Gopher Talent...finally up to par?

I think I commented on this article when it was posted last time on thedailygopher.com, but it now has a look ahead at what we can expect in 2010.

The premise is simple, whoever has the most talent on the field should be winning the most games...right? Well, it's not always that simple, but in my opinion this is a very good indicator at what a coaching staff has to work with and where realistic expectations should be set each season.

How does he do it? The guy takes all the rankings of each recruiting class and adds up the ratings of the 4-5 classes that make up the team each year with heavier weighting being applied to the Juniors and Seniors. If you don't have time to look at the link, I'll summarize for you:

2007: Gophers=600, WIS=900, IOWA=1150 - obviously heavy advantage IOWA
2008: Gophers=400, WIS=750, IOWA=1000 - once again, huge edge IOWA
2009: Gophers=500, WIS=850, IOWA=1050 - pretty accurate predictor
2010: Gophers=725, WIS=800, IOWA=750

This equalizing of talent has to do with Iowa losing their a very highly rated class of seniors (plus a handful of underclassmen not accounted for on these ratings) and Brew's improved recruits entering their 3rd year and making a larger impact. WIS has stayed very consistent throughout.

As far as overall B10 rankings, it looks like this:
- OHIOST and MICH on top around a 2000 rating (MICH has lost a ton of players from these classes since the great DickRod took over, so it's a little misleading)
- PSU rolls in around 1400
- ILL at 1200
- Sparty at 900
- WIS, IOWA, MIN all right around 750-800
- PUR at about 350
- NW at 250
- IND at 150

So we're placed right around 6th-8th place based on talent, which is much better than the 8th-9th place talent we had last season.

What does this mean? Well, I think this is the most talented, on paper, team that the Gophers will have fielded in a long long time. Does that mean we win 8 games...no, but it means that we're moving the right direction and this season with a "level" playing field with Iowa and WIS, Brew has no excuses. We need to beat at least one of these teams this season and we need to show progress. The time is now!!

Is it September yet?