Gophers Reality Check


I bleed maroon and gold too, but see people here going Nuts about the Gophs in the CFP and I suppose beating Alabama, Clemson, and/or LSU.... and Ohio State to get there. That's crazy talk, people.

Bask in the warm sunshine of 9-0-- but Penn State is not Ohio State, Alabama or Clemson. And the Gophers wouldn't have won if not for three interceptions. Penn State gained more total yards.

My advice: lower your expectations, and hope for a Rose Bowl invite. Let Ohio State take on college football's elite. They seem up to the task.

Obviously you are not really a Gopher fan...nice try.
 

It's already been a great year, beyond what most envisioned start of season, but I don't think we're ready for OSU, LSU, Alabama or Clemson. And getting crushed by one of those teams would Not raise our recruiting to a yet higher level.

You should’ve stopped after “It’s already been a great year...”

If the Gophers go on and get crushed by OSU, LSU, Alabama or Clemson so what.

It still would go down as the greatest football season in 50 years. Getting stomped by one of those teams the Gophers aren’t ready for would not take away from that.


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You should’ve stopped after “It’s already been a great year...”

If the Gophers go on and get crushed by OSU, LSU, Alabama or Clemson so what.

It still would go down as the greatest football season in 50 years. Getting stomped by one of those teams the Gophers aren’t ready for would not take away from that.


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Good point. OSU got stomped a few years ago by Clemson and I would say that was considered a pretty successful year. Maybe/maybe not by OSU standards, but surely by mine. Their recruiting didn't take a hit, and they are top 1 to 3 now in recruiting and in the standings. Point being, take all we can get and if a bad loss happens on the biggest stage, I'd still be elated.
 


Yea, I’m in the we can beat anyone category. If we make it to the CFP we will do it through as difficult a path as anyone and there’s no reason we can’t beat the others.
 



I'm getting very confused (even more than usual). I grew up thinking I needed to cheer for my favorite team to do well.

Now, this revolutionary comes along and tells me that I should try cheering against the Gophers. Wow, that opens up a whole new world of possibilities in my fandom! Thanks, OldBob!
 



If we miraculously win the national title. It would be the greatest Cinderella story in sports history.
 

Last time I looked

I'm excited about the Gophers, but also reserve the right to be realistic. It's already been a great year, beyond what most envisioned start of season, but I don't think we're ready for OSU, LSU, Alabama or Clemson. And getting crushed by one of those teams would Not raise our recruiting to a yet higher level. A Rose Bowl bid and win or close loss would be better for the program going forward.

We have beaten Alabama before. Just saying.
 

You learn something new every day. Today I learned that OldBob53 is the arbiter of reality.
 

Would have probably rolled them if we didnt fumble either! Woulda, coulda, shoulda! Could have lost if a million other things happened too. Yes, you are probably right we arent as good as those elite teams. What are we to do? People ripped us for our schedule and we go beat the #4 team in the nation, now we need to apologize again, because were not as good as those elite teams? When can i get excited about this team? Never?

Be excited ! I am thrilled with this team. We do not have to be as good as those teams right now. We only have to be better on the day we play them.
 



Hey guys, we’ve hit our peak according to the old fart. Don’t aspire to see the Gophers win more than 9 games ever. 9 games is our best, how dare any of us fans expect greatness. Don’t ever think the team you devote your time, money, and emotional energy into deserves to be in amongst teams like LSU, Clemson, OSU, or Bama.

Sounds to me like old fart doesn’t want his heart to break if the Gophers do go really far this season. He doesn’t want the let down. Well guess what, if we lose it will hurt. No ****. But this team busts its ass and wants to play for all the marbles. They want to be in with Clemson, Bama, OSU, and LSU. Don’t **** on their parade, or mine.


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If we miraculously win the national title. It would be the greatest Cinderella story in sports history.

But if we don’t win it next year too we’ll just be disappointed and it won’t help with recruiting. Why do you want us to fail?
 

Hey guys, we’ve hit our peak according to the old fart. Don’t aspire to see the Gophers win more than 9 games ever. 9 games is our best, how dare any of us fans expect greatness. Don’t ever think the team you devote your time, money, and emotional energy into deserves to be in amongst teams like LSU, Clemson, OSU, or Bama.

Sounds to me like old fart doesn’t want his heart to break if the Gophers do go really far this season. He doesn’t want the let down. Well guess what, if we lose it will hurt. No ****. But this team busts its ass and wants to play for all the marbles. They want to be in with Clemson, Bama, OSU, and LSU. Don’t **** on their parade, or mine.


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It would be great if we could start a new board and only let the old fart post there. Am I right?


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It would be great if we could start a new board and only let the old fart post there. Am I right?


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You’ve got tolerance for bitches, I don’t.


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What don't we have THIS YEAR, that OSU, LSU, Clemson & Bama have?

We have a smart QB who seems to be getting better as time goes. Isn't he the ONLY QB in cfb history to have thrown for 90% or better in more than one game in his career? He is 13-2 as a starter, 12-1 in his last 13 games. He has a QB rating of 191.04, scored 21 TDs to only 4 interceptions.


We have a stable of thoroughbred RBs. If Rodney gets hurt, Ibrahim would do fine as his replacement. Brooks is averaging close to 6 yards per rushing attempt, and TP only got a couple attempts in one game, but averaged over 7 yards per carry.

We have a QB who has become a short yardage weapon, getting us first downs and TDs almost every time he tries. Combined we have 20 rushing TDs.


We have a stable of thoroughbred WRs. Combined our top 3 have 20 TDs in 9 games. They average 14.6, 16.0 and 22.3 yards per catch.


We have RBs and TEs that know how to block.

We have an OL that is bigger and taller than the Vikings OL that seems to be getting better every week.

We've scored over 30 pts in 10 of our last 11 games.

We've outscored our last ten P5 opponents 363-157.



We have a dynamic young coach who went undefeated in just his 4th season at his last job.

He is 18-1 when the Gophers score first.

His players are smart. 85 of them have GPAs of over 3.0

He's got them playing disciplined smart football, for the most part.



I covered the offensive side of the ball. Anyone more informed want to cover the Defense and/or Special teams?
 

What don't we have THIS YEAR, that OSU, LSU, Clemson & Bama have?

We have a smart QB who seems to be getting better as time goes. Isn't he the ONLY QB in cfb history to have thrown for 90% or better in more than one game in his career? He is 13-2 as a starter, 12-1 in his last 13 games. He has a QB rating of 191.04, scored 21 TDs to only 4 interceptions.


We have a stable of thoroughbred RBs. If Rodney gets hurt, Ibrahim would do fine as his replacement. Brooks is averaging close to 6 yards per rushing attempt, and TP only got a couple attempts in one game, but averaged over 7 yards per carry.

We have a QB who has become a short yardage weapon, getting us first downs and TDs almost every time he tries. Combined we have 20 rushing TDs.


We have a stable of thoroughbred WRs. Combined our top 3 have 20 TDs in 9 games. They average 14.6, 16.0 and 22.3 yards per catch.


We have RBs and TEs that know how to block.

We have an OL that is bigger and taller than the Vikings OL that seems to be getting better every week.

We've scored over 30 pts in 10 of our last 11 games.

We've outscored our last ten P5 opponents 363-157.



We have a dynamic young coach who went undefeated in just his 4th season at his last job.

He is 18-1 when the Gophers score first.

His players are smart. 85 of them have GPAs of over 3.0

He's got them playing disciplined smart football, for the most part.



I covered the offensive side of the ball. Anyone more informed want to cover the Defense and/or Special teams?

This is a point I’ve been trying to make too, but you put it all out there statistically and summarized it all very well. This is huge for putting things into perspective as far as how dangerous our offense is.

Is it true Morgan is the only QB in CFB history to do that? I know he’s had the two games (Purdue and Penn State) Over 90% completion rate. But that’s incredible if he’s the only QB to ever do it. I mean think of all the greats that couldn’t even pull that off. The only reason I don’t think Morgan is in the Heisman discussion is because he’s not flashy, and he’s not playing for an SEC/helmet/blue blood school. You have his stats playing for Penn State, or Clemson, etc. and he’s in the top 5 Heisman candidates.


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If we make it to Indy, do you advise we cheer for the Gophers against Ohio State?

Definitely cheer for the maroon and gold. IF we were to beat OSU, we might be ready for Alabama and Clemson and LSU.
 

What makes you think Clemson or LSU are better than us?
Did you think the same thing about PSU?

Why or why not?

Because of history: Big Ten teams generally getting soundly beaten by SEC teams in bowl games.
 

Definitely cheer for the maroon and gold. IF we were to beat OSU, we might be ready for Alabama and Clemson and LSU.

There are people who feel OSU is better than LSU and ALOT of people who believe OSU is better than Bama and Clemson. So if we beat OSU, then we will absolutely be ready for Bama and Clemson and even LSU.

And being ready doesn't mean having the same # of 4 and 5 star players, it means being ready to listen to the coach and play smart and disciplined and hope what has been working so far still works against those teams and knowing that if they make any mistakes, we have guys that can take advantage and capitalize on those mistakes. It's not like we haven't played from behind this year.

Best thing we have going for us, is a huge OL and top notch receivers who can make miraculous catches, with a smart QB who can get them the ball while making very few mistakes. Those teams might be able to adapt, but will it be in time? Will it be before our passing game opens up our running game? If we score first and do something like we did against PSU, and get an early turnover, those teams could be playing catchup, and if it's something they haven't had to do before, who knows if they can do it? Bama showed they can, but they had to show that they could get totally outplayed first.

And you list Clemson, but let me ask you, who has Clemson beaten? They have played ONE single team with 6 wins, otherwise they've beaten a 2 win team, a 3 win team, two 4 win teams and four 5 win teams, and Wofford. So only 2 teams with winning records.

Their next game is vs 7-2 Wake Forest. I'll see if they can win that game or not before I start considering whether they are unbeatable or not.
 

Because of history: Big Ten teams generally getting soundly beaten by SEC teams in bowl games.

Key word in your response, "history". This is not the same Gopher team as you saw under Mason or any other coach since Warmath. And I remember a few B1G teams beating SEC teams recently. B1G football is catching up to the SEC. THIS year, B1G teams overall are doing better than SEC teams in ooc games.

Name me the ooc big wins for the SEC? Auburn beat Oregon, but who has Oregon beaten? Otherwise 6-4 Miami? Duke?


Compare that to OSU's big win over Cincy, Michigan's big win over Notre Dame.
 

I'm not crowning the Gophers national champions yet, but it's fun to dream. Minnesota sports history is so bleak and dreary why not ride a wave of positivity every once and a while? I do think 12-0 is well within reach. Get to 12-0 and take on OSU and let the chips fall where they may.
 

I'm not crowning the Gophers national champions yet, but it's fun to dream.

Im with you there. I can’t count the number of times in the last few decades my buddies and I have discussed a “what if” Rose Bowl trip when the Gophers have started 1-0, 2-0, etc.


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12-1 and a close loss to Ohio State in the B1G championship *should* also get you to the playoff...

Probably won't since it's Minnesota, but resume wise, it's enough.
 

This is a point I’ve been trying to make too, but you put it all out there statistically and summarized it all very well. This is huge for putting things into perspective as far as how dangerous our offense is.

Is it true Morgan is the only QB in CFB history to do that? I know he’s had the two games (Purdue and Penn State) Over 90% completion rate. But that’s incredible if he’s the only QB to ever do it. I mean think of all the greats that couldn’t even pull that off. The only reason I don’t think Morgan is in the Heisman discussion is because he’s not flashy, and he’s not playing for an SEC/helmet/blue blood school. You have his stats playing for Penn State, or Clemson, etc. and he’s in the top 5 Heisman candidates.


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Jameis Winston did it in his Heisman year, but he's the only other one AFAIK. Morgan is having a special season, but most people nationally have no idea.
 






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