Can Minnesota win the Big Ten this upcoming football season?
Coming off arguably their best season in school history, some people seem to think the Gophers have a real shot of winning the B1G with Tanner Morgan playing QB and P.J. Fleck running the show. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
At the very least, everybody seems to think the Gophers can win the Big 10 West. So, is this a realistic view? The answer is incredibly simple.
No.
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Look, I respect what Fleck had done with the Gophers. The Gophers used to be a punching bag in the B1G. The Gophers used to be an easy win.
Any team with a pulse used to just run right through them. There’s no question Fleck has made Minnesota respectable, and their 11-2 season last year with a win over Auburn in a bowl is proof of that fact.
However, let’s all relax with the insane expectations. There is only one team that should be expected to win the B1G West, and that’s the Wisconsin Badgers.
Since the 2011 game, the Badgers have played in the title game six times. Yes, of the nine times the game has been held, Wisconsin has played in it six times.
We own our spot in that game. We might not win it every time, but we still own that spot.
Will Minnesota be good in 2020? Yes. The Gophers only really have tough games against Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa. They’ll be favored in the other nine, and they could even be favored against Iowa.
So, a 9-3 or 10-2 season is very reasonable, but they’re not winning the B1G West or the conference championship.
That’s a pipe dream. That’s not reality.
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See you in the fall. It should be a good time!