Can Mitch Leidner take Minnesota to the next level?
By Jordan Hansen
[email protected]
After back-to-back 8-5 seasons, Jerry Kill and the Minnesota Gophers are at something akin to a crossroads.
Star running back David Cobb is gone to the NFL, as has tight end Maxx Williams.
So what personnel do the Gophers return? A dual-threat quarterback in Mitch Leidner, for starters.
Leidner is coming off a season in which he threw for 1,798 yards and rushed for another 452. He totaled 21 touchdowns on the season (11 through the air, 10 on the ground), but his completion percentage of 51.5 percent was last in the Big Ten among quarterbacks who averaged a minimum 14 attempts per game.
While some of those stats can be contributed to the lack of a star wide receiver, Leidner believes the wideouts and skill-position players are improved.
“We have tremendous depth, and our skill guys have looked a lot better this year,” Leidner said. “Our receivers look good. They have a leader in KJ Maye, who did an outstanding job over the summer.”
Minnesota relied heavily on Cobb to carry the offense a year ago but with unproven back Rodrick Williams now seemingly slated in as the starter; Leidner will need to take a bigger role in the offense.
The Gophers brought in former quarterback Adam Weber to work with Leidner, who feels it has helped him tremendously.
“I’ll be going in to games this year with a much better plan than last year,” Leidner said. “Knowing what’s going to happen on the field, and at the same time, when things go astray I’ll be able to adjust to that.”
On the opposite side of the ball, the defensive secondary of the Gophers is perhaps the best in the West Division.
All four of Minnesota’s starting safeties and corners are seniors, and they are led by lockdown corners Briean Boddy-Calhoun and Eric Murray.
“I have some extremely high expectations; I plan on breaking the season and career records for interceptions — I need 7 to do that,” Boddy-Calhoun said. “Those are some personal goals for me … and also win the Jim Thorpe Award.”
Boddy-Calhoun tallied 5 picks a year ago, while Murray and safeties Antonio Johnson and Damarius Travis totaled five more.
This season, however, they’ll be tested and tested often. Minnesota faces No. 2 TCU in the first game of the season and will play No. 1 Ohio State the first weekend of November.
“I think it’s really made our off-season more productive, more intensity, because we’re starting off with a great football team,” Kill said. “But we look forward to the challenge.”
Minnesota also ends the season with a game against bitter rival Wisconsin, a team it has not defeated since 2003.
The Badgers kept the Gophers out of the Big Ten championship last season, something the Gophers say they have not forgotten.
“Wisconsin has been the one that’s kept us out of there. And I feel like we had a lot of success last year. We got three trophies,” Kill said. “But we haven’t had the Ax in a long time. I think that’s been the issue.”
Follow @JordyHansen for news, updates and analysis of Iowa and Big Ten football.