Gopher Football
Penn State’s Backfield vs. Minnesota’s Linebackers
Penn State will come into Minneapolis fairly banged up at quarterback. Last week at Wisconsin, the Lions lost starter Zach Mills and talented backup Michael Robinson to injuries. Robinson suffered a serious concussion from which he had to be taken off the field on an ambulance. He is out of the hospital now but will be sidelined for a few weeks. Before Robinson left the game, Mills suffered a shoulder injury that also knocked him out of the game. However, the good news for Penn State fans is that Mills is expected to play this weekend. When he is healthy, the 6’3″ senior has shown that he can at times be a dangerous weapon. But this year he has struggled more often than not. Mills has completed a respectable 63% of his passes, but he is averaging only 160 yards/game through the air and has thrown a Big Ten-high 7 interceptions in just over 3 games. If Mills should go down again, the next in line is Chris Ganter. The junior from State College had a rough time of it against the Badgers, going only 5-22 in passing for just 21 yards. However, after seeing the bad performance from Ganter last weekend, don’t be surprised if true freshman quarterback Anthony Morelli is unveiled. The 6’4″ Morrelli was one of the top QB recruits in the nation last year and is the guy many Penn State fans hope will get a shot.
The one area where Penn State has the talent to beat the Gophers is on the ground is at running back. The Lions were led last year by Austin Scott. He rushed for 436 yards and 5 TD’s. Scott is back this year, but Tony Hunt has overtaken his starting job. So far this year Hunt is 4th in the Big Ten in rushing with 375 yards and 4 TD’s. The one-two punch of Scott and Hunt give Penn State a very good backfield.
The Gopher linebacking unit has really yet to be tested this year. Since the Gopher offense continues to pile up big leads, the linebackers are often left defending passes for a good portion of the game. When teams have tried to rush against the Gophers they’ve had pretty good success. The Gopher rush defense is 9th in the Big Ten in allowing 4.1 yards/carry. Several times this year the linebackers have been caught a little out of position, which has turned 5 yard gains into 13 yard gains, but other than those times they are doing a solid job.
Summary
Penn State is hurting through the air, so don’t be surprised if they make a big attempt to establish the run (especially if they can keep the game close). Penn State is more of a rushing team anyway than anyone the Gophers have faced so far, so this will be a good test for the linebackers to see how good they really are in this area. In the Gophers win last year at Happy Valley, it was Michael Robinson who led two long Penn State drives to get the back into the game in the second half. Penn State will sorely miss him, but they don’t lose a lot with (a healthy) Zach Mills. Even though he hasn’t been great against the Gophers, Mills is a veteran and should come out strong knowing the importance of this game to his team.
Advantage: Penn State
Penn State’s Receivers vs. Minnesota’s Secondary
Penn State suffered a double blow when Michael Robinson was injured. Not only was Michael a dangerous weapon at quarterback, he was also their leading receiver having caught 16 balls for 231 yards. Without Robinson, Penn State returns almost nothing in the way of production at the WR spot. Their next leading receiver is senior Gerald Smith. Through four games, Smith has 13 receptions for 186 but no touchdowns. After Smith, Penn State does not have a receiver with 10 catches or 100 yards on the year.
The Minnesota secondary is coming off of their best game of the season. Led by cornerbacks Ukee Dozier and Trumaine Banks, the secondary did an outstanding job in holding the tricky Northwestern offense to just 267 yards of total offense. Especially impressive was the play of the DB’s against the underneath wide receiver screens. This is play that used to kill the Gophers time after time, but give the secondary players and coaches credit for snuffing this play out. Along with the preparation, tackling was another area that excelled against Northwestern, and it was good to see the huge improvement here after struggles vs. Illinois State and Colorado State.
Summary:
What was an average group of wide receivers suddenly became well below average after the injury to Michael Robinson. There is some potential talent here for Penn State, but most of their receivers are very low in experience. With injury questions surrounding quarterback Zach Mills, don’t expect a lot from the wideouts. On the other hand, the Minnesota secondary is coming off its best game of the season. Trumaine Banks and Ukee Dozier finally both played up to their potential, and safeties are both doing an adequate job as well. This is a matchup that Penn State will likely only have success in if they can establish the running game first.
Advantage: Minnesota
Penn State’s Offensive Line vs. Minnesota’s Defensive Line
The Penn State offensive line is a fairly experienced group formed by four juniors and one sophomore. It is the sophomore, 6’5″ 313 pound tackle Levi Brown that is the rising star of this group. Brown started every game as a redshirt freshman after coming to Penn State as a defensive tackle. The other returning starters are left guard Charles Rush and right guard Tyler Reed. As a unit, the offensive line has done reasonably well, giving up only 6 sacks so far, and paving the way for a 5.8 yards/rush average.
The Gopher defensive line has been very good at times, very porous in others. Last week vs. Northwestern we saw more glimpses of the excellent potential this line has. Anthony Montgomery is finding his way into the opposition backfield more often, Darrell Reid is continuing to pressure the quarterback, and even Mario Reese seems to have gotten better the last few games. But what this line lacks as of yet is consistency. In between the good glimpses they’ve shown have been some pretty serious breakdowns. In the Northwestern, Colorado State, and even Illinois State games, there have been a few occasions where the line has given up several runs in the range of 10-15 yards in close proximity to each other. The concern here is that most of these runs have gone right up the gut through the heart of the Gopher defense. I don’t know why this has happened, but to their credit those plays became less frequent against Northwestern and the coaches have shown the ability to make in-game adjustments to fix this. As far as pass rushing goes, Minnesota has improved from last year but still has a long way to go. The line seems to have figured out how to push their men into the backfield, but they’re still having trouble breaking loose and recording the sacks.
Summary:
This is a pretty even battle as far as I see it. Both of these units have been pretty average so far this year. The Gopher defensive line has shown flashes of dominance, but it has been offset a little bit by the vulnerability of getting run on straight up the middle. You can bet that Penn State will try to exploit this weakness in every way they can this week. The key for the Gophers will be shutting down the run first, and then trying to pressure Zach Mills. Consistent pressure is important this week, as Mills is has shown that he will throw interceptions when he feels the heat.
Advantage: Even
Overall Advantage
Penn State’s offense has been anemic at times this year. In the two major conference teams they’ve played (Boston College and Wisconsin), they have only scored 10 points combined. On paper though, this is a better offense than that. They have an experienced quarterback, a decent line, and a pair of good running backs. I kind of get this eerie feeling that they’re due. On the Gophers side, they have seen their share of struggles this year (mainly against Illinois State), but to their credit have improved each of the past two weeks. The stats don’t tell the whole story though. They did give up a lot of yards to Colorado State, but the “˜D’ played tough when it needed to and kept them out of the end zone. Then against Northwestern last week, the defense played even better in holding NU to 267 total yards and (realistically) 3 points. The good news for the Gophers is that Penn State’s offense is not as good as either Northwestern’s or Colorado State’s. Unless Zach Mills can completely ignore his shoulder problem, I see the Nittanty Lion offense struggling in trying to move ball.
Overall Advantage: Minnesota
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