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University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Continue Home Stand Saturday
11/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Minnesota Game Notes - vs. Illinois
GOPHERS CONTINUE HOME STAND, HOST ILLINI SATURDAY
The Minnesota Golden Gophers play the second of a season-long three-game home stand Saturday. Minnesota needs one more victory to become bowl-eligible after defeating Michigan State 42-34 last week. Illinois enters the contest with a 2-6 overall record and a 1-5 mark in Big Ten action.
Saturday’s matchup is the 63rd in the series between Illinois and Minnesota. The Gophers hold a 32-27-3 advantage in the all-time series. Minnesota has won seven of the last nine, including a 27-20 victory in Champaign, Ill. last season.
Illinois has struggled this season. But the Illini are coming off a dominant 38-13 win over Michigan.
The Big Ten Network will televise the game. Matt Rosen will call the play-by-play. Former Golden Gopher wide receiver Ron Johnson will be in the analyst. A completely different Ron Johnson will be on the sideline.
SCOUTING MINNESOTA
With a 5-4 record, Minnesota had its biggest offensive performance of the season last week in a 42-34 win over Michigan State. The Gophers have trailed in all five of their victories. In fact, Minnesota was down in the fourth quarter in four of their five wins.
Quarterback Adam Weber has taken nearly every snap for the past two-plus seasons. He has seen a few snaps go to freshman MarQueis Gray this season, but is coming off a career night vs. Michigan State. Weber threw for 416 yards and five TDs en route to Big Ten Player of the Week honors vs. the Spartans. He set the Minnesota single-season records for passing yardage (2,895), TDs passing (24), completions (258) and attempts (449) in 2007. Earlier this season, he became the Gophers’ career completions leader and currently has a total of 629. Minnesota’s career receptions and receiving yardage record-holder Eric Decker has been lost for the season to a foot injury. Decker is a Biletnikoff Award semifinalist.
Minnesota is allowing 26.1 points per game. The Gopher linebacking corps had at least one double-digit tackler in each of the first eight games. Nate Triplett, Lee Campbell and Simoni Lawrence are the starters at LB. Up front, Garrett Brown had a career-best seven stops, including 3 TFL, on the way to Big Ten co-Defensive Player of the Week honors. The secondary returns three starters -- CBs Marcus Sherels and Traye Simmons and safety Kyle Theret. Sherels notched his first INT of the season last week.
SCOUTING ILLINOIS
Illinois comes into this week’s game with a 2-6 overall record and a 1-5 mark in Big Ten action. The Illini hadn’t won a game against a Football Bowl Subdivision team in 2009 until last week, when they rolled to a 38-13 win over Michigan.
Illinois is coached by Ron Zook, who is in his fifth season as the head coach in Champaign, Ill. Zook came to the Illini after three seasons as head coach at Florida. Zook has 32 years of coaching experience at the high school, collegiate and professional levels.
Offensively, Illinois has struggled throwing the ball and scoring. The Illini are No. 104 in the nation in passing offense and No. 108 in scoring. Illinois is No. 20 in the nation in rushing offense. Defensively, Illinois is in the lower third of the nation in nearly every team statistic. The Illini rank No. 93 in the country in rush defense, No. 82 in pass defense, No. 96 in total defense and No. 74 in scoring defense.
QUICK HITTERS
> Minnesota ranks No. 1 in the nation in punt return average, going for 19.0 yards per return. However, the Gophers have only returned three punts in nine games this season.
> The Gophers are No. 8 in the nation in net punting, averaging 39.91 yards of field position per punt.
> Minnesota averaged 32 yards per kick return, including a 71-yarder last week. The Gophers are now No. 22 in the nation with an average of 24.5 yards per return.
> Minnesota set school records for penalties and penalty yards in a game last week. The Gophers were flagged 17 times for 157 yards. The 17 flags were also a Big Ten conference game record.
> Minnesota has come from behind in all five of its victories this season. The Gophers have trailed in the fourth quarter of four of those wins.
THE ILLINOIS SERIES
Saturday’s game will be the 63rd gridiron meeting between the University of Minnesota and the University of Illinois. Minnesota leads the series 32-27-3.
The Gophers hold a 19-10-2 advantage in home games vs. Illinois. Minnesota won last season’s matchup 27-20 in Champaign, Ill. The Gophers have won seven of the last nine vs. the Illini. Minnesota’s average margin of victory was 34.7-11.1 in those seven victories.
START ME UP
The Gophers scored seven points in two games prior to last week’s outing vs. Michigan State. But the Gophers scored 14 points in the first 1:47 last week vs. the Spartans. In fact, Minnesota got on the scoreboard twice before Michigan State ever ran a play from scrimmage.
Minnesota scored on its opening play from scrimmage when Adam Weber found Duane Bennett, who tight-roped down the Gopher sideline for a 62-yard score. It was the first time Minnesota had scored on its first play from scrimmage since a 41-10 win over Tulsa on Sept. 1, 2005, when Laurence Maroney ran for a 67-yard TD on the first play.
THAT'S JUST OFFENSIVE
Minnesota rolled up season-high marks for points, total offense and passing offense. The Gophers racked up 42 points against Michigan State. They racked up 505 yards of total offense, with 416 of those yards coming through the air.
It was the first time Minnesota has reached the 40-point plateau since Sept. 6, 2008 at Bowling Green (W 42-17). It was the first time Minnesota reached the 500-yard mark in total offense since Sept. 22, 2007 (501 vs. Wisconsin). The last time the Gophers passed for more than 400 yards was Oct. 21, 1995 (404 vs. Michigan State).
Minnesota improved from No. 89 to No. 69 in the nation in passing offense after last week’s explosion.
WEBER WIPES OUT ANOTHER RECORD
Gopher quarterback Adam Weber continues to re-write the Minnesota record book. Last week, Weber became Minnesota’s all-time passing yardage leader. He broke Bryan Cupito’s career mark of 7,446 yards midway through the fourth quarter when he hooked up with Da’Jon McKnight for a 14-yard gain. In Week 2, Weber set the Minnesota record for career completions (his total is now 648). The previous record of 539 completions was held by Cory Sauter (1994-97). He also set the Gopher career record for passing attempts this season. Weber set single-season records for passing yards (2,985), completions (258), attempts (449), touchdown passes (24) and total offensive yardage (3,512) in 2007.
BROWN BAGGING IT
Senior defensive tackle Garrett Brown tallied a career-best and team-high seven tackles (including six solo stops) last week vs. Michigan State. Three of those stops were behind the line of scrimmage, also a career-best for Brown. He also recorded a forced fumble and a fumble recovery vs. the Spartans. All that eventually earned Brown his first-ever Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honor.
BENNETT'S BOUNTY
Sophomore running back Duane Bennett has been a solid receiver out of the backfield for Minnesota for his entire career. But his 59-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown against Michigan State last week will be remembered for a while. Quarterback Adam Weber threw toward Nick Tow-Arnett, who was hauling the ball in as he was hammered to the ground by an MSU defender. The ball bounced off Tow-Arnett, straight up into the hands of Bennett, who raced roughly 35 yards for the score.
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