Predicting the 2009 Iowa Hawkeye Football Season: Minnesota

The Minnesota Gophers come into the 2009 football season with some tough questions waiting to be answered.

How will the team adapt to the new outdoor stadium?

Not only will Minnesota be playing on a new field, they will be making a dramatic shift from a weather-less dome atmosphere to playing in an outdoor stadium where anything goes. While the excitement of a new stadium is understandable, this will be a stressful transition for players. 

Having the stadium on campus should bring out more fans and help raise the energy level at games, though.

How will the team adapt to the loss of defensive coordinator Ted Roof?

Ted Roof only coached for one season at Minnesota before bolting to a defensive coordinator position at Auburn University. In that short time, though, he helped to improve Minnesota from one of the worst defensive teams in the country to a middle-of-the-road team that put together a few highlights. It will be interesting to see how the defense and team adjust this year.

Has the team recovered from the humiliating 55-0 defeat at home by the Hawkeyes at the end of the 2009 season?

The Gophers return 10 starters on offense and eight on defense, but if you saw how bad the Hawkeyes smashed Minnesota last year, you almost wonder how they mustered up enough courage to even play this season.

Minnesota returns a solid QB in Adam Weber, who had almost 2,800 yards last year.  There is also rumor that freshman MarQueis Gray is making a push for playing time. With the stud receiver Eric Decker, the Gophers should have one of the best passing teams in the conference (emphasis on should), regardless of who they go with.

The defense has a few holes to fill, but they return a good nucleus to build on and should improve over last year.

With 18 starters return, some are picking Minnesota as their sleeper team in the Big Ten this year.

Has the team recovered from the traumatic "bathroom incident"?

Not only were the Hawkeyes having their way with the Gopher's on the field, a few rowdy Hawkeye fans had their way with each other in the bathroom. Talk about adding insult to injury. 

Did months of therapy help prepare them for life after this incident? Only time will tell.

With all that said, what is this Hawkeye nerd's fearless prediction for the outcome of the game?

Iowa 42, Minnesota 14

Ricky Stanzi throws for a career-high 402 yards in this game, and he shares the wealth equally with his teammates by connecting with DJK, Stross, McNutt and Moeaki for touchdowns in this game. This game puts the hint of a senior season Heisman campaign in the air for Stanzi.

The Iowa defense barely breaks a sweat in thwarting any and almost every offensive attempt the Gophers try to put together. Adam Weber does throw two touchdown passes to Eric Decker in this game, but he also throws three interceptions, too. 

Make no mistake about it...The Floyd of Rosedale will be living in Iowa City for another year, plus.

With this game ends the regular season for the Hawkeyes and thus my predictions.  The Hawks should finish at 10-2 by my calculations. And that should put us into the Capital One Bowl against...

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