In my four years of Marching Band here at the University of Minnesota I have watched a lot of Gopher Football and loved absolutely every minute of it. Not it was it senior day for our Gophers on Saturday against Northwestern, it was also my last time watching our team at home. I took in the sights and sounds while thinking about how far this program has come since I have gotten here. My first two years were 8 win seasons from Jerry Kill and the Bank was rocking. We upset Nebraska at home and went to our first New Year’s Day game in decades with the 2015 Citrus Bowl. The program was rising, the fans were getting hungry for that elusive 9th win, and we still really want that axe.
After seeing Coach Kill step down to take care of his health I was excited to see Coach Tracy Claeys get the promotion he deserved. His first full schedule as Head Coach was one of the hardest in the country; yet he still managed to help us sneak into a bowl game and we finally returned home with some hardware. This year the Gophers are 8-3 heading into the last game of the year against our neighbors to the east. We are poised to make a good bowl game and maybe even reach 10 wins if we can bring home the axe (ohhh ahh). Yet yesterday I heard chants of “Fire Claeys” and a lot of “boos” after some repetitive play calling near the goal line. While I understand the frustration of our run heavy offense not being able to punch it in from the 3; I don’t think it’s fair to be so volatile. Coach Claeys has done an amazing job transitioning the program from his long-time coach and friend so I ask that we all take a step back.
Now that’s out of the way let’s talk Northwestern:
Coming into the game it was evident that we were going to need to establish a presence out on the edge in order to contain explosive running back Justin Jackson. We did a great job of it early in the game and brought a lot of edge pressure with nickels and linebackers. The few big plays Justin Jackson was able to bust off were either from alternate formations where he was lined up as a receiver or pure ability in making tacklers miss. Against a player of his caliber, those plays will happen. In the grand scheme of things, the Defense was dominant and held him to 22 carries for only 90 yards which doesn’t sound as impactful as it really was.
Northwestern was forced to throw the ball more than they may have wanted. The Gopher Defense held Northwestern QB Clayton Thorston to his lowest QBR of the season (21.1 Raw QBR). While also holding WR Austin Carr to his first game under 70 receiving yards this year. The defense took a shutout into the locker room at halftime. When they returned they began moving the line and rolling the passer out of the pocket which was a great adjustment that allowed them to get on the board. But once the front seven realized this they too adjusted and took the game back over.
The corners did a great job with their man coverage while playing a lot of Cover 1 defense in order to disguise their pressure packages. They were able to break up a noticeable amount of completions with tips and big hits. Duke McGee was a pain in Northwestern’s side before getting ejected on a questionable targeting call late in the third. He had already defended 2 passes and had 4 solo tackles. The defense was so good yesterday that in choosing three Defensive stars I did not even include him on the list because of stellar performances from Steven Richardson (2 sacks, FR) , Jack Lynn (9 tackles, 4 solo tackles, 1.5 TFL) , and Blake Cashman (9 solo tackles, 2 sacks). Cashman was all over the field in coverage, blitzing, dropping into zones. He did it all yesterday and is only a Sophomore showcasing a lot of ability to get after the ball and make plays consistently. Steven Richardson made this one personal and showed Northwestern that it doesn’t matter how tall you are if your center is being pushed into your QB’s lap the whole game. He was dominant in the middle and completely plugged up any hopes of an interior run game and forced them to either double team him or move the pocket. Defense was even better than usual today and they sealed the win this time.
The Offense came out to a strong start capping an 80 yard opening drive with Rodney Smith’s 15th TD of the year and even though he had a tough day trying to bounce the ball outside he still is over 1,000 yards rushing for the year and averaging close to 5 yards per carry (1039 yds, 210 car). The Gophers realized they were having trouble establishing the edge on offense and started shifting a larger workload to Shannon Brooks who has been more effective between the tackles this year. Shannon averaged over 5 YPC for the game and was as physical as always. Some other bright spots included an overall good game from Mitch Leidner who’s 1 INT came on a 50-50 ball that was more of a good football play by the defender than a bad throw. Mitch also threw his first passing TD in 7 games to fellow senior Drew Wolitarsky. Offensive Coordinator Jay Johnson was able to take advantage of play-action and take a few shots with speedsters Eric Carter and Rashad Still. While the offense was in no means firing on all cylinders we saw glimpses of some creative play-calling that put us in a position to win the game. And that has been the Gophers M.O. for a while now; lean on the run game and defense while relying on the pass game to change the pace and provide for a big play. That’s exactly what happened and we won. Hard to argue with results.
NOW LET’S GET THAT AXE.