Minnesota Golden Gophers football will be a part of the Big Ten West race. Everybody’s favorite to win the West, Wisconsin, will be without their best and most important player, Corey Clement for awhile. The Badgers will be just fine, as we’ve seen, Taiwan Deal will the fill the void nicely.
However, the west just isn’t going to be handed over to Wisconsin. Nebraska, the team everyone picked to finish second in the division, has even bigger issues. The Mike Riley regime is off to a rough start, and it’s hard to picture the Huskers finishing higher than third or fourth in the West Division right now.
At #16, Northwestern is the third highest ranked team in the Big Ten right now. Only #1 Ohio State and #2 Michigan State are higher.
Illinois and Purdue are completely irrelevant, but everyone else still has a chance. Gophers football could make it to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship game…or not. Northwestern has the Big Ten’s signature win this non-conference season (#18 Stanford), now that Oregon has been exposed.
There are multiple bowl projections that have Northwestern vs. Alabama. Nick Saban vs Pat Fitzgerald, Lane Kiffin’s O. vs Mick McMall’s D. on New Year’s Day. Sounds crazy on paper, but really it’s not at all. As of now, it’s #13 vs #16.
My segment today talking Northwestern and Illinois on KOZN 1620 The Zone
Spread: Northwestern -4
Saturday is the day that conference play truly begins in full force for the league. Here’s a really interesting survey of Big Ten football players about who their least favorite opponents are by the way. It includes Gophers DE Thieren Cockran, Northwestern CB Nick Van Hoose and superback Dan Vitale.
Gophers football preview:
Minnesota quarterback Mitch Leidner has taken a lot of heat, and deservedly so, for a guiding an offense that never seems to have both dimensions going at the same time. To his credit, Leidner responded with one of the best games of his career last week, but it was again yet another ugly win for Minnesota.
Now it’s a Gophers football team that plays a drab brand of ball with a mediocre at best offense versus a defense at NU that gives up just 8.8 points per game. What could go wrong?
Actually, Minnesota is 9-5 in its last 14 Big Ten games, which is the fourth best mark in the league during that span. Ohio State in 14-0, Michigan State is 13-1 and Wisconsin is 12-2 (doesn’t include B1G title games). If Minnesota beats Northwestern and improves to 10-5 it would be the school’s best 15-game league stretch since it went 10-5 from 11/11/72 to 10/26/74.
If they can get Rodney Smith going against that fearsome Northwestern front, and put NU in a spot where they’re behind and have to pass in order to win, the Gophers will be Golden.
Northwestern football Preview:
Of course, I doubt that scenario actually plays itself out. And even if it does, Clayton Thorson showed last week that he can win the game with his arm if needs be. Pat Fitzgerald let him air it out in the second half of Ball State; because they had to. Fitz said on Monday that the coaching staff is trying to find a way to reduce the workload on tailback Justin Jackson.
Makes sense as he’s not going to last the whole season if he’s carrying it 30+ times every game.
There was a whole rash of injuries in the BSU game and we shouldn’t expect to see Geoff Mogus on Saturday. Godwin Igwebuike remains day to day.
Prediction: Northwestern 21, Minnesota 19
NU stays undefeated another week, but the trip to Michigan the following week will be much tougher.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
Follow him on Twitter and Instagram