Photo By Brian Curski
Written by Nicolas Hallett
Since its opening in 2009, TCF Bank Stadium has never been a place where Gopher fans entered and expected victory.
The Gophers football futility is much more historic than that, however. The Gophers haven’t won a Big Ten conference title since 1967, and even then they shared the honor with Indiana and Purdue.
And though the Gophers are the last team to win three straight national titles (a nice trivia answer to keep in your back pocket), the last one Minnesota hoisted was around the time John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960.
But things near Southeast University Avenue seem to be changing in what’s the fourth year under Kill, who began his tenure by going 9-16 in his first two seasons but has since improved to 14-6.
“I can’t speak for the past because I haven’t been here that long. I certainly hear about it. I get plenty of emails about it,” said head coach Jerry Kill.
That change continued Saturday with Minnesota’s 39-38 come-from-behind victory past conference foe Purdue. The Gophers improved to 6-1 on the season and, with Iowa losing to Maryland concurrently, took sole possession of first place in the Big Ten West Division.
“I told them all year, ‘If you listen to us, if you listen to me, good things will happen,’” Kill said after the game.
By many statistical measures this is one of the best starts in Gopher football history.
The last time Minnesota began a season 3-0 in conference play was in 1990 and prior to that it was 1967. The Gophers now have seven wins in their last nine Big Ten games, a successful run that hasn’t been seen since the 1973-74 seasons.
But it almost wasn’t. Just as the mood had steadily grown optimistic around the program, Saturday presented the Gophers with a challenge they’d yet to overcome with Kill on the sideline.
Under Kill, the Gophers had never come back from a halftime deficit (0-22) to win a game. They trailed Purdue by 11 points at the break.
The Gophers defense, seen as maybe its most reliable facet, was letting them down. Minnesota allowed Purdue 31 points in the first half despite its average allowance of 18.7 per game heading into Saturday.
The coaching staff made major adjustments and the defenders played inspired, allowing just seven points over the final two quarters.
The Gophers offense came into the third quarter firing as quarterback Mitch Leidner completed passes of 42 and 45 yards after passing for just 22 in the first half. Play-action schemes again were the key for the Minnesota passing game.
“That’s one thing me and the running backs really emphasize and the rest of the QBs, is to carry on fakes, because it’s just going to get each other open,” Leidner said. The sophomore's passing game still leaves a lot to be desired at times, but he also does seem to be steadily improving.
Meanwhile, David Cobb had another stellar performance in the backfield, rushing for 194 yards and one touchdown. The senior running back now has over 1,000 yards rushing seven games into the season after having 1,202 all of last year.
“It’s just a start, so it depends on how we finish. We take it one game at a time. This is what we love to do, we love to come out here and jog around and laugh, and the biggest thing is, when you win, everything is fun,” Cobb said. “We enjoy winning, but then again, it’s just a start.”
The Gophers have historically struggled to fill seats, but the homecoming game saw a record crowd of 51,241.
The football program is categorically relevant once again for the first time in a long time. The mainstay in the success is coach Kill.
“He gives us everything, everyday, depending on how he’s feeling you can never tell if he’s having a down day because he comes out with energy juice,” Cobb said of Kill. “He cares about us like he’s our own dad. We have to come out here every Saturday and give him every down we have.”
Kill, a polarizing national figure for his perseverance against his epilepsy, has found success at every stop in his coaching career. For him, this is the norm.
“I’m glad we are where we’re at and so forth,” Kill said. “(But) I don’t read too much into that because of the stretch that we’ve got to go down… It’s better than being 0-3 or 1-2. But we have a long way to go.”
The stretch Kill’s alluding to is the back-loaded schedule of the Gophers which includes matchups with No. 13-ranked Ohio State, No. 19-ranked Nebraska and Wisconsin to end the season.
“What I told our kids is… ‘If you want to be successful [then] you’re playing in a championship game every week, and that’s how you’ve got to approach it,” he said.
If Kill continues his success and revitalization of the Gopher football program, then it may not be too long before Minnesota is actually playing in some championship games.
It’s also likely that on Nov. 8, when Minnesota plays its next home game against Iowa, that Gopher fans will, for the first time in a long time, expect to win.