Yes, this is a real take. Yes, Badger fans will think it is absolutely ludicrous. Yes, we must remember that former NFL player and coach Tony Dungy is a Minnesota Gopher alum.
Nick Kosko of 247Sports recently released a piece detailing Dungy’s appearance on Sirius XM’s Big Ten radio show. When asked about which college football team had the potential for a meteoric rise, similar to that of Clemson under Dabo Sweeney, Dungy did not hesitate to mention his Gophers with the leadership of P.J. Fleck.
After an 11-2 season that ended with a win in the Outback Bowl over Auburn, Dungy sees this team continuing to raise their ceiling.
“I was so proud of those guys last year because as alums, we’ve been waiting for that for 25 years,” Dungy said in his radio appearance. “We saw it happen at other places. We saw Northwestern go to the Rose Bowl. When I was playing, Northwestern was one of those circled wins that you always marked down. We’re going to win that one. We might not win another game but were going to beat Northwestern. Suddenly they went to the Rose Bowl and Iowa was not a power franchise and they had a period of time where they were playing great football. It kind of revolved through and Minnesota never had that magical couple of years. I think coach Fleck has done a great job of getting it going.”
As Fleck enters year four at the helm, the timing may be as perfect as ever for a true breakthrough season. Although the Minnesota Head Coach attempted to call his team a “Co-Big Ten West Champion,” that honor still went to the Badgers after a 38-17 thumping of the Gophers at TCF Bank Stadium. Yet, despite the way last season ended against Wisconsin, Minnesota returns QB Tanner Morgan who is fresh off of a 30 touchdown season where he threw for over 3,200 yards. If this season is played out as currently planned, Wisconsin will get Minnesota back at Camp Randall, a place where the Gophers took the Axe in 2018.
Wisconsin will still see themselves as the Big Ten West favorites, although Dungy believes that the Gophers are rising fast.