Devon Wright (25) and Derrick Wells (13) rush to grab the Governor’s Victory Bell.
On Saturday, the Gophers rattled off their fourth straight Big Ten win with an impressive 24-10 victory over visiting Penn State to claim the Governor’s Victory Bell. Minnesota improved to 8-2 on the year, reaching eight wins for the first time since 2003. The Gophers have grown from 3-9 in 2011, to 6-7 last season, to eight victories in November this year. The turnaround has certainly been spectacular as players buy into Jerry Kill’s approach.
“As a staff, we knew we had a very young team,” said Kill. “I didn’t know if we could move quite this quickly and I think that’s a credit to our staff and our players. On the inside—it’s sometimes hard to see on the outside—we knew we were getting better. The biggest thing we needed to do was to get our kids to believe that they were good football players and believe in themselves. I think each week the belief becomes better and that’s what it’s all about.”
For the players, winning has changed the attitude heading into practices and games.
“I think the biggest thing for our team is that we’re having fun now,” said David Cobb who rushed for 139 yards and a touchdown. “Before, it was more of a job, coming to work and you didn’t know if you were going to win or not. Now we expect to win. We’re having fun at practice; we’re having fun during the games. No one’s really uptight about it. The coaches believe in us, we trust each other as players. I trust the man next to me and he trusts me. We’re just out there having fun and getting the job done.”
Although Minnesota has had talent in the past, it is this alteration in attitude that has the Gophers playing as well as anyone in the conference.
“We knew the talent that we had,” said defensive back Brock Vereen. “Now that we know that we can fight back, that we have a different mindset – the physical tools were always there – now that we’ve proven we have a different mindset, this is a different team.”
Winning four games in a row has stirred a quiet confidence in Dinkytown for fans and players alike.
“We knew how good we were and it just took us a little time to start clicking together, the team becoming closer together,” said Maxx Williams who snagged two catches for 48 yards and a touchdown. “I think once we got that down, we knew how good we could be and how good we can be, knowing our potential. Just building off of each of these wins; it helps us each week knowing we can do it this week.”
One of the best stories in college football this year, the confident Gophers continue to play for Kill as they rack up wins in the Big Ten.
“Coach Kill means so much to us,” said punter Peter Mortell. “He’s that guy that we can go to off the field when we have issues. To see him come back, you know how much he loves the game. He rallies behind us just like we rally behind him.”
Shutting Down Penn State
Coming into the game, the Nittany Lions, led by true freshman quarterback Christian Hackenberg, were averaging 272 passing yards and almost 30 points per contest. On Saturday, Hackenberg threw for just 163 yards and no touchdowns as Penn State scored just 10 points on the day.
“We did a good job defending their receivers,” said Tracy Claeys. “The one series where I wasn’t sure what they were going to do was when they were in their own territory and still needed two scores to tie. When they crossed midfield, we switched up our defense and put in nickel backs and we doubled Robinson. We tried to increase our pressure on the quarterback because he’s a great quarterback, but he’s young. If you put a young quarterback under pressure and force him to make decisions without his first option, then we’ll have a good chance of winning.”
Part of the reason for the low totals by Penn State was the play of the Minnesota offense which held the ball for 35 minutes in the game.
“To go in against the high profile offense and to hold them to 10 points is huge,” said Vereen. “The best defense is a good offense and that second quarter stretch, really the first half all together; the whole offense was out there. Whenever a good offense is on the field, you have a good chance to win. I credit that to our good offense.”
One of the keys on defense for Minnesota was to shut down star wide receiver Allen Robinson who entered the game with 66 receptions for 1043 yards, averaging over 130 yards per contest. On Saturday, Minnesota held Robinson in check, only allowing him to gain just 63 yards.
“Obviously, going in, he’s a guy where you need to know where he is at all times,” said Vereen of Robinson. “Me and Eric [Murray] had the responsibility of guarding him. As a [defensive back] you don’t always get acknowledged unless the ball is to your guy but I will say that Eric had the best game of any defensive player this entire year. He played lights out. Hopefully this will lead to him getting the respect that he deserves. He’s a great player and he had a heck of a game.”
The biggest defensive play for the Gophers came with under seven minutes remaining and Penn State at Minnesota’s 1-yard line trailing by 14. Christian Hackenberg fumbled the snap and Minnesota hopped on the loose ball, turning the momentum.
“We preach every day that we have to defend every inch,” said Kill. “We have to have a short memory and play every play as hard as we can. We’re playing hard, and it’s allowing good things to happen.”
Clutch Performers
After years of watching the Gophers come up short by just inches, it appears they have turned into a group of clutch performers; converting 3-of-3 fourth attempts and 9-of-17 on third down against Penn State.
“I think we’re 9-for-12 on fourth down [this season],” said Kill. “Offensively, we’ve got about six or eight fourth down calls that we believe in. Our philosophy is, we’re going to be an aggressive football team but we’ve also got to be smart.”
The Gophers practice this handful of plays until they feel confident in the execution.
“I would say we really don’t want to practice to try and go for it on fourth down because we want to be able to convert [on other downs] but we have those periods during practice when we know we have to convert and [the coaches] put the situation on us,” said Maxx Williams.
The play calls on later downs has given Minnesota a chance to find open players in space.
“I think it has a lot to do with play-calling,” said Philip Nelson who passed for 186 yards and a touchdown. “Our coaches are putting us into really good positions on fourth down and it is situations like this that we work on in fall camp. We’ve seen a lot of different situations and our coaches have done a great job of making the right play call at the right time.”
Not only was Minnesota’s offense clutch on Saturday, the defense also come up big in key spots. Penn State converted just one third down and one fourth down on 12 total attempts.
“I think that’s a testament to Coach Claeys,” said Vereen. “His calls are perfect. As a defensive back, Coach [Jay] Sawvel does a great job of letting us know what to expect. Mentally, I would say we were as prepared for this game as any that we’ve played. That’s a credit to our coaches.”
Special Teams Shine
One of the many reasons for Minnesota’s success was the excellent play of the special teams for the Maroon and Gold. Peter Mortell averaged 46 yards per punt on the windy afternoon and put three inside the 20. Kicker Chris Hawthorne hit a field goal on Minnesota’s first possession and also booted three touchbacks on the day.
“Our punter did a remarkable job today, as well as our kicker,” said Kill. “We had a goal of getting better on kickoffs and getting better field position. Everybody is doing their part for the team; we have an unselfish group of players.”
Mortell and the coverage team were able to pin the Nittany Lions inside their own two-yard line on consecutive punts in the second half.
“I don’t want to emphasize it too much about how well of a job Logan Hutton and Eric Murray did on punts,” said Kill. “And when you have your deep-snapper [Jake Filkins] down there and doing it, you’ve got kids playing hard, really hard.”
Looking forward
Heading into the bye week at 8-2, Minnesota will now look towards the hated Wisconsin Badgers who come to town on November 23.
“It’s the most important game because it’s the next game,” said Nelson. “It’s a big rivalry and we are really looking forward to it. But right now we have the bye week and we need to get healthy. That’s what is on our mind right now.”
The Gophers will take time to relish this win but know that with two regular season games left on the schedule, there is still more work to be done.
“I’m going to enjoy every single moment of this victory,” said Kill. “All of us coaches are the same in that we’ll go home and sit in front of the TV and start to think about the next game. The good news is we have a couple weeks to prepare and we need this bye week. We need to get guys healed up so we can go strong for these last few games because we have something to play for in November.”