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Gophers End 53-Year Drought Against Nebraska, Upset No. 25 Huskers
By Grant Erickson and Travis Erickson
http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/303374?referrer_id=388419
Dominant Victory
On Saturday, the Gophers powered their way to an impressive 34-23 win over No. 25 Nebraska, their first victory over the Huskers since 1960. After the game, it began to sink in that this was the type of victory, over a quality opponent, that could spring the team to the next level.
“I don’t think we’ve beaten Nebraska for like, what? …You do the math; it’s a long time,” said Ra’Shede Hageman. “Just the fact that we were able to overcome adversity and finally have a good win means a lot to me and the football program.”
Beating a high-profile team like Nebraska is a way for the Gophers to stake their claim as a legitimate football program.
“Nebraska has handled us pretty good the last two years with the same offensive kids, basically,” said acting head coach Tracy Claeys. “It takes some time. I think there are bigger wins out there for us if we continue to work and believe in each other. Any time you can get a chance to beat a well-respected program like that, all throughout the country, I think you need to take great pride in that.”
The building of confidence for the Gophers could lead to big things for the Maroon and Gold.
“We’re starting to believe and that’s all that really needs to be said right now,” said Philip Nelson who finished the game with 152 passing yards and a touchdown. “We have the confidence rolling from week to week. We’ve finally started to realize how good we can be.”
Following the victory, rabid fans stormed the field to celebrate with the upset-minded Gophers.
“I can’t even put it into words how unbelievable the feeling it is to come out victorious with me, and the coaches, and all the fans out there,” said Nelson. “It was unbelievable.”
Overcoming Adversity
The Huskers drove the ball 69 yards in just 2:34 for a touchdown to start the game. After a three-and-out by the Gophers, Nebraska again marched down the field, taking a 10-0 lead on a field goal. Despite the early deficit, Minnesota knew they still had time to pull the upset.
“There definitely wasn’t a negative atmosphere on the defensive sideline,” said defensive back Brock Vereen. “We knew that we could play with them, we knew that we were better than them. It was kind of just calming down and playing our game. Once we were able to do that, we took the game over.”
The Gophers’ offense knew that it had to step up; using sustained drives to keep their defense off the field.
“I feel like we just had to weather the storm at the beginning of the game,” said tight end Drew Goodger who hauled in three receptions for a game-high 68 yards. “They got up and we knew that it was going to be a long game and our offense had to stay on the field and give our defense a chance.”
On Minnesota’s next drive, the Gophers took the ball 75 yards, capped off by a Mitch Leidner touchdown run. As the defense settled down and continually stopped the Huskers, Philip Nelson took the field in the second quarter still trailing 10-7. On fourth-and-long, Nelson threw a deep strike to Derrick Engel for a highlight-reel touchdown connection to take the lead.
“When the play call came in, I knew I was the go-to on that play,” said Engel. “Philip put a good ball up there, at first I thought it was going to be overthrown, but it hung in the air. So I stuck a foot and put my hands up and the next thing I knew it was a touchdown.”
After going ahead 14-10 to erase the early deficit, the Gophers never trailed the rest of the game.
“I don’t think we really batted an eye to be honest,” said Nelson. “We knew that there was a lot of game left to play and we knew as an offense that we could take advantage of some of the things they were doing defensively.”
Offensive Success
The Gophers offense was spectacular on Saturday—putting up 271 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. In total, Minnesota raced to an incredible 430 yards of total offense against the Huskers. Some of the reasons for the success were slight changes in scheme and play calling for the Gophers.
“We’re trying real hard to make it fun for the kids,” said offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover. “During the week of practice we said, ‘Hey we’re going to do things a little different. We’re going to shake it up a little bit.’ A lot of the movement and motions and pre-snap shifts we had [were new]. We told the kids we’re going to give them a final formation but have fun with it. Line up wide or line up in the backfield, move and shift. I think the kids enjoyed that and appreciated that. The kids had a smile on their face, they played loose, had fun and we’re really, really proud of them.”
The new style of offense made it fun and easy for the Minnesota offensive to execute effectively.
“Everyone was excited about the game plan,” said Nelson. “You know it’s a great game plan when everyone is excited about it. We knew going into this week that Nebraska is the type of a defense that you can’t let get comfortable so that is where all the trade, shifts and motions came into play and we were able to keep them on their heels.”
One of the keys to the offense was the play of the offensive line. The group opened up numerous holes for David Cobb. The junior running back racked up 138 yards on the ground on a career-high 31 carries.
“From the first quarter on, throughout the game, the offensive line had a great push and as a running back, if there’s no penetration, you can see your gaps, holes and cuts and it makes it easy so they did a great job of play-action pass and it opened up the lines for me,” said Cobb. “Really it was more the O-line and just the whole play-calling scheme more so than me.”
Coming into the game, the Gophers focused on playing sound football, not playing a talented and ranked opponent.
“The coaches throughout the week did a great job of putting an emphasis on just playing football,” said Cobb. “Don’t worry about the team you’re playing. We know who we are. We know what we like to do. We feel like we have a great offensive line, great skill players. We just took it to them. It worked for us so we just kept doing it.”
Winning for Kill
One of the motivating factors for the Maroon and Gold was playing for head coach Jerry Kill who was not on the sidelines for the second straight week.
“Everybody wants to ask me questions as the head coach; but I’m not, Jerry Kill is the head coach,” said Claeys. “The coaches and players have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Kill. We know he would want to be with us. Right now he can’t be with us but we didn’t want to disappoint him. As coaches and players, we ‘re working our hardest to make him proud.”
Kill attended the game and spoke with the team at halftime to motivate the Gophers.
“He just said keep doing what we’re doing because we came out in the first half kind of firing and fired up,” said Engel. “The coaches didn’t want to change much. Just keep playing hard and playing our game. Don’t try to do too much and give it 100-percent and that’s what we did. The results speak for themselves.”
Although Kill was not coaching during the game, the team still wanted to make their leader proud as he looked on.
“The emotion behind it, with Coach Kill; the way that he can inspire us without even being down there [on the field], it’s unbelievable,” said Vereen.
Gophers Going Bowling
Picking up their sixth win of the year, the Gophers are now eligible to head to their second bowl game during Kill’s tenure. Despite the good news, Minnesota is already looking to continue their success through their final four games.
“You don’t celebrate,” said Claeys. “You get bowl eligible in October, you reset your goals a hell of a lot higher. We got four Big Ten games left so we have a lot we can accomplish. We’re playing very confident right now. They have to learn now how to handle the success because you still got to go through the same process every week and prepare yourself. Last year, we got our sixth win later in the season and it was kind of a celebration. That will not happen this year. We’re going to readjust things…We’re looking to build and improve every year.”
The Gophers aren’t stopping once becoming bowl-eligible; they believe they can still achieve great things this season.
“The sky’s the limit,” said Vereen. “Like we said earlier, we’ve always had the talent but the pieces are finally falling in the right place. When we play as well as we can, we can play with anybody.”
By Grant Erickson and Travis Erickson
http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/303374?referrer_id=388419
Dominant Victory
On Saturday, the Gophers powered their way to an impressive 34-23 win over No. 25 Nebraska, their first victory over the Huskers since 1960. After the game, it began to sink in that this was the type of victory, over a quality opponent, that could spring the team to the next level.
“I don’t think we’ve beaten Nebraska for like, what? …You do the math; it’s a long time,” said Ra’Shede Hageman. “Just the fact that we were able to overcome adversity and finally have a good win means a lot to me and the football program.”
Beating a high-profile team like Nebraska is a way for the Gophers to stake their claim as a legitimate football program.
“Nebraska has handled us pretty good the last two years with the same offensive kids, basically,” said acting head coach Tracy Claeys. “It takes some time. I think there are bigger wins out there for us if we continue to work and believe in each other. Any time you can get a chance to beat a well-respected program like that, all throughout the country, I think you need to take great pride in that.”
The building of confidence for the Gophers could lead to big things for the Maroon and Gold.
“We’re starting to believe and that’s all that really needs to be said right now,” said Philip Nelson who finished the game with 152 passing yards and a touchdown. “We have the confidence rolling from week to week. We’ve finally started to realize how good we can be.”
Following the victory, rabid fans stormed the field to celebrate with the upset-minded Gophers.
“I can’t even put it into words how unbelievable the feeling it is to come out victorious with me, and the coaches, and all the fans out there,” said Nelson. “It was unbelievable.”
Overcoming Adversity
The Huskers drove the ball 69 yards in just 2:34 for a touchdown to start the game. After a three-and-out by the Gophers, Nebraska again marched down the field, taking a 10-0 lead on a field goal. Despite the early deficit, Minnesota knew they still had time to pull the upset.
“There definitely wasn’t a negative atmosphere on the defensive sideline,” said defensive back Brock Vereen. “We knew that we could play with them, we knew that we were better than them. It was kind of just calming down and playing our game. Once we were able to do that, we took the game over.”
The Gophers’ offense knew that it had to step up; using sustained drives to keep their defense off the field.
“I feel like we just had to weather the storm at the beginning of the game,” said tight end Drew Goodger who hauled in three receptions for a game-high 68 yards. “They got up and we knew that it was going to be a long game and our offense had to stay on the field and give our defense a chance.”
On Minnesota’s next drive, the Gophers took the ball 75 yards, capped off by a Mitch Leidner touchdown run. As the defense settled down and continually stopped the Huskers, Philip Nelson took the field in the second quarter still trailing 10-7. On fourth-and-long, Nelson threw a deep strike to Derrick Engel for a highlight-reel touchdown connection to take the lead.
“When the play call came in, I knew I was the go-to on that play,” said Engel. “Philip put a good ball up there, at first I thought it was going to be overthrown, but it hung in the air. So I stuck a foot and put my hands up and the next thing I knew it was a touchdown.”
After going ahead 14-10 to erase the early deficit, the Gophers never trailed the rest of the game.
“I don’t think we really batted an eye to be honest,” said Nelson. “We knew that there was a lot of game left to play and we knew as an offense that we could take advantage of some of the things they were doing defensively.”
Offensive Success
The Gophers offense was spectacular on Saturday—putting up 271 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. In total, Minnesota raced to an incredible 430 yards of total offense against the Huskers. Some of the reasons for the success were slight changes in scheme and play calling for the Gophers.
“We’re trying real hard to make it fun for the kids,” said offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover. “During the week of practice we said, ‘Hey we’re going to do things a little different. We’re going to shake it up a little bit.’ A lot of the movement and motions and pre-snap shifts we had [were new]. We told the kids we’re going to give them a final formation but have fun with it. Line up wide or line up in the backfield, move and shift. I think the kids enjoyed that and appreciated that. The kids had a smile on their face, they played loose, had fun and we’re really, really proud of them.”
The new style of offense made it fun and easy for the Minnesota offensive to execute effectively.
“Everyone was excited about the game plan,” said Nelson. “You know it’s a great game plan when everyone is excited about it. We knew going into this week that Nebraska is the type of a defense that you can’t let get comfortable so that is where all the trade, shifts and motions came into play and we were able to keep them on their heels.”
One of the keys to the offense was the play of the offensive line. The group opened up numerous holes for David Cobb. The junior running back racked up 138 yards on the ground on a career-high 31 carries.
“From the first quarter on, throughout the game, the offensive line had a great push and as a running back, if there’s no penetration, you can see your gaps, holes and cuts and it makes it easy so they did a great job of play-action pass and it opened up the lines for me,” said Cobb. “Really it was more the O-line and just the whole play-calling scheme more so than me.”
Coming into the game, the Gophers focused on playing sound football, not playing a talented and ranked opponent.
“The coaches throughout the week did a great job of putting an emphasis on just playing football,” said Cobb. “Don’t worry about the team you’re playing. We know who we are. We know what we like to do. We feel like we have a great offensive line, great skill players. We just took it to them. It worked for us so we just kept doing it.”
Winning for Kill
One of the motivating factors for the Maroon and Gold was playing for head coach Jerry Kill who was not on the sidelines for the second straight week.
“Everybody wants to ask me questions as the head coach; but I’m not, Jerry Kill is the head coach,” said Claeys. “The coaches and players have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Kill. We know he would want to be with us. Right now he can’t be with us but we didn’t want to disappoint him. As coaches and players, we ‘re working our hardest to make him proud.”
Kill attended the game and spoke with the team at halftime to motivate the Gophers.
“He just said keep doing what we’re doing because we came out in the first half kind of firing and fired up,” said Engel. “The coaches didn’t want to change much. Just keep playing hard and playing our game. Don’t try to do too much and give it 100-percent and that’s what we did. The results speak for themselves.”
Although Kill was not coaching during the game, the team still wanted to make their leader proud as he looked on.
“The emotion behind it, with Coach Kill; the way that he can inspire us without even being down there [on the field], it’s unbelievable,” said Vereen.
Gophers Going Bowling
Picking up their sixth win of the year, the Gophers are now eligible to head to their second bowl game during Kill’s tenure. Despite the good news, Minnesota is already looking to continue their success through their final four games.
“You don’t celebrate,” said Claeys. “You get bowl eligible in October, you reset your goals a hell of a lot higher. We got four Big Ten games left so we have a lot we can accomplish. We’re playing very confident right now. They have to learn now how to handle the success because you still got to go through the same process every week and prepare yourself. Last year, we got our sixth win later in the season and it was kind of a celebration. That will not happen this year. We’re going to readjust things…We’re looking to build and improve every year.”
The Gophers aren’t stopping once becoming bowl-eligible; they believe they can still achieve great things this season.
“The sky’s the limit,” said Vereen. “Like we said earlier, we’ve always had the talent but the pieces are finally falling in the right place. When we play as well as we can, we can play with anybody.”
