Adrian Martinez
- Thread starter 308_Husker
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Minnesota was missing a bunch of scrubs. But ya, they shouldn't have beaten us.. But the narrative got a bit out of control as to really how hampered they were, just the way Fleck wrote it.
Undone
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Ok, I buy that.
Still a good example of a game in my opinion where there doesn't seem to be any tangible "COVID excuses" that the 'skers can use for why we lost. It was down the stretch of the season, both teams had played several games at that point, etc., etc.
It did affect every team in the B1G. We just happen to have a younger roster than many teams in the B1G.
And I can give you that. Just depends on where you stand on the process overall. I think Frost inherited a bad team and has actually brought it around to an average team. Now, can he take it to a good team? Time will tell but I feel like we started as a non-competitive team and are now very much competitive with anybody on the field outside of OSU. We are still not good, still average.. But, average teams lose to Minnesota and don't need an excuse to do so, the "excuse' is theyare just average so they go toe to toe with other average programs and win some and lose some. If I am right and we started as a 20%level team, and have trended to a 50% team hopefully the arch is moving to an 80% team over the next 2 years. I think it is, but what I am unsure of is if we can ever be more than an 80% team with the limitations on the program.
J-MAGIC
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If we're gonna talk COVID excuses, Minnesota got three weeks off beforehand and we were playing our sixth conference game in a row. That seems like a much bigger factor than them having some backup defenders sitting out.
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Husker in WI
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Fleck is a good motivator - there were a handful of guys who would have played but yeah, most of the covid outages wouldn't have traveled anyway. Got everyone buying the underdog narrative though, and made it a more embarrassing loss than it really was. And even then, the biggest factor in losing that game was Martinez messing up his arm and missing open throws, they were pretty lucky to win. It was some smart gamesmanship/covering his butt. If they lost he had an excuse, and when they won he was a miracle worker. Dude's a moron, but he's not dumb and he can coach. Kinda hope the Tennessee rumors are false though because I'd love a few more chances against him. On the other hand, I know some Minny fans and seeing what they do with their "row the boat" gear once he leaves will also be entertaining.
Undone
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Fair enough; but "young roster" has nothing to do with COVID (with which I'm sure you will agree).
J-MAGIC
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Lightfighter214 said:
We finished 33rd in post-season SP+ and Minnesota finished 35th, so even teams. The COVID stuff hurt their depth so that gives them points, but we also had starters out so I don't see how that's super impactful. To call it one of the worst losses of the last two decades (or even worse than Illinois this year and Purdue/Colorado last year) is very overdramatic.
Of course it does.
The more younger players a team has, the less practice reps they've received....so yes, covid affected younger teams.
Undone
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I can't disagree with that logic, I guess. But I personally don't apply it as an excuse for having had a 3-5 conference game record.
Every single one of our redshirt freshmen and true sophomores would have benefitted tremendously from spring ball.
That includes key contributors such as Piper, Benhart, McCaffrey......
Toe
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I ain't talking about the Huskers, I'm talking about the entirety of college football in 2020. It was a bulls#!t season, and pretending that it affected every team in the country equally is also bulls#!t.
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Husker in WI
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Lightfighter214 said:
We should not have lost that game. But the "barely practiced" is a stretch - they had 2 weeks off (which is a nice break in the back half of the year), and a full week of practice leading up to the game. They also got to spend the 2 weeks off schematically preparing for us. Saying they were the 58th best team and not the 35th is the inverse of when fans brag about beating a top-25 team at the time that ends up 5-7. Especially in a shortened year, I put a lot more stock in the end of year rankings than during the year. And 2 of those linemen hadn't played all year - their replacements had already started 5 games, it's not like they were replacing 4 starters in season. It was a bad loss, but nowhere near as bad as getting blown out by Illinois who is ranked ~102nd.