ESPN: B1G postseason position rankings: OL 10. Minnesota (Preseason ranking: 11)

[BleedGopher]

10. Minnesota (Preseason ranking: 11): Notice a theme here about injuries? It continues with the final three teams on the list. Injuries hit Minnesota's offensive line especially hard, as the Gophers lost their top two centers in a win against Illinois and were constantly moving pieces around up front. The good news for Gopher fans is that the offensive line made significant strides for the bowl game against Texas Tech, as Minnesota racked up 222 rush yards. But the line had its struggles during Big Ten play, as Minnesota eclipsed 17 points just once in eight league games.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/71426/b1g-postseason-position-rankings-ol

Go Gophers!!

 

[MNVCGUY]

Again seems fair. Lots of potential for the line moving forward but have to prove we can run the ball against Big Ten competition before anyone will take the line all that seriously.

 

[Monty519]

This is one group I fully expect to be vastly improved next year. I think another year, a lot of experience coming back, hopefully better health (it really couldn't have been much worse last year), I think we'll see them occasionally appear dominant on some conference opponents.

 

[bemidjigopher]

Did we make strides or were we just healthy and showed how good the oline was all along

 

[MNVCGUY]

Did we make strides or were we just healthy and showed how good the oline was all along

What happened in the bowl game was a combination of players being healthy and going up against a pretty weak run defense. The encouraging thing was we ran the ball effectively but it is silly to think that didn't have a little to do with who we were playing as well. Bottom line is the O-Line looked the best it had all season and hopefully we will see that kind of play show up in the conference games next year.