Hello  and  welcome  back  to  the  second  episode of  the  weekly  rundown  presented  by  the  Minnesota  Daily. I'm  your  host,  Paul  Hodowonick, and  we  are  again,  talking  football  today. And  to  do  that,  we  brought back  our  pair  of  football  reporters. Nick,  Say  hi  Nick.  How's  it  going  everybody? And  John,  Hey,  how  you  doing?  I'm  glad  to  be  here. Make  sure  to  check  out  Nick  John's  work  on their  first  game  day  issue  that  we put  out  for  the  Thursday  paper. You  can  find  that  pretty  much  at any  university  building  on  campus  and  you  can  also  find it  on  Monday.com  All  right,  so  let's  jump  right  in. Last  week,  Fresno  State  game, pretty  exciting  game,  hard  to  watch. I  had  to  watch  it  via  illegal  stream. So  I'm  not  sure  how  great  that  is, how  my  Twitter  feed  was  kind  of  ahead  of  my  game. So  I  had  to  put  it  away  towards  the  end  of  the  game  to make  sure  I  wasn't  spoiled.  But  what  a  finish. Antoine  Winfield's  interception, that  was  exciting  when  I  saw  it  on  TV, I  was  like,  oh  no, like  this  isn't  going  to  be  good. Golfer  fans  are  going  to  go  crazy like  not  not  going  to  be  good. And  then  out  of  nowhere  you  just  popped  out, got  that  interception,  sealed  the  game  for. Hm.  What  was  the  mood  of  the  team  afterwards and  throughout  the  week  about  how that  game  just  went  as  a  whole? Well,  don't  incriminate  yourself  with that  illegal  stream  business  call,  but  yeah,  I  mean, the  team  I  think  mostly  took  positives  away  Initially, they  talked  about  finding  ways  to  win like  they  did  against  South  Dakota  State  too. And  I  think  they  were  pretty  pleased with  coming  away  with  that  interception  at  the  end, just  like  they  did  last  year  against  Fresno  State. But  Coach  Flex  said  in his  availability  this  week that  after  the  celebration  wore  off, they  focused  on  some  of the  negatives  and  things  they  had  to  improve, and  that's  what  they've  been  focusing  on leading  up  to  the  Georgia  Southern  game  on  Saturday. Yeah,  I  definitely  think,  you  know,  a  game  like  that, it  really  shows  the  resiliency  of  this  team. You  know,  even  though  they faced  those  two  teams,  South  Dakota  State, who  they  probably  should  have  beat  by  more, and  Fresno  State,  they should  have  definitely  beat  by  more. But  they  shot  themselves  in  the  foot. But  if  a  team  knows  that  they  can  overcome adversity  and  they're  down  in  the  fourth  quarter, and  if  they  know  they  can  come  back at  any  point  in  the  game  or  you  know, with  only  a  couple  minutes  left. I  think  it  builds  a  lot  of  character. And  the  coaches,  you  know, they  talked  about  that  as  well. Yeah,  I  thought  they  played  pretty  well, except  for  those  flags  on  third  downs, those  penalties,  they  had  the  one, unsportsmanlike  conduct  or  unnecessary  roughness, I  think  it  was  on  teen  Deavers. And  those  really  derailed  derailed  the  defense, because  up  until  that  point,  they  were shutting  them  out  pretty  early  in  the  drives. And  then  those  kind  of  just  seemed to  weigh  them  down  for  the  rest  of  that  drive. Yeah.  You're  about  to  go  up  14  to  nothing. Mohammed  Abraham  fumbles  on  the  Fresno  State  34  line. You're  up  seven  to  three  at  one  point. And  then  Tanner  Morgan  fumbles  in  Fresno  State  territory. Like  you  just  said,  it  was  all  the  third  down  penalties. It  was  just  one  thing  after  another  when  it  looked  like the  golfers  were  building  momentum  and they  just  couldn't  capitalize  off  of  that. But  I  think  if  they  would have  lost  that  game,  they  would  have  beat  themselves. I  don't  think  Fresno  State  beat  them  at  all. I  think  the  golfers,  if  they didn't  have  those  two  turnovers, they  could  have  won  that  game by  a  lot  more  than  they  did. I  think  you  couldn't  have  said  it  any  better  right  there. I  mean,  again,  South  Dakota  say  it  was  an  issue  too, or  they  had  chances  to  extend  the  lead, maybe  put  the  game  away, maybe  make  it  so  the  other  team wouldn't  have  chances  to  extend  drives, but  they  just  haven't  found  that  killer  instinct  so  far. So  I  think  that's  something  that  moving  forward, especially  as  they  get  into Big  Ten  season  that they're  going  to  have  to  find  somewhere. Yeah,  I  mean,  they  only  needed  to  go  3.0  Well,  you  know, if  they  win  this  game  against  George  or  Southern, you  go  three  and,  and  you  go  to  Big  Ten,  play  undefeated. You  can't  ask  for  much.  It  doesn't  matter  how  you  win. It's  about,  you  know,  how  you  finish  the  season. Yeah.  And  those  are  they  had  seven  penalties  for 65  yards  and  five  fumbles. They  lost  three  of  them.  So  not  exactly what  the  team  is  going  to  want  to  do heading  into  big  ten  play. But  before  we  get  to  Big  ten  play, they've  got  the  one  game  against  Georgia  Southern. A  couple  other  quick  things  that  I  wanted  to  get to  that  were  positives  from  the  game. Besides  the  turnovers  or  the  penalties  on  defense, there  were  a  couple  outstanding  performances  as  well. Antoine  Winfield,  who  has  won  four  tackles, a  sack  and  an  interception. Obviously  the  big  interception, but  also  the  impact  that  Kamal  Martin had  returning  after  his  one  game  suspension, he  had  13  tackles. The  linebacker  corps  really  seemed  to  know  a little  bit  more  what  they  were  doing, having  him  kind  of  as  the  general  in  the  middle  there. Yeah,  and  like  we  talked  about  before, last  week's  game,  having Kamal  Martin  back  is  going  to  be  huge. You  saw  Thomas  Barber  have  even  more  tackles  this  week. He's  able  to  be  freed  up  and  play  his  game. And  Kamal  Martin  was  able  to  be that  presence  that  the  defense  needs  in  the  middle. Although  their  defensive  run  game  is  still, I  don't  want  to  say  terrible, but  it  definitely  has  a  lot  to  improve  upon. Yeah.  In  terms  of  Kamala  Martin  having  13  tackles, I  think  if  you're  the  gophers, it's  more  of  what  you  want. As  opposed  to  the  week  one  game  against the  South  Dakota  State  when Jordan  Holton  led  the  team  in  tackles. Usually  you  don't  want  a  defensive  back leading  them  in  tackles because  that  means  running  backs  or  getting into  the  second  level,  they're  completing  passes. Yeah.  And  I  think  that's  the  one  thing that  continues  to  be  is,  you  know, they're  highlighting  the  defensive  line  right  now, is  just  not  getting  really  that  much  of  a  push. So  we'll  see  if  they  can  get it  this  week  against  a  very  good, very,  very  good  run  team. Yeah.  And  the  one  other  play  that  I  wanted  to  shout  out was  the  Chris  Hotan  Bell  catch that  really  kept  them  in  the  game. It  looked  like  maybe  they  were  going  to  squander. Squander  the  game,  but  with  47  seconds  left. Fourth  and  13,  they  really  had  to  go  for  the  end  zone. There  wasn't  much  room  to  play  with. They  were  on  the  20  line, so  there  wasn't  much  between  them  and  the  end  zone. And  Flex  said  that  pretty  much  they thought  the  defense  probably  would  have thought  it  was  going  to  go  to  Bateman  or  to  Johnson. And  it  was  time  for  Autman Bell  to  step  up  and  make  a  play, and  Morgan  threw  a  great  pass and  Autman  Bell  made  the  catch. Yeah,  that's  what  Saca  said,  you  know? And  if  you  think  about  it,  I  don't think  I  wrote  in  my  article, I  don't  think  there's  one  quarterback since  in  the  last  15  years that  played  for  the  golfers  that  could  have made  that  pass  and  put  that  where  it  was. I  mean,  it  just  went  by. It  was  like  it  felt  like  an  Aaron  Rogers pass  that  he  throws  into  the  end  zone  that  goes  right  by. You  know,  a  couple  of  years  ago  he  had the  one  that  went  by  the  defense  or the  Vikings  defensive  Backs helmet  and  it  was  a  packer  touchdown. And  that's  what  it  felt  like  with  Morgan. It  was  just  a  perfectly  put ball  right  where  it  needed  to  be. Yeah,  that  play  doesn't  happen unless  Tanner  Morgan  puts  that  ball  in that  exact  spot  where only  Chris  Autman  Bell  could  have gotten  it  over  the  head  of  the  defensive  back. And  then  Chris  Autman  Bell getting  his  foot  down  in  bounds. Those  are  two  really  difficult  plays  on  both  ends, and  they  both  had  to  be pretty  precise  in  order  for  that  to  be  a  touchdown. And  then  just  to  have  Autman  Bell  step  up, make  that  play  with  the  Defense  keying in  on  Bateman  and  Johnson. Definitely  a  positive  the  gophers  can  take away  and  hopefully  build  on  moving  forward. Yeah.  And  if  you  think  about  that, the  Gophers  have  never  had playmakers  like  Tyler  Johnson,  Oman  bell. I  mean,  when  Oman  bells, you're  number  three,  your  offense has  some  playmakers  to  play  with  them. That's  what  Tanner  Morgan  said, you  know,  it  opened  it  up. And  Chris  Atman  Bells,  You  know, he  can  be  just  as  good  as Bateman  in  a  year  or  two  from  now,  you  don't  know? Yeah.  And  in  the  running  game, it  was  kind  of  a  flip  flop  from  the  first  game. Ibrahim  had  more  of  the  Reyes, the  more  success  rate  he  had, over  5  yards  per  carry. So  it  seems  like  that's  kind  of  going  to  be a  revolving  door  of  just  whoever's got  the  hot  hand  that  day  is  going to  be  the  one  to  take  the  most  of  the  cars. And  then  Rashod  Bateman,  like  we  just  said, had  seven  catches  for  105  yards and  a  touchdown  and  then  tie  Johnson, I'm  still  a  little  quiet, but  four  reception,  71  yards, so  he's  definitely  getting  there. And  we'll  see  how  they  do  against Georgia  Southern,  who  is  their  next  opponent. Which  they  will  play  on  Saturday  at  02:30 P.M.  Georgia  Southern  is  one  in  one  on  the  year. They  lost  55  to  three  to  LSU,  week  one. But  obviously  that's  an  LSU  team that's  ranked  in  the  top  ten  very  good. And  then  they  took  on  Maine  and  won  26  to  18, and  they  were  10.3  in  2018. So  although  maybe  not  the threat  that  Fresno  State  posed,  they  know  how  to  win, and  that's  always  something that  can  be  dangerous  when  they're coming  in  against  a  team that  is  expecting  to  win  that  game. And  one  of  the  big  keys  that the  game  is  going  to  be  relied  upon  is  the  running  game, because  that's  pretty  much exclusively  with  Georgia  Southern  runs. They  run  a  triple  option. And  so  what  have  the  coach  has  been  talking  about, what  have  the  player  has  been  talking  about? About  how  to  key  in  on  that  and  really  stop  that. Well,  Fleck  talked  about  how, even  though  the  Gophers  do  have  some  experience  last  year against  the  triple  option  when  they played  Georgia  Tech  in  the  Bowl  game. What  Georgia  Southern  does  is  a  little  bit  different. They're  going  to  give  you  some  different  looks. Offensively,  running  more  option  out  of  the  pistol. So  he  said  that  defensively  it's imperative  that  defenders  don't  do, like  he  said  week  one, he  thought  defenders  were  trying to  do  a  little  too  much  trying to  make  other  people's  play  against  the  triple  option. You  have  to  remain  very  disciplined. Stay  in  your  lanes,  don't  lose  contain. Yeah,  he  said  it  best. I  mean,  you've  got  to  stay  very  disciplined against  the  triple  option  team. And  if  you  don't,  I  mean,  that's why  sometimes  Army  and  Navy, they  can  almost  upset  big  time  programs  because  they  give themselves  big  time  programs won't  be  disciplined  and  you  know, they  have  guys  trying  to  make  the  hero plays  and  you  know, those  triple  option  teams  will  gash  them. And  that  discipline  was  something  that  Fleck and  Rossi  and  were  kind  of  hoping  for  more  of. After  the  South  Dakota  State  game, they  saw  people  trying  to make  too  much  out  of  some  plays. And  I  think  that  was  corrected  a  little  bit  in the  Fresno  State  game  and  just in  time  heading  into  Georgia  Southern. And  again,  they  have three  rushers  that  average  over  5  yards  per  carry. Matt  La  Roche  is  actually  at  12.2  Logan, right  5.4  And  Quarterback  Justin  Tomlin  at 9.1  So  a  lot  of  dynamic  runners  that  can  really  create. And  so  it's  going  to  be  tough  for  them. And  like  Nick  said, they  prepared  for  Georgia  Tech last  year  for  the  Bowl  game. But  as  Fleck  noted, it's  not  exactly  the  same  thing. So  they're  going  to  have  to  adjust  a  little  bit. I  know,  Nick,  you  talked  to the  Georgia  Southern  sports  Editor, the  student  newspaper  sports  editor  for  the  Georgia  Anne, what  did  she  kind  of  have  to  say  about  the  team  and  what was  her  perspective  looking  into  this  match  up? Well,  in  terms  of  Georgia  Southern  trying  to  pull an  upset  against  Minnesota,  one  of  the  Keys, especially  when  you're  an  option  team, is  you  have  to  make  the  other  team  play  your  game. You  have  to  control  the  ball and  ideally  if  the  option  is  effective, Coach  Flex  said  it's an  equalizer  where  you  can  run  the  ball, you  can  control  the  clock. Not  let  the  other  team  have as  much  time  to  do  what  they  want  to  do  offensively. So  for  Georgia  Southern, she  said  the  key  was  to  just  play  their  game, play  their  brand  of  football. And  you  can  look  at  what  Army did  last  week  against  Michigan, going  into  the  Big  House  and  forcing  overtime. The  option  teams  are  pretty  dangerous  as  underdogs, they  can  upset  some  big  programs. Yeah,  I  mean,  as  we  saw  last  week, these  guys  can  run  the  ball, Georgia  Southern,  they  averaged. You  know,  a  ridiculous  amount  of  yards  per  carry. Against  Maine,  they  ran  for  395  yards  last  week, but  against  LSU,  they only  did  average  less  than  2  yards  per  carry. Actually,  it  was  like  1.9  But  if  the  gophers, I  think,  you  know, they  don't  have  to  worry  about  the  pass. You  can  bring  guys  up  like  Antoine  Winfield. You  don't  have  to  worry  about  it  at  all. Make  them  try  to  beat  you  through  there. You  could  stack  the  box,  stay disciplined.  I  think  they'll  be  just  fine. Yeah,  I  think  we  should  expect  to  see yards  per  carry  a  little  bit  in  between  those  two. I  wouldn't  forecast  it  at  either  end  of  that  spectrum, but  a  few  facts  about  the  Eagles  from  2018. They  led  the  nation  with  a  plus  22  turnover  margin. It  was  a  sunbelt  record  and  right now  they're  only  at  minus  one  on  the  season. But  it's  obviously  in their  DNA  to  be  able  to  take  the  ball  away. So  those  turnovers  that  were  costly  against  Fresno  State, they  can't  keep  doing  that  to  let  the  team  in, potentially  threaten  the  gophers  at  home. And  then  Georgia  Southern  is  actually  undefeated  when they  out  rush  an  opponent  and  win  less  when  they  didn't. So  that's  kind  of,  that's their  all  end  all  if  they  can  outrush  him. And  so  Ibrahim  and Rodney  Smith  are  going  to  be important  to  kind  of  establish  the  run. Fleck  said  earlier  this  week  that Shannon  Brooks  has  continued  to  progress. He  was  practicing,  so they  kind  of  have a  three  headed  monster  getting  ready  to  go. I'm  not  sure  they're  going  to  debut  him, let  him  out  of  the  garage  quite  yet. But  it's  exciting  to  see  that running  game  is  kind  of  rounding  into  form. Yeah,  I  tried  to  ask  Rodney if  Shannon's  gonna  be  suiting  up this  week  and  he  gave  me a  little  smirk  and  told  me  he  couldn't  talk  about  it, but  he  said  he's  amping  it  up. So  that's  exciting. A  three  headed  monster  in  big  ten  play. It's  going  to  be  huge  and  like we've  been  talking  about,  that's  a  big  luxury. This  Gopher  team  has  to  have  those  three. In  addition  to  a  guy  like  Bryce  Williams  who  played well  last  year  when  he  got his  opportunities  and  some  freshman  as  well. I  think  Fleck  eventually  wants  to create  a  big  stable  at  running  back, whereas  so  far  we've  only  seen  Ibrahim  and  Rodney  Smith. And  in  one  game,  Smith's  carried  the  load, the  other  one,  Ibrahim  had  the  better  game. But  again,  the  more  people  you  have  in  there, the  more  you  have  the  ability  to  ride  a  hot  hand. Yeah.  And  you  know,  if  you  have  a  healthy  Shannon  Brooks completely  healthy,  he's  gonna  be  dominant. And  then  you  have  Mohammed  Ibrahim  who was  just  absolutely  phenomenal  in  his  freshman  year. But,  you  know,  the  Gophers  are  still  only averaging  3  yards  per  carry  on  the  season. And  that's  a  big  deal.  They  need  to  get a  better  push  up  front,  which  they're  not  doing. And  unless  they  really  start,  you  know, boosting  that  number  up, going  into  big  ten  play, not  being  able  to  run the  ball  as  effectively  as  they  want  to, it's  not  going  to  be  good, especially  in  the  cold  weather. It's  gonna  get  cold  here  real  quick. Well,  I  guess  they're  hoping  that  Saturday's  game can  kind  of  be  a  launching  pad going  forward  and  being  able  to  get  that, because  it  just  takes  a  little  bit  of  mojo, a  little  bit  of,  oh, we  can  do  this  where  we  ran  all  over  them. So  that's  going  to  be  one  of  the  keys  to  the  game. What  other  keys  to  the  game  do  you  guys  see  to  make  sure Minnesota  avoids  this  upset and  rolls  on  to  Big  Ten  play  undefeated? I  think  that  one  of the  keys  I'll  be  looking  at  is  third  down. Like  we  said  last  week,  Gophers  defense  has  some  problems getting  off  the  field  this  week against  that  triple  option  attack. I  think  it'll  be  really  important  that  they  don't have  those  third  down  penalties  to  extend  drives. Because  if  they  let  Georgia  Southern have  big  long  drives, the  defense  could  get  worn out  and  then  you  go  on  offense. I  think  it's  important  there to  convert  your  third  downs  too, especially  if  you're  coming  off a  longer  Georgia  State  drive. Your  offense  has  to  respond  with  a  drive  of  its  own. Gophers  did  a  pretty  good  job  last  week. All  of  their  touchdown  drives, a  regulation  were  over  ten  plays, so  giving  the  defense a  break  against  that  triple  option  so  they  can  recover. Because  if  the  defense  has  to  be  out  there, as  long  as  Georgia  Southern  wants  them  to  be  out  there, it  could  be  a  long  afternoon  for  the  Gophers.  D. Yeah.  I  mean,  the  Gophers  defense  is  averaging,  you  know, 5  yards  per  carry  allowed  against  them, for  opposing  running  Backs. So  that's  not  great  for  going  against  a  run  heavy  team. But  like  I  said,  they  could  stack  the  box. The  big  thing  to  me  is  the  Gophers  have a  real  big  problem  on allowing  a  lot  of  yards  on  first  down. A  lot  of  teams  are  getting  big  plays  on  first  down, We  saw  it  against  South  Dakota  State. We  saw  it  against  Fresno  State. You  know,  they  would  start  off  at  the  25, 30  yard  line  on  their  own  territory. Fresno  State  and  South  Dakota  State  would. And  the  next  thing  you  know,  they're  at  the 50  off  of  two  plays  on  first  down. They  need  to,  I  think  the  defense needs  to  get  some  momentum  early  on. Get  some  first  down  stops, put  them  in  second  and  long,  third  and  long. And  that's  where  they  will have  success,  especially  this  week. Because  again,  Southern  not  exactly  a  throwing  team. So  if  they  have  third  and  short, they're  much  more  likely  to  convert  out  of  the  option. But  if  Georgia  Southern  gets  put  in  third  and  long, they're  going  to  have a  little  more  difficulty  passing  for  that. Yeah.  They've  only  thrown  the  ball  20  times  all  year. So  the  Gophers,  I  think  you  got  to make  Georgia  Southern  throw  the  ball. Put  them  in  those  long  down  territories. And  I  was  going  to  say  another  thing  that'll  kind  of  make them  have  to  do  that  is  if they  jump  out  to  an  early  lead, which  I  think  is  another  big  key, if  they  can  get  up  front. I  know  even  when  they  lost  55  to  three  against  LSU, they  still  only  threw  the  ball  11  times. So  I'm  not  sure  they're  really going  to  stray  away  from  that. I  don't  know  if  they  probably  knew early  that  LSU  they  weren't  going  to  get  that  one. But  this  one's  a  little  bit  more  gettable  for  them. So  I  wonder  if  they  do  try  to  throw  a  little  bit  more. Because  just  if  they're  struggling  to  run  the  ball, throwing  it  11  times  is  not  going  to  do  the  trick. So  it'll  be  interesting  to  see  what  they  do. Yeah.  And  Nick,  like the  person  you  interviewed  from  Georgia  Southern, what  she  said  was  that  they're  starting to  implement  a  little  bit  more  passes, like  even  last  year  they  wouldn't  have  done  that, but  so  maybe  they're  trying  to, you  know,  try  something  new,  have  some  more. Ways  to  keep  the  defense  honest on  third  down  just  a  little  bit. But  I  think  you  forced  them to  throw  or  you  just  stacked  the  box. I  mean,  just  stay  disciplined  and  they'll  be  just  fine. But  like  I  said,  the  Gophers had  a  lot  of  trouble  stopping  the  run. This  will  be  a  huge  test  for  them. And  I  would  say the  Georgia  Southern  quarterback  situation going  into  the  game  is notable  because  their  week  one  starter, Shy  Wertz,  got  hurt  against  LSU, which  Justin  Tomlin's  played  ever  since. And  according  to  the  reporter  from  Georgia  Southern, there  hasn't  been  an  indication  as  to  who  will  play. She  said  she  expects  Tomlin  probably  to  get  the  start. But  it's  worth  noting  because  Worts  is the  more  experienced  player and  probably  a  little  bit  better  passer. And  that's  the  thing  about  college  football, those  injuries  are  never  released. You  never  know  really  what's  going  on and  you  know,  flex  the  same  way. He  doesn't  like  to  tell  anybody  who's  injured  and  how. Yeah,  I  can't  give  anyone  an  edge. But  there  are  a  15  on  a  two point  favorite  going  into  the  game. If  they  do  win,  that'll  extend their  non  conference  consecutive  wins to  18.  That's  right. Now  they  have  the  record, at  least  the  one  going  on  currently. And  I  thought  it'd  be  kind  of  a little  fun  exercise  to  run  through all  the  teams  that  they've  beat just  to  kind  of  get  some  perspective. Because  obviously  the  nonconference schedule  is  a  little  bit  lighter, usually  with  a  couple  tough  opponents  thrown  in  there. But  their  last  loss  was  actually  to number  two  ranked  TCU  in  2015. And  that  was  a  game  that  was  close  for  most  of  the  game. But  other  than  that,  they  beat  Colorado  State  twice, Kent  State,  Ohio  Central  Michigan  in  a  bowl  game. Oregon  State  twice,  Indiana  State, Washington  State,  Buffalo,  Middle  Tennessee, New  Mexico  State,  Fresno  State  twice, now  Miami  of  Ohio, Georgia  Tech,  and  South  Dakota  State. So  not  exactly  the  toughest  crop, but  there's  something  to  be  said  for  just getting  the  job  done  against teams  that  you're  supposed  to  beat. Good  teams  beat  the  teams  that  they're  supposed  to  beat. And  outside  of  maybe  Washington  State  and  Georgia  Tech, none  of  those  teams  were  like  super  great. Obviously,  Fresno  State  finished 18th  in  the  polls  last  year. But  it  does,  it's  something  to  be said  that  they're  continuing  to  take  care  of  business, whether  it's  a  high  octane  team or  someone  that  they're  expected  to  beat. Yeah.  I  mean,  Georgia  Southern  was 10.3  last  year.  They're  no  slouch. I  mean,  yeah,  they  beat  up  on,  you  know, the  Sun  Belt  teams  and  stuff  like  that. But  you  know,  you  have  to  respect  teams who  know  how  to  win  and  teams  that  end  up  with  ten  wins. I  mean,  they  got  there  somehow. Flex's  been  talking  about  that  a  lot  in the  program  that  he's  trying  to  build  at  Minnesota. He  wants  to  be  like  teams  like South  Dakota  State  and  Fresno  State, Georgia  Southern  teams  that  no  matter what  conference  or  subdivision  they're  in, they  find  ways  to  win  in  two  games  into  this  season. Looks  like  the  Gophers  are  getting  there. Yeah.  And  during  his  weekly  radio  hit, Mike  Grimm  asked  him  about  that, if  he  pays  attention  to  the  record,  and  he  said,  no. That's  for  you  guys  to  discuss. So  let's  discuss  it  a  little  bit  more. I  pulled  up  all  their  opponents, their  non  conference  opponents  that  they  have their  fully  released  schedule  through  2023. So  we  got  four  years  of  games, just  hypothetically,  where  we  could  see, potentially  them  losing  it, where  they  could  see  him  continue  going  on. And  I  just  thought  it  would  be  a  fun  exercise. So  did  he  say  he  didn't pay  attention  to  his  opponents  records? No,  he  didn't  pay  attention  to  their  record. The  golfers  recordkee. No,  he's  definitely  aware  of  their  records. Yeah.  He  cites  at  every  press  caverns, like  those  three  teams  we're gonna  play  like  Georgia  Southern, and  the  last  two,  he's  like,  they were  like,  I  forget  what  it  is. 30,  38.  32  at  eight. Yeah.  He  says  that  he  said  it for  the  last  three  press  conferences. It's  like,  no,  he  keeps  track. He  said  he  doesn't  talk  to his  players  about  the  record  at  all. But  it's  fun  for  us  to  talk  about. So  next  year  all  home  games  they play  Florida  Atlantic,  which  is  kind  of  interesting. Lane  Kiffin's  trying  to  turn  that  around, but  the  results  haven't  been  there  quite  yet. And  then  Tennessee  Tech  and  BYU. So  BYU  just  beat  Tennessee,  actually. So  they've  got  some  chops, but  I  could  see  them  getting  through  that  as  well. You  got  to  remember  Lane  Kiffin  was a  hot  commodity  when  the  Gophers  hired  Tim  Brewster, you  know,  ten  or  so  years  ago, he  was  the  name  to  be  thrown  around  and, you  know,  they  went  with  Brewster. Yeah.  And  then  in  2021  they'll  have  Miami,  Ohio  again. Then  they'll  be  at  Colorado,  and  then  Bowling  Green. And  Colorado  just  took  down Nebraska.  Definitely  no  slouch. They  play  them  again  in  2023. And  then  in  2022  they  have  New  Mexico  State, Western  Illinois,  Colorado  at  home. And  then  finally  in  2023  they  have  Eastern  Michigan, they're  at  North  Carolina, and  then  they  have  University  of  Louisiana,  Lafayette. So  there's  a  possibility. Obviously,  it's  hard  to  forecast another  12  games  where  we're  penciling  them  for  wins. You  can  never  pencil  and  wins  for  college  football, but  it's  kind  of  a  fun  story  line that  has  a  chance  to  continue  on. It's  not  like  they  got  Alabama  in  there  anytime  soon, so  there's  a  chance  that  they could  live  on  for  a  little  bit. Yeah.  I  mean,  it's  like  the  golfers are  playing  slouch  teams  though. Like  Alabama  lines  up, Citadel  to  give  them a  free  pay  check  to  beat  the  crap  out  of  them  every  year. It's  like,  come  on,  give  me  a  break. At  least  the  golfers  aren't  doing  that. You  got  to  keep  in  mind  the  bowl  game  too. So  those  could  always  get  thrown  in. That  might  be,  at  least  looking  at  this  list, the  most  likely  place  the  Gophers  get a  non  conference  defeat  in  the  near  future. Although  BYU  is  a  team  that's  always  tough  at  Colorado, like  you  said,  those  can  be  tough  games. But  in  terms  of  what  their  schedule  is, this  non  conference  streak could  last  a  little  while  longer. Yeah,  that  is  important  to  note.  The  bowl  games could  definitely  have  an  impact  on  that, and  they're  hoping  that  they're  gonna  play some  high  profile  teams  in  those  bowl  games. So  that's  definitely  has some  potential  to  mess  with  that  a  little  bit. So  anything  else  you  guys want  to  add?  This  was  a  lot  of  fun. Hey,  with  high  profile  games  come  high  profile  recruits and  that's  where  they're  going  and  they're definitely  turning  this  program  around. So  I'm  excited  to  get  this  and see  if  they  can  build  a  bunch  of  momentum. Get  guys  stay  healthy. Going  into  the  by  next  week and  then  rolling  into  the  big  ten, you  know,  max  effort. Yeah,  as  fun  as  the  non  conference is  and  to  look  at  some  of  these  things, you  know,  what  everybody's  looking  forward  to is  the  Big  Ten  and  playing  those  local  teams. So  can't  wait  for  this  season  to  keep  rolling. All  right,  thanks  guys.  As  a  reminder, the  Gophers  will  play  the  Georgia  Southern  Eagles at  02:30  And  John  and Nick  will  have  all  your  coverage  right after  the  game  and  going forward  through  the  rest  of  the  season. In  other  news,  a  pair  of  Gopher  gymnasts qualified  for  the  World  championships  last  week. Recent  graduate  Justin  Carstad qualified  for  the  Canadian  team. And  current  Gopher  Shane  Wiskus qualified  for  the  American  team. Both  teams  will  compete  at  the  event  in  Sugart, Germany  from  October  4  to  the  13th. It  is  the  last  opportunity  for both  teams  to  qualify  for  one  of the  nine  remaining  spots  for the  2020  Summer  Olympics  in  Tokyo. Wiskus  is  the  youngest  and  only  active  gymnast on  the  United  States  team. In  Gopher  Volleyball's  lone  match this  week  they  beat  number seven  ranked  Florida  in their  first  home  match  of  the  season. 25  2025. 17.25  22  setter. Kyle  Miller  was  honored  for  her  play the  past  week  winning  Big  Ten  setter  of  the  week. You  can  learn  more  about  Miller  who transferred  from  UCLA  this  season on  Mendaly.com  as  our  fantastic  volleyball  reporter, Nolan  O'hara  went  in  depth  on  her  transition  to  the  team. The  golf  teams  kicked  off  their  season  this  week, each  hosting  a  home  event. The  women's  team  came  in  11th, while  the  men's  team  finished  tenth. Angie  Flanagan  was  the  top  men's  finisher, finishing  four  over  for  the  tournament. Good  enough  for  22nd  place. Kate  Lily  was  the  highest  finisher  for the  women  driving  a  share  of  12th  place  over. Finish  the  cross  country  teams  now  get a  three  week  break  following the  completion  of  the  Oz  memorial  last  Friday. Both  teams  dominated  the  race, finishing  first  among  all  the  teams  there. Men's  runner  Owen  Hoff  won  the  men's  race, marking  his  first  career  win. We  will  be  back  again  next  week  to  give  you the  weekly  rundown  on  all  things  go  for  sports. Don't  forget  to  share  subscribe  and  review. We'll  see  everyone  next  week.