Gopher Football
Just as Michigan teams seem to be the Gophers downfall, Illinois teams are the cure for a hurting Minnesota team coming off of two losses to the Michigan nemeses. Four of the Gophers’ five losses in the last 21 games have come to Michigan and Michigan State. The Gophers are 5-0 in the last two seasons against teams from the Land of Lincoln.
And it gets even better for the Gophers against Illinois. Minnesota has won six of their last seven games against the Illini. Glen Mason is now 5-1 against them with all the wins being blowouts. Sadly, no Illinois teams are currently on the schedule for the next two years. Minnesota A.D. Joel Maturi should be pleading right now with the Illinois A.D., who is probably busy on the phone finding a replacement for Ron Turner, for a home-and-home non-conference series with Illinois for 2005-6.
Make no mistake, Illinois is a bad football team. Today they looked every bit as bad as the 0-13 record they have compiled in the Big Ten in the last 1½ years. Still, Gopher fans should be very pleased with the effort by the defense today. The Illini did have the 3rd best running game in the conference going into this game. It was clear that Illinois was trying to establish the run early. In fact, I began to wonder after the first two series whether they were going to let their new starting QB Brad Bower throw. The results after the first half were conclusive. Illinois had a total of 96 yards on offense and a mere five first downs. Bower ended up being Illinois’ leading rusher with only 54 yards.
Down 17-0 to begin the second have, Illinois came out throwing. They matched their first down total of the first half on that first series. The Gopher defense toughened up when Illinois got inside the 10 yard line. Then Illinois did what all bad teams do: They shot themselves in the foot. The Illini kicker missed a chip hot field goal, negating much hope of a second half momentum turn.
No doubt, Marion Barber III was the star of the game on offense. He had two touchdown runs and threw for another TD. His halfback pass put the Gophers up 24-0 early in the third quarter and pretty much sealed the win. Bryan Cupito was unspectacular in leading the offense, but you have to give him credit for not making any big mistakes, especially as a freshman quarterback. Paris Hamilton had an 82-yard touchdown catch that turned a comfortable lead into a laugher.
It’s a little hard to judge where a team is at when they go up against a hapless team like Illinois. There weren’t any glaring miscues anyway. About the worst of them were a few punts that should have been fair caught. Still, the Gopher offense generated 10 points after starting inside their own 10 yard line three times.
The defensive play by the Gophers was by far the best we have seen out of them in a Big Ten game in a long time. The pressure on the QB was strong even when he tried to roll out. Kyle Mckenzie had 2.5 of the Gophers’ five sacks. I thought Darrell Reid and Terrance Campbell were a couple others up front who had a good game. The defense also generated two turnovers, both of which led to Gopher touchdowns.
Illinois proved again to be the perfect cure for whatever ails the Gophers. In the last five wins against the Illini the average margin of victory is 31 points.
However, the Gophers are not out of the woods. Indiana may look like another easy win next week, but a closer look says otherwise. The Gophers own the Hoosiers at home but in Bloomington it’s another story. The Gophers haven’t gotten a road win against Indiana since 1985, making it the longest running road losing streak in conference games for the Gophers. And it doesn’t get any easier the final two weeks against Wisconsin and Iowa. Minnesota has definitely guaranteed themselves no more than bowl eligibility. But who knows? If the Red Sox can turn history on its head and win four straight games to get to the World Series then the Gophers have a shot at winning their last four games. As difficult as these last three look, it’s still a tad less daunting than facing the Yankees three more times.