Studying Minnesota's schedule for his Best Case/Worst Case series, Big Ten Network's Tom Dienhart sees a best case of 8-4 and a worst case or 4-8.
In the best case scenario, he sees them defeating Iowa to move to 5-0 before withstanding losses to Michigan (home), Northwestern (away) and Nebraska (home) -- and then winning the next three games against Indiana (away), Penn State (home) and Wisconsin (home).
In the worst case, he sees San Jose State winning at TCF Bank Stadium. Then he sees the Gophers defeating Iowa before finishing the season on a seven-game skid.
I predicted a 7-5 finish in my StarTribune.com interview with Vineeta Sawkar last week. I didn't specify how the Gophers would get there, but I'm predicting a 4-0 non-conference mark and 3-5 Big Ten mark, with the wins over Iowa, Indiana and Penn State.
