Gophers named ESPN's Big Ten Team of the Week

[upnorthkid]

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/106899/weekend-rewind-big-ten-19

Team of the week: Here you go, Minnesota fans who believe the Gophers are regularly overlooked for the flashier, big-name programs. It’s substance over style with Jerry Kill’s group, which jumped to a 28-0 halftime lead over Middle Tennessee and required no drama in moving to 2-0 -- more than can be said for every other team in the league. The Gophers got just 67 passing yards from Mitch Leidner, but the running game was strong as usual, and the defense intercepted three passes.

 

[Iceland12]

Very nice.

 

[go4ergold]

Nice!

 

[matt]

Not going to complain, but how sad is it that a team that beat Middle Tennessee State 35-24 is the team of the week?

 

[Dr.Don]

Not going to complain, but how sad is it that a team that beat Middle Tennessee State 35-24 is the team of the week?

If all you judge is final score, ya don't see the big picture of the total dominance of the first 3 1/2 quarters. But hey, to each his own.

 

[MrGopher]

If it take some down years in the conference for our Gophers to ascend in the pecking order, I'm fine with that. You think Baylor and its fans mind all that much? Nope.

Just need to keep this thing going strong. Injuries and late-game surges by our opponents have dampened the mood a bit around here. But make no mistake this is quite an opportunity: A win on the road at a healthy and rested TCU might not get much national attention for the B10 or the for Gophers, but with a dubious QB situation this week and also injuries to the D-line, this week could prove quite large from a foundational perspective.

It has been quite a while since we won these types of games (non-conf on the road vs quality opponent). Missed opportunities @Cal and @USC come to mind (@Cuse is an exception?). We've held serve (@Tulsa, @Bowling Green, @MTSU, @UNLV, @AggieVision) and also had some shameful losses mixed in there too (@FlaAtlantic, @Toledo).

Look at it this way:
We won non-Conference games on the road in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013. We went to bowl games in all except 2010 (when Brew was canned).
We lost non-Conference games on the road in 2001, 2006, 2007, 2011. We did not go to bowls in any except 2006 (when Mase was canned).

*Note: we played no non-Conf road game in 1999. We did win all four of our road games that year and went to the Sun Bowl.