Gopher Football
Indiana
Indiana comes to Minneapolis a very confident team. After losing at home 14-7 to UConn followed by a 52-17 loss to Wisconsin, Indiana has rebounded and has since won 3 of their last 4 Big Ten games. Among those wins were a 31-28 triumph over Iowa, and most recently a 46-21 thrashing of Michigan State. The Hoosiers are currently sitting 5-4 and with a win over Minnesota would be bowl eligible for the first time since 1994.
The strength of Indiana is their offense. What makes this match up worrisome for Minnesota is that Indiana is a spread offensive team, and as we all know the Gophers historically have had troubles defending this kind of offense (even more than most). What’s even more worrisome this year is that Indiana is starting to find some offensive talent, so the Gophers definitely will have their work cut out for them.
The Hoosiers are led by super-freshman quarterback Kellen Lewis. After splitting time with returning starter at QB Blake Powers at the beginning of the season, Lewis has taken control of the starting spot over the last few week and has emerged in a big way. Lewis has been named Big Ten Offensive player of the week 2 of the last 3 weeks. Against Iowa three weeks ago he threw 19-25 for 255 yards, 3 TD’s and 0 Int’s, and against MSU last weekend he threw 15-26 for 261 yards, 5 TD’s and 1 Int while rushing 14 times for 75 yards with 1 TD.
Lewis’ favorite target is another super talented young player, sophomore wide receiver James Hardy. After having a great freshman season and then enduring some off season troubles, Hardy started the year off slowly but along with Lewis has really emerged in the last few weeks. Hardy has been on the receiving end of 7 Lewis TD passes in the past 3 weeks. At 6’7″ Hardy is a match up nightmare. He’s a talented receiver that presents as a huge target.
At running back, Indiana goes with a committee approach. The starter Marcus Thigpen leads the team with just 306 yards. However, Josiah Sears has added 225 yards and Demetrius McCray has chipped in 213. Overall Indiana is not much of a threat to run the ball, but with the field spread out and a good passing game going it still can be dangerous.
It’s suffice to say that Offense has carried Indiana so far. Despite being 3-2 in the Big Ten, Indiana is last in the conference in allowing 35.4 points per game; .4 more than Minnesota. They are also 8th in rushing defense, 10th in passing defense and 10th in yards allowed. Indiana has allowed at least 20 points in 8 of their 9 games, so this will be an opportunity for Minnesota to gets its struggling offense back on track.
Minnesota
The Gopher football team continues to struggle. As we expected, the Gophers got whipped in every phase of the game last week against Ohio State. Despite a couple of turnovers by the Buckeye’s, the Gophers couldn’t muster any offense. The Gophers were held to under 200 yards and ZERO points (their first time shutout since before Y2K), and Ohio State scored 44 points and was never forced to punt.
With all the Gophers offensive woes, it’s good news that Indiana is coming to town this week. Finally the Gophers will play a team whose defense is as bad as there is, and hopefully this will allow Minnesota to get out of the offensive rut. The only major news on offensive is that Alex Daniels, Otis Hudson and John Jakel all have been moved to the defensive line. These three got some nice playing time in the OSU gave and weren’t horribly disappointing. It may take until next year, but hopefully the promise they showed at OSU will eventually lead to some results on the field. Ernie Wheelwright continues to be listed on the depth chart as a starter, but his disappointing season continued last week with a reception-less showing against the Buckeyes. In injury news, tight end Matt Spaeth is once again not listed on the depth chart, so at this point he is not expected to play.
Bottom Line
Time is running out for the Gophers to avoid their first winless, tieless season in the Big Ten since 1983. If the Gophers don’t win this game, then their chances against Iowa wouldn’t seem to be too great either. There is always that game at Michigan State, but with it already being announced that their coach is gone after this year who knows what to expect. Either the team will completely give up or they’ll come out like gangbusters. As for Indiana, it’s definitely a winnable contest for Minnesota. The Indiana offense is good, but their defense is bad. Minnesota needs to take care of the ball and score touchdowns, not field goals. If they can do that and the defense can make just a few stops, then I think Minnesota will win this game.
Prediction: Minnesota 34 ““ Indiana 30