From the outset, this has felt like an important season for the Gophers football team in terms of overall program-building.
P.J. Fleck led the Gophers to at least nine wins in each of the last three full seasons, but this year brought about a combination of youth (particularly on offense, especially at quarterback) and a more difficult schedule.
It felt like Minnesota needed to maintain a certain level — a minimum of seven wins, more if they were going to be contenders in the Big Ten West — to sustain the momentum built up in recent seasons.
Whether that was realistic or not is perhaps a matter of perspective, and it probably frames how you think about their 3-3 start. Is it merely the expected byproduct of roster churn and better competition, or is it an underachieving disappointment?
Maybe it's somewhere in the middle, but a recent ESPN midseason report placed it firmly in one category — calling the Gophers one of college football's five biggest disappointments so far this season, as I talked about on Wednesday's Daily Delivery podcast.
In grouping the Gophers with Baylor, Arkansas, Boise State and Alabama, author Bill Connelly writes of Minnesota:
After going 9-4 with SP+ top-20 (a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency) finishes in each of the last two seasons, the Gophers seemed to have the pieces to at least threaten in a pretty weak Big Ten West. Instead, they're 3-3, having been blown out by the two top-50 opponents they've faced — North Carolina and Michigan beat them by a combined 83-23. Even more damning, they blew a lead and lost to a Northwestern team that barely beat Howard in Week 6.
All of this is of course true, but Gophers beat writer Randy Johnson made the point on today's podcast that if not for one quarter — when the Gophers lost that three-touchdown lead to Northwestern in bewildering fashion — this year at least results-wise would be going pretty much according to plan.
