Week 11 Results

Another week in the books - overall, pretty successful for this group.

Right now here's how we sit:
JR 9-6
MR 8-6
MK 9-5
JG 8-7

MR and MK both have ARZ tonight -9.5, MK can win the week with a cover...otherwise it is a split between MK and JR.

NCAA:
MR and MK both went 6-4
JR 5-5
JG 4-6

21-19, +2 on the .500 scale - not bad.

NFL
JR 4-1
JG 4-1
MK 3-1
MR 2-2

13-5 overall on NFL...daddy nice.

A split for the home town clubs this weekend - here's my 2 cents:

GOPHERS - MICHIGAN
Ugly again. No offense leads to a brutal performance and another loss. A once very promising season is coming back to reality and going to finish right where we all expected around 7 wins. I'm not liking our odds in either of the remaining games. WIS is playing better and we never play even close to well in Madison. Iowa looks decent, should be a close one if we figure out how to play offense - but tough to call an outright Gopher win right now. Obviously, a very disappointing performance, but no matter what happens the season is a succes and we will end up being improved and have some optimism going into 2009 and TCF Bank Stadium. How hard is it to believe we never beat MICH at the dome...ever. Anyway, too early to start throwing my 2009 thoughts at you with 2 huge rivalry games left to play and a low-end Bowl game being the likely destination. It's BADGER WEEK, so I'm going to spend my week trying to figure out what the hell we can do to get this offense going and put up a respectable performance before welcoming in the Hawks for the dome finale. You all know i don't want to pick us to lose either of these games, but at this point it might take something drastic for me to pick the Gophers to win again this year.

On a positive note - 3 recruits already have committed that visited this weekend. Rashede Hagamen (sp?) might be the biggest. A 3 star TE with great size and hands turned down the Buckeyes and Bucky to play Brewster ball. Gotta love that! He will likely start immediately next year with Simmons graduating and not much else lurking behind him. We did sign Eric Lair, a 3 star TE, last year - but I think Haageman is more of a player. We also landed Matt Garin who had lots of interest from some western schools. Apparently this kid is a pass rusher and could help fill the hole that WVD will leave after this year. We also landed Joey Searcy, a 6-0 276lb DT from Texas. This kid will be another 300 lb'r in the middle sooner than later. McNeal and Carter are both announcing at the AA Game I believe. It sounds like the 5 star kid had a nice time, but it's tough to expect him to sign on at this point. Overall, the loss has very little impact on what these kids think - if anything it might help the cause and make them think they can play right away. Bottom line is that Brewster has landed 5 of the top6 MN kids already, with McNeal (#1) being the only holdout. I like what we're seeing...more talent = better results. It's college football and that's how you build a winner.

One other Gopher note - our star of last year's class, Marqueis Gray gets his ACT score back on WED this week. Gut feeling for me if he passes, is that he splits time with Weber next year. It is becoming more and more obvious that the QB run is a HUGE part of this offense, and when you have a guy who is a superior runner he will need to play. Not a "from day one he is #1" mentality, but I love the iodea of spicing up the offense by giving him some "Tebow as a Freshman" type action before possibly handing the keys to the car over to him as a Soph (although Weber will be a Sr...but next year could really prove who the better QB is). I'm not a Weber hater, but Gray is a better fit in this offense, and with the ineptitude we've seen this year, I think a change might be nice. But that's for another day - right now let's just hope he passes the test and is even an option next year.

Okay. next....

PURPLE OVER PACK
That was a fun one. Despite fighting off one of the worst hangovers I've had in quite some time, I thought this game was great. Should have been a blowout, probably could have lost, but in the end a win over the Pack is a great thing. Scary games coming the next 2 weeks at TB and at JAC, but this team seems to be putting it together right now. AD is a hall-of-famer...too fun to watch. Gus needs to play better obviously, but the offense is scoring points and that is what matters most. The defense was incredible. Jared Allen should get a raise...the guy is worth every penny. Overall, much more positivity than 2 weeks ago, we've actually won 4 of our last 5. Revised schedule predictions from 8-8...

at TB L
at JAC W
CHI W
at DET W
at ARI W
ATL W
NYG W

Wow. Did I just pick us to win 6 of our last 7? Definitely not better than the NYG...but it's week 17 and they will be playing zero people against us since home field will be locked up. So I've gone from 8-8 to 11-5. Wow, a little bigger swing than I expected...but that's what a big win will do for you I guess.

BTW - listening to COMMON right now...Ray Edwards sack tracker update...1.5!!! Well on his way to 23...only 21 to go. 3/game would do it!

If we lose the Williams crew for 4 games, this will change. I would add at least 2 more losses to the prediction, but haven;t heard much on that lately.

That's all for now - I'll post next week's games soon.

Later.