Penn State blog Zombie Nation gives some quick hits regarding the Nittany Lions including injury reports and personnel updates.

Chicago Sports then and Now has the Gophers ranked number 6 in the Big Ten power rankings:

The Purdue Boilermakers started out fine in their game at Minnesota. They led 10-0 at the end of the first quarter. Minnesota was not firing on all cylinders. But miscues and turnovers cost the Boilers, eventually allowing the Gophers to go ahead 14-10 as the first half concluded. The third quarter proved to be a disaster as myriad miscues cost the Purdue team 3 touchdowns. The score ended up at 35-20 in favor of Minnesota who rebounded and found their game in the late going.

Another Penn State blog, The Lions Den, previews this weekend's matchup:

Joe (Paterno) addressed the issue of the Minnesota Offense:

Q. From your point of view, is it harder to defend a passing game that primarily features one guy, like Minnesota does with Eric Decker, or a passing game that really spreads the ball around?

Well, you've always got to be aware of the superior wideouts such as Decker. Decker is a great football player. There's a great chemistry with him and the quarterback (Adam Weber). And the quarterback has so much confidence in him, he'll make throws to him that you ordinarily wouldn't make. You've got to know where he is all the time. If you don't, he'll catch seven, eight, 10 passes for a lot of yards and a couple scores. That's one thing.

But, it's hard. When you say one receiver as opposed to three good receivers, offensive line, kind of pass protection, handle certain blitzes, quarterback, can he read certain things when he's working with three receivers, it's just not that simple to answer that question. I think each one of them, depending on the cast of characters, gives you problems. Decker gives you a problem. He's not the only guy. You know, that No. 11 (Troy Stoudemire) is a good football player and return guy....No. 5 (MarQueis Gray), they've got a couple other guys that can go catch the football. Fall asleep, (they will) throw the ball to the tight end. In the clutch, it's a one-man show maybe, but it's not a one-man show the entire game. You can go overboard trying to cover Decker. They can hurt you other ways. So it's a combination. When you're dealing against a team that's as well-coached offensively and defensively as Minnesota is, then you've got to be available to handle a lot of different things, and one of them obviously, top of the list, would be, don't let Decker beat you.

Every Day Should be Saturday takes a look at the Big Ten year to date:

Eric Decker and 21 other people performing various functions superfluous to Eric Decker's awesomeness=Minny football 2009. Do we want to devote more words here? No? Moving on.

The Star Tribune interviews Joel Maturi regarding the Gopher basketball program:

Maturi said he's made no decision on whether incoming junior-college transfer Trevor Mbakwe, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound power forward, will be allowed to play in games for the Gophers basketball team this season.