Husker in WI

I've got family in Minnesota, so I follow them and Wisconsin fairly closely - definitely with a Nebraska bias though, so I probably tend to sell them short. Didn't know Coughlin wasn't 100% though, that explains some of what I've seen. And Winfield is a stud for sure, he's fun to watch. My bad, saw he'd missed 2 non consecutive games this year and assumed it was 2 suspensions cause I knew the first one was. Was Georgia Southern an injury? Either way sounds like he's healthy/cleared to play this week.

@everybody knows my name or @BowedButNotBeaten probably have a better sense since they're both Minnesota fans, but my sense is they're solid but not spectacular. They've got a good pass rusher in Coughlin but all he can do is speed rush - a problem against Farniok, but he's not going to take over the game. A big DT transfer from Notre Dame, then a couple decent rotational pieces. LB, feels like the best guy is Kamal Martin who has been suspended off and on but I think will play this week. Overall nobody as good as Cashman was last year. They're a step down from the past two front 7s we've seen for sure, but they're not bad.

Some are picking us, and the ones that aren't are predicting a close game. I think a lot of the experts question our defense based on Illinois, but we held them to 299 yards - scoring drives of 2, 14, and 30, and 37 yards will make it look like the defense really struggled. Obviously you've got to stop them on a short field sometimes, but as long as we don't fumble 4 times inside our own 40 we're not giving up a ton of points.

If it makes anyone feel any better, Minnesota's press conferences are full of the same kind of stuff. Easier to stomach at 5-0 though I'm sure.

Mostly. There's really only a handful of high-quality football movies IMO, and it's one of them. I'm sure some of it is I've watched it since I was a kid too. But it's got some great moments, outside of Rudy himself being pretty annoying.

And created a bunch of fictional issues to overcome - there was no limit to the number of players that can dress for home games, and the coaches put him in on their own I believe. There was no chanting, and I don't think he actually made a tackle. Great movie, but it's very loosely based on reality.

Seems weird the S and CB are that close together, even if they are both supposed to be deep. But yeah, the playing off and tackling the guy in front of you works on 3rd and 14. Not 2nd/3rd and 5.

You included the reason right in your statement. Pelini lost 4 games every year. Our hope this year is now losing only 4, but as a whole the expectation is still higher than that. So I guess you're not wrong that the expectations have dropped, but it's a short term drop.

You can see people's posting histories if you click on their username, I'd say it's not specific to Wednesday afternoons.

Except for the NW game winner, which would've been blocked in a high school game. That thing was miraculous.

I think they're trying to not say who it will be. There is zero benefit to announcing the starter now.

I agree we're not a lot better than them, and may not be better at all. I'm more skeptical of them than high on us I guess, but at the end of the day if we play relatively well I'm not that scared of Minnesota. In either case, I'm sure the team is not overlooking Minnesota. I'm not either, but that doesn't matter a whole lot. I expect to win, but would not be shocked if we lose.

Best Wednesday of the year so far!

"Gophers strength and conditioning coach Dan Nichol poured ice water on the players as they ran out for practice Tuesday, letting the cubes drip down their bare backs underneath their jerseys for most of the session." Star Tribune The actual interviews don't mention the cold water, but Fleck does talk about other things they're doing that he wouldn't talk about before the game. "We have all types of other things that we'll talk about after we get done playing." Wonder if they'll still talk about them if Nebraska wins.

If you're to the point where only immediate success will keep you as a fan, you should just call it and stop following the team.

There were people excited to be rid of them and people who weren't. Hard to say if they're the same people unless you want to dig through old posts. It feels like everyone because the vocal ones at the end of last year would be the ones excited for new guys, and the vocal ones now are the ones who don't like how are line is playing now. Is there some overlap? Probably, but a lot of the perception of the 'fanbase' depends on who the vocal group is at that time. I do remember what you're talking about though - that the answer to our line problems hadn't really been Farmer at center, it was inserting Wilson at guard. Haven't been blown away by any of the returning guys overall.

That might have been a case of being too amped up, because they did improve for the most part for the rest of the 1st quarter. But they still weren't great, and it's clearly not just when he's tired.

It was actually a lot better when it went to Jaimes | Foster | Farmer | Wilson | Farniok, and I think a difference we may be missing is the line calls. That seemed to be the difference between Conrad and Farmer, although it's not possible to know for sure as fans. But the unblocked guys and overall pass pro improved a lot with Farmer. I know the snaps are bad, but I suspect Jurgens learning how to make the line calls is also a factor. But even with both of those, when he's right he is blocking really well. If the staff truly believes he's the guy, I think you have to roll with him - sounds like the snaps are good in practice, so benching him and only working it in practice might not help much.

From Held's comments today, Washington will play and is expected to play well. But between injuries and the out of nowhere suspension, it's fair to not count on it.

Minnesota has averaged 3.1 (SDSU), 2.8 (Fresno), 3.7 (Georgia Southern), 2.7 (Purdue), and 6.4 (Illinois) yards per carry. Obviously their best game is the most recent so maybe they figured it out, but they have not been a juggernaut running the ball. I also have concerns about our LBs, but it's not like this is Wisconsin's running game. EDIT: I believe this is including sacks which I noted above they've had a lot of, so they're probably slightly better than these numbers paint them to be running the ball. Still not elite.

Minnesota allows 3.75 sacks per game, good for 123rd in the country.

Walters said Woodyard got a lot of reps with the 1's this week, and Kade Warner "seems healthy." Not the most encouraging, but better than "not healthy" I suppose.

Quite possible. If he's healthy enough to practice you might as well give him reps, but especially if they think we'll need the QB run game a less than 100% Martinez may not be better than Vedral.

FWIW

And still only being able to manage 4-5 yards. But yeah, he at least knows how to run them. And you're right, that is not a bad defense. 8th in the country by SP+ - they've got some dudes. And if we got the drops/penalties cleaned up (big if, I know) there wouldn't be much talk about the offense struggling to move the ball on them.