CAN THE GOPHERS BOUNCE BACK INTO A CONTENDER? | MINNESOTA FOOTBALL 2024 PREDICTION & PREVIEW

[Music] yo what's going everybody welcome back to another episode of stiff arm we're going through preview prediction schedule breakdown whatever you want to call it we're breaking down the Minnesota Gophers 2024 season in this video uh if you haven't already go check out the channel we got a tons of big 10 content up there already so if you're Minnesota Gopher fan you want to check out those other videos go ahead and do that already going through uh doing the SEC soon the Big 10 soon I mean the big 12 and the ACC going through the Big 10 about halfway right now so if you're not already subscribe to the stiff arm subscribe to the channel if you want to see more videos like this more Minnesota Goa content will be up on the channel so go check that out but Minnesota they went six- seven last year 3- six uh they had a brutal stretch the end the year I think they lost four or five straight the end of the year before they beat Bowling Green in the Bull game but they went six and seven uh very disappointing season ever since that 2019 season has been the best for Minnesota it's been very average uh you have a really good year and then a season like this and you're just lose games you shouldn't and that's been Minnesota every single season so far they did get better on the offensive side they got a lot of returners coming back very veteran heavy offense defense though is going to be a huge question mark and they have a brutal schedule to say at least we'll getting all that but we have 14 returning starters which is really good in the Big 10 very good for their transfer portal era six on offense eight on defense it's very different from each site um from what you see everybody has something different but we got to start with new qb1 Max brosmer from New Hampshire uh transfering from New Hampshire to Minnesota up from the FCS level he was AP second team FCS allamerican last year for the quarterback position uh 64 completion percentage 3,459 yards 29 touchdowns and six interceptions a lot of Minnesota fans a lot of beat Riders are very excited about this change and everybody should be rightfully so uh having that change from Athan KAC Manis where he went to Ruckers a jointed former offensive coordinator now you get a upgrade from Max brosmer the big question is going to be I think you did upgrade from the quarterback position but how is he going to translate to the Mig 10 how is he going to translate in the Greg hard ball offense uh normally you get that jump from year two being in the offense being in the system you don't get that with Max brosmer you only get one year with Max brosmer uh how is he going to translate to the Big 10 how is he going to be I think his first three games are going to be interesting to get his feet wet before he get into the Big 10 play but we'll get into that returning running back Darius Taylor uh in six games he ran for 800 yards and five touchdowns one of the best running backs in the Big 10 uh one of the best running backs the whole entire country uh you get him back hopefully he stays healthy PJ Flex relies on that run game so darus Taylor is going to be critical in this offense you also got uh Tyler nuan's brother uh coming back being that one two punch uh he was really good to end the Year this receiving rooms a huge question mark for this team team uh Daniel Jackson it returns all big 10 second team last year uh you got to remember that tow drag that first game against Nebraska and everybody was sold on him 831 yards and eight touchdowns normally in Flex offense he likes to run the hell out of the ball but there's always a wide receiver one there's always a huge piece um you know you can go down the list Tyler Johnson baitman uh Autumn Bell when he was healthy and then you got to go to Western Michigan where he had Corey Davis just to name a few guys now you have a solidified WR receiv receiv one you have that guy with Daniel Jackson This offense is set to go to the Moon uh but how's that brosmer Daniel Jackson connection going to be um do they have enough reps in Spring ball do they have enough reps in the summer to truly solidify them as one of the best Duos in the Big 10 Tyler Williams also transferred from Georgia 62 uh 200 lbs and you got Christian driver from Penn State 511 192 uh to slidify out the the receiver room there's a lot of question marks other than Daniel Jackson uh and then you lose sap as well uh Brandy sap to the NFL for the tight end position there's a lot of question marks when it comes to who's going to be catching the ball besides Daniel Jackson one of the biggest Parts about this Minnesota team is in the offensive line they have four turning starters on the offensive line and they have one of the best tackles in all college football uh arant AR arante uh arante aay arante aay I'm sorry for messing that up uh sound like I had stutter real quick uh left tackle AP First Team all Bak 10 last year so one of the best offensive lineman one of the best tackles in all of college football Tyler Cooper on the left guard uh qu Carrol Right Guard and then martes Lewis right tackle you four returning guys up front in Minnesota whenever they had a great team their offensive line has still been one of the best offensive lines in the Mig 10 and this year they're have it going into the year so now you have the returning offensive line you got the returning running back so this run game is going to be one of the best in the Big 10 uh consistently it's just can they win through the air and that's going to be a huge question for this team let's go to defense real quick uh the edges are back um Jan Joiner is going to be one of the best defensive ends in college football he had so so many pressures last year um and you also got Danny triari uh returning as well definitely bu that last name but both of them combined for 14 and a half tfls and 13 and a half sacks last year both of them coming back and you got D tackles returning as well Jaylen Logan reading and Devin East returning at D tackles you got four returning linemen um and that's huge you got nine returning linemen on the offensive defensive side all big time linebacker coding Cody Lindberg returns as well only played a four games last year but he had 71 tackle in 2022 all Big T guy in 2022 very excited for him this front seven is going to be really good really experienced but can this defensive back would be really good I that's the biggest question mark on this team uh the receiver room and his defensive back room uh lose Tyler Newman who is one of the best safeties in Minnesota History one of the best safeties one of the best defensive players under the PJ Fleck era uh second round picked in New York Giants you also lose Trayvon Jones at corner and that's going to be a huge loss everybody's excited about KY Parish uh you know there was a huge recruiting battle keep him in state is he going go have state everybody was rambling but he end up going to Minnesota so you got him even though he's he's a freshman I think he can play right away contribute and then Ethan Robinson who's going to be one of the biggest guys on this team biggest X factors if he can play well this Minnesota team is going to be really good based off him uh transfer from Bucknell First Team all Patriot League last year they can translate that to Big 10 Big 10 always has great receivers great offices great passing games it's going be really rely on him let's go to my breakout SLX factors for this team Ethan Robertson is number one on the list like I just said if he can play at a high level get pbus get some interceptions maybe not throw his way that'd be huge for the Minnesota team is locking down half side of the field uh but Darius Taylor if he can stay healthy uh if he can get 1,400 1500 yards be that uh mohamd Ibraham from years past and be that dominant running back that Minnesota needs this offense can be in great shapes and be Leaps and Bounds where they were last year and the last one I put uh Jan join maybe they get some more time with Ethan Robinson and this you know this this DB room but they have a great front seven I don't think he'll get double team as much as he was last year he'll have a lot of one-on-one opportunities like I said these tackles are really good in the Big 10 these offensive lines are really good but when you get an edge like Johan jiner who's lengthy he's very big uh he's got a great arm length if he can get to the quarterback get those pressures up from last year and turn these pressures into sacks then could be the upside for Minnesota let's get into these coordinators real quick uh Greg Harbaugh returns as the offensive coordinator uh in the hardball in the not the harball era the PJ Fleck era uh there's been a lot of rotating offensive coordinators and Greg harball uh a lot of the coreback from last year um and I think that's really good for this Minnesota team they get more comfortable in the Greg C Ball era uh and being back from offensive coordinator obviously Huts be way better than what he did last year um and it wasn't the best from what we seen last year and then Cory heatherman from the defensive coordinator first year DC at Minnesota um he spent the last two seasons at ruter who was a linebacker coach um and before that he was the defensive coordinator at James Madison from 2019 to 2021 he was named the assistant coach of the year in 2021 before taking that job and going to Ruckers uh he also was defensive coordinator from Main from 2016 2018 so they didn't just hire any position coach they hired a defensive coordinator experience and I think that's what this team needs um really getting after the the quarterback really turning those pressures into the sacks and turning those pbus into interceptions get them off the field get them off the field on third down they were terrible on third down last year uh that's really one thing they need to improve on I think Cory hman was one of the best hires and under the radar hires that anybody is talking about in the Big 10 and you got talking about the head man PJ Fleck 50 and 34 overall as a head coach um as in Minnesota and then 29 and 32 in the Big 10 over seven years so not even 500 in the Big 10 and that's the biggest Improvement Minnesota needs to do this year start winning the games when it matters in the Big 10 and Big 10 schedule was brutal this year we're get into in just second uh college football power index FBI uh 0.4 which is 61st in college football and is 15th in the Big 10 so ESPN are not big fans of them let's get into the schedule real quick North Carolina first game uh if you haven't seen from the top greens are wins uh yellows are toss-ups and then Reds are losses in my opinion our friends in Vegas over there having win total of five so take how you want it they don't really see them as a bull Contender this year and I don't either I think North Carolina is a toss up they're going through a quarterback change a lot of offensive Firepower though still on that team you get him at home so that could be a huge environment at the bank and that I feel like that's a 50-50 tossup right now I'm not leaning either way right now Rhode Island should be a dub Nevada should be a dub those are the two games that brosmer and this offense get real grip and then get their their feet wet in this offense and you have a three game stretch which is brutal Iowa get him at home though and you're looking to to be Iowa in two years back to back they're going to be better than they were last year at Michigan I think that is a loss I don't see any way Minnesota goes into Michigan and gets the dub USC at home could be a little upset in the making I I don't really see it I don't really see Minnesota scoring more points than USC would in that department and you got a three- game stretch which you could win every single game you could in that department uh it's way easier than the next three and I think this there's just departments and there's just stretches in this in schedule and you go three by three by three by three and this this third three UCLA Maryland and Illinois you get some of the bottom teams in the Big 10 around the same same as uh Minnesota is going to be at UCLA you going to go out there uh first time playing UCLA in a long time and you get Maryland which is a tossup at home I'm leaning towards Maryland in that department they can be better than they were last year they can get a quarterback to to Lea T then at Illinois you did drop the game at Illinois last year so that's going to be a very interesting game but those are three very winnable games also three losable games as well and you got at Ruckers I think this is going to be a tricky game going to New Jersey Ruckers defense is going be really good so Minnesota's offense versus Ruckers defense I'm leaning towards Ruckers right now now I think Ruckers is going to win the game um especially Athan KAC L Manis verus Max brasmer I think that's going to be a huge game for Minnesota Penn State you get him at home you know last time we played him at home it was a crazy 2019 game but just I don't know if they're going to have enough momentum as they did in 2019 you got to go to Wisconsin I think just going to be brutal stretch two straight games of playing hardnose football think you're going to lose this game as well uh on the schedule right now I have two wins uh four or what six losses and four toss-ups I think this is a very hard schedule I think this is one of hardest schedules in the Big 10 uh my ceiling for this team is going to be six and six I think one all the toss up games I think you know six and six and then make a bowl game and then see what happens out of there and the floor is going to be 3- N I think this this team is better than three and N but their their schedule is very tough it's very hard to get momentum especially if you lose that first game against North Carolina it's going to be downhill from there especially that Iowa Min Michigan USC schedule those three games are going to dictate their whole season if they go three and if they go three and three after that maybe get some momentum after um the USC game where they can maybe go six and three after that and then we'll see how it happens after that I'm just not high this Minnesota team as much as other people are and I think the schedule is very hard to improve with that Ma BR is going to be a huge question mark the receiver was going to be a huge question mark and their defensive back room is going to be a huge question mark but it's all I have today's video go comment down below what you guys think of Minnesota 2024 for improvement it's PJ flick at me the hot of that let me know you guys thoughts Down Below in the comment section uh if you haven't already go check out some other previews predictions I have up on the channel right now a bunch of big 10 teams but that's all I have today's video I'll see you guys next time peace [Music]