Minnesota football will be without 20 players tonight against Purdue

So, who were the main players that we mostly got to see for the first time in meaningful action? I think this is correct, but feel free to correct me or add on.

Offense:
QB - Tanner played whole game
WR - seemed to be the same guys as always
TE - BSF was out, was wearing a jacket the whole time. More playing time for Paulson, had a nice catch, first of the year for him, but I think he has gotten in already this year? Witham and Ko Kieft seemed to be out there the most, mainly as blockers.
OL - same main five guys played the whole time. No idea if any backups were out, because they don't play. Seems amazing that none of tested positive for covid so far with Callahan out. But it takes people longer to start testing positive some times ....
RB - the big one was Bryce Williams. Hadn't seen him all year, and clearly was #4 on the depth chart behind Potts and Wiley. Potts went down with injury, and that bumped him to #3. Then later in the Purdue game Mo goes out, so Williams starts to come in. From my memory, Williams did not seem to do much that helped us? But also his first action.

Defense:
DT - clearly some guys out. Schad we knew already. I don't think we saw Cheney? Carter and Dew were out there as the regular starters. Noah Hickcox, a scholarship player from the 2017 class that has largely been a bust, I believe this was his first meaningful game action in his career. And I think he did pretty well! He got that nice solo tackle-for-loss where they forgot to block him. Haha, hey we'll take it! Also saw Logan Richter get in there and make a play or two. I think MJ Anderson got some plays too? But I'm pretty sure he has gotten some plays this year already.
DE - I think Oto played almost the entire game at the traditional (hand on the ground) DE spot? I think we did see some of D'Von Harris thought? At "rush end" (the 2 point stance, End/OLB hybrid) mostly we saw Rush, since Mafe was out. Also saw true freshman Jalen Logan-Redding at this spot.
CB - the same Durr, J Harris, and Howard in for St-Juste (same as last week)
S - Calvin Swenson, walk-on from 2016 class, who got a scholarship in 2018 but largely hasn't contributed on defense. Not sure if we know what happened to Howden? Did he get hurt or was he just benched for poor performance? I thought Swenson did pretty well! I would absolutely start him against Wisconsin over Howden, either way, and see how it goes. Did not see Dixon come in for Nubin, so I suspect he was out.
 

It really doesn't feel like there is a good chance we play next week. I joked last week about shutting down for the WI game and costing them a chance to play in the BT Championship, but it would seem like anyone who missed because of COVID would still be out and then if any additional people test positive, they're out too. I'm not sure what that threshold is where we would call the game.
 

It really doesn't feel like there is a good chance we play next week. I joked last week about shutting down for the WI game and costing them a chance to play in the BT Championship, but it would seem like anyone who missed because of COVID would still be out and then if any additional people test positive, they're out too. I'm not sure what that threshold is where we would call the game.
It would be hilarious if we could dig up a few more covid cases to make Wisco ineligible.
 


So, who were the main players that we mostly got to see for the first time in meaningful action? I think this is correct, but feel free to correct me or add on.

Offense:
QB - Tanner played whole game
WR - seemed to be the same guys as always
TE - BSF was out, was wearing a jacket the whole time. More playing time for Paulson, had a nice catch, first of the year for him, but I think he has gotten in already this year? Witham and Ko Kieft seemed to be out there the most, mainly as blockers.
OL - same main five guys played the whole time. No idea if any backups were out, because they don't play. Seems amazing that none of tested positive for covid so far with Callahan out. But it takes people longer to start testing positive some times ....
RB - the big one was Bryce Williams. Hadn't seen him all year, and clearly was #4 on the depth chart behind Potts and Wiley. Potts went down with injury, and that bumped him to #3. Then later in the Purdue game Mo goes out, so Williams starts to come in. From my memory, Williams did not seem to do much that helped us? But also his first action.

Defense:
DT - clearly some guys out. Schad we knew already. I don't think we saw Cheney? Carter and Dew were out there as the regular starters. Noah Hickcox, a scholarship player from the 2017 class that has largely been a bust, I believe this was his first meaningful game action in his career. And I think he did pretty well! He got that nice solo tackle-for-loss where they forgot to block him. Haha, hey we'll take it! Also saw Logan Richter get in there and make a play or two. I think MJ Anderson got some plays too? But I'm pretty sure he has gotten some plays this year already.
DE - I think Oto played almost the entire game at the traditional (hand on the ground) DE spot? I think we did see some of D'Von Harris thought? At "rush end" (the 2 point stance, End/OLB hybrid) mostly we saw Rush, since Mafe was out. Also saw true freshman Jalen Logan-Redding at this spot.
CB - the same Durr, J Harris, and Howard in for St-Juste (same as last week)
S - Calvin Swenson, walk-on from 2016 class, who got a scholarship in 2018 but largely hasn't contributed on defense. Not sure if we know what happened to Howden? Did he get hurt or was he just benched for poor performance? I thought Swenson did pretty well! I would absolutely start him against Wisconsin over Howden, either way, and see how it goes. Did not see Dixon come in for Nubin, so I suspect he was out.

Is Callahan hugging these guys or hanging out in their rooms? Why would Callahan being out necessarily affect anyone else?
 


I like PJF bit I’d take any numbers from PJF with a grain of salt. Just sayin’.

Maybe understandable, but both BTN and the local paper confirmed it was at least 20 players and 1 coach. Not much of a stretch that there could be a few more.
 

This thread didn’t age well.
 

Maybe understandable, but both BTN and the local paper confirmed it was at least 20 players and 1 coach. Not much of a stretch that there could be a few more.

The question is how many players are injured, and injured at this point of a season under normal circumstances, versus how many of the 25 were COV+. Maybe a handful or so?
 





What doesn't make sense?
I was thinking why isn't the game canceled/postponed due to the number of positives. At the time I failed to understand that many of these could be injuries.
 

Is Callahan hugging these guys or hanging out in their rooms? Why would Callahan being out necessarily affect anyone else?
From what I see in games for many teams, assistants spend plenty of time talking loudly with their players gathered closely around them and their masks are often slipping down. Surely happens every day at practice so that could be a significant exposure.
 

From what I see in games for many teams, assistants spend plenty of time talking loudly with their players gathered closely around them and their masks are often slipping down. Surely happens every day at practice so that could be a significant exposure.

Yeah, I wish they wouldn’t do that. I particularly hate the pull down the mask to yell and quick mask replacement maneuver. We’re not good at this.
 



So, who were the main players that we mostly got to see for the first time in meaningful action? I think this is correct, but feel free to correct me or add on.

Offense:
QB - Tanner played whole game
WR - seemed to be the same guys as always
TE - BSF was out, was wearing a jacket the whole time. More playing time for Paulson, had a nice catch, first of the year for him, but I think he has gotten in already this year? Witham and Ko Kieft seemed to be out there the most, mainly as blockers.
OL - same main five guys played the whole time. No idea if any backups were out, because they don't play. Seems amazing that none of tested positive for covid so far with Callahan out. But it takes people longer to start testing positive some times ....
RB - the big one was Bryce Williams. Hadn't seen him all year, and clearly was #4 on the depth chart behind Potts and Wiley. Potts went down with injury, and that bumped him to #3. Then later in the Purdue game Mo goes out, so Williams starts to come in. From my memory, Williams did not seem to do much that helped us? But also his first action.

Defense:
DT - clearly some guys out. Schad we knew already. I don't think we saw Cheney? Carter and Dew were out there as the regular starters. Noah Hickcox, a scholarship player from the 2017 class that has largely been a bust, I believe this was his first meaningful game action in his career. And I think he did pretty well! He got that nice solo tackle-for-loss where they forgot to block him. Haha, hey we'll take it! Also saw Logan Richter get in there and make a play or two. I think MJ Anderson got some plays too? But I'm pretty sure he has gotten some plays this year already.
DE - I think Oto played almost the entire game at the traditional (hand on the ground) DE spot? I think we did see some of D'Von Harris thought? At "rush end" (the 2 point stance, End/OLB hybrid) mostly we saw Rush, since Mafe was out. Also saw true freshman Jalen Logan-Redding at this spot.
CB - the same Durr, J Harris, and Howard in for St-Juste (same as last week)
S - Calvin Swenson, walk-on from 2016 class, who got a scholarship in 2018 but largely hasn't contributed on defense. Not sure if we know what happened to Howden? Did he get hurt or was he just benched for poor performance? I thought Swenson did pretty well! I would absolutely start him against Wisconsin over Howden, either way, and see how it goes. Did not see Dixon come in for Nubin, so I suspect he was out.
Williams had a catch in the flat and got to the 2 or so. He then made the crucial block to spring Seth for his TD.
 

Williams had a catch in the flat and got to the 2 or so. He then made the crucial block to spring Seth for his TD.
I know he had a bad missed pickup on a play-action that I believe was a sack. But it was his first action this year, and I don't think he played much last year, so I'll give him a pass.
 




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