TDG Staff Football Predictions - 2024 Season

The return of Minnesota Golden Gopher football is almost upon us! But I have to admit... It hasn’t quite hit me yet. That said, I’m sure it won’t take me long before I’m cursing P.J. Fleck’s conservative decision-making during Thursday’s season opener. That’s when I’ll know football season is officially back. For now, all we here at The Daily Gopher have to offer are our predictions for this season. As per usual, I would not expect perfection here. You should not use this to post to make betting, legal, or medical decisions. You are free to point and laugh, though.

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Week 1: North Carolina Tar Heels

TDG Confidence Level: 66% (6 out of 9 predict a win)

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Week 2: Rhode Island Rams

TDG Confidence Level: 100%

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Week 3: Nevada Wolf Pack

TDG Confidence Level: 100%

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Week 4: No. 25 Iowa Hawkeyes

TDG Confidence Level: 77%

Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

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Week 5: @ No. 9 Michigan Wolverines

TDG Confidence Level: 22%

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Week 6: No. 23 USC Trojans

TDG Confidence Level: 33%

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Week 7: @ UCLA Bruins

TDG Confidence Level: 88%

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

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Week 8: BYE

Week 9: Maryland Terrapins

TDG Confidence Level: 100%

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Week 10: @ Illinois Fighting Illini

TDG Confidence Level: 33%

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Week 11: @ Rutgers Scarlet Knights

TDG Confidence Level: 77%

Photo by David Berding/Getty Images

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Week 12: BYE

Week 13: No. 8 Penn State Nittany Lions

TDG Confidence Level: 22%

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Week 14: @ Wisconsin Badgers

TDG Confidence Level: 55%

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Full TDG Staff Predictions

Comments:

gopherguy05: A 4-0 start to get everyone excited quickly comes back to Earth. They will probably win a game they shouldn’t (Iowa) and lose one they shouldn’t (looking at you Illini... again).

Gopher Nation: They’ll actually lose one game in that stretch of Maryland/Illinois/Rutgers, but I couldn’t decide which one. But if they do, they’ll beat Wisconsin, so it still nets out to 8-4.

mowe0018: My predictions will die so that this season can live. I threw a lot of my general principles out the window to maintain some level of plausibility but also reverse-jinx this season into the stratosphere.

Ustreet: Same as every year.

WhiteSpeedReceiver: Someday I’ll stop being an optimist, but it’s not today.

wildcat00: I don’t like the new expanded B1G and I don’t think the Gophers will either. Sigh. At least we get to keep the Chair forever?

zipsofakron: A rough opener is followed up by three straight wins to get back on track. Things remain pretty normal until back-to-back road losses to Illinois and Rutgers make people want to jump out of a window. Minnesota salvages a season that will look pretty good on paper, with wins over Penn State and Bucky.

What do you think?

Vote in the poll below or put your predictions into the comments!