Gopher Football
Gophers on offense:
It was a tale of two halves last week for the Minnesota offense. During the first half, the offense largely struggled. Just about everything looked out of synch and they had a lot of problems trying to sustain a drive. What hurt the most however was turnovers. After each of the two best offensive plays of the half (the long run by Amir Pinnix and a nice catch by Ernie Wheelwright), the Gophers turned the ball over on the next play, both times. Any momentum that was being generated was promptly stopped, and the offense had to try and start all over again the next time they had the ball.
The good news is the Gopher finally got in gear during the second half, and if you include the overtime, scored on their final five possessions. Four of those scores were touchdowns, and an “˜iffy’ run call on 2nd and long (right after a previous run that lost yards) put the Gophers in a deep third down hole and they had to settle for the field goal. The Gopher offense found itself again when it dedicated itself to what it historically does well: Run the football. I expect to see a lot of that again this week, and we should see it yield some decent results.
Gophers on the ground:
Coming into the season, the strength of the Gopher offense figured to be on the ground, and last week proved that theory correct. After seeing the offense struggle in the first half, the Gophers really dedicated themselves to running the football in the second half, and that is what it took to settle the offense down. Not only were they moving the chains and getting first downs, it also seemed to settle down quarterback Adam Weber, and from then on he started hitting on some passes as well.
After watching Bowling Green, it’s pretty clear that the Gopher passing game has a long way to go. Because of that, I think the coaches will end up running the football more this season than they originally expected. This does not mean that they are abandoning the spread offense (they are still lined up in the spread), it simply means they will not be passing as much to start the season. A problem last week was that Pinnix and Weber had all but about two of the Gopher rushing attempts, and in this week’s press conference Coach Brewster said that is not acceptable. He wants to limit Weber’s carries to 6″“8 per game, and to get Duane Bennett and Jay Thomas more involved in the running game. This will be especially important if the Gophers end up running this season more than they planned.
On the offensive line, Brewster has stated several times how much he likes freshman D.J. Burris, and it’s becoming clear that after a tight race with Ned Tavale to win the starting spot, that Burris has cemented himself on the line. Brewster also likes Tavale though, and this week Ned will get the start in front the left guard Ryan Ruckdashel. A bit of good news came this week as well ““ Dominic Alford’s foot problems have gotten better, and he is expected to see some time on the field as well.
Gophers through the air:
Coming into the year offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar wanted to maintain a 50/50 ratio of passing and running, but after watching the Bowling Green game, it’s pretty clear to me that the Gophers are going to have problems developing a consistent passing game for most of the season. There are a few reasons for this”¦ Freshman quarterback Adam Weber looks a little green. It didn’t appear that he was very comfortable throwing the ball for most of the game, although he did have a few nice throws sprinkled here and there so we saw that he does have the ability. But just as important, as we expected coming into the season the lack of bodies at wide receiver could hurt them. Eric Decker and Ernie Wheelwright both had their moments, but not enough of them. In an interesting development, Coach Brewster has moved Mike Chambers back to wide receiver after moving him to cornerback a few weeks ago. This should help the situation a little bit, because the aforementioned three, the next four players on the depth chart at WR could be true freshmen. As the season goes on this could develop into a solid unit, but for now there will be some growing pains. All in all my impression was that the Bowling Green receivers were much more polished than the Gopher receivers were. They looked like they knew what they were doing when they ran their routes and thanks in part to a shaky Gopher defense, they kept getting open. Minnesota on the other hand was not nearly as fluid, and will be a work in progress for a while.
At Tight End, Jack Simmons suffered a minor toe injury and may not play. This means that Nick Tow-Arnett is listed first on the depth chart, with fullback Justin Valentine seeing some looks at TE as well. Tow-Arnett, though he appears serviceable, is not the receiving threat that Simmons is.
Miami on Defense
On defense, Miami is fairly young. They start just one senior (CB Jerrid Gaines), five juniors and five sophomores. Last week linebackers Clayton Mullins and Caleb Bostic had solid games, and along with junior Joey Hudson they form a pretty solid middle. With the signs being there that the Gophers will run a little more, these three guys will need to have a good game.
Gophers on Defense:
After one game it appears things could be as bad as we feared. It looks like that no matter how improved our defensive coaches may be, the defense could struggle all year. As in past seasons, the Gophers continue to not be able to defend a spread offense. What makes this especially concerning is that Bowling Green’s offense was not experienced, they were young. Yet from the opening drive it looked like the Falcons had been playing together for years. They showed crisp execution and big play ability. Meanwhile the Gopher defense (specifically the pass coverage) looked lost and a little under prepared for what they were facing. Thankfully, the Gophers will face less of a passing offense this week, so it will be chance to improve and build on some things.
Defending the air:
The Gopher cornerbacks got burned early and often in this game, resulting in massive amounts of passing yards for the young Bowling Green offense. Senior cornerback Desi Steib took the brunt of things, getting picked on early, and then yanked from the game and replaced with true freshman Ryan Collado. Collado had a few struggles himself early, but seemed to show some improvement as the game when on. However, it was Collado’s man who caught the two point conversion to win the game for Bowling Green. We knew it could be a tough year for the cornerbacks, but they didn’t get a lot of help from the safeties or linebackers. Curtis Thomas got beat on Bowling Greens first touchdown pass, and the gopher linebackers looked a step slow all game in trying to cover some of the shorter routes. Unfortunately there will probably nothing that can fix this, other than continued to coaching and game experience. This might be one year where Gopher fans don’t mind a weak non conference schedule.
Defending the ground:
Because of all the success passing the ball for Bowling Green last week, it’s kind of tough to evaluate the Gopher rushing defense. There were a few cases where Minnesota only played with three down linemen, and when the opposition is passing as well as they were, that is naturally going to open up some running lanes. There were a few times when Bowling Green started running the ball a little more and all I could think of was “œWhy?”.
Miami on Offense
Thankfully for Minnesota, Miami will not be nearly the passing team that Bowling Green was. At least I don’t think they will be! But after their coaches broke down the Gopher film from last week, they may decide to be, if only for one game. Miami’s offense was not terribly impressive against Ball State in their opener last week. They accumulated only 296Â yards (118Â passing / 178Â rushing), turned the ball over twice and missed a couple of field goals. Their two touchdown drives occurred as a result of short fields of only 50 and 23 yards. Their senior quarterback Mike Kokal did not have a very good game, throwing 14/24 for 118Â yards, 0Â and 2Â interceptions. The second year starter Kokal does have some talent though as Purdue fans may remember. Last season against the Boilermakers Kokal threw for 355Â yards and 4Â TD’s in an overtime loss.
Miami does have a solid option at running back. Senior Brandon Murphy rushed for 123Â yards on 19Â carries last week with 2Â TD’s. After rushing for over 1000Â yards as a sophomore, Murphy spent a lot of last year hurt and was limited to just 280Â yards. On the receiving end Miami is young. They’ll line up with a junior-sophmore-freshman, with sophomore Dustin Woods being the biggest receiving threat.
Special teams:
Special teams was the bright spot for Minnesota in the Bowling Green game. Punter Justin Kucek did well, place kicker Jason Giannini was perfect on his kicks, and Joel Monroe was long and consistent on his kickoffs. The coverage and return teams were solid with the exception of one Bowling Green punt return. I look for this to continue to be solid as the year goes on.
Miami had a mixed bag of results for special teams last week. Kicker Trevor Cook missed both of his field goal attempts (32 & 46), but did covert the pressure extra point at the end of the game. Despite having one punt of just 15 yards, Miami punter Jason Richardson still averaged 45 yards on 5 kicks because of three good kicks of 62, 57 and 54 yards. I am guessing he’s looking forward to punting in the dome and wouldn’t be surprise to see him crank a few more big ones out.
Bottom line
Before the season nobody would’ve ever thought we’d be nervous about this game, but suddenly there is a lot of pressure for the Gophers to get a W. To do that the Gophers just have to play their game. They need to get all of the running backs involved early and let them do the work. The offense has momentum right now having scored in five straight possessions, so they just need to keep doing what they were doing. Defensively this week will be about fixing mistakes. Just tackle well and try to limit the big plays. It’s really too early to know how good of a job the coaches will do in making adjustments from one week to the next, but I have faith! I expect a solid Gopher effort this week, and the sting will be gone for at least for a while
Prediction: Minnesota 34  ““  Miami 20
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