Predicting the Minnesota Football season

It’s that time again folks. Time for the staff of The Daily Gopher to make fools of ourselves by trying to predict what the Gophers are going to do this fall. This is always a bad idea, but like many bad ideas it’s tradition. Tradition must be observed. It must be upheld. After all, it’s only fair that we give you, the readers, plenty of ammunition with which to mock us later. You’re welcome.

So what does the TDG staff think the Gophers are going to do in their second season under coach Fleck? Most of us think just a touch better than last season, a couple of us are absurdly optimistic, and one of us has a bit to uphold. Without further ado, here’s the breakdown across the staff (GopherNation was too cool to give me any predictions /sniffles).

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The key takeaways:

• Everyone thinks we’re bowl eligible.
• I want what wildcat00 and WSR are smoking almost as much as I want them to be right.

The explanations

GoAUpher: If I was being truly honest I would have picked 6-6. There are too many toss up games, we’re too inexperienced at QB, and we’re at the point where Fleck is still willing to absorb losses in return for building things his way. At heart though I am an optimist. That version of me doesn’t want to squeak into bowl eligibility so instead y’all get a 7-5 prediction. This slightly optimistic take is where I would have ended up with either QB option. Annexstad didn’t change anything for me. Also, speaking of toss up games, I wouldn’t be shocked if a 6 or 7 win season had an utterly weird combination of wins/losses from the Fresno, Maryland, Nebraska, Indiana, and Purdue.

gopherguy05: I see 6-6, but I’m not 100% sold on my choice of games. Could we beat Fresno State and lose at Nebraska--quite possibly. Could we beat Purdue and lose at maryland..unfortunately quite possibly.

UStreet: We’re actually going 15-0 but I wasn’t allowed to pick that, because GoAUpher. And yes, this is a bit.

wildcat00: I am, as always, cautiously optimistic. I think the Fresno State game will set the tone for the rest of the season, and I’m expecting mostly wins at home, barring maybe the Iowa game. (GoAUpher note: I’m not sure 9-3 is cautiously anything but I heart the enthusiasm)

mowe0018: There’s going to be a lot of toss up games against the mediocre opponents on our schedule. I think we’ll break even in said games. Many of these could go either way but I gave us the edge against Maryland due to current turmoil and uncertainty and Nebraska the edge because of home field. I really think 6-6 is the overall record, I just don’t know which 6 are the wins and beyond OSU and Wisconsin, which other 4 are the losses.

HipsterGopher: My prediction is that PJ Fleck’s 2018 will mirror Glen Mason’s second season as head Gophers coach, which coincidentally was 20 years ago. In 1998 Glen took the Gophers to a 5-6 record, with an extra game to play in 2018 I think PJ gets the squad bowl eligible. I’m not doing that game by game prediction thing, but looking at Glen’s 1998 campaign the team won its non conference schedule and beat Iowa, but lost to both Indiana and Purdue. I could see some version of that happening.

Tell us your predictions in the poll below and in the comments!