Gopher Football
About Kent State
As I mentioned above Kent State plays in the MAC, a conference in which Minnesota has a 21-2 all time record against. (Ironically, both losses came this decade: Ohio U, ’00 and Toledo, ’01. Since then however, Minnesota has bounced back to take the last four games vs. the MAC, with the most recent victory being a 63-21 win over Toledo in 2004. Barring something crazy happening, Minnesota should extend that winning streak to five tomorrow. Even though Kent State does return 18 starters from a year ago, those 18 started were members of what arguably was the worst D-1a team in the nation. Kent was just 0-10 last year against D-1a competition, with its only victory coming against D-1aa Southeast Missouri State. Michigan State was the only Big Ten team to play Kent last year, and the Spartans walked away with an easy 49-14 win.
The first area of concentration for the Gophers should be to keep Kent State’s running game from getting going. Last year Kent was last in the nation in rushing yards, averaging just 46 per game. Even though Kent does have two new running backs that will be added to the mix (including a Michigan State transfer) it would be demoralizing for the Gopher “˜D’ if Kent was able to come out and establish any kind of ground game. With the horrible ground game, it’s not surprising that most of Kent’s offense last season was generated through the air on the arm of sophomore quarterback Michael Machen. The 6’6″ 235 pound junior has a good arm and will turn 25 in a few weeks. He has a solid group of receivers to throw to as well, so I think that this game will provide a good test for a Gopher secondary that has plans to improve this year.
Gopher Notes
Personnel Notes “¦”¦ Let’s start with the lineup first. The big storyline this fall was the running back situation, and how violently the depth chart has been shaken up on an almost daily basis. Coming into fall practices the Gophers had a top 3 of Amir Pinnix, Brylee Callender and Jay Thomas. But now going into the first game the top three is Amir Pinnix, E.J. Jones and Alex Daniels. As most of you know by now, Brylee Callender was suspended for breaking team rules, and a transfer to Nevada followed shortly after that. Jay Thomas was also suspended, but just for the Kent State game and unlike Callender, he was not held out of practice. What does this mean? Nobody is really sure. Mason has stated that he’s still looking for his number one running back, but I still would be shocked if that does not end up being Amir Pinnix. Look for him to get most of the carries, but for E.J. Jones to see his fair share of action as well. Other shakeups in the lineup are: Ned Tavale will start at right guard, Jason Giannini won back his kicking spot (but Joel Monroe will still kick off), Trumaine Banks is back as a starting cornerback, and it appears that both Tommy Becker and Lee Campbell could see time at linebacker as true freshmen.
Offense “¦”¦ Now that all the pieces are in place, what can we expect from the Gophers tomorrow? After an off season of speculation that the team will likely take a couple steps back due to key personnel losses and lack of senior leadership, the players will finally get a chance to step up and prove the nay sayers wrong. On offense, look for the team (or maybe I should say, “œI hope the team”) to come out and run the ball. Even though Minnesota is breaking in a new look offensive line, and even though the running back situation is up in the air right now, I have to believe that Mason’s group will still have the firepower to dominate a lower tier MAC team. I also have doubts that if Minnesota is going to pass more this year (which I still think they will), that they’re going to show the new wrinkles against what should be an easy opponent the week before their biggest non conference game in years. Mason is a running coach, and if he thinks he can beat a team by running the ball every play, he will do just that. So not only would a good running game possibly keep Cal guessing next week, it would give the offensive line an extra week to continue to try to gain some cohesiveness.
Defense “¦”¦ Defensively I think it’s going to be really interesting. We all know that Minnesota has not been a good defensive football team for about 6 years now, so there’s really no reason to expect anything different this year, right? I think that probably is the case this year, but for the first time in a while I think that there is a glimmer of hope is on the horizon. On the defensive line, it’s very possible that by the end of the year there could be 2 freshmen, 1 sophomore and 1 junior starting. At linebacker, two true freshmen could see lots of playing time. The secondary is expected to be the only true veteran group on the defense, and not surprisingly they’re expected to be the best of the three units. What remains to be seen though is how this group is ready to do tomorrow night. Kent State is not a very good team, but they have a couple of guys on offense who lead me believe that they won’t be completely horrible. What concerns me a little bit, is those players are a passing quarterback and wide receivers, and most of the Gophers struggles in past years have come in passing defense. So, if there ever is going to be a time to fix the pass defense, tomorrow will be it. What I want to see if 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. I also want the linebackers to have a big game as well. Seeing that the Gophers are so young on the line I expect the run defense from them to be a little less than stellar, so the linebackers will need to have a good game by filling in the gaps and making some tackles. Even though the opponent tomorrow will not be California-caliber, history tells us they still could give the Gophers some problems. It would be great for the team and for the confidence of the defense if they could come out and shut Kent State down.
Special Teams “¦”¦. I honestly don’t know what to think about special teams. The Gophers were pretty bad on special teams last year, most notably in the kicking and punting games. The return games were okay, but we lost most of our production here as well. With possible return man Jay Thomas out because of suspension, I’m not holding out too much hope that the special teams will do very much. Ideally they won’t make any catastrophic mistakes that could cause momentum swings, everyone stays healthy and maybe we can take a couple good things out of the game to build on.
Bottom Line
Even though most Gopher fans have had enough of playing MAC teams, I think this particular game is perfect for Minnesota. It’s a team they should beat, and it’s a team that had a bad offense a year ago which could allow our defense to gain some confidence. Whether it is by throwing or running, the offense should score some points. It’ll as usual be up to the defense to carry their load and shut down the opposing offense. Last year Kent only averaged a touchdown a game through the last half of the season, so holding them to a low point total tomorrow is something that should be a realistic goal for the defense. This game could also be very dangerous though, because if Kent does come out and light up the defense, where does that leave for next week with Cal?! With two new position coaches I’m not really sure what to expect, but I do think that the talent on D has gone up since last year. With that in mind”¦
Prediction: Minnesota 40 – Kent State 16
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