STrib: Gophers facing key unknowns in Colorado State

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Joe:

To prove they’re better than last year’s 8-5 squad, the Gophers will need to survive tough tests like the one coming Saturday at Colorado State.

The Rams went 10-3 last year, including wins over Colorado and Boston College, and clobbered Savannah State 65-13 in Saturday’s opener.

“They’ve got a lot of people back, certainly on the defensive side of the ball,” Gophers coach Jerry Kill said. “They’ve got a tremendous receiver [Rashard Higgins], a tremendous tight end [Kivon Cartwright]. They’ve got great skill, and we’re going there. So we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

Oddsmakers pegged the Gophers as early six-point favorites, even though they need to play in Fort Collins’ 5,000-feet altitude. Colorado State has won nine consecutive home games at 32,500-seat Hughes Stadium, dating to 2013.

Gophers defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys had his troops preparing for Colorado State’s offense since the first week of training camp, knowing how challenging this would be. But he hardly seems concerned about the altitude.

“I think that’s overrated myself,” he said. “… We ain’t there long enough for it to bother us. It won’t be a factor.”

http://www.startribune.com/gophers-facing-key-unknowns-in-colorado-state/325824691/

Go Gophers!!
 

Heard that Rashard Higgins did not practice Tuesday with a sprain but it may be worse than they are letting us know. Any news on that front?
 

One thing we should not have to take into consideration - the Savannah State victory. They are arguably the worst FCS team. They were 0-12 last year and were outscored 137 - 557.

Would like to see Higgins play to see how our defense stacks up.
 

I just can't get overly worried about this game, if we are as good as we think we are this is a game we take care of. I don't see it as a trap game, the Gophers practiced in fall camp directly for CSU prior to getting ready for TCU. You've got two known coaches from other programs you can study and they can't score unless they take advantage of defenses quickly. The only way we lose this game is turnovers and poor special teams. We've got the weapons on both sides to take care of these guys. I can't see it what am I missing?
 

homermn said:
I just can't get overly worried about this game, if we are as good as we think we are this is a game we take care of. I don't see it as a trap game, the Gophers practiced in fall camp directly for CSU prior to getting ready for TCU. You've got two known coaches from other programs you can study and they can't score unless they take advantage of defenses quickly. The only way we lose this game is turnovers and poor special teams. We've got the weapons on both sides to take care of these guys. I can't see it what am I missing?
Click to expand...

I agree that if the Gophers play a mistake free game we should win and probably somewhat comfortably. CSU is solid though so if we turn it over or make some key mistakes things could get dicey since we are also on the road. Bottom line is we should be 1-1 heading home for two very winnable MAC games before the start of conference play. Going to be very important coming off a tough TCU game that the players hit the field ready to play and don't let CSU get out to any kind of early lead. Get up on them quick and don't give them any real reason to think they can pull off the upset.
 


homermn said:
I just can't get overly worried about this game, if we are as good as we think we are this is a game we take care of. I don't see it as a trap game, the Gophers practiced in fall camp directly for CSU prior to getting ready for TCU. You've got two known coaches from other programs you can study and they can't score unless they take advantage of defenses quickly. The only way we lose this game is turnovers and poor special teams. We've got the weapons on both sides to take care of these guys. I can't see it what am I missing?
Click to expand...

There are some Gopher fans who who just can't shake their losers mentality.
 

Rescooter said:
One thing we should not have to take into consideration - the Savannah State victory. They are arguably the worst FCS team. They were 0-12 last year and were outscored 137 - 557.

Would like to see Higgins play to see how our defense stacks up.
Click to expand...

Arguably? I'd hate to meet a person who would try to argue that there's someone worse than Savannah State
 

MinneStoa said:
Arguably? I'd hate to meet a person who would try to argue that there's someone worse than Savannah State
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I didn't want to offend any Savannah State homers on this board (ha)
 

Well, after their game against CSU, Savannah State improved from 258 out of 262 to 256 in Sagarin. So there might be a couple teams worse, but these other teams aren't playing FBS teams.

Sent from my XT1031 using Tapatalk
 



Davidson is probably worse, they lost 69-0 to The Citadel last week, had six first downs, and had just 104 yards of total offense (while giving up 602). Their only win last season was over the College of Faith, a "school" that has since been marked as unplayable by the NCAA, and they didn't notch any wins in 2013. Of course, they're in a non-scholarship FCS conference (Pioneer League) which doesn't help matters.

That said, Savannah State isn't a whole lot better than that, which is saying something.
 

CSU fans think their offense is better than TCU. I have a feeling they are in for a rude awakening.
 

Gopher07 said:
Davidson is probably worse, they lost 69-0 to The Citadel last week, had six first downs, and had just 104 yards of total offense (while giving up 602). Their only win last season was over the College of Faith, a "school" that has since been marked as unplayable by the NCAA, and they didn't notch any wins in 2013. Of course, they're in a non-scholarship FCS conference (Pioneer League) which doesn't help matters.

That said, Savannah State isn't a whole lot better than that, which is saying something.
Click to expand...

 

homermn said:
I just can't get overly worried about this game, if we are as good as we think we are this is a game we take care of. I don't see it as a trap game, the Gophers practiced in fall camp directly for CSU prior to getting ready for TCU. You've got two known coaches from other programs you can study and they can't score unless they take advantage of defenses quickly. The only way we lose this game is turnovers and poor special teams. We've got the weapons on both sides to take care of these guys. I can't see it what am I missing?
Click to expand...

Now I am worried. This reminds me of when Spoofin last year said that there was no way we would lose to TCU. We all know how that turned out. The best part of that was his use of revisionist history to explain comment from last fall. According to him his prediction meant nothing since he always predicts a Gopher victory. Good one Spoofin.:rolleyes:
 








It's college football.......which means strange things can happen.
 




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