Predicting Minnesota Football’s record in 2021

We’re here. Game week. So it’s time to talk about what the TDG staff thinks about the upcoming Minnesota Gophers season and what we’re predicting for 2021. Coming off of a COVID shortened season, there is still a lot of optimism among our writers. Even ignoring UStreet’s bit and Hipster’s “hey why not go big” bold choice, the TDG writers generally see a positive season ahead.

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Things to note:

• We may not be seeing 2019 levels of optimism, but we’re pretty close. As I said in 2019, when 8-4 is the floor in the predictions post, you know we’re all feeling good.
• The TDG staff over/under for the season is at 9.3 (just below 2019’s O/U of 9.5). Again, as I said in 2019, I would not blame anyone for taking the under if they saw that line in Vegas. (please be right, please be right, please be right)
• I always (ALWAYS) try to make sure I’m not predicting the 2nd best season behind UStreet. SUCCESS!
• The staff thinks Ohio State are Minnesota’s toughest opponent (80% predict a loss). UStreet’s predicted win is a bit, but I have no idea what zipsofakron is on. The most concerning opponent in the Big Ten West is Iowa (60% predict a loss).
• My fellow blog managers are scared of Maryland for some reason. Everyone else thinks we’re going to make extra points this year.

The part where we explain ourselves

GoAUpher: A couple of things to call out here. I think a split of Iowa/Wisconsin is actually more likely and should be considered a good result based on what we know now. However, I never pick Minnesota to lose to Wisconsin and I really want to break the current streak to Iowa, so optimism is my choice for both of those games. Road games at Indiana and Northwestern feel like traps. I look forward to the Gophers adding to Nebraska fan angst over the status of their golden boy Scott Frost.

gopherguy05: OSU is just too tough, and I really hope I’m wrong about Iowa and Wisconsin but until I’m proven wrong I just can’t give them the benefit of the doubt. I picked them to beat Indiana because I think by then Penix will be hurt again and Minnesota will take advantage, For some reason we ALWAYS seem to struggle against Maryland though so I’ll pick that as the one game we shouldn’t drop but will. I could see anywhere from 7-5 to 9-3 or even 10-2 if the team really clicks on all cyllanders, but 8-4 seems ot be the most likely chance at the moment.

Gopher Nation: The stretch of Pur/Neb/Mar scares me a bit as any of those 3 games could be a loss. Wouldn’t at all surprise me to lose 2 of those but it also wouldn’t surprise me to beat Indiana. This is the year we break through and beat Wisconsin to win the West and go from losing relatively close game to OSU in week 1 to getting destroyed in the Big Ten Championship game.

HipsterGopher: I have no idea how this is gonna go, so this seems like a fun outcome.

mowe0018: I dunno, seems like a majorit of games this year have been designated as “toss-ups” by pre season SP+. I like the offensive continuity but I don’t know if there are any difference makers on defense like we had in 2019. Really hoping we bring home some kind of rivalry hardware this year. The chair and bell are nice but they don’t feel ‘real’ to me.

UStreet: Same every year.***

wildcat00: It’s very likely that the Gophers will somehow drop games against Maryland and/or jNW though. We’ll see.

zipsofakron: This team is going to go 9-3 but not in the way you’d expect. It’s going to be so poetic!

***(GoAUpher note: In case you’re new here, this is a bit.)

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