Run Game

[EG#9]

I think our interior 3 (especially Johnson) have struggled this year which make that delayed handoff even more difficult than usual. Mo also was great at turning potential 2-3 yard losses in to 2-3 yard gains, so I don't think we remember guys getting in the backfield against us as often as they did because the results didn't turn out so bad.

To give the staff some credit, that option play to open the 4th (I think?) was going to go for a big play if Brosmer didn't drop the ball.

 

[Some guy]

This is correct, we never beat a team that finished in the top 3 of the Big Ten in his entire tenure.

People want to say the big ten west made for easy schedules

In 2003 Glen Mason was a blown Michigan lead away from winning the big ten. They were 0-3 against the top 6 of an 11 team conference

In 1999 they were an OT victory away from a big ten title against Wisconsin. The team was 0-1 vs the top 3 in conference. 2-2 against the top 7 in the conference.


The easiest era to win the big ten was when it was 11 teams with an 8 game schedule. So you missed 3. You could split a title.
This is the era when northwestern won a title: the era when Alvarez turned it around, Joe tiller won a title.
It got even easier when they expanded the regular season to 12 games in 2000ish and so 6-6 made a bowl instead of 6-5

 

[STPGopher]

I don't recall the AAK days very well due to my youth and inattention to things beyond the score of the game but did AAK pummel himself against defenders the way Leidner did? Mitch was an absolute gamer. He gets a lot of criticism from some and he threw the lamest of ducks on occasion, but man, he left it all out there.

I don't know if it is fair to compare the two head to head because they were just different types of QB's.

Like you said, Mitch was a gamer though. Happy and proud that both chose to play for the Gophers.