B10 One-a-days: Minnie-soda Au Gophers
Previously: NW
The Golden Gophers seem to be similar to Northwestern: Minnesota returns a TON on offense- in fact they only seemed to have lost QB/WR/? Marquise Gray. They return everyone else including the entire 2-deep on the OL and even add a former 4* recruit & OSU transfer on the OL.
Defensively they lost half of their starters from a competent unit. Strength will be on the DL with weakness increasing toward the secondary.
Where the teams diverge is with QB, offensive competency and the schedule. Kill let go of Phil Nelson's RS in the last half of the season and he seemed to be a pleasant surprise for a true FR on an offense that was woeful. The schedule is VERY soft with a home date vs UNLV seemingly the toughest opponent in the OOC slate that features ZERO BCS teams.
Kill has has a very good track record in his 3rd years, but I don't see the defense holding on to last years respecable performance AND the offense becoming adequate-to-good. IMO, both of these would need to happen if Goldy wants to sit at the adult table in the division with MSU, NEB, NW and M.
Looks like another sweep in the OOC, in fact I see the Gophers swaggering into A2 5-0 with a big victory over the Hawkeyes the week before. Unfortunately reality sets in with 3 straight losses @M, @NW and Neb. They beat IU and PSU, but end with losses to Wisc and MSU.
Looks like 7-5 (3-5) and gradual progress for Goldy, bucking the huge 3rd year turnaround pattern Jerry Kill has shown in the past.
August 2nd, 2013 at 11:48 AM ^
August 2nd, 2013 at 12:01 PM ^
Wow! A 2gether reference?!?!?! That is so damned... I just don't know anymore. My sister was pretty much their biggest fan. I still had to look up their name. They had Chris Farley's brother in the band.
August 2nd, 2013 at 11:49 AM ^
August 2nd, 2013 at 11:56 AM ^
IDK, I could see them losing to PSU, but beat either of MSU, Wisc- I think Neb is too strong and talented offensively for the gophers to keep up. It's probably the same for NW as well.
the offense is going to be very run heavy, but tresselball doesn't work unless your D is outstanding. 8-4 (4-4) is reasonable, but I'd be shocked if they beat Neb. Minn won't be able to keep the huskers below 35 pts.
It will be interesting to see what Nelson can do in an offense that is now a season older. In 7 games, Nelson went 75 for 152 and managed 873 passing yards with 8 TD and 8 INTs, which is good for a 104.4 efficiency rating. I would think that isn't bad when you're thrust into the role of starting QB like Nelson seemed to be - it seems like this would help his confidence coming into this year. Further, I think Minnesota runs a fair amount of zone read, or at least they have since Kill came to town, so it will be interesting to see how much they get Nelson involved in that (he managed just short of 3 YPC when rushing, I believe, on nearly 70 attempts) or if they opt for something Persa-Colter-ish and change out QBs from time to time. Regardless, Nelson accounted for almost 25% of Minnesota's total yards on offense last year.