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University of Minnesota Athletics
Blog: Gophers Looking Forward to Homecoming
9/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
The University of Minnesota football team is looking forward to this week's match-up against Northwestern, a significant game that marks both Homecoming and the start of the Big Ten season.
The Gophers are hoping to feed off a noisy home student crowd that is celebrating their Homecoming and using that emotion to gather extra motivation to give the fans plenty of reasons to be loud.
"It's Homecoming, the student section is going to be rocking," freshman defensive back Brock Vereen said. "The crowd is going to be very excited and we can feed off that energy to try to beat Northwestern."
Minnesota will need as much fan support as it can get as it will have its hands full against a Northwestern team that is 4-0 for the second time in three years and is coming off of a 30-25 win over Central Michigan.
The Wildcats have been solid on both sides of the ball and have yet to trail in a game this season. Northwestern currently ranks 53rd in country, averaging 30 points per game , while giving up an average of just 15.5 points per game, which is 22nd in the nation.
The Gophers will be looking to control the ball as much as possible, something they have excelled at so far this season as they rank second in the country with an average possession time of 35 minutes, 35 seconds per game.
While not dismissing their 1-3 non-conference record, the Gophers are approaching the game against Northwestern as an opportunity to open the Big Ten season on a positive note.
"The Big Ten is ultimately what it comes down to and that's how we'll be judged," senior quarterback Adam Weber said.
-Athletic Communications Assistant Keith Beise
