Hello  and  welcome  back  to the  weekly  rundown  presented  by  the  Minnesota  Daily. I'm  your  host,  Paul  Hodowonic. And  for  the  first  time  in  this  podcast  history, the  Gophers  football  team  has  lost. They  fell  to  Iowa  last  week, dropping  them  in  the  rankings  and  putting their  Big  Ten  west  title  hopes in  just  a  little  bit  of  jeopardy. But  they  get  the  chance  to  rebound  against a  lowly  Northwestern  team  this  week  before a  vital  match  up  against the  Badgers  to  close  out  their  regular  season. So  to  break  down  everything  happening  in this  upcoming  match  up  and  recent  go  for  football  news, we  bring  back  our  football  reporters, Nick  Youngheim  and  John  Miller. How  are  you  doing  John?  Good,  Nick? Doing  great. All  right. Well,  make  sure  to  check  out  both  of  their  work  on Mendaiy.com  And  they  will  be  in  Northwestern. They  were  in  Iowa  last  week  as  well. And  they  will  be  making  the  trek  down  to Illinois  for  the  Northwestern  game  on  Saturday. So  look  out  for  their  stuff  there  as  well.  All  right. So  headlines,  I  want  to  get  to  the  polls  a  little  bit. So  I  don't  know, maybe  I  was  expecting  a  little  bit  farther  of a  drop  just  in  my  head. Maybe  they  were  thinking, oh  gophers, maybe  that  was  a  fluke  Penn  State  game  or  something. But  they  didn't  really  drop  too  far. Ap  dropped  them  from  seventh  to  11th, and  the  college  football  playoff  actually  dropped  them even  a  smaller  margin,  only  eight  to  ten. So  they're  right  around  that  top  ten  tier  range, which  I  think  is  probably  fair. So  in  your  opinions,  did  they  get  it  right? Yeah,  I  agree  with  you  that I  think  it  was  a  fair  ranking. I  also  expected  them  to  fall  a  little  bit  further. But  I  think  what  we're  seeing, especially  from  the  College  Football  Playoff  committee, is  that  they're  rewarding  teams for  beating  quality  opponents, and  not  punishing  them  as  much  for  losing  to other  quality  teams  was  certainly  a  top  20  team. Kinnick  Stadium  is  a  really  tough  place  to play,  and  you  know, the  Gophers  didn't  look  great, but  they  were  still  right  in  that  game  till  the  very  end. So  yeah,  I  think  they  got  it  about  right. I  think  1011  is where  this  Gopher  team  should  be  right  now. Yeah.  I  mean,  it's  hard  to  argue  with, you  know,  me  and  Nick  talked  about  it  after  the  game. We  really  thought  they  would  probably be  somewhere  on  the  14, 15  kind  of  range. And  for  them  not  to  fall  that  far,  I  think  it  is  good. And  it  speaks  volumes  about  how  good  Iowa  is. I  mean,  Iowa  only  lost  to  ranked  teams  Kinnick  Stadium. Like  Nick  said,  it  is  a  tough  place  to  play. And  the  golfers,  even  playing their  worst  game  of  the  year  were  right  in  it. Like  that  shows  you  how  good  they  are. They  were  right  in  it.  And  they had  a  chance  on  that  final  drive, and  then  Tanner  Morgan  went  down. I  mean,  he  had  gotten  sacked  on  back  to  back  plays, which  presumably  is  where  the  concussion  happened. But  I  think  everyone  was  already kind  of  sad  about  a  potential  loss, and  then  that  kind  of  compounded  onto  it. We  don't  know  how  he  was  going to  do  from  watching  the  TV  broadcast. He  wanted  to  go  back  in.  It  looked  like  he  was  ready  to go  back  in  and  they  were  holding  him  out. So  initially,  I  didn't  think  it  was  that  big  of  a  deal, but  obviously  with  head  injuries  and  things  like  that, they're  going  to  take  it  very  seriously. So,  did  PJ. Offer  much  of  an  update  during his  Tuesday  press  conference  about  Morgan's  health? Very  veiled  language  from  Coach  Fleck. He  says  that  Morgan's  making  progress in  the  concussion  protocol, but  honestly  we  won't  know. It'll  be  a  game  time  decision. And  I'm  sure  Ryan  Field  and Evanston  that  all  eyes  are  going  to  be  on Tanner  Morgan  and  pregame  warm  up, seeing  if  he's  ready  to  go. And  you  know,  I  think  that  we'll probably  know  just  about  the  time  everyone  else  does. Yeah.  I  mean  Fleck  is  never  honest  about  injuries. I  mean,  fly  was  a  full  practice  for  three  weeks, so  was  Kamal  Martin  when  he  was  hurt. And  both  of  them  didn't  play, you  know,  in  the  games  that he  said  they  were  going  to  play. So  like  Nick  said, we'll  know  when  you  know, and  what  is  the  impact  if  Morgan's  out? There's  not  a  lot  of  experience  behind  him, but  presumably  this  is  maybe the  best  opponent  they  could  face besides  maybe  Rutgers  when maybe  they  have  an  injured  starting  quarterback. So  what's  the  impact  on  the  offense? Will  they  run  the  same  things? What  should  we  expect? It's  hard  to  kind  of  know  because we  don't  know  these  freshmen  really  well, But  what's  your  take  on  it? I  think  this  is  a  pretty  quarterback  friendly  offense, especially  if  the  running  game  can  get  going. They're  not  playing  nearly  as  tough  of a  run  defense  as  they  have  the  last  two  weeks. So  there'll  be  a  lot  of  emphasis  on  Rodney  Smith, Shannon  Brooks,  and  Ibrahim to  get  it  going  on  the  ground, as  well  as  that  offensive  line. But  yeah,  I  think  in  terms  of  run  to  pass  ratio, maybe  a  little  more  rush  heavy  than  usual, but  nothing  too  radically  different. Yeah,  I  don't  think  the  offense  changes, but  one  thing  fuck  talked  about  is,  you  know, he  could  play  both  quarterbacks  in  the  game  if Morgan's  not  able  to  go  and  Saka,  you  know, the  offensive  coordinator,  talked  about the  differences  between  Clark  and  Kramer  yesterday. Clark  is  a  pure  pocket  passer. He's  a  little  taller,  6465, He's  good  in  the  pocket,  he  could  throw  the  deep  ball. And  Kramer,  you  know,  he's  got  a  good  arm, but  he's  more  of  a  scrambler  kind  of  quarterback. He's  a  little  shorter, so  that's  the  difference  between  the  two. And  he's  always  said  that  both  of  them  are  ready  to  take the  second  snap  of  every  game,  no  matter  what  happens. So  I  think  regardless  of  if  Morgan  plays  or  not, both  of  them  will  be  ready  to  go  and  they  will  run  more. But  I  don't  think  they're  going  to  be  afraid  to throw  with  these  two  if  they  have  to  play. Sure.  And  again,  combined, they've  only  thrown  four  passes, so  they've  really  only  gotten  in  garbage  time. And  then  when  Morgan  was  hurt  there, is  there  any  indication  I  know  you said  both  of  them  might  play. Is  there  any  indication  about which  way  they're  leaning  or  which  way? Saca,  in  his  language, made  it  sound  like  he's  leaning. Do  I  have  any  indication  about where  they  might  started  out? No,  I  don't  think  so. And  I  think  honestly,  I  mean, the  one  pass  we  saw  from  Clark  in that  Maryland  game  where  he  threw that  bomb  down  the  sideline,  an  absolute  dime. I  mean,  that's  who  I  probably  would  have  went  with. But  they  get  to  watch  these  guys  every  day and  I  think  Saca  genuinely,  really  likes  both  of  them. So  we  could  see  both  of  them  play. Yeah.  Throughout  the  whole  season, they  have  been  very  careful  about  not  giving  away their  hand  as  to  who's  the  backup  quarterback. You  look  at  early,  some  of  those  big  ten  blowouts right  away  where  they  kept  Morgan  in  the  whole  game, or  even  went  to  Seth  Green  a  little  bit  and  the  wildcat, not  wanting  to  give  it  away, they  finally  went  to  Kramer  against Rutgers  and  then  they  put  Clark  in  against  Maryland. They've  been  setting  up  for  this  the  whole  season, I  think  trying  to  keep  teams  guessing and  Kramer  was  the  one  that came  in  after  Morgan  came  out. I  know  Fleck  said  that's  not an  indication  of  who  it's  going  to  be. We  just  kind  of  have  been  rotating  him. But  actually  in  his  two  throws, he  had  one,  that  it  was  third  and  21. And  he  threw  one  and  I  think  probably  went like  19  yards  hit  Bateman, I  think  Bateman  or  Johnson in  the  hands  and  he  dropped  it. So  it  looked  like  a  good  ball. So  he's  the  one  from  Texas, he's  kind  of  the  Gunslinger. Jacob  Clark  is  the  local  kid, or  do  I  have  the  other  way  around? Clark's  the  gunslinger.  Clark's  the  Gunslinger.  Okay. Well  Kramer  I  like  the  way he  threw  the  ball  in  his  limited  time  out  there. So  I  think  the  team  has  confidence  in  either  one  of  them. Reading  over  the  quotes,  I  think  they're confident  in  either  Clark  or  Kramer. But  I  do  agree  it's  going  to  rely  on  Brooks, Smith  Ibrahim  to  kind  of  keep  that  offense  rolling. Yeah,  and  if  I'm  right,  I  think  they  don't  really  have, they're  not  really  focused  on  another quarterback  commit  until  2021. So  the  three  they  have  now,  you  know, between  Morgan  and  the  other  two  is  pretty  much what  they're  going  to  roll  with  the next  two  years  or  the  next, you  know,  finish  up  this  year  and  next. All  right.  So  just  reflecting  a  little bit  more  on  that  Iowa  game before  we  preview  Northwestern, I  just  want  one  big  takeaway  from  the  Iowa  game. Something  that  maybe  Gopher  fans  can  continue to  look  for  in  these  next  couple  games. That  they're  obviously  going  to  have  these  two, and  they're  guaranteed  a  Bowl  game  at  this  point. They're  hoping  there's  a  big  Ten championship  game  in  the  future, a  bigger  Bowl  game  after  that, if  they  get  to  that  point. But  I  think  mine  is just  this  team  has  started  out  fast  and a  lot  of  games  finally  didn't  start  out  hot  against  Iowa, and  they  showed  they  could  at  least fight  back  and  give  themselves  a  chance. I  think  there  are  a  lot  of  times during  that  game  where  it  didn't  really  look  great. They  were  not  playing  very  well,  and  you  could  tell. But  at  the  end,  they  still  had  a  drive, they  still  had  a  chance. And  I  think  that's  kind  of  what  good  teams  do, because  it  didn't  really  seem  like  they deserved  to  be  in  that  game  the  way  they  were  playing. But  they  still  had  a  chance  at  the  end, and  it  obviously  didn't  go  their  way. But  just  the  fact  that  they  had  that  chance, I  think  is  a  big  takeaway. If  they  fall  down  against  Northwestern, against  Wisconsin,  against  any  game  they  play, that  they  have  the  opportunity  to  fight  back. From  that,  I  would  say  that I  was  impressed  with  the  defenses  ability  to  bounce  back. But  at  the  same  time, the  way  that  they  started  was  uncharacteristic. They  talked  about  it  in  availability  this  week. It  was  a  lot  of  little  things that  the  players  pointed  to, just  positioning,  um,  filling  gaps  where  their  eyes  were, footwork,  stuff  like  that. Those  details  become  really  important  this  time  of  year. And  a  lot  of  the  times  it's  the  teams  who  can execute  those  little  fundamentals, those  things  you  probably  work  on  way  back  in  August. Those  are  the  teams  that  are  going  to  end  up  winning. And,  you  know,  if  you lapse  on  those  for  just  a  little  bit, you  can  see  what  happens. You'll  fall  down  17 points  real  quick  and  not  be  able  to  fight  back. Yeah,  and  I  think  when  it  comes  to  the  defense, the  one  thing  that  I  would  note  is  the  Gophers against  Penn  State  got  lucky that  Clifford  started  off  slow. We  remember  in  the  first  half of  that  game  against  Penn  State, he  threw  a  couple  of  terrible  balls. That  would  have  been  easy  touchdowns or  you  know,  big  gainers. So  I  think  they  got  a  little  lucky  that Penn  State  didn't  start  faster than  they  did,  so  Iowa  did. And  then  they  had  a  nice  adjustment  at  the  half. But  the  one  thing  that  I  would  take is  not  only  the  defensive  mistakes, but  there  was  just  bad  penalties  all  around. And  this  is  a  team  that  was fourth  in  least  penalties  in  the  country. I  mean,  they  don't  make mistakes  and  it  felt  like  the  gophers just  it  was  one  thing  after  another  and they  just  kept  shooting  themselves  in  the  foot. And  it  was  really  uncharacteristic. I  don't  know  if  it  was  because  of  Kinnick  Stadium, but  they  weren't  playing,  you  know, fundamentally  sound  football,  you  know, on  offense  and  defense. And  that's  one  thing  that I  would  look  for  if  they  start  out, so  against  Northwestern, you  know,  they're  going  to  be  in  trouble. When  it  comes  to  facing  Wisconsin. All  right,  let's  look  at  the  Northwestern  game. So  just  previewing  the  opponent, they're  2.87  in  the  Big  Ten,  so  not  great. Our  only  wins  have  been  to  UNLV  and  U  Mass. So  don't  just  plain  and  simple,  they're  not  very  good. This  is  the  worst  team  they've  played  since  Rutgers. And  based  on  how  they've  played  against  two  ranked  teams, Penn  State,  top  five  team  at  home, and  then  Iowa,  I  think  even  if they  shot  themselves  in the  foot  like  they  did  against  Iowa, they'd  get  past  Northwestern. Just  because  that  often, just  for  Northwestern,  just  isn't  really  great. They've  only  scored  over  ten  points twice  in  big  ten  play. I  believe  they  had  15.22 22  is  the  highest  they've  scored, and  I  believe  that  was  to  Purdue. And  just  looking  at  the  offensive  stats, they're  13th  out  of  14  Big  Ten  teams  in  total  offense. Their  last  in  the  Big  Ten  in passing,  seventh  in  the  rush. So  decent  rushing  team, who  and  what  should  the  Gophers  fans  know  about? Look  out  for  about this  offensive  unit  when  they  take  the  field. Yeah,  you  look  at  some  of  these  stats for  the  Northwestern  offense. It's  almost  comically  bad. They're  way  near  the  bottom  of FBS  in  passing,  just  quarterback  play. They've  tried  out  a  bunch  of  different  guys  this  year. They  had  Hunter  Johnson,  transferred  from  Clemson, who  was  supposed  to  be  the  guy  he  was not  that  they're  on  Ad  Smith  right  now. Offensively,  you  look  at  their  receiving  core. Their  leading  receiver  Riley  Lees  has about  300  something  yards  on  the  season,  I  believe  so. They  have  not  been  able  to  move  the  ball  through  the  air. So  I  think  if  the  gophers  can  just make  sure  that  Smith  has  to  throw  the  ball, they  can  get  out  to  a  lead  early. Pretty  much  dare  Northwestern to  lean  on  its  passing  attack because  I  don't  think the  Wildcats  can  beat  the  Gophers  in  that  area. No,  I  mean,  the  Wildcats  offense  is  averaging nine  points  per  game  in  big  ten  play. So  I  mean,  that's  absolutely  terrible. And  if  you  look  at  Aden  Smith,  you  know, who  took  over  for  Johnson three  touchdowns  to  nine  interceptions. I  mean,  he's  very  turnover  prone. And  this  is  a  defense  that  likes  to get  a  lot  of,  a  lot  of  turnovers. And  then  one  name  that  you  know  kind of  emerged  last  week  for Mass  was  Maple  Grove's  own  Evan  Hall. He  had  about  200  over  200  yards rushing  against  a  terrible  team. But  maybe  they  found  something  there. I  know  a  lot  of  people  were  kind  of  upset. He  didn't  go  to  the  U,  but  he  chose  Northwestern. And  that  was  really  his  first  game  of  the  year. And  he  had  four  touchdowns  against  Mass. I  mean,  that's,  that's  something  to  keep  an  eye  out on  an  offense  that  really  can  produce  nothing. Yeah.  And  running  backs, it's  all  about  getting  in  rhythm. So  obviously  they're  going  at  Northwestern  is going  against  a  lot  better  of  a  rush  defense between  mass  in  Minnesota, but  just  having  that  confidence, having  seen  those  big  plays  that  can  always  help  them. So  shifting  to the  defense  ninth  and  total  Defense  Ninth  and  rushing. Seventh  and  passing,  so  pretty middle  of  the  road  back  half, but  they're  the  better  unit  of  the  two. And  I  think  Northwestern  is  always  kind  of  known  for their  defense  and  known  for  their  low  scoring, winning  low  scoring  games  at  that  stadium. Goers  event  one,  I  believe  the  last  three  times  there. So  the  defense  can  do some  things  and  they're  seventh  in passing  against  a  unit  that  might  not  have  Morgan. So  they  might  be  able  to  shut  that  down. What  are  we  seeing  from  that  side  of  the  ball? Why  do  we  think  they're  better than  the  offensive  side  of  the  ball? What,  what  could  cause  the  Gophers  challenges? Pat  Fitzgerald  is  a  good  defensive  minded  coach and  he'll  have  a  really  disciplined  defense. We'll  have  guys  in  the  right  position. In  terms  of  past  defense, if  Morgan  can't  play, that  will  provide  some  challenges. But  the  Northwestern  secondary should  be  overwhelmed  by the  combination  of  Bateman  and  Johnson, a  couple  good  linebackers  for  Northwestern. But  overall, this  match  up  should  also  be  in  the  Gophers  favor. Yeah,  I  mean,  Saka  talked  about  it yesterday  that  they  lost  last  year. And  he  really  respected  how  well  Northwestern's  defense, you  know,  play  because  like  Nick  said, they  do  the  right  things. They're  always  where  they  need  to  be. And  if,  you  know,  they're  just  because  they're 2.7  they're  not  any  less  athletic  than  Minnesota  is. I  mean,  they're  a  really  good  team. And  it's  a  team,  well,  they're  not  good  this  year, but  it  was  a  team  that  won  the  Big  Ten  West  last  year. And  really  I  think  the  difference  for  that  team is  quarterback  and  the  defense, for  them  is  just  going  to  be  they're  going to  provide  some  challenges  for  Minnesota. And  Fleck  made  sure  to  share  that, that  they're  still  the  reigning  Big  Ten  Champs. That  he  loved  to  say  it,  you  know, I  think  every  coach  has got  to  find  something  good  to  talk  about  when they're  looking  at  a  team  that might  not  be  that  great  on  the  other  side. And  they  are  the  Big  Ten  West  champions, I  think  they're  kind  of  a  shell  of  that  team. But  they're  coached  by  Pat  Fitzgerald, who's  a  really  respected  head  coach, who  kind  of  had  taken  that  program from  nowhere  to  prominent. Obviously  they  won  the  Big  Ten last  year,  they've  been  ranked. They  played  Stanford  tough  in  the  opener. They  had  some  close  games  at  the  beginning  of  the  year. And  then  that  quarterback  play  just  dipped, so  they  never  really  got  going. But  again,  a  well  respected  team, that  they're  obviously  at  least supposedly  not  looking  past.  Do  we  buy  that? Do  we  think  that  they're  taking that  0.0  mentality  every  single  week, coming  off  that  Iowa  loss  with such  an  emotional  game next  week  against  the  Badgers  at  home. Defending  the  Acts  for  the  first  time  in  15  years. All  of  that.  Do  you  get  a  sense  that they're  looking  past  it  at  all? Well,  when  you  put  it  like  that,  I  might be  looking  past  this  one  a  little  bit, but  right  now  I  think  that  PJ. Fleck  deserves  the  benefit  of  the  doubt, the  ways  coaches  team  this  year  that his  players  have  brought  in  to  that  mentality. They've  all  said  the  right  things  so  far. And  like  you  said, they  are  defending  Big  Ten  West  Champs,  Northwestern. So  PJ. Fleck  has  been  saying  you can't  be  the  best  unless  you  beat  the  best. So  that's  what  they're  rallying  behind  this  week. Yeah,  I  mean,  every  single  player interviewed  this  week  has  said we're  ono  and  we're  going  to  go  into the  Northwestern  championship  season. And  we're  not  looking  past  Northwestern because  they  were  the  former  Big  Ten  West  Champs. So  I  don't  doubt  it.  And  also, I  don't  think  the  senior  players, I  mean  every  single  senior  player, Winston  De  de  Labadier, as  well  as  Thomas  Barber,  has  just  talked  about. These  guys  are  going  to  be  in  the  mindset  of  this  week. You  have  to  be  in  the  present. That's  what  Barbara  talked  about  yesterday. And  this  team  will  be  ready  to  go. And  I  think  they  want  redemption  to  put,  you  know, a  big  can  of  butt  whooping  on Northwestern  in  a  place  they  haven't  won  since  2013. Yeah.  So  what  would  it  take  for the  Gophers  to  lose  their  second  straight  game? I  would  think  it  would  be  kind  of  an  emotional  let  down. They're  still  not  over that  O  game  as  much  as  they  want  to  talk  about  it, as  much  as  they  talked  about getting  over  that  Penn  State  win, I  think  they  were  caught  off  guard maybe  a  little  bit  in  the  first  quarter,  first  half, maybe  just  not  up  to  the  top  of  their  game  and  who  knows, maybe  that's  just  playing  in  Kinnick  stadium. Tough  environment.  But  that  could also  be  Penn  State  let  down. So  is  there  any  Iowa  let  down? What  would  it  take  for  the  Gophers  to  lose  this  game? So  I  think  that  Ten  or  Morgan  would  have  to  not  play, and  that  Clark  and  Kramer  would  both  have  to  make a  lot  of  freshman  mistakes  in  order for  the  Gophers  not  to  win  this  game. I  think  they  would  have  to  play  down  to the  level  of  Northwestern's  quarterbacks  this  year. Pretty  much  that  would have  to  make  the  offense  unable  to  move  the  ball. But  even  if  they  did  that, I  think  the  Running  Backs,  the  offensive  line, and  the  wide  receiver  core  all  provide enough  talent  for  the  Gophers to  score  enough  points  to  win. Yeah,  I  mean,  it  would  take the  backup  quarterbacks  playing  terrible. It  would  take,  you  know,  Tyler  Johnson having  drop  Idas  again, like,  you  know,  his  drop  Idas came  back  at  the  worst  possible  time  last  week. It  would  pretty  much  have  to  be  the  whole  team  played bad  regardless  because  I  think  we'll  get  some  turnovers. I  think  the  Gophers  will, you  know,  maybe  get  some  fumbles, they're  going  to  put  pressure  on  the  quarterback. I  think  they  learned  last  week  that they  need  to  start  doing  that  more  from the  get  go  because  they didn't  rattle  Stanley  soon  enough, and  in  the  second  half  they  did. So  if  you  rattle  Aden, he's  just  not  gona  be  I  mean, he's  got  to  throw  some  picks, so  they  just  have  to  play  their  game. And  I  think  it'll  be  an  easy  win. Well,  I  had  what  would  the  Gopherers  have  to  do  to  win, But  I  think  we  kind  of  just  touched  on  that. They  would  have  to  just  play  a  brand  of football  that  they're  just not  they  haven't  really  played  this  year. They'd  really  have  to  have  a  let  down. So  I  don't  think  we  need  to  expand  on  that. But  keys  to  the  game, what  are  some  key  things  that  fans  can  look  at? Like  oh,  if  they  win  this  then  they'll  be  good  for  me. I  would  just  say  get  off  to  a  lead. I  think  that  just  helps  If  it's  the  freshman  quarterback, which  I'm  just  presuming  at  this  point  it  is. I  think  Flex  is  going  to  take  it  carefully. He's  going  to  consider  that  this  is  just  Northwestern. I  know  they're  taking  them  seriously, but  they've  got  Wisconsin, they've  got  bigger  aspirations. I  feel  like  they  think  that they  can  get  by  with  their  backups  on  this  one. So  I  think  it  would  be  getting  out  to a  lead  because  that  goes  against Northwestern  having  to  play throwing  the  ball.  They  want  to  run  the  ball. Gophers  want  to  run  the  ball, and  their  defense  turns  the  ball  over. And  I  think  that  happens  when  they  have  a  lead. If  they  fall  behind, then  you're  relying  on  those  freshmen, you're  playing  into  Northwestern's  hand  offensively, at  least  that  they  get  to  run  the  ball. So  I  think  if  they  can  jump  out  to  a  lead, then  it  should  be  smooth  sailing  from  there. I  think  that's  spot  on. And  I  think  all  Minnesota has  to  do  is  find  the  end  zone  a  few  times. The  last  two  times  they've  played  in Northwestern,  they've  been  shut  out. So  obviously  that  won't  cut  it. But  as  long  as  this  defense  comes  out, does  what  they  have  to  do,  play  like  they did  in  the  second  half  against  Iowa. Just  play  smart  assignment  based  football. I  can't  see  Northwestern  scoring  more  than  ten  points. So  the  Gophers  offense, no  matter  who  the  Quarterback  is, should  have  enough  firepower  to  win,  right? Yeah.  I  just  think  they  need  to  start  running  the  ball. Great.  I  mean,  the  last  two  games  have been  kind  of  abysmal  running  the  ball. So  if  they  get  off  hot, I  mean  they're  playing  two  of the  better  run  defenses  in  the  country. They  just  start,  you  know,  mediocre. I  mean,  they'll  be  fine. They  would  have  to  play  below  average for  the  golfers  not  to  win,  I  think. All  right.  And  I'm  going  to  ask  you  for  predictions. So  who  you  got  win  in  this  game? I've  got  Minnesota,  I  would  say  by  at  least  two  scores. Yeah.  I  think  I  think  that's  good. I  think  Minnesota  will  win,  like,  let's  say  2710. And  I  will  finish  off,  I'll  say  Minnesota  2037. Just  maybe  a  little  lower  scoring. If  Morgan  plays  and  they  get  off  to  a  lead, I  can  see  them  taking  them  out, just  keeping  him  healthy. And  one  thing  before  we  end  it, programming  note  with  Thanksgiving  next  week, there  will  be  no  episode, so  you  will  not  have  a  preview  before  the  Badger  game. So  the  next  time  you  hear  us, we'll  have  known  what  happens  with  Northwestern. We'll  presumably  know  what  Morgan's  health is  and  they  will  have  played  for  the  Acts, where  either  they're  going  to  have  a  lot  of excitement  about  a  Big  Ten  championship  game, or  there's  a  little  disappointment  coming off  two  losses  in  the  last  three  weeks. And  having  an  historic  season  still  go, but  not  playing  in that  Big  Ten  championship  game  and  having  a  chance at  the  Rose  Bowl  and  the  College  Football  playoff. So  it'll  be  interesting  to  see  what it's  like  when  we  talk  to  everyone  next. But  thank  you,  Nick.  Thank  you. John  Safe  travels  down  in  Northwestern. Thank  you. Q  In  other  news, the  men's  hockey  team  was  swept  by then  number  eight  Penn  State  last  week. The  Gophers  were  outscored  145  on  the  weekend, as  mistakes  came  back  to  bite  Minnesota. This  week  they  take  on  Wisconsin  in a  border  battle  hosted  at  Mariucci. First  puck  drops  on  Friday  at  07:00  P.M. The  women's  hockey  team  had much  better  success  than  their  male  counterparts sweeping  Amici  State  at  home Last  weekend  they  outscored  the  Beavers  101. The  Gophers  remain  number  one  in  the  country. Instead,  at  121.1  on  the  season, they  travel  up  north  to  Duluth  for  a  weekend  series against  the  Bulldogs  that  begins  on  Friday  at  03:00  P.M. The  volleyball  team  saw  mixed  results  last  week, falling  to  Wisconsin  on  Thursday, but  rebounding  on  Saturday  with  a  win  against  Michigan. The  Gophers  are  at  home  for the  final  time  in  the  regular  season  this  weekend, as  they  take  on  Nebraska  and  Iowa  at  Turi. The  wrestling  team  also  saw  mixed  results. Last  Friday  they  felt  a  rider  in a  stunning  defeat  for  the  Gophers. It  came  down  to  the  final  match  up, but  Rider  did  just  enough  to  pull  ahead  of  the  Gophers, taking  them  down,  21,  17. The  team  looked  to  rebound  in  South  Dakota  over the  weekend  and  claimed seven  titles  at  the  Daktronics  Open. The  women's  basketball  team  claimed  a  convincing  win against  ranked  opponent  Arizona  State  last  weekend, taking  down  the  Sun  Devils  80  to  66. Destiny  Pitts  led  the  Gophers  with 22.7  sis  and  five  rebounds. They  are  back  in  action  on  Saturday against  Montana  State  at  noon. The  men's  basketball  team  dropped their  third  consecutive  game  on  Friday, falling  to  Utah  73,  69. The  Gophers  will  look  to  get  back  on  track  with a  four  game  homes  stand  that  begins on  Thursday  against  Central  Michigan. Finally,  the  cross  country  teams competed  in  the  Midwest  regionals  last  weekend. Neither  the  men's  or  women's  teams clinched  automatic  bids, but  the  women's  team  did  receive  an  at  large  bid. So  their  season  is  alive  and  they  will  race  for the  last  time  this  weekend  at  the  NCAA  championships. The  men's  team  didn't  qualify, but  runner  Alec  Baston  did  as  an  individual. That's  all  for  this  week.  We'll  be back  again  in  two  weeks to  give  you  the  weekly  rundown on  all  things,  gopher  sports. Don't  forget  to  share,  subscribe  and  review. We'll  see  everyone  next  week.