The Minnesota Golden Gophers open the 2014 college football season when they host the Eastern Illinois Panthers tonight. The game is scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. start time and it will be televised live on the Big Ten Network. Currently the odds for the game have the Golden Gophers favored by a couple of possessions here.

Minnesota won eight games last season as head coach Jerry Kill has turned around this program. They ran the football well and played pretty decent defense for most of the season. The Gophers are going to want to be more consistent this year, however. They opened the 2013 campaign with four straight victories before they were beat up in their opening two Big Ten games by Iowa and Michigan.

The Gophers were able to pick up some surprising wins, though, the next two weeks when they beat Northwestern on the road and knocked off Nebraska s well.

Everyone knows about the health problems with coach Kill, but his team has embraced him and used it as a rallying point. They did lose their final three games last year to Wisocnsin, Michigan State and a bowl game loss to Syracuse. But in all three games they were competitive and didn't give up more than 21 points in any of those losses.

Building on that will be important this season. 

The QB will be sophomore Mitch Leidner, who threw for a couple of TDs in the bowl game and saw some time on the field last season. He's a guy that can get a first down with his legs if he needs to. Minnesota will still have a very good backfield as well led by senior David Cobb. Expect both of them to play well in this game against the Panthers.

Eastern Illinois won 12 games last season, dropping only a couple of contests where they scored 39 in both games. But QB Jimmy Garoppolo is in the NFL and the Panthers will struggle to average 48 points per game again this season. They have a pair of redshirt freshmen and a true trosh battling for the spot.

The Panthers are replacing a head coach as well, with Dino Babers bolting town to take the Bowling Green gig. 

Minnesota will be bigger, stronger and faster than Eastern Illinois as a whole. Last year the Panthers might get a look here, but with a new quarterback and head coach, it's hard to see them winning this game.

Free Pick: Minnesota 38, Eastern Illinois 20

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