Probably won’t be a next time but, we are what our record says we are. Not sure that makes Minnesota the inferior team. A team is the sum of all parts working together. Individual superior talent does not necessarily dictate that we have a better “team”. Right?
Some of the NU kids must have thought it was gonna be easy. Lindemeyer Quote. "We were going in maybe wanting to put on a show rather than being ready for a 60 minute fight." End quote.
Put on a show? Yeah, they put on a show alright.
This team, maybe some of the key players may have had a delusional view of actually how good NU was/is.
I've always looked at October as the month that kind of determines if a team is getting better or not. Most teams start in late Aug or early September, they get maybe 1-2 cupcakes to pump up the PPG average and stats, then when they get in conference those number deflate weekly.
Depending on schedule, the 2023 NU team was 3-1 with ILL, PUR, NW wins and a loss to MICH.
In 2024, the NU team was 1-3 with win v. RUT, and losses to IND, OSU AND UCLA.
Luckily they bypassed the 3 best BIG opponents OSU, IND and ORE.
This year 2-1 with wins v. MSU and MARY and the loss to MINN. All middle of the road teams.
Overall 6-5, average like everything else in this program.
How they fare Saturday will be big, because under the Rhule regime our record down the stretch in November is a not so gaudy 1-8.
So have the first 3 Rhule teams actually gotten better as the season has gone on? Doesn't look like.
As you say, the sum of all parts determine how good a team is or isn't.