Jerry Kill may have a few health issues, but the guy can flat out coach. In his first year he took over a team that went 3-9 and he duplicated that mark, but in his last 2 years the Minnesota Golden Gophers have won 6 and 8 games respectively. This year they have 15 starters back and should again field a solid team. Preview & Schedule are below
The Offense put up a modest 25.7 ppg and must replace QB Philip Nelson, which now means the reigns will be handed over to dual threat QB Mitch Leidner. Leidner did see some action last year and threw for 619 yards and 3 TDs, while also rushing for another 407 yards and 7 TDs. Also back to help the running game is David Cobb, who rumbled for 1202 yards and 7 YDs last year, while the Gophers have added a #13 back out of HS in Jeff Jones, who should help to form a solid one-two punch in the running game. This will be a run first offense and it helps that they have a strong OL with 4 of 5 starters back. The WR corps has 6 of its top 7 pass catchers back from last year, but no one with more than 25 catches. This is a below average group that won’t be used a whole lot. The defense ranked 25th in points allowed Last year and they will be a solid group this time again as they have 7 starters back on this side of the ball. The defense is led by DE Theiren Cochran, who only had 30 tackles last year, but 7.5 of them were for sacks and another 2.5 were for loss. Despite the fact that this defense has 10 of its 11 starters being upperclassmen, Phil Steele has all three units rated 9th or worse in the Big 10 . I feel they will be a bit better than that.
The Gopher have improved by 5 games over Jerry Kills 1st year, but continuing that progress may be asking too much for this team. The offense will move back to more of a ground it out style of play and they have the weapons to do that with. The Defense will again be solid and could at least match last year number of 22.2 ppg allowed. The Gophers look to be equal to last years team, but the schedule is a bit tougher, with road games vs TCU, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska, plus home games vs Northwestern, Iowa and Ohio State. 6 wins may be the ceiling for this team this year. KEY TREND: 0-6 ATS their last 6 games vs Michigan
2014 Minnesota Football Schedule
Aug. 28 Eastern Illinois
Sep. 6 Middle Tenn
Sep. 13 at TCU
Sep. 20 San Jose State
Sep. 27 at Michigan
Oct. 4 OPEN DATE
Oct. 11 Northwestern
Oct. 18 Purdue
Oct. 25 at Illinois
Nov. 1 OPEN DATE
Nov. 8 Iowa
Nov. 15 Ohio State
Nov. 22 at Nebraska
Nov. 29 at Wisconsin
Info gathered From Phil Steele's CFB Preview and Athlon Sports
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