Gopher Football
As I mentioned above, this is the biggest non-conference game for the Gophers in several years. If you factor in the strength of the Gopher program right now and add it to the strength of the opponent, you’d probably have to go back to 1990 when Minnesota played at Nebraska to find an early season matchup of this magnitude. You’d have to go back to the 1996 game against Syracuse to find the last time Minnesota faced a ranked non-conference team, you’d have to go back to 2000 to find the last non-conference game against a BCS conference opponent, and you have to go back to 2001 against Toledo to find the last non-conference game against that can match or approach the strength of the opponent. The Gophers lost that game to Toledo, but the run of cupcakes since that contest has allowed Minnesota to pile up 17 straight non-conference wins (all of these figures excluding bowl games). But finally, as many Gophers fans have been yearning for, a significant test has been added to the schedule and it’s generated an early season buzz that hasn’t been seen in a while. Minnesota will have their hands full though, and will need to overcome what surely will be an emotional Cal team this weekend.
A look at Cal
California came into this season with very high, perhaps even national title expectations, but those hopes were squashed in a big way last week when they came up on the short end of a 35-18 loss to Tennessee. Cal gave up several big plays while falling into a 35-0 hole, but were able to save a little face with a garbage time rally after backup quarterback Joseph Ayoob was inserted into the game. Cal got beat in every phase of the game, which was a bit surprising considering the ink they were getting in the preseason. In those preseason publications Cal was being touted as an experienced and explosive club with a good situation at quarterback, a Maroney-Barber type of running back duo, and a defense that was deep and talented. Despite the Bears setback on Saturday all of this remains true”¦ which is why I’m worried about this game.
OFFENSE
Even though it didn’t look it last weekend, Cal should be a very good offensive football team yet. As I mentioned, they have a very good duo at running back with juniors Marshawn Lynch and Justin Forsett. Lynch rushed for 1246 yards in just 10 games last year, while Lynch came within an eyelash of the thousand-yard mark with 999 yards of his own. Last week against Tennessee Lynch had only 12 carries (for 74 yards) while Forsett had just 5 carries for 1 yard. That was due to Tennessee defense as much as anything, as well as the quick deficit Cal found themselves in. (This sounds familiar doesn’t it? The best way to stop the Gopher running game is to get out to a big lead”¦). The bad news is that Lynch and Forsett have not actually gotten worse, and the Gopher still will have their hands full on Saturday.
The biggest reason for Cal’s struggles (in my opinion anyway) was the inability of their offensive line to do anything to slow down Tennessee. The Volunteers defensive penetration forced 3 sacks, 9 tackles for loss, and numerous other QB pressures. When you don’t have a running game and you don’t have a passing game, chances are your offensive line is getting whipped, and that’s pretty much what happened last Saturday. Since the line does have 3 returning starters and that line includes 4 seniors, I have to believe they just had a bad game in a hostile environment. I fully expect their performance to improve this week against Minnesota.
The Quarterback drama for the Golden Bears has been as interesting as any in the nation this side of Oklahoma. Nate Longshore, the promising young freshman quarterback coming into last season, ended up winning the starting job but was quickly sidelined for the year with an early season ankle injury. In his stead JC transfer Joe Ayoob stepped in and had a decent season under center. Coming into this season Longshore and Ayoob were in a neck and neck race for the starting job; a job which Longshore won in the end. After his dismal performance last week many thought Longshore would be benched for this game, but that hasn’t been the case as coach Jeff Tedford announced that Longshore will once again get the start. Like the rest of the offense, I have to think that playing in front of your own crowd against a less fierce defense will make your life much easier, and I think that Longshore should respond with a solid game.
Another key factor in Cal’s offensive woes last week was the dropped balls. As if just getting a pass off against Tennessee wasn’t tough enough, Cal’s receivers didn’t do the QB’s any favors by dropping over a half-dozen balls. Never the less, Robert Jordan (Jr.), Levelle Hawkins (Jr.) and DeShawn Jackson (So.) give the Bears a nice young trio of guys to throw the ball to. This group, as much as any, will likely come out angry and will be eager to make up for their poor performance of last week.
DEFENSE
Perhaps the biggest surprise of last week for Cal was how bad the defense was early on. The most disappointing part was that their defensive line got very little pressure on the Tennessee signal caller. Unlike Tennessee’s 3 sacks and 9 tackles for loss, Call managed just, umm.. 0 sacks and 0 tackles for loss. Not surprisingly, the QB was able to hit his targets and big plays were the result. The reason why this was a big surpise is because of what Cal has coming back this year. They start 3 seniors and 1 junior across the front, highlighted by returning all conference players Brandon Mebana and tackle and Nu’u Tafisi at end. This will be a good challenge for the Gopher offense line, and hopefully they can keep them down for just another week.
Cal is solid at linebacker as well, and they’re led by senior all conference returnee Desmond Bishop. The guy to watch might be sophomore Worrell Williams. At 6’0″ 260 pounds Williams does not have the typical linebacker build, but he’s fast for a guy and can hit a ton. Overall this group is very solid to very good.
The defensive backfield appears to be Cal’s defensive weakness”¦ at least after the first week. A few weeks ago it was learned that star cornerback Tim Mixon was lost for the season due to injury. When that happened freshman Syd’Quan Thompson became as starter, and he is the guy who Tennessee picked on last week. Thompson gave up a couple of the big pass plays that helped blow the game open for Tennessee, and he’ll likely will be the guy that the Gophers choose to pick on this week. That’s because on the other side of the field at cornerback is Daymeion Hughes, a returning first team all Pac 10 selection. If Mixon were to have remained healthy this group would’ve been really tough to pass against, but having the freshman Thompson in here at least will give other teams a chance. Cal also has some work to do at safety. They are still trying to break in two new starters and neither had a great game last week.
Minnesota Notes
Even though Minnesota looked very strong last week, you have to take everything you saw with a grain of salt considering the opponent was 0-10 last season against other D-1A teams. Going into this game against Cal, I’m really no closer to being able to predict the outcome then I would’ve been a week ago at this time.
Quarterback: No surprise here. Bryan Cupito had a solid game last week, throwing 8/13 times for 146 yards, 1 TD and 0 int’s. As I mentioned in last weeks preview”¦.. Despite the hype about Minnesota throwing the ball more this year, I said they probably wouldn’t against Kent State if the running game was working, and that’s exactly what happened. I’m sure that this week however we’ll see Cuipto’s arm on display a little more.
Running Back: Big surprise here. About a month ago several Gophers fans wound up on suicide watch after it was announced the prized defensive recruit Alex Daniels was being moved from linebacker to defense. Well, those fans can relax now that Daniels has 155 yards and 3 TD’s to his name. Daniels was the star of the show Thursday night as he rumbled and powered his way to 6.5 yards per on 24 carries. With Amir Pinnix already pretty proven as a runner, it’s nice to know that there is another guy there who appears ready to pick up the slack. What may be even nicer is the expected return of Jay Thomas to the roster this week. After missing last week’s game against Kent, and seeing Alex Daniels pass him on the depth chart (at least temporarily), Thomas will be raring to go”¦ IF he gets the chance. Lastly, let’s not forget about true freshman E.J. Jones. Forgotten in the Daniels headlines last week was the fact that E.J. started the game, but went out early with an ankle injury. As we know, Coach Mason does not discuss injuries, but EJ’s does not appear to be bad at this time.
Wide Receiver & Tight End: Like the QB position, there really wasn’t a lot for this group to do other than run block. Eric Decker had a nice 39 yard TD reception and Matt Spaeth had a nice grab and run, but the remaining compliment of Ernie Wheelwright, Logan Payne and Mike Chambers has for the most part anyway yet to be unveiled. Seeing that I think Cupito will throw more this week, I think it’s fair to reason that each of these receivers will see more action as well. Minus Hughes on one corner, Cal’s secondary appears slightly vulnerable, and it wouldn’t shock me at all if the receiving totals that we’re used to seeing out of the Gophers are bumped up a few notches this week.
Offensive Line: Same old same old. Zone blocking, big holes, 300+ yards rushing, no sacks allowed.
Defensive Line: Allow me to paraphrase a couple sentences from last week’s preview:
What I want to see is for Willie VanDeSteeg and Steve Davis to both have huge games and pressure the quarterback all game long. If that happens, then cornerbacks Trumaine Banks and Jamal Harris can play tight coverage and hopefully end up with a couple picks.
Well, Banks didn’t get an interception, but Harris did get two, and strong safety Dominic Jones threw in one as well. So with that in mind, my hope for this week is for Willie VanDeSteeg and Steve Davis to both have huge games and pressure the quarterback all game long. If that happens, then cornerbacks Trumaine Banks and Jamal Harris can play tight coverage and hopefully end up with a couple picks. Sound familiar? What I wanted to see last week happened, and I feel that we NEED for that to happen this week if we are to win this game. Tennessee showed what can happen when you can apply big pressure to a team, and even though Minnesota doesn’t have the same kind of athletes that the Volunteers do, I think that generating some amount of pressure is a necessary and realistic goal. That’s because despite how they looked last week, Cal still is a solid passing team and if we do not pressure the quarterback we are in trouble. It’ll be like 2000-2005 all over again, and we don’t want that since we are a different defense in 2006. If last week is any indication, Davis and VanDeSteeg are a couple of good pass rushing ends. We really need them to come through. At defensive tackle I feel that all we can do is hope for the best. Cal’s offensive line out weights our tackles hugely in size and experience, and I fear that all the leverage and technique in the world isn’t going to help us. We may take up lumps up the middle, but here’s to being wrong!
Linebacker. All I can say about these guys is tackle, tackle, tackle. Cal is surely going to be handing the ball off a lot to their two great backs, which means that our linebackers must come through with a career day. If they don’t, or even if they miss a few tackles, their backs will be in the end zone and we’re going to fall even further behind. The linebacking unit has not been particularly strong the past few seasons, so this is the opportunity for Shevlin, Sherels, Reese & Co. to show that this year is different.
Secondary: After a couple of blown coverages early last week against Kent the Gopher secondary buckled down a did a reasonable job the rest of the way. Was I really liked was that we actually picked a few balls off, something we have not done in the past (even against easy teams) and something we did only 8 times total last year. The Gopher D-Backs against the Cal WR’s is one matchup where I think we are at least even against them. But as always, it’ll be up to the front seven to generate some pressure to take the heat off the back four. If they can do that, I think we saw last week that we can rattle the Cal quarterbacks and they could be prone to making a mistake.
That was long. What did he just say?!
Basically what it comes down to, is California will be about as good of a team that the Gophers will face all year. The fact that they got whipped by Tennessee last week could either be really good or really bad; we’ll just have to wait until kickoff to find out. What I do know is that our defense will have to play the game of their lives to keep us in it, and our offense has to step up to the plate against what I think still is a talented defense. I think this game will be high scoring, and although a Minnesota win wouldn’t completely surprise me, I think Cal will have a little more urgency seeing that they’re already 0-1. But who knows, with a few breaks here and there maybe we’ll see that this Gopher teams is not as bad as the national experts think we are. In a game that will be closer than the final score will indicate:
Prediction: California 44 – Minnesota 27
Talk about the Gopher vs. California matchup on the Gopher Football Message Board.