2022: #TITTY or #TITAY

In 2015 we thought we were going to be pretty good. 2014 was a very solid season, where we beat Michigan and Nebraska, and played in a New Year’s Day bowl game for the first time since the Kennedy administration. The Gophers returned quite a bit from that squad and, despite knowing we’d be playing Michigan and Ohio State in successive weeks, we spent most of the offseason preening and looking up prices for hotels and cocaine in Pasadena.

Your friends at SGH even had t-shirts made. They said “This is Totally the Year.” They had #TITTY printed on the back. We sold a bunch of them. They were cursed. I remain convinced they are the reason Kill had to resign and why Claeys and Limegrover contemplated the void while the ball sat at the one yard line as the last seconds ticked off the clock against Michigan. [Yes, in retrospect I understand these things may have been blessings, but at the time they felt like eating a bowl of farts.]

I saw someone wearing one of those shirts while tailgating before the NMSU game and briefly entertained the idea of bringing them back for the 2022 season; but then decided I want no part in wearing that albatross around my neck if things went sideways again. Props to dude, though. The #TITTY shirts purposefully excluded any dates or references to specific teams, so maybe he was wearing it for this year’s volleyball team. Let’s just go with that.

It did get me thinking about whether #TITTY, though. 2019 certainly was A year; though we came up a little short, finishing the season in the top ten counts for something. Since we didn’t win the West (yes, I know we tied for the crown, but not in any way that mattered beyond the sweet, custom-made brass knuckle and good vibes) and had to watch the Rose Bowl during the flight back from Tampa, it wasn’t THE year. So, 2019 was #TITAY, the pleasant glass of a good wine to #TITTY’s meth-fueled 28-day bender in a lawless Moldova.

Through two games, I haven’t seen anything that says it’s not Totally the Year. We turned both teams into quark matter in every facet of the game. Sure, a team of comprised of 22 bags of week-old soggy doughnuts may have presented a stiffer challenge than the Fighting Kills, but WHO COULD HAVE KNOWN they’d be braised ass when we scheduled them ten years ago? One can only create a lumpless paste out of the teams on the schedule, after all.

Things obviously get a bit more challenging following the bye week against Mike Sanford as we head to East Lansing for the first time since 2013 (a game of which I have absolutely no recollection, btw). This looks to be the toughest game on the schedule and, in my worthless estimation, a stiffer matchup than anything we faced in 2019. We probably don’t have to win that game, but a loss effectively takes our #TITTY margin of error to zero if a Rose Bowl or CFP appearance is the goal.

I think we *can* win out: Penn State and Purdue look competent; Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois may be tough outs; but none of those teams make one lose bowel control. 11-1 with a loss in the B1GCG is probably sufficient to get us to Pasadena. But without a signature win it’s possible we get nipped by the 2^nd-place team in the East if they’re at 11-1 or 10-2.

Don’t let that keep you up though. Focus your gut-consuming angst on what the future prospects of #TITTY are. It’s hard to do because the schedule for next year and beyond is a glowing hell sign of TBD. Divisions are likely going away at the same time USC (and others) will be joining the conference. The expanded CFP offers some hope for breakthrough opportunities, but without knowing how the schedules will be constituted, those prayers could be going to an Old Testament God.

The B1G West has always presented the best path for the Gophers to win the conference and/or get to a nationally meaningful bowl game. And this is likely the last year before that woodsy path is turned into a strip mall. For an Old like me, where going to the Rose Bowl was the goal at the start of every season, it’s important to me that I get to see my team in it before my genes and organs rebel against all of my bad habits. This year may be the last, best shot we have before the end times.

So, I hope #TITTY and not #TITAY for 2022. In some ways, I think it has to be THE year before we’re potentially forced to redefine what THE means to us. It’s all right there and, seemingly, we’re in the catbird seat to make it happen. The margin of error is small, but for Minnesota, it has been for the last 60 years. Why not us, and why not now, friends?