Minnesota Golden Gopher Football 2018 Outlook
August 18, 2018
2 weeks from today we’ll already be a couple of days into the college football season and the Gopher Football team will have played its first game at TCF Bank Stadium against New Mexico State. For a few weeks I have had friends asking me what I think the season is going to be like… and I don’t have a clue.
In part that is because my brain is still focused on summer, fishing and relaxing. I am in denial about fall coming. I do love fall. Just … not … yet.
I have been casually reading articles, predictions and logging on to the Gophers Rivals site (I have been a long time subscriber) but not digging into a 2 deep roster or who is the leading contender to be the starting QB.
Until this morning.
I was doing some reading about the upcoming season and got quite a bit more interested.
Let me take a pause and go back a bit… then some quick observations, my 2018 prediction and where to find Gopher Football info online.
I grew up a Gopher Football fan. In 1982 (I was 12) my dad picked up 2 season tickets when the Gophers moved to the Metrodome. I attended the university during which time Dad transferred his tickets to me and I have had them since.
35 seasons and I have missed 14 home games. I’m in. I’m committed.
In 2005 I started a blog, “Go for the Roses at gopherfootballblog.com. I did a lot of writing back then and as things sometimes go… started running out of time to spend on it. I shut down the site. I still own the domain name. And I copied the 2005-2007 and posted here on a sub page Gopher the Roses. So if you want to go back in time and see what I was thinking about when Coach Glen Mason was fired, Coach Brewster was hired and the 2007 season you can.
I picked up @Gophers the spring of 2008. This was after the 2007 1-11 season and during the last game of the season, Wisconsin Badgers, when I Tweeted a bunch of “f bombs” on my @MNHeadhunter account. The next days I had a number of my national Recruiter and HR friends suggest that maybe I shouldn’t be doing that
Over the past few years I have on and off again written here on my main page… click Gopher Football. This covers some of the Coach Kill time.
Starting today I am going to write 1-2 times per week during the season. Likely Thu/Fri and again Sun/Mon.
Let me be clear… I am writing about Gopher Football, and college football in general, from a fan perspective. I am not an analyst. I am fully knowledgeable about the game but don’t see the fun writing about a 4-3 Defense, RPO offense, etc.
So what do I think about 2018?
The short version is I think it will be better than last year.
While one of the youngest teams in the country we surely look more athletic and have a deeper roster than years past. Maturing is the word Coach Fleck has been using.
We have a few players who have made national “watch lists”:
Rodney Smith: Doak Walker, Maxwell & Paul Hornung
Thomas Barber: Bednarik
Emmit Carpenter: Danny Wuerffel and Lou Groza
Jared Weyler: Rimington
There is great interest in who will be the starting Quarterback between Tanner Morgan (Redshirt Freshman) and Zack Annexstad (Freshman). Young? Sure. Going to make a few mistakes? Yep. Do I like how smart and athletic they appear to be? Absolutely. And from what I hear they are great leaders on and off the field.
It sounds like the Wide Receiver corp looks vastly improved. And healthy.
The new NCAA Redshirt Rule, where a player can play in up to 4 games at anytime during the season without it costing him a year of eligibility, will surely help us.
My prediction…
Let me start with we are still undefeated and can go the Rose Bowl.
With a 2nd year of Coach Fleck, more favorable schedule and more athletic team… no way we go backwards.
7-5 is what I am going with.
I think it all depends on the QB situation. That’s an easy and obvious thing to say.
Gopher Football online:
The athletic department social media team has been very active during the offseason telling the story of Gopher football. This recent video… so good:
You can follow official Gopher Football updates on social media by clicking:
Next time I’ll include some web and newspaper articles, others predictions, a recruiting update and a list of sites and writers you may also want to follow.
Click Gopher Football Blog for current posts, Minnesota Headhunter for current work related posts and Minneapolis Tech Jobs for Minnesota tech jobs I am working on.
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Looking forward to more posts during the season. I agree with your assessment of the maroon and gold gridiron warriors this year.
GM
Posted by: GopherMartin | August 19, 2018 at 11:11 AM