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University of Minnesota Athletics
Blog: Gophers Understand Challenge of Facing Buckeyes
10/26/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Ohio State University is ranked No. 10 in the nation and enters Saturday's matchup versus Minnesota with a 7-1 overall record. The Golden Gophers enter the contest at TCF Bank Stadium with a 1-7 mark and a seven-game losing streak.
But Minnesota's interim head coach Jeff Horton is preparing his team to score a victory Saturday. Horton said you've got to view every game as a competitor and look for ways you can win the game.
"It's a great opportunity for the University of Minnesota," Horton said during his weekly press conference Tuesday afternoon at the Gibson-Nagurski Complex. "It's no different if you're a surgeon. You'd want the surgeon coming in to operate on you ... thinking that he's doing to do a great job, got a chance to make you better. You wouldn't want him thinking, 'This is a little tough. I don't know if I have a good chance to save this guy.'"
So as the Golden Gophers hit the practice field Tuesday to begin their work week, Horton will begin to shape his team's game plan and its mind-set for this weekend's contest.
"We're going to do everything we can in preparation and working with the kids to try to win that football game on Saturday," Horton said. "When we hit that stadium at 7 o'clock to start it, I know our mindset is we've got a plan in place, let's go do it. We really think we can win that game."
Of course Horton understands many don't even give his team a shot to upset the highly-ranked Buckeyes. But he believes that if his team takes a fighter's mentality into the contest they will have a chance.
"The big thing is, when you play an Ohio State team, you have to be in attack mode," Horton said. "You've got to go right at 'em, right from the start. I think if you sit back and wait for something to happen -- sit back, hope they make a mistake - you've got no chance. Whether it's the kicking game, offense, defense, we've got to come out and try to attack them right from the very start. It's going to be a title fight. We'll tell the kids today in the team meeting, 'Eventually you're going to be in that ring on Saturday. You've got to start throwing punches or the results won't be good.'"
-By Andy Seeley, Associate Director of Athletic Communications
