BleedGopher
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per the Chicago Tribune:
4. The Gophers are tracking from Minneapolis to Indianapolis.
Sportsbooks had Minnesota as fourth mostly likely to reach the Big Ten title game from the West behind Nebraska (3/1), Wisconsin (3.5/1) and Purdue (4/1). The Gophers (4.75/1) ended 2018 with back-to-back thrashings of Wisconsin and Georgia Tech, but most remained unconvinced.
“Picked sixth in the West,” coach P.J. Fleck texted me in August. “Our players will be better than that.”
Boom. They’re alone atop the Big Ten West thanks to Wisconsin’s loss.
Minnesota squeaked out three nonconference wins and has breezed to four victories against bottom-half Big Ten opponents. The Gophers crushed Rutgers on Saturday, playing turnover-free ball while allowing just 189 yards.
And they got an emotional boost from seeing Casey O’Brien take the field to hold the snap for an extra point. O’Brien is a four-time cancer survivor who represented the players by delivering a speech at the Big Ten Football Kickoff Luncheon, opening with: “Today I want to talk to you about being thankful.”
O’Brien hugged Fleck after the extra point that put the Gophers ahead 28-0, saying afterward: “This is what I dreamed about.”
Fleck, who teared up after the hug, called O’Brien his team’s “biggest motivator.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/spor...0191020-wdacyloshfawnddhvg4lbhyii4-story.html
Go Gophers!!
4. The Gophers are tracking from Minneapolis to Indianapolis.
Sportsbooks had Minnesota as fourth mostly likely to reach the Big Ten title game from the West behind Nebraska (3/1), Wisconsin (3.5/1) and Purdue (4/1). The Gophers (4.75/1) ended 2018 with back-to-back thrashings of Wisconsin and Georgia Tech, but most remained unconvinced.
“Picked sixth in the West,” coach P.J. Fleck texted me in August. “Our players will be better than that.”
Boom. They’re alone atop the Big Ten West thanks to Wisconsin’s loss.
Minnesota squeaked out three nonconference wins and has breezed to four victories against bottom-half Big Ten opponents. The Gophers crushed Rutgers on Saturday, playing turnover-free ball while allowing just 189 yards.
And they got an emotional boost from seeing Casey O’Brien take the field to hold the snap for an extra point. O’Brien is a four-time cancer survivor who represented the players by delivering a speech at the Big Ten Football Kickoff Luncheon, opening with: “Today I want to talk to you about being thankful.”
O’Brien hugged Fleck after the extra point that put the Gophers ahead 28-0, saying afterward: “This is what I dreamed about.”
Fleck, who teared up after the hug, called O’Brien his team’s “biggest motivator.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/spor...0191020-wdacyloshfawnddhvg4lbhyii4-story.html
Go Gophers!!