Minnesota/Nebraska Pre-game Thread

Donate To GopherHole
I think they're resting Rollie for MSU. He has been fighting knee soreness. Harold Legania moves up on the depth chart.
 

GoBigRed said:
I'll say this, Nebraska is not a great team this year. Good, not great. We should win this game by 20 points or so, but I would not be shocked with a narrow win. I would be surprised, not shocked if we lose. Losing Rex has hurt a lot, and our defense is not as good as it has been. I think we will be ready to play, but there is usually a game a year we lose that we shouldn't, and this could be it.
Click to expand...

I started reading the first couple sentences thinking you were a Gopher fan. Really changes the perspective haha
 

BleedGopher said:
per Sid:

Big break for Gophers

Getting in a bowl game this year will make the Gophers football team much better, and with Wisconsin and Nebraska coming to TCF Bank Stadium next year, it will put Minnesota in a better position to compete with those powerful teams.

"Getting into the bowl game, the biggest thing is it allows us to take all those redshirt freshman that we have and get extra practice opportunities," Gophers coach Jerry Kill said. "That puts us, according to which bowl and which situation you go to, you get 15 more extra practices plus spring ball. That's 30 practices that you're going to get with your kids.

"Being a young team and not an older team [only eight seniors are playing this season], we'll have a tremendous amount of kids back. From a standpoint of getting your program better, it's a great opportunity."

In my opinion, Kill and his coaching staff have done a great job this year considering the number of injuries they have had, especially on offense.

It all started with the ankle injury to senior MarQueis Gray. My prediction before the season was that if Gray got injured, they wouldn't win a game without him at quarterback and they could potentially win six if he played all year.

Well, he got hurt in the Western Michigan game and the Gophers have won two conference games against Purdue and Illinois with freshman quarterback Philip Nelson starting and Gray moving to receiver.

Then you have the ankle injuries to centers Jon Christenson and Zach Mottla. Kill said that in 30 years of coaching, he has not had three centers play in a single game like he did last week against Illinois.

"Not even in high school coaching have I ever been put in that situation," Kill said. "Luckily we snapped Zac Epping early in the year due to injuries, and that's a unique situation. It's a concern for us where we go from here.

"You can't go to war with one center. I don't know, we have a big challenge this week. That tells you a little bit about the job that coach [Matt] Limegrover did against Illinois from an offensive line standpoint. To have all the injuries we've had, our two leading receivers out, playing a true freshman quarterback, it's not an easy thing. I give all the credit to those kids and their effort and kind of the next-man-up mentality. I can't say enough about the kids that played in the game and the coaches that we have that hung in there."

Fortunately the Gophers will get some of their offensive players back yet this year, but there is still some question about who will play center.

Nebraska will pose a real physical challenge this week. They are a 20-point favorite over the Gophers in Lincoln, but if Minnesota can come out of the game without any more injuries, they would have a chance to beat Michigan State in the team's final home game and improve their bowl invitation.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikings/179597071.html

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Uh oh. Theres that word again. :banghead:
 


Did you know? Big Ten in Week 12

Minnesota leads the overall series against Nebraska 29-21-2, but the Gophers have lost 15 straight to the Cornhuskers, including a 41-14 home setback last season. The Gophers are 8-9 all-time at Memorial Stadium, and their most recent win was a 26-14 victory in 1960. Since then the Gophers have dropped six straight games at Nebraska, most recently a 56-0 drubbing in 1990.

Nebraska has outscored its opponents 49-14 in the fourth quarter of its five Big Ten victories. The Huskers have outscored those opponents by an average of 139-47 in the fourth quarter. The Huskers have averaged 22.4 plays in the fourth quarter of those victories, compared to just 12 plays for the opponents.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/65344/did-you-know-big-ten-in-week-12-2
 


@GophersNow: Hearing that about 3,000 #Gophers fans bought tickets to football game and will travel to Nebraska.

Go Gophers!!
 

per Tony's Tip-Sheet:

Teams: Minnesota (6-4) at #14 Nebraska (8-2)
Time (TV): 3:30 pm (BTN)
Interest: 2
Cheer For: Nebraska

The Gophers are bowl bound thanks to wins over teams who view peeing themselves as a good day's work. Their best win is over 5-5 Syracuse. Nebraska, meanwhile, doesn't have time for this crap. They've got a Big Ten Championship Game against Wisconsin to prepare for. Nebraska 38 – Minnesota 17

http://theozone.net/football/2012/Wisconsin/tipsheet.html

Go Gophers!!
 


BleedGopher said:
per Tony's Tip-Sheet:

Teams: Minnesota (6-4) at #14 Nebraska (8-2)
Time (TV): 3:30 pm (BTN)
Interest: 2
Cheer For: Nebraska

The Gophers are bowl bound thanks to wins over teams who view peeing themselves as a good day's work. Their best win is over 5-5 Syracuse. Nebraska, meanwhile, doesn't have time for this crap. They've got a Big Ten Championship Game against Wisconsin to prepare for. Nebraska 38 – Minnesota 17

http://theozone.net/football/2012/Wisconsin/tipsheet.html

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Hate to say it, but that's kinda funny.
 



mattw1067 said:
Are you talking about the 23 point field goal that we should have taken?
Click to expand...

No, he's talking about when Kill took all the momentum away by faking a field goal on 4th and 16 from the 20 yard line in a 7 point game half way through the 3rd quarter.
 

The Call: Gophers vs. No. 16 Nebraska
GOPHERS OFFENSE VS. HUSKERS DEFENSE

If the Gophers follow their take-what-the-defense-gives-you philosophy, the game plan might resemble last week's, with a 3-1 rush-pass ratio, and Nebraska has had problems against powerful running games. If the Gophers trail, they might have to throw into what might be the Big Ten's best secondary. Advantage: Nebraska

GOPHERS DEFENSE VS. HUSKERS OFFENSE

It's the crucial matchup, because if Nebraska reaches its 37-point average, it's going to be very hard for the Gophers offense to keep up. Junior quarterback Taylor Martinez is a passer who averages 211 yards through the air and a runner who picks up 77 yards on the ground. The Huskers might be without injury-nagged I-back Rex Burkhead, but sophomore Ameer Abdullah has gained 94 yards a game in his absence. One Gopher hope: The Huskers are mistake-prone, with a league-worst 25 turnovers. Advantage: Nebraska

SPECIAL TEAMS

Senior kicker Brett Maher has made 15 of 21 field-goal tries and owns a 54-yarder, longest in the Big Ten this year. He's also an effective punter, averaging 41.1 yards per kick, and Abdullah gives the Huskers a big-play kick returner. The Gophers own the best kick-coverage squad in the league. Advantage: Nebraska

INTANGIBLES

It's senior day in Lincoln, where consecutive sellout crowd No. 325 will also say farewell to retiring athletic director and former coach Tom Osborne. The Huskers need a victory to keep their hold on the Big Ten Championship Game berth. Advantage: Nebraska

PREDICTION

The Gophers haven't scored more than seven points in their past six visits to Lincoln, but that streak should end Saturday, and the Gophers are confident enough to keep the game close for a half. But the Martinez point machine will eventually pull away from Minnesota's injury-riddled offense.

Gophers 13

Huskers 34


NUMBERS TO KNOW
239-14

Total score of past six Minnesota visits to Nebraska, all losses.

52

Years since Gophers' last victory over Nebraska, 15 mostly lopsided losses ago.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT
Isaac Fruechte
As the Gophers' leading healthy receiver, he'll be counted upon to make a big play or two.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/179744031.html
 

Gophers trying to mute a sea of Nebraska red: By Phil Miller

Jerry Kill recalled the impact of a hostile crowd in the loss at Iowa.

There are right ways and wrong ways to approach a game in an intimidating, hostile football environment like the one the Gophers will face Saturday in Lincoln, Neb., and Jerry Kill has witnessed both.

When he took his Northern Illinois team to Knoxville, Tenn., in 2008 to play in front of 99,500 screaming Volunteers fans at Rocky Top, the coach wondered how his players would react to such an overwhelming atmosphere.

"We weren't very smart," he said, shaking his head at the memory. "Our kids went out and stomped on the T."

OK, intentionally provoking a huge crowd and your opponent at midfield -- that's the wrong way, though Kill concedes, "They weren't intimidated by anything."

He's not entirely sure he can say the same about his current team, though "intimidated" is probably a little strong for what happened to the Gophers in front of a big, rowdy crowd at Iowa in September. More accurate is that the Gophers allowed Iowa to succeed early, and that brought the 70,500 Iowans into the game as fuel for the Hawkeyes' accelerating offense.

"We certainly didn't react very well to the crowd when we went to Iowa," Kill said. "If the crowd gets into it, [opponents] play with great enthusiasm and you can go, 'Oh, no, here comes the roller-coaster.' "

There figures to be quite the carnival atmosphere at the home finale in Memorial Stadium, where the Cornhuskers will try to keep their hold on the Legends Division lead and a Big Ten championship came berth, all while saying goodbye to seniors such as I-back Rex Burkhead -- and to retiring athletic director Tom Osborne, a Nebraska icon for decades already.

The Gophers, meanwhile, have already accomplished their No. 1 goal of qualifying for a bowl game, so emotion won't be on their side, at least not to the same degree. What, then, is left to play for?

"It's a great opportunity for our program, to take [a shot at] a good, traditional, powerhouse school," Kill said of the 16th-ranked Huskers.

It's also a chance to do something the Gophers haven't accomplished this year -- beat a team with a winning record. Of the six Gophers victims this year, only FCS-level New Hampshire is above .500; matter of fact, only one of Minnesota's past 15 victories, dating back to 2009, has come against an FBS opponent that finished the regular season with a winning record. So Minnesota, which also hasn't beaten a ranked team on the road since 2000, could use a signature victory.

"I told our players, 'This is something we need to be excited about. We need to embrace it,' " Kill said. "We get to play in Lincoln. It's a great challenge, and we should be excited."

But are they? Kill admitted that it can be difficult for a coach to be certain sometimes.

"I wish I had a microchip that I could put on every one of our kids, just to see if they're ready to play. Because you never know what's going on in there," Kill said. When they take the field "at Nebraska -- what's that microchip saying? Am I ready to play, am I excited, am I nervous -- what am I thinking? As you grow with a team, you kind of know where they're at. But we're still early in the process, and I don't know what that microchip would say."

In Philip Nelson's case, it would say he barely registers his surroundings. The 19-year-old freshman appeared unfazed by 80,500 Badgers fans at his debut in Wisconsin, and a placid, stoic demeanor seems to be his default setting.

"You can't ever tell, from play to play, what just happened the previous play," offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover said of Nelson's demeanor. "No matter what, he's just on to the next play. ... At this point, I don't know how you rattle him."

Well, you can keep him off the field. Nebraska is "the best offensive football team we've played," Kill said, and slowing down a team that averages 37.4 points and 482.4 yards per game will be the day's most important factor.

The Gophers are 18-point underdogs, but Kill said that doesn't mean anything once the game starts. "Each week you see somebody win, and you go, 'How'd they beat so and so? How the hell did that happen?' "

So perhaps the Gophers should start by stomping on the giant N at midfield? "Oh, hell no," Kill said. "No, no."

Lesson learned.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/179595851.html
 

Scoggins: Nebraska is shiny carrot in Gophers facilities race

Gophers athletic director Norwood Teague took a reconnaissance trip to Nebraska in late August to tour the Cornhuskers' posh athletic facilities. He invited billionaire booster T. Denny Sanford to accompany him.

That's like a wide-eyed kid dragging his parents into a toy store a month before Christmas to, you know, just check things out.

Yep, these toys sure would be nice to have.

"Having Denny with us was educational for him, and he's involved in some of our thought process as we go through this," Teague said.

In other words, Teague shrewdly wanted Sanford to get a close-up look at the sheer magnitude of an ever-expanding arms race in college athletics. He wanted Sanford to see a side-by-side comparison within the conference to fully understand how much the Gophers are lagging in this area.

Facility upgrades serve a major function in a nonstop quest to gain an edge in recruiting, keep pace with competitors and show how far a school is willing to go in demonstrating its commitment level. The cost of business isn't deterred by sticker shock these days.

Few do it better than Nebraska, which will offer the Gophers football team a bird's-eye view of how the haves operate when the teams meet Saturday at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. The Cornhuskers spared no expense in their athletic department digs, which include a new $18.7 million basketball facility that's outfitted with enough bells and whistles to make the 1 percent population blush.

Teague described Nebraska's athletic facilities as "very holistic" with an emphasis on development while also acknowledging the basketball practice facility is "off the charts." The push for plush facilities is not limited to traditional powerhouse programs, either. Northwestern recently approved plans to build a $220 million athletic complex for its football operations.

The Gophers are in catch-up mode, and Teague's primary objective as the school's new athletic director is to oversee sweeping upgrades. The school put considerable time, effort and resources into the construction of TCF Bank Stadium, and the result is a gem of a football venue. But that's just a start to changes that are long overdue.

Teague inherited a laundry list of facility projects that he hopes to address in one master plan. In no particular order, the Gophers need a basketball practice facility, a new football-only indoor facility, a new track and a larger academic center. The price tag likely will exceed $100 million. They also need to finish their new baseball stadium and eventually reconfigure and/or modernize Williams Arena.

The Gophers hired Kansas City-based architectural firm Populous to provide a road map for how to proceed. Populous, which designed TCF Bank Stadium, Target Field and Xcel Energy Center, has examined the Gophers athletic facilities and geographic footprint and is scheduled to present its findings to Teague and school officials in two weeks. Teague hopes to have a final plan in the next few months.

"They're looking at what we have, what we need and how we can meld it all together," Teague said.

Teague said his department lacks "day-to-day facilities, the support facilities." Football is a prime example. The team holds its post-practice training table in a lobby. Coaches work in offices the size of walk-in closets. And punters routinely hit the roof in the indoor facility, causing chunks of insulation to fall in the middle of the field. That's amateurish.

Tubby Smith has long campaigned for a practice facility to offset Williams Arena's age and availability issues. The academic center is undersized and not equipped to handle a high volume of athletes at one time. Teague also indicated his desire to build a second indoor facility so that nonrevenue sports such as soccer can have better access to convenient practice times. As it is, Teague said some athletes are forced to switch majors because limited availability in the indoor facility often presents conflicts with class schedules.

"That really is a big deal," he said.

Let's be clear, though: Better facilities won't necessarily guarantee better results. They're certainly a critical piece to the puzzle, but a state-of-the-art practice facility is just that, without good coaching and talented players.

"You've got to have both," Teague said. "It's not going to be a magic pill. But it can be the thing that holds you back and puts one arm behind your back."

Financing those projects won't be easy, but the arms race in college athletics offers schools two options: Keep up or get left behind.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/179762401.html
 



Here are the five keys for the University of Minnesota football team to beat Nebraska on Saturday, Nov. 17, in Lincoln: Marcus Fuller

1. Force fumbles: Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez has been intercepted just eight times, but the Cornhuskers do have issues with fumbles. They have lost 16, most in the conference. The Gophers need to take advantage of that.

2. Replace Barker: Leading Minnesota receiver A.J. Barker, unable to play since spraining his ankle in the first half against Purdue, is out again. Freshman quarterback Philip Nelson has completed just 45 percent of his passes without Barker in the last 2-1/2 games. He threw for just 78 yards in a 17-3 win at Illinois. Isaac Fruechte's 40 receiving yards were the high last week. That won't cut it Saturday. Someone must emerge as a consistent receiving threat.

3. Run Kirkwood: Donnell Kirkwood needs 181 yards to become Minnesota's school's first 1,000-yard running back since 2006. Kirkwood had 28 carries for 152 yards and two touchdowns, both in the second half, against Illinois. The Gophers should keep pounding the ball with Kirkwood until he needs a breather, then insert freshman Rodrick Williams for a couple plays.

4. Meld line: The Gophers need to building chemistry quickly on the offensive line. They have no choice but to start sophomore Zac Epping at center. The starting left guard had been No. 3 on the depth chart at the position, but injuries to Jon Christenson (ankle) and Zach Mottla (broken leg) necessitated the move. Taking his place will be Tommy Olson, who hasn't started since Week 4 vs. Syracuse.

5. Unleash offense: Gophers coach Jerry Kill said his offense needs to play the way it did in the first half against Purdue to have a chance to win Saturday. Nelson's three touchdown passes helped Minnesota take a 34-7 halftime lead against the Boilermakers. Maybe Kill should let Nelson go deep every now and then to see if the receivers can make big plays.

PREDICTION

The Gophers are bowl eligible. Now what? They have to prove they can compete against one of the top teams in the Big Ten. The defense should keep Minnesota in the game for part of the first half. But too many three-and-outs by the offense will keep the defense on the field for too long. Eventually, the score will become one-sided, similar to so many games in the series in past decades. Nebraska 42, Gophers 17

http://www.twincities.com/gophers/ci_22011914/gophers-football-5-keys-beating-nebraska
 

e.bigelow said:
PREDICTION

The Gophers are bowl eligible. Now what? They have to prove they can compete against one of the top teams in the Big Ten. The defense should keep Minnesota in the game for part of the first half. But too many three-and-outs by the offense will keep the defense on the field for too long. Eventually, the score will become one-sided, similar to so many games in the series in past decades. Nebraska 42, Gophers 17

http://www.twincities.com/gophers/ci_22011914/gophers-football-5-keys-beating-nebraska
Click to expand...

Sadly, this is how I see it playing out...
 


You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom