Gopher Football
Game To Forget
| 2004 Statistics | ||||||
| Bryan Cupito | ||||||
| Adam Ernst | ||||||
Iowa. In the battle for the Floyd of Rosedale, Bryan Cupito and the Gopher offense would have to go up against a great defensive Hawkeye football team. We thought going into this contest the odds weren’t great of Cuptio or the Gopher offense putting up good numbers. But as soon as the ref could blow the whistle to start the game, the Minnesota running game took over. Shockingly, the Gophers would go on to put up over 330 yards rushing on the Iowa defense on the day. Iowa knew that their pass coverage was the weak point of their defense, so they took a gamble against Minnesota. Unlike other teams, they chose to take the pass away and dared Minnesota to run on them. As the game went on and Minnesota kept on piling up the yards, I felt like the Hawkeye defense would start cheating in and help to open up the field for Cupito. That never happened. Iowa kept their defense back and seemed intent on making the Gophers beat them through the air. Because of Iowa’s defensive philosophy, the Gopher rushing totals thrived, but Bryan Cupito’s numbers did not. In many games this season Bryan had the luxury of throwing against defenses that were focusing on the run. But in this game Cupito would go just 9-16 in passing for 73 yards, with 0 TD’s and 2 int’s against a defense who was focusing on stopping the pass. Like the Wisconsin game the previous week, Cupito looked overmatched again the best defenses the Big Ten had to offer.
Game To Remember
Toledo. Coming into this season, the single biggest new face Gopher fans were looking to see was that of Bryan Cupito; a redshirt sophomore who won the starting job in spring practice over Junior College transfer Adam Ernst. In the opening game against Toledo, Cupito wasted no time getting going. Bombs flew early and often as Cupito threw several long strikes to streaking Gopher receivers. Four Gopher receivers had receptions of at least 20 yards, and all four of those receivers averaged at least 20 yards/catch. Cupito would be pulled in the 3rd quarter after going 10-12 passing for 279 yards and 1 TD. Adam Ernst would come in for the 4th quarter and throw his only pass of the season; a 10 yard TD to Ernie Wheelwright. Statistically, this is about as near-perfect game as a team could hope for its quarterbacks to have.
Relative Strength
Deep Touch.
| 2005 Recruiting Commitments | |||||
| Marcel Jones | 6’3″ 205 lbs | Shakopee, MN | |||
Though it tailed off significantly after the Toledo game, the Gopher quarterbacks (namely Bryan Cupito) did have a lot of success this season on deep passing routes. Though Cupito was among the worst in college football for a completion percentage (47.1%), he was among the leaders in the yards per completion (17.0). With the receivers Minnesota have and with a new WR coaching coming in, an off-season focus will be to improve the receiver short routes. Once this improves, we will see if Cupito has the same touch on shorter passes as he does on deeper ones.
Relative Weakness
Mobility. In a stark contrast from Asad Abdul Khaliq running the show the past four seasons, neither Bryan Cupito nor Adam Ernst are going to break any ankles by scrambling anytime in their career. As the season went on, many Gopher fans started to realize the extra luxury of having a quarterback who can turn almost any broken play into a positive one just because of scrambling ability. Thankfully, the Gopher offensive line did a good job in pass protection so the numbers of times Cupito was forced to scramble was relatively low. I don’t think either Cupito or Ernst is ever going to be a scrambling threat, so hopefully the coaches can continue to adjust the offense to counter this.
Looking Ahead
| 2005 Projected Depth Chart: | |
| 1st String | Bryan Cupito (JR) |
| 2nd String | Adam Ernst (SR) |
| 3rd String | Tony Mortensen (*) |
| 4th String | Mike Maciejowski (FR) |
| * – denotes pending redshirt ruling | |
With all of the quarterbacks returning next season, it could be quite a battle to win the starting job. The early favorite is obviously the returning starter Bryan Cupito. One would expect that in heading into his junior season with a year of starting under his belt, Cupito will improve greatly in the offseason and be the guy to beat next year. But Cupito certainly didn’t cement himself in as a starter for the rest of his career, so there is hope for the other guys. Senior-to-be Adam Ernst will likely be the backup against next year if he can get healthy. Adam will miss spring practice recovering from off season surgery, so he will be a step or two behind Bryan. The battle for the third spot is favored to go to Tony Mortensen. The true freshman turned some heads on the practice field this year and emerged as the #3 guy. Mike Maciejowski will be a redshirt freshman next year and could land in the fourth spot. Another true freshman, John Carlson, damaged his shoulder and will be moved to defense. As a whole, 2005 should be a 100% better situation from the quarterback perspective as it was in 2004.
Summary
If you recall, Minnesota lost a QB commitment in 2002 when Tim Brasic backed out on signing day. Last year, they lost yet another QB when true freshman Pete Martinsen left the team after the end of the year. What can you say, other than the lack of depth at QB caught up to Minnesota in a big way this year. For the opener against Toledo, Minnesota lined up sophomore Bryan Cupito as the starter, JC transfer Adam Ernst as backup, and four true freshmen after that. When Adam Ernst injured his shoulder early in the year, it left Cupito as the only healthy veteran quarterback on Minnesota’s roster. I don’t have a spot in the Minnesota locker room, but I would have to guess that once Minnesota was essentially down to one healthy quarterback, a big effort was made by the coaches to try and keep him healthy. We saw a lot of one and two receiver routes and we saw a lot of running; in other words we saw a lot of safe, low risk plays. Because of this, I feel that the stage wasn’t exactly set for a Minnesota quarterback to have a great season. Given the situation, I thought Cupito did an admirable job. He had to play the entire season knowing he was guy, that the success off the offense would lie on his shoulders no matter what. Sure, there are a lot of things he needs to improve on, but I thought he did a nice job under the given circumstances.
Season Grade: B
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