2021 Minnesota Gopher's Football Season Breakdown Part 2 - The Schedule

[Music] welcome back to the north star takes podcast with bailey pollicki and jacob luberda this is going to be part two of our gopher football preview and we're gonna be breaking down the schedule with our resident gophers expert jackson lafave back for part two so let's jump right into it jackson obviously there's some big games on the schedule starting off with ohio state week one at least it's a home game um how you feeling about the schedule how it's kind of shaking out and what our biggest games are going to be i know i like the schedule overall i mean it's really just going to be about um you know just just our our experienced guys you know just especially on the road you know that's why i think we have the opportunity to steal a few on the road just given our experience but i love ohio state right off the bat especially with our experience we're at home i love the the tone that this game can set even if we lose i think it will you know we'll get so much more experience right off the bat um whereas you know if we once we get more into the season we play guys like teams like nebraska or purdue who have who you know has not played against in ohio state yet i think that's gonna be a real advantage for us but i think we have a shot at being ohio state and um i love to even just kind of touch on on a couple you know key factors of that game i'm just started out with just because that it's coming up um so so quickly already um so right off the bat you know ohio state doesn't have justin fields anymore he's not one of the bears uh they have a redshirt freshman as um cj strude i believe it's pronounced that sounds right cj strude yeah he's not throwing a pass yet in a college game um but you know he apparently um he's a he's a ohio state quarterback the guy has talent and he has a uh you know a couple wide receivers that are trying true crystal lava is still on the team you know he he basically he could have went to the nfl last year easily but he and so that's a that's a true nfl player you know on ohio state that you know our our back's gonna have to you know coney der and others are gonna have to try to track down um but overall i mean i'm excited i think we can actually compete um up front with this team um i just hope you know the hunt's gonna be rocking and i think we have a shot at um you know pulling this one off so i'm excited yeah i can't disagree with any of those points you just made i think there's a real opportunity there to get the season started with a bang like gophers aren't usually a team that gets to start the slay top of the big ten game like that especially as big as like olson number four team the nation at home but i think it could really set the tone as you mentioned in our last video jackson that i think if we can win this game man who knows what the possibilities are here for the season in this team yeah exactly um so yeah so we start out with ohio state then we move into a couple you know quote-unquote cupcakes that we we go but you know the thing is we also play colorado you know that's a pac-12 that's a you know it's a a solid you know major power conference school or on the road there um i was looking into a little bit of colorado last year there apparently they were supposed to be really bad but they actually turned out to be okay so i think there's kind of a middle of the pack um pac-12 team um and we're gonna be on the road you know that high elevation who knows what's going to happen so that could be a a tricky game but we we have the experience we have the talent we should win still but uh but yeah there's a but there's a couple other um games that i love to touch upon also in the big in the big ten season um you know so this is this is this overall this schedule is is going to be super exciting a bunch of fun um fun games ahead no totally agree now what's the next game you're kind of looking for here past the non-conference slate that we'll have there after week one yeah so i mean a couple couple others i touched upon ohio state another one is obviously iowa um you know oh iowa is ranked in the preseason um poll you know it's pre-season rankings but you know they're still ranked uh they have a lot of experience um they they have their um quarterback coming back um spencer petros i believe his name is um they don't have their wives they don't have a couple wide receivers they you know amir smith marcette is you know on on the vikings now he's not he's not on their team brandon smith apparently he's a good wide receiver for them and he's off off the team but again that this is a this is a standard iowa team these guys pound the rock and they'll be tough although i believe are they at are we at home against them this year i think we no i think i think we're gonna be on the road we're on the road somewhere in 2019 we we lost to them in that big game so i think we're wrong so that's gonna be a really tough game that i you know even though i am a homer i would expect that to feel lost just because it's kind of well there in 20 years yeah it's kind of like the vikings bears dynamic it's just they always struggle against iowa for some reason yeah yeah so that's a that's a tough game um another another kind of fun game that's coming up um um later is indiana so you know historically you would think that would be a a win just because indiana has not really had a historically good football program but last year they had a great great breakout season yeah the other their breakout quarterback from last year next junior yeah yeah panic junior he tours acl um towards the end of the season but apparently it's he's he's healthy again um that's gonna be a really tough game as well um are we are we on the road there are we at home for that one do you know uh let me take a look here real quick it looks like for indiana we're going to have them on the road the second to the last week of the season okay that's going to be i seo iowa's is on the road as well that's going to be a really tough thing yeah we have iowa indiana and wisconsin for the last last three games so that's a tough finish we're not so that's why we're gonna have to really rack up wins early on this season and get confidence that's why that ohio state game is really is really a key game just to get on on the right foot um set the tone early so that's gonna be really tough if we can even go one and two those last two three games although you know i have high expectations for this team i have rose bowl expectations for this team almost you know so i think so i think we're gonna almost we're gonna have to go two and one at least if not three you know to make the most well but we have we have the capabilities you know we have the arguably the most experienced team in the big ten so um we should win these games honestly if we can win against iowa and wisconsin like you mentioned two out of three those last three games a season especially against those two teams if we won against them i don't see any pathway where we don't win the big ten west i think that's the biggest thing and that puts us in the big ten conference championship game and then you're playing for a spot either in the rose bowl or potentially if you're having a good enough season maybe you beat ohio stay off the bat also you're talking about the playoff and that's just that's kind of mind-boggling for me that's the goal for fans do you guys how long we've got you just think though like if the gophers had the same record even if they had beaten ohio state earlier in the season do you really think the committee would put them in over ohio state though if we if we what happened so say you had the same record as ohio state but you had beaten them okay do you think the committee would really put you in over them because i don't know about that it depends how we come across that wind if it's if it seems really fluky then not but if like we put them in the dirt then i'm saying they'd put us in okay i mean obviously this is a pipe dream most likely but i love the hypothetical yeah getting into like expectations for the season jackson already kind of touched on it you think they have rose bowl potential uh what do you see their record being this year yeah so i i've seen some kind of the standard kind of money line or not money line but the standard kind of you know benchmark win total that vegas has set i believe it is at seven so like so that's where it's kind of like under over um um a lot of the mainstream people are saying the safe bet is to go under um oh that's cool i i i believe me i watched like i watched some guy you know some mainstream um reporter saying you know to hit the under i'm slamming that over on on seven wins um this team is at least eight and four at least eight and four um you know eight and four gets you a solid a solid bowl that you know maybe another outback bowl appearance just a great program building ball um so fun to get all the alumni down in florida or so or some other bowl you know um new year's day bowl but i really have rose bowl expectations for this team let's finally go to pasadena again um you know it hasn't been since like the 60s or 67 or something i think we can do it we just gotta we just gotta lean on lean on our ground pound attack be not our experience and i think we can really do it yeah yeah i mean i i don't know if i'm quite as bullish on the gophers as you are i definitely see an eight win team for sure eight or nine wins um obviously ohio state that's a tough one to expect to win yes and wisconsin and iowa it just feels like they're gonna trip up one of those games as well for sure and like just having that end of the season stretch against iowa and indiana on the road and then you come home to play wisconsin you know it's cold out last game of the season everyone's kind of worn down that could be just kind of an ugly grinded out big ten style game so yes i don't know if i see rose bowl but i mean i get the optimism compared to last season at least absolutely like jackson said i'd love to get there for the first time in 50 years because the i think the energy around it for like you mentioned you keep bringing up the culture in the program building like that'd be huge because then that would help you get on the recruiting trail you know pj is a pretty raw raw guy and being in the rose bowl that puts just directly in the spotlight and i think that really boom this program into a potential like playoff contender in re like years to come here you know you know what so wintel i'm gonna say nine wins for this team nine wins um and i i don't really know it's hard to say you know it's it's called it's college football it's a little bit more unpredictable than uh sometimes even the professional sports i'm gonna say nine wins but heck you know what um as a true goal for fan if we lose all of our games but beside by beat wisconsin and i will i'll be happy you know the first the first game my freshman year at the u of m um we played um some cupcake i forget who we played um and the entire student section was chanting we hate iowa during some cupcake game and we were walking down the stands with tcf after the game everyone is chanting we hate iowa and like this is a tone senator we hate iowa and we also hate wisconsin so if we win those two games if i lose the rest heck i'll be happy too yeah yeah i mean so if very quickly here before we wrap up if you had to if you could only beat one of them would you rather beat ohio state or wisconsin oh wisconsin without a doubt um well i don't know yes wisconsin wisconsin um the history is there but yeah i think just that i just have a really boiled down hatred for wisconsin um just from a just not even a pr like a sports standpoint i just really do not like the university or the program in general um i i do not like all their sports across the board i think they are just are really just kind of uppity kind of entitled just overall or this overall university um and just and they think that i just think that this as this is coming from obviously a golfer fan but i think they think they're at the harvard of the big ten when they're not at all the u of m is is very on par with wisconsin and they're just and all obviously they steal all our recruits and everything there's a boil down just historic hatred from that i that my my alumni father has even instilled in me and hopefully i'll pass on to my kids someday so wisconsin without a doubt even though it'd be fun to be with oh how i'll say too why not both yeah i would absolutely love it if they were able to beat both but uh there you have it folks hammer the over on the seven wins um they're winning nine according to our experts so that's going to do it for this edition of the north star takes podcast thank you for coming on jack daddy yes good to have you thanks love to have you on during the season as well to get some perspective on what's going on we'd love to be sure to hit that like button subscribe if you haven't already as well and give us a follow on twitter and instagram and drop a comment below about what you think about this gopher's schedule [Music]