Hello  and  welcome  back  to the  weekly  rundown  presented  by  the  Minnesota  Daily. I  am  your  host,  Paul  Hodowonick. And  once  again,  we  are  talking  football  today. And  to  break  down  everything happening  in  the  Gopher  football  world, we  welcome  back  Football  reporter  John  Miller. How's  it  going,  John? Good  Paul.  You  know,  just  Gophers  are  undefeated. You  can't  ask  for  a  better  season  so  far. Exactly.  And  make  sure  to  check  out  John's  work  on those  undefeated  gophers  at  Menday.com  or  in  print. So  let's  get  going.  Last  week  they  destroyed  ruckers. I  think  it's  fair  to  say  we  talked  about it  on  the  podcast  last  week. It's  what  we  expected.  My  prediction  didn't  come  as  true. I  was  a  little  bit  worried, just  maybe  about  them  Catching a  soft  car  didn't  really  happen. They  started  slow  but  still  4027  victory. And  I  don't  want  to  spend  too  much  time on  it  because  I  don't  know  how  much  we can  learn  from  beating  the  1.6  ruckers. I  believe  they  are  now,  but  it's  a  big  deal. Minnesota's  seven  now,  for  the  first  time since  I  think  1961  or  something  like  that. It  was  just  a  game  where the  teams  were  headed  in  two  different  directions. Minnesota's  headed  up,  Ruckers has  had  a  lot  of  problems  this  season, not  just  this  season,  but  they're  headed  downward. It  was  what  we  expected  and  it's a  team  that's  rank  needs  to  do  against  bad  teams. So  I  guess  that's  a  positive, but  still  not  sure  how  much  individual performance  or  like  things  we  can  learn  about  that. So  if  anything,  what do  you  think  we  can  take  away  from  that  game? The  one  thing  that  continues  to  see  is the  running  game  keeps  getting  off  to  a  great  start. I  mean,  the  three  headed  trio  is  just  amazing, between  Ibrahim  Brooks  and  Rodney  Smith. And  then,  you  know,  I  like  to  see  Tanner  Morgan. Even  when  he  starts  off  slow, he  ends  up  finishing  the  game  just  fine. I  mean,  he  still  has  about  230  yards  of  two  touchdowns. And  also  the  defense,  I  know Rutgers  is  one  of  the  worst  scoring  teams  in  the  nation, but  the  defense  continues  to  hold  off and  allow  the  Gophers  offense  to  find  their  stride. And  they  continue  to  do.  I  mean, the  defense  is  playing  insanely  good. I  know  the  competition  has  been  great, but  they're  really  impressive  unit  right  now.  Yeah. And  I  was  just  going  to  run  through  the offense  stats  real  quickly. Morgan  had  15  for  28, so  a  lower  completion  percentage  than  we're  used  to, but  still  245  yards,  two  touchdowns. Like  you  said,  Rodney  Smith  continued  to  run, well  he's  just  continuing  to  get  better  and  better. And  you  can  tell  that  he's  kind  of  the  work  horse  even with  both  Brooks  and  Ibrahim back,  kind  of  a  full  strength. It's  going  to  be  Smith  more  than  the  other  two. He  had  19  carries  for  111  yards  and  two  touchdowns. And  then  Tyler  Johnson  had  Bateman. We  talk  about  it  every  week,  but  they  just  continue  to put  up  numbers  that  combined  for  ten  catches, over  200  yards,  two  touchdowns. So  it  really  accounted  for  most  of  Morgan's  passing  game. But  I  think  beyond  all  the  sets, the  most  memorable  part  of  that  game came  late  when  the  game  wasn't  really  in  the  balance. And  when  Casey  O'brien, who  I  think  everyone  at  this  point, knows  his  story,  the  four  time  cancer  survivor, that  the  backup  holder  on  the  team. And  he  finally  got  to  get  out  there  and  hold the  ball  for  a  successful  field  goal or  extra  point  attempt. And  it  was  emotional  from  us  just  watching  the  broadcast. I  know  he  shared  an  emotional  hug, you  could  see  with  Fleck. What  did  Fleck  say  after  the  game? What  were  the  players  saying  about  O'brian? I  know  he's  been  a  talking  point  over  the  last  week. Yeah,  I  know  the  players,  they're  just  super  excited, you  know,  for  Casey  himself. And  they  see  the  determination  it  took for  him  and  everything  that  he's  been through  to  get  back  onto  the  field. And  a  lot  of  these  guys,  I  mean, Coach  Rossi  said  at  the  best  yesterday  he  goes, you  know,  I  wake  up  in  the  morning. Sometimes  I'm  like,  oh  man, I  haven't  had  a  cup  of  coffee  yet or  something  and  I  get  cranky  in  the  mornings. And  then  I  look  at  Casey  and  I'm  like, you  know  what  am  I  crying  about  here? Get  up  and  let's  go  attack  the  day. Pretty  much  is  what  he  summed  up. And  that's  kind  of  been  the  motto  of  the  team. And  this  team  is  just  so  close. And  I  don't  know  if  I've  ever  seen a  football  team  be  this  cohesive. I  mean,  it's,  they're  really  bind into  that  row  the  boat  culture. And  Casey  O'  Brien  is  the  epitome  of  it. Yeah,  I  know  Fleck  I  think  held back  tears  on  the  post  game  interview. So  you  can  tell  O'brien  has  said  that  Fleck  was kind  of  the  only  guy  that  gave  him  a  chance once  because  he  was  an  up  and  coming  prospect. I  know  I  think  he  played  quarterback beforehand  and  he  was  at  Creten  Durham  Hall. He's  a  pretty  good  prospect. I  don't  know  if  he  was  the  greatest, but  he  was  good. Yeah.  And  then  but  Fleck was  kind  of  the  only  one  to  give  him  a  chance  once Fleck  was  hired  on  and O'brien  came  on  and  you  can  tell  that they  kind  of  share  a  special  bond. What  was  Fleck's  kind  of emotions  after  the  game  when  that  got  to  happen?  Oh,  man. Fleck  was  really  emotional. He  just  super  excited  for  Casey. I  mean,  I  mean, if  you  think  about  Fleck,  I  mean, a  lot  of  people  told  Fleck  that he  wouldn't  be  where  he  was  today. And  so  I  think  those  two  just  share that  common  bond  of  perseverance. It's  a  really  amazing  story. And  yeah,  I  mean, I  think  this  has  kind  of  been  said  enough, but  Fleck  is  just  super  excited and  a  lot  of  people  like  to  hate  on  Fleck. But  there's  no  doubt  that  he  loves  his  players. And  you  saw  that  moment  between  him  and  Casey, and  he  talked  about  it  a  bunch, the  relationship  between  the  two. And  it's  an  amazing  story. And  I  think  they  would  all  like  to see  him  come  out  for  more,  more  holds. And  the  way  they're  going  to  do  that  is to  be  up  by  a  lot  and  to  continue  winning. And  with  that,  I  want  to  go  on  and  look  at Maryland  as  that  is  their  upcoming  match  up  Saturday, 02:30  P.M.  here  at  TCF  Bank  Stadium. They're  back  at  home  a  couple  of  consecutive  home  games. They  have  Penn  State  after  a  bye  week  next  week.  So. The  Gopher  fans  get  to  see  their  hometown  team  now coming  down  the  stretch  with  that  undefeated  record. See  if  they  get  to  hold  on. So,  but  a  quick  preview  of  Maryland, there  are  3.4  on  the  season, 1.3  in  the  Big  Ten. And  I  think  the  best  way  to describe  them  has  been  very  hot  and  cold. Some  games,  they  look  really  good. I  remember  after  two  games  they  had  beaten, I  think  Syracuse  and  it  was  a  top  25  team. People  were  thinking,  wow, Locksley  who's  in  his  first  year, he's  kind  of  turned  it  around  there. On  offense  of  Juggernaut,  who's  going  to  stop  them. They  put  up  a  combined  142  points  in  two  games, and  then  five  games,  cents,  107. I  know  they  had  one  game  when  they  put up  48,  I  think  in  between  that. So  four  games  there, not  more  than  50  points  up  and  down. But  they  have  that  offense  of  firepower. And  looking  through  it  to  try  to  compare  the  two, because  I  think  the  teams  are  a  little  bit different  than  when  they  faced  off  last  year. I  know  they  have  a  lot  of  the  same  guys, but  both  programs  that  weren't  exactly  in  the  same  spot, they've  played  both  Rucker's  and  Purdue. They  beat  Rucker's  48  to  seven. So  again,  not  much  we  can  learn  about  that  there. But  they  did  lose  to  Purdue  40,  14. And  Purdue  kind  of  put  it  on  them  in  the  passing  game. And  that  is  not  what  happened  for  the  Gophers  as  much. The  Gophers  beat  Purdue  on  the  road  as  well. And  then  Maryland  got  blanked  by Penn  State  5090  who's going  to  be  the  Gophers  upcoming  opponent. It's  interesting  to  look  at  those  comparisons  to see  if  you  can get  a  sense  of  they  are  compared  to  you  guys. Because  when  there's  so  much  roster  turnover, it's  hard  to  look  at  it  like a  pro  team  and  be  able  to  be  like,  oh, we  know  Aaron  Rogers  is  coming, so  we  know  what  to  expect.  It's  a  little  bit  different. And  those  last  two  games, there's  been  a  glaring  hole  for  Minnesota  and  it's  been on  that  run  defense  last  year, 321  yards,  four  touchdowns  allowed  two  years  ago, 262  yards,  two  touchdowns  allowed. And  it's  again  a  focal  point  of  the  Maryland  offense. So  in  that  respect,  they  do know  what  they're  going  to  see. What  have  the  Gophers  said  about containing  that  run  game  because  they  know  it's  coming. Oh,  they  just  talked  about  they  have  to  stop the  big  plays  and  they  have  to  be  really  gap  discipline. I  mean,  you're  talking  about  Leak and  Mcfarlane,  the  two  running  backs. Mcfarlane's  healthy  now, apparently  after  a  high  ankle  sprain  and  stuff  like  that. So  we'll  see  if  he's  going  to  be 100%  healthy  going  into  the  week. Because  depth  charts  in college  football  really  don't  mean  anything  but  you're talking  about  leak  even  taking over  from  Mcfarland  is  averaging 8.5  yards  per  carry  and  that's  on  59  touches. So  this  kid  is  pretty  good  and  you  know, Maryland  really  thrives  off big  plays.  They  have  to  have  big  plays. They  don't  really  sustain  drives. It's  really  boomer  bust  for  this  team. So  the  Gophers  Rossi  talked  about  it. If  they  stop  the  big  plays,  they'll  be  fine. And  that's  what  they're  going  to have  to  do  and  I  think  that's the  key  to  the  game  is  stopping  leak  And  then  Mcfarland, they're  going  to  have  to  stop  those  two. And  those  big  plays  were a  problem  last  year,  especially  with  Mcfarland. He  had  just  six  carries  last  year, but  he  had  112  yards, two  touchdowns  on  six  carries. So,  and  I  know  they  lost  Hi  Johnson  last  year  to  the  NFL, but  they've  still  got  Mcfarland. And  he  has  been  dealing  with  a  high  ankle  sprain that  caused  him  to  miss  practice. It's  only  caused  him  to  miss  one game  last  week  and  it's  Indiana, but  it  sounds  like  he's  going  to  be  ready  to  go. And  so  you  know  that  big  play  explosive  ability is  going  to  be  there  for  Maryland. And  the  Gophers  had  a  little  bit  of  trouble  I think  in  the  first  couple  games  in  the  conference. Resno  State  sticks  out where  they  were  allowing  some  of  those  big  plays. But  it  sounds  like  as  we've  gotten into  Big  Ten,  play  a  little  bit  more, they've  been  a  little  bit  better in  that  area.  Is  that  what  you've  seen  as  well? Yeah.  I  mean,  this  defense  is  jelly. I  mean,  Sam  Renner  has  been  disruptive.  You  know. The  biggest  difference  to  me,  and  I  mean, we  said  it  on  the  last  football  podcast  is Come  Martin  but  all  Martin might  not  be  playing  this  weekend. I  mean,  I  know  he's  number  one  in  the  deep  chart. The  guy  was  carted  off  the  field. You  don't  know  how  serious  his  injury  is, and  I  like  I  talked  about  before  the  podcast, it's  going  to  be  gamesmanship  between Locksley  and  Fleck  when  it  comes  to  injuries. But,  you  know,  the  Defensive  Coordinator  for  the  Gophers, again  for  the  Maryland  game,  was  Rob  Smith. And  ever  since,  you  know, Rossi  has  taken  over  it,  they've, they've  only  lost  one  game. I  mean,  this  guy  is  coaching  a  heck  of  a  defense. I  know  allowed,  you  know, big  points  to  Georgia  Southern, South  Dakota  State,  Fresno  State. But  they've  been  jelling  since. But  like  I  said,  I  mean, the  big  part  of  that  is  Kell  Martin, and  if  he's  not  healthy,  we could  see  those  big  plays  by  Maryland  be  hit. Yeah.  And  he  did  go  down, Are  they  saying  they're  not  giving much  info  about  his  availability? No.  Yeah.  Fleck  pretty much  said  that  he's  going  to  get  to  go  on  Saturday. He  said  he's  a  game  time  decision  but  he  also  said  at some  points  he's  good  to  go  so  you're never  going  to  get  injury  information  out  of  fleck. I  mean  we  heard  before  Palle  is  going  to  play. He's  practicing  100%  dude never  practice  throughout  the  week. I  mean  it's  a  lot  of  gamesmanship  with  fleck. You'll  never  get  100%  serious  answer out  of  fleck  and  he  doesn't  have  to  give  you  one. In  college  football,  it's  not  like  the  pros. And  on  Maryland's  side, you  said  there  may  be  a  little  bit of  gamesmanship  going  on  there. Quarterback,  who  started  the  season,  Josh  Jackson, has  been  held  out  two  games  for  a  foot  injury,  I  believe. Another  high  ankle  sprain. And  in  those  five  games,  he  hasn't  been  great. But  he's  thrown  for  ten  touchdowns,  almost  1,000  yards, a  lot  better  than  what  they've  been  without  him. What  should  we  expect  in  that  passing  defense, maybe,  of  either  quarterback? Maryland,  isn't  that  great.  Throwing  the  football? Yeah.  I  mean,  Jackson  is  a  peer  pocket  passer, so  if  he's  still  limited  by  his  lower  body  injury, a  pocket  passer,  they  don't  move  much. If  he  has  a  lower  leg  injury, he's  not  going  to  be  able  to  move  even  more. So  the  pressure  is  going  to  get  to  him. I  think  prom  is  going  to  get  a  lot  of  run  for  Maryland. And  he  is  a  scrambling  type  of  quarterback. He's  good  with  his  legs,  but  he's very  inaccurate  as  well. I  just  think  whoever  plays  between  those  two, you  can  let  them  do  whatever  they  want. You  got  to  stop  the  run  game. Maryland's  passing,  they  haven't thrived  off  of  that  all  year. But  they  do,  um, have  a  very  good  wide  receiver  in  Demas  Junior. I  mean,  Fleck  talked  about  him  in  his  press  conference. I  mean,  he  thinks  the  guys  a  first  round  draft pick  and  that's  pretty  high  praise  from  head  coach. I  know  Fleck  likes  to  over  praise  team  sometimes. And  you  know,  Demas  is  a  good  wide receiver,  that's  a  stretch. But  you  know,  they'll  have  to  stop  him  as  well. But  the  Gophers  defensive  backfield  has  been  impressive. Yeah.  And  looking  at  the  numbers, Maryland  has  the  29th  best  rushing  attack  in  the  country. For  reference,  statistically  yards  wise, that's  better  than  the  Gophers  have  been. So  just  to  put  it  a  little  bit  there, we've  seen  a  dynamic  rushing attack  these  last  couple  weeks. Maryland  has  that  ability. And  then  they've  been  only  78th  in  passing  conference. Which  is  kind  of  like  here  the  Gophers  have  been. But  in  terms  of  touchdowns, in  terms  of  big  plays,  it hasn't  been  quite  as  comparable. Now,  shifting  a  little  bit  to  the  Gophers  offense  and what  we  should  expect  against  that  Maryland  defense, it  might  be  a  Morgan  game, they're  number  31  in  rushing  defense, near  the  top  25  in  stopping  the  run. In  both  running  the  ball  and  stopping  the  run. That's  something  that  Maryland  is  able  to  do. I  know  they're  going  to  want  to  establish  for  the  run, they're  not  going  to  abandon  it  by  any  means. But  if  it's  not  working  early, they  may  have  to  go  to  the  passing  game. They're  118th  in  passing  defense. That's  the  12th  worst  in  the  FBS. There's  a  glaring  hole  on one  side  on  the  passing  game  and  not  on  the  running  game. Every  coach  always  wants  to  establish  the  run. Fleck  has  been  clear,  he  wants  to  establish  the  run, but  at  some  point  Morgan  might  have  to  make some  plays  that  he  hasn't  had  to make  these  past  couple  weeks. We  saw  it  at  the  beginning  of  the  season  to  win that  Fresno  State  game,  to  win  other  games. He  has  had  to  use  it,  and  so  I  don't have  any  I  don't  lack  confidence  in  his  ability  to  do  it, but  he  hasn't  done  it  in  a  while. What's  your  interpretation  of  how they  may  have  to  go  about  this  game  to  win? I  mean,  I  think  the  gophers, they're  always  going  to  try  to  run their  inside  zone  scheme  and  they're going  to  try  to  get  one  of  the  running  backs  going, whether  it  be  Smith,  Ibraham,  or  Brooks. I  mean,  one  of  those  three  is  going  to  get  going. But  like  you  said,  they're  gonna  have  to  pass  the  ball. And  you  know  the  Diamond  Back  writer, the  Maryland  student  newspaper  asked  me, you  know,  how  do  we  stop  Rashad,  Bateman,  and  Johnson. And  I  said,  well,  you  got  to  get  to  Morgan. And  if  you  get  to  Morgan,  you  rattle  him  in  a  little  bit, even  though  he's  a  guy  who  doesn't  get  rattled. If  you  get  to  him,  you  force him  to  get  a  couple  of  turnovers  early. That  can  be  huge,  But  I  mean, Maryland's  past  defense  is  so  bad that  even  if  they  do  try  to  stop  Johnson  and  Bateman, good  luck  stopping  Atman  Bell. I  mean,  these  are  three  NFL  caliber  wide  receivers and  it's  going  to  be  impossible. Minnesota  on  paper  should just  destroy  Maryland  in  this  game. But  it  seems  like  a  trap  game  to  me. Yeah,  they've  definitely  got  Otton  Bell and  I  know  when  I  was  covering  the  team last  year  there  was  always  this  lingering  thing about  the  tight  ends  when  they're  going  to  get  involved. I  know  they  really haven't  been  involved  at  all  in  the  passing  game, but  I  remember  every  week  it  would  be  like  when is  Brevin  Span  Ford  going  to  play? Like  he  was  going  to  red  shirt  last  year. But  Fleck  was  always  talking  about his  talent  and  it's  funny, but  maybe  we'll  see  that  eventually. I'm  not  sure  we  will  with  this  offense. But  they  do  have  weapons and  Demetrius,  Douglas  is  another  one. So  they  definitely  don't  just  have Johnson  abatement  And  I  don't  think Maryland's  gonna  have  enough  corners  to  stop  him. But  you  did  mention  the  way  to potentially  slow  down  is  through  getting  pressure. They've  averaged  over  2.2  sacks  per  game. That's  pretty  decent  when  you're looking  at  the  national  rankings. So  they  have  that  ability, The  offense  of  line,  especially in  the  run  game  has  been  better. So  that's  kind  of  a  good  match  up  to kind  of  key  in  on  looking forward  and  other  keys  that I  kind  of  would  keep  an  eye  on. One  is  time  of  possession. Golfers  are  13th  in  the  country, in  the  country,  averaging  33  minutes  per  game. In  time  of  possession  in  Maryland  is  110th, so  I'm  not  exactly  sure, but  they  might  be  13th  in  the  Big  Ten in  just  time  of  possession. So  I  would  expect  to see  Minnesota  have  the  ball  for  most  of  the  game. If  they  don't,  that  would  be  quite  the  surprise. And  then  the  other  thing  that  stuck  out  to  me  is the  Maryland  is  the  12th  best  in the  country  in  average  yards  per  punt  return. They  get  15  yards  per  punt  return. Every  coach  always  talks  about  field  position, field  position,  field  position, especially  running  the  ball,  getting just  having  good  field  position, Maryland  on  the  road. That  is  something  to  watch  out  for  if they  get  a  big  play  in  the  punt  return  game, which  there  were  a  couple  called back  on  the  gophers  early  in  the  season. Maybe  that  was  because  of  the  penalties  that  were  called. But  sometimes  it's  something on  the  other  side  of  the  field, that's  also  something  I  would  look  out  for. Are  there  any  other  keys  that  you  see  that we  should  be  keeping  an  eye  on  as  going  into  this  game? Yeah,  Like  you  just  said,  special  teams.  I  know. Minnesota  and  Maryland  special  teams,  you  know, they're  kind  of  rated  some  of  the  worst  in  the  country. So  if  Minnesota  allows  big  plays in  the  special  teams  like  they  did before  earlier  in  the  season, I  mean,  it  could  swing  the  game  Maryland's  way. But  like  you  said,  Minnesota  really controls  the  clock  in  time  of  possession. You  don't  see  them  really  have  shorter  drives. You  know,  if  the  Running  Backs  get  to  the  second, third  level,  they  still  end  up  getting  tackled. We've  yet  to  see  like  a  78  run for  a  touchdown  with  any  of  those  guys. Minnesota  likes  to  run  eight  to  ten  drives, control  the  clock  and  then  get  a  touchdown. One  thing  to  me  that  sticks  out  is  if  this  game  is  close, can  you  trust  Michael  Lance,  a  freshman  kicker? I  mean  this  guy  has  not  good  and  Fleck  talked  about  it, that's  the  way  of  a  freshman  kicker  that  you  just have  to  take  the  bumps  and  the  bruises, they  come  along  with  it. But  if  this  game  comes  down  to  Michael  Lance, I  don't  know  if  we'll  be  happy  with the  result  and  hopefully it  doesn't  come  down  to  that  point. And  I  think  there  has  to  be  talk, and  there  should  be  talk  about this  being  a  potential  trap  game. They've  got  Penn  State  lurking  in  a  couple  weeks. I  know  maybe  the  buy  week  next  week  helps because  it's  not  the  week  immediately  following, but  maybe  even  that,  you  know, we  get  a  week  off, that's  kind  of  nice  rest  for  our  bodies. So  it's  interesting  Rucker's was  just  not  talented  enough  to  be  a  trap  game. Yeah,  they're  terrible.  Maryland  has  that  ability. We've  seen  it  the  past  two  years  about  this  being, we've  seen  the  last  two  years  that they  can  upset  this  team. It  wasn't  even  an  upset  when  they  did  it. So  it's  definitely  something to  look  out  for  if  they  talked  about being  extra  focused  with the  bye  week  on  the  horizon  with  Penn  State. Who  all  the  fans  want  to  know, is  College  Game  Day  going  to  come  if  that  happens? It's  kind  of,  it's  the  buzz  around  in the  Gopher  fan  just  psyche and  so  this  could  be  a  dangerous  game  for  them. Yeah.  I  mean,  but  the  one  thing  that  I  think,  you  know, the  Gophers  players  and the  coaching  staff  does  best  is  every  week  they talk  about  they're  not  worried  about what's  going  on  one  week,  two  weeks  from  now. They're  worried  about  that  game. You  know,  it's  like  Fleck  always  says  it's the  Super  Bowl  against  Maryland. It's  the  Super  Bowl  against  Records. They  don't  really  look  past  any  opponents  or  so  they  say. But  you  try  to  get  anything about  them,  about  the  future  schedule. And  they  won't  talk  about  it, they  won't  even  talk  about  anything going  into  the  offseason. I  mean,  this  is  a  team  that  has focus  and  they  prove  that  through  the  lack of  penalties  and  lack  of  turnovers  there. I  mean,  if  you  account  for  the only  average  four  penalties  a  game, they're  one  of  the  teams  with the  least  turnovers  throughout  college  football. I  mean,  this  team  they  come  to play  and  they're  not  going  to  make  mental  mistakes. And  in  order  for  Maryland  to  beat  them, the  Gophers  will  have  to  do  that. And  going  off  last  week, our  predictions,  we're  going  to  do  it  again  this  week. I've  got  Minnesota  31,  Maryland  26. I  just  think  the  running  games  are  going  to  be  there. There's  going  to  be  some  passing  plays, but  I  think  it's  just  a  game  I'm  worried  about. I  don't  know,  It's  like  I'm  like, I  don't  know,  I'm  not  super  worried. But  in  the  back  of  my  head  I'm  like, don't  get  ahead  of  yourself. Like  every  big  ten  opponent  is  a  good  big  ten  opponent. I  know  maybe  with  the  exclusion  of  Rutgers. And  they've  had  to  go  against  Illinois  and  Purdue, which  haven't  been  great. And  Maryland  has  shown  they  can  put  up  points. If  Maryland  gets  off  to  maybe  a  14, they're  in  a  lead  14. Is  that  something  that  we  can  come  back  from? Like,  we  haven't  seen  that  as  much  in  big  Ten  play. I  think  Minnesota  will  win  this  game. I  think  maybe  Maryland  will  make  it closer  at  the  end  and  the  score  will  reflect, maybe  not  as  close  as  the  game  is, but  I  think  it's  a  five  point  game. Yeah,  I  think  it's  34. 24  is  what  I'm  going  to  go  with. I  think  Minnesota  doesn't  cover  the  16.5  spread. I  mean,  that's  a  lot  for  big  ten  play. I  know  Maryland's  not  the  greatest  team, But  yeah,  I  think  you're  right. I  think  Maryland's  going  to  score some  big  touchdowns  at  the  end  of  the  game to  kind  of  pull  the  game closer  and  make  it  closer  than  it  is. But  like  I  said,  Maryland,  I  mean, if  Minnesota  makes  mental  mistakes  and  you  know, the  special  teams  isn't  great, Minnesota  could  lose  this  game. I  mean,  they  can't  look  past  anybody  in  Maryland. You  know,  Locksley's  in  his  first  year. I  know  it's  kind  of,  he  didn't get  any  really  recruits  later on  because  he  got  hired  in December  after  the  signing  day. So  this  is  going  to  be, yeah,  this  game  worries  me  a  lot, I  mean,  but  we'll  see. That's  why  I  got  to  play  the  game, and  I  hope  we're  both  wrong. Yeah.  And  this  is  the  first  game  that  they'll  head into  as  the  leaders  of  that  big  ten  west. So  I  don't  know  if  any  pressure  gets added  there  because  they  are  kind  of  Wisconsin  lost. You  know,  we're  controlling  our  own  destiny. You  know,  we  got  to  be  Penn  State,  we're  moving  on. So  it's  just,  I  know  every  coach and  every  player  is  going  to  say, we're  not  worried  about  it. But  you  don't  really  know  until  we  get  out  there  and  we see  how  much  preparation  that  they  put  in  for  this  game. So  John,  thank  you  for  being  with  us  and  thanks  ball. We'll  have  a  week  off  of  football with  the  bye  week  coming  up. But  if  Minnesota  wins, and  if  Penn  State's  still  undefeated, that's  going  to  be  a  big  game  that  you're  going to  want  to  tune  into  this  podcast  for. So  thanks.  In  other  news, the  volleyball  team  grabbed  a  pair  of home  victories  on  Friday  and  Saturday, beating  Northwestern  and  Illinois. The  13.3  team  is  ranked  number seven  in  the  country  for  the  second  consecutive  week. Trailing  Big  Ten  teams, Nebraska  and  Wisconsin,  who  are  fifth  and  sixth. This  weekend,  the  women  traveled  to  Michigan  to  play both  Michigan  State  on  Sunday  and  Michigan  on  Friday. The  men's  hockey  team  swept their  home  opening  series  against  Niagara, taking  Friday's  game  32  in overtime  and  then  42  on  Saturday. This  weekend  they  have  a  home  and  away  series  state rivals  Minnesota  Duluth. The  Gophers  will  play  at  Mariucci  on  Friday  and  travel  to Duluth  for  a  Saturday  showdown against  the  number  eight  ranked  Bulldogs. The  women's  hockey  team  is still  without  a  loss  this  season. After  their  latest  sweep  against  St. Cloud  State,  they  put  their  streak  to the  test  against  fellow  top  ten  ranked  team, Ohio  State  on  the  road with  match  ups  on  Friday  and  Saturday. For  the  third  consecutive  week. Angus  Flanagan  posted  a  top  ten  finish and  the  men's  golf  team's  latest  tournament. Flanagan's  Gophers  finished  11th in  the  Tamas  Stock  Invitational, which  concluded  their  fall  schedule. Their  next  tournament  isn't  until  February. Both  the  men's  and  women's  swim  and  dive  teams  dropped their  first  road  duel  of the  season  against  Florida  State  last  week. They  return  to  action  this  Saturday in  an  away  duel  against  Iowa, before  returning  home  for  a  couple home  matches  In  the  coming  weeks, the  men's  basketball  team  is  set  to  get  rolling  soon. The  team  has  their  first  and  only  exhibition  on  Monday, October  28  against  Southwest  Minnesota  State for  their  season  opener  on November  5  against  Cleveland  State  at  home. That's  all  we  have  for  you  this  week. We'll  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.