It had been a rough few weeks for Gopher fans leading up to last weekend.
PJ Fleck's team continued it's streak of getting blown out on the road with a 42-13 loss to Oregon. They followed that up with a loss to Northwestern that for fans felt more like a medieval torture device than a football game. Fleck has definitely raised the floor of the program, however those losses had to make the diehard fans wonder if Gopher football under Fleck will continue to stay in this 7-8 win purgatory that the program has been stuck in the past few seasons.
Meanwhile, after some blow out wins led to some early-season optimism, Niko Medved's team hit quite the rough patch with three straight losses to San Francisco, Stanford, and Santa Clara. Yes, there were some bright spots from those losses (Cade Tyson looks like the real deal), but with the injuries and overall poor play, Gopher basketball fans were staring down the barrel of another rough season at the Barn.
We're happy to report that things are looking brighter in Dinkytown.
After winning the Axe over the weekend in a winter wonderland at Huntington Bank Stadium (and improving to 5-4 against Wisconsin in his tenure), PJ Fleck followed that up with the best high school recruiting class of his tenure, and the first Top-25 class since Tim Brewster. Yes, in today's college football world it's hard to get too excited as who knows how many of those high school players will be around in a year or two or three. But if Fleck can continue to put together some solid recruiting classes, we might be primed for another double-digit win season in the coming years.
And then a few hours after the signing day celebration wrapped up, Niko Medved's team defeated #22 Indiana at the Barn. It was the first win over Indiana in nine seasons for the Gophers, and Medved's first Top-25 win as Gopher coach. Even more impressive, he did this with just nine(!) scholarship players against a basketball blue-blood. I still don't expect the Gophers to win many Big Ten games this year (I hope I'm wrong) but yesterday's win was an early sign of progress under Niko, and should give Gopher fans optimism that more good times are coming at the Barn.
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