just think how miserable I'd be if I was a Michigan fan whose team is only 2-0 because a freshman kicker from Army missed a FG even Blair Walsh could have converted!
 

If the Gophers keep winning, they might be taken off the board and replaced with a MAC team in the B1G power rankings.

As I have said elsewhere, despite finishing in the top 20 last season with a 12-2 record in the toughest group of 5 conference, Fresno State is seen as an equal to Richfield High School by these guys.

I agree we are wildly underrated here, but this year's Fresno State is 0-2 so far.
 


Funny how Hawk Central and the Detroit Free Press have the same verbatim write-up of the Gophers! Talk about mailing it in!

Yes, we barely beat the 3rd ranked FCS team. Yes, we barely beat a team that finished last year in the top 20 at 12-2 who almost beat ranked USC at USC the week before but are winless.

I'm still pretty happy we are 2-0!

Just think how miserable I'd be if I was a Michigan fan whose team is only 2-0 because a freshman kicker from Army missed a FG even Blair Walsh could have converted!

Lets not get too crazy here
 

Any rankings at this point apart from the general tiers are a crapshoot. That being said, the ones that are discounting Fresno State so heavily are comical. Do they not do an ounce of research? "Winless" Fresno State- yeah, lost at the wire to a USC team that beat Stanford. 12-2, top 25, MW Champs last year, I'm not going to pretend like we beat a P5 powerhouse, but it's just disrespectful to act like they're a cupcake that we should dominate.
 
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I feel like the members of the Bark Board should share in our righteous indignation about this round of power rankings.
 

Funny how Hawk Central and the Detroit Free Press have the same verbatim write-up of the Gophers! Talk about mailing it in!

Yes, we barely beat the 3rd ranked FCS team. Yes, we barely beat a team that finished last year in the top 20 at 12-2 who almost beat ranked USC at USC the week before but are winless.

I'm still pretty happy we are 2-0!

Just think how miserable I'd be if I was a Michigan fan whose team is only 2-0 because a freshman kicker from Army missed a FG even Blair Walsh could have converted!
Army will finish the season ranked, they're a good team

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 

The win over SDSU was anything but impressive but people need to remember that the Minnesota game was probably their "Super Bowl" per se. They were going all in for that game to pull off the upset.

As far as Fresno State, that team is a very good team and underrated. I can't imagine other Big Ten teams like Iowa, Northwestern, Purdue or Nebraska would do much better playing at Fresno State with a 9:30pm (central time) kickoff.

When you only play 12 games, they all count the same so whether you want an ugly win or a moral victory, I will take an ugly win any day.
 

We’ll move up later this month. I love how all the preseason Nebraska love, is now fading to excuses. It would be great to see NI get them this weekend.
 

As far as Fresno State, that team is a very good team and underrated. I can't imagine other Big Ten teams like Iowa, Northwestern, Purdue or Nebraska would do much better playing at Fresno State with a 9:30pm (central time) kickoff.

Well, I can imagine Iowa doing a better job because 1) they appear to be a strong team and 2) probably would have been less likely to make as many bad mistakes and penalties as we made in that game. Purdue lost to Nevada under similar circumstances and, based on the evidence so far, Fresno appears to be a better team than Nevada. Of course, Purdue also had a high number of costly turnovers in that game.

I think writers who are making an unfavorable judgement based on the Fresno game didn't watch that game. As others have said before, Minnesota's mistakes in that game are mostly fixable. Those mistakes killed us and made the game score closer than it should have been. Outside of those bad mistakes, the Fresno game was a pretty fair performance for the second game by a still fairly young Gopher team.
 

Seems like...MN fans jump on other teams (Purdue, Meb) that narrowly lose or struggle because of turnovers, penalties but rationalize when it comes to the home team. Bottom line is the team hasn’t looked great the first two weeks, particularly week 1. Whether we like it or not margin of victory, style points, etc matter to human beings. SDSU being a good FCS program doesn’t move the needle in court of public opinion.

Some of the teams that look stellar (Maryland, Michigan, Iowa) will surely have rougher games going forward while (hopefully) MN will get better. Lots of things to clean up.
 

Any rankings at this point apart from the general tiers are a crapshoot. That being said, the ones that are discounting Fresno State so heavily are comical. Do they not do an ounce of research? "Winless" Fresno State- yeah, lost at the wire to a USC team that beat Stanford. 12-2, top 25, MW Champs last year, I'm not going to pretend like we beat a P5 powerhouse, but it's just disrespectful to act like they're a cupcake that we should dominate.

Yep, not a ton of research going into these, they just see FCS team and 0-2 team and make the assumption we have had a cakewalk non-conf schedule.

It is what it is at this point, just filler until the conference season gets going and we actually see how the teams stack up against each other.
 




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