.png&width=42&height=42&type=webp)
University of Minnesota Athletics
Football Game Day Blog - at Illinois
10/11/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
It's game day for Minnesota Golden Gopher Football. Follow along with us here on GopherSports.com as Minnesota plays an important Big Ten road game at Illinois. Garry Bowman and I (Andy Seeley) will give you some insight into the game, a bit of a running commentary and hopefully a look inside some of the things you might not get watching the game on television or listening on the radio. As always, feel free to send a note with a question or comment on the blog, send them to aseeley@umn.edu.
2:16 p.m.
That's it. It's over here in Champaign. The Gophers' incredible turnaround continues. With its sixth win of the season the Gophers are now bowl eligible. Can't say enough about Minnesota's defensive effort today. It was certainly a bend-but-don't-break peformance, but the Gophers were stout when they needed to be.
2:14 p.m.
Minnesota can't run out the clock and has to give it back with 0:33 second to play. After a first down the Illini are at midfield. Can the Gopher defense hold one more time?
2:06 p.m.
Just 1:10 to go and VanDeSteeg hits Williams again. This time as he throws and the ball flutters to the flat where Ryan Collado intercepts it for the Gophers. Minnesota ball at their own 20 with just 0:55 to play! That's three turnovers forced by the Gopher defense to just one give away by the Maroon and Gold offense. The Gophers are going to win the turnover battle again. Minnesota has now forced 20 turnovers on the season and its showing in the Gophers overall record, which will move to 6-1 in about 0:51 seconds.
2:02 p.m.
Big catch and run by Ralph Spry to get the Gophers over midfield but he fumble on the tackle. Illinois recovers. The Minnesota defense will have to stand tall now. 2:21 to play and things are getting tight in Champaign.
2:00 p.m.
Illiniois responds with a big play to pull back within seven at 27-20. Less than five minutes to go in the game. Gophers need to milk some clock here.
1:51 p.m.
The Gophers drive to midfield but stall and have to give the ball back to Illinois with 5:34 to play. VanDeSteeg, who is having a monster game, collectes his third sack on Juice Williams and forces a fumble at the 9-yard line, which Simoni Lawrence scoops up and takes to the house. 27-13 Gophers with 5:22 to play. Wow! Lawrence now has two TDs on the season - one interception, one fumble recovery. VanDeSteeg now has 6.5 sacks on the year. What a huge day for the Minnesota defense.
1:42 p.m.
Illinois' offense just shook loose. The Illini are a big-play offense and they just showed it. Juice Williams just found a wide open A.J. Jenkins on the right sideline for a 54-yard TD strike. That drive took just 1:10 off the clock. Lots of football to play in Champaign, yet. Minnesota 20, Illinois 13 with 10:01 remaining in the game. The Minnesota offense needs to answer. The missed extra point by Joel Monroe looks huge right now, as it should be an eight-point lead for Minnesota.
1:35 p.m.
DeLeon Eskridge just put Minnesota on top 20-6 with great 46-yard, weaving run through the Illinois offense. I was looking for first downs and Eskridge just gave the Gophers a touchdown. For Eskridge, it's his long run of the season (and his young Gopher career). The only negative was a missed PAT by Joel Monroel. 11 minutes, 11 seconds remaining in the game and the Gophers have a two-TD lead.
1:27 p.m.
Back-to-back three-and-outs for the two offenses. Illinois' punt went into the end zone for a touchback. In essence, the Minnesota offense picks up 13 yards on the exchange. First-and-10 for the Gophers at their own 20-yard line. 14:04 left in the game. The Gopher offense (and their defense) could really use a few first downs. Total offense at this point: Illinois - 341; Minnesota - 152.
1:20 p.m.
There's the end of the third quarter. When the fourth quarter begins, Minnesota will face a third-and-4 from its own 7-yard line. A first down or two here would be huge, just for field position. Big play coming up.
Give it up to the Minnesota defense. Gopher opponents have only scored 13 points in the last seven quarters (Indiana and Illinois -- that's against two pretty high-powered offenses as opposition). Heading into the fourth quarter, MInnesota leads 14-6.
1:15 p.m.
A touchdown just came off the board for Illinois. Juice Williams was stopped just shy of the goal line by Steve Davis on fourth-and-goal. The play was originally ruled a TD by the officials on the field, but was overturned by replay. Now, Minnesota has to figure out how to get the ball out of their own end zone.
12:54 p.m.
Illinois answered the Minnesota touchdown by driving deep into Gopher territory. But once again, the Minnesota defense held Illinois out of the end zone. A 28-yard Matt Eller field goal pulled Illinois within eight points. The Gophers have been getting good pressure on Illinois QB Juice Williams. On third-down just prior to the field goal, the Gophers didn't get the sack, but three Gophers were in Williams' face, forcing an errant throw.
Minnesota has 12 sacks on the season, with three today. The Gophers only wrapped up opposing QBs 11 times last year. With 9:09 remaining in the third quarter, Minnesota 14 - Illinois 6.
12:43 p.m.
Huge break and a great play for the Gophers to start the second half. On the first offensive play of the second half, from inside their own 10-yard line, Illinois fumbled. Garrett Brown made a great play as Daniel Dufrene tried to get by him. Brown reached out and stripped the ball. Eric Small then fell on it at the 8-yard line. Three plays later, DeLeon Eskridge plunged in from one yard away. Joel Monroe added the point-after-touchdown. With 13:19 left in the third quarter, Minnesota 14 - Illinois 3.
12:40 p.m.
About to start the second half. If any of you are watching on ESPN and following along with the blog, you may have noticed a basketball court past the south end zone. The Illinois basketball team will hold "The World's Largest Basketball Practice" following the game here at Memorial Stadium. Kind of a cool promotion. The Gophers are about to kick off to start the second half.
12:22 p.m.
The Gophers hold and take a 7-3 lead into halftime. Illinois' three points are its fewest in a first half this season. In fact, the longest the Illini have been held out of the end zone this season was 15:05 minutes, and that occurred last week at Michigan (a 45-20 win for Illinois). Illinois' previous low for first half points was 14 at Penn State earlier this season. Great job by the Maroon and Gold defense today. We'll be back with more after intermission.
12:14 p.m.
An "invalid fair-catch" signal by Illinois' punt returner Arrelious Benn saves the Illini from a turnover inside their own 20-yard line with less than a minute to play in the opening half. That could prove to be a huge play in the game as the Gophers would have undoubtedly put at least some kind of points on the board heading into intermission. It is the second time in the game that Benn has give a less than half-hearted fair catch signal on a punt return. The curious thing about Benn's return is that he ran after catch the ball with all the intention of a punt return. Very interesting interpretation.
12:07 p.m.
Illinois has now kicked off twice in the game and booted each one out of bounds. In truth, they haven't even been close. I guess that's one way to keep the ball out of Troy Stoudermire's hands.
12:03 p.m.
The Minnesota defense is practicing the bend-but-don't-break philosophy here in the first half. Illinois just drove deep into Gopher territory, but had to settle for another field-goal attempt. This time, Illinois' Matt Eller converted a 33-yarder to get Illinois on the scoreboard. Illinois has accumulated 171 total yards to just 96 for the Gophers. But with 3:00 left in the first quarter, Minnesota leads 7-3.
11:50 a.m.
Minnesota just successfully ran a fake punt from deep in its own territory. Punter Justin Kucek completed a pass from Kevin Mannion to give the Gophers a first down. Gutsy call by Coach Brewster, but it paid off with a first down. Three plays later, the Gophers were forced to punt anyway. But the fake punt did help Minnesota with a little field position.
11:40 a.m.
That's the end of the first quarter. Minnesota holds a 7-0 lead. It is the first time all season that Illinois has not scored in the first quarter.
11:34 a.m.
Minnesota stalled out on its second offensive possession. But Justin Kucek showed what kind of weapon he can be, pinning Illinois back at its own 13-yard line. It was the 11th time this season that Kucek has put a punt inside the 20-yard line. Illinois is averaging a starting field position of its own 8-yard line in this game. If Minnesota can keep up that trend, they can help themselves a lot against this explosive Illini offense.
11:26 a.m.
Illini kicker Matt Eller missed the field-goal attempt wide left. With 6:21 remaining in the first quarter, Minnesota maintains its 7-0 lead.
11:25 a.m.
Minnesota's kickoff was mishandled by the Illini and left Illinois with possession at its own 3-yard line to start its first possession. The Illini have methodically driven to the Minnesota 28-yard line. But they face a fourth-and-1 and Illini coach Ron Zook has called a timeout to decide what to do. It looks like he has decided to kick a 45-yard field goal.
11:12 a.m.
Eric Decker just made a great play along the Minnesota sideline, giving him a 25-yard touchdown reception from Adam Weber. The play was originally ruled out of bounds at the 3-yard line. But after a review, it was determined Decker broke the plane of the goal line before going out of bounds. It was Decker's first receiving TD since the Florida Atlantic game. He now has five receiving TDs this season. The catch also gives Decker more than 2,000 yards receiving for his career. He is the sixth Gopher to go over 2,000 yards receiving in his career.
11:54 remaining in the first quarter ... Minnesota 7, Illinois 0.
11:00 a.m.
The captains are at midfield. As usual, the Gophers are represented by seniors Willie VanDeSteeg and Steve Davis, junior Eric Decker and sophomore Adam Weber. Here's the toss ... Minnesota has won the toss and will take the ball to open the game. The Gophers will defend the north goal.
10:55 a.m.
Today's game is a bit of a homecoming for five Gopher players. Brandon Green, Curtis Hughes, Johnny Johnson, Jack Simmons and Eric Small are all natives of the state of Illinois. It is also a homecoming of sorts for Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster, who is an Illinois grad and former Illini tight end. To maintain the homecoming theme ... it is also Homecoming this weekend here at Illinois. The Illini have an alumni band playing on the field, as well as all the other traditional Homecoming activities.
10:30 a.m.
I'm writing this from Memorial Stadium's brand-spanking-new press box. It is a very nice facility, which is still in the process of having the finishing touches made to it. This is my first trip to Champaign for a football game, but from what I hear this new facility was a much-needed upgrade. It is nice and spacious and has most all of the amenities one could ask for in a press box. The price tag on the renovations here at Memorial Stadium (which also included a new complex in the north end zone and a few other cosmetic items) is $121 million. It looks like money well spent.
Now, on to the important stuff ... the pre-game spread for press box food. As I mentioned on the last road trip, breakfast food is hard to screw up and is a favorite of mine, so the Illinois spread is automatically going to get a decent score. The eggs were pretty good. The sausage gravy and biscuit were very good (almost as good as my wife's). There were also various pastries, fruits, drinks, etc. available. All this would give the press box spread a solid rating of 7.5.
But here's where Illinois went above and beyond and bumped its score up to 8.5 ... ice cream. There is a Blue Bunny cooler in the back of the press box, fully stocked with Blue Bunny ice cream products. I'm definitely looking forward to some ice cream before too long.
-AS
10:15 a.m.
Good morning from the Twin Cities. No ... I'm not sitting by myself at the Metrodome waiting for the game to start, when the team is really on the road at Illinois. I'm talking about the Big Ten's other Twin Cities - Champaign-Urbana. Many of the Gophers are already out on the field and warming up. They'll be wearing their all-white uniform combination that they have worn for both of their previous road games.
I know many of you are waiting for an update on the press box spread and the finger-lick score. But before I get to that, let me just say that Garry Bowman and I are hoping we're the only members of the travel party that didn't sleep well last night. I won't mention the hotel we stayed at, because I've stayed at this chain's properties in the past and had a very pleasant experience. Last night, however, was not one of those times.
The beds we were subjected to were unbelievably bad. If any grouchiness comes through in the blog, you can attribute it to our aching backs and lack of sleep. Just to give you an idea of how hard these beds were (and that's not even mentioning the springs sticking through and poking me in the back) ... I'd like to give you a list of things I've slept on that were more comfortable ...
- The two-inch thick mattress and springs I slept on in my first college dorm room
- The bed I bought at the Goodwill for my first apartment after college graduation
- The air mattress I used before I broke down and bought that bed at Goodwill
- The camping cot I use when I spend a night in the great outdoors
- The two-inch piece of foam I used in the great outdoors before I bought the camping cot
- Any couch I've ever slept on
- Any hide-away bed I've ever slept on
I could keep going ... but you get the picture. Back in a few minutes with some info. on the press box food and the new press box here at Memorial Stadium in Champaign.
-AS
