University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota looks to retain Floyd of Rosedale
11/6/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
GOPHERS OUT TO MAKE IT TWO IN A ROW OVER HAWKEYES
Minnesota (1-9, 0-6) ventures out on the road for the final time in 2007 as the Golden Gophers head south to battle Iowa (5-5, 3-4) Saturday at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City. The game will be televised nationally by the Big Ten Network and will kickoff at 11:07 a.m. (CST), with Wayne Larrivee (play-by-play), Chris Martin (analyst) and Marshall Harris (sidelines) on the call.
Minnesota is coming off a 44-17 Homecoming loss to Illinois at the Metrodome and will be looking to break out of a eight-game tailspin. The Gophers have not won since Sept. 8 and will be out to build some positive momentum for next season as the Maroon and Gold look to hold on to the Floyd of Rosedale trophy for the second straight year.
Resurgent Iowa, which just a few weeks ago appeared to be dead in the water, is suddenly one of the Big Ten’s hottest teams. The Hawkeye have won three of their last four games, including a 28-17 victory at Northwestern last week, and will be playing for the coveted sixth win required to be bowl eligible.
THE SERIES
Saturday’s game at Kinnick Stadium will be the 101st meeting all time between Minnesota and Iowa and the 73rd time the two programs will play for the Floyd of Rosedale trophy. The Golden Gophers lead the all-time series, 59-39, with two ties, and are 39-31-2 against Iowa with the bronze statue of Floyd on the line.
THE COACHES
Minnesota’s Tim Brewster is 1-9 in his first year with the Golden Gophers and his first season as a head coach. Kirk Ferentz is 72-69 in 12 seasons as a head coach, including a 60-48 mark at Iowa.
A QUICK LOOK AT THE GOPHERS
With two big trophy games remaining on the docket, Minnesota enters the last two weeks of the 2007 season looking to build some positive momentum for the future.
The Golden Gophers head into Saturday’s Floyd of Rosedale trophy game vs. Iowa at 1-9 overall and 0-6 in the Big Ten. However, four of Minnesota’s setbacks this season have come by less than a touchdown - including a pair of 1-point overtime losses - and with a couple of breaks the Gophers could just as easily be sitting right where Iowa is this week at 5-5 overall and playing for bowl eligibility with two games to go.
Minnesota’s offense is led by led by record-setting quarterback Adam Weber. Under Weber’s direction, Minnesota is averaging 407.4 yards and 26.5 points per game. Individually, Weber has completed 213 of 371 passes for 2,353 yards and 20 touchdowns. He already owns Minnesota’s freshman single-season marks for completions, passing yards and passing touchdowns as well as the program’s frosh single-game total offense record of 430 yards set at Northwestern that also stands as the second-best in program history. He is also closing in on several other single-season school records and should break Minnesota’s all-time marks for passing attempts and completions as well as total offense this week at Iowa.
Weber’s rapid development has helped him emerge as perhaps the nation’s top all-around freshman signal-caller. With two games to play, he ranks 24th nationally - No. 1 among freshmen - and third in the Big Ten in total offense (281.3 ypg). In fact, only Kellen Lewis of Indiana has BOTH rushed and passed for more yards this season than Weber. One of just 22 players and the only freshman in the country to have passed for at least 2,350 yards this season, Weber also ranks 20th in the NCAA in touchdown passes (20) and 18th in points responsible for (15.40 ppg).
Weber has taken 732 of the Gophers’ 741 offensive snaps this season and has spread the wealth in the passing game, connecting with 12 different targets thus far. His two primary weapons have been sophomore Eric Decker (59 receptions for 756 yards and 6 touchdowns) and senior Ernie Wheelwright (53 receptions for a 656 yards and 9 touchdowns). Both players rank in the top 10 in the Big Ten in receptions, with Decker checking at No. 4 this week and Wheelwright claiming the No. 7 spot. Together the duo has hauled in a total of 112 receptions, which ranks No. 2 in the league behind the Purdue tandem of Dorien Bryant and Greg Orton, who have totaled 118 together.
On the ground, injuries have forced the Gophers to take a by-committee approach to rushing the ball. With senior Amir Pinnix continuing to be limited by a turf-toe injury and sophomore Jay Thomas lost for the year due to season-ending knee injury, freshman Duane Bennett has emerged as Minnesota’s feature back during conference play. He ranks 10th in the Big Ten in rushing during league games and posted his first career 100-yard rushing performance with 106 yards on 20 carries two weeks ago at Michigan. Weber, who is the Gophers’ second-leading rusher with 460 yards on the year, has also proved to be a viable option on the ground as has the Gophers’ big back, senior Justin Valentine, who rushed for a season-high 22 yards on five attempts last week vs. Illinois.
Up front, Minnesota’s offensive line is putting together another strong campaign. The Gophers’ have allowed just 13 sacks this season on 389 passing attempts for an average of 1.3 per game. That figure ranks 20th nationally and third in the Big Ten.
On defense, Minnesota is yielding an average of 548.5 yards and 37.8 points per game but has been put in a number of tough spots due to the Gophers’ 25 turnovers.
Senior strong safety Dominique Barber has collected double-figures tackles four times this season and is Minnesota’s leading tackler. He ranks sixth in the Big Ten with 85 total stops. Junior linebackers Deon Hightower and Steve Davis have also emerged as play-makers of late. Hightower, the Gophers in tackles for losses with eight, ranks 20th in the Big Ten with 63 tackles and has made 36 stops in the last four games, while Davis has registered 10-tackle performances in each of the last three games.
In the secondary, freshman safety turned cornerback Kyle Theret and senior cornerback turned safety Jamal Harris both have two interceptions to lead the Gophers. Harris also ranks among the Big Ten leaders in passes defended with 12.
BACK ON THE BTN
Minnesota will be making its seventh appearance of the 2007 season on the Big Ten Network this week, when the Golden Gophers take on Iowa. Minnesota is 1-6 when playing on the BTN and has made more appearances on the network than all but Indiana and Northwestern this season. Big Ten Network channel assignments for both DirecTV and Dish Network will be announced as soon as they become available.
GOPHERS AND HAWKEYES BATTLE FOR FLOYD OF ROSEDALE
The 100-game Minnesota-Iowa series is the second oldest in school history for the Gophers. The Gophers and Hawkeyes first met in 1891, but the series really became a signature game in 1935, when a wager between Iowa Governor Clyde Herring and Minnesota Governor Floyd Olson led to the creation of the Floyd of Rosedale trophy.
Emotions were running high heading into the 1935 game with Bernie Bierman’s Gophers 5-0 and Ossie Solem’s Hawkeyes at 4-0-1. Iowa had recently been reinstated to eligibility following a suspension that had been ardently supported by a Minnesota representative.
To make matters worse, Iowa fans were still upset about the game the year before when Minnesota knocked Hawkeye star Ozzie Simmons out of the game. Heading into the 1935 game, the host Hawkeyes and their fans had not forgotten the previous season’s game and Governor Herring stated that “if the officials stand for any rough tactics like Minnesota used last year, I’m sure the crowd won’t.”
Greatly alarmed, Governor Olson tried to cool the high emotions on both sides with a telegram that stated, “Minnesota folks are excited over your statement about Iowa crowds lynching the Minnesota football team. I have assured them that you are a law abiding gentlemen and are only trying to get our goat. I will bet you a Minnesota prize hog against an Iowa prize hog that Minnesota wins.”
Minnesota won the game 13-6 and took home the hog from Rosedale Farms near Fort Dodge, Iowa, which was later named for the Minnesota governor.
The original pig was a full-blooded champion pig and a brother of BlueBoy from the Will Rogers’ movie State Fair. Olson gave the pig to the University of Minnesota and commissioned St. Paul sculptor Charles Brioscho to capture Floyd’s image. The result is a bronze pig 21 inches long and 15 inches high. The Gophers lead the Floyd of Rosedale series 39-31-2.
MORE ON THE SERIES
Minnesota and Iowa will be meeting for the 101st time over all and the 73rd time with the Floyd of Rosedale trophy at stake. Minnesota leads both the all-time series, 59-39-2, and the trophy series, 39-31-2. The Gophers snapped Iowa’s five-year hold on the series, and the trophy, in last year’s regular-season finale with a 34-24 victory at the Metrodome. Minnesota is 23-25-1 all time when playing at Iowa, but has dropped three straight in Iowa City and has not won at Kinnick Stadium since 1999.
MINNESOTA VS. IOWA: The Last Time (Nov. 18, 2006)
Amir Pinnix rushed for 119 yards and two touchdowns and the Minnesota defense picked off Iowa quarterback Drew Tate four times as the Gophers snapped a five-game losing streak vs. Hawkeyes with a 34-24 victory at the Metrodome.
The win made the Gophers bowl eligible for the fifth straight season and earned Minnesota a berth in the Insight Bowl.
Minnesota led 20-17 at the break after a back-and-forth first half that included a 64-yard touchdown pass from Bryan Cupito to Ernie Wheelwright.
Cupito, who would finish the game with 267 yards passing and pair of touchdowns, connected with Matt Spaeth from 3-yards out to extend the Gophers’ lead to 10 late in the third quarter.
A 25-yard dash to the end zone by Pinnix gave Minnesota its biggest lead of the game at 34-17 before Iowa added a TD midway through the fourth quarter to provide the final margin.
MINNESOTA VS. IOWA:The Last Time In Iowa City (Nov. 19, 2005)
Iowa could do no wrong in the 99th meeting between the Golden Gophers and Hawkeyes as Minnesota fell, 52-28, at Kinnick Stadium.
Drew Tate passed for 351 yards and four touchdowns and Iowa raced to a 35-0 lead before John Shevlin’s 60-yard interception return finally got the Gophers on the scoreboard with just under three minutes to play in the first half.
A field goal by Kyle Schlicher gave the Hawks a 38-7 lead at the break and Iowa upped its edge to 45-7 on a 38-yard TD reception by Ed Hinkel.
The Gophers tacked on three rushing touchdowns in the third quarter, but it was too little, too late for Minnesota, which gave up 613 yards of total offense for the game.
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.
