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fredsdeadfriend
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If come December the Gophers still lead in all of those categories, you won't only be apologizing, you will be hating that the Gophers might be the newest #1 ranked team in the nation, or soon to be depending on when in December you check those stats, before or after the Conf title game. Because if Minnesota goes 11-0 from here on out and remains #1 in BOTH total offense and total defense and all those other categories they are now #1 in, with wins over Top Ten MSU, possibly Top Ten or Top 15 PSU, and #2/3 OSU/Mich, then only an undefeated Georgia/Alabama could conceivably remain ahead of them and I'd bitch about it until they met in the cfp. lol
Come conference play we're not going to pull our starters out for 40-45% of the games. The 40% of the game where the other team starts to get worn out and tired from our offense being on the field for the longest time of any team in the nation, lol. We were at or near the top of the Time of Possession stats all of last year, too, so that is not something that only comes from playing creampuffs.
Our defense was ranked Top Ten last year even with that embarrassing performance against Bowling Green, seems that defense could be better this year? And with only 2-3 ranked opponents ahead on their schedule through the Conf title game, it won't be hard to maintain their #1 ranking in total defense.
As for our Offense, it has our 2019 OC back, and so far a healthy pre-season 2nd team AA rb Mo Ibrahim, who got his 10th and 11th 100 yard games in a row in the first half of each game, he got his 9th 100 yard game last year against OSU, also in the first half, lol, along with a 6th year QB, who has the team in the Top 20 in pass efficiency and comp %, a pre-season 1st team AA 6th year Center, a 6th year #1WR with catches in an ncaa current record 40 game streak and a 5th year kicker who hasn't missed a single fg or extra point yet. Add to this our backup RB has 178 yards rushing on only 27 rushes, so over a 6.6 yards per carry average, our 3rd string RB has 76 yards on just 12 carries, for a 6.33 yards per carry average & our 6th string RB has 32 yards rushing on just 2 attempts, I'm sure he'll get redshirted as I'm guessing Fleck is going to platoon the rbs much more this season to try not to overuse any of them and avoid what happened last year where our starting rbs went down one by one until we were relying upon our 5th and 6th string rbs for the 2nd half of the season. Our 2nd and 3rd string QBs have completed 7 passes in 11 attempts for 99 yards passing and 1 rushing td so far, and may both be used more often than in past seasons as preparation for next year when Morgan moves on to the NFL. Our receivers so far are, 8-156, 6-107, 5-93, 3-65, 2-38, 2-27, 2-19, 2-13, 2-12, 1-16, 1-14, with 2 of the 3 averaging under 10 a catch being rbs.
How we do may depend on how healthy we remain, but that may depend on which position it is, as we could probably do well if Mo got hurt again, or any of the receivers other than Autman-Bell, or a TE, not so sure about our QB or if an offensive lineman goes down though? I had a good feeling about the 2019 squad, and figured we'd bounce back from 2020 but was surprised how close we came to winning 11 games again, and now I feel even better about this year's squad than I did 2019's, but that's as much because of Iowa and Wisconsin being down as it is UMn being up, We can lose to both MSU and PSU and still easily win the Division, but I think we'll win one or both of those games.
