We are who we thought we were

[Gold Rush]

- This was the first game that I knew we had zero chance of winning, didn't look forward to it all week and was just glad to get it over with. I haven't had that feeling in a very long time for a Gopher game.

- Extremely poor game plan, especially offensively going into this game. They had ZERO chance to win this game.

- All week I was saying how strange that Vegas line was with Penn St. only favored by 4-5 points and I said several times this line should be about 17 regardless of who the QB was. Quite simply, the Gopher WR's can not get into open space --- against anyone, it appears. This is very odd considering teams are just loading the box to stop Ibrahim. The Gophers just might be the easiest team to prepare for and defend in college football right now with the possible exception of Iowa.

- Back to the betting line, I do not think Vegas realizes how poor the Gophers are playing especially offensively. The lines vs. Purdue and Illinois weren't even close in either one, now they put out a ridiculously soft line vs. Penn St -- where do they even get that one from?? The Gophers rocked their early schedule but teams have caught on how to defend them and their defense is not as good as they thought it was, either. Sure, I won 500.00 but this was so easy I wish I would have put a lot more on it. You can count on Vegas adjusting the lines on future Gopher games - I wouldn't favor them in any game other than Northwestern and right now even that one is no gimme if they can't pass.

- Going back to the Purdue loss - that one really stung hard. They lost a game they shouldn't have and the crowd coming out was similar to after the Michigan debacle 15 years ago (not NEARLY as bad, though!) but you can tell that one really hurt everyone. Fleck's response was odd, saying "hey it's hard to be perfect."

- The honeymoon with Fleck is officially over. Fans are really pissed right now.

- Gophers offensive coaches had better come up with something clever very quickly on getting their receivers open or you can kiss the rest of this season good-bye. Tape from the last 3 games has provided a blueprint in stopping them that has turned them from a monster, top 20 team into a creampuff. Just watch at how much separation there is from our receivers and their defenders on a pass play -- and then watch at the separation the opponents receivers have from Gopher defenders and it will make you sick.

Sorry for the negative post but I am just really ticked off at the way this whole season has gone. The 500.00 I won from all this doesn't make me feel any better. I wish I would have been wrong the Gophers won and I lost it to be honest. This one played out EXACTLY as I knew it would.

 

[HitMeAgainIAmStillMoving]

I wish they had let us off the hook.

 

[proudgopher]

I am in agreement with Gold Rush. The honeymoon is over. We have huge personnel losses next year. Who replaces Mo? The OL line returns two of five starters and our right tackle who returns has not exactly been stellar. Our WR corps has failed to deliver. The defense will be decimated. PJ needs to roll up his sleeves and hit the portal and recruiting trail hard.

 

[I'm A Maroon 2!]

Fans get caught up in early season results vs looking at who those results were against. It's kind of that simple.

 

[Gold Rush]

Fans get caught up in early season results vs looking at who those results were against. It's kind of that simple.

Not just us fans but nationally and Vegas, too. Vegas is usually a lot more spot on but they were fooled, too. That line of 4-5 points was ridiculous!!

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

We are undefeated in the Penn State First Quarter Championship Season.

 

[saintpauljeff]

Not just us fans but nationally and Vegas, too. Vegas is usually a lot more spot on but they were fooled, too. That line of 4-5 points was ridiculous!!

Nice job cashing. Wish the state of MN had mobile sports betting like certain adjacent states and I would have tailed you on that easy pick. But that’s another topic…

I’ll be in Vegas during the NW game and am worried they’ll overestimate the Gophers in that game. Guess we’ll see but maybe my confidence will build that they can certainly blow them out.

 

[Texan Gopher]

I am up $1300 for the season.

I also have a "season" vet out there of $750...

I picked the under at 7.5 wins.

 

[Gold Rush]

I am up $1300 for the season.

I also have a "season" vet out there of $750...

I picked the under at 7.5 wins.

congrats!! Betting on football games is a tough game but every once in a while you get a game where Vegas makes a mistake on -- and the spread gets blown by 3-4 TD's or more. This was one of those games. Your under play is looking very good. I think most fans would be very happy if we can get 7 wins out of this season right now.

 

[Texan Gopher]

congrats!! Betting on football games is a tough game but every once in a while you get a game where Vegas makes a mistake on -- and the spread gets blown by 3-4 TD's or more. This was one of those games. Your under play is looking very good. I think most fans would be very happy if we can get 7 wins out of this season right now.

Yep. I honestly only bet on the Gophers so if they lose, at least I make $$$ to hide some of the pain. And, it looks like this year my betting will be me buying myself a Christmas gift of new Callaway woods and irons here in about 5 weeks.

I might be the only sports gambler in America that wants to lose $2000 a year.

 

[FanSinceTheFifties]

I am in agreement with Gold Rush. The honeymoon is over. We have huge personnel losses next year. Who replaces Mo? The OL line returns two of five starters and our right tackle who returns has not exactly been stellar. Our WR corps has failed to deliver. The defense will be decimated. PJ needs to roll up his sleeves and hit the portal and recruiting trail hard.

But the problem is, and has been since the early sixties, recruiting to Minneapolis. And the recent reputation Minneapolis has earned won't help.

 

[NotAFanOfBecky]

Fans get caught up in early season results vs looking at who those results were against. It's kind of that simple.

I get that thought, but who amongst us didn’t think this team was good? Years of struggling against teams “we should beat” including Bowling Green last year. We absolutely dismantled our first 4 opponents! Defensively no one could do anything. I for sure thought hey, this year is different. Well, clearly not.

 

[Gold Rush]

Yep. I honestly only bet on the Gophers so if they lose, at least I make $$$ to hide some of the pain. And, it looks like this year my betting will be me buying myself a Christmas gift of new Callaway woods and irons here in about 5 weeks.

I might be the only sports gambler in America that wants to lose $2000 a year.

Watch -- the Gophers line vs. Rutgers would have been about Gophers -16 and now it should be Gophers -6 or less, maybe -4. If it is still Gophers -7.5 or more it is still too high.

 

[Gold Rush]

But the problem is, and has been since the early sixties, recruiting to Minneapolis. And the recent reputation Minneapolis has earned won't help.

Other teams are having pretty good luck recruiting here. Of course hockey is still getting premier athletes but basketball is getting some top talent, too. It can be done but the kids have got to believe in the program. If Fleck loses that -- he is toast.

 

[Texan Gopher]

Watch -- the Gophers line vs. Rutgers would have been about Gophers -16 and now it should be Gophers -6 or less, maybe -4. If it is still Gophers -7.5 or more it is still too high.

No matter what the line is, I'm going to hedge. $200 on Rutgers to cover. $200 on Rutgers to win straight out.

 

[I'm A Maroon 2!]

I get that thought, but who amongst us didn’t think this team was good? Years of struggling against teams “we should beat” including Bowling Green last year. We absolutely dismantled our first 4 opponents! Defensively no one could do anything. I for sure thought hey, this year is different. Well, clearly not.

I won't act like some future seeing fan, but I knew coming into this season there was a ton of experience on the team. Teams with 6th year QBs should have good offensive leadership and the defense was solid for a few years now. If they would have gotten tripped up by a lowly FBS or FCS team, I would have been extremely worried. With luck and good health, I figured maybe top 20 was possible. Obviously, that hasn't been the case.

 

[Some guy]

- This was the first game that I knew we had zero chance of winning, didn't look forward to it all week and was just glad to get it over with. I haven't had that feeling in a very long time for a Gopher game.

- Extremely poor game plan, especially offensively going into this game. They had ZERO chance to win this game.

- All week I was saying how strange that Vegas line was with Penn St. only favored by 4-5 points and I said several times this line should be about 17 regardless of who the QB was. Quite simply, the Gopher WR's can not get into open space --- against anyone, it appears. This is very odd considering teams are just loading the box to stop Ibrahim. The Gophers just might be the easiest team to prepare for and defend in college football right now with the possible exception of Iowa.

- Back to the betting line, I do not think Vegas realizes how poor the Gophers are playing especially offensively. The lines vs. Purdue and Illinois weren't even close in either one, now they put out a ridiculously soft line vs. Penn St -- where do they even get that one from?? The Gophers rocked their early schedule but teams have caught on how to defend them and their defense is not as good as they thought it was, either. Sure, I won 500.00 but this was so easy I wish I would have put a lot more on it. You can count on Vegas adjusting the lines on future Gopher games - I wouldn't favor them in any game other than Northwestern and right now even that one is no gimme if they can't pass.

- Going back to the Purdue loss - that one really stung hard. They lost a game they shouldn't have and the crowd coming out was similar to after the Michigan debacle 15 years ago (not NEARLY as bad, though!) but you can tell that one really hurt everyone. Fleck's response was odd, saying "hey it's hard to be perfect."

- The honeymoon with Fleck is officially over. Fans are really pissed right now.

- Gophers offensive coaches had better come up with something clever very quickly on getting their receivers open or you can kiss the rest of this season good-bye. Tape from the last 3 games has provided a blueprint in stopping them that has turned them from a monster, top 20 team into a creampuff. Just watch at how much separation there is from our receivers and their defenders on a pass play -- and then watch at the separation the opponents receivers have from Gopher defenders and it will make you sick.

Sorry for the negative post but I am just really ticked off at the way this whole season has gone. The 500.00 I won from all this doesn't make me feel any better. I wish I would have been wrong the Gophers won and I lost it to be honest. This one played out EXACTLY as I knew it would.

The Vegas lines are a lot of times based on efficiency metrics
The efficiency metrics love teams that don’t get blown out and that blow people out.

Our metrics will take a hit this week.

But I always thought the flaw in the efficiency rating is that the efficiency ratings thought that a 4-8 Nebraska team was good last year

 

[FanSinceTheFifties]

Other teams are having pretty good luck recruiting here. Of course hockey is still getting premier athletes but basketball is getting some top talent, too. It can be done but the kids have got to believe in the program. If Fleck loses that -- he is toast.

Basketball is doing well? Most of the country doesn't care about hockey. Football needs many more able bodies than all the other sports combined. If if can be done here, why hasn't it been done here since the early 60s?

 

[hello-world]

I am in agreement with Gold Rush. The honeymoon is over. We have huge personnel losses next year. Who replaces Mo? The OL line returns two of five starters and our right tackle who returns has not exactly been stellar. Our WR corps has failed to deliver. The defense will be decimated. PJ needs to roll up his sleeves and hit the portal and recruiting trail hard.

The great thing about returning players is that they get better during the off-season.

Also y'all are absolutely ridiculous complaing about a bland gameplan with a first-time freshman starter.

They couldn't even execute the RPO and y'all are looking for a full west coast offense.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Basketball is doing well? Most of the country doesn't care about hockey. Football needs many more able bodies than all the other sports combined. If if can be done here, why hasn't it been done here since the early 60s?

well, going back to the 60's, there was this thing called segregation. Southern schools would not sign Black players. The great Gopher teams of the early 60's were built on black players.

When Southern schools started signing black players, that changed the landscape.

after that, the Gophers tried to run a "clean" program at a time when a lot of schools were paying players under the table or making other inducements that didn't fit within the NCAA rules.

and now, we have the new NIL era where the under the table payments are now above the table. see Bucky Irving - Oregon.

bottom line - players want to win championships. MN has not been able to offer that. If they can't win championships, at least some players want to get paid. and MN has not been able to offer that.
what that leaves programs like MN is the idea of getting 3-star players and "coaching them up."
once in a while, you can put together a nice season that way, but it's really hard to sustain.

 

[PhiloVance]

- This was the first game that I knew we had zero chance of winning, didn't look forward to it all week and was just glad to get it over with. I haven't had that feeling in a very long time for a Gopher game.

- Extremely poor game plan, especially offensively going into this game. They had ZERO chance to win this game.

- All week I was saying how strange that Vegas line was with Penn St. only favored by 4-5 points and I said several times this line should be about 17 regardless of who the QB was. Quite simply, the Gopher WR's can not get into open space --- against anyone, it appears. This is very odd considering teams are just loading the box to stop Ibrahim. The Gophers just might be the easiest team to prepare for and defend in college football right now with the possible exception of Iowa.

- Back to the betting line, I do not think Vegas realizes how poor the Gophers are playing especially offensively. The lines vs. Purdue and Illinois weren't even close in either one, now they put out a ridiculously soft line vs. Penn St -- where do they even get that one from?? The Gophers rocked their early schedule but teams have caught on how to defend them and their defense is not as good as they thought it was, either. Sure, I won 500.00 but this was so easy I wish I would have put a lot more on it. You can count on Vegas adjusting the lines on future Gopher games - I wouldn't favor them in any game other than Northwestern and right now even that one is no gimme if they can't pass.

- Going back to the Purdue loss - that one really stung hard. They lost a game they shouldn't have and the crowd coming out was similar to after the Michigan debacle 15 years ago (not NEARLY as bad, though!) but you can tell that one really hurt everyone. Fleck's response was odd, saying "hey it's hard to be perfect."

- The honeymoon with Fleck is officially over. Fans are really pissed right now.

- Gophers offensive coaches had better come up with something clever very quickly on getting their receivers open or you can kiss the rest of this season good-bye. Tape from the last 3 games has provided a blueprint in stopping them that has turned them from a monster, top 20 team into a creampuff. Just watch at how much separation there is from our receivers and their defenders on a pass play -- and then watch at the separation the opponents receivers have from Gopher defenders and it will make you sick.

Sorry for the negative post but I am just really ticked off at the way this whole season has gone. The 500.00 I won from all this doesn't make me feel any better. I wish I would have been wrong the Gophers won and I lost it to be honest. This one played out EXACTLY as I knew it would.

They beat 4 "teams" that were questionable at best and you based your entire season on those 4 games and a bunch of 1, 2, and 3 star players.