Gophers open as 17 point favorites over Maryland.

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U2Gopher said:
Remains to be seen if you are correct, but one thing is for sure. Maryland will have the best athletes we’ve seen so far this season, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Our defense better be ready to play, especially the DB’s.


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Good grief. Purdue beat them by almost 30.
 

U2Gopher said:
Remains to be seen if you are correct, but one thing is for sure. Maryland will have the best athletes we’ve seen so far this season, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Our defense better be ready to play, especially the DB’s.


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Maryland’s QB’s are both questionable as far as talent goes. Pigrome has as many INTS as TD’s. Justin Jackson has a 50% completion rate. They have decent running backs, but we’ve been good against the run all season. Reggie Corbin is better than both Leake and McFarland Jr.

Maryland’s defense has been a sieve giving up over 400 yards a game. They’re allowing more points per game than us, and scoring slightly less than us per game.

we get them at home, I’m not that worried.


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You people don’t pay attention. We are 0-0 going into the Maryland championship game.
 

Gophers were 1-7 as a ranked team since some time in 2004 (probably the loss that knocked us out of the top 25) according to ESPN prior to the win at Rutgers on Saturday. It was the rare stat that made me go "wow, really?". I feel like I am painfully aware of how bad this program has been in my lifetime, but only being ranked for 8 total games in a span of 15 years is really, really pathetic.

As for this game, I feel like I fall in to the same trap as many others: "17 points seems like way too much", but is that based on anything other than being overly cautious about Minnesota? It shouldn't really matter that the program has been bad before, that shouldn't have a bearing on the rest of the season. but it's hard not to feel it somehow does. The hand wringing, at least on my end, is much more about Minnesota not following through with yet another opportunity to have a breakthrough season than about the actual quality of the Maryland football team.
 

U2Gopher said:
Remains to be seen if you are correct, but one thing is for sure. Maryland will have the best athletes we’ve seen so far this season, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Our defense better be ready to play, especially the DB’s.


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I think Purdue and and Nebraska had scarier WRs. The RBs McFarland, who likely won't be 100% if he does play, and Javon Leake are the ones to worry about.
 


U2Gopher said:
Remains to be seen if you are correct, but one thing is for sure. Maryland will have the best athletes we’ve seen so far this season, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Our defense better be ready to play, especially the DB’s.


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Nebraska has some pretty good athletes. Granted one of them got hurt early in the game. Maryland is dinged up all over the place. Even if McFarland plays, I doubt he’ll be himself coming off a high ankle sprain. Plus, our defense has handled these faster running backs really well since Rossi took over.

We have good athletes too, I think?


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Maryland potentially getting Josh Jackson and Anthony McFarland back make this a dicey game. Kinda similar to how I felt pre-Nebraska. The Terps defense has struggled though so hopefully the Gophers can control clock and grind them down a bit.
 

GopherNuts said:
Maryland potentially getting Josh Jackson and Anthony McFarland back make this a dicey game. Kinda similar to how I felt pre-Nebraska. The Terps defense has struggled though so hopefully the Gophers can control clock and grind them down a bit.
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The part in bold....1,000,000 times the part in bold.

In the past 2 games alone against Purdue and Indiana - Maryland has given up 754 yards through the air with 5 passing TDs. 754 in 2 games!

Can they score some points....yep....but in case you guys haven't been paying attention our offense has been pretty good at scoring points too lately. If we play sloppy and give them opportunities they have the athletes to make things interesting....but if we play anywhere close to a clean game on offense this one shouldn't be in doubt. We should be able to score a lot of points against these guys and the way our defense has played we should be able to slow them down enough to keep them from being able to keep up with us.
 





Apparently, McFarland had been playing with a high ankle sprain for weeks, with limited carries, and just last week had it confirmed by MRI. Seems to me like he should have had the MRI weeks ago. I just read that he’s likely to declare for the draft. If I were him, I’d sit the rest of the season, and let that ankle heal completely, rather that risk his future for that sh*t show. He hasn’t even been able to practice for the last several weeks.


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PitinoFan said:
Apparently, McFarland had been playing with a high ankle sprain for weeks, with limited carries, and just last week had it confirmed by MRI. Seems to me like he should have had the MRI weeks ago. I just read that he’s likely to declare for the draft. If I were him, I’d sit the rest of the season, and let that ankle heal completely, rather that risk his future for that sh*t show. He hasn’t even been able to practice for the last several weeks.


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That sounds like a vey poorly handled situation. I agree with you, sit the year and get ready for the pros.
 

PitinoFan said:
Apparently, McFarland had been playing with a high ankle sprain for weeks, with limited carries, and just last week had it confirmed by MRI. Seems to me like he should have had the MRI weeks ago. I just read that he’s likely to declare for the draft. If I were him, I’d sit the rest of the season, and let that ankle heal completely, rather that risk his future for that sh*t show. He hasn’t even been able to practice for the last several weeks.


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As dynamic as he looked last year, I doubt Mcfarland has the resume/production to sit the rest of the season and be drafted comfortably this year unless he's fine with being a late round or un-drafted guy. Would be better if he healed up a bit and maybe finished the year then came back next and put together one more full, good, healthy year and graduated on the way.

That being said I wouldn't mind if he didn't play this week.
 



die hard gopher said:
As dynamic as he looked last year, I doubt Mcfarland has the resume/production to sit the rest of the season and be drafted comfortably this year unless he's fine with being a late round or un-drafted guy. Would be better if he healed up a bit and maybe finished the year then came back next and put together one more full, good, healthy year and graduated on the way.

That being said I wouldn't mind if he didn't play this week.
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In truth, I think a strong resume of college production is counter productive for an NFL prospect. Pro teams are scared off by running backs in particular with a fair amount of wear and tear which is why you see top high school prospects like James Cook (Dalvin’s little Brother) for example pick Georgia due to the stable of backs they have. Keeping his body fresh knowing full well that the real money he makes as a pro will be made on that second contract and not the rookie minimum deal.

McFarland’s got the tape, raw tools and versatility to be an incredibly attractive NFL prospect. He’ll shine in pre draft workouts the way someone like Alvin Kamara did who btw, never had an 1,000 yard season in college. Everybody wanted McFarland out of High School for a reason, he’s a special talent.
 

GopherNuts said:
In truth, I think a strong resume of college production is counter productive for an NFL prospect. Pro teams are scared off by running backs in particular with a fair amount of wear and tear which is why you see top high school prospects like James Cook (Dalvin’s little Brother) for example pick Georgia due to the stable of backs they have. Keeping his body fresh knowing full well that the real money he makes as a pro will be made on that second contract and not the rookie minimum deal.

McFarland’s got the tape, raw tools and versatility to be an incredibly attractive NFL prospect. He’ll shine in pre draft workouts the way someone like Alvin Kamara did who btw, never had an 1,000 yard season in college. Everybody wanted McFarland out of High School for a reason, he’s a special talent.
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He hasn't looked as good this year though and his total yards and YPC is down. I think most teams would want to see him get back to his 2018 form before spending a high or mid round pick on him. In order to go that high, you need to have the measurables and production/film while showing that you are healthy, not just one or the other. Otherwise he's a riskier pick.

The wear and tear aspect of RB's is more of a concern for what could happen in the future as opposed to what has happened. What I mean by that is that players may feel having more carries increases their chances of injuries in the future however once a player has gotten through a high amount of carries with no injuries, he is not necessarily more susceptible to injury or is going to be more worn down than if he hadn't gotten those carries. Most RB injuries, or any injuries really, are random/unlucky and can happen to anyone and not the result of what and tear and I don't really buy that NFL teams are that concerned about it in their draft process. Now if a player has been chronically injured in college and most of the injuries are related to each other or the same injury then NFL teams will definitely be more concerned but as long as that player has stayed completely healthy then a high college workload isn't too much of a concern.

Here's an article on it. https://thedraftnetwork.com/articles/mileage-matters-the-value-of-rb-wear-tear
 
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GopherNuts said:
In truth, I think a strong resume of college production is counter productive for an NFL prospect. Pro teams are scared off by running backs in particular with a fair amount of wear and tear which is why you see top high school prospects like James Cook (Dalvin’s little Brother) for example pick Georgia due to the stable of backs they have. Keeping his body fresh knowing full well that the real money he makes as a pro will be made on that second contract and not the rookie minimum deal.

McFarland’s got the tape, raw tools and versatility to be an incredibly attractive NFL prospect. He’ll shine in pre draft workouts the way someone like Alvin Kamara did who btw, never had an 1,000 yard season in college. Everybody wanted McFarland out of High School for a reason, he’s a special talent.
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The RBs taken in the first three rounds of the 2019 NFL draft average 217.7 carries in 2018, including a RB with 302 attempts. The two with the lower attempts played for Alabama (w/career 728 attempts and 46 TDs). His Maryland accolades do not measure well with the top seven taken in 2019, especially his numbers against good defenses (PSU = 9ATT 24 yards etc). If he sits - best he'll get, IMO, is an early 4th round risk. (Edit: Not that that's necessarily a bad thing)
 
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^
I’m guessing the reason he hasn’t looked as good is because he’s played several games with a high ankle sprain. Unless it’s fully healed, I doubt he’d look much better against the Gopher defense this weekend.

Maryland’s remaining schedule: Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska, Michigan State. I don’t see too many games left for him to be able to shine with a gimpy ankle.


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dlw4gophers said:
You people don’t pay attention. We are 0-0 going into the Maryland championship game.
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Exactly! And I believe we shouldn't look at it any other way. Fleck is right about that.
 

MNVCGUY said:
The part in bold....1,000,000 times the part in bold.

In the past 2 games alone against Purdue and Indiana - Maryland has given up 754 yards through the air with 5 passing TDs. 754 in 2 games!

Can they score some points....yep....but in case you guys haven't been paying attention our offense has been pretty good at scoring points too lately. If we play sloppy and give them opportunities they have the athletes to make things interesting....but if we play anywhere close to a clean game on offense this one shouldn't be in doubt. We should be able to score a lot of points against these guys and the way our defense has played we should be able to slow them down enough to keep them from being able to keep up with us.
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Yup...and both PU and IU were playing backup QBs. I'm not sure what makes people think MN doesn't score 35+ at home, on a beautiful day, with the full offense healthy against a D that's struggling.
 

MGGopher said:
Yup...and both PU and IU were playing backup QBs. I'm not sure what makes people think MN doesn't score 35+ at home, on a beautiful day, with the full offense healthy against a D that's struggling.
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It's because we are all just waiting for things to fall apart the way they always seem to fall apart eventually. Wisconsin showed first hand that anything can happen in Big Ten play but our offense should absolutely be able to put up a lot of points against this team.

Maryland put up video game numbers in the first couple games but since then have not looked anywhere close to as explosive on offense. My guess would be that teams figured them out and how to keep them from doing whatever it was they were doing at the start of the year.

Since game 2 the only time Maryland has managed to score more than 30 points was against Rutgers. On the flip side we haven't been held under 30 since the opening game of the season.

We have to play well to win, but if we do this one shouldn't be an adventure.
 
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