Gopher Football
Quarterbacks
Saturday marked the starting debut for sophomore Bryan Cupito, and I don’t think there is anyone who wouldn’t be absolutely thrilled with his performance. For the night, Cupito was 10-12 for 279 yards, 2 TD’s, and 0 int’s. What might be most impressive about his performance was his accuracy, especially on the deep passes. He hit several receivers in stride and with the exception of the first pass of the night made good decisions on who to throw to. The only blemish on Cupito’s night was near-interception he threw on the first play of the game. He tried to force a pass into Matt Spaeth that wasn’t there, but from then on out it’s hard to find anything he did wrong. Adam Ernst relived Cupito and went 1-1 with 1 TD and 0 int’s. His pass was a fade that was a little bit under thrown, but he was bailed out by a highlight catch by Ernie Wheelwright. Tony Mortensen relieved Adam Ernst and did not attempt a pass. Overall, it was a great night for the QB’s. The mistakes were very limited and the passing very crisp.
Grade: A
Running Backs
One of the offseason questions for Gopher fans was how the running backs would react with the departure of Thomas Tapeh and Asad Abdul Khaliq. The first two carries might have had some fans worried, but after that all doubts were erased. Laurence Maroney picked right up where he left off last year, rushing for 108 yards on just 14 carries (7.7 yard average) and 2 TD’s. Laurence made a few nice runs but wasn’t able to break the big one. On his 16 yard TD run he did a nice job breaking a couple tackles, perhaps a sign that he is stronger this year. Of the four running backs, the lowest yardage total was actually put in by Marion Barber. Marion had 14 carries for 78 yards (5.6 yard average) and 2 TD’s as well.
With game well in hand by the second quarter, both Maroney and Barber were pulled for the night and then Amir Pinnix and Gary Russell took over. Both of those backs put in good performances as well, with Pinnix rushing 17 times for 88 yards & 1 TD, and Russel rushing 14 times for 79 yards. Fullback Justin Valentine also did well in short yardage situations, rushing 3 times for 7 yards and 2 TD’s. Only one pass attempt was made to the running backs, and that was to Maroney for 6 yards.
Grade: A
Wide Receivers / Tight End
Also of interest to Gopher fans this year was to see whether or not the wide receivers would be as good as their potential. So far the answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’. Jared Ellerson picked up right where he left off last year with his big play ability, catching 4 passes for a whopping 140 yards. Ernie Wheelwright had an impressive debut, getting 2 receptions for 52 yards, both for TD’s. Wheelwright’s second TD catch was a thing of beauty, jumping up and reaching over the defensive back who actually had better position than him. Ernie did this while avoiding a push off, then tipped the ball back to himself and hung on for the catch. Paris Hamilton has found himself at second string, and due the blowout nature of this game he was only thrown to once. That was a catch for 20 yards. Tight End Jared Posthumus got in the act as well, catching a beautifully thrown pass off of a play action fake for 52 yards. It was very nice to see Jakari Wallace back on the field. Wallace had 2 catches for 19 yards and saw action on a lot of plays. It appears that he’ll be a big contributor this year.
Overall here, it’s tough to find anything the receivers did wrong. They got open, made good adjustments on the balls that weren’t perfectly thrown, and maybe most impressively did not drop any passes. It would’ve been nice to see some action from Matt Spaeth, but besides that all of the Gopher weapons were at work.
Grade: A
Offensive Line
What more could you have asked for from this group? They didn’t miss a beat, as they opened plenty of holes for the running backs and gave plenty of protection on passing plays. There were only one holding penalty (on Brandon Harston), and there were no false starts. That’s very impressive for the first game. The offensive line appears as good as advertised. Greg Eslinger didn’t do anything to discount his All-American hype, and Brandon Harston looked good as the new guy in the lineup.
Grade: A
Offense Overall
This was as near of a perfect game as an offense can play. The Gophers practically had to stop trying before they ever needed to punt. Here are some of the offensive numbers:
- 704 total yards
- 415 rushing yards, 6.1 yard average
- 11 of 13 passing, 85%, 22.7 yards/attempt
- 63 points scored
- TD’s scored on first 9 posessions
- 0 dropped passes
- 0 sacks allowed
- 1 penalty
On the first series of the game when Minnesota faced a 3rd and 12, you had to question why Cuptio was so quick to throw the swing pass to Laurence Maroney. In hindsight it appears that Coach Mason had the fake punt in mind the whole time. Since he knew the fake was coming if we didn’t get the first down, he chose to call a safe play, so I’m hesitant to hold that one against the offense. After that play, Minnesota did not attempt another punt until they had 63 points. Yes, Toledo’s defense was extremely overmatched, but give some credit to Minnesota for staying focused and getting the job done.
Grade: A
Defensive Line
Slowly but surely, the Gopher defensive lined has evolved into a big, lean & athletic line. Yesterday was the first time to see them in their new positions, and for the most part things went pretty well. A strong point last year, Minnesota continued to show strength against the run. In the first half, Minnesota allowed rushes of only 1, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 3, and 5 yards. That’s 8 rushes for 12 yards. Nobody really stood out individually, except that I noticed Eric Clark seemed to be in the mix more than he was last year. From a pass rushing perspective things weren’t quite as good. The line did a somewhat adequate job of putting some heat on Gradowski, but many of those times came after several seconds due to good coverage in the secondary. When a Minnesota lineman went 1-1 on a Toledo lineman, Minnesota (from my recollection) rarely, if ever, just had a guy flat out beat a Toledo blocker. However, there were a few instances where Minnesota was able to collapse the pocket and cause Gradowski to flush so it wasn’t all bad. It was known going in that Toledo doesn’t like to hang on to the ball for too long so this really is an area of concern for me yet.
Grade: B+
Linebackers
The linebackers had a very steady game, and because of that there’s really not much to talk about. When Toledo ran, the linebackers were able to run up and make the play. When Toledo passed, the linebackers were able to quickly collapse on their man and hold them to short gains. The linebackers played a big part in shutting down Toledo’s quick rhythm passing attack as well as stuffing their running game. The linebackers will get a better test when they face Colorado State, a team that utilizes their running backs much more than Toledo did.
Grade: A
Defensive Backs
Really, there was only about one bad drive for the first string defensive backs, and that was of course Toledo’s first drive of the game. On consecutive plays, Trumaine Banks took a bad tackling angle at Lance Moore after a reception which resulted in a big gain, and the play after saw a breakdown in coverage as Lance Moore went virtually uncovered as he had an easy TD reception. But if you take those two breakdowns out, the secondary played a pretty solid game. It became obvious that as the game wore on that Minnesota was content with playing a soft coverage and giving Toledo the short routes and just try to limit the big play. But in order for that to work, you have to quickly close on the receiver and make sure you tackle him. For the most part, the starters succeeded in both areas. There were two potentially dangerous plays that happened that Minnesota recovered from. First is when Toledo completed a pass over the middle. The receiver was streaking downfield, but Justin Fraley came from behind and forced a fumble. The other play happened on John Pawielski’s big hit. Toledo’s receiver had gotten open and would’ve had the catch if not for a huge hit from Pawielski that knocked the ball loose. But really, when those two plays are some of the worst your first team defense gave up you know you did a pretty good job.
Grade: B
Defense Overall
When dishing out these grades, I am mainly going by the performance of the first teamers, because they were the ones in the game when it mattered. The play of the reserves in the second half does raise a little bit of concern, but I don’t want that to get in the way of recognizing what the first teamers accomplished. Aside from the two bad plays on Toledo’s first drive, the Gopher ‘D’ a pretty good job in stopping what was supposed to be (and likely still will be) and dangerous Toledo offense. This was especially nice to see since this kind of offense has given Minnesota all kinds of fits in the past. Hopefully this performance was a sign of good things to come.
Grade: B+
Special Teams
The Gopher special teams played a pretty good game, with the exception of the first string kick & punt return game. Let’s start with Rhys Lloyd. Winston had a good game with the exception of the one kickoff that went out of bounds. Still though, 9 out of 10 ain’t bad. Rhys will often try to pin the ball in the corner so we probably will see a few more of these as the year wears on. Rhys was also 9-9 on extra points, and didn’t attempt a field goal. Lloyd was named Big Ten special teams player the week.
The kickoff coverage team was outstanding. This has been a sore spot for several years, and is an area that Mason identified in the off season as one that needed fixing. They had a good first test on Saturday.
With the exception of the long return by Logan Payne, the return game was pretty much held in check. This was a bit surprising given the Gophers huge success last year. However, this was somewhat forgotten by the new wrinkle thrown in with the fake punts. A big kudos goes out to the coaching staff for using Lloyd’s kicking style to sculpt a fake play out. The importance of these two plays as the season goes on could loom very large, as opponents will definitely think twice before selling out their rush for the return.
Grade: B
Team Overall:
Coming into this game, many Gopher fans were nervous and few expected the rout that took place. The team obviously showed they were ready in all phases of the game and they came out and executed things to perfection. As hard as it is to believe, the offense showed signs it may actually be better than last year, and the defense also looked like it’s ready to take a step up. Like I mentioned earlier, the only real blemish on the game was the play of the defensive reserves, but if that’s all you have then you know you’ve done well. Congratulations to the players and the coaches for putting together and executing a great game.
Grade: A-