My  God.  Hello  and welcome  back  to  the  weekly  rundown presented  by  the  Minnesota  Daily. I  am  your  host,  Paul  Hodowonick. It  is  homecoming  week  here  on  campus. Festivities  are  happening  all  week  long, and  we  are  here  to  break  down the  final  piece  of  the  homecoming  schedule, the  football  game,  the  Gophers  take  on Illinois  at  home  at  02:30  P.M.  on  Saturday. And  to  break  down  that  match  up, as  well  as  the  offense  of  showcase against  Purdue  last  week, I  have  our  football  reporters in  studio  again  with  me  today, John  Miller  and  Nick  Young  him. Make  sure  to  check  out  all  of  their  work  from this  past  week  at  Men  Daily.com and  you  can  pick  up  a  paper  where  you  will  find their  fantastic  Game  Day  preview  inside. All  right,  let's  jump  right  in. All  right,  so  the  Gophers  came  out  with  a  38, 31  victory  over  Purdue. It  looked  like  it  could have  definitely  been  by  more  points. They  came  out  strong  in  the  first  half, and  they  were  up  21  heading  into  the  fourth  quarter, but  Purdue  fought  back. And  the  Gophers  just  have  a  knack  for playing  these  close  games  and  scoring  when  they  need  to, and  getting  stops  when  they  need  to. And  this  game,  it  was  a  couple  first  downs late  in  the  game  that  they  were  able  to  put  it  away. I  want  to  start  with  the  Keys  to  the  game, and  I  think  the  first  one  is  obviously  Tanner  Morgan, 21  for  22,  396  yards  passing, four  touchdowns,  zero  interceptions. You  know  we've  written  about  it, I  know  John,  you  wrote  about  it  a  little  bit. But  I  think  coming  into  the  year, maybe  he  was  viewed  more  as  a  game  manager. And  he  definitely  did. He  took  over  the  game,  he  did  not  manage  the  game, especially  in  the  first  half  against  Purdue. It's  been  cool  to  see  his  progression from  last  year  being the  back  up  and  then  kind  of  looking  like  he played  better  than  annex  stand  at  the  end  of  last  year. And  then  he  obviously  had the  opportunity  to  start this  year  when  annex  and  went  down. Who  knows  who  would  have  won  that  competition? It  looks  like  Morgan  may  have  won it  either  way  because  of  the  way  he's  playing  so  far. So  what  have  you  guys  seen  from Tanner  Morgan  throughout  these  first  couple  games? And  what  have  the  coaches  been  saying about  him  and  his  latest  performance? Well,  if  you  ask  PJ. Fleck  a  question  about  Tanner  Morgan  100%  of  the  time, he's  going  to  talk  about  how  he  wasn't the  most  highly  recruited  guy. He  doesn't  he  doesn't  have  the  most  height, he  doesn't  have  the  strongest  arm. But  PJ. Fleck  really  believes  in  Tanner  Morgan's  ability to  win  football  games. And  we've  seen  that  a  little  bit how  on  third  downs,  for  example, that  last  drive  against  Georgia  Southern, he's  made  the  biggest  plays  and  against  Fresno  State  two, when  he  needed  to  make  the  plays. So  that's  been  one  thing  that  is  more  of  an  intangible, which  is  something  that  Coach  Fleck  talked  a  lot in  his  press  conference  this  week  about  Tanner  Morgan and  bringing  him  in  all  the  way back  because  he  was originally  committed  to  Western  Michigan  there. How  that's  something  they  really  admire  in  Tanner  Morgan. Some  of  the  things  that  you  can't  necessarily quantify  on  a  statute. Yeah.  I  mean,  offensive  coordinator  Sacca  really  talked about  how  they're  starting  to  put  more and  more  on  his  plate, whether  it's  a  lot,  I  don't  know. They're  not  really  letting  him  make too  many  decisions  at  the  line  of  scrimmage, but  he's  really  been  impressed  with  how  he's  progressed. And  I  think  they  want  to  get  to  the  point where  Tanner  Morgan  is  going  to  be  making, you  know,  play  calls  at  the  line, making  audibles  and  stuff  like  that. It's  not  there  yet, but  you  know,  they  really  love  what  they're  seeing. I  mean,  you  can't  deny  the best  completion  percentage  ever  in  a  game, the  big  ten.  That's  just  insane. Yeah.  And  he  was  obviously  one  of  the  big  keys. But  there  are  other  reasons  that  they  won  this  game. What  other  things  did  you  see  from the  team  that  allowed  them  to win  or  allowed  the  game to  maybe  stay  closer  than  it  should  have  been? What  were  your  big  takeaways other  than  Morgan  from  the  game? Missed  tackles  for  the  Gophers  defense  was  one  thing  that coaches  really  talked  about a  lot  and  availability  this  week. It  was  something  that  hasn't really  been  an  issue  for  this  team, but  last  week  they  thought  they  had  way  too  many. And  especially  as  we'll talk  about  later  going  into  Illinois, this  isn't  a  team  coming  up  that  you can  afford  to  miss  a  lot  of  tackles  against, because  they're  Running  Backs especially  will  make  you  pay. So  that's  been  the  big  focus  in  practice  this  week. For  the  Gophers  defense? Yeah.  You  know,  and  the  running  game got  going  this  week  as  well, when  you  have  a  pass  game  like  the  Gophers  had, and  Rodney  Smith  kind  of  broke  it  down like  Perdue  is  stacking  the  box. They  play  a  single  high  safety  defense, so  they're  ready  for  the  run  and  they know  how  good  the  gophers  are  running  the  ball. Even  though  Ibrahim  was  out, as  well  as  Shannon  Brooks  was  just getting  implemented  back  into  the  offense. It  opened  up  some  running  links  for  Rodney  Smith. But  what  we  still need  to  see  more  from  that  running  game, and  I  think  we'll  see  it  as the  offensive  line  continues  to gel  and  the  running  game  continues  to  el, So  it'll  get  there,  but  I  think  it needs  to  get  there  quick. Yeah,  I  think  with  the  offens of  line  unit  in  the  running  game, it's  just  all  about  time  for  them. The  offens  of  lines  young.  So  more  times  is  going  to help  them  and  all  the  running  Backs are  coming  off  injuries, so  more  times  is  just  going  to  help  them. So  although  the  competition  is  gonna  get  tougher, I  think  they're  going  to  continue  to  get  better. And  so  it'll  be  interesting  to  see  that give  and  take  about  they're  gonna  get  better, but  defenses  are  going  to  get better  and  who  prevails  in  that. And  their  first  challenge  will  be  Illinois  this  week. So  Illinois  2.2  on  the  year  coming  into  the  season, not  very  high  expectations  for  an  Illinois  team. They  won  their  first  two  games  of the  year  against  Akron  and  Yukon, and  then  they  are  on  a  two  game  losing  streak. Currently,  they  lost  to  Eastern  Michigan  31  to  34, and  then  Nebraska  42,  38. And  that  was  a  tight  game  last  week  and  it's  a  little A  little  preview  for  the  week  after. But  Nebraska's  kind  of, they're  a  hard  team  to  figure  out. It's  not,  I'm  not  really sure  if  they're  good,  if  they're  bad. They  had  a  lot  of  hype  in  the  beginning  of  the  season. So  depending  on  how  you  look  at  that  Nebraska  team, Illinois  was  up  for  a  lot  of  that  game. So  they  can  stay  competitive. They've  scored  a  lot  of  points. They've  scored  42  points, 23.34  points,  and  38  points. So  Illinois  can  definitely  put  it  on  on  the  scoreboard. So  we  might  be  looking  at  another  high  scoring  game. The  Gophers  have  scored  over  30  points  in every  single  game  so  far,  this  season  as  well. In  terms  of  history,  again, between  these  two  teams, Minnesota  has  won  three  of  the  last  four. Obviously,  they  lost  last  year  55  to  31, but  they've  also  beaten  them six  out  of  the  last  eight  times. So  a  series  that  Minnesota  has  dominated  as  of  late, and  the  Gophers  definitely  hope  that  they  can continue  to  do  that  for  the  home  coming  crowd. But  the  first  challenge  that they're  going  to  have  to  address, that  I'm  sure  they've  addressed  in  meetings  this  week, and  that  they've  definitely  addressed  with  the  media, is  how  to  stop  Reggie  Corbin, the  running  back  for  Illinois. He's  averaging  over  7  yards  for E.  The  Gophers  definitely  know  him  well. He  ran  for  over  200  yards  on 13  carries  last  year  against  the  Gophers. So  what  have  they  said  about  what  the  keys  are to  stopping  that  running  game that  has  that  explosiveness  in  them? On  defense,  they  have  to  remain  fundamentally  sound. Everybody  has  to  stay  in  their  lane,  stay  in  their  gap, and  maintain  that  because  one  busted  assignment  and Reggie  Corbin  is  one  of  the  best in  the  big  ten  at  making  you  pay. That's  one  thing  Rossi  said was  that  the  Running  Backs  for  Illinois, both  Corbin  and  Dray  Brown, they  can  take  the  ball  50,  60,  70  yards. Corbin  had  a  60  plus run  for  a  touchdown  against  Nebraska  two. So  they're  definitely  a  big  play  offense, and  that's  something  that  Gophers struggled  against  last  year  as  well. They  gave  up  a  lot  of  big  runs  to  Illinois,  so  basically, they  really  emphasized  staying  in  their  gaps, staying  disciplined,  and  not  missing  tackles. Yeah,  I  mean,  when  you're  facing  a  running back  like  Reggie  Orban  and  Dray  Brown. I  mean,  Ray  Brown's  averaging over  6  yards  per  carry  on  the  year  as  well. Like  Nick  said,  they're  going to  have  to  play  fundamentally  Sound. That's  what  Rossi  said.  But  he  also  talks  about how  they  really  need  to  start  shedding  blocks. And  to  me  that  means  they  need  to  start  getting into  the  backfield  a  lot  better. And  I  think  that's  something  we  haven't seen  from  this  go  for  defense  as  well. We  already  talked  about  the  missed  tackles, but  they  need  to  start  getting  a  lot more  penetration  up  front. Yeah,  last  year  against  Illinois, the  best  defensive  showing  they allowed  55  points,  like  we  said. And  it  came  the  end  of  the  run for  the  defensive  coordinator  at  the  time,  Rob  Smith, and  they  moved  to  go  to  Rossi, who  really  sparked  that  defense coming  down  the  stretch  of  that  season. I  know  he  didn't  change  much, but  whatever  he  did  change  in their  mindset  and  their  preparations  seemed  to  work. The  beginning  of  this  year  has  been  a little  rocky  in  terms  of  allowing  scoring  points, but  they're  four  and  can't  complain  about  four. And  what  has  the  team  said,  what  has  Flex  said, what  has  Rossi  said  about  that  transition  from a  year  ago  and  how  it's  working  as  Up  until  now. Yeah.  So  like  you  touched  on  schematically, at  the  end  of  last  year  we  saw a  big  improvement  out  of  the  Gophers  defense, but  not  a  lot  of  change  schematically. I  asked  Thomas  Barber  about  it  this  week  in  an  interview, and  he  said  that  the  thing  that  Rossi  changed  the  most was  he  challenged  the  team  to be  a  little  more  active  in  practice, especially  even  in  scout  team  to, you  know,  maybe  go  a  little  faster,  hit  a  little  harder. He  thought  that  he  needed  to challenge  his  guys  at  that  point, and  Barber  said  that  that  lost Illinois  last  year  after  they  fired  Rob  Smith. That  was  the  line  in  the  sand  for  the  defense. So,  you  know,  obviously  with only  four  weeks  left  in  that  season  at  the  time, it  couldn't  change  a  whole  lot. But  he  really  demanded  more  out  of  his  players. Yeah,  I  think  we  saw  a  huge  change, like  you  said  down  the  stretch  last  year. But  this  run  defense  has  to  get  a lot  better  even  though a  lot  better  than  what  it  has  been. I  mean,  they're  allowing  almost  5  yards  per  carry. I  mean,  per,  due  the  worst  running  team  in the  Big  Ten  averaged  almost  5  yards  per  carry  on  them. So  that's  still  a  huge  glaring  hole to  me  that  this  team  really  needs  to. Like  I  said  about  the  run  offense, the  run  defense  has  to  get  fixed  quick. I  mean,  Tanner  Morgan  can  only  carry  you  for  so  long  and so  can  the  defensive  Backs for  the  gophers  on  that  side  of  the  ball. Well,  Illinois  also  struggles  defending  the  run. Last  week  they  allowed  346  yards  to Nebraska  and  328  over  the  air. So  the  passing  defense  wasn't  much  better. So  the  offense  looks  like  they  have another  opportunity  to  put a  lot  of  points  up  on  the  board. It's  something  they've  been  good  at  as  we've  said. But  one  of  the  keys  to  that  Purdue  game  that  helped Morgan  do  better  and  help the  running  game  do  better  was  Rodney  Smith. And  coming  off  that  injury  last  year, first  game  of  last  season, he  finally  seems  like  the  wheels  are  starting  to  turn  and everything's  kind  of  starting to  get  back  to  100%  for  him. I  know  John,  you  wrote  about  that  this  week. What  did  he  have  to  say  about  how  he's  feeling? What  did  Kirk  Rock  of  the  off  the  coordinator  say? What  did  Flex  say?  How  have  they seen  how  Smith  has  progressed  so  far  this  season? Yeah,  I  think  Saca  said  it,  you  know, the  second  game  of  the  year  against  Georgia  Southern. And  he  said  that's  when  Rodney really  looked  like  he  was  regaining  form. He  was  making  all  the  cuts  and  everything. Rodney  said,  that  might  not  have  been. I  don't  know  if  it  was  before  or  after  we talked  about  this  before  the  podcast, but  he's  feeling  good  and  he  pretty  much, Rodney  said  he's  going  to  do whatever  the  team  needs  him  to  do. He's  been  really  impressed  with  the next  man  up  mentality, so  to  say,  for  the  running  back  group. He  knows  they  need  to  get  better, but  he's,  you  know, he's  just  like  he  fits  in  with  this  Gophers  program. So  well,  it's  always, it's  not  about  him,  it's  about  the  team. And  it's  hard  to  find  a  lot  of  guys  like  that. And  this  whole  Gopher  team  seems  to  have. Almost  90  of  them. Yeah,  Tanner  Morgan  is  definitely  another  one. He's  always  going  to  point  to  the  team and  his  stat  line  is  what  everyone  was  talking  about. It's  what  we  opened  the  podcast  talking  about. But  I  want  to  know,  do  you  think  he  can  repeat  that? Is  that  something  that  Fleck  wants him  to  be  in  a  position  to  do? To  have  to  throw  for  400  yards  to  get  a  win. Is  that  something  they've  talked  about? Do  we  expect  to  see this  type  of  air  raid  style  almost  coming from  the  gophers  or  do  we  think their  preferred  style  is  still  running  it  on  the  ground? Fleck  has  been  pretty  adamant  that  in  his  system  he  wants to  establish  the  run  and  make sure  that  they  can  run  the  ball  effectively. That  being  said,  the  Gophers  have  a  pair of  really  talented  receivers  on  the  outside, with  Tyler  Johnson  and Rashad  Bateman.  And  you  better  relieve  that. Coach  Rocca  calling  the  offense, he's  going  to  make  sure  to  get  those  guys involved  as  well  because  they've clearly  been  the  most  effective  playmakers on  the  field  for  that  offense. So  can  Tanner  Morgan  repeat the  performance  against  Purdue?  Probably  not. I  mean,  those  are  some  pretty  astronomical  numbers. But  he  can  continue  to  be a  very  effective  quarterback  and only  a  redshirt  sophomore  can  continue  to  improve, especially  with  the  guys  he  has  around  him. Yeah.  You  talked  about  Johnson  and  Bateman. I  mean,  I  think  we  all  forget  about  how good  Chris  Otman  Bell  is. I  mean,  he  had  almost  100  yards in  a  touchdown  in  the  last  game. And  then  we  also  forget  that their  fourth  wide  receiver  is  Demetrius  Douglas, a  freak  athlete  as  well. So  they're  very  well  positioned  to  pass  the  ball, but  like  you  said,  they're  an  inside  zone  scheme. They  want  to  establish  the  run. They  want  to  be  a  well  balanced  team. So  I  think  they  ride  the  hot  hand, and  that's  what  we're  going  to  continue  to  see. So  do  I  think  Morgan  can  repeat  that  game? I  think  it's  almost  nearly  impossible  because  that's the  best  game  probably  ever  by  a  big  ten  quarterback, you  know,  in  terms  of  completion  percentage. So  that's  going  to  be  tough  to  do. But  I  think  Tanner  Morgan's  got  a  few  almost  400  yards, maybe  400  yard  games  in  the  rest  of  his  career. I  mean,  we  have  2.5  years  left  in  his  Gopher  career, so  I  think  it's  going  to  be  fun  to  watch. Yeah,  you  mentioned  that  completion  percentage, and  he's  always  had  a  high  completion  percentage. He's  at  73.4%  for  this  year. Only  two  interceptions,  ten  touchdowns. So  the  numbers  might  not  be  as  gaudy, but  it's  not  out  of the  question  to  expect  maybe  70%  of  what  he  had, 80%  of  what  he  did  moving  forward. Yeah.  He's  up  there  with  guys  like Joe  Burrows  and  Jalen  Hertz  and to  a  Tagliavola  and  it's  impressive. I  mean,  you  can't  deny  it.  I  mean, he'll  come  back  down  to  Earth. But  to  be  where  those  guys  are  at  right  now are  just  behind.  That's  amazing. Now,  flipping  that  a  little  bit,  besides  Reggie  Korman, besides  maybe  even  the  running  game, what  other  offensive  threats  do  Illinois  possess? Because  obviously,  they're  putting  points  up  on the  board  that  the  Gophers  are going  to  have  to  worry  about  this  week. Yeah,  go  ahead.  Alright,  thanks  John. So  offensively,  you  know,  Illinois, aside  from  Reggie  Korbin, their  quarterback  Brandon  Peters, he's  a  transfer  from  Michigan. So  far,  he  hasn't necessarily  pushed  the  ball  downfield  a  whole  lot, only  has  about  765  yards  through  first  four  games. But  he  has  taken  care  of the  ball  thrown  for  ten  touchdowns, only  three  interceptions,  and  he has  some  good  receivers  on  the  outside. He  is  Joshumator  Babe, a  transfer  from  USC. So  Illinois  does  have some  talented  players  that  they  brought  in  on  offense. Yeah,  I  mean,  motor  baby, he's  averaging  almost  17.5  yards  per  catch. I  mean  the  guy  is  a  freak  athlete  as  he  said. He's  recruited  a  USC  who's  a  four  star  athlete. And  then  they  have  smalling. The  other  wide  receiver  who, both  of  these  guys  are  juniors, he's  averaging  almost  10  yards  per  catch. So  I  think  he's  kind  of  more  of  that  safety  blanket for  quarterback  Peters. And  you  know,  Peters  doesn't  necessarily chuck  the  ball  downfield  so  what  it  is  is  to  emotor  baby, but  he's  only  averaging  6.5 yards  per  attempt,  so  that's  not  that  much. So  we're  going  to  see  a  lot  short  intermediate  passes in  this  game  as  well. They're  going  to  establish the  run  and  that's  what  they're going  to  do.  That's  Lovey  Smith. So  for  the  Gophers  to  win this  game  and  to  start  off  the  season, 2.0  in  conference  five  and  m  in  the  season, they  have  to  do  what  I  think  they  have  to establish  the  run  game  right  away and  get  positive  yardage  with  the  run  game, because  Illinois  is  right  near  the  top  of the  NCAA  in  terms  of  tackles  for  losses. So  one  thing  the  Gophers are  going  to  try  to  do  and  to  look out  for  is  they  have  offensive lineman  John  Michael  Schmitz, who  they  worked  in  a  little  bit  against  Purdue. Kind  of  rotating  them  into that  offensive  line  in  the  interior, trying  to  get  some  guys  a  break. And  hopefully  trying  to break  up  some  of  the  monotony  they saw  in  the  offensive  line  because  they  weren't really  getting  great  pushes  earlier  in  the  season. So  that's  the  way  they're going  to  try  and  attack  Illinois. Yeah,  I  think  they  need  to  stop  the  run. I  think  that's  got  to  be  it.  I  mean, you  need  to  get  your  offense, the  ball  as  many  times  as  you  can. And  when  you're  facing  two  of  the best  backs  in  the  big  ten, if  you  don't  stop  them,  your  defense  is  going  to  be  on the  field  a  long  time  and  they'll  get  pretty  tired. So  I  think  they  definitely  need  to  step  up  on the  defensive  line  in  order to  really  take  a  hold  of  this  game. And  who  are  we  picking  for  this  week? I'm  going  to  go  with  Minnesota  by  a  score  of  35  to  27. Both  teams,  their  offense  is  their  strength, so  expect  a  lot  of  points, but  also  look  out  for the  forecasts  because  it's  supposed  to  be  rainy. So  that  always  adds  a  little  element of  surprise.  Any  game. Yeah,  it's  supposed  to  be  like  mid,  '50s, but  I'm  going  to  go,  you  know,  this  offense, I  don't  think  Illinois  defense  could  stop  the  Golphers. I  think  it's  going  to  be  46.  31. All  right.  Well,  you  heard  it  here  from  our  guys. Looks  like  Minnesota's  moving  on  to  five  and we're  going  to  get  ready  for  Nebraska  undefeated. But  really,  you're  going  to  have  to  check  out Nick  and  John's  work  throughout  the  week. There's  a  lot  of  great  stuff  online  right  now. And  make  sure  to  follow  them  on  Twitter. Throughout  the  game,  they'll  be  posting updates  if  you  aren't  in front  of  a  TV  or  at  the  stadium  to  watch, and  they  will  have  analysis coming  right  after  the  game.  Thanks  Nick. Thanks  John.  Yeah,  thanks  for  having  us  and  other  news. The  Minnesota  Men's  Golf  team  captured its  first  team  title  in  over  five  years  and Junior  Angus  Flanagan  won his  second  career  individual  title at  the  Mcdonald  Cup  last  weekend. Minnesota  shot  ten  under  for  the  tournament, giving  the  Gophers  a  dominant  24  stroke  victory over  second  place  Princeton. The  men's  team  heads  back  into  competition on  Monday  at  the  Jerry  Pate  Intercollegiate, while  the  women's  team  tees  it  off  for the  Princess  Anne  Invitational  on  Friday. The  cross  country  teams  are  coming  off  of  a  home  meet  at Les  Bowls  Stad  Golf  Course last  Saturday  in  the  annual  Roy  Griac  Invitational. The  women  finished  third,  while  the  men  finished  seventh. Both  teams  are  on  the  road  competing  again  this  weekend. The  women's  soccer  team  notched its  second  win  of  the  season  last  Sunday, beating  Ohio  State  one  to  zero, snapping  a  four  game  losing  streak. The  volleyball  team  has  been  busy playing  three  times  in  the  last  week. They  won  all  three  matches  against Big  Ten  foes  and  dropped  just  one  set  over  that  span, losing  the  first  set  at  Iowa  on  Wednesday  night. The  team  is  back  home  for  a  match against  Rutgers  on  Saturday  night. The  women's  hockey  team  had its  first  regular  season  series last  weekend  and  swept  visiting  Colgate. The  ladies  travel  to  Minnesota  State  Mankato for  a  pair  of  games  this  weekend, and  their  men  counterparts  are a  week  away  from  starting  their  season. And  we'll  have  an  exhibition  game  against Mount  Royal  on  Sunday  at home  before  their  regular  season starts  at  Colorado  College  on  October  11. We'll  be  back  again  next  week  to  give  you a  weekly  rundown  on  all  things  go  for  sports. Don't  forget  to  share  subscribe  and  review. We'll  see  everyone  next  week.