Buck Bravo

3-0.  At the end of the season, that will be the only relevant statistic from this week.  After an emotional win on the road versus Bowling Green, the youth and inexperience of the Gopher Football team was apparent versus the Montana State Bobcats.  Despite numerous mistakes, Minnesota was still able to walk away with a win.  Perhaps a disappointing win versus Montana State will build character for the Gopher squad.  Here’s a few observations from Saturday:

Youth and Inexperience - The Gophers are one of the youngest teams in Division IA football.  In fact, they have the third fewest seniors of any Division IA team.  I can count ten true freshmen who have seen the field.  Most notable is that the offensive line has started and played a few redshirt freshmen.  Of any position in football besides quarterback, the offensive line benefits most from age and experience.

Defensive Chemistry - I’m able to count eight players who have seen the field on defense who were not wearing maroon and gold last year.  There is undoubtedly an upgrade in talent on the field with the addition of Tramaine Brock, Traye Simmons, Simoni Lawrence, Marcus Sherels and Cedric McKinley among others.  On several of the successful Montana State passing plays, including the first quarter touchdown, there were breakdowns in zone coverage.  The good news is that our defensive players were not beat by better athletes.  They made mistakes in coverage assignments.  It’s important to remember that many of these players have only been working together since August.  As the season progresses and players acclimate themselves to the system and to each other, expect fewer breakdowns in coverage.

Wide Receivers - Eric Decker is having an All American season.  Additional wide receivers need to step up and become threats before entering Big Ten play.  I’m still optimistic that the true freshmen quartet of Brandon Green, Xzavian Brandon, Brodrick Smith and Da’Jon McKnight are learning the complex Gopher spread offense and fine tuning their skills.  Adam Weber will need more options than Eric Decker and Jack Simmons to be successful in the Big Ten.

Deleon Eskridge - Deleon Eskridge had a great game with 114 yards rushing and three touchdowns.  When he was hit, he would continue to move forward.  He made great cuts and has Division I speed.  My previous post analyzed the options for replacing Duane Bennett, and it appears that the answer is Deleon Eskridge.

After last week’s victory at Bowling Green, it was easy to overlook that the Gophers are a young and inexperienced team.  Expect the Gophers to improve as the year progresses, but expect growing pains along the way.  The Golden Gopher Football blog gives a nice gameday recap including a statistical analysis.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.  Here’s a great video recap of the game:

Saturday’s game versus Montana State could be the most important game of the year.  Why?

1. Losing to Montana State would be devastating.  The Gophers are not expected to win versus teams such as Ohio State or even Bowling Green.  Analysts and fans expect the Gophers to defeat Montana State.  If Montana State pulls off a win after losing to Kansas State by a score of 69-10, all of the momentum and excitement that the Gophers built up from the first two weeks of the season will be lost.  Do I think it likely that Montana State will win?  Absolutely not.  However, the Gophers need to make sure that they show up to play.
2. The Gophers have two games left to prepare for the Big Ten.  The Gophers will be facing a tough and determined opponent next week in Florida Atlantic.  Last year Florida Atlantic defeated the Gophers.  This week may be the best chance for the Gophers to fine tune the offense and defense.  Some of the younger players can hopefully gain enough experience to be Big Ten ready.  It is important that the Gophers build a big lead in this game early on.  If second and third string players can see some action in the second half, the Gophers’ depth chart will have game-day experience heading into Big Ten play.  An early lead would allow the starters to remain rested and healthy for Florida Atlantic.
3. The offensive line and running backs can be evaluated.  Last week’s injuries to Jeff Tow-Arnett, Ned Tavale, and Duane Bennett were the only downside of the Bowling Green game.  The Gophers should have an opportunity to test out some different players in order to solidify a young offensive line and evaluate their running backs.

I expect the Gophers to win, and win big.  In my opinion, this is the most important game of the year since it is the only remaining game that the Gophers absolutely MUST win.

On another note, I hope that David Pittman can finally see the field.  I’ve been looking forward to finding out how the Gophers will use him in the spread offense.  Just for kicks, here’s a formation that I’d be thrilled to see the Gophers use.  I left the receivers and running backs off of the diagram since they could be aligned any number of ways.  I call this the “side-by-side shotgun“:

Just to be clear, I have no delusions that the Gophers would ever take anything on this website seriously.  That being said, wouldn’t this be a fun formation to occasionally see them run?  Defenses key on the quarterback’s eyes and body language.  If there were two potential quarterbacks in the play, the level of defensive confusion would be monumental.  Both Weber and Pittman are gifted athletes able to pass, run, and receive the football.  Just imagine the possibilities…

Duane Bennett started off the season with two solid games, and appeared to be well on his way to becoming the next great Gopher running back.  Bennett was quick, he could break tackles, he was a good receiver, and he was a great pass blocker.  Unfortunately, a knee injury suffered in last Saturday’s game versus Bowling Green will sideline him for the rest of the season.

While Bennett will definitely be missed this year, his injury provides an opportunity for three true freshmen.  Junior Jay Thomas is a talented back, but his durability is a question mark after having both of his knees reconstructed.  My prior post on Thomas can be viewed here.  I would not be surprised if either Shady Salamon, Deleon Eskridge, or Kevin Whaley steps up and haves a big season.  Here’s some statistics and analyses on the three freshmen running backs:

Shady Salamon -Salamon is currently the favorite to become the featured running back for the Gophers.  Last year at this time he was the featured running back for Cretin-Derham Hall High School in Saint Paul.  Click on this link for his senior year high school statistics.  Salamon looked solid against Bowling Green with a few powerful runs and sound technique.  I’ll agree with other analysts and reporters that Salamon is the favorite to win the starting job.

Deleon Eskridge - Juniper Serra High School’s all time touchdown record was held by NFL Hall of Famer Lynn Swan until Deleon Eskridge came along.  From the videos I’ve seen, Eskridge is an excellent open field runner with experience against talented competition.  Click on this link for his senior year high school statistics.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see him back up Salamon along with junior Jay Thomas.  Here’s a link to a video of Eskridge in high school.

Kevin Whaley - Whaley was a first team all-state running back at Virginia’s Salem High School.  He rushed for 1661 yards and 25 touchdowns his senior year.  Whaley is definitely the underdog to become the starter, but with the numbers that he put up in high school don’t be suprised if he sees significant playing time.  Whaley is smaller than Salamon or Eskridge, but is very quick and makes great cuts on the field.

All three of these freshmen running backs have an opportunity to become regulars in the Gopher box scores over the next four years.  If any of them could have a run versus Montana State similar to the following video of Knowshon Moreno, expect the new featured running back to have arrived:

-Bad news.  Tim Brewster held a press conference today.  According to the Star Tribune, we’ve lost Duane Bennett for the season.  Jeff Tow-Arnett is day-to-day.  Ned Tavale may play Saturday.  Here’s the article.

- Marcus Fuller of the Pioneer Press discusses the backups for our three injured Gophers here.

- Adam Weber was among three players who share the honors of being named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week.  Check out the story at this Pioneer Press link.

- There’s not much out there about Montana State Football, but here’s a link to their roster for those who’d like to know more about the team.

- While this Fall most news coverage will be focused on the vote between Obama and McCain, my vote is that we should all be Down With Goldy.

- Former Gopher running back Marion Barber is becoming quite popular in Dallas as can be read in this Cowboys blog.  Meanwhile, his little brother Dominique Barber is listed as the Houston Texans’ backup strong safety.  Don’t mess with Texas.

-Troy Stoudermire has had a strong start for the Gophers.  Check out this video of his returns:

- This video may be two weeks old, but it is still fun to watch: