Minnesota Football: 2018 Reader Poll Review

So way back at the end of August we asked you all several questions about your predictions for the 2018 Minnesota Golden Gophers football season. Ten questions about how this team would fair on offense, defense, special teams, and overall. While some questions you guys did really poorly on—Why you couldn’t see Rodney Smith would go down for the season in game #2 I have no idea—some of you were spot on in your predictions. So lets recap just how accurate you were.

Yeah, I don’t think any of us saw Rodney Smith tearing an ACL in game two and missing the majority of the season. But, there were signs that he may not have led the team even if he was healthy with Seth Green vulturing goal line carries. But 9% of you were right and saw that Tyler Johnson was ready for a breakout season. His 12 touchdowns not only set the Gopher single season receiving record, but of course led the 2018 Gophers. Mohamed Ibrahim had nine in second place, and Seth Green ended the season with eight.

No surprise there that 77% of you saw this coming. Tyler did lead the team with a whopping 1,169 yards on the season. Rashod Bateman’s 704 was second, and Chris Autman-Bell’s 449 were third.

This one was a bit of a crapshoot not knowing exactly how the Gopher offense was going to fare. But, several injuries plus different players stepping up ended up letting NINE different offensive players score a touchdown this season for the Gophers. Contrats to the 26% of you who predicted that the group of Johnson, Ibrahim, Green, Bateman, Bryce Williams, Shannon Brooks, Demetrius Douglas, Jake Paulson, and Tanner Morgan would get into the end zone in 2018. No TDs for Zack Annexstad or Rodney Smith though.

This was another one where most of you went with the 2017 leader and only a few of you saw the breakout performance that would be Blake Cashman’s 2018 season. 10% of you had the Cashman leading the Gophers with 104 total tackles on the season. Jacob Huff came in in second place with 93, and Barber had 81 in third place.

You all did much better in this one. 52% of you correctly picked Carter Coughlin to lead the Gophers in sacks, and he did by leaps and bounds with 9.5 on the season. No one else was even close as Cashman ended up with 2.5 in second place.

This one was another where...not so good. Now admitedly 57% of you were pretty much done once Winfield went down for the season in a row against Maryland. But 26% of you ended up correct. Jacob Huff tied for the team lead in interceptions with 2. The second Gopher with two picks? Coney Durr.

Not just one....but two!! Winfield took care of this one opening night against New Mexico State.

And then Demetrius Douglas made sure that the Gophers put the pedal to the metal against the Badgers to help the Gophers get the Axe back!!

Another one where you did pretty good. 50% of you ended up correct as Carp ended his Gopher career by going 17-23 this season on field goals.

It was close, but the final number of true freshmen who will be true sophomores in 2019 was....11. Annexstad, Bateman, Jordan Howden, Mariano Sori-Martin, Benny Sapp III, Bryce Williams, Max Janes, Thomas Rush, Terell Smith, Elijah Teague, and Daniel Faalele.

Finally, but definitely not least. 18% of you ended up being correct that the Gophers would end up in Detroit once again. The Gophers of course are now 2-0 in the Quick Lane Bowl after a dominant victory over Georgia Tech less than a week ago. 19% of you should be ashamed.

Well that was a fun look back. We will have to do this again next fall and see if we are any better at accurately predicting the future!