Today's preview of the Minnesota Gophers has been provided by Tom at the Daily Gopher.

What have the Minnesota Golden Gophers done this off season to inspire hope among their fan base?

Sadly, nothing. There is not a lot of optimism in Gopher Nation right now and rather than seeing reasons to change our minds things keep happening to lower expectations further. Spring practice saw one starting safety break his leg and the other starting safety get suspended. That was arguably are strongest position on the team. Starting MLB, Gary Tinsley tried to evade police on his moped and is suspended. Back-up MLB, Sam Maresh is having academic troubles and will be transferring to a JUCO. The secondary is an area of concern and it got worse when two JUCO transfer defensive backs were declared ineligible and sent home. This team is taking hit after hit this offseason. Add to that one of the toughest schedules in the country, a defense that graduated 7 starters, the loss of all-american caliber Eric Decker, a quarterback who really struggled in 2009 and an offensive line that was even worse. The bleak outlook for 2010 seems to get bleaker with every new report coming out of the Gopher camp.

What questions remain going into the 2010 season?

There are questions at just about every position. Can Adam Weber bounce back from an ugly 2009 season? Can the offensive line take great steps forward to be a reliable unit? Can the running game improve to not be the worst rushing attack in the Big Ten? Who will start at corner? Is there any depth on the defense? Can the starting linebackers live up to last year's starting corp? How will the offense adjust to yet another new offensive coordinator? I could keep going but those are more than enough questions to start the season.

Based on the performance the past three years, is a ranking of 75 fair?

It would be hard to argue that it isn't a fair ranking. Recently the Sporting News ranked us 98th, so I should be thrilled with a ranking in the top 75. Realistically there is some talent on this starting roster. The offense returns just about everybody from 2009 and the defense is replacing a lot of starters with some of the more highly ranked recruits this program has seen in years. The glass half empty version is that the offense was near the bottom of the Big Ten in most stat catagories and the defense will be very inexperience without much depth. And as I mentioned they have a brutal schedule with USC, Ohio State, Penn State and Iowa coming to TCF Bank Stadium. So the more "winable" games on the schedule will be on the road (Purdue, Mich State, Illinois, Middle Tennessee State). Getting to six wins will be very difficult and there will have to be more than one or two surprise improvements to get there.

What do you expect to see in 2010?

With all of that negativity out of the way, I can get back into comfort zone of optimism. For the first time in the Brewster era the expectations have bottomed out. Nobody expects this team to finish with more than about four wins and many think we may be the worst team in the Big Ten. I think that we'll exceed expectations. The returning of 9 starters on offense is significant. The offensive playbook was incredibly complex last year and will be simplified. Add those two factors together and I think you'll see significant improvement on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively we replace a lot, but if (and this is a big if) the safeties can return I think this defense is strong up the middle with the starting DTs and Safeties. The linebackers are young, athletic and talented. If they can play disciplined they'll be better than most anticipate. Ultimately I like our starters on defense quite a bit. The problem is we have very little depth so injuries to that side of the ball will be crippling. I think we finish right around 6-6 and there will be one, big, season defining win (upset). We get four monster teams at home and Wisconsin on the road. Four of those games may be ugly but I think we come away with one win in there to give us hope for the 2011 season.

Do Minnesota fans have any fear that a Big 10 expansion could lead to an eventual split with Minnesota holding the short end of the stick?

I have no fear of that. The eleven teams in the Big Ten are secure and we are one big happy family. We are one of the founding members, we bring a top 15 media market and the discussion is about expansion not contraction. If anything the Gophers have not been competitive in football for decades so if we fear anything it is that adding Nebraska and Notre Dame would bury us further in the conference standings and we'll have to go another 60 years without a trip to Pasadena.

Thank you Tom for taking the time to talk Gopher Football! For more on the Gophers upcoming season please check out the Daily Gopher.

Now for my BCS numbers.

Head Coach: Tim Brewster (Fourth Year)
Offensive Coordinator: Thomas Hammock/Jeff Horton (Second Year, Fifth at Minnesota for Hammock)
Defensive Coordinator: Kevin Cosgrove/Ronnie Lee (Second Year)

BCS numbers:

It certainly looks like a move to the top half is within reach for next year. I won't say they are back until they start winning bowl games, like they did in 2002-04.

Schedule:

That first game looks as funny here as it did for Middle Tenn. St.'s write up.