Minnesota golden gophers (PJ Fleck) 2024 football game by game predictions and roster discussion

today I'll be doing Minnesota so first I'll talk a little bit about the head coach and then I'll talk some about the roster and then I'll go through their schedule game by game and give you a predicted winner and loser for each game so head coach at PJ flag enters his eighth season as the head coach of Minnesota in 12th season as a head coach Minnesota is his only Power five coaching job but he was the head coach for Four Seasons at Western Michigan right before going to Minnesota there he was at 30 and 22 and at Minnesota he is at 50 and 34 his overall record as a head coach is uh 80 and 56 so at Minnesota he has gotten them one 11- two season in 2019 and then two seasons in a row of 9 and four in 2021 and 2022 but last year was a disappointment only finishing six and seven but Minnesota is not a good football program so if you're consistently getting them to bowl games you're doing a pretty good job so he had the 35th ranked recruiting class at Minnesota this year and Minnesota returns 71% of their production which is a lot so starting on the offensive side uh at quarterback they were horrible last year and they had one of the worst quarterbacks in the country and that was the big reason why their offense was horrible only averaging 20.7 points per game and they ranked 123rd in passing only averaging 143.5 yards passing per game now they bring in a transfer quarterback from the FCS level but he was really good at the FCS level he'll be the starting quarterback his name is Max brosmer he had last year in 11 games 3459 yards completing 64% % of his passes and throwing at 29 touchdown passes averaging 7.6 yards per throw now of course playing quarterback at the FCS level is much different than playing quarterback in the power four but I do think he's an upgrade over who they had last year at quarterback I couldn't imagine him being as bad so at wide receiver they do have a Daniel Jackson coming back who is a one of the best receivers in the Big 10 he had last season 831 on 59 catches and eight touchdowns averaging 14.1 to catch it but other than him they don't really have any proven wide receivers and they do need some help there because the to have a strong receiver unit you need several good receivers not just one and then at running back they've got Darius Taylor coming back who is a really good running back and I think he might be one of the best running backs in the country this year he was a true freshman uh last season and only played in six games because of an injury but in those six games had 799 on 138 carries averaging 5.8 yards of carrying had five rushing touchdowns and in four of those six games he had over a 100 rushing yards and on the offensive line they're in pretty good shape here they've got four starters returning including one of the best offensive linemen in the Big 10 left tackle arante ursery who is a two-year starter and in the two seasons combined is only allowed four sacks and 25 total pressures and then on the defensive side they were okay here last year they weren't great uh they gave up on average 25.2 points per game and good news is that they reti nine starters on defense so so on the defensive line three out of four starters return including a Danny strio who had last season 51 tackles and six SA and eight total pressures and a force fumble and they have a Jay Joiner who wasn't even a starter last year but played in every game and led them in pressures with 46 total pressures and also LED them in sacks with seven and a half and also added 18 tackles and two Force fumbles and a fumble recovery and a pass breakup he'll be a starter this year on the defensive line could be one of the best in the Big 10 uh and uh at linebacker they've got everybody back uh they've got uh Cody lindenburg who only played in four games last year because of an injury but had a huge season in 2022 playing in every game and in 17 games combined these past two seasons he has 102 tackles and two pass breakups and a sack and a forced fumble and then they've got Maverick barosi who played in 10 games last year and had 52 tackles and three total pressures and a sack and two pass breakups and then they've got Devin Williams who had in 12 games last year 52 tackles and six total pressures and a sack and an interception and a forc fumble and fumble recovery and then in the secondary they're in pretty good shape here they've got Justin Wally coming back at cornerback who is a one of the best corners in the Big 10 he's a two-year starter and has in the two years combined 84 tackles and 10 pass breakups and four interceptions and two Force fumbles and two fumble recovery and they have a transfer Corner coming in from the FCS level his name is Ethan Robinson he was really good in the FCS he'll be the other starting corner he had last season 50 tackles and 10 pass breakups and three interceptions and a fumble recovery and then at safety both starting safeties return they've got Jack Henderson coming back who led them in tackle last season with 59 and had a sack two interceptions and a pass breakup and they've got Darius green who had an 11 games last year 51 tackles and a pass breakup and then in special teams the both the kicker and punter re return and they've got the best kicker in the Big 10 conference coming back uh drag Kess who made five of six fi goals from the 40 to 49 yard range last year and made three of four from 50 plus last year uh and now moving on to the predictions they start the year at home against North Carolina on a Thursday so I think this will be a close game uh and North Carolina I think is going to be a solid team this year but I have a feeling that playing at home Minnesota is going to win this one uh but this is one that they're probably not going to be expected to win uh and then they play Rhode Island and FCS team this will be an easy win and then they play Nevada a group of five team that's not any good this should be another pretty easy win and then they start their conference schedule against I I at home so iow has got a better defense than Minnesota does their defense I think will shut down Minnesota's offense that's where they won't hardly score anything in this game but Iowa's offense is going to get shut down by everybody because they don't have any offense so uh I think that this will be a very low scoring uh game but I do think that playing at home uh man inota has enough offense to win a really close game this will probably be like a 13 to 10 type of game uh and then they play on the road at Michigan so uh both of these teams are going to want to run the football a whole bunch in this game and use up a bunch of clock and Michigan's also got a really good running back Donovan Edwards that uh I think is going to have a huge year this year year and I think he'll have more success running the football in this game than Darius Taylor will for Minnesota because Michigan I think will control the line of scrimmage in this game and I think that Minnesota will probably be good enough to compete with Michigan now this will be a fairly lowc scoring game I think but I do think Michigan's too good and we end up winning this one by a couple of touchdowns probably like a 27 to13 type of game and then they play USC at home so I talked about this already in the USC video that I think that USC will have trouble stopping Minnesota's Run game uh but uh I do think that USC's offense is going to be to where Minnesota can't hardly stop them their offense is going to be really really good and even though I do think Minnesota will score some points in this game uh USC's offense is going to be too much and USC I think will end up winning this one by around two touchdowns but I do think Minnesota will keep it close for most of the game uh and then they play on the road at UCLA a team that's pretty similar with Minnesota actually and I'm going to take UCLA playing at home to get a really close win uh they've got uh quite a bit of talent still on both sides of the ball but of course coaching is a big question for them this year and they do lose a lot of players uh UCLA does uh so uh then they take a week off and then play Marland at home a team that I think is going to be terrible now this year I think Minnesota will uh dominate them at the line of scrimmage and win this game uh I do think Minnesota's a little better and plus they're playing at home but I do think this will probably be a pretty close game uh and then they play on the road at Illinois another team that I don't think is going to be very good uh their quarterback has experience in the power five but not good experience uh he's been bad uh and Minnesota has a much better run game I think than Illinois does and I think they've got a better offensive line Illinois has more options I think at wide receiver than Minnesota does but I think Minnesota's defense is better than Illinois is and I think this will be pretty close but I think even on the road Minnesota gets this win so then they play on the road at Rutgers so both teams are pretty similar in my opinion Rutgers offense I don't think is going to be any good Minnesota's probably got a little bit more offense than ruggers does but ruggers defense has about the same amount of uh experience coming back as Minnesota's does and theirs was better than Minnesota's last year Rutgers had a pretty good defense and I'm going to go with Rutgers to win this game because of HomeField Advantage for them in a a pretty close one though and I just think it is going to be hard for Minnesota to win two Road games in a row against teams that are not good but aren't that much different from them uh so then they take a week off and play uh Penn State at home Penn State isn't going to be elite Minnesota may be able to compete in this one but I think that Penn State's Talent is going to be too much and uh Minnesota will get worn out from that and Penn State will end up winning this one by around two touchdowns and then they end the year on the road at Wisconsin now Minnesota's offensive line I think is better than Wisconsin's defensive line and I think the lab success running the football in this game game with Darius Taylor and Wisconsin's defense though the rest of it is going to be really good and uh Wisconsin I think has a little more offense than Minnesota does though I do think this game will be pretty close but I'm going with Wisconsin so my final prediction for Minnesota is six- six overall and three- six in the conference so this will get them to a b game for sure and I think it's possible they could go seven and five or even maybe eight and four but that would probably be their ceiling and I also think it's possible that they could miss out on a bowl game because they could easily lose to North Carolina or Iowa or even Illinois uh but that will be it with this video and please subscribe and thanks for watching