STATE OF THE PROGRAM: Where is Gophers football right now?

[Polski]

Like most on here, very frustrating season. I don't think PJ sucks, I don't think we need to burn it all down, I don't think every commit will decommit, etc

I do think changes need to be made. I agree PJ needs to change his best and play a little more aggressive, we're not going to be an air raid offense, but man, it was pathetic. And there was issues all over, Wr's falling down, missing open WR's, hitting open WR's but then they drop it

Defense, I was not expecting defense to drop so dramatically, embarrassing losses to NW, Illinois, and Purdue where defense just was garbage in key spots and you could throw WI in there as well

Special teams, continue to be an issue, we need to fire ST coaching and replace him, enough is enough

There are challenges to MN jobs, most MN fans get that, we're not a blue blood program and that isn't changing. We don't have booster or NIL support to play with the big boys on a consistent basis, that isn't changing. MN isn't a hotbed for football, so local recruits can't carry a team, that isn't changing. Those aren't excuses, it's the reality of situation

BUT there is no reason we can't be Iowa level good, Wisconsin level good, etc. We had been trending that way and this year was a set back, I think PJ has earned the right to attempt to fix it, I think 1-2 more years and we better see some growth.

I agree with everything that you said here.

The only things of concern are:

- offense needs improvement
- defense needs improvement
- special teams needs improvement
- in-game coaching strategy needs improvement

-lack of NIL money
-lack of high level recruits in our main recruiting area

Besides those couple details.............everything looks pretty good for us.



It's hard to break through. Good lord, we've got work to do.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

Washington has seven conference titles since 1990 including a national championship team. We've had nothing since 1967.

If we cross off any team who has had success as not comparable, than I guess it is true that no comparable programs have been able to have success.

I think Washington is a great example of a school that has managed to have some success (obviously not OSU level) depsote having many of the obstacles that Minnesota does.

 

[Panthadad2]

Other than Iowa which has managed to win enough close games to finish ranked (for now), it does seem like the non-helmet schools in the conference have dropped off the past few years. There was more variety in good teams before the portal/NIL era in roughly 2021. The data points are small, so maybe this is just coincidence, but this makes me wonder if the new era increases the gap between perennial powerhouses and all others.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

so I was listening to Reusse on a podcast with Randball from the Strib. spent a lot of time on the Gophers, and Reusse came up with this line, which I thought was pretty funny.

Talking about how the Gophers' APR got them into a bowl game at 5-7, Reusse said that the Gophers don't recruit a lot of 4* players, which worked to their advantage. 4* and above all think they're going to the NFL, so they don't care as much about academics. But, since the Gophers mainly have 3* players, they have to pay more attention to academics since they have less chance of a pro career. Reusse concluded that "the Gophers' poor recruiting is directly responsible for their academic performance."

 

[Gopher_In_NYC]

A good buddy of mine that follows college football way more than anyone I know of (and probably more than many CFB columnists) told me at the beginning of the season that they'd be 5-7 and I usually respect his opinions, so my expectations were pretty tempered this season, but it was still frustrating to watch. He said just wait a year, it'll get better. I hope he's right.
Anyway, many of us are disappointed but we'll all be back next August, looking forward to another season. SUMRTBGG.

Did he say why he thought we’d be 5-7?
Did you ask him why we’d be better?