Yesterday, I spoke to some Gophers Football players about their 23-10 win over the University of Buffalo last week. We also discussed their upcoming opponent, Northwestern State.

Conversations with the Gophers Players

New Leaf News (NLN): Seven tackles for losses. Your linebackers behind you made a bunch of tackles. How’d you feel your team’s effort in stopping the run?

Defensive Tackle Jalen Logan-Redding (JLR): “The front seven at the end of the day, we emphasize stopping the run here at the Gophers University of Defense. That’s what we are. That’s what I found. We gotta be better. There are certain techniques that we weren’t great at. Didn’t miss many tackles, but at the same time, no takeaways. So, we did all right, but all right’s not good enough. We wanna be elite. In order for us to get to the CFP, we gotta be elite.

But yeah, just linebackers are doing well. We got a very talented linebacker core—more than I’ve ever seen before. Of course, we had guys like Mariano (Gophers’ linebackers coach Mariano Sori-Marin); you had guys who are now in the league. It’s just great being able to see them do that and see what they can potentially be.”

NLN: Like I always say, when the linebackers make the tackles, the guys in front must be doing something.

JLR: “Yeah, like on that one play. Dev Williams, it was not a sack, but he had a real good hurry where Carmo and I were right there, and I was like, man, I wanted that. But no, I’m glad he got the hit on him before I got there, ’cause I know how much he wanted it. It’s exciting; we’re really competitive. It lets you know that you got something.”

NLN: What did you learn about your teammates, or what was reaffirmed to you about your teammates? It’s always different when you first go into battle together.

Quarterback Drake Lindsey: “Yeah, no doubt! I think it’s a lot different once you’re not wearing a gold jersey. We were wearing all gold, but when you’re live, I learned a lot about my teammates. I think our O-line is really good. I really liked what I saw out of all of them, and Greg Johnson (Gophers left guard) is doing a great job leading that room. It’s changed tremendously from a mindset standpoint. Really blessed to have that guy leading that room.

All the wideouts, tight ends. You think it’s going to be different when you step into the huddle, when you’re getting snaps, but it’s all really the same. You put so many hours into being successful. When you get in that moment, everything’s the same: the huddle, the break, getting to the line of scrimmage.

You watch so much film over the week, and Coach Harbaugh (Gophers offensive coordinator) does such a good job giving me little cues. And he’s talking to me before the play clock hits 15, because once 15 hits, it’s all me. He does a really good job talking to me and communicating with me. I was really pleased with my teammates and our poise, but I think we’ve got to be a lot better, and everybody knows that.”

Conversations with Gophers Coaches

NLN: Greg, it’s kind of a fine line, though, right? Because sometimes, you have to throw to the spot like Le’Meke’s (Gophers wide receiver Le’Meke Brockington’s) first catch. Drake just threw it where Le’Meke was going to be, so it’s always kind of a fine line.

Offensive Coordinator Greg Harbaugh (GH): “It is, I think, when you have these quarterbacks that are high-end processors, and they can move through things quickly, those kinds of things are going to happen.”

NLN: Looking at the film from Northwestern State, it looks like they’re strong defensively in the middle; there are a couple of active linebackers and ball-hawking safeties. Tell me what you’ve seen.

GH: “There run multiple defenses, three-three stack. They can do a lot of different things. Coach Connor does a great job down there with those guys, getting them to play hard. They can get in and out of fronts, four down to three down. A pressure team on third down, especially down as you get across the 50 and things like that.

They got a big win last week. Our guys are super focused. I’ve really enjoyed the way our guys have responded since our win against Buffalo, coming in on Tuesday. Yesterday’s practice was elite. Today was even better. And I love the focus.

And that just starts with our leaders up front. Greg, Drake, goes all the way to Darius Taylor (Gophers running back). Those guys and how focused they are. But I do know the challenge that we have this weekend, and we have to execute. It’s a little bit of a different defense than we normally face in the Big Ten, so we’re excited about the challenge.”

NLN: My favorite stat of the game was that they were 1 for 11 on third downs. That’s pretty nice defense.

Defensive Coordinator Danny Collins: “Yep, and it goes back to that one. We focus on the one. Again, that’s the mentality of this defense. Those guys were upset the next day because we gave up one. We got to get better in terms of that, correcting that. Again, even the ones that we stopped, there may be things in that play that weren’t so great, and maybe it wasn’t a fact that we executed. We got to clean those things up as well, too.”

Looking Ahead

The Minnesota Gophers Football team play the Northwestern State Demons this Saturday at Huntington Bank Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 am CDT.