Opening thoughts, non-football related

It’s a brand new era of Gophers Football! And the way we preview games here at TDG is changing with it. For 5 years, I’ve been writing the weekly game preview almost every week. And anyone who has read the previews over those 5 years should have noticed that I’ve given less and less “football” preview data as time has gone on. The reason for this is simple, I haven’t had time to do the work I want and need to do to give you that information over the last couple of years. This is a time consuming post, even when I keep it light and focused on the key game day details and the Brew Scale. But it’s not an outcome that made me happy because I felt like you deserved better from me.

The time has come for a change! To help mix things up a bit and deliver better #content for y’all, IowaGopher is going to do solely FOOTBAWWWW focused previews this year. I’m still going to do the game day details focused preview with my Brew Scale predictions (thus this post), but they’ll come earlier in the week. The amount of footbawww in my preview will vary with my free time. The goal on a traditional week is for my post to go up on Tuesday and for Iowa’s preview to go up on Thursday. We’ll see how that works out, but my gut is that you’ll be happy.

And speaking of change, I need to announce a controversial change you may not care for. The Tim Brewster Fear Scale™ is being retired replaced tweaked. Frankly, I think it’s time. We’re now 7 years and two whole coaching regimes (2.5, if you count Horton) removed from the Tim Brewster debacle. It’s time to change our best stop defining each weekly game solely by his stupidity. That said, Brew is too funny to ignore and the new scale I’ve designed takes that into consideration. The particulars are (as always) discussed at the bottom of the post.

Lastly, I’m going to try out a new scale that I just came up with over the weekend. Based on responses in the comments, I may cut it from the post. We’ll see. Look for it right before the new Brew-ish scale.

Ok, real game related stuff now.

Opening thoughts, Buffalo related

The Buffalo Bulls are bad friends. Minnesota will not lose to them. Let me turn to Bill C’s preview of the Bulls to illustrate:

Bill Connelly

The Bulls sucked at passing and have a QB coach (Jim Zebrowski) who you should know as having...issues...with building up a passing game. Unless they also start showing some efficiency and explosiveness the Gopher D should be fine.

Bill Connelly

If we don’t run all over Buffalo and make them lament scheduling us with all the yards we rack up on the ground I’m going to be displeased. They should be really bad against the run.

Gnome #TAKES

The one, the only, the original Gopher Gnome is back to help break down what we’ll see from Buffalo via a GIF. I asked OGG if he had other things to say to me about the Bulls and he rolled his eyes because he is not worried (incidentally, this is hard to do when they’re painted on). After that feat, he provided me this GIF:

I’m sorry Buffalo, it’s not going to work out for you.

When & Where

Date: Thursday, August 31st

Kickoff Time: 6pm CT

Where: TCF Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN

Watch & Listen

TV: Big Ten Network

Streaming Video: BTN2Go (or the BTN2Go app for your mobile device)

Radio: KOOL 108 (107.9 in the Twin Cities) and the Gopher Radio Network (Radio Affiliates).

Streaming Audio: Locate KOOL 108 on IHeartRadio (or the IHeartRadio app for your mobile device)

Satellite Radio: SiriusXM 381 (SXM Internet 963); Sirius Internet 961; XM Internet 963

• NOTE: The Sirius/XM website has also started listening what “internet” channel the games are on this year if you choose to listen online vs through a receiver. In the case of MN/Buffalo, it looks like Sirius and XM customers can only find the game via the internet player.

Odds

Spread: Minnesota by 24.5 to 25 (depending on the site)

O/U: 50

Weather Forecast

The weather is going to be SO PERFECT and I’m really jealous of you all since I can’t be up there with you. Temperatures should be low to mid 70’s and sunny throughout the tailgate and game, so you’ll get great weather and a nice sunset!

The Enemy

Where Are They From? Buffalo, NY (a place with winters that even Minnesotan’s might not like)

All Time Series: MN leads the series 1-0.

Last Game: 2002, when Glen Mason did that cream a cupcake thing he liked to do and beat the Bulls 42-17.

SB Nation Blog: Bull Run

Last Season: 2-10 (1-7 MAC)

Head Coach: A dude who use to coach at a UW school who should thus be hated on principle.

Keys to the game

• Will the real QB1 please stand up? One of the best things that could happen for the Gophers (both in this game and for the season) is for either Demry Croft or Conor Rhoda to win the starting job moving forward with their play on Thursday night.
• RUN GOPHERS RUN. I mean, did you look at the radar graph above?
• No one get hurt. Buffalo sucks, please don’t be injured because of them.

How excited am I?

On a scale of 1 to 5 Row The Boat coffee bags, how excited am I for this game?

(NOTE: 1 = not elite excitement, 5 = :FIRE:eLITeEXCITEMET:FIRE:)

IT’S THE FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON! How could you NOT be super excited?

How confident am I?

On a scale of 1 to 5 “Brewsters being eaten by a nekton”, how confident am I that the Gophers will win?

(NOTE: 1 = not confident, 5 = supremely confident)

I AM EXTREMELY HUNGRY AND BUFFALO IS CHUM. Minnesota isn’t going to lose.

Prediction

Minnesota isn’t going to lose, but I don’t think they’re going to destroy Buffalo by 40 or shut them out or anything like that. This is still a team working through a transition to a new coaching staff, scheme, and culture. There will be growing pains.

Minnesota, 28 - Buffalo, 10

What’s your prediction?