The Gophers accepted their invitation to the Music City Bowl today so it looks like it'll be a Gophers/Crimson Tide matchup, which was the probable matchup since Northwestern lost last night to Hawaii.
It should be a pretty good matchup of two awesome running teams. Alabama has the obvious advantage defensively. Minnesota sports Marion Barber III and Lawrence Maroney, who each ran for 1,000 yards this season for the 2ND CONSECUTIVE SEASON. That's the first time in NCAA history that teammates have run for 1000 yards in back to back seasons. Pretty incredible. They have a soph. qb named Bryan Cupito who has been the epitome of inconsistent. He's completed only 47% of his passes but he's averaged more than 8 yards per attempt; both statistics a result of the way the gophers love to throw down the field. Their recievers are tall and fast and have made some serious acrobatic catches this year. Earnest Wheelwright is a 6'5 210 lb. FRESHMAN that leads the gophers in catches with 30 for 654 and 7 TDs for a whopping 21.8 yards/catch.
The Gophers won their first 5 games of the season, which included a whipping of Toledo 63-21. However, after that they lost 5 of 6 which included embarassing losses, 51-17 to 5-6 Michigan State, 30-21 to 3-8 Indiana, and 38-14 to Wisconsin. But they were also extremely competetive with Michigan until a late TD put Minn. away and against Iowa when they missed a 50 yard FG in a 29-27 loss.
So what we are dealing with here is a team that has the exact same record( 6-5; 3-5) as Alabama and who likes to run the ball. They have serious athletes on offense and have a soft, pretty bad defense. They've been a big play group all year that's been capable of hanging with top 15 teams like Michigan and Iowa, losing by a combined 5 points. But they've also layed down to Michigan State, allowing 51, and losing on the road to Indiana, which is always embarassing. They'll probably come pumped up to play Alabama, as everyone does, so we'd better play our A-game.
It should be a pretty good matchup of two awesome running teams. Alabama has the obvious advantage defensively. Minnesota sports Marion Barber III and Lawrence Maroney, who each ran for 1,000 yards this season for the 2ND CONSECUTIVE SEASON. That's the first time in NCAA history that teammates have run for 1000 yards in back to back seasons. Pretty incredible. They have a soph. qb named Bryan Cupito who has been the epitome of inconsistent. He's completed only 47% of his passes but he's averaged more than 8 yards per attempt; both statistics a result of the way the gophers love to throw down the field. Their recievers are tall and fast and have made some serious acrobatic catches this year. Earnest Wheelwright is a 6'5 210 lb. FRESHMAN that leads the gophers in catches with 30 for 654 and 7 TDs for a whopping 21.8 yards/catch.
The Gophers won their first 5 games of the season, which included a whipping of Toledo 63-21. However, after that they lost 5 of 6 which included embarassing losses, 51-17 to 5-6 Michigan State, 30-21 to 3-8 Indiana, and 38-14 to Wisconsin. But they were also extremely competetive with Michigan until a late TD put Minn. away and against Iowa when they missed a 50 yard FG in a 29-27 loss.
So what we are dealing with here is a team that has the exact same record( 6-5; 3-5) as Alabama and who likes to run the ball. They have serious athletes on offense and have a soft, pretty bad defense. They've been a big play group all year that's been capable of hanging with top 15 teams like Michigan and Iowa, losing by a combined 5 points. But they've also layed down to Michigan State, allowing 51, and losing on the road to Indiana, which is always embarassing. They'll probably come pumped up to play Alabama, as everyone does, so we'd better play our A-game.
to earn the nickname "Golden Gophers" when the school was founded in 1920-something. Minnesota won the Natty Championship in football that year, either '27 or '28 or something like that, so our school used that for a mascot and nickname. So we have been known as big rats. 
