What grade would you give the Gophers coaching staff in dominating win over Illinois?

What grade would you give the Gophers coaching staff in dominating win over Illinois?

  • A

    Votes: 49 67.1%
  • B

    Votes: 21 28.8%
  • C

    Votes: 2 2.7%
  • D

    Votes: 1 1.4%
  • F

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    73

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What grade would you give the Gophers coaching staff in dominating win over Illinois?
 

A+

It’s easy to 2nd guess the TO before the Illinois FG attempt. If they had made the first kick, and missed the 2nd, it would be called a brilliant move.


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I'm trying to think of anything that even mildly annoyed me with the coaching today and I really can't think of anything.

Maybe I would have liked to see the Bryce Williams take a couple more hits off of Rodney at the end, but that's easy to say in hindsight when the game stayed comfortable.
I don't really like the empty set on 3rd and mid (4-5), I like keeping a running back in there because of the threat to run.

I really can't think of anything, it was a great game.
 



I'm trying to think of anything that even mildly annoyed me with the coaching today and I really can't think of anything.

Maybe I would have liked to see the Bryce Williams take a couple more hits off of Rodney at the end, but that's easy to say in hindsight when the game stayed comfortable.
I don't really like the empty set on 3rd and mid (4-5), I like keeping a running back in there because of the threat to run.

I really can't think of anything, it was a great game.

The only thing I can think of is taking the TO so late on the Illinois FG attempt. The TO is fine but don’t call it so late that they get a practice kick.
 


The only thing I can think of is taking the TO so late on the Illinois FG attempt. The TO is fine but don’t call it so late that they get a practice kick.

I agree with this. I also would’ve kicked the fg instead ignored going for it on 4th when we were up 13, but it worked out and I didn’t hate it. We absolutely should’ve gone for 2 when we scored to go up 19 points late.
 

The only thing I can think of is taking the TO so late on the Illinois FG attempt. The TO is fine but don’t call it so late that they get a practice kick.

I'm thinking the kicker is wondering if the other team is going to call a TO and that plays mind games just a bit. On a day like today, let it go. Most kickers kick the second one as you can't call a TO again?
 



I turned to my buddy in the third quarter and said "I wouldn't dare throw the ball down here by our goal line." Next play was fumble for td. That was a bonehead call, the only chance Illinois had was to get a turnover and the game was in doubt for a few minutes.
 

I turned to my buddy in the third quarter and said "I wouldn't dare throw the ball down here by our goal line." Next play was fumble for td. That was a bonehead call, the only chance Illinois had was to get a turnover and the game was in doubt for a few minutes.

Yeah, I actually kind of agree with this the more I think about it. There was no reason to even risk it, just run the ball. See if Illinois can stop us and if they do, punt.
 

I agree with this. I also would’ve kicked the fg instead ignored going for it on 4th when we were up 13, but it worked out and I didn’t hate it. We absolutely should’ve gone for 2 when we scored to go up 19 points late.

I actually disagree on both of these. I thought going for the 4th down (considering we had ran the ball really well and the conditions) was the right move. I also probably would have kicked the XP. I get the chart says go for two, but I don't really like the chart when you start dealing with multiple scores in the second half. Essentially, at that point, things would have had to get kind of crazy for it to have mattered and I think you just take the points. A lot has to happen, so if you miss the 2 PT and they score a TD, then you get a FG, it's still a two score game.

But yeah, for me, they're close calls, I probably I wouldn't upgrade or downgrade his grade based on those calls.
 

There were a few times that they put player health at risk and didn't need to. Rodney returning the kick at the end of the 2nd quarter. Tanner running the ball towards the end of the game.

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I agree with this. I also would’ve kicked the fg instead ignored going for it on 4th when we were up 13, but it worked out and I didn’t hate it. We absolutely should’ve gone for 2 when we scored to go up 19 points late.

If you had the Gophers plus 14 you hated this decision.
 


I turned to my buddy in the third quarter and said "I wouldn't dare throw the ball down here by our goal line." Next play was fumble for td. That was a bonehead call, the only chance Illinois had was to get a turnover and the game was in doubt for a few minutes.

I think that the call was fine, yet Morgan needed to have his internal clock go off and either throw it away or take off. Seemed like he was in the pocket for ~5 seconds before the strip.
 

I think that the call was fine, yet Morgan needed to have his internal clock go off and either throw it away or take off. Seemed like he was in the pocket for ~5 seconds before the strip.

They never gave us a good angle on the replay, but I would swear that it wasn't a strip. Looked like he was throwing the ball. It's irrelevant now, but at the time I thought it was clearly an incomplete pass.
 

In NFL of it's Brady, it's a pass. But in college if it's the gophers it's a fumble.

Michigan or Ohio State, it's a pass.

You know the drill...

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A-

Team seemed prepared, didn’t look confused, played hard, wrapped up. Can’t argue with success and the game never really felt in doubt.

On the negative I was denied a chance to see one of the backup QBs, and there was generally a headscratching last few series to the game with TM2 going out, then coming back in for the bomb to CAB, and a bizarre (and rare when it matters) TM run in there at one point with the game well in hand. Then the penalty to move the FG try back. He works in mysterious ways.
 

My theory is that he still doesn’t trust the freshman QBs, and after what has happened the last couple games, he didn’t want to mess around. Maybe if we were up by 5 TDs instead of three, it would have been different.

Running Tanner up the middle with the game in hand was stupid. BTW, I don’t want to jinx it, but Morgan seems pretty tough and durable. He started 4 years in high school, and put up big numbers every year, so it’s unlikely that he’s ever missed significant time due to injury. Plus he’s been hit a lot behind our porous O-line, and always pops right back up.
 

Here is my very picky analysis:

Fleck goes for it on fourth down in the second half when a FG would have increased the lead to 16 points. It worked and Rodney scored on the next play, but I think the smart move would have been to get the 3 points on the board.

I give Fleck a pass on the FG timeout except that in the NFL coaches always take the time out before the snap so you never know what the outcome of a "no kick" would have been.

Please stop putting Rodney deep to return kicks, please!

Anyway, great game by the defense and the offense was as productive as they needed to be. All in all a solid B to B+ game, have to eliminate the horrible turnovers, but I love where we are.
 

There were a few times that they put player health at risk and didn't need to. Rodney returning the kick at the end of the 2nd quarter. Tanner running the ball towards the end of the game.

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I agree, it was totally meaningless to have him in there and the coach proved it by having Morgan take a knee one play later to end the half. Rodney was slow getting up after taking a hit and my heart skipped a beat.
 

My only two gripes were not kicking the FG on fourth down and the TO on the missed FG.

All that said, we blew them out despite spotting them points with turnovers. Had a good plan on both sides of the ball. Definitely an A.
 

B. Some minor things annoyed me.

Fumble recovered for a touchdown. Everyone was screaming to challenge the call because arm was moving forward. They didn't challenge it. One play goes by and then they call a timeout anyway.
 

I voted B.
His arm wasn't moving forward on that fumble. I don't understand what the play call was there. They had 8 in the box, with 1 on 1 coverage on the outside and only 1 S to help one way or the other. Fine to throw but it should have been a shot deep with the ball coming out quickly. Seemed to be a slow developing and Morgan held the ball too long.

My biggest question is why not get a back up QB in the game? We were up big, we put Williams in at TB, why not give one of them some snaps with 6 min to go. One of them needs some game action.
 

One thought on the backup QB question is PJ may be loathe to name a #2. The longer he can keep one (eg Clark) in the dark then perhaps he can stave off transfers or uncomfortable conversations and avoid thin depth until Morgan graduates and Athan (or Kramer, or recruit XYZ) is ready to go. Then again, even if Clark or Kramer were to transfer still have ZA, TM, JC or Kramer so not really all that thin on depth going forward. A transfer or two is probably inevitable.
 

B. Some minor things annoyed me.

Fumble recovered for a touchdown. Everyone was screaming to challenge the call because arm was moving forward. They didn't challenge it. One play goes by and then they call a timeout anyway.

The arm wasn’t going forward so why lower your grade for not using what would have been a failed challenge?


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There were a few times that they put player health at risk and didn't need to. Rodney returning the kick at the end of the 2nd quarter. Tanner running the ball towards the end of the game.

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It looked to me like that was just a broken play. Could be wrong though.
 

It looked to me like that was just a broken play. Could be wrong though.

Still have to wonder if we’d be giving majority As if something catastrophic happened to Morgan there. Nothing happened, so it’s fine.
 

A-

Team seemed prepared, didn’t look confused, played hard, wrapped up. Can’t argue with success and the game never really felt in doubt.

On the negative I was denied a chance to see one of the backup QBs, and there was generally a headscratching last few series to the game with TM2 going out, then coming back in for the bomb to CAB, and a bizarre (and rare when it matters) TM run in there at one point with the game well in hand. Then the penalty to move the FG try back. He works in mysterious ways.

They did just put him out wide for that last series with Green taking the snaps. I actually think we will most likely see this when Gophs are in mop-up mode.
 




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