Golden Gophers win home opener

The Minnesota Golden Gophers won their home opener defeating the #9 Mississippi State Bulldogs 24-7 to improve to 3-0. The Gophers received the opening kickoff and would drive down the field and open the scoring on a 27 yard FG by Hawthorne. On the ensuing kickoff the Gophers caught a lucky break and forced a fumble that Keanon Cooper would scoop and return 31 yards for the score to put the Gophers up 10-0 before the Bulldogs could run a offensive play. The rest of the half was a defensive battle and the teams went into the half with the same 10-0 score. Mississippi State would receive to open the 2nd half and would drive down the field capped off with a 4 yard TD run by V. Ballard to bring the Bulldogs within 3. The Gophers would respond quickly as Duane Bennett would bust a long run 65 yards untouched up the middle for the score to regain a 10 pt lead. The teams would trade possessions and the score would remain 17-7 late into the 4th when the Bulldogs drove down the field and looked to make it a 1 score game when FS Kim Royston would jump a pass at the 2 yard line and take it 98 yards for the TD with 52 seconds left to seal the win.

The Gophers continued with their recipe of winning by running for 253 yards on the ground and being plus 3 in the turnover battle, they came into the game leading the nation in rush yards/gm and turnover differential. Duane Bennett was the player of the game carrying 10 times for 158 yards and 1 score. QB Marques Gray did a solid job running the offense completing 4 of 6 passes for 56 yards and carrying the ball 18 times for 73 yards. Next up the Golden Gophers travel to the Big House to open conference play up against the 2-1 Michigan Wolverines.

This was a tough loss for my Bulldogs. Felt like things were clicking for me last week and I just had everything go wrong for me today. The turnover on the kickoff and the fumble after I crosses midfield definitely changed the game for me. Your D played great and really got me out of my rhythm early on and I could never get back into a groove. I felt like I was doing some things well at the end then I threw the pick that clinched it. I used to run some flexbone in NCAA 2010 but I felt like last year they really made it difficult to run well (especially against users) so I haven't even given it a glance this year but after watching you run it to perfection I may have to at least look into it some. You jumped out on me early and ran the O perfect and kept the ball away from me and converted some huge third downs and played well on defense and didn't turn the ball over which always equals success. Great game man you earned the win, hopefully we can have a rematch down the road and I will fair better. Congrats on the win and good luck the rest of the season.

To all users that play turner, this is a warning, you better get practicing against the flexbone or he is going to wear you out!!

Congrats on the win turner. Sounds like you got the new offense rolling. Minnesota is gonna be a force!

That option offense kicked the shit out of me to. Minn will be taking the big 10 by storm the next few years because noone knows how to defend the option anymore.

ty king ceps, ty davidiswright, hopefully we meet again down the road, it was a very close game take away that fumble and that late int and its 10-7. Ive been using flexbone off and on in NCAA for a while now, forget what year I first used it but this year is the best imo for its run plays in terms of the blocking and making reads on giving or keeping with the QB. The option passing is useless though, its almost always a sack or your able to bring up the passing icons but often get hit as you throw, also the defense almost always seems to know if its a run or a pass on a option, IE speed option or speed option pass, triple option or to pass etc... so if you do get time to throw you dont fool the defense a player will attack against a run or play coverage against a pass.

possible UCLA vs Minnesota Rose Bowl???

BIG 10!!! Good win man can't wait to square off with u week 14, i believe. Perhaps we play back to back in the last game then the conf champ!

TheWhiteKnightGT wrote:BIG 10!!! Good win man can't wait to square off with u week 14, i believe. Perhaps we play back to back in the last game then the conf champ!

That be awesome! It would be awfully tough for one of you to win two weeks in a row though.