2021 Gophers Position Previews: Secondary

After a truncated 2020, Minnesota returns to a full 12-game football season Sept. 2 against Ohio State. Here at Ski-U-Blog will be previews of the team's notable players within each position group. We finish up the defense by discussing the Gophers' defensive backs.

Likely Starters

You could tell last season that Tyler Nubin really wanted to make plays. Minnesota's new boundary safety had maybe the toughest ask of any of the new starters in replacing Antoine Winfield Jr., the unanimous All-American who led the 2019 Gophers in tackles by being everywhere. Winfield made an impact at every level of the field and was as valuable as any defender in the Big Ten thanks to his tackling ability and instinctual play.

It's not reasonable or fair to speculate whether Nubin had Winfield on his mind when the then-true sophomore opened the 2020 season, or if he was trying to play like Winfield instead of in his place. What is undeniable is that Nubin was just as aggressive as his predecessor — if not more so — but did not yet have the understanding that made Winfield a star.

Every game, Nubin missed a gap. Every game, he took poor angles and overran plays. Every game, he looked ready to make an important stop, or to keep the ballcarrier from getting to the second level, but he put himself out of position and made things worse.

Nubin is the deep safety on the far side.

If anyone needed a proper offseason, it was Nubin.

2021 Gophers Position Previews: Linebackers

After a truncated 2020, Minnesota returns to a full 12-game football season Sept. 2 against Ohio State. Here at Ski-U-Blog will be previews of the team's notable players within each position group. Today's preview post is about the Gophers' many linebackers.

Likely Starters

Perhaps the player whose course in 2020 was most emblematic of the unit as a whole was, fittingly, one of its captains: Mariano Sori-Marin.

Sori-Marin was one of seven new starters on defense after spending two seasons on special teams, as a fill-in, or as a third linebacker. Anticipating he'd see a bigger role in 2020, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Joe Rossi had given Sori-Marin more playing time as a true sophomore. After an offseason and then a couple of tune-up games (Minnesota was to open with Florida Atlantic and Tennessee Tech), Sori-Marin was likely to be ready enough for Big Ten play.

Then the pandemic hit. Spring football was cut short, offseason workouts had to happen at home, the season was cancelled, and then the season was hastily (and cynically) thrown back together for a nine-game, conference-only sprint. The concept of a typical college football season, with standard development and acclimation periods, did not exist.

To be a first-time starter was suddenly a greater challenge. To make the situation harder: The other projected starting linebacker was to miss the season for reasons totally unrelated to the pandemic, so someone even less experienced was now in line to play next to Sori-Marin.

When the season finally started, Minnesota's defense was a mess, and Sori-Marin was a big reason why. While he didn't miss tackles as often as some of his teammates, Sori-Marin misread plays, got pushed around, and was too slow to catch up to opposing ballcarriers. Head coach P.J. Fleck said he was trying to do too much. Sometimes, it looked like it. Other times, Sori-Marin was just outmatched.

We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 160

                                           

Checking our feelings on Gopher men's basketball, Woodstock '99, and this week's Gophers preview question: For the Gophers to win 10 or more games, who needs to step up?

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2021 Gophers Position Previews: Defensive Line

After a truncated 2020, Minnesota returns to a full 12-game football season Sept. 2 against Ohio State. Here at Ski-U-Blog will be previews of the team's notable players within each position group. Today's preview post is about the Minnesota front four.

Likely Starters

It didn't get talked about for a few reasons — primarily a series of poor performances as a team, plus the season's generally chaotic month-and-a-half-long sprint — but Minnesota's defense featured a bona fide breakout player in 2020. We all thought he could break out, too. He made Bruce Feldman's Freaks List and everything.

When the season actually happened, he led the Gophers in havoc plays. He tied for sixth in the Big Ten in sacks despite only playing six games of an intended nine-game schedule. He was one of just two Minnesota defenders to get even an honorable mention for an all-conference team (and deserved better), and he's going to be an NFL Draft pick. He's doing it all as a native Minnesotan, to boot.

So can we please talk about Boye Mafe?

The 6-foot, 4-inch Hopkins product is an explosive pass rusher with a knack for disruption. In addition to his sacks, Mafe broke up two passes and forced two fumbles last season. He could be better at setting the edge, but his value as a rusher outweighs that relative deficiency. He's the best player on the Minnesota defense and should rack up more accolades this year.

We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 159

                                           

The NBA Draft and this week's Gophers preview question: Who is the most intriguing player on the team entering this season?

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

2021 Gophers Position Previews: Offensive Line

After a truncated 2020, Minnesota returns to a full 12-game football season Sept. 2 against Ohio State. Here at Ski-U-Blog will be previews of the team's notable players within each position group. We finish our look at the offense with the linemen.

Likely Starters

A lot of attention toward the Gophers' offense is specifically directed at the wide receivers. This is no surprise, considering head coach P.J. Fleck and offensive co-coordinator and receivers coach Matt Simon's history of putting wideouts in the NFL. Mohamed Ibrahim also receives a good amount of press, and, being the quarterback, so does Tanner Morgan.

But what's often overlooked about Fleck's tenure at Minnesota is that he and offensive line coach Brian Callahan have a type. Not a particularly sophisticated type, mind you, but a well-defined one.

Put simply: They like meat. Though Minnesota is a zone-running team, which often would mean preferring leaner, more mobile blockers, the Fleck regime has prioritized size in recruiting. According to 247Sports' records, the Gophers have gotten 18 offensive line commits since 2017 who then made a roster. Nine have been listed as 6-and-a-half feet or taller (including 2022 commit Tony Nelson), and seven have weighed at least 300 pounds. Four players were 320 pounds or more as high schoolers.

Meanwhile, the current starting five linemen are plenty experienced. Each player started his first game in 2018 or 2017; as a group, they combine for 143 starts. They have all had ample time to develop — which, for four of them, has included adding more pounds. As a result, Minnesota enters 2021 with one of the country's biggest offensive lines, and possibly the biggest in program history.

2021 Gophers Position Previews: Quarterback

After a truncated 2020, Minnesota returns to a full 12-game football season Sept. 2 against Ohio State. Here at Ski-U-Blog will be previews of the team's notable players within each position group. Our next stop in the series is the quarterback position.

Likely Starter

It was a disappointing 2020 for Tanner Morgan. His completion percentage dropped 8 points, and when he completed his passes, he averaged 3.5 fewer yards than the year before. He threw just two more touchdowns than interceptions. Despite being a third-year starter, his statistics were worse than those he posted as a freshman. He went from being getting hyped as a 2021 NFL Draft dark horse (which, to be clear, was never fair) to having his confidence called into question (which also wasn't really fair). What was the deal?

Probably some of it can be attributed to the arrival of new offensive co-coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Sanford Jr. — not to say that it is Sanford's fault; the Minnesota offense was very similar to what it was with Kirk Ciarrocca as playcalller, and many of the philosophical problems with Sanford's offense were shared with Ciarrocca's. But any time there is a coaching change, that can have some negative effect as players get acquainted with the new braintrust. That becomes more likely, if not exacerbated, when a pandemic forces teams to spend less time together.

There's also the departure of Tyler Johnson. I will get into the receivers in an upcoming post, but for now we should acknowledge that while Rashod Bateman was Minnesota's most dangerous wideout, Johnson was the most utilitarian. After losing a receiver who could make plays at any level of the field, the Gophers in 2020 relied too much on Bateman to play different roles. Becoming the focus of the offense also meant becoming the focus of the opposing defense.

Bateman's late-season departure also hurt; Minnesota receivers dropped seven passes over the last two games of the season, which docked Morgan a few percentage points on his season-long completion rate.

But Morgan was also just worse. He had some of the worst games of his Gopher career, which could include staggeringly bad passes in front of, over, or short of his receivers.

That wasn't the kind of passer Gopher fans had come to expect. Despite his physical limitations, he had established a fairly consistent level of competent play. Morgan didn't become an altogether bad quarterback in 2020, but that consistency was fleeting.

From a statistical perspective, what did Morgan's step back look like, and what can his coaches do to help reverse it?

Click on any image in this post to enlarge it.

2021 Gophers Position Previews: Running Backs

After a truncated 2020, Minnesota returns to a full 12-game football season Sept. 2 against Ohio State. Here at Ski-U-Blog will be previews of the team's notable players within each position group. Today, we discuss the Gophers' deep running back corps.

Likely Starter

Minnesota has been of a streak of good running backs since David Cobb seized the starting job in 2013. Cobb gained the most rushing yards of any Gopher ever in his 2014 season before being drafted. Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks traded carries their first two seasons, at times serving as the only productive aspects of mediocre to dreadful offenses. Brooks battled injuries as an upperclassman but still contributed as Smith became the program's career all-purpose yards leader.

It's not outlandish to say that Mohamed Ibrahim is the best Gophers running back since Marion Barber III and Laurence Maroney occupied the backfield. In 2021, Ibrahim will almost certainly pass Cobb and Barber on the Minnesota career rushing leaderboard, and there's a good chance he overtakes Maroney and Smith. Darrell Thompson holds the record; though it'll require breaking Cobb's single-season record and then some, it's not impossible for Ibrahim to match Thompson.