IS THIS A TRAP BET? MINN@CSU

[tulah]

I could see Minny winning by 17-20pts
but Ialso think the public will be heavily on the Gophers

Is there any reason to back up the rams besides coach Lubbick?

those anybody know something about this game


thanx &GL

 

[buddy]

No play for me.

 

[fletcher]

it will be a tight game it hard as hell to breath at csu even for mt.west teams that go there so even though minn is a very good team IMO and has a good chance to win the big 10 this will be a hard road trip for them, 2nd half they could just run out of gas. if it was in minn line would be around 10 but csu you have to give a 4 point home field adv when doing your work ups against teams that do not play in the thin air of some of the teams out west, it can really take it out of a team and you can't get your-self ready for the thin air like you can for crowd noise and shit, so line is about right . This will be far from a cake walk for them.

 

[THE HITMAN]

I don't think lubbick has ever started out 0-3

 

[RIGHT SIDE]

There's a first time for everything......still looking into the game, but Col St. has played like crap the first two games turning the ball over way too much, BUT they have got to be pumped to be back at home. Probably pass......

 

[Bigdog4242]

I love the FH MN -2!!!

I think it will be a shoot out but I am not sure who will win. Ideally I would love to see MN win the FH but get crushed in the 2nd half to shut some of these band wagon fans up. MN is a good team but they have a easy schedule especially easy conference schedule.

GL!!

 

[Master Capper]

My numbers have the Gophers winning by 6 points! As for the altitude, if you check out the Minnesota newspaper Mason says that the altitude will not be a factor in this game. In the article he talks about when he coached in the Big 12 his teams actually played better when the went to Boulder and he never had any player then complain about fatigue. Holland is a good QB and it's tough to go against Sonny in this spot so personally I am looking at passing on this one!

 

[fletcher]

As a ex-coach and player that has played baseball in the thin air I know it takes it out of you, and makes the ball fly far

He can say what he want it takes it's toll on all sports and players who are not use to playing in it, that is just news paper talk he was giving you will see guys sucking the 02 tank before the end of the first half. as a coach i think Sonny cost his teams points many times at csu more then he has got them points, to many times i have watched him go on 4th down when they could of got 3 and fail and go for 2 when 1 was the same thing and fail and have seen it come back to bite him a few times in the last few years and I watch the mt.west a lot. he is a good coach but i don't look at him as a great coach to much risk at times when it is not needed IMO, but if it works you could say great call, it is easy to 2nd guess like i am on him with the calls I have seen at csu over the years but like i said easy to 2nd guess something that did not work, i like him as a coach but he does not make a major factor in my handicapping. i think both teams strengths match up aginst both teams strength and will see many points due to this.

 

[winagainjoe]

Lubbick did lose 3 in a row his first season. the Rams are looking at this game as a "must win". CSU rank's 113th against the run. Minny has played a couple of nobody's the first two weeks.. and rank 2nd in rushing. Talking with a couple of guy's who are close to the program think CSU will have a decided edge having played two tough teams on the road. My opinion.. the rams cover here and win outright.. but the easier game to call is up the road in boulder as CU should roll NTexas.

 

[Big Daddy]

Posted on Mon, Sep. 13, 2004





Gophers alarmed, and that's good

Tough victory over 1-AA Illinois State leads to soul searching

BY BRIAN HAMILTON

Pioneer Press


Maybe, at some point in the season, every team gets a wake-up call. Something in the air saps its energy and focus, a malodorous effort follows, and if the team is lucky, it steals a victory.

And then there's the University of Minnesota football team, whose wake-up call Saturday was like 10 ear-piercing alarms going off in the middle of a deep sleep.

First, they stumbled to a 37-21 victory over Division I-AA Illinois State. Second, the Toledo team that supposedly provided a "statement" victory last week for the Gophers was demolished again Saturday, a 49-point throttling by unremarkable Kansas.

That should be enough to tug anyone's head out of the clouds.

"I hope this is a wake-up call," Gophers quarterback Bryan Cupito said. "Maybe we thought we were better than we were. If we do this next week, we'll be embarrassed."

The truth probably lies somewhere in between the results from Minnesota's first two weekends of 2004. But heading into their most interesting non-conference game in recent memory, Saturday at Colorado State, the No. 22-ranked Gophers (2-0) will have to sharpen more than a few dull edges.

"We've started both games very poorly," coach Glen Mason said. "Had the ball on offense, three-and-out, given up a big play on what should be a routine defensive play. And then yesterday we slopped around, got in position to put it totally away, and we fumble the ball on the 1-yard line. Cost us a score. Defense stops them on three plays, then we rough the punter on a return ? not even on a block.

"That's how you get beat. You make mistakes like that, you get beat."

Colorado State has not lived up to a billing as a significant road test. The winless Rams dropped a heartbreaker to Colorado in their opener, then were pummeled Saturday 49-0 by No. 1 Southern California. Colorado State gave up 553 yards of offense, 322 yards on the ground, and turned the ball over six times against the Trojans.

But in a weird way, could the Gophers find a better test of their mental faculties than another game against a theoretically inferior opponent?

"We've got to play every team like they're No. 1, because if you don't, this is what happens," running back Laurence Maroney said. "We lucked into this win."

As for the reality that at some point, every team gets a five-alarm fire set under its collective tush, Mason shrugged.

"I guess after the fact, I hope that's the case," he said. "Because if we play like that, we'll get beat. Either that, or we're not as good I think we are."

That's not a thought anyone figured to be entertaining right now.

Briefly: Mason said he has been reprimanded once about divulging players' injuries against privacy laws, so he declined to comment on left tackle Rian Melander and defensive end Eric Clark. Melander didn't play the second half Saturday after suffering what appeared to be a hip or leg injury. Clark had his right hand bandaged significantly Sunday.

? The Gophers' streak of not allowing a 100-yard rusher ended at 15 games after Illinois State's Demetrus Johnson gained 104 yards.

? Minnesota didn't move in the Associated Press poll, staying at No. 22. The Gophers dropped in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll after their season-opening victory, but they moved up two spots to No. 22 on Sunday.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Hamilton covers University of Minnesota football. He can be reached at bchamilton@pioneerpress.com.

 

[Big Daddy]

Posted on Wed, Sep. 15, 2004





A Ram-tough schedule

Colorado State coach keeps sense of humor despite 0-2 start

BY BRIAN HAMILTON

Pioneer Press


There is no glossing over how bad it looks on the surface, Sonny Lubick knows that. Losing 49-0 last weekend, surrendering 500 yards of offense and turning the ball over six times in the process, looks bad. Like Zsa Zsa Gabor in the morning bad.

But the Colorado State coach insists upon considering extenuating circumstances. In this case, those are known as the Southern Cal Trojans, No. 1 team in the nation, who administered the thrashing on Saturday.

"The media gets all carried away ? you're 0-2, 120th in this, 120th in that," Lubick said good-naturedly Tuesday. "Well, if we played USC every week, we'd be 240th in every area."

Fortunately, that isn't the case. It just seems like it. Put it this way: The No. 22 University of Minnesota football team rolls into Fort Collins, Colo., this weekend ? the first Big Ten Conference team ever to visit Colorado State. And it's probably the No. 3 game on the nonconference depth chart.

Indeed, Lubick and his Rams are enduring a schedule siege and barely surviving. First came a game at arch-rival Colorado, in which Colorado State came back from 17 points down, had the ball on the Buffaloes' 1-yard line with time running down ? and didn't punch it in, losing 27-24. Then, of course, there's nothing quite like a road game against the No. 1 Trojans to soothe that heartache just seven days later.

Now, here come the Gophers, with something of their own to prove after a lackluster victory over Illinois State on Saturday.

What, no conference opener against the New England Patriots?

"Even with an old, experienced team, it would be difficult," Lubick said. "Anybody who has followed Colorado State for a long time, this is probably ? easily ? the most difficult schedule this school has ever had. We're taking our lumps for it, too."

Minnesota insists things aren't as bad as they seem for the Rams. Yes, Colorado State returned just three starters on the defensive side of the ball. Its linebacker crew is virtually all new, and the front four features one returning starter and two freshmen. And yes, USC ran for 322 yards against that defense, when 300 yards rushing is the industry standard set by Minnesota.

But Gophers coach Glen Mason said it wasn't a consistent beating applied by the Trojans, pointing to big runs of 42, 24 and 23 yards that bloated the total.

"Without a doubt, they're the best defensive personnel we've faced this year, watching them on film," Mason said. "You evaluate who they're going against. They could've beat Colorado. They played pretty well for a long period of time against USC, and then the bottom fell out."

"We've played two big games," Gophers quarterback Bryan Cupito said. "But they've played two really big games. They want to prove something. They don't want to go 0-3."

Still, the problem for Colorado State is time ? the youngsters need it to stiffen against the run, and they won't get it, going from the Trojans to a committed run attack like Minnesota's.

"We might try to get a 12th or 13th guy out there," Lubick said. "Our front...maybe size-wise, we might be little undersized, but we do have some strength there. If we can put 10 guys up there to stop the run, that would be good. But I believe their quarterback is good enough to hit deep balls."

So it's another week, another haymaker of a punch that Colorado State will have to duck.

"Bear Bryant said it best," Lubick said. "It's scheduling, scheduling, scheduling."

This year, it's rough, rough, rough.

Briefly: Mason downplayed the altitude factor involved in playing at Fort Collins, elevation 4,984 feet above sea level.

"I've been out to Colorado many times. To be quite honest with you, we played some of our best games (there)," the Gophers coach said. "I don't care about the altitude."

? One factor in Colorado State's favor: The Rams have won 10 consecutive home openers.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Hamilton covers University of Minnesota football. He can be reached at bchamilton@pioneerpress.com.

 

[Big Daddy]

Posted on Thu, Sep. 16, 2004





O-line out to make amends

BY BRIAN HAMILTON

Pioneer Press


O-line out to make amends

The mental review of last Saturday evening done with, the University of Minnesota's offensive linemen spoke to each other over the next few days and discovered a common theme to their respective insights.

That wasn't us.

This line doesn't frequently fail to make proper adjustments at the line of scrimmage. This line doesn't account for half of the team's dozen penalties. This line doesn't turn around to see running backs laid out three yards deep in the backfield.

"It was just, I guess, one of those days," center Greg Eslinger said. "We weren't all clicking, we weren't all on the same page, which really isn't like us at all. We're just looking to get back to our normal selves."

The young Colorado State defense might look at Minnesota's offensive numbers from that subpar game against Illinois State and cringe at the thought that it wasn't nearly satisfactory. The Gophers still scored 37 points, and still amassed 303 yards rushing ? with another pair of 100-yard efforts from Marion Barber III and Laurence Maroney.

But that is not the standard to which the Gophers hold themselves. Collecting those numbers doesn't erase the six penalties against linemen. Or the seven runs for negative yardage peppered throughout the game. Or the apparent lack of mental acuity that had caught coach Glen Mason's eye by Sunday morning.

"One of the reasons we typically run the ball pretty good, those guys up front, they make a lot of adjustments," Mason said. "Or they'll be able to tell you, 'Hey, we did this, we gotta do this.' 'This isn't working. I couldn't get to the linebacker, so we gotta do this.' It was double jeopardy because they didn't do that, and we (coaches) didn't.

"It takes two to tango. As coaches, we didn't figure it out. And they didn't figure it out. Then you get into film, and you think, god-dang."

And to the Gophers' line, even those little mistakes are like bamboo shoots under the fingernails. The offense cranked out 289.2 yards rushing per game a year ago, and four of the five starters on the line returned for an encore. Eslinger is a preseason All-American. The only new starter, Brandon Harston, is a fifth-year senior.

As such, the standard for performance was set exceedingly high.

"Everybody strives for perfection ? as many points as possible, as many yards as possible, and most of all the 'W,' " right tackle Joe Ainslie said. "And as few mistakes as possible while still winning."

Said Harston: "You take care of the little things and then move up to the other things so you can become a complete offensive line. That's what we're all about right now. Everybody plays hard, but a (missed) mental assignment here and there could stop us from getting a long run or a touchdown."

So, yeah, some teams might take a 300-yard day on the ground and go home smiling, however many goofs occurred and yellow flags appeared on the turf. Not Minnesota.

Then again, no one is panicking, given the line's track record. And a game against a green, undersized Colorado State defense could serve as a salve. The Rams surrendered 322 yards rushing to Southern California last weekend, and 255 to Colorado the week before. It's the kind of opponent that just might reacquaint a guy with who he used to be.

"It really wasn't us playing out there (against Illinois State)," Eslinger reiterated. "We know we're a lot better. We know we're capable of greater things."

Briefly: The Gophers' game against Penn State on Oct. 2 will start at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN Plus, meaning Minnesota's first five games will be televised for the first time since 1996.

Saturday's game against Colorado State (9 p.m.) and the Sept. 25 game against Northwestern (8 p.m.) are scheduled to be nationally televised on ESPN2.

Kickoff times for the rest of the Gophers' schedule will be announced later.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Hamilton can be reached at bchamilton@pioneerpress.com.

 

[Antonio]

Trap Trap Trap trap Trap Trap.....

State wins outright!!!

 

[tulah]

thanx guy's

I'm going with my gut feeling Minny

 

[bej0101]

:cursin: GOPHERS BIGGGGG :cursin: