The Minneosta Golden Gophers have been building their program for a handful of years and believe this could be a very solid campaign. The 2014 Minnesota Golden Gophers Schedule features many winnable games, but also a tough Big Ten West portion.

Jerry Kill has built the Gophers from a 3-win team into back-to-back bowl appearances. They were inconsistent early in 2013 but did manage to win eight ball games. 

This year they have an All Big-Ten caliber running back with David Cobb, who ran for better than 1,200 yards and seven touchdowns last year. 

At the quarterback position will be Mitch Leidner, a sophomore. He takes over for Phillip Nelson, who decided to transfer to Rutgers. If Leidner can put up some decent numbers and be accurate with a solid Gopher receiving corps, they are going to score points this season.

Defensively they will want to continue to stay stout. They surrendered just 22 points per game last season, which was fourth best in the Big Ten. They return seven starters from last season, so they will have some familiar faces and depth. 

They'll have to get better at getting to the quarterback, however. Because of that the secondary struggled, allowing opposing quarterbacks to complete 61 percent of their passes. 

Minnesota has a chance to be pretty special this season. They have winnable non-conference games and could get back to eight wins again, or more. 

2014 Minnesota Golden Gophers Schedule

Aug. 29    Eastern Illinois

Sept. 6     Middle Tennessee State

Sept. 13   at TCU

Sept. 20   San Jose State

Sept. 27   at Michigan

Oct. 4        Bye week

Oct. 11     Northwestern

Oct. 18     Purdue

Oct. 25     at Illinois

Nov. 1      Bye week

Nov. 8      Iowa

Nov. 15    Ohio State

Nov. 22    at Nebraska

Nov. 29    at Wisconsin

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