October 20, 2025 • 44 mins
Justin Gaard reviews the Gophers dominant 24-6 victory over Nebraska on Friday night as they improve to 5-2 and 3-1 in the Big Ten. Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated makes his weekly appearance with his thoughts on the great defensive effort, the offensive line and running game improvement and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, I'm into the sixty five one carpets plus studios
on a Sunday morning. I'm justin garden. This is Gopher
Football Sunday. We are here until nine o'clock. Dan Barrero
takes over for an hour long Sunday sermons before we
turn it over to Vikings covers. The Vikings and the
Eagles coming up a little bit later today from US
Bank Stadium. If you're new to the show, we try
to carve out an hour of Gopher discussion before we
(00:24):
turn it all over to the Vikings coverage. And that's
what we will do today. Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated
dot Com. He will join me next segment, a couple
of segments with Burnsy today to talk about an authoritative,
comprehensive I'd say pretty fun. Victory over Nebraska a couple
of nights ago on Friday night at Huntington Banks Stadium,
twenty four to six was the final. The Gophers improved
(00:46):
a five and two overall, three and one in the
Big Ten, and they've got the Iowa Hawk guys who
beat Penn State late last night.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Next week down at Kinnick.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
We all remember what happened last time when the Gophers
went down to Kinnick, So I'm sure that will be
a story of the week as well if you are
new to the show, What we do, what we liked,
what we did like in the first segment before Burnsy
joins me, you can hit the Bradshawn Brian Campae in
text line six four six eight six, And essentially the
defense is where I want to start. Sometimes we start
(01:15):
with what we didn't like. I don't know if there
was much to not like on Friday night. Like I mentioned,
it was pretty authoritative, It was pretty thorough, especially once.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
They got going in the second half.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
There really wasn't much that Nebraska was going to be
able to do, and the Gophers found enough offensively. And
we'll talk about some of those things as we go on,
but it was all about the defense. I thought on
Friday night they were spectacular. And we mentioned all week
that the Golphers were going to have to find a
way to improve their tackling. They had not tackled very
well pretty much all season, especially during the Power Four games.
(01:49):
Didn't tackle well against Cal, didn't tackle great against Rutgers
to start, didn't tackle great against Ohio State. Okay, that
makes sense, But then they didn't tackle well against Purdue
at all and gave up over four hundred yards to
a Purdue offense that got shut out yesterday at Northwestern
Football's Weird College football is strange, and tackling had to
(02:09):
be the number one thing that they talked about, and
it sounds like it was.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
PJ.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Flex said postgame that they spent basically thirty minutes on
a tackling circuit that usually takes about three. They emphasized it,
They got what they emphasized, and from the very first
play of the game they tackled well. They had missed
almost fifty tackles against the Power four teams, and they
missed some on Friday. But for the most part, the
yards after the catch that you heard Burnsy and I
(02:34):
talked about in the pregame show were non existent for Nebraska.
I remember one super long catch and run for one
of the Nebraska wide receivers. Other than that, they brought
them down pretty much where they needed to. An excellent
job to hold Nebraska at two hundred and thirty yards
of total offense. Again, another offense that had been more explosive,
that had been more efficient, that had given big ten
(02:56):
teams trouble. The Gophers were phenomenal in that area Friday.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Nine sacks.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Nine sacks, that's a school record going back to nineteen
seventy seven. And everybody got in on it, right. Carter
Menz got in on it. Jackson Howard got in on it.
Anthony Smith, he's always in on it. He got in
on it. Matt Kingsbury with maybe the play of the day,
you know, throwing Emma Johnson back into his quarterback and
then sacking Dylan Reyola. The defense was outstanding and that's really,
(03:26):
to me the story. They were the ones that really
needed to find some consistency and they were able to
find some on Friday.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
It was an awesome defensive effort and.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
We played on the postgame show, which obviously took forever
because the field ended up getting storms by the students.
We ended up playing, from what I'm told, all nine
sacks took two and a half minutes to play all
of those sacks. It was a lot of fun. It
was a great effort and really a necessary effort because
again that was something that didn't happen a week ago
(03:57):
when they couldn't sack Ohio State and they couldn't sack
the Purdue quarterback either Ryan Brown, even though they were
all over him all night, they could never bring him
to the ground. Whatever they changed, whatever they figured out,
the fact that Dylan Rayola walks himself into sacks at times.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
We talked about that pregame as well.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
It was an interesting matchup that way, a quarterback that
gets sacked against the team that hasn't turned in a
bunch of sacks. The Gophers won that battle big time,
and I don't know what they changed. We'll talk to
PJ about it maybe later in the week with his
coaches shows and everything, but it was a huge part
of the game, and the Nebraska offense could never really
get going, and that's a credit to really how everybody tackled,
(04:35):
how the defense rushed, the rush lane, integrity, the whole bit.
They were absolutely sensational and so one of the best
defensive efforts we've seen in a really long time, and
I thought really set the tone for everything so the
offense could find itself, which it eventually did, and that's
where we.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Go next with what we liked.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
The other thing we talked about all week was how
did the Gophers get some type of running game going
offensive line has been a talking point. They switched a
couple of things up again on Friday that seemed to
work just enough to get things going for Darius Taylor
and the long run seventy yard or on the first
touchdown drive that got the whole thing going.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Good.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Couple of blocks Darius Taylor does the rest gets caught
from behind. Didn't have the breakaway speed. That's all right,
they score. I think the next play on a tush
push you're up seven to three and you're often running
one hundred and forty eight yards for him. Thought family
eg boy ran really well as well, over thirty yards
for him on four yards of carry. You don't have
to run a ton, and they actually did when you
(05:36):
factor in Darius Taylor's big night almost one fifty over
two thousand for his career now, but you have to
be able to run enough. As much as we love
what Drake Lindsay's doing, as much as we love how
he's kind of got command of everything, you have to
be able to run enough just to keep things honest,
and they were able to do it. So credit to
the offensive line probably their most physical game of the season,
(05:59):
and credit to Darius Taylor is just great to see
him back healthy and being able to do what he's doing.
Another touchdown later in the game, one yard er after
a nice catch and run by Jalen Smith. A couple
of nice runs to kind of finish the game off.
When you want to have Nebraska bleed their timeouts, you
need to pick up a couple of first downs. It
was just a really complete game that way from the offense,
(06:20):
probably their most complete game of the season. You don't
have a fourteen play, ninety eight yard touchdown drive that
takes about nine minutes off the clock unless you're executing
at a really high level. And that's the last thing
we can bring up that we like PJ talked about
at post game, how much you loved that drive. You're
up seven to six, you get down the ball down
to your two yard line. That's not a great situation,
(06:43):
but they get out of they get.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Themselves out of being backed up.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
A couple of nice Darius Taylor runs, Drake Lindsay finds
oil Mecky Brockington to pick up a first down, a
really nice throw for him, again fitting in between a
couple of different Nebraska Cornhuskers, and you pick up the
third downs. You get the penalty on Nebraska on the
fourth downs fourteen plays, ninety eight yards, great pass from
Drake to Lindsay, I should say, from Drake to Brockington
for the touchdown.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
You're up fourteen to six. And that was pretty much it.
I mean, it didn't.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Feel like Nebraska ever really threatened after that, and that
was just an authoritative, again, comprehensive drive that really kind
of encapsulated the identity of the game for the Gophers.
So a nice win overall. The Nebraska stuff to me
is hilarious. We're going to talk about it with Burns,
I know, we'll talk about it on PARENTI spare Gophers
(07:32):
have beaten Nebraska six straight times, just telling you in
college football that probably shouldn't happen. Even though Nebraska's not
who Nebraska was. No program in America is desperately trying
to get back to who they were and what they
were more than Nebraska. And I called this game back
in the summer on how it was going to go down.
(07:52):
I didn't know the Gophers were going to win twenty
four to six. I didn't even know if the Gophers
were going to win, but I knew looking at Nebraska's
schedule and the fact that they are improved, they'd probably
be five, they'd probably be six and zero, five and one.
With that Michigan game a few weeks ago, kind of
the game that people weren't sure about, and they were
going to be ranked because we love nothing more than
to rank Nebraska the second that we think we can
(08:14):
rank Nebraska, and they come in here ranked twenty fifth,
five and one. But if you kind of watch the games,
it was not super impressive all the time. They barely
beat Maryland. They Michigan game is a big game for them,
they lose at home. I just didn't know what they
had there, and I didn't know the Gophers were going
to twenty four to six them. I didn't know they
were going to look that lifeless. But I just didn't
(08:36):
I never bought the nine point spread that it got
up to. I never really bought the seven point spread
that it got up to. I think it finished at
about seven. I just thought it'd be a little bit closer.
I didn't think they were going to come in here
and dominate. But that's what we like to do. We
like to jump back to the nineties as quickly as
we possibly can, and certainly the Nebraska.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Media was doing that all week. When you have people.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Predicting a forty two to thirteen Nebraska victory talking about
college football playoffs and stuff, it's just I just don't
know what we're watching. But college football is a weird game.
Gophers not the Gophers problem. They win twenty four to six.
They're now five and two and three and one in
the Big Ten, and we head to Iowa City next
week to take on the Hawk Gys who knocked off
Penn State last night. Hit the branch on Brian Cavan
(09:19):
text line six four six s eight six. But when
we come back, our buddy Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated
dot Com joins me for his weekly appearance. We'll do
that next when we return to Gopher Football Sunday on
the Fan. Welcome back Gopher Football Sunday on the Fan.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Guards you here in the six five one carpets plus studio.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Don't forget Dan Barrero Sunday sermons coming up at nine
before we turn it over to Vikings and Eagles coverage
at ten o'clock. With the Vikings back off the by,
we're reviewing a twenty four to six victory on Friday
night at Huntington Banks Stadium. The Gophers knocked off ranked
Nebraska their number. They're six win against the Cornhuskers in
a row. They're five and two and three and one
(09:58):
of the Big Ten. As we always do. Around eight
fifteen on Sunday morning, Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot
Com joins on the Kinnectical Water Systems hotline, how have
you enjoyed the weekend free of football?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Burnsey?
Speaker 1 (10:10):
After a lovely Friday night game? Fans hate it. I
don't know how you feel about it. I'm selfish.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
We've had the whole weekend to basically do whatever we
wanted because the game was taken on Friday night.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
How have you enjoyed your freedom?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
You get an extra twenty four hours to recover from
the fifth night game in the first seven games of
the season. And I know from looking at the tailgate
lots before looking at the people still stumbling around hunting
And Banks Stadium at one point thirty two o'clock in
the morning when I left, that there were certainly amount
of a healthy amount of students still enjoying the night
(10:47):
so being able to catch up on some sleep. This
is what it's like in your thirties now, I mean
you were trying to tell me this for quite a
long time, absolutely trying to catch up on your sleep,
getting to watch some college football. It's always a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah. Shout out by the way too. There. They're definitely
a big friend that.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I hope this guy is going to be the best
man at this next guy's wedding. As I'm going down
Fourth Street right just past the KK, the College Club,
which to me will always be the Library.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Ye, shout out.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
To the guy who pulled his friend back from the
road because he just decided he was going to walk
when multiple cars, including mine, were going about twenty seven
miles an hour and he didn't see us because I
imagine he was in those tailgate lots or maybe at
the KK for all day. So shout out to that guy.
You saved your buddy's life, and hopefully you can give
(11:35):
a good best man speech someday. But that's college, right,
that's college football. Saturdays, that's what it's and Friday nights.
That's what it's supposed to look like, right, making poor
choices and having a hell of a time. At least
that's what they telled me at all five of my colleges.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
And making memories and what type of memories were they making. Well,
it's your golden Gophers with another victory over Nebraska gard too.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, there's so much to talk about from this one,
and I'm going to try to not I'm going to
try to not do my Nebraska rant here. I think
I'm going to save that for pair and a spare,
because I know.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
It's already been in the text messages. I already saw text.
I can't wait to get it on Tuesday.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Text messages even before the game when you joined me
on Oak Street. Yeah, but I got Yeah, I'm not
going to get into it now because we'll derail the show.
And I think people want to talk about the Gophers
and they should.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Let's talk.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I think we got to start talking about the defense.
I don't know what you think. That's what I opened with.
A week after Purdue gashed them for what four hundred
plus yards, Devin Makabee had another unbelievable game. The turnovers
really saved their bacon. To use the analogy for this
coming week against Iowa, the turnovers really saved them. The
turnovers not a factor on Friday night. It was just
(12:45):
dominant dominant, dominant defense. What is your headline from the
defensive effort on Friday?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Nine sacks for your Gopher defense after going two consecutive
games without any sacks. Continues to be the jeckyal and
high nature of this Danny Collins defense so far, but
the nine sacks overall are the most in a Gopher
football game since the modern records go back to nineteen
seventy seven. From the opening drive until the final play
(13:12):
of the game, it was Anthony Smith, Carter Menz and
a host of different Gophers. And that was the thing
that changed from last week to this week was physicality.
I had preached about it all week. Where is the physicality?
Purdue punched you in the mouth defensively. You noted it.
Purdue put up over four hundred and fifty total yards,
ran it for over two hundred and fifty and we
(13:34):
didn't see a lot from the Gopher defensive line in
the first few games of the season. They responded in
a massive way on Friday night. For whatever reason, PJ.
Fleck knows how to get the most out of his
team when they play the Nebraska Huskers, and it was
an entire, an entire defensive effort. I think the best
play that personified the physicality was Matt Kingsbury knocking Emmett
(13:57):
Johnson back to hold the Angels High School in a
route to getting to Dylan Riola on one of the
nine sacks. Now we'll get to Ryola and the things
he has to work on, because yeah, I think he
took some horrific sacks of times. But the defensive game
plan from Danny Collins to send pressure and then without
their top cornerback and john Nester having a converted safety
(14:21):
in Jayontay McMillan and Zaikwon Bryan hold up in coverage.
I think those were the two keys the pass rush
finally got home. But you also have to commend the
secondary that's banged up on the back end for doing
their part and covering for three four five seconds.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah, the Kingsbury plays one that I think people will
remember for a really long time.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Right, that was unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I think the tone was set on the first play
Burns e where they throw it out to the LEFTU.
You had the best number I thought of the entire
week that Nebraska was feasting on yards after the catch, right,
and when you looked at the Gophers defense that was
troubling from what we'd seen through the first six games.
And the first play of the game, Rail throws it
(15:05):
out to the left and zekwon Bryant's right there. I
think it was a gain of one right and he's
got to make the tackle otherwise it's a gain of
you know, eight, nine, ten, whatever it was. How does
a team get so much better at tackling? I know
there was still some missed ones, and Emma Johnson does
kind of make you you know, he is shifty for sure,
but the dramatic improvement in tackling when they couldn't bring
(15:26):
anybody down a week ago and against Cal and at
times against Rutgers too, they were so sound I thought,
I'm thinking maybe four or five times they didn't, you know,
they didn't make the tackle when they needed to.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
How do you get so much better in one week?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
So that's one of the things we asked like about afterwards,
was why was it so much better? And he actually
gave a great nugget that on Tuesday's practice. The defense
they do this every practice. I've seen it with my
own two eyes, one of view. They do a tackling circuit.
It's normally for four or five minutes. Well, on Tuesday
they did it for twenty five minutes. And we also
(16:04):
talked about it with Maverick Baranowski and Anthony Smith afterwards
and said, did you feel it that maybe the head
coach was trying to drill a point home of let's
clean up the mistackles? And Maverick Baranowski looked at us
and he said, I felt every second of it. We
got the point that we need to tackle better, and
they did, and that's a huge part of their win
(16:24):
the other night is just being able to tackle well
in space, and they didn't allow Riola to make too
many second plays. And we saw the pitch play of
which I'm still unclear of how that went over Joey
Girlock's head. Not only was completed, but for a first
down you saw a left handed pass. But their tackling
effort from Zaykwon Bryant to Jayontay McMillan to I think
(16:47):
both linebackers and Maverick Baranowski and Devin Williams tackled well.
Emmett Johnson got his he still had one hundred total yards,
and I think the kid from Holy Angels played well overall,
but the mistackles in space, which were prevalent in the
first half of the Big Ten schedule, they were not
there on Friday night.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Ryan Burns Gopher Illustrated dot Com joining us here on
Gopher Football Sunday. Barrero has Sunday sermons from nine to ten.
We're discussing the Gophers victory Friday night twenty four to
six over Nebraska. They're now five and two, three and
one in the Big Ten. I liked Anthony Smith's line
in the post game that he was like Oprah, everybody
gets a sack for a while, it had really just
been him, right, and he had another great game last night, obviously,
(17:28):
But how about Jackson Howard getting in on the fun?
How about Carter Menz go crazy North Dakota getting in
on the fun. I think my favorite play was howard
sack where the right tackle just decided not to block
them bold strategy, Cotton. He went in to help Emma Johnson,
which you didn't need to do, and really just gave
up right. It was almost like Brett Favre Michael Strahan
(17:50):
two thousand and six, whatever year that was. But you've
been asking for it, somebody else to help Anthony Smith.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
And they finally got it.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
They got it in spades and droves and whatever cliche
you want to use.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Wes Fargo's stand up that carter Menz gets multiple sacks
in this game. Has now four and a half tackles
for lost in four games. But that was the biggest
difference too. From the Purdue game. The Nebraska game was
against Against Purdue, Minnesota's pass rush had twenty one pressures
and zero sacks. On Friday night against Nebraska, they had
(18:23):
twenty four pressures in nine sacks. What changed their pass
If you want to get real deep into the weeds,
let me say.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Let's do it. Let's do it.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Their pass rush lane integrity was sensational. What does that mean?
That means the defensive ends weren't getting too far deep,
the defensive tackles were keeping the pocket in front of
them and weren't allowing Riola to escape. And I think
Jackson Howard and carter Men's were the beneficiaries of that
where they just retraced back to the quarterback and Riola
(18:54):
was ready to be sacked. I mean he held onto
the ball way too long at times. And Jackson Howard,
Carter men Anthony Smith were the beneficiaries of that, but
that was it, seemingly was a huge coaching point from
Danny Collins and the defensive line was we're getting pressure,
we're not getting home. If you want to get home
and you want to get the sacks and you want
(19:14):
to get the glory, it's technique in fundamentals. And that
was the teaching point from Fleck. That's what he let
off the press conference with. Was the message to the
team this week was free throws and he shouted out
in Nico medved saying, what are free throws? They are
technique in fundamentals, And that's what Minnesota felt like they
had to get back to. That translated to the pass
(19:36):
rush of just do your job and if you get
too deep, you're not going to do your job. Circle
back Ryola is going to be there, and they were
able to really take Nebraska in the second and third
and longs all night.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
So let's talk about the Nebraska side of this on
offense before we pause, and we'll talk about the Gopher
offense and maybe the rest of the season as well.
They were not used to what they saw last night, right,
I mean, they've been putting points on pretty much everybody,
even with turnovers. I know Rala had three picks or
three turnovers a week ago against Maryland. They still found
a way to win. You know, they put up twenty
seven against Michigan. This had to be stunning for them
(20:11):
to not be able to really do anything all night
long and fairness and savagery. You know, they played a
road game a week ago, had to come back, you know,
Maryland to Maryland to Nebraska, and then obviously short week
come here. So I do think that factors in a
little bit. I'm not saying they should lose twenty four
to six and be lifeless, But Gophers caught the schedule
(20:31):
break that you hear coaches talk about all the time, right,
They're always quick to talk about when they have the
short end of the stick. They got the long one
this time, and they took full advantage of it. They
looked like the fresher team. They were obviously the tougher team.
But what do we make of just how lifeless Nebraska
looked all night long for an offense that had been
humming along pretty well by all intents.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
I wrote about this after the game and go for
illustrated and I meet it when I say there is
not a Big Ten team that I think continues to
do less with more than the Nebraska Huskers they have.
I know that many people in Dickey Town would kill
to have the resources and the money and the facilities
that Nebraska.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Has and the unmatched support every Saturday, right.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Yeah, and the fan support that is just for the
lack of winning we've seen is truly something. They're resilient,
but flex now seven and one against the Nebraska I mean,
he owns, he's got to own property, if not literally
in Lincoln and the mines and in the of many,
many Nebraska fans, he's got a six game winning streak
(21:36):
against him. And that's the fascinating part is there's no
doubt that Minnesota out coach Nebraska. And you were to
have thought that Nebraska was the one on a five
game winning streak. But the way they thought they could
just show up in Huntingdon Bank Stadium, which has been
a house of horrors for them, and they could just
show up and win. And it's seven to six at halftime,
(21:57):
they think coming out the second half, they're going to
just run away with this thing. It's Minnesota who runs
away with it seventeen to nothing. And I think Minnesota's
coordinators of Danny Collins and Greg Harbo Junior deserve a
lot of credit for the way that that team adjusted.
Nebraska did not. And that's the reality is, if Matt
Rule's going to take the Penn State job here in
six seven weeks time, he's not gonna want to see
(22:21):
anything to do with Minnesota. And I know that that PJ.
Fleck and Matt Rule are close. We heard all week
about how Rule and Fleck went to a Kenny Chesney
concert together yep, at the Spear in Vegas over the summer,
and they're boys. But the reality is Fleck owns the
Nebraska Huskers and he just knows how to get his
(22:41):
team up for this game and playing their best football.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
All right, let's pause here with Burnsy.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
When we come back, we'll talk about the offensive side
of things for the Gophers.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
They got the running game going.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Nice to see Darius Taylor have an explosion explosive player two.
A lot more to get to and we'll talk about
the rest of the season on the Gopher side of
things as well. As we're recapping a twenty four to
six victory. The Gophers improved a five and two overall
three and one in the Big Ten, just one game
away from Bowl eligibility. If that matters to people, and
I think it should. We'll talk about all of that
(23:11):
when we come back with Burnsy after this. I'm Gopher
Football Sunday.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Final segment of Gopher Football Sunday. Guards you here in
the six to five one carpets plus studios. We're recapping
Friday nights victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers twenty four to
six was the final, the sixth straight victory in this
series PJ Flex seven and one now against Nebraska, they're
five and two overall, three and one in the Big Ten.
Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot Com joining for a
(23:37):
second segment today, mixing up the clock a little bit.
Today the same Ryan Burns for thirty minutes. We're just
giving it to you in a different sample. We're making
it easy for you today. Let's talk about the offense, Burnsy.
You've been pleading and begging for something to change all
along the offensive line. Seems like it did just enough.
You got two hundred yards rushing essentially right with Darius
(23:59):
going for about fifty and Femi Eja Boy going for
close to fifty. I imagine you had to like what
you saw from that side of the ball on Friday.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Well, you and my wife often tell me, I'm best
consumed in small doses, so I appreciate you breaking it
up for everyone. And that's where the running game coming
into Friday night. The Gophers had known, I mean, they
just didn't have it. He was on a mel carton somewhere.
You were looking to try and find it. They had
ran for one hundred and thirty three rushing yards in
three Big Ten games. They were the worst running team
(24:29):
in the Big Ten. So what do they do on
Friday night? Because all of it makes sense when you're
thinking about eighteen to twenty three year old individuals. They
go out and run for one hundred and eighty six
yards on Nebraska, and they were able to essentially run
the ball from the first quarter onwards. And you saw
Darius Taylor be able to break a long run. And
(24:50):
I'm not gonna I say this as a slow individual,
and I know you're the former Big Ten athlete. Of
the two of us, I know there were some people
in the press box on the Darius Taylor long run
or even the Jalen Smith tunnel screen in the second
half where somebody looked at me and said, unhitch the wagon, brother, Yeah,
get that refrigerator off the back to be able to
(25:11):
finish that run. And Drake Lindsay punches it in. But
I thought the Minnesota moving company did their job. And
that's what I have been pleading for, asking for. I mean,
talk to your overlords for me see physicality from a
Minnesota offensive line group that we hadn't seen much but
from and last week against Purdue they only amassed about
(25:32):
thirty thirty two rushing yards. Yet yet with another offensive
line combination, the same bodies in different spots, they were
able to find physicality. They were the ones that were
punching the Husker defense in the mouth. And I thought
that if I'm going to lament the Gopher offensive line
to the first six games of the season, I also
(25:54):
got to give them their flowers and say they were physical.
I thought Darius Taylor settled in after the first couple
of dry he was able to be more patient. You
mentioned feme Ijeboy with a couple of key runs on
that ninety eight yard monstrosity that I asked Fleck about
after the game, and he called it that's go for football. Yeah,
I'm thinking to myself, well, of course it is for you,
(26:15):
mister Fleck. I mean, they were able to run the
football and they were finally able to be complimentary. And
that's where Drake Lindsay completes eighty percent of his passes.
He only threw the ball twenty times on the night, Right,
But it was that second half for Greg Harbow where
it starts with that ninety eight yard drive. And I
know from listening to the radio call got you and
(26:37):
Mike Griham very hot and bothered.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Well it is they get it down to the two, right,
the Nebraska guy falls but then finds a way to
get back up downs it there, and that is you know,
that's what Nebraska's done all year.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Right, that's kind of you know you mentioned it all week.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
They're I think a top five field position team, which
does matter. Like I know it might be nerdy, but
that's how Iowa was won like eight games for the
last ten. Right, It's just we're gonna punch you inside
the five. You're not gonna do anything. We're gonna get
to the ball at midfield. We only have to go
like ten yards to get at least some points on
the board. Nebraska's pretty much done the same thing, right,
And I think the key to that drive was that
(27:13):
it just PJ said it last night. I did hear
him in the press conference with you guys, when you're
backed up, the first thing is you just got to
give yourself some space, right, And even Darius being able
to run for five yards on that first down, whatever
it was, that gives you some space. And I can't
say I had fourteen plays ninety eight on the Bingo
card there, and obviously they got the call on the
fourth down, which was absolutely the right call. Jamison Gears
(27:36):
was being held the whole time, so it was Lemechi
by the way, both receiving targets there were being held.
They had they threw the flag. It was the right flag.
I didn't have that on my Bingo card, but that
that was basically game over, right. I know there was
more after that, but that felt game over to me.
After that that, you just felt like after seven eight
(27:57):
nine minute drive and you put a touchdown on the
board and here we go.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Really impressive, I thought, And that was kind of the
exclamation point.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
It was Darius digging them out of their own end.
It was Drake on that first third down throwing a
dot to Lamechy Brockington to extend it. A couple of
feme iche a boy runs, or even the one where
Logan Loya just happens to find the ball in his stomach.
I mean, Minnesota gets to a second and three there
and then what has to be the most applauded time
(28:25):
out by an opposing coach in the history of Hunting
a Bank stadium, like aball time out. Yeah, I mean,
after the test play of that drive, Matt rule finally goes,
I need to call time out. You just settle down
the defense because the Gopher offense is walking their way
methodically down the field. And there were thousands of people
that were standing up at Hunting a Bank Stadia because
(28:45):
they knew what was happening. And then they get the
flag on the fourth down where Fleck alects to go
for it, and then Drake Lindsay, with his best throw
in the night, drops it in a bucket to Lamechy Brockington,
and not only does it extend to an eight point lead,
but maybe more importantly, it took eight minutes off the
clock for a defense that had played eighty eight snaps
(29:07):
six days prior, and you wanted to keep them fresh,
you wanted to keep them aggressive, and that was about
twenty minutes of real time that they were able to
bleed and milk off the clock. Or even the next
drive where maybe Greg Harbo's best call of the night
was that tunnel screen on third down, where I mean
it's a huge play in the game. Third down you're
on the cusp of field goal range, a place where
(29:29):
Minnesota hadn't been very good frankly all season. Well executed,
well timed Jalen Smith down to the one Darius walks in.
Or even the final play or the final drive where
Nebraska knows Minnesota needs to run the football here to
put it away. In Minnesota, what do they do. They
get ten yard run after ten yard run after ten
yard run. It was reminding me of the days when
(29:51):
Moe Ibraham was able to salt games away. So kudos
to Harbo for changing things in the run game. We
saw I formation like your boy, Mason, your his face
was back twenty years ago calling this thing. I mean,
Frank Bierman's out here looking like the next Kyle Hughes
check leading things in the hole. So Greg Harbo did
a lot of different little nuanced things in the run
(30:11):
game to get this thing going. It felt like it
was one of those where Harbo was going to look
at the media on Wednesday and say, I threw the
kitchen sink at them one way or another. If it worked, great,
If not, what do you want me to do? But
Darius Taylor returning on top of Harbo doing some different
little nuanced things I think was a great adjustment from
Minnesota's offense.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
You mentioned the Drake lindsay to Lemecki Brockington for first
of all, the third down catch for sure, I mean
he fit that in between two people, and then the
touchdown pass. I can confirm that among the admirers of
that throw was Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell. He thought,
I'll just say, his face after that throw was nice.
He had a great time with his family. That was
a fun, little fun little nugget. So good luck to Kelly.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Standing there next to your boy Brozmer Bungalows trying to
buy up as much space as he could at the
former alma mater.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
That's right. I think met Brozemer's girlfriend. The whole thing.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
It was, Yeah, I was locked in on that for
about a quarter. You want to talk about Max being
next level smart. I don't know if he was planning
on coming to the game on Friday, but once he
heard Koc was there, Oh, I get to hang out
with the head coach on the sideline and Carson Wentz
might be injured on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Yeah, sure, let's do it. Let's go. That was great.
That was cool.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
But it was fun to see Koc down there, and
good luck against the Eagles today, Koc Drake in general,
it is funny to watch the rest of the people.
I think because this is Friday night on Fox right
the whole country seeing this game.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
There's not I know.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Miami was in the process of losing to Louisville with
your guy Jeff Brom the fighting Jeff broms do it again, right,
be the top five team. That's just what he does.
And by the way, after that, if Louisville was coming
to Huntington Bank this week, I'd pick PJ to beat them.
That's what Jeff Brom does and that's what PJ. Fleck does.
As you mentioned, but people are starting to catch up
(31:56):
to Drake man. I think it's worth bearing in Tanner
Morgan on the Fox nine pregame show.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Yeah, he's a former QB one.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
I think he understands uniquely the pressures and the expectations
and probably the heat that you get when you're the
quarterback at the u Adam Weber was there last night too.
I talked to him on the field with his wife.
Oh good for me, and the same thing you're just
talking about. They're so impressed with what Drake's doing. Tanner
looks right at the camera and was basically like, do
you people see what's going on here? This guy's pretty good.
(32:24):
Like you need to appreciate what you're seeing because we're
acting like this is normal. Is not normal to have
this level of quarterback play. He said, he only threw
it twenty times, but so efficient moving the chains, you know,
just the pastor lamechi like some big time stuff going
on with this QB that I think we need to
pay attention to.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Yeah, and his ability to even get them into the
right run calls is an underrated part of the game
on Friday night. Where that's why you see Greg Harbow
do as much motion as he does is he's trying
to give his quarterback as much information as he possibly can.
Is it man or zone? Are you going to have
to change the identification of the line, because within Minnesota's
(33:04):
run schemes, Drake is the one who makes the id,
not the center. It is Drake, as a red shirt
freshman in his seventh career start on Friday night, Who's
the one making the IDs? And that was one of
the things that Harbo had talked about, is they had
been working relentlessly on trying to make sure that Drake
and Harbo could get the offensive line into the right looks.
(33:25):
And what he's been able to do with his arm
as well eighty percent completion percentage. He made the throws
when he needed to. There weren't always a ton of
throws there. But I even think about his escapability. We
talked a lot about Ryola and what he was able
to do. Were also able to see Drake Lindsay extend
to play and then Javon Tracy have the wherewithal to
get an Emmy Award winning flag performance on a third
(33:47):
down to extended drive. That's part of it, too, is
you need to be smart. You need to be that
way in the run game. You need to be able
to take care of the football. If you're going to
be a quarterback for PJ. Fleck and the Big Ten,
and Drake's only got three interceptions through his first seven
career starts to go at ten touchdowns, mean whatever your
(34:07):
expectations were for this young man from Arkansas, I think
he has certainly surpassed them, and I'm excited to see
what he can continue to do here throughout the rest
of the Big Ten slate.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
So in our final couple of minutes, here Burns and
let's talk about the Nebraska side of things. They come
in ranked twenty fifth. I believe that was the media.
The coaches poll did not rank them because the coaches
presumably someone's watching the games and media I don't know
if they are all the time, and we're not either.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
It's hard, right.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
We just enjoyed a college football Saturday where we actually
got to watch the full slate of things because the
Gophers played on Friday. We're going to talk about this
on Parentis Spare a lot. But there's times where I
go all in on my takes. As you know, I'm
usually not like yeah, I'm more of a I'm more deliberate.
I'm not like, hey, I got a million takes about everything.
I just kind of watch things, and I gotta say
(34:58):
I nailed this Nebraska thing July, all right. I said,
you look at their schedule, they're gonna be at worst
five and one, which they were right maybe six and
zero because Michigan's the only real tough game in quotations
for those that can't see me. So it's like, you
know that they're they're gonna walk through that Cincinnati. You
can give them fine if you want to, but Nebraska
(35:19):
should beat Cincinnati right regardless in any year that should happen.
And I'm just like, they're gonna be five and one
at worst, and what does that mean? Means they're gonna
be ranked and everyone's gonna be talking about how Matt
Rule's got this thing going in year three. Everybody knows
how much I like Matt Rule two. By the way,
I love that guy. I think he's a great coach.
There's a reason why he may have been distracted by
the Penn State stuff this week, because he should be
(35:40):
a guy that's considered for that type of level job.
But as I'm getting ready for this game, Burnsy and
you know this, I'm like, well, they've had one hard
game Nebraska Michigan at home in a season where they're
supposed to be taking the next step.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
And they lose it.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
So like, what are we doing here with seven point
favorites and it's bet up to like I didn't see
twenty four six coming. But I'm just like, I just
don't see some of these predictions that are being thrown
out there, and even from national guys and listening to
stuff on Sirius during the week and Will Compton on
Get Up, and it's like, what world are we living in?
Like is anybody watching? Like they almost lost to Maryland
(36:19):
a week ago. I don't think Maryland's that great. Your
guy Dan Owens doesn't even have him making a Bowl game,
even though they're off to.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
A hot start.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
So I just don't understand, like, at what point, at
what point will we learn because we do this with
Indiana basketball too. Right the second that they like play
Kentucky tough in December, we say that, you know, here's
Bob Knight back and Calbert Cheney's about to take you
to another Final Four with Steve Alford. I'm just like,
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills because it's just
(36:48):
it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
To me.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
I know, I don't really have a question. I've just
been kind of rambling, but I just felt like I
saw this entire situation coming, and I don't know why.
I don't know why I'm like one of five people
that's coming, because it shouldn't be that difficult.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Well, from looking at your Twitter feed from Friday night,
I can assure you that you kept the receipts and
you wanted to make sure that the entire Nebraska beat
writing corps, which if you didn't come up to the
press box during the game, guards they were as strong
as you've ever seen. I bet you there was forty
to fifty Nebraska media. I saw.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
I saw the seating chart. Yep, they took it was
the bottom right corner.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
I understand that the only show in town. And it's
a fan base that is just so blindly faithful to
a team that largely has not won anything for my
adult life. But to just see that fan base just
start to book their flights the Pasadena for the Rose Bowl,
and I'm seeing some different prognosticators put them in the
(37:46):
College Football Playoff, and you look at their upcoming schedule
after this Gopher game, they got Northwestern UCLA, Penn State,
USC and Iowa. I mean, that's not a murderer's row,
and there's certainly a plausible way from the I'm gonna
win eight games, and if they win eight games, they're
gonna go to a good bowl game, whatever that may be.
But it just felt, like I said it earlier, that Nebraska, well,
(38:08):
you thought with the way that they thought they could
just come in here and walk over the Gophers, that
they were the ones six and one against PJ flex
team and not the other way around. And they got
punched in the mouth. And I am very curious to
see I know what Nebraska teams have done previously when
the Gophers have hit them in the mouth. Normally Nebraska
just lays on the mat and there's a five, six, seven,
(38:30):
eight count. Let's see how Nebraska responds. But look, I
know you want to put them in the playoff. You're
excited about Matt Ruhle, and this whole thing's back, go
big red chance starting around the stadium. You were the
one leading them last night pregame. Yeah, let's let's not
count our chickens before they hatch here.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah, it was it was crazy and shout out. I
thought the environment was awesome again last night. I mean,
I know you hate the night games because you don't
get any sleep. And you and I were talking before
we jumped on here. You know, you get home and
you can't go to bed until like three in the morning,
and I'm sure you've got cats waking you up at six.
So but I thought the atmosphere was electric. And credit
(39:11):
to the Gopher fans for hanging in because Nebraska comes
and tries to take over, right, I mean, they were
all coming up. I was, you know, talking to people
in the press box before the game, and people that
are coming from down south, you know that live down
south and you know prior Lake Burnsville that have to
get on thirty five, like that's where they're coming from
two and it's a big HiT's a caravan coming from
you know, Nebraska. After they hit I ninety, get to
(39:32):
thirty five in Albert Lee and go or maybe they
cut up through sixty left to ask them next time
they're here. It was a great environment on Friday, Like
the environments have been so good all year, and hopefully
this keeps the momentum for the rest of the year, right,
because you've got you know, Michigan State coming. You've obviously
got Wisconsin, you only have a couple of home games left.
I thought it was a wonderful college football environment, and
(39:55):
there was a lot of red there, as there always is,
you know, just seemingly no matter what the year is.
Nice day for Mark Coyle and Mike Wroiz, Vicky and
everybody that's in charge of making money on college football,
because the Huskers gave us some, for sure, But the
red was kind of gone by the time, you know,
midway through the fourth quarter, which was fun to see.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
Yeah, I know you didn't even watch the game in
the fourth quarter. You had just turned your back to
the field. I heard Grimmer and DT try to go
down to you a couple of times, and you said
it into the headset. Too busy watching it go, big Red
leave the stadium, and you're chirping them. That's fine.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Hold on, I'm grabbing my saved tweets and screenshots. I
need to fire these things off because it was bothering
me so much on Friday.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Yeah, it didn't bother me that the fans also rushed
the field. It's not something I was talking about with
Andy Greeder the Pioneer Press afterwards. It's not an every
year thing under PJ. Fleck, And we'd gone back through
it where it was essentially twenty nineteen Penn State, twenty
twenty two Wisconsin, and then USC last year before last night,
So that's four times and nine years. Maybe we're misremembering
(40:56):
one time, but this was the only upcoming opponent that
was going to be ranked. Unless you think your guy
Luke Fickle or Jonathan Smith are still going to have
jobs by the time they come to hunting a Bank
Stadium with the way things are going right. But it's
about making memories for them, and it's a fan base
where making memories hasn't always been a given. Winning ranked
(41:17):
games reflects win last night or on Friday night. Excuse
me over. Nebraska was his seventh ranked win, which is
the most in programmed history for any head coach. Now,
he's also been here longer than many of them, and
we can argue you should Nebraska have been ranked. Have
not think you and I see at the same. But
let people enjoy, even the folks that Jack's Cafe gave
(41:38):
tickets to.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
I mean, yeah, we.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Saw kids be able to go make memories that it
was their first Gopher game potentially in an atmosphere that
they're never going to forget. And I think that's an
important thing for this fan base, is just being able
to have memories to draw back on that are in
a positive light. You're five and zero at home. Now,
the home schedule was always going to dictate this season
(42:01):
for Minnesota, and that's why maybe they're going to be
punching above their weight in these final five games. But
it's just a night that you can't take for granted.
Where you said it earlier, whether you were at the
stadium one of the fifty thousand or you were one
of the millions of people where you're a primetime loan
spot game on Friday night, I mean you are. It's
(42:21):
you and one other game in town and everybody's watching,
and so for the Gophers to actually make a statement there,
good on them.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
Yeah, I would say it was a half hearted field
rush too, right, I mean it was basically the students. Yes,
students are always going to go right at any moment,
they just want to do it. And then you had
a smattering of others that kind of so I guess
we're going. So I wouldn't say yeah, it was it
was cool it was fun and it was It wasn't
a dangerous field storming, which I always worry about. I
(42:51):
got I always get the hell out of there now.
After Brosby and I were enveloped at midfield last year
against USC, I make business decisions. Now found Jackson Howard,
did two minutes with him and got out. But it
was fun. It was fun, and you're right. The home
schedule we did that. This was one of those swing
games in the home schedule, right that you looked at
on paper and said, you win this month at home,
(43:12):
you should be feeling pretty good about yourself. And they've
taken of the three games at home, I'll count the
one Michigan State. It's technically October. This is November. First,
you win those three, you're gonna find yourself in a
really good spot. So they've they've kind of done their
job that way. And now we move on to Iowa, Buddy,
one of your spots Kinnick Stadium. So we'll see you
and we'll see in Iowa City coming up on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
Appreciate you, Guardsy.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
That is Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot Com. Read
him today.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Check out his jiff rewind to check out the message boards,
which I'm sure have been on fire all weekend. We
will also talk to him on the Parent of Spare
podcast coming up on Tuesday with Chipskogin, so don't miss
us there. We'll hand it off to Dan Burrero on
Sunday Sermons nine to ten and then Vikings Eagles coverage
the rest of the day. Thanks everybody for listening. We
will talk to you tomorrow and bumper to bumper as
well at three o'clock right here on the fan.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
Have an elite Sunday
Well, I'm into the sixty five one carpets plus studios
on a Sunday morning. I'm justin garden. This is Gopher
Football Sunday. We are here until nine o'clock. Dan Barrero
takes over for an hour long Sunday sermons before we
turn it over to Vikings covers. The Vikings and the
Eagles coming up a little bit later today from US
Bank Stadium. If you're new to the show, we try
to carve out an hour of Gopher discussion before we
(00:24):
turn it all over to the Vikings coverage. And that's
what we will do today. Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated
dot Com. He will join me next segment, a couple
of segments with Burnsy today to talk about an authoritative,
comprehensive I'd say pretty fun. Victory over Nebraska a couple
of nights ago on Friday night at Huntington Banks Stadium,
twenty four to six was the final. The Gophers improved
(00:46):
a five and two overall, three and one in the
Big Ten, and they've got the Iowa Hawk guys who
beat Penn State late last night.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Next week down at Kinnick.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
We all remember what happened last time when the Gophers
went down to Kinnick, So I'm sure that will be
a story of the week as well if you are
new to the show, What we do, what we liked,
what we did like in the first segment before Burnsy
joins me, you can hit the Bradshawn Brian Campae in
text line six four six eight six, And essentially the
defense is where I want to start. Sometimes we start
(01:15):
with what we didn't like. I don't know if there
was much to not like on Friday night. Like I mentioned,
it was pretty authoritative, It was pretty thorough, especially once.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
They got going in the second half.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
There really wasn't much that Nebraska was going to be
able to do, and the Gophers found enough offensively. And
we'll talk about some of those things as we go on,
but it was all about the defense. I thought on
Friday night they were spectacular. And we mentioned all week
that the Golphers were going to have to find a
way to improve their tackling. They had not tackled very
well pretty much all season, especially during the Power Four games.
(01:49):
Didn't tackle well against Cal, didn't tackle great against Rutgers
to start, didn't tackle great against Ohio State. Okay, that
makes sense, But then they didn't tackle well against Purdue
at all and gave up over four hundred yards to
a Purdue offense that got shut out yesterday at Northwestern
Football's Weird College football is strange, and tackling had to
(02:09):
be the number one thing that they talked about, and
it sounds like it was.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
PJ.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Flex said postgame that they spent basically thirty minutes on
a tackling circuit that usually takes about three. They emphasized it,
They got what they emphasized, and from the very first
play of the game they tackled well. They had missed
almost fifty tackles against the Power four teams, and they
missed some on Friday. But for the most part, the
yards after the catch that you heard Burnsy and I
(02:34):
talked about in the pregame show were non existent for Nebraska.
I remember one super long catch and run for one
of the Nebraska wide receivers. Other than that, they brought
them down pretty much where they needed to. An excellent
job to hold Nebraska at two hundred and thirty yards
of total offense. Again, another offense that had been more explosive,
that had been more efficient, that had given big ten
(02:56):
teams trouble. The Gophers were phenomenal in that area Friday.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Nine sacks.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Nine sacks, that's a school record going back to nineteen
seventy seven. And everybody got in on it, right. Carter
Menz got in on it. Jackson Howard got in on it.
Anthony Smith, he's always in on it. He got in
on it. Matt Kingsbury with maybe the play of the day,
you know, throwing Emma Johnson back into his quarterback and
then sacking Dylan Reyola. The defense was outstanding and that's really,
(03:26):
to me the story. They were the ones that really
needed to find some consistency and they were able to
find some on Friday.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
It was an awesome defensive effort and.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
We played on the postgame show, which obviously took forever
because the field ended up getting storms by the students.
We ended up playing, from what I'm told, all nine
sacks took two and a half minutes to play all
of those sacks. It was a lot of fun. It
was a great effort and really a necessary effort because
again that was something that didn't happen a week ago
(03:57):
when they couldn't sack Ohio State and they couldn't sack
the Purdue quarterback either Ryan Brown, even though they were
all over him all night, they could never bring him
to the ground. Whatever they changed, whatever they figured out,
the fact that Dylan Rayola walks himself into sacks at times.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
We talked about that pregame as well.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
It was an interesting matchup that way, a quarterback that
gets sacked against the team that hasn't turned in a
bunch of sacks. The Gophers won that battle big time,
and I don't know what they changed. We'll talk to
PJ about it maybe later in the week with his
coaches shows and everything, but it was a huge part
of the game, and the Nebraska offense could never really
get going, and that's a credit to really how everybody tackled,
(04:35):
how the defense rushed, the rush lane, integrity, the whole bit.
They were absolutely sensational and so one of the best
defensive efforts we've seen in a really long time, and
I thought really set the tone for everything so the
offense could find itself, which it eventually did, and that's
where we.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Go next with what we liked.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
The other thing we talked about all week was how
did the Gophers get some type of running game going
offensive line has been a talking point. They switched a
couple of things up again on Friday that seemed to
work just enough to get things going for Darius Taylor
and the long run seventy yard or on the first
touchdown drive that got the whole thing going.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Good.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Couple of blocks Darius Taylor does the rest gets caught
from behind. Didn't have the breakaway speed. That's all right,
they score. I think the next play on a tush
push you're up seven to three and you're often running
one hundred and forty eight yards for him. Thought family
eg boy ran really well as well, over thirty yards
for him on four yards of carry. You don't have
to run a ton, and they actually did when you
(05:36):
factor in Darius Taylor's big night almost one fifty over
two thousand for his career now, but you have to
be able to run enough. As much as we love
what Drake Lindsay's doing, as much as we love how
he's kind of got command of everything, you have to
be able to run enough just to keep things honest,
and they were able to do it. So credit to
the offensive line probably their most physical game of the season,
(05:59):
and credit to Darius Taylor is just great to see
him back healthy and being able to do what he's doing.
Another touchdown later in the game, one yard er after
a nice catch and run by Jalen Smith. A couple
of nice runs to kind of finish the game off.
When you want to have Nebraska bleed their timeouts, you
need to pick up a couple of first downs. It
was just a really complete game that way from the offense,
(06:20):
probably their most complete game of the season. You don't
have a fourteen play, ninety eight yard touchdown drive that
takes about nine minutes off the clock unless you're executing
at a really high level. And that's the last thing
we can bring up that we like PJ talked about
at post game, how much you loved that drive. You're
up seven to six, you get down the ball down
to your two yard line. That's not a great situation,
(06:43):
but they get out of they get.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Themselves out of being backed up.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
A couple of nice Darius Taylor runs, Drake Lindsay finds
oil Mecky Brockington to pick up a first down, a
really nice throw for him, again fitting in between a
couple of different Nebraska Cornhuskers, and you pick up the
third downs. You get the penalty on Nebraska on the
fourth downs fourteen plays, ninety eight yards, great pass from
Drake to Lindsay, I should say, from Drake to Brockington
for the touchdown.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
You're up fourteen to six. And that was pretty much it.
I mean, it didn't.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Feel like Nebraska ever really threatened after that, and that
was just an authoritative, again, comprehensive drive that really kind
of encapsulated the identity of the game for the Gophers.
So a nice win overall. The Nebraska stuff to me
is hilarious. We're going to talk about it with Burns,
I know, we'll talk about it on PARENTI spare Gophers
(07:32):
have beaten Nebraska six straight times, just telling you in
college football that probably shouldn't happen. Even though Nebraska's not
who Nebraska was. No program in America is desperately trying
to get back to who they were and what they
were more than Nebraska. And I called this game back
in the summer on how it was going to go down.
(07:52):
I didn't know the Gophers were going to win twenty
four to six. I didn't even know if the Gophers
were going to win, but I knew looking at Nebraska's
schedule and the fact that they are improved, they'd probably
be five, they'd probably be six and zero, five and one.
With that Michigan game a few weeks ago, kind of
the game that people weren't sure about, and they were
going to be ranked because we love nothing more than
to rank Nebraska the second that we think we can
(08:14):
rank Nebraska, and they come in here ranked twenty fifth,
five and one. But if you kind of watch the games,
it was not super impressive all the time. They barely
beat Maryland. They Michigan game is a big game for them,
they lose at home. I just didn't know what they
had there, and I didn't know the Gophers were going
to twenty four to six them. I didn't know they
were going to look that lifeless. But I just didn't
(08:36):
I never bought the nine point spread that it got
up to. I never really bought the seven point spread
that it got up to. I think it finished at
about seven. I just thought it'd be a little bit closer.
I didn't think they were going to come in here
and dominate. But that's what we like to do. We
like to jump back to the nineties as quickly as
we possibly can, and certainly the Nebraska.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Media was doing that all week. When you have people.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Predicting a forty two to thirteen Nebraska victory talking about
college football playoffs and stuff, it's just I just don't
know what we're watching. But college football is a weird game.
Gophers not the Gophers problem. They win twenty four to six.
They're now five and two and three and one in
the Big Ten, and we head to Iowa City next
week to take on the Hawk Gys who knocked off
Penn State last night. Hit the branch on Brian Cavan
(09:19):
text line six four six s eight six. But when
we come back, our buddy Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated
dot Com joins me for his weekly appearance. We'll do
that next when we return to Gopher Football Sunday on
the Fan. Welcome back Gopher Football Sunday on the Fan.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Guards you here in the six five one carpets plus studio.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Don't forget Dan Barrero Sunday sermons coming up at nine
before we turn it over to Vikings and Eagles coverage
at ten o'clock. With the Vikings back off the by,
we're reviewing a twenty four to six victory on Friday
night at Huntington Banks Stadium. The Gophers knocked off ranked
Nebraska their number. They're six win against the Cornhuskers in
a row. They're five and two and three and one
(09:58):
of the Big Ten. As we always do. Around eight
fifteen on Sunday morning, Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot
Com joins on the Kinnectical Water Systems hotline, how have
you enjoyed the weekend free of football?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Burnsey?
Speaker 1 (10:10):
After a lovely Friday night game? Fans hate it. I
don't know how you feel about it. I'm selfish.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
We've had the whole weekend to basically do whatever we
wanted because the game was taken on Friday night.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
How have you enjoyed your freedom?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
You get an extra twenty four hours to recover from
the fifth night game in the first seven games of
the season. And I know from looking at the tailgate
lots before looking at the people still stumbling around hunting
And Banks Stadium at one point thirty two o'clock in
the morning when I left, that there were certainly amount
of a healthy amount of students still enjoying the night
(10:47):
so being able to catch up on some sleep. This
is what it's like in your thirties now, I mean
you were trying to tell me this for quite a
long time, absolutely trying to catch up on your sleep,
getting to watch some college football. It's always a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah. Shout out by the way too. There. They're definitely
a big friend that.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I hope this guy is going to be the best
man at this next guy's wedding. As I'm going down
Fourth Street right just past the KK, the College Club,
which to me will always be the Library.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Ye, shout out.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
To the guy who pulled his friend back from the
road because he just decided he was going to walk
when multiple cars, including mine, were going about twenty seven
miles an hour and he didn't see us because I
imagine he was in those tailgate lots or maybe at
the KK for all day. So shout out to that guy.
You saved your buddy's life, and hopefully you can give
(11:35):
a good best man speech someday. But that's college, right,
that's college football. Saturdays, that's what it's and Friday nights.
That's what it's supposed to look like, right, making poor
choices and having a hell of a time. At least
that's what they telled me at all five of my colleges.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
And making memories and what type of memories were they making. Well,
it's your golden Gophers with another victory over Nebraska gard too.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, there's so much to talk about from this one,
and I'm going to try to not I'm going to
try to not do my Nebraska rant here. I think
I'm going to save that for pair and a spare,
because I know.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
It's already been in the text messages. I already saw text.
I can't wait to get it on Tuesday.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Text messages even before the game when you joined me
on Oak Street. Yeah, but I got Yeah, I'm not
going to get into it now because we'll derail the show.
And I think people want to talk about the Gophers
and they should.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Let's talk.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I think we got to start talking about the defense.
I don't know what you think. That's what I opened with.
A week after Purdue gashed them for what four hundred
plus yards, Devin Makabee had another unbelievable game. The turnovers
really saved their bacon. To use the analogy for this
coming week against Iowa, the turnovers really saved them. The
turnovers not a factor on Friday night. It was just
(12:45):
dominant dominant, dominant defense. What is your headline from the
defensive effort on Friday?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Nine sacks for your Gopher defense after going two consecutive
games without any sacks. Continues to be the jeckyal and
high nature of this Danny Collins defense so far, but
the nine sacks overall are the most in a Gopher
football game since the modern records go back to nineteen
seventy seven. From the opening drive until the final play
(13:12):
of the game, it was Anthony Smith, Carter Menz and
a host of different Gophers. And that was the thing
that changed from last week to this week was physicality.
I had preached about it all week. Where is the physicality?
Purdue punched you in the mouth defensively. You noted it.
Purdue put up over four hundred and fifty total yards,
ran it for over two hundred and fifty and we
(13:34):
didn't see a lot from the Gopher defensive line in
the first few games of the season. They responded in
a massive way on Friday night. For whatever reason, PJ.
Fleck knows how to get the most out of his
team when they play the Nebraska Huskers, and it was
an entire, an entire defensive effort. I think the best
play that personified the physicality was Matt Kingsbury knocking Emmett
(13:57):
Johnson back to hold the Angels High School in a
route to getting to Dylan Riola on one of the
nine sacks. Now we'll get to Ryola and the things
he has to work on, because yeah, I think he
took some horrific sacks of times. But the defensive game
plan from Danny Collins to send pressure and then without
their top cornerback and john Nester having a converted safety
(14:21):
in Jayontay McMillan and Zaikwon Bryan hold up in coverage.
I think those were the two keys the pass rush
finally got home. But you also have to commend the
secondary that's banged up on the back end for doing
their part and covering for three four five seconds.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah, the Kingsbury plays one that I think people will
remember for a really long time.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Right, that was unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I think the tone was set on the first play
Burns e where they throw it out to the LEFTU.
You had the best number I thought of the entire
week that Nebraska was feasting on yards after the catch, right,
and when you looked at the Gophers defense that was
troubling from what we'd seen through the first six games.
And the first play of the game, Rail throws it
(15:05):
out to the left and zekwon Bryant's right there. I
think it was a gain of one right and he's
got to make the tackle otherwise it's a gain of
you know, eight, nine, ten, whatever it was. How does
a team get so much better at tackling? I know
there was still some missed ones, and Emma Johnson does
kind of make you you know, he is shifty for sure,
but the dramatic improvement in tackling when they couldn't bring
(15:26):
anybody down a week ago and against Cal and at
times against Rutgers too, they were so sound I thought,
I'm thinking maybe four or five times they didn't, you know,
they didn't make the tackle when they needed to.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
How do you get so much better in one week?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
So that's one of the things we asked like about afterwards,
was why was it so much better? And he actually
gave a great nugget that on Tuesday's practice. The defense
they do this every practice. I've seen it with my
own two eyes, one of view. They do a tackling circuit.
It's normally for four or five minutes. Well, on Tuesday
they did it for twenty five minutes. And we also
(16:04):
talked about it with Maverick Baranowski and Anthony Smith afterwards
and said, did you feel it that maybe the head
coach was trying to drill a point home of let's
clean up the mistackles? And Maverick Baranowski looked at us
and he said, I felt every second of it. We
got the point that we need to tackle better, and
they did, and that's a huge part of their win
(16:24):
the other night is just being able to tackle well
in space, and they didn't allow Riola to make too
many second plays. And we saw the pitch play of
which I'm still unclear of how that went over Joey
Girlock's head. Not only was completed, but for a first
down you saw a left handed pass. But their tackling
effort from Zaykwon Bryant to Jayontay McMillan to I think
(16:47):
both linebackers and Maverick Baranowski and Devin Williams tackled well.
Emmett Johnson got his he still had one hundred total yards,
and I think the kid from Holy Angels played well overall,
but the mistackles in space, which were prevalent in the
first half of the Big Ten schedule, they were not
there on Friday night.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Ryan Burns Gopher Illustrated dot Com joining us here on
Gopher Football Sunday. Barrero has Sunday sermons from nine to ten.
We're discussing the Gophers victory Friday night twenty four to
six over Nebraska. They're now five and two, three and
one in the Big Ten. I liked Anthony Smith's line
in the post game that he was like Oprah, everybody
gets a sack for a while, it had really just
been him, right, and he had another great game last night, obviously,
(17:28):
But how about Jackson Howard getting in on the fun?
How about Carter Menz go crazy North Dakota getting in
on the fun. I think my favorite play was howard
sack where the right tackle just decided not to block
them bold strategy, Cotton. He went in to help Emma Johnson,
which you didn't need to do, and really just gave
up right. It was almost like Brett Favre Michael Strahan
(17:50):
two thousand and six, whatever year that was. But you've
been asking for it, somebody else to help Anthony Smith.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
And they finally got it.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
They got it in spades and droves and whatever cliche
you want to use.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Wes Fargo's stand up that carter Menz gets multiple sacks
in this game. Has now four and a half tackles
for lost in four games. But that was the biggest
difference too. From the Purdue game. The Nebraska game was
against Against Purdue, Minnesota's pass rush had twenty one pressures
and zero sacks. On Friday night against Nebraska, they had
(18:23):
twenty four pressures in nine sacks. What changed their pass
If you want to get real deep into the weeds,
let me say.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Let's do it. Let's do it.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Their pass rush lane integrity was sensational. What does that mean?
That means the defensive ends weren't getting too far deep,
the defensive tackles were keeping the pocket in front of
them and weren't allowing Riola to escape. And I think
Jackson Howard and carter Men's were the beneficiaries of that
where they just retraced back to the quarterback and Riola
(18:54):
was ready to be sacked. I mean he held onto
the ball way too long at times. And Jackson Howard,
Carter men Anthony Smith were the beneficiaries of that, but
that was it, seemingly was a huge coaching point from
Danny Collins and the defensive line was we're getting pressure,
we're not getting home. If you want to get home
and you want to get the sacks and you want
(19:14):
to get the glory, it's technique in fundamentals. And that
was the teaching point from Fleck. That's what he let
off the press conference with. Was the message to the
team this week was free throws and he shouted out
in Nico medved saying, what are free throws? They are
technique in fundamentals, And that's what Minnesota felt like they
had to get back to. That translated to the pass
(19:36):
rush of just do your job and if you get
too deep, you're not going to do your job. Circle
back Ryola is going to be there, and they were
able to really take Nebraska in the second and third
and longs all night.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
So let's talk about the Nebraska side of this on
offense before we pause, and we'll talk about the Gopher
offense and maybe the rest of the season as well.
They were not used to what they saw last night, right,
I mean, they've been putting points on pretty much everybody,
even with turnovers. I know Rala had three picks or
three turnovers a week ago against Maryland. They still found
a way to win. You know, they put up twenty
seven against Michigan. This had to be stunning for them
(20:11):
to not be able to really do anything all night
long and fairness and savagery. You know, they played a
road game a week ago, had to come back, you know,
Maryland to Maryland to Nebraska, and then obviously short week
come here. So I do think that factors in a
little bit. I'm not saying they should lose twenty four
to six and be lifeless, But Gophers caught the schedule
(20:31):
break that you hear coaches talk about all the time, right,
They're always quick to talk about when they have the
short end of the stick. They got the long one
this time, and they took full advantage of it. They
looked like the fresher team. They were obviously the tougher team.
But what do we make of just how lifeless Nebraska
looked all night long for an offense that had been
humming along pretty well by all intents.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
I wrote about this after the game and go for
illustrated and I meet it when I say there is
not a Big Ten team that I think continues to
do less with more than the Nebraska Huskers they have.
I know that many people in Dickey Town would kill
to have the resources and the money and the facilities
that Nebraska.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Has and the unmatched support every Saturday, right.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Yeah, and the fan support that is just for the
lack of winning we've seen is truly something. They're resilient,
but flex now seven and one against the Nebraska I mean,
he owns, he's got to own property, if not literally
in Lincoln and the mines and in the of many,
many Nebraska fans, he's got a six game winning streak
(21:36):
against him. And that's the fascinating part is there's no
doubt that Minnesota out coach Nebraska. And you were to
have thought that Nebraska was the one on a five
game winning streak. But the way they thought they could
just show up in Huntingdon Bank Stadium, which has been
a house of horrors for them, and they could just
show up and win. And it's seven to six at halftime,
(21:57):
they think coming out the second half, they're going to
just run away with this thing. It's Minnesota who runs
away with it seventeen to nothing. And I think Minnesota's
coordinators of Danny Collins and Greg Harbo Junior deserve a
lot of credit for the way that that team adjusted.
Nebraska did not. And that's the reality is, if Matt
Rule's going to take the Penn State job here in
six seven weeks time, he's not gonna want to see
(22:21):
anything to do with Minnesota. And I know that that PJ.
Fleck and Matt Rule are close. We heard all week
about how Rule and Fleck went to a Kenny Chesney
concert together yep, at the Spear in Vegas over the summer,
and they're boys. But the reality is Fleck owns the
Nebraska Huskers and he just knows how to get his
(22:41):
team up for this game and playing their best football.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
All right, let's pause here with Burnsy.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
When we come back, we'll talk about the offensive side
of things for the Gophers.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
They got the running game going.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Nice to see Darius Taylor have an explosion explosive player two.
A lot more to get to and we'll talk about
the rest of the season on the Gopher side of
things as well. As we're recapping a twenty four to
six victory. The Gophers improved a five and two overall
three and one in the Big Ten, just one game
away from Bowl eligibility. If that matters to people, and
I think it should. We'll talk about all of that
(23:11):
when we come back with Burnsy after this. I'm Gopher
Football Sunday.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Final segment of Gopher Football Sunday. Guards you here in
the six to five one carpets plus studios. We're recapping
Friday nights victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers twenty four to
six was the final, the sixth straight victory in this
series PJ Flex seven and one now against Nebraska, they're
five and two overall, three and one in the Big Ten.
Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot Com joining for a
(23:37):
second segment today, mixing up the clock a little bit.
Today the same Ryan Burns for thirty minutes. We're just
giving it to you in a different sample. We're making
it easy for you today. Let's talk about the offense, Burnsy.
You've been pleading and begging for something to change all
along the offensive line. Seems like it did just enough.
You got two hundred yards rushing essentially right with Darius
(23:59):
going for about fifty and Femi Eja Boy going for
close to fifty. I imagine you had to like what
you saw from that side of the ball on Friday.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Well, you and my wife often tell me, I'm best
consumed in small doses, so I appreciate you breaking it
up for everyone. And that's where the running game coming
into Friday night. The Gophers had known, I mean, they
just didn't have it. He was on a mel carton somewhere.
You were looking to try and find it. They had
ran for one hundred and thirty three rushing yards in
three Big Ten games. They were the worst running team
(24:29):
in the Big Ten. So what do they do on
Friday night? Because all of it makes sense when you're
thinking about eighteen to twenty three year old individuals. They
go out and run for one hundred and eighty six
yards on Nebraska, and they were able to essentially run
the ball from the first quarter onwards. And you saw
Darius Taylor be able to break a long run. And
(24:50):
I'm not gonna I say this as a slow individual,
and I know you're the former Big Ten athlete. Of
the two of us, I know there were some people
in the press box on the Darius Taylor long run
or even the Jalen Smith tunnel screen in the second
half where somebody looked at me and said, unhitch the wagon, brother, Yeah,
get that refrigerator off the back to be able to
(25:11):
finish that run. And Drake Lindsay punches it in. But
I thought the Minnesota moving company did their job. And
that's what I have been pleading for, asking for. I mean,
talk to your overlords for me see physicality from a
Minnesota offensive line group that we hadn't seen much but
from and last week against Purdue they only amassed about
(25:32):
thirty thirty two rushing yards. Yet yet with another offensive
line combination, the same bodies in different spots, they were
able to find physicality. They were the ones that were
punching the Husker defense in the mouth. And I thought
that if I'm going to lament the Gopher offensive line
to the first six games of the season, I also
(25:54):
got to give them their flowers and say they were physical.
I thought Darius Taylor settled in after the first couple
of dry he was able to be more patient. You
mentioned feme Ijeboy with a couple of key runs on
that ninety eight yard monstrosity that I asked Fleck about
after the game, and he called it that's go for football. Yeah,
I'm thinking to myself, well, of course it is for you,
(26:15):
mister Fleck. I mean, they were able to run the
football and they were finally able to be complimentary. And
that's where Drake Lindsay completes eighty percent of his passes.
He only threw the ball twenty times on the night, Right,
But it was that second half for Greg Harbow where
it starts with that ninety eight yard drive. And I
know from listening to the radio call got you and
(26:37):
Mike Griham very hot and bothered.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Well it is they get it down to the two, right,
the Nebraska guy falls but then finds a way to
get back up downs it there, and that is you know,
that's what Nebraska's done all year.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Right, that's kind of you know you mentioned it all week.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
They're I think a top five field position team, which
does matter. Like I know it might be nerdy, but
that's how Iowa was won like eight games for the
last ten. Right, It's just we're gonna punch you inside
the five. You're not gonna do anything. We're gonna get
to the ball at midfield. We only have to go
like ten yards to get at least some points on
the board. Nebraska's pretty much done the same thing, right,
And I think the key to that drive was that
(27:13):
it just PJ said it last night. I did hear
him in the press conference with you guys, when you're
backed up, the first thing is you just got to
give yourself some space, right, And even Darius being able
to run for five yards on that first down, whatever
it was, that gives you some space. And I can't
say I had fourteen plays ninety eight on the Bingo
card there, and obviously they got the call on the
fourth down, which was absolutely the right call. Jamison Gears
(27:36):
was being held the whole time, so it was Lemechi
by the way, both receiving targets there were being held.
They had they threw the flag. It was the right flag.
I didn't have that on my Bingo card, but that
that was basically game over, right. I know there was
more after that, but that felt game over to me.
After that that, you just felt like after seven eight
(27:57):
nine minute drive and you put a touchdown on the
board and here we go.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Really impressive, I thought, And that was kind of the
exclamation point.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
It was Darius digging them out of their own end.
It was Drake on that first third down throwing a
dot to Lamechy Brockington to extend it. A couple of
feme iche a boy runs, or even the one where
Logan Loya just happens to find the ball in his stomach.
I mean, Minnesota gets to a second and three there
and then what has to be the most applauded time
(28:25):
out by an opposing coach in the history of Hunting
a Bank stadium, like aball time out. Yeah, I mean,
after the test play of that drive, Matt rule finally goes,
I need to call time out. You just settle down
the defense because the Gopher offense is walking their way
methodically down the field. And there were thousands of people
that were standing up at Hunting a Bank Stadia because
(28:45):
they knew what was happening. And then they get the
flag on the fourth down where Fleck alects to go
for it, and then Drake Lindsay, with his best throw
in the night, drops it in a bucket to Lamechy Brockington,
and not only does it extend to an eight point lead,
but maybe more importantly, it took eight minutes off the
clock for a defense that had played eighty eight snaps
(29:07):
six days prior, and you wanted to keep them fresh,
you wanted to keep them aggressive, and that was about
twenty minutes of real time that they were able to
bleed and milk off the clock. Or even the next
drive where maybe Greg Harbo's best call of the night
was that tunnel screen on third down, where I mean
it's a huge play in the game. Third down you're
on the cusp of field goal range, a place where
(29:29):
Minnesota hadn't been very good frankly all season. Well executed,
well timed Jalen Smith down to the one Darius walks in.
Or even the final play or the final drive where
Nebraska knows Minnesota needs to run the football here to
put it away. In Minnesota, what do they do. They
get ten yard run after ten yard run after ten
yard run. It was reminding me of the days when
(29:51):
Moe Ibraham was able to salt games away. So kudos
to Harbo for changing things in the run game. We
saw I formation like your boy, Mason, your his face
was back twenty years ago calling this thing. I mean,
Frank Bierman's out here looking like the next Kyle Hughes
check leading things in the hole. So Greg Harbo did
a lot of different little nuanced things in the run
(30:11):
game to get this thing going. It felt like it
was one of those where Harbo was going to look
at the media on Wednesday and say, I threw the
kitchen sink at them one way or another. If it worked, great,
If not, what do you want me to do? But
Darius Taylor returning on top of Harbo doing some different
little nuanced things I think was a great adjustment from
Minnesota's offense.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
You mentioned the Drake lindsay to Lemecki Brockington for first
of all, the third down catch for sure, I mean
he fit that in between two people, and then the
touchdown pass. I can confirm that among the admirers of
that throw was Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell. He thought,
I'll just say, his face after that throw was nice.
He had a great time with his family. That was
a fun, little fun little nugget. So good luck to Kelly.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Standing there next to your boy Brozmer Bungalows trying to
buy up as much space as he could at the
former alma mater.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
That's right. I think met Brozemer's girlfriend. The whole thing.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
It was, Yeah, I was locked in on that for
about a quarter. You want to talk about Max being
next level smart. I don't know if he was planning
on coming to the game on Friday, but once he
heard Koc was there, Oh, I get to hang out
with the head coach on the sideline and Carson Wentz
might be injured on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Yeah, sure, let's do it. Let's go. That was great.
That was cool.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
But it was fun to see Koc down there, and
good luck against the Eagles today, Koc Drake in general,
it is funny to watch the rest of the people.
I think because this is Friday night on Fox right
the whole country seeing this game.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
There's not I know.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Miami was in the process of losing to Louisville with
your guy Jeff Brom the fighting Jeff broms do it again, right,
be the top five team. That's just what he does.
And by the way, after that, if Louisville was coming
to Huntington Bank this week, I'd pick PJ to beat them.
That's what Jeff Brom does and that's what PJ. Fleck does.
As you mentioned, but people are starting to catch up
(31:56):
to Drake man. I think it's worth bearing in Tanner
Morgan on the Fox nine pregame show.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Yeah, he's a former QB one.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
I think he understands uniquely the pressures and the expectations
and probably the heat that you get when you're the
quarterback at the u Adam Weber was there last night too.
I talked to him on the field with his wife.
Oh good for me, and the same thing you're just
talking about. They're so impressed with what Drake's doing. Tanner
looks right at the camera and was basically like, do
you people see what's going on here? This guy's pretty good.
(32:24):
Like you need to appreciate what you're seeing because we're
acting like this is normal. Is not normal to have
this level of quarterback play. He said, he only threw
it twenty times, but so efficient moving the chains, you know,
just the pastor lamechi like some big time stuff going
on with this QB that I think we need to
pay attention to.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Yeah, and his ability to even get them into the
right run calls is an underrated part of the game
on Friday night. Where that's why you see Greg Harbow
do as much motion as he does is he's trying
to give his quarterback as much information as he possibly can.
Is it man or zone? Are you going to have
to change the identification of the line, because within Minnesota's
(33:04):
run schemes, Drake is the one who makes the id,
not the center. It is Drake, as a red shirt
freshman in his seventh career start on Friday night, Who's
the one making the IDs? And that was one of
the things that Harbo had talked about, is they had
been working relentlessly on trying to make sure that Drake
and Harbo could get the offensive line into the right looks.
(33:25):
And what he's been able to do with his arm
as well eighty percent completion percentage. He made the throws
when he needed to. There weren't always a ton of
throws there. But I even think about his escapability. We
talked a lot about Ryola and what he was able
to do. Were also able to see Drake Lindsay extend
to play and then Javon Tracy have the wherewithal to
get an Emmy Award winning flag performance on a third
(33:47):
down to extended drive. That's part of it, too, is
you need to be smart. You need to be that
way in the run game. You need to be able
to take care of the football. If you're going to
be a quarterback for PJ. Fleck and the Big Ten,
and Drake's only got three interceptions through his first seven
career starts to go at ten touchdowns, mean whatever your
(34:07):
expectations were for this young man from Arkansas, I think
he has certainly surpassed them, and I'm excited to see
what he can continue to do here throughout the rest
of the Big Ten slate.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
So in our final couple of minutes, here Burns and
let's talk about the Nebraska side of things. They come
in ranked twenty fifth. I believe that was the media.
The coaches poll did not rank them because the coaches
presumably someone's watching the games and media I don't know
if they are all the time, and we're not either.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
It's hard, right.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
We just enjoyed a college football Saturday where we actually
got to watch the full slate of things because the
Gophers played on Friday. We're going to talk about this
on Parentis Spare a lot. But there's times where I
go all in on my takes. As you know, I'm
usually not like yeah, I'm more of a I'm more deliberate.
I'm not like, hey, I got a million takes about everything.
I just kind of watch things, and I gotta say
(34:58):
I nailed this Nebraska thing July, all right. I said,
you look at their schedule, they're gonna be at worst
five and one, which they were right maybe six and
zero because Michigan's the only real tough game in quotations
for those that can't see me. So it's like, you
know that they're they're gonna walk through that Cincinnati. You
can give them fine if you want to, but Nebraska
(35:19):
should beat Cincinnati right regardless in any year that should happen.
And I'm just like, they're gonna be five and one
at worst, and what does that mean? Means they're gonna
be ranked and everyone's gonna be talking about how Matt
Rule's got this thing going in year three. Everybody knows
how much I like Matt Rule two. By the way,
I love that guy. I think he's a great coach.
There's a reason why he may have been distracted by
the Penn State stuff this week, because he should be
(35:40):
a guy that's considered for that type of level job.
But as I'm getting ready for this game, Burnsy and
you know this, I'm like, well, they've had one hard
game Nebraska Michigan at home in a season where they're
supposed to be taking the next step.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
And they lose it.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
So like, what are we doing here with seven point
favorites and it's bet up to like I didn't see
twenty four six coming. But I'm just like, I just
don't see some of these predictions that are being thrown
out there, and even from national guys and listening to
stuff on Sirius during the week and Will Compton on
Get Up, and it's like, what world are we living in?
Like is anybody watching? Like they almost lost to Maryland
(36:19):
a week ago. I don't think Maryland's that great. Your
guy Dan Owens doesn't even have him making a Bowl game,
even though they're off to.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
A hot start.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
So I just don't understand, like, at what point, at
what point will we learn because we do this with
Indiana basketball too. Right the second that they like play
Kentucky tough in December, we say that, you know, here's
Bob Knight back and Calbert Cheney's about to take you
to another Final Four with Steve Alford. I'm just like,
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills because it's just
(36:48):
it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
To me.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
I know, I don't really have a question. I've just
been kind of rambling, but I just felt like I
saw this entire situation coming, and I don't know why.
I don't know why I'm like one of five people
that's coming, because it shouldn't be that difficult.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Well, from looking at your Twitter feed from Friday night,
I can assure you that you kept the receipts and
you wanted to make sure that the entire Nebraska beat
writing corps, which if you didn't come up to the
press box during the game, guards they were as strong
as you've ever seen. I bet you there was forty
to fifty Nebraska media. I saw.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
I saw the seating chart. Yep, they took it was
the bottom right corner.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
I understand that the only show in town. And it's
a fan base that is just so blindly faithful to
a team that largely has not won anything for my
adult life. But to just see that fan base just
start to book their flights the Pasadena for the Rose Bowl,
and I'm seeing some different prognosticators put them in the
(37:46):
College Football Playoff, and you look at their upcoming schedule
after this Gopher game, they got Northwestern UCLA, Penn State,
USC and Iowa. I mean, that's not a murderer's row,
and there's certainly a plausible way from the I'm gonna
win eight games, and if they win eight games, they're
gonna go to a good bowl game, whatever that may be.
But it just felt, like I said it earlier, that Nebraska, well,
(38:08):
you thought with the way that they thought they could
just come in here and walk over the Gophers, that
they were the ones six and one against PJ flex
team and not the other way around. And they got
punched in the mouth. And I am very curious to
see I know what Nebraska teams have done previously when
the Gophers have hit them in the mouth. Normally Nebraska
just lays on the mat and there's a five, six, seven,
(38:30):
eight count. Let's see how Nebraska responds. But look, I
know you want to put them in the playoff. You're
excited about Matt Ruhle, and this whole thing's back, go
big red chance starting around the stadium. You were the
one leading them last night pregame. Yeah, let's let's not
count our chickens before they hatch here.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah, it was it was crazy and shout out. I
thought the environment was awesome again last night. I mean,
I know you hate the night games because you don't
get any sleep. And you and I were talking before
we jumped on here. You know, you get home and
you can't go to bed until like three in the morning,
and I'm sure you've got cats waking you up at six.
So but I thought the atmosphere was electric. And credit
(39:11):
to the Gopher fans for hanging in because Nebraska comes
and tries to take over, right, I mean, they were
all coming up. I was, you know, talking to people
in the press box before the game, and people that
are coming from down south, you know that live down
south and you know prior Lake Burnsville that have to
get on thirty five, like that's where they're coming from
two and it's a big HiT's a caravan coming from
you know, Nebraska. After they hit I ninety, get to
(39:32):
thirty five in Albert Lee and go or maybe they
cut up through sixty left to ask them next time
they're here. It was a great environment on Friday, Like
the environments have been so good all year, and hopefully
this keeps the momentum for the rest of the year, right,
because you've got you know, Michigan State coming. You've obviously
got Wisconsin, you only have a couple of home games left.
I thought it was a wonderful college football environment, and
(39:55):
there was a lot of red there, as there always is,
you know, just seemingly no matter what the year is.
Nice day for Mark Coyle and Mike Wroiz, Vicky and
everybody that's in charge of making money on college football,
because the Huskers gave us some, for sure, But the
red was kind of gone by the time, you know,
midway through the fourth quarter, which was fun to see.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
Yeah, I know you didn't even watch the game in
the fourth quarter. You had just turned your back to
the field. I heard Grimmer and DT try to go
down to you a couple of times, and you said
it into the headset. Too busy watching it go, big Red
leave the stadium, and you're chirping them. That's fine.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Hold on, I'm grabbing my saved tweets and screenshots. I
need to fire these things off because it was bothering
me so much on Friday.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Yeah, it didn't bother me that the fans also rushed
the field. It's not something I was talking about with
Andy Greeder the Pioneer Press afterwards. It's not an every
year thing under PJ. Fleck, And we'd gone back through
it where it was essentially twenty nineteen Penn State, twenty
twenty two Wisconsin, and then USC last year before last night,
So that's four times and nine years. Maybe we're misremembering
(40:56):
one time, but this was the only upcoming opponent that
was going to be ranked. Unless you think your guy
Luke Fickle or Jonathan Smith are still going to have
jobs by the time they come to hunting a Bank
Stadium with the way things are going right. But it's
about making memories for them, and it's a fan base
where making memories hasn't always been a given. Winning ranked
(41:17):
games reflects win last night or on Friday night. Excuse
me over. Nebraska was his seventh ranked win, which is
the most in programmed history for any head coach. Now,
he's also been here longer than many of them, and
we can argue you should Nebraska have been ranked. Have
not think you and I see at the same. But
let people enjoy, even the folks that Jack's Cafe gave
(41:38):
tickets to.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
I mean, yeah, we.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Saw kids be able to go make memories that it
was their first Gopher game potentially in an atmosphere that
they're never going to forget. And I think that's an
important thing for this fan base, is just being able
to have memories to draw back on that are in
a positive light. You're five and zero at home. Now,
the home schedule was always going to dictate this season
(42:01):
for Minnesota, and that's why maybe they're going to be
punching above their weight in these final five games. But
it's just a night that you can't take for granted.
Where you said it earlier, whether you were at the
stadium one of the fifty thousand or you were one
of the millions of people where you're a primetime loan
spot game on Friday night, I mean you are. It's
(42:21):
you and one other game in town and everybody's watching,
and so for the Gophers to actually make a statement there,
good on them.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
Yeah, I would say it was a half hearted field
rush too, right, I mean it was basically the students. Yes,
students are always going to go right at any moment,
they just want to do it. And then you had
a smattering of others that kind of so I guess
we're going. So I wouldn't say yeah, it was it
was cool it was fun and it was It wasn't
a dangerous field storming, which I always worry about. I
(42:51):
got I always get the hell out of there now.
After Brosby and I were enveloped at midfield last year
against USC, I make business decisions. Now found Jackson Howard,
did two minutes with him and got out. But it
was fun. It was fun, and you're right. The home
schedule we did that. This was one of those swing
games in the home schedule, right that you looked at
on paper and said, you win this month at home,
(43:12):
you should be feeling pretty good about yourself. And they've
taken of the three games at home, I'll count the
one Michigan State. It's technically October. This is November. First,
you win those three, you're gonna find yourself in a
really good spot. So they've they've kind of done their
job that way. And now we move on to Iowa, Buddy,
one of your spots Kinnick Stadium. So we'll see you
and we'll see in Iowa City coming up on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
Appreciate you, Guardsy.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
That is Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot Com. Read
him today.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Check out his jiff rewind to check out the message boards,
which I'm sure have been on fire all weekend. We
will also talk to him on the Parent of Spare
podcast coming up on Tuesday with Chipskogin, so don't miss
us there. We'll hand it off to Dan Burrero on
Sunday Sermons nine to ten and then Vikings Eagles coverage
the rest of the day. Thanks everybody for listening. We
will talk to you tomorrow and bumper to bumper as
well at three o'clock right here on the fan.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
Have an elite Sunday
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