Michigan Football: Getting to know the Minnesota Gophers

Michigan football will host Minnesota Saturday in the battle for the Little Brown Jug, here is a look at the Golden Gophers.

As far as Michigan football is concerned, the Minnesota Golden Gophers aren’t one of its top rivals. Heck, the two teams aren’t even in the same division anymore. But sill, when they do play, you can bet, both teams desperately want to get their hands on the Little Brown Jug.

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Of course, the Wolverines currently have the trophy. Michigan football used a goal-line stand to beat the Gophers 29-26 for the trophy back in 2015. Prior to that, Minnesota won it with a 30-14 win in its last trip to Michigan Stadium in the final season under Brady Hoke.

That 16-point loss was definitely a low point of the Hoke era, it also ended a six-game winning streak in the series for the Wolverines. Now, Michigan will look for a little payback and with some comments made earlier this season by Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck, you can bet UM will be motivated.

Fleck quipped following the Wolverines loss to Michigan State, that no one should be surprised. Well, don’t expect Jim Harbaugh to forget that. In fact, he will probably use that as extra motivation, not that the Wolverines should need it.

At 6-2, Michigan needs to win out to make a New Year’s Six Bowl and that starts with the Gophers, who are 4-4 overall, but 1-4 in the Big Ten West. While Fleck and the Gophers look decent on paper, they haven’t beaten anyone of consequence.

In non-conference play, Minnesota beat Buffalo, Oregon State and Middle Tennessee State, before going 1-4, with losses against Purdue, Maryland, Iowa and Michigan State. The lone win came against Illinois two weeks ago. Three of the four losses, however, did come by seven points or less, including a 30-27 loss to the Spartans.

Like Michigan, the Gophers have had trouble scoring and rank ninth in the Big Ten with 25.1 points per game. Minnesota has only eclipsed 30 points once. The most it has in conference play is 27. The production in terms of yards isn’t better, as the Gophers rank 11th with 338.

One problem all year has been the quarterback play. In August, Fleck named Conor Rhoda and Demry Croft both starters, but the past two weeks it’s been Croft, even though he has been terrible.

Against iowa, Croft was 9-of-29 for 139 yards and an interception. In the Gophers’ win over Illinois, he was 5-of-15 for 47 yards and tossed two interceptions. For the season, Croft has four touchdowns and four interceptions. Rhoad has five touchdowns and four interceptions, so if healthy, both may see time.

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While the Gophers have the second-worst pass offense in the Big Ten (156.4 YPG), their ground game is solid and ranks 4th (182 YPG). Rodney Smith is the primary ball carrier for Minnesota, toting the rock 153 times this season. Those carries have yielded 627 yards and two touchdowns (4.1 AVG). Yet, Minnesota also has Shannon Brooks and (365, 4.5, 5 TD) and Kobe McCray, who has 290 yards and get five yards a carry.

The Minnesota pass offense isn’t great, but it does have one really good receiver. Tyler Johnson has 31 receptions for for 591 yards and seven touchdowns. He is currently fourth in the Big Ten with 73.9 yards per game.

The Gophers offense may be sluggish, but the defense is solid. They allow 18.8 PPG and just 316 yards per game, which both are sixth in the conference. They are also seventh against the run (132 YPG) and fourth against the pass (184 YPG), so Brandon Peters will be tested.

Minnesota also comes in with a total of eight interceptions, three by defensive back Jacob Huff, who also has 39 tackles and two tackles for loss. The pass rush has also been solid with 12 sacks, 4.5 coming from Carter Coughlin, 6-4, 225-pound linebacker, who also has 8.5 TFL. Thomas Barber is another name to know, he is the leading tackler with 75. He also has 8 TFL, an interception, two fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles.

Besides playing for the Jug, both teams have plenty on the line. Michigan football is trying to stay in contention for a marquee bowl berth, while the Gophers are trying to get bowl eligible. After the Wolverines, Minnesota hosts Nebraska, then plays at Northwestern, before getting Wisconsin in the season finale.

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That means six wins are going to be hard to come by. So you can bet, the Gophers will give the Wolverines all they want and more Saturday at the Big House.