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University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Heads to Indiana For Big Ten Road Debut
10/2/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
GOPHERS GO FOR THIRD STRAIGHT WIN OVER HOOSIERS
Minnesota (1-4, 0-2) hits the Big Ten road for the first time this week as the Golden Gophers travel to Indiana (4-1, 1-1) to face the Hoosiers at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington Saturday. It is just the second road game of the season for Minnesota, which will be out to put the brakes on a three-game slide that has seen the Gophers play well in spurts, but struggle with consistency on both sides of the ball.
At 4-1, Indiana is off to its best start since 1994, when the Hoosiers also opened 4-1. IU is coming off a 38-20 win at Iowa that was its second straight over the Hawkeyes.
The game kicks off at 11:07 a.m. (CDT)/12:07 p.m. (EDT) and will mark Minnesota’s third appearance of the season on the Big Ten Network. Michael Crispino (play-by-play) and Chris Martin (analyst) will call the action with Marshall Harris filing updates from both sidelines.
THE SERIES
Minnesota leads its all-time series with Indiana, 36-25-3, but owns just six victories on the road in Bloomington. The Golden Gophers have won three of their last four vs. the Hoosiers, including two straight. Minnesota’s 42-21 victory in its last visit to Memorial Stadium in 2005 snapped a seven-game losing streak at Indiana and was the Gophers’ first win at IU since 1985. Last year, the Gophers rode the arm of Brian Cupito to a 63-26 victory at the Metrodome. Cupito passed for 378 yards and four touchdowns in the win.
THE COACHES
Minnesota’s Tim Brewster is 1-4 in his first year with the Golden Gophers and his first season as a head coach. Bill Lynch is in his 15th season of college coaching, first at Indiana, and owns an 85-68-3 overall record, including a 4-1 mark at IU.
A QUICK LOOK AT THE GOPHERS
After opening Big Ten Conference play with two tough losses at home, Minnesota will look to get its season headed back in the right direction this week, when the Golden Gophers take to the road for the first of back-to-back road games.
Minnesota has a history of quickly turning its season around and last year rebounded from a four-game slide to win four of its last five.
The Gophers have displayed a never-give-up attitude this season but have been rewarded for their efforts just once. Slow starts, inconsistent play and a rash of turnover have been hallmarks of the season to date, however with a solid effort last week against No. 8 Ohio State the Gophers could be on the verge of turning the corner.
The Minnesota’s offense has certainly proved to be more than capable of both moving the ball and putting points on the board. The Gophers enter the week ranked 33rd in the NCAA in rushing (192.8 ypg), 28th in total offense (445.4 ypg) and 51st in scoring (29.8 ppg). The unit has also been bitten hard by the turnover bug, however, and has committed 16 of the team’s 18 giveaways in 2007.
The Gophers’ offense is led by record-setting quarterback Adam Weber, who already owns Minnesota freshman single-season marks for completions (122), passing yards (1,263) and passing touchdowns (12) as well as the program’s frosh single-game total offense record (368 yards vs. Miami-Ohio).
Weber’s rapid development has helped him emerge as perhaps the nation’s top all-around freshman signal-caller. Through five games, he ranks 18th nationally - No. 1 among freshmen - and third in the Big Ten in total offense (306.2 ypg). In fact, only Florida’s Tim Tebow has BOTH rushed and passed for more yards so far this season than Weber. One of just 21 players and the only freshman in the country to have passed for over 1,200 yards already this year, Weber also ranks 19th in the NCAA and second among freshmen in points responsible for (17.6 ppg).
Weber, who has taken all 401 offensive snaps for the Gophers this season, has spread the wealth in the passing game, connecting with 11 different targets thus far. His two primary weapons have been sophomore Eric Decker (36 receptions for 486 yards and 4 touchdowns) and senior Ernie Wheelwright (22 receptions for a 243 yards and five touchdowns). Decker has hauled in at least six receptions in each of the last four games and ranks in the top 20 nationally and No. 2 in the Big Ten in both receptions (7.2) and receiving yards (97.2) per game. Wheelwright, meanwhile, has proved to be a scoring machine and is tied for third in the Big Ten in receiving touchdowns with five.
The Gophers’ ground attack has been bolstered by senior Amir Pinnix and freshman Duane Bennett. Pinnix ranks No. 7 in the Big Ten and No. 49 nationally in rushing (88.6 ypg). Bennett, who logged his first career start last week vs. Ohio State, has rushed for 156 yards on 29 attempts this season with one touchdown.
All of this has been made possible by an offensive line that is proving to be one of the nation’s best. In addition to the Gophers’ prodigious offensive numbers, Minnesota has allowed just three sacks this season on 209 passing attempts, good for fifth in the nation and No. 1 in the Big Ten.
The Minnesota defense has played well in fits and starts but is still looking to put together a complete-game effort. The unit has directly yielded seven or fewer points in three halves this season (Bowling Green, 2nd; Florida Atlantic, 2nd; and Purdue, 1st) and at times has more than held its own.
Senior strong safety Dominique Barber has paced the Gophers in tackles in two of the last three games, including a pair of double-digit tackle outings. He now leads Minnesota and ranks fifth in the Big Ten with 46 total stops on the year. Senior linebacker Mike Sherels ranks 11th in the Big Ten in total tackles. He enters the week with 36 to his credit this season. Junior defensive end Willie VanDeSteeg and senior cornerback Jamal Harris are also off to strong starts in 2007. VanDeSteeg, a Rotary Lombardi Award candidate, has 4.5 tackles for losses, while Harris is tied for the league lead and ranks tied for ninth nationally in passes defended with 1.6 per game.
On special teams, the Gophers have proved to be one of the nation’s top teams in kickoff returns (14th). Jay Thomas, who had a 91-yard kickoff return for a touchdown at FAU, ranks 10th in the NCAA in kickoff returns, while place-kicker Joel Monroe has proved to be one of the country’s top weapons on kickoffs and a steady performer on placements.
GOPHERS IN BIG TEN ROAD OPENERS
In addition to snapping its current three-game slide, Minnesota will be out to reverse a tough trend in Big Ten road openers. Since 2000, the Gophers are just 1-6 in Big Ten road debuts. Minnesota’s last victory in a league road opener came during the 2003 season, when the Gophers went into Happy Valley and defeated Penn State, 20-14.
MINNESOTA VS. INDIANA: The Last Time (Nov. 4, 2006)
Minnesota scored 21 first-quarter points, expanded its lead to 35-0 midway through the second quarter and celebrated a dominating 63-26 Homecoming victory over Indiana in last year’s matchup between the Golden Gophers and Hoosiers. Brian Cupito completed 22 of 33 attempts for 378 yards and four touchdowns. In all, seven Gophers scored touchdowns, with Ernie Wheelwright catching a pair of TDs and Jay Thomas rushing for two scores to lead the way. Thomas rushed for 79 yards and Amir Pinnix added 68 more for Minnesota, which finished the game with 500 yards of total offense, including 165 on the ground, and scored its most points ever in the series.
MINNESOTA VS. INDIANA: The Last Time in Bloomington (Nov. 5, 2005)
Gary Russell rushed for 188 yards and three touchdowns and Minnesota exploded for 35 second-half points in a 42-21 victory over Indiana at Memorial Stadium. Brian Cupito added 225 yards through the air on 16-for-26 passing, including a 17-yard touchdown pass to Matt Spaeth, as the Gophers won for the first time in Bloomington since 1985. In all, Minnesota piled up 572 yards of total offense for the 12th best single-game yardage mark in school history. Indiana actually led 14-7 at halftime, before Laurence Maroney tied the game with a 6-yard run early in the third quarter. A 1-yard touchdown run by Russell, Spaeth’s TD grab and another score by Russell, this time from six yards out, made it 34-14 heading into the final period and all but iced the win for Minnesota.
BACK-TO-BACK IN BLOOMINGTON
Memorial Stadium and Bloomington, Ind., have been tough venues through the years for Minnesota. All time, the Gophers have won just six times in Bloomington, including Minnesota’s 42-21 victory at Memorial Stadium in 2005. A victory by the Gophers on Saturday would mark the first time Minnesota has won in back-to-back visits to Bloomington since the 1919 and 1922 seasons.
BATTLE ROYALE BLOOMING
An intriguing aspect of Saturday’s Minnesota at Indiana game should develop in the trenches between the Gophers’ offensive line and the Hoosiers’ front seven. Minnesota has yielded just three sacks in five games this season and ranks fifth nationally and tops in the Big Ten in that category with just 0.6 allowed per game. The Gophers, however, may be facing their toughest test of the season this week. Indiana enters the game as the nation’s top pass-rushing team. The Hoosiers average 5.4 sacks (No. 1 in the NCAA) and nine tackles for losses (No. 7 in the NCAA) each game.
BREWSTER VS. LYNCH MARKS FIRST MEETING OF NEW BIG TEN COACHES
Saturday’s Minnesota at Indiana game will be the first meeting of the season between new Big Ten coaches. Gophers’ head coach Tim Brewster is in has first year in the role, while 15-year head coach Bill Lynch is in his debut campaign at Indiana following the passing of former Hoosiers’ head man Terry Hoeppner this past summer. Next week, IU will match up against the league’s other new head coach, Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio. Minnesota and Michigan State will not meet during the 2007 season due to the Big Ten’s rotating schedule.
LYNCH NO STRANGER TO THE GOPHERS
Saturday’s game will be the first meeting against Indiana for Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster. The same can’t be said for IU’s Bill Lynch. Lynch coached against the Gophers twice during his tenure at Ball State, falling to Minnesota 31-7 in 1995 and 26-23 in 1996. Both games were played at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
BACK HOME AGAIN IN INDIANA
Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster will be returning to the state that gave him his coaching start this week when the Gophers travel to Bloomington, Ind., to square off with the Hoosiers. A 1983 graduate of Illinois, Brewster began his coaching career in 1986 as a graduate assistant coaching tight ends and offensive tackles at Purdue. He went on to serve as the head coach at Central Catholic High School in Lafayette, Ind., in 1987-88 before joining Mack Brown’s staff at North Carolina for the 1989 season.
MATURI HAS INDIANA TIE, TOO
In addition to head coach Tim Brewster’s roots in the state of Indiana, Minnesota athletics director Joel Maturi also has a connection at IU. Maturi, who is in his sixth season leading the Gophers’ athletics department, hired former Hoosier head coach Terry Hoeppner while serving as the athletics director at Miami (Ohio). In six years under Hoeppner, the RedHawks posted a 48-25 record, participated in two bowl games and won the 2003 MAC title.
ONE MORE FOR GOOD MEASURE
Minnesota does not have any Hoosiers on its 2007 roster, however there is one connection to Indiana. Gophers’ freshman return specialist and wide receiver Harold Howell and Indiana sophomore quarterback Kellen Lewis both prepped at Jacksonville’s Mandarin High School in Florida.
To download a PDF of the complete version of Minnesota’s weekly game notes please click the link below or at the top of the page.
