Blake Ruane

I just try to live in the space between optimism and pessimism. I can acknowledge that replacing Mohamed Ibrahim is going to be a problem for Minnesota without asserting that every other running back on the roster is a dud. It’s about being open to possibilities and not being resigned to a certain fate. I completely understand the instinct to shield oneself from the hurt of disappointment by embracing that disappointment as inevitable. But the truth is, none of us knows what the future holds. That’s why, in Fleck’s metaphor, our backs are to the waters ahead as we row. I accept that I’m blind to the future, but I keep rowing and take the waves as they come.

And then request that people not jump to conclusions on the opposite end of the spectrum after the Miami (Ohio) game.

Come on now. There is room for both your unrelenting pessimism and others’ blind optimism.

According to Fleck

You must think that Fleck and co. are one of the most incompetent coaching staffs in the Big Ten. You’d have to be to design your entire offense around one player (Spoiler alert: They didn’t) and to whiff in recruiting on all but one running back (Spoiler alert: They didn’t).

The offense has been the same since Fleck got here. Zone blocking scheme and the RPO. Is Ibrahim the perfect back for their scheme? Yes. But Ibrahim was recruited to fit that scheme, not the other way around. I imagine the rest of the running backs on the roster were, as well.

No one’s arguing that losing Ibrahim isn’t a tough blow for the Gophers. But he was never going to be around forever. Minnesota was going to have to replace him eventually. People are acting like the program can’t score a rushing touchdown without him. No, the history of the entire sport (at Minnesota, especially) tells us that there are plenty of great running backs just waiting for their opportunity.

I meant to call them out, but my brain at midnight was evidently not operating at full capacity

I don’t like it, either. There were one too many people who seemed to be relishing the opportunity to make a definitive diagnosis. It’s gross, but so is much of Twitter.

And I’ll tell you why. Just three years ago, Rodney Smith tore his ACL two games into the season. The Gophers were already missing Shannon Brooks, who had suffered his own ACL tear the previous December. Conventional wisdom was that Minnesota was screwed, but oddly enough they didn’t forfeit the season.

Instead they turned to an unheralded redshirt freshman with one game under his belt. And I can guarantee you no one expected that redshirt freshman to rush for 1,000 yards that season, let alone win Big Ten Running Back of the Year two years later.

Is life going to be difficult without Mo? Absolutely. But you’re a fool if you think there isn’t talent waiting in the wings at running back. Mo is the latest great Gopher running back, but I promise you he won’t be the last.

I feel like we’ve explained this ad nauseum here on the site, but for whatever reason people can’t seem to shake this idea that the "run" in "Run Pass Option" is the QB keeping the ball. Now, there were a couple option plays last night that were designed runs for Morgan, but those were outliers.