But what comes next is what matters
Sorry for the absence, but Minnesota’s beatdown of Maryland is exactly what GopherNation (myself and perhaps collectively) needed. It has been a challenging season to be fully engaged with this team, and college football in general.
It started with the season-opening loss to North Carolina where the team looked unprepared and could not get out of their own way. Back-to-back weeks of cruise-control victories over Rhode Island and Nevada did little to show anything different in their Big Ten opener against Iowa. And then the first half of the Michigan game was so disheartening that the near comeback in the second half was uninspiring.
Even the wins over USC and UCLA, at least for me, did little to give me hope that this season had any promise of being competitive against quality opponents, perhaps resulting in a seven or eight-win season. When previewing the schedule back in June, I wasn’t convinced that USC was nearly as strong as their reputation would lead you to believe. Then getting behind to 1-5 UCLA…it has been a trying season up to this point.
My lack of enthusiasm was getting deep, the apathy was gaining a foothold.
On top of the problems facing developmental programs in the new world of college football, this particular Gopher team was frustrating to watch. The offense was mostly sputtering while showing flashes of a unit that is entertaining (and effective). The defense was often very good, but prone to timely mistakes as the quality of the opponent improved.
As the Minister of Managing Expectations, perhaps this season’s frustrations have been my own doing. But they exist and I don’t think I’ve been alone.
But then Maryland happened. From the 2nd play of the game, this Gopher squad looked sharp. The offense was salivating to have the ball in their hands because they played like that Terrapin defense has no shot at stopping them. And they executed on that. The defense gave up yards, but they forced turnovers and made plays on 3rd down. It was a balanced effort by both sides of the ball and this Gopher team was fun to watch.
I’m not holding on to that game as the game of the year. Maryland is not very good, maybe the worst Big Ten team we face all year. But it was encouraging. The question now is, what comes next?
Will the remaining four games of the season will be interesting?
The team sits with a 5-3 record (absolutely should be 6-2, but I won’t go down that rabbit hole today). Back on the expectations bus, most thought this was a 7-5 team. Eight wins if you are an optimist, six if you were less enthusiastic, and as a point of reference, the Vegas win total was 5.5. Frankly, this team is pretty close to what we thought it was going to be.
But can they get two (three?) more wins to finish the regular season? It won’t be easy.
I think one could make an argument for a 3-1 finish just as easily as an 0-4 finish.
Was Maryland an aberration or is this more indicative of what we can expect from the Gophers in the final month of the season. Saturday was a breath of fresh air, will we get more?