Minnesota Golden Gophers: Big Ten Team Preview

How bad were the Minnesota Golden Gophers in 2007?  Try to understand this; it's a territory of bad that few teams in the Big Ten have ever seen.  North Dakota State, Miami of Ohio, Bowling Green, and Florida Atlantic all found the win column against Minnesota in 2007.

Thanks to an improved team all around, we can only expect things will get better in 2008.

Offensively, Adam Weber will be taking snaps again this fall. He has the potential to be something special...by Minnesota standards.  He broke school records in 2007 for completions, yards, and touchdown passes. 

Unfortunately, these numbers are a bit skewed, seeing how frequently the Gophers found themselves trailing a year ago.  It should also be noted that he was guilty of throwing 19 interceptions last fall, a number he must cut down on.

There are a couple deep threats for Weber that may keep Minnesota in a few games they have no business being in.  Eric Decker is amongst the elite wideouts in the conference while Tray Herndon brings a years experience.  Count on Chicago product Brandon Green to be a valuable target as well in his freshman campaign.

The running game looks to be a question once again this fall, something that spells disaster for anyone not named Texas Tech.  Duane Bennett will be taking most of the handoffs, but after him the depth chart takes a massive hit.

The offensive line is also a question mark entering 2008.  They lose two key cogs from an anemic line a year ago; maybe it will be a gift in disguise.  The biggest issue for Minnesota offensively lies in not turning the ball over; they had the worst turnover margin in football last season.

When a defense allows over 40 points in regulation to teams like Florida Atlantic and Indiana, changes need to be made, and that is exactly what Minnesota did this off-season. 

Former Duke head coach Ted Roof is the new Gophers defensive coordinator, while there could be as many as eight new starters on the defensive side of the ball.

This year, we will likely see Minnesota get back to the fundamentals of defense.  Control the line of scrimmage, get pressure on the quarterback.  While these things seemed tougher than brain surgery for the Gophers in 2007, we can bet they will improve in 2008.

Junior College transfers will run all through this defense.  Many are very high on Tremaine Brock at safety and Rex Sharpe in the linebacking corps.

Lee Campbell, Eric Small, and Wille VanDeSteeg bring experience up front, but then again it is very poor experience.  These three of the likely starting four up front will be counted on immensely to do those fundamental tasks on defense.

The Prognosis

Minnesota was a terrible football team in 2007, and they will be bad again in 2008.  Tripling your wins total from a year before is a great thing; but tripling it and still only winning three games means you are a very long way from success.

With a patsy pre-conference schedule against the likes of Northern Illinois, Bowling Green, Montana State, and Florida Atlantic again, the Gophers should be able to win at least three here.  The only conference date I see them potentially winning is when they host Indiana in week six.  Could the Gophers potentially be 5-1 at one point this year?  Sure.  Don't bet on it though.

The Minnesota Golden Gophers will finish at4-8 and start the ice fishing season a bit early in Minneapolis.