There are a number of things to like about this year’s Gopher football team.
- They are 6-3, 4-2 in the Big Ten – Their two conference losses were on the road to good teams. There is a good possibility that they will finish with an 8-5 record (6-3 in the Big Ten).
- Drake Lindsey is a talented freshman – the kid can throw the ball, he has intangibles and his future is very bright.
- The defense leads the Big Ten in sacks – The defensive line was a huge question mark heading into the season, but this unit has 32 sacks through nine games and Anthony Smith has been outstanding.
- The team is winning where they should – one could argue the Cal game, but every other game has gone as expected.
But despite being 6-3, with an opportunity to finish with a really nice Big Ten record, this team really isn’t very fun to watch. The lack of entertainment is due to the offense, which is just not very good. And it hasn’t been for several years. Most of the Big Ten games have subjected us to an offense with dropped passes, play-calling in the red zone that prevents points, running backs consistently being hit behind the line
of scrimmage and drives that result in punts or missed field goals.
The offense is boring and it isn’t productive. Blake broke it down in his Elite/Meh/Ugly post on Sunday…over the last few seasons, the numbers do not lie.
Greg Harbaugh Jr took over the Gopher offense in 2023 and the offense has been consistently below-average throughout his tenure. The rushing offense has regressed to currently be the 16th-best rushing attack in the Big Ten. The passing game ranks 12th, and the offense’s points per game rank 14th, just behind 1-4 Maryland and 0-6 Michigan State.
The ineffective offense and inability to convert drives into points comes down to one of two things: it’s coaching or it is a lack of talent.
When it comes to the 2025 version of the offense, talent is partly to blame—or at least inexperience. But what about the offense last year? A roster that featured a quarterback who is currently the primary backup on an NFL roster, an All-Big Ten receiver who is currently on an NFL practice squad, a left tackle who was a 2nd round draft pick and is starting for the Texans and another tackle who is on the path to the NFL but chose to transfer to Ohio State for his final year or two in college.
That offense had plenty of talent. Surely they were putting up a lot of points and kept Big Ten defensive coordinators up at night, right?
- Points per game – 9th in Big Ten Ten (26.2 ppg) – one spot behind Iowa!
- Passing offense – 10th (222 yards per game)
- Rushing offense – 13th (115 yards per game)
The most talented offense in Harbaugh’s nearly three seasons and they couldn’t score more points than Iowa.
To be fair, this year’s offense is not as talented. A young quarterback, a new offensive line, new receivers and this was going to be a step-back year. While the Gopher program is in good shape, you don’t replace four NFL-caliber players and plug in a freshman quarterback with the expectations that it is going to be better. But it needs to be better.
If talent is the problem, that still falls on coaching. Recruiting, especially through the portal when you have significant holes to fill, is part of coaching. It is the coach’s responsibility to get kids from the portal or high school ready to play and succeed. It isn’t easy, it isn’t a simple formula, but it is becoming apparent that it absolutely needs to be better.
For the second week in a row, TMP is imploring PJ Fleck to change his best. The floor for this program has been raised. There is a young nucleus of talent on offense that we SHOULD be very excited about. But it is hard to envision a dynamic offense that starts to score 30 points per game and puts the team back in the top 25 and finishes with nine or 10 wins.
It needs to be better.
