Over the course of the past decade, the University of Minnesota athletic program achieved a tremendous level of national success. In 1997, the Gopher men’s basketball team fell one win shy of the NCAA championship game. Last winter, the Minnesota men’s hockey team claimed the school’s fourth national title. And Minnesota’s wrestling team won its second consecutive college championship earlier this year.
The Gopher football team, however, spent 1991 through 1998 as the perennial punching bag of the Big Ten. In eight years, Minnesota won 12 out of 64 conference games. Until recently, Minnesota’s lack of success on the gridiron has been one of the biggest disappointments concerning university athletics in the Twin Cities.
In 1997, in search of a head coach with the ability to rebuild the Gopher football program, Minnesota hired former Kansas coach Glen Mason, who vowed to revitalize the Gopher program.
Although the Gophers struggled in Mason’s first two years in the Twin Cities, Mason put the Minnesota football program back on the map in 1999 by beating then-No. 1 Penn State. The team went 8-4 wound up with a trip to the Sun Bowl. Since, Mason and his Gophers have qualified for postseason play two of the past three years and, entering this week’s regular-season finale against Wisconsin, are bowl-eligible once again.
Saturday’s match-up at Camp Randall features the longest-running rivalry in college football, dating 112 years.
Minnesota leads the all-time series 58-45-8, but lost six meeting in a row before last year. The annual Midwest showdown not only features two rivals with bragging rights on the line but, as an added incentive, the game is especially significant because the winner is awarded possession of the historic Paul Bunyon Ax.
After opening the season 7-1 and earning the No. 19 national ranking, the Gophers struggled of late, dropping their last three conference games. Each of the three consecutive losses came to a team ranked in the Top 10.
One of Minnesota’s primary concerns has been its inability to stop the run.
The Gophers had trouble defending the run the past two weeks against Michigan and Iowa, allowing an average of 309.5 yards on the ground. Last week, Iowa’s Fred Russell ran wild in the Metrodome, racking up 196 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Starting Wisconsin tailback Anthony Davis, whose running style is similar to Russell’s, is coming off of one his best rushing performances of the season, running for 154 yards and a touchdown in last week’s loss at Michigan.
One of the key matchups will be Davis and the powerful Badger offensive line against Minnesota’s shaky defensive front. If Davis continues to run the way he did last week, it could be a long 60 minutes of football for the Gopher defense.
Minnesota’s offense, on the other hand, has been relatively consistent this season, averaging nearly 29 points per contest. Wisconsin defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove has reason to be concerned as he prepares his defensive unit for a balanced Minnesota attack.
Minnesota quarterback Asad Abdul-Khaliq torched the Badgers last year, completing 68 percent of his passes for 265 yards and three touchdowns. Abdul-Khaliq also rushed for 33 yards and a score en route a 42-31 Gopher victory at the Metrodome.
Perhaps the biggest concern for Cosgrove and his defense, however, is Terry Jackson II and the Minnesota rushing attack. Jackson, a sophomore and high school teammate of Michigan State’s Charles Rogers, has been one of the biggest surprises for Minnesota’s offense this year, rushing for 1,194 yards and four touchdowns.
Jackson is currently the Big Ten’s fourth leading rusher, averaging an impressive 109 yards per game.
Jackson entered the season as the Gopher’s No. 2 running option behind sophomore Marion Barber III, but after Barber suffered an injury in early September, Jackson assumed the starting role and hasn’t looked back since.
The stakes are high this weekend for Minnesota and the Badgers. Both teams are looking to end three game skids and enter postseason play with much-needed momentum.
Should Wisconsin win this Saturday, the Badgers would finish the regular season with a winning record and likely avoid last year’s misfortune, when a season-ending loss in Minneapolis cost Wisconsin a bowl. Minnesota has already earned an extra trip, but the Gophers have an opportunity to record eight regular season victories for just the second time since 1967.
Regardless of the postseason implications riding on this weekend’s game, the Wisconsin- Minnesota rivalry is one that Badger and Gopher fans take quite seriously. Given the reciprocity shared between both universities, there are a number of students who take a great deal of pride in claiming the Paul Bunyon Ax.
