2009 Minnesota Golden Gophers Betting Recap
Online betting savants were certainly aware that with a receiver as good as Eric Decker, the Minnesota Golden Gophers had a chance to be reasonably competitive on the gridiron in 2009. They did make a bowl game, but that’s about as good as things ever got for coach Tim Brewster’s ballclub. It’s true that Minnesota earned a postseason date in the Insight Bowl against Iowa State, but the ugly 14-13 loss to the Cyclones put the Gophers at 6-7 for the season. The terrible offensive showing – in which Minnesota converted just 2 of 12 third downs – served as a discouraging sign heading into 2010.
Minnesota’s 2009 campaign was okay against most of the teams it faced. The Gophers scored a very nice non-conference win over Air Force and were able to pull off a quality pair of Big Ten wins against bowl teams Northwestern and Michigan State. It was in the face of elite competition that the Gophers really shriveled. In their three huge face-offs with the Big Ten’s very best teams – Ohio State, Iowa and Penn State – Minnesota crumpled. An offense that performed reasonably well for stretches of the season scored a grand total of just seven points in those three games combined. That’s not a typo. Minnesota produced one scoring drive in 180 minutes against two BCS bowl teams and a third team (Penn State) which made the fairly prestigious Capital One Bowl. Clearly, Minnesota is far behind the four or five best teams in its conference as the new season emerges. Any NCAA football betting student could tell you as much.
2010 Preview To Bet Minnesota Golden Gophers
A sports betting expert does not have an overly difficult job in handicapping the Minnesota team that will take the field this Autumn. Without Eric Decker, senior quarterback Adam Weber will have no one to throw to. Minnesota will generally find it extremely difficult to manufacture points and produce scoring drives with any appreciable consistency. There’s just nothing dynamic about this offense, despite the fact that a new coordinator, Jeff Horton, is being brought in to call plays in Minneapolis. The new outdoor stadium that’s been built for the Gopher football team will mean that fans get a suntan, but it’s not likely to add any starch to that side of the ball.
The schedule is, for a bad team, not favorable. Oh, you might think that getting Iowa, Ohio State, and Penn State at home is a good thing, and for ticket buyers, it is. However, if you’re not expected to do all that well, you want the unwinnable games to be on the road. You want the winnable games to be at home. The rule of scheduling is that you want the big-time games at home in years when you have the talent to make a run at the brass ring. So, from this viewpoint, three home dates will be wasted for the Gophers, who would surprise a lot of folks if they finished anything higher than eighth place in the Big Ten.