Gopher Football
Starters
Starting at left tackle for the Gophers is Steve Shidell. The 6’5″ junior will begin his second season as a starter at this spot. In the first game of 2005, Joe Ainslie suffered a hand injury, Shidell replaced him and did such a good job that he stayed in that spot for the rest of the season. It shows you how good Shidell was last year to unseat a guy who had 17 career starts under his belt.
Speaking of Ainslie”¦. Heading into last year Joe had been a starter for a year and a half. He won a starting tackle job as a freshman about halfway through 2003 and continued as a full time starter in 2004. But in the first game last year against Tulsa Joe hurt his hand, missed five games and never won back his starting spot. But now this year, his senior season, Ainslie had a spot open up for him when Tony Brinkhaus was moved from his tackle spot over to center. At 6’7″ 310 pounds Joe is the biggest guy on the Gopher roster and should be primed for an outstanding senior season.
One of the two big stories on offense heading into this year was who would replace Greg Eslinger at center. A few different guys were given a shot, but in the end junior Tony Brinkhaus was the man. It’s not often you see a guy moved from tackle to center, so that shows you the kind of versatility that Brinkhaus has. Even though Mason repeatedly said Eslinger did things he’s never seen a center do, he has also stated that he has no major plans to change any of Minnesota blocking schemes. That shows you that Mason has confidence in Tony, and seeing how Minnesota has a history of making superstars out of centers, don’t be surprised if Brinkhaus emerges and has an all conference type of season.
Another big task during the off-season was to find two new guards who could replace departed seniors Mark Setterstrom and Mike Nicholson. As expected, the first guy to win a spot was senior Tyson Swaggert. After sitting on the bench for the last three years behind Greg Eslinger, Tyson will finally get his chance this year at left guard. Even though he does not have the game experience, Swaggert should be able to catch on quickly and have a good year. He will also likely serve as the backup to Brinkhaus at center.
What was not as expected heading into the fall was that freshman Ned Tavale would be starting at right guard. Last year Tavale was the odd man out when people talked about the future of Gopher offensive line. Even though he probably was a step behind last year, Ned emerged over the summer and fall to overtake fellow freshmen Otis Hudson and Ryan Ruckdashel as the starter.
Depth
As a whole, the Gophers are pretty thin on the offensive line. After Hudson, Ruckdashel and sophomore Matt DeGeest, there just aren’t a lot of guys on the roster that appear ready to play. Should Brinkhaus go down at Center, Tyson Swaggert would likely move to that position and either Ruckdashel or Hudson would fill in at guard. Matt DeGeest would seem to be the likely choice to back up both tackle spots, but it wouldn’t surprise me if either Ruckdashel or Hudson filled in those spots as well. If it got really bad, it could even be a possibility for Brinkhaus to move back to tackle if needed. So I guess the good news in all this is that even though the Gophers are not deep on the offensive line, they do have a lot of versatility and can move the same 7 or 8 guys around a lot if that were needed.
Around the Big Ten
In what might be a little unusual, one could make a case that the five best linemen in the conference do NOT hail from Michigan or Ohio State. In my (and a lot of others) opinion, the top two guys in the conference are Joe Thomas out of Wisconsin and Levi Brown from Penn State. A couple of other all conference type of guys that return are Jordan Grimes from Purdue and Mike Jones from Iowa. Jake Long of Michigan has the potential to be very good, but he is unproven yet after missing part of last season due to injury. As a unit I expect Minnesota to be right up there with Ohio State, Northwestern and Michigan with the best lines in the conference.
Last Year
2005 was another banner season for the Minnesota offensive line, and perhaps was the best year in school history. The line paved the way for 3277 yards rushing and allowed a miniscule 3 sacks. The line was anchored by two four year starters in Mark Setterstrom and Outland Trophy winner Greg Eslinger. Eslinger joins Tom Brown and Bobby Bell as the only Gopher winners of the Outland Trophy. It would be hard to argue that any offensive line in America had a better season than Minnesota did last year.
Bottom Line
Minnesota has quietly put together a string of seasons in which they’ve established themselves as one of the better offensive teams in the nation. Despite the highly publicized string of 1000 yard rushers the past few years, what many people don’t know is that Minnesota has both PASSED and rushed for over 2000 yards in SEVEN straight seasons (since 1999), which is the largest streak of that kind in the nation. While there have been a good string of skill players that have worked their way through the system, the biggest reason for these numbers has been the consistent high level of play displayed by the offensive line. Over the past several years it’s not been a question of “œif” the Gophers will have a good offensive line, it’s become one of just how good they’re going to be. This year, I’m happy to say, the tradition will continue. Tony Brinkhaus could be a really good center for us, Joe Ainslie and Tyson Swaggert are extremely experienced, Steve Shidell will hold his own and there are one of three exciting freshmen pushing each other for the final spot. Because there are a few new faces and switches in mix don’t be surprise if there is a little bit of a slow start, but by the end of the season this group should be playing as well as anyone in the conference.
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