Chip: No more service academy offense. No more run, run, run, run, run. The Gophers have a young QB with a cannon arm and a reservoir of confidence.

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Chip:

The calendar flipped to 2023 on Saturday. The Gophers football team teleported its offense to the future.

Give the kid the ball and let him sling it.

No more service academy offense. No more run, run, run, run, run.

The Gophers have a young quarterback with a cannon arm and a reservoir of confidence.

Freshman quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis had his official welcome party in a steely outing that proved he can be trusted to drive the offense.

www.startribune.com

New quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis delivered, and Gophers have a new offense for the future

The freshman played with skill and poise as the Gophers focused on the pass and kept Paul Bunyan's Axe.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
 


What a fun game today seeing the gophers throw the ball more and the offense open up. Mo still had 27’rushing attempts for 70 yards but we were not so one dimensional. Fun to see a 300 plus passing game today
 

Great performance by the QB but I still believe as long as Fleck is here this will always be a run first offense.
 



Today was great in the end. Coaches have about 36 weeks to figure out a run game for next season. Having CrAB back (without injury please Lord) will only help the run side of things.

Don't know what it's going to take...NIL or Coach's back yard cottage on Minnetonka...but we really need to grab some WR from the portal...

Beam'em up Coach...

1669528912663.png
 

So, 1 game, where the gameplan was to throw “more”, will offset the previous tendencies of the entire preceding 11 games for the same coaching staff?

Don’t get me wrong. I was more than happy to see the offense open up more today, and the passing game showed out well vs. a team that “spied” Mo more than any team this year, but we still ran 56% of the plays, even though it was less effective than it had been all year.

I don’t know what the ideal offense looks like for this staff, but people (outside the staff) are painting with too broad of a brush based on the most recent game.
 

Unregistered User said:
So, 1 game, where the gameplan was to throw “more”, will offset the previous tendencies of the entire preceding 11 games for the same coaching staff?

Don’t get me wrong. I was more than happy to see the offense open up more today, and the passing game showed out well vs. a team that “spied” Mo more than any team this year, but we still ran 56% of the plays, even though it was less effective than it had been all year.

I don’t know what the ideal offense looks like for this staff, but people (outside the staff) are painting with too broad of a brush based on the most recent game.
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The ideal offense was 2019 or even first 4 games of this year and Wisconsin.
 

Unregistered User said:
So, 1 game, where the gameplan was to throw “more”, will offset the previous tendencies of the entire preceding 11 games for the same coaching staff?

Don’t get me wrong. I was more than happy to see the offense open up more today, and the passing game showed out well vs. a team that “spied” Mo more than any team this year, but we still ran 56% of the plays, even though it was less effective than it had been all year.

I don’t know what the ideal offense looks like for this staff, but people (outside the staff) are painting with too broad of a brush based on the most recent game.
Click to expand...
If a Gopher freshman QB has a cannon of an arm, good size, and has wheels that's something to want to see. If that freshman throws for 300+ yards with 2 tds and no ints - at Madison - and we retain the axe - how can people not paint with a broad brush?
 





Unregistered User said:
So, 1 game, where the gameplan was to throw “more”, will offset the previous tendencies of the entire preceding 11 games for the same coaching staff?

Don’t get me wrong. I was more than happy to see the offense open up more today, and the passing game showed out well vs. a team that “spied” Mo more than any team this year, but we still ran 56% of the plays, even though it was less effective than it had been all year.

I don’t know what the ideal offense looks like for this staff, but people (outside the staff) are painting with too broad of a brush based on the most recent game.
Click to expand...
I'm happy with 55-60% run to pass personally!
 

Gophers1992 said:
We ran for over 300 yards on over 6 yards per carry against Iowa. Do people really think the issue was that we ran the ball too much? Not a fumble, missed FG, and an interception?
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The game plan against Iowa was to run the ball. Their pass D is their strength.

As the announcer said last week, Fleck’s O is designed with the personnel he has.
Additionally, last week’s weather wasn’t optimal for pass heavy attack.

He has a legit RPO QB and I fully expect a dynamic O next season and Athan will leave here a legend.
 



scools12 said:
Great performance by the QB but I still believe as long as Fleck is here this will always be a run first offense.
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I think we've seen that Fleck will coach to the players he has. Gophers had a relatively prolific pass offense when there were future NFL receivers on the roster.

The WRs balled out yesterday. Even more than Athan. Several difficult contested catches and the final TD was pure speed, turning the standard 10 yard RPO slant into a game-breaker.

The roster may be shifting in the direction of the pass game again. I'm excited.
 

BilldGopher said:
Today was great in the end. Coaches have about 36 weeks to figure out a run game for next season. Having CrAB back (without injury please Lord) will only help the run side of things.

Don't know what it's going to take...NIL or Coach's back yard cottage on Minnetonka...but we really need to grab some WR from the portal...

Beam'em up Coach...

View attachment 22110
Click to expand...
I’m still a true believer that our WR’s are not as bad as people think.
Who knows what CAB will be post injury.

But we still have Wright who hasn’t quite put everything together yet but I still think he can be a true #1 in college with his head screwed on straight.

Jackson is a very solid WR and IMO underrated amongst gopher nation

Lemeke, who still is only a redshirt freshman, has the potential to take a big step forward next year! Is a true burner homerun hitter

MBS. Man I just think of what could have been with basically all of his drops. And getting a case of the dropsy is hard to get rid of. I’m not really sure what my opinion is of him.

And plus we still have true freshman white and Hoskins.

Of course is this transfer portal era we are in we could lose 2-3 of the guys in a blink of an eye. But I way be one of the few. I don’t hate our WR room as mush as most on here

Play calling and scheme will go a long ways in getting the most out of this group. And most importantly having a QB we can trust with the ball in their hands will have a big impact as well.

And also let’s be real. We ain’t getting a high end transfer portal guy. Gonna be a hard sell for fleck and company to convince a stud to come here after our passing game this season
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
The game plan against Iowa was to run the ball. Their pass D is their strength.

As the announcer said last week, Fleck’s O is designed with the personnel he has.
Additionally, last week’s weather wasn’t optimal for pass heavy attack.

He has a legit RPO QB and I fully expect a dynamic O next season and Athan will leave here a legend.
Click to expand...
but again, our only td drive against Iowa was AK going 5 of 5.
 

Gophs24 said:
I’m still a true believer that our WR’s are not as bad as people think.
Who knows what CAB will be post injury.

But we still have Wright who hasn’t quite put everything together yet but I still think he can be a true #1 in college with his head screwed on straight.

Jackson is a very solid WR and IMO underrated amongst gopher nation

Lemeke, who still is only a redshirt freshman, has the potential to take a big step forward next year! Is a true burner homerun hitter

MBS. Man I just think of what could have been with basically all of his drops. And getting a case of the dropsy is hard to get rid of. I’m not really sure what my opinion is of him.

And plus we still have true freshman white and Hoskins.

Of course is this transfer portal era we are in we could lose 2-3 of the guys in a blink of an eye. But I way be one of the few. I don’t hate our WR room as mush as most on here

Play calling and scheme will go a long ways in getting the most out of this group. And most importantly having a QB we can trust with the ball in their hands will have a big impact as well.

And also let’s be real. We ain’t getting a high end transfer portal guy. Gonna be a hard sell for fleck and company to convince a stud to come here after our passing game this season
Click to expand...
Go get 2 more receivers. Pay one of them big NIL money. Won't happen, but one can dream.

One game does not convince me of anything at wide receiver. Against MSU, we were back with the passing game, and everything was going to be fine.

Dylan for most part seems to be a lob it up guy and hope for the best. Jackson seems like a solid three.

We need someone who is fast and can consistently get open. Someone who can get good separation. Easier said than done.
 

Gophers1992 said:
We ran for over 300 yards on over 6 yards per carry against Iowa. Do people really think the issue was that we ran the ball too much? Not a fumble, missed FG, and an interception?
Click to expand...
A story of a similar game from yesterday...

Oregon State (vs Oregon) ran the ball 43-268 (6.2 ypc). They passed for 60 yards.
Minnesota (vs Iowa) ran the ball 50-312 (6.2 ypc). Gophers passed for 87 yards.

Oregon State lost the turnover battle 3-0, possessed the ball for 10 fewer minutes, gave up 470 yards on defense, and STILL scored 38 offensive points and beat Oregon.

It's monumentally unlucky to run the ball the way Minnesota did against Iowa, only give up 13 points, and lose.
 


Gophs24 said:
And also let’s be real. We ain’t getting a high end transfer portal guy. Gonna be a hard sell for fleck and company to convince a stud to come here after our passing game this season
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CrAB will effectively be the Gophers' transfer portal guy, assuming he stays. He's never taken an in-game rep with Athan, so that's one place the pass game can improve.
 

fmlizard said:
A story of a similar game from yesterday...

Oregon State (vs Oregon) ran the ball 43-268 (6.2 ypc). They passed for 60 yards.
Minnesota (vs Iowa) ran the ball 50-312 (6.2 ypc). Gophers passed for 87 yards.

Oregon State lost the turnover battle 3-0, possessed the ball for 10 fewer minutes, gave up 470 yards on defense, and STILL scored 38 offensive points and beat Oregon.

It's monumentally unlucky to run the ball the way Minnesota did against Iowa, only give up 13 points, and lose.
Click to expand...

The 🦫 have come a long way from when we thumped them in Corvallis- good for them!
 


fmlizard said:
A story of a similar game from yesterday...

Oregon State (vs Oregon) ran the ball 43-268 (6.2 ypc). They passed for 60 yards.
Minnesota (vs Iowa) ran the ball 50-312 (6.2 ypc). Gophers passed for 87 yards.

Oregon State lost the turnover battle 3-0, possessed the ball for 10 fewer minutes, gave up 470 yards on defense, and STILL scored 38 offensive points and beat Oregon.

It's monumentally unlucky to run the ball the way Minnesota did against Iowa, only give up 13 points, and lose.
Click to expand...
Exactly. Even with a missed FG (and missed opportunity to hit BSF the play before) and a rare Mo fumble, our running game still put us in a position for a game winning drive at the end, when we threw a pick. I can’t wrap my head around the people who are calling for us to throw it more against Iowa.
 

BilldGopher said:
Today was great in the end. Coaches have about 36 weeks to figure out a run game for next season. Having CrAB back (without injury please Lord) will only help the run side of things.

Don't know what it's going to take...NIL or Coach's back yard cottage on Minnetonka...but we really need to grab some WR from the portal...

Beam'em up Coach...

View attachment 22110
Click to expand...
They have the same amount of time the with the receivers. Said this before yesterday that Gophs have good WRs and a pro level receiving TE, and yesterday showed it.
 
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Gophs24 said:
I’m still a true believer that our WR’s are not as bad as people think.
Who knows what CAB will be post injury.

But we still have Wright who hasn’t quite put everything together yet but I still think he can be a true #1 in college with his head screwed on straight.

Jackson is a very solid WR and IMO underrated amongst gopher nation

Lemeke, who still is only a redshirt freshman, has the potential to take a big step forward next year! Is a true burner homerun hitter

MBS. Man I just think of what could have been with basically all of his drops. And getting a case of the dropsy is hard to get rid of. I’m not really sure what my opinion is of him.

And plus we still have true freshman white and Hoskins.

Of course is this transfer portal era we are in we could lose 2-3 of the guys in a blink of an eye. But I way be one of the few. I don’t hate our WR room as mush as most on here

Play calling and scheme will go a long ways in getting the most out of this group. And most importantly having a QB we can trust with the ball in their hands will have a big impact as well.

And also let’s be real. We ain’t getting a high end transfer portal guy. Gonna be a hard sell for fleck and company to convince a stud to come here after our passing game this season
Click to expand...
Brockington. Wright. CrAB back. BSF. Gophs will be fine at receiving.
 

Let’s see how the Gophers look in their bowl game matchup. Maybe PJ will start Tanner and give the 2nd half to Athan. It would be fun to see big Mo going after some rushing records too.
 

Gophers1992 said:
Exactly. Even with a missed FG (and missed opportunity to hit BSF the play before) and a rare Mo fumble, our running game still put us in a position for a game winning drive at the end, when we threw a pick. I can’t wrap my head around the people who are calling for us to throw it more against Iowa.
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This is absolutely correct. I think PJ and Kirk get way too much heat for play calling. Yesterday showed that we are capable of doing something different if the run is not working well. It wasn't working well, and we threw for massive yards. Against Iowa, the run was working extremely well and we kept pounding it.
 

Crosby said:
This is absolutely correct. I think PJ and Kirk get way too much heat for play calling. Yesterday showed that we are capable of doing something different if the run is not working well. It wasn't working well, and we threw for massive yards. Against Iowa, the run was working extremely well and we kept pounding it.
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It was clear to me they went into yesterday planning to throw much more, not because the run game was slow during the game.
 

In the internet age, I'm sure it's hard to resist the temptation to toss up a popular, easy, simplistic hot take — even for an excellent columnist like Chip.

Lazy, yes... but I bet it generates plenty of clicks.
 

Serious arm strength, quick release, awareness in the pocket and ability to run. I am sold.
 

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