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University of Minnesota Athletics
Blog: Gophers Look to Finish Strong
10/12/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
The University of Minnesota football team has workout shirts, wristbands, banners and other reminders around the football complex with one simple word on them ... "Finish." According to Gopher head coach Tim Brewster, that's what his team is going to work toward for the remainder of this season.
Brewster said the Gophers have been close to a number of victories this season. But "close is not good enough," the head coach said as he addressed the media in his weekly press conference Tuesday afternoon at the Gibson-Nagurksi Complex.
Brewster said Minnesota needs to finish in each individual game, which would lead to a strong finish to the season.
"It's time for us to step up and go play winning football," Brewster said. "Go play winning football for 60 minutes. Finish football games. Our goal was to play 13 games at the beginning of the season. It still is our goal. Obviously we've got an uphill battle to get to that goal. But, again, that's very exciting for us as a football team to take on that challenge, to accept that challenge and down the stretch go play winning football."
In order to get on that winning track, the Gophers will have to win on the road at Purdue Saturday. Brewster praised the Boilermakers for handling a great deal of adversity so far this season. Purdue has lost its top running back, top wide receiver and starting quarterback. Yet the Boilermakers are still 3-2 after coming from behind to defeat previously-undefeated Northwestern last week in Evanston, Ill.
"Purdue's lost a couple of very productive players over the course of the season," Brewster said. "They've lost a really good wide receiver, lost a good runner... a really good quarterback. I think good football teams, breaks come your way. The better football team you are, the better you're playing, it seems like the more breaks that you get. So I give Purdue a great deal of credit for playing the way they played the other night against Northwestern. They played well."
While Purdue's offense is trying to overcome three of its top players, the Boilermaker defense is one of the best in the nation at getting after the quarterback. Defensive end Ryan Kerrigan and his 5.5 sacks are part of the reason why Purdue is No. 4 in the nation in sacks.
"Ryan Kerrigan, I think, is one of the best defensive players in the Big Ten," Brewster said. "They do a nice job with their pressure package. You have to have a plan for how you are going to ‑‑ on every single play, you had to have a plan in the passing game of how you're going to protect against him. I don't want to say exactly how, but we're going to have a plan for Kerrigan because I think he's that disruptive. I think the kid is really a great football player."
Saturday's game could come down to Minnesota's offensive line, which allows just 1.2 sacks per game vs. the Boilermaker defense, which is averaging 3.4 sacks per contest. It could also come down to the running game for Purdue and how the Gopher defense stacks up against it. Purdue is the No. 30 team in the nation in rushing, averaging just less than 200 yards per game. Meanwhile, the Minnesota defense is ranked No. 100 against the rush, allowing nearly 200 yards per game.
"(It's) going to be a good challenge for our football team," Brewster said. We've had success the past two years against Purdue down there and then here last year. Our kids will do a great job with our preparation and we'll take a football team that's confident and prepared to go win down in West Lafayette on Saturday."
Kickoff for Saturday's contest is set for Noon ET. For those of you not making the road trip, the game will air on ESPN2.
-By Andy Seeley, Associate Director of Athletic Communications
