Toughest, easiest, Toss-Up Games for MN this season.

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The toughest, easiest, and toss-up games for the Gophers this season - GopherHole.com

–> Follow @N0elthompson on Twitter It was a weird 2021 season for the Gophers. They won back the axe from Wisconsin, dominated Iowa but somehow still lost, dominated Colorado in Boulder, lost to Bowling Green and then finished the year by beating West Virginia in the bowl game. Minnesota hopes...
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The toughest, easiest, and toss-up games for the
Gophers this season.
By: Noel Thompson
Follow Noel on twitter @N0elthompson

It was a weird 2021 season for the Gophers. They won back the axe from Wisconsin,
dominated Iowa but somehow still lost, dominated Colorado in Boulder, lost to Bowling
Green and then finished the year by beating West Virginia in the bowl game. Minnesota
hopes to build off of their 9-4 season a year ago with another solid season led by their
offensive weapons: Morgan, Ibrahim, and Autman-Bell. The Gopher’s opponents last
year finished with a combined record of 80-84. Their 2022 opponents finished last year
with a combined record of 70-80. At first glance, the Gophers schedule this upcoming
year looks favorable.
With the season just over 50 days away, let's look to see what games are the Gophers
toughest, easiest, and toss up for the upcoming season.

Easiest Game: Western Illinois.
When: September 10th @ Minnesota
The Leathernecks have a new head coach in 33 year old Myers Hendrickson. He led
Kansas Wesleyan University the last three years to a 31-4 record in his stint as a head
coach. Western Illinois is an FCS school from the Missouri Valley conference, where
they finished 2-9 overall last year averaging 24 points a game while giving up 38 points
a game. Western Illinois only has had two winning seasons in the last 10 years.
Western Illinois will also be breaking in a new QB with the departure of second team all
conference player, Connor Sampson. They do return dual threat running back Ludovick
Choquette.
According to ESPN’s Football Power Index, Minnesota has a 98.8% chance of winning
this game.
Runner Up: New Mexico State

Toughest Game: Penn State
When: October 22nd @ Penn State
The White Out. One of the toughest and loudest football environments in college
football. It has been described as “the best atmosphere in college football” and your
Minnesota Gophers have the pleasure in playing in this year’s White Out game in
Happy Valley. Even though Penn State is 11-11 in it’s last 22 games and finishing 2-6 at
the end of the year, this will be a difficult challenge for the Gophers. QB Sean Clifford
returns and Penn State has a great recruiting class coming in and some transfers to
plug in some holes. If I was Minnesota, though, I would take this as a compliment.This
has trap game written all over it for Penn State, who plays at Michigan the week before
and Ohio State the week after Minnesota. Clearly James Franklin doesn’t want his
team to lose their focus against a good Minnesota team.
According to ESPN’s Football Power Index, Minnesota has a 24.7% chance of winning
this game.
Runner Up: @ Michigan State

Toss Up Game: Nebraska
When: November 5th @ Nebraska
Somehow, Scott Frost still has a job at Nebraska after going 15-29 since he has taken
over the program. The problem hasn’t been talent, it’s been costly mistakes that have
been almost comedic at times. Of the 29 losses under his belt, 20 of them have been by
eight points or fewer. P.J. Fleck is 3-1 against Frost and seems to knows how to get his
team to perform against the Cornhuskers. This year is make or break for Frost, who
brought in a new OC in Mark Whipple who made Kenny Pickett a stud at Pitt. Adrian
Martinez transferred and now Casey Thompson from Texas will be leading the offense.
They also beefed up their WR core with transfers in Trey Palmer and Marcus
Washington. This might be the most talented team Frost has had, but will they finally
finish games? With this game in Lincoln and their record against MN, I expect Nebraska
to come out strong as this will be a critical game for both teams, which makes me pick
this as my toss up game.
According to ESPN’s Football Power Index, Minnesota has a 36.1% chance of winning
this game.
Runner Up: @ Wisconsin
 

Yup, NEB will be a tough one this year.
 

Molding a team together with new ACs and a depth chart with 15 transfers on it will not be an easy task.
 


Put @Wisconsin in the hard game and move @Michigan State to the tossup, and this sound right.
 


The only toss-up with the Nebraska game involves a coin at the start.

Billds will be there. This will be Frost's golden ticket to the buyout clause in his contract. More gnashing of teeth and lamentations coming from Lincoln.
 


BroncoRedux said:
Maybe it's just me yelling at the clouds but until the Fleck version of Gopher football beats Iowa, that will be the toughest game. Go away you damn clouds!!
Click to expand...
Iowa is at home and we have comparable talent and experience to them. Definitely not a tougher game than @PSU OR @WI. I'd actually call Iowa a toss up as well.
 

I definitely considered Iowa to be in the toughest category but I don't think they will be better than last year and we get them at home.

I also like our chances against Wisconsin this year as well but that game could be considered toss-up

I get all the jabs against Nebraska, I just don't think the game in Lincoln is a guaranteed win like other conference games on the schedule.

Also, I should've put "trap game" on the list. Which I think Rutgers or Northwestern would be trap games for me.
 




We have 2 games that we should crush and if we don't, there is trouble. The rest are all tough. I have optimism but 5 wins total is within reach. Expectations are still being held up by the 2019 season.
 

IMagine being given only a 36% chance of beating a team you've only lost to once in 5 years...and have beaten quite soundly twice and another time down something like 20 players. Pfft...
 

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