MarQueis Gray will play against Huskers

Gray is going to have to carry a heavy load. The Gophers are down to two healthy tailbacks.

Gophers are down to two healthy tailbacks


After starting the season with five tailbacks, University of Minnesota football coach Jerry Kill is down to two going into Saturday's homecoming game against Nebraska at TCF Bank Stadium.

Kill said Tuesday that freshmen David Cobb and Devon Wright were both questionable to play for the Gophers (1-5, 0-2 Big Ten) against the No. 13 Huskers (5-1, 1-1). That leaves senior Duane Bennett and redshirt freshman Donnell Kirkwood as Kill's only active running backs.

"It's an unfortunate situation we're going through, but we have two players who can handle the situation," Bennett said. "We're doing everything we can to make sure we're taking care of our bodies."
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Gray has completed 48% of his passes this year, with four TDs and five INTs. We gotta get after this guy. Put our speed package in at LB and blitz the crap out of him. Run blitz every down the first quarter, and make him try to air it out.

 
Our D will sputter against this big, mobile QB. Sure, we'll win by a few scores, but that will be because of our offense (MN D doesn't have what it takes to slow us down).

Unless we miraculously figure out how to break down ball handlers and make tackles, we're just going to continue to have trouble with any dual threat QB we face. Any time a defense faces a mobile QB, the game breaks down to the one defender assigned to take down the QB. Unless that defender is David, it ain't gonna happen for us. Fisher has proven over and over and over again that he's incapable of tackling guys his size or bigger - they just run right through him like he's nothing. Compton is a bit better tackler, but he's prone to get his ankles broken by a QB's shiftiness (that goes for any of our Dlinemen too).

I'm not worried that we'll lose to MN b/c we won't. But, our D will spend a lot more time on the field than we'd like to see. I don't care who you are, you don't come out of a bye week able to do things you didn't do before the break. We've all seen what kind of D this is, and I for one don't see any reason to think we'll be any better (yes, even with the Pelinis at the helm).

 
ESPY said:
Our D will sputter against this big, mobile QB. Sure, we'll win by a few scores, but that will be because of our offense (MN D doesn't have what it takes to slow us down).

Unless we miraculously figure out how to break down ball handlers and make tackles, we're just going to continue to have trouble with any dual threat QB we face. Any time a defense faces a mobile QB, the game breaks down to the one defender assigned to take down the QB. Unless that defender is David, it ain't gonna happen for us. Fisher has proven over and over and over again that he's incapable of tackling guys his size or bigger - they just run right through him like he's nothing. Compton is a bit better tackler, but he's prone to get his ankles broken by a QB's shiftiness (that goes for any of our Dlinemen too).

I'm not worried that we'll lose to MN b/c we won't. But, our D will spend a lot more time on the field than we'd like to see. I don't care who you are, you don't come out of a bye week able to do things you didn't do before the break. We've all seen what kind of D this is, and I for one don't see any reason to think we'll be any better (yes, even with the Pelinis at the helm).
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:yeah

I do think that the offense will keep improving.

GBR!!!

 
The Maudfather said:
I wonder who would win if Minnesota played Kansas.
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KU would beat them pretty handily. The Jayhawks at least have a serviceable offense. Minnesota is not good at anything.

 
It seems many on the board are pretty confident about blowing out Minnesota. I think we should blow them out, but I also thought the team should have blown out SDSU, Iowa St, and Kansas last year and that never really happened. Nebraska seems to underachieve against crappy teams, so I am not sure what to think about this weekend. I am hoping after the bye week the team comes out and plays hard for four quarters, but based on previous results, I just don't see it happening.

 
I think what we're seeing is the fact that there are Mobile Quarterbacks and there are mobile quarterbacks. MarQueis Gray is a mobile quarterback.

Dennard Robinson, Braxton Miller, Keith Price and Persa (when he's not gimped up) are Mobile Quarterbacks.

 
I have to say Marquis Gray seems like the worst QB we have gone against all year, and that includes the QB of what was it, Wyoming?

I am not sure this was about the defense suddenly doing a turnaround, although for sure they are coming together. But some of those guys we faced earlier in the year really were talented and also had that "it" factor. Didn't really see either from Gray.

 
zoogies said:
I have to say Marquis Gray seems like the worst QB we have gone against all year, and that includes the QB of what was it, Wyoming?

I am not sure this was about the defense suddenly doing a turnaround, although for sure they are coming together. But some of those guys we faced earlier in the year really were talented and also had that "it" factor. Didn't really see either from Gray.
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I think you'll slowly realize that Minnesota is the worst team you'll play all year.

 
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