Minnesota’s recent bye week couldn’t have come at a better time for the Maroon and Gold. Following a 30-14 thumping of Michigan, the Gophers were able to rest up, get healthy, and prepare for a red-hot Northwestern squad. The Minnesota coaches spoke with the media on Tuesday to discuss injuries, the Michigan win, and who seems to be excelling.
Injury Update
Two offensive starters, Zac Epping and Mitch Leidner, have been battling injury, even during the bye week.
“It’s been slow,” said Kill of Epping’s ankle sprain. “That’s a tough injury, Mitch’s injury is a tough injury and anytime you have a high‑ankle sprain, guys take three, four weeks, sometimes longer, but he’s a tough ‘ol kid, I think everybody knows that, that’s kinda his reputation. This week it certainly helped him. I think it’s been whatever days it is and he’s going to try to practice today a little bit, but we’ll damn sure be careful.”
Leidner is certainly healthy enough to continue his promising play.
“I think it’s that we wouldn’t play him if it was a risk or anything like that,” said Kill. “I thought he moved well on Saturday. So it’s, again, a credit to him, but I thought he moved well. We ran a lot of nakeds and boots and stuff to get him out of the pocket and move the pocket and help protections and so forth. I thought he moved well, I really did.”
The bye week helped some players but others continue to be hampered by nagging injuries.
“It’s guys like David Cobb was beat up pretty good, gives him a chance to get healthy, with several injuries you know, we held probably 12, 13 guys out,” said Kill of the bye week. “To get them healed up. However, Sunday was a different day in an offensive line, I think we had three offensive guards not practice, actually four, so for different reasons we’re hoping we get two of the four ready to go and hopefully they will be back to work today.”
Heading into this week of practice, Claeys is concerned with the health of Derrick Wells.
“We will see if he practices well this week if he will play, but I don’t find out until Tuesday when we get to practice who is going to go,” said Claeys. “I know he’s going to work out with Ed and see how it goes, and besides that I think everybody else is good to go.”
Finding Success
The 4-1 Gophers have seen continued growth from some of their most important players. Without a doubt, the offensive MVP through five games has been David Cobb. The Texas native is averaging 144.4 rushing yards per game, good for fourth in the conference.
“He’s got great vision at the line of scrimmage, and he’s got a knack of keeping his pad level down and then the strength in his legs, he’s very strong down below and he’s just ‑‑ I think he’s harder to tackle this year than he’s ever been and we noticed that in camp,” said Kill. “I think he’s worked so hard. He’s stronger, leaner, he put time in camp, staying out longer than everybody else. I think the maturity ‑‑ he wants to be good, he wants to be really good. You gotta love football and that kid loves football. I think the balance, the strength, and he’s got a knack to get better as the game goes on.”
Defensively, the linebackers have been a big reason for Minnesota’s stellar defense.
“You have three of them, we played a lot of nickel so extra DB, but Jack Lynn and De’Vondre and Damien, all three of them, they’re good players in space, they’ve tackled well on the run, so that’s one of the reasons we’ve been able to play as many DBs as we have and still play well against the run because of how well they’ve done,” said Claeys.
Bringing Home the Jug
The 30-14 thumping of the Wolverines helped the Gopher coaches as they hit the road to meet with recruits.
“I think certainly we’re gaining credibility that we’re moving in the right direction and I think it opens doors and people are talking about it and certainly in certain states, you know, and so it does nothing but help you, winning solves a lot of problems, no question about that,” said Kill.
The off-week following the win allowed some time for the younger players to appreciate the victory.
“I think it was good to have a bye, let everybody enjoy it for a couple of days and we came back to work, practiced awfully well,” said Claeys. “We still have problems and they understand that and it’s just one game in the Big Ten, so far, so there’s a long ways to go. They understand that.”
The impressive victory over Michigan gave the Gophers the confidence that they can transfer what they learn in practice to a game situation.
“You can do great things in practice, but you got to be able to take ’em over to the game and when you have a good ball game, and you’re successful at executing the game plan, all that does is build confidence and that’s what you need to become a very good player, and the ones that play at a high level, once they get going and they develop the confidence that they can do this, this and this, is that they get better,” said Kill. “There is no question that helps the process of what we’re trying to do. We got a lot of processing to do yet but it certainly helps.”