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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 4507822, member: 289"] - That game felt like more of a victory for three reasons. One was that we didn’t lose for all the reasons I thought we would lose to Minnesota. (See why Minnesota will win and “Deep Dive). W didn’t lose because our running star, Sean Tucker, opted out: so did Minnesota’s Mohamed Ibrahim, just as soon as he had set his record, (so much for “La Familia”), and Sean’s replacement, LeQuint Allen, did everything we would have wanted from Tucker, except maybe break one. Allen rushed for 97 yards on 15 carries and led the team with 11 catches for 60 yards. - Minnesota was supposed to steamroll us with their running game and dominate time of possession. But, thanks to LeQuint and a surprisingly effect defense, (which had been too small, too hurt and had too many defections), we out-rushed them, 147-77 and won the time of possession, 34 minutes to 26. - The departure of our offensive and defensive coordinators was supposed to be disastrous but both Jason Beck and Nick Monroe did a fine job. We out-gained the big, bad Golden Gophers 477-215 and gained 27 first downs to 14. We seemed much the more potent team. - The second reason is that we’d already gained the primary goals of the season: we wanted to get to a bowl game and wind up with a winning record. We clinched the first on October 15th and the second on November 26. The rest is gravy. With all the players out, I just didn’t want to see an embarrassing blowout and this was anything but. - The third reason is that we played a lot of young players and they played well. The new defenders basically stuffed the fearsome Gopher running game. With Allen’s contributing our running attack looked pretty good and the passing game was highly productive. As far as we now know, virtually all the players that produced those results will be back next year and we have yet to see what we’ll pull out of the transfer portal or will get in the second signing date for high school recruits. The schedule, (10 bowel teams, including Minnesota), won’t be as daunting next year: no Notre Dame and the other ACC teams are shedding their quarterbacks while we will get ours back. It will make for an optimistic spring and summer and, hopefully a much better follow up than our last winning season got. 7-6 and that’s it for 2022 LET’S GO ORANGE!!! [/QUOTE]

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