It's the biggest day in college football, what everybody has been waiting for. The Buckeyes against the Ducks.
This is not a bad match up to watch, as long as Jones, the 3rd string QB, plays like he has been playing, and doesn't crack, or show this is only his third game starting. On the other hand, Mariota is a beast, he is calm, smart, fast, and strong. Both offenses are going to be explosive, so it is going to be the defenses that will determine the game, in my opinion. The OSU defense will have to keep up the more than up tempo Oregon offense. I know they have had weeks to prepare for it, but it will be different going up against the real thing. Oregon is going to have to stop Elliot and the OSU run game. I still believe Jones is not that accurate as a thrower (if you look at a lot of his passes, he does not fit it into tight windows, and it is mainly his receivers doing all the work), so Oregon will have to force OSU to throw more than necessary.
Personally, I want Oregon to win because I absolutely hate Ohio State, but I believe the Buckeyes will make it closer than it should because their season was magical by going through three QBs and still making the ship.
Bowl season is sadly coming to an end, but there has been some wonderful, and intense games. Unfortunately, most of my teams lost or did not make a bowl game, but still many enjoyable games to watch.
Now time to talk about the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl that pit Minnesota against Missouri on January 1st. Coming into the game it was looking like an interesting matchup and an opportunity for the Big Ten to up end the SEC in another bowl game, and it almost came to that. The first quarter started off great with Minnesota's Derrick Wells intercepting Maty Mauk, but then had to punt. Fortunately, the Minnesota defense forced Mizzou after three plays to punt again, and this time Minnesota put together a great offensive possession. Minnesota went 80 yards in a great drive that perfectly mixed run and pass efficiently that resulted in the first touchdown of the game. During the rest of the second half Mizzou scored 10 points by breaking off some big runs, and getting their passing game going. After half Mizzou came out with an onside kick that completely took the Gopher's coverage team off guard, the defense stepped up and forced Mizzou to punt again. What really made me infuriated at the onside kick is that during the run up to the kick a gunner left his lane, and kicked out wide to where the kick was actually going, and it seemed that the Gophers coverage team did not even notice. Despite the setback Minnesota's offense scored 10 more points in the third quarter except Mizzou scored 9 points as well. Surprisingly, throughout the first three quarters Minnesota's offense has looked the best it has all season, and this was against the SEC East Champion. Additionally, Minnesota looked like the better team, minus the ugly turnovers which will be talked about later, up to the point where there were some key injuries on defense that allowed Mizzou to gash the Minnesota defense on the ground. There were two big runs: A 78 yard run that was a touchdown, and a 69 yard run that resulted in a touchdown. Minnesota's offense could not get anything going, and the trick play on 4th and goal was a play that was used too late.
During the game there where some sloppy turnovers by both teams. The special teams turnover on the punt return was horrible, and it resulted in a Mizzou touchdown. This turnover, which I believe, was the beginning of the end for Minnesota. After the turnover the offense stopped being productive, resulting in only a field goal for the rest of the game, and the defense collapsed.
Overall, Minnesota was the better team up to the 4th quarter collapse, and I get extremely angry when ESPN, or CBS etc. or just people in general think that Mizzou blew out the gophers. It was an extremely close, and fun game to watch.
I travelled with the team, once again because I work for them, and it was a great experience. The bowl game was fun, and there were a lot more Gopher fans at the game than Mizzou fans which is disappointing for the ones who travelled from the state of Minnesota.
One of the best parts of the bowl game was Maxx Williams hurdles that led to a touchdown. The play was simply outstanding, and I do not think the Mackey Award Winner Nick O'Leary could hurdle those guys. Understandable that Maxx is declaring for the Draft, but I still think he should stay one more year, develop his skills, and get bigger/faster. Oh well...
When I get some more time I will wrap up the Gophers season as a whole
Hello, sorry for my hiatus from giving you all wonderful insight on college football, but I had finals for the last two weeks. So I am going to do quick wrap ups of the weeks that I missed.
Okay so the week before championship weekend was interesting, and severely disappointing. Lets start with Minnesota... Surprisingly the Gophers started off fast against the Badgers, which is completely opposite of the whole season, so this was a promising start. After jumping out to a 17-3 lead, everything went down hill, and the offense just stopped. Unfortunately, I was not able to watch the whole game since I was at a tailgate for the Bama game, but I was watching it on my phone as much as I could. The defense held their ground enough for the offense to answer, but being the frustrating offense that Minnesota is; they did not pull through. It was a winnable game, and the Gophers would have probably faired better against OSU in the BIG Championship. Has Wisconsin scored against OSU yet? Answer: No... lol
Now for Michigan....
Wow, the first half of the game was extremely entertaining, and it looked like Michigan could possibly win the game. But giving up a touchdown on a 4th and short was unacceptable breakdown in defense, and that was when the game started to go down hill. This is old news, but hopefully Michigan can reel in Harbaugh (I am still secretly hoping for Les Miles though). Michigan as a whole is going downhill... The men's Basketball team, which was one bright light that Michigan faithful were looking forward too, is losing to lesser known teams, and it is embarrassing. Oh well what can you do.
Championship Weekend was somewhat uneventful. The teams that were supposed to win, did win, for the most part. I did enjoy seeing Wisconsin getting shut out, but it makes me think how Minnesota would have done. Next, the playoff selections were interesting, outrageous, or sensible, depending on how you look at it. Everyone has their own opinion. But hey, Minnesota in the Citrus Bowl, outstanding. I cannot wait to be down in Florida for the game. I'll talk more about the bowl game later, but I am back baby.
Well this is probably the biggest week in recent Minnesota Golden Gopher history. A hated, border battle rivalry, the battle for the axe, and a chance to play for the Big Ten title.
Wisconsin is a good team this year to say the least, but they are beatable. Melvin Gordon is unbelievable, and he is easily going to be the biggest threat to Minnesota. He is going to score touchdowns, yes plural. Minnesota will need to have a high percentage of third down stops to keep the ball out of his hands. One thing that is not to big of an issue is the passing game for Wisconsin. Stave, is not a very good passer, and McEvoy is mainly just in there for wildcat. Additionally, Wisconsin has home field advantage, and Camp Randall is a difficult place to play with all that jump around loser stuff. Finally, the Badgers defense is pretty stout; Minnesota will have to have a passing game similar, maybe better, than they had against Nebraska to win. But, once again, it is a winnable game for the Golden Gophers.
Sorry for the short post, I am down at the University Alabama to watch the Iron Bowl, and just having a good time down here.
Probably thee biggest win for the Gophers yet this season (ideally the biggest comes against Wisconsin). I am actually surprised the Gophers pulled out a 28-24 win against the 23rd ranked Huskers after going down 7-21 at halftime. Historically, under Coach Kill, the Gophers lose the majority of the games when they are down by half. The first quarter wasn't bad, both teams exchanged touchdowns and that was about it. But, the second quarter is when the game took a turn for the worse; it started with Tommy Armstrong getting flushed out of the pocket and throwing an 18 yard ball to Pierson-El. I thought a Gopher defender could have swatted away the ball because there were three defenders around... but hey that's none of my business. Then the most heartbreaking play happened in that the Gophers drive down the field and have to kick a field goal, and it gets blocked, then returned for a touchdown, 85 yards... Now I didn't fully analyze play, whether it was Santoso not getting the ball high enough or a blown coverage up the middle, I don't know. But, overall, that outcome was completely unacceptable. Fortunately for the Gophers their defense really stepped up in the second half by only letting up a field goal. This allowed the Mitch Leidner and the offense to get more touches on the ball and drive down and score three touchdowns. Cobb had a red sea parted for him for a 17 yard touchdown run, our big back Rodrick Williams Jr. bounced a run to the vulnerable outside and walked in a 19 yard touchdown, and finally Leidner had a two yard touchdown run to take the lead. An improvement from last game was definitely the passing game, and a deep pass to K.J. Maye set up the winning touchdown. But, I still think 135 passing yards is not enough to beat the top tier teams; still needs improvement. The play of the game was made by Briean Boddy-Calhoun when he stripped the ball from a touchdown bound Pierson-El on the Minnesota two yard line. One of the most crazy endings I have ever seen. The game was finally sealed when Kirkwood broke a run of 10 yards for another Golden Gopher FIRST DOWN. Huge win for the Gophers, and they absolutely need to take this momentum into Madison to get this win.
Now for the Michigan Wolverines... I am not going to waste my time, and the readers time with this because, frankly, the Wolverines do not deserve this. It was a god awful game, extremely boring, and no team seemed like they wanted to win. With this loss, it is likely Michigan will not go bowling and it is disappointing Hoke, and the players didn't come to this game fired up, and motivated to get bowl eligible. Oh well, hopefully we get a new coach and some recruits to recommit...
Well, this next week for the Golden Gophers will determine how the rest of their season will turn out. The Gopher will have to win out on their final two games to make it to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship. It will not be an easy task since they have to go to both Nebraska and Wisconsin, but they are both winnable. Before I get ahed of myself and start talking about Wisconsin; Minnesota needs to get past an angry, but still banged up Nebraska team.
Nebraska was blown out by Melvin Gordon, and the rest of the Badger team 59-24. Ameer Abdulla was virtually non-existent in that game, but that could be because of his injury. Also, Tommy Armstrong did not have the best outing ever, and looked like Mitch Leidner back their (lol). Additionally, Nebraska's defense could not do anything to stop Gordon, especially outside the tackles. I'll be honest I turned off this game after halftime. Despite the blow out last week Nebraska has a couple advantages coming into Saturday. First, Nebraska is at home, and Memorial Stadium is an extremely difficult place to play. Second, they are coming off a terrible loss, which means that they are coming out angry, and fired up. Finally, they can score a lot of points, average 38.8 points a game, which might be hard for Minnesota to keep up with.
Minnesota had a pretty close, and competitive game against the now ranked #6 Ohio State Buckeyes, and that gives me a little faith that Minnesota could storm into Lincoln and take this game. But, their are still some things that need to happen for the Gophers. This might be beating a dead horse here, but the Gopher offense has to have more than 85 total passing yards. Mitch Leidner will have a heavy impact on this. He cannot overthrow his receivers, and he cannot try to force the ball to Maxx Williams, and be completely dependent on him (which is what it seemed like for the majority of game against Ohio State). For the first three quarters he did not look comfortable in the pocket until the last five minuets when the Gophers were driving down the field to get a field goal. Cobb should have a fantastic game, he should be able to get more than a couple big gainers up the middle, and outside the tackles. If Cobb is having a hard time breaking the big ones on the outside; Minnesota can always throw in Berkley Edwards, a absolute speed demon, to break a big one on the outside. Additionally, one of Minnesota's newly discovered play is the read sweep to KJ Maye, which should be able to exploit Nebraska's ineffectiveness on the outside, and in the open field. Minnesota should not have to worry about their defense. They have one of most underrated defenses across the Power 5 conferences, there is no lack in size, and talent. When the come motivated, and with a chip on their shoulder they are a tough defense to match up with. We'll see how things turnout, but hopefully Minnesota shows up to play, and looks like they want to go to the Big Ten Championship game.
Each team has their advantages, and playing at home for Nebraska is one of the biggest. Minnesota has a hard time winning on the road, except for winning in the Big House. But I believe, since I am at the practices, that this team is motivated and they want this win. My predication is inherently biased but...
After a weekend of Spartan sports I will generally take some time to look back on what we learned from the weekend's events as well as a quick preview of what is to come.
MSU vs Navy
If I had a dollar for every time a Tom Izzo coached team started a season off slow or worse than expected I'd have about 20 bucks. (This is his 20th year.) This Navy game was nothing but par for the course. We were sluggish, terrible on defense and one-sided on offense. Without Travis Trice taking over that loss gets embarrassing. None the less I have complete confidence in the squad this year because if there is one thing we know about Spartan hoops it is that we tend to get better towards March. In Tom we Trust.
MSU vs Maryland
Straight up I almost fell asleep in the first half. This team drives me crazy at times and I actually have no idea how good we actually are. Maryland played absolutely awful and because of that it looked like a lop sided Spartan victory. Oh well I'll take the win and the squad will keep marching towards a power 6 bowl which will be a lot of fun. On a side note, I honestly believe Connor Cook is getting worse game to game. I pray that this is not the case that he peaked in the tail end of 2013 but I'm still waiting for cookies to prove me wrong.
MSU vs Duke (Preview)
Finally some big time college basketball to start the year. Not really expecting a whole lot of positive in this one from the Spartans except that Tom will probably use this as a big learning point in the season. I would absolutely go nuts if the team pulled this one out, but if they play anything like they did at Navy then its gonna be a long night. Look for Duke to take it inside against the weak interior depth of MSU.
