Since the Minnesota Golden Gophers have avoided last year's propensity to get defeated by everyone, Saturday's game against Ohio State should be a showcase for how the Gophers will play against a ranked opponent. Here to discuss this week's match-up in a Q&A format is the Daily Gopher, SBN's official vessel of University of Minnesota athletic knowledge.

Note from The Rivalry and the Daily Gopher: If you are interested in following the OSU-UM game on your laptop, feel free to log onto  http://www.thedailygopher.com/ and join other SBN fans for live blogging during Saturday's game, beginning at 12:00 pm EST.

Let's start with a word association game. I'll give you the name of a person or a concept and you tell me the first thing that pops into your head. First word/concept: 2007 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team. - Perfect storm of everything going wrong (turnovers, adjusting to new schemes, defensive liabilities, coaching inexperience, etc.)

North Dakota State. Embarrassing loss.  This game was not as close as the score indicated, we were dominated.

Tim Brewster. Eternal optimist, excellent recruiter.

Eric Decker. Vastly underrated, incredibly talented.

Adam Weber. Greatly improved.  He had a good freshman year, and has vastly improved in his sophomore season

Alright let's get down to football strategy. Minnesota is undefeated and tied for first in the Big 10. How? 

It has been well chronicled that they are winning the turnover battle (+11) and that has helped a lot.  But equally important is that they are turning those turnovers in to touchdowns.  The defense has generated 13 turnovers in our four games.  On those 13 possessions the Gophers have scored nine touchdowns and one field goal.  Twice they were only stopped by the clock as the turnover came near the end of a half or game.  The swagger of the defense is being coupled with the killer instinct on offense.

Who makes the Gopher offense go: Weber, Decker, or some unseen force?

Weber and Decker are the drivers, with out a doubt.  Offensive Coordinator, Mike Dunbar may be that unseen force as his creative play calling has put Weber and Decker in position to succeed.  Teams have been game planning to cover Decker but Dunbar has moved him around using him out of the slot, in motion, out wide, in the backfield and out of those formations he is getting the ball all over the field.  And this is all possible because Weber has matured, is able to make decisions and handle a more complex playbook.

Continue reading this post »