Rittenberg nails it

Adam Rittenberg, ESPN's Big10 blogger, had a very interesting post this morning. I say interesting maybe only because Rittenberg actually spends some time talking about the Gophers. Okay, that's not true... he generally does a very good job of being an equal opportunity blogger about Big10 teams. (Unlike the Big Ten Network... has anyone else been completely overwhelmed with the amount of Ohio State coverage on BTN lately? I haven't checked it out this week, but last week was a bit much.)

Anyway, I found the piece interesting because in the back of my head I've been thinking the same thing about the Gophers, and I was afraid to say it. I have said many, many times (a phrase which you are certainly getting sick of), the Gophers could be a better team with a worse record. But what I've been reluctant to say is that the Gophers schedule is such that if things don't go exactly well... they could go very, very poorly.

I think Rittenberg sums it up perfectly when talking about the Gophers (& Illinois):

"You can make a good case for either team being the surprise of the Big Ten and reaching a January bowl game. Both squads could also crash and burn."

The piece also draws on all of the similarities between the Illinois and Minnesota programs, and the comparison is actually pretty stagering.