Indiana forward Christian Watford is out indefinitely after breaking his left hand.

The school says Watford was injured during Sunday's 84-83 overtime loss at Michigan State and had surgery Tuesday. Watford is Indiana's top scorer at 17 points per game.

It's the second significant injury to an Indiana sophomore in less than three weeks. Guard Maurice Creek had surgery to repair a stress fracture in his right kneecap on Jan. 20 and is expected to miss the rest of the season.

Watford and Creek were projected to be the cornerstones of Indiana's rebuilding project when they arrived last season. Creek was the Hoosiers' top scorer last season, while Watford was No. 3.

It's the second significant injury to an Indiana sophomore in less than three weeks. Guard Maurice Creek had surgery to repair a stress fracture in his right kneecap on Jan. 20 and is expected to miss the rest of the season.

Watford and Creek were projected to be the cornerstones of Indiana's rebuilding project when they arrived last season. Creek was the Hoosiers' top scorer last season, while Watford was No. 3.

Details are below but I think we need to have a TDG team representing.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. January 26, 2011 - The University of Minnesota announced today the inaugural Goldy's Run at TCF Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus will take place on April 9, 2011. The event is sponsored by the St. Jude Medical Foundation.

Goldy's Run will include a 10 mile run, a 5K and a kid's 1K run. Fans will have an opportunity to interact with Gopher athletes, coaches and of course, Goldy. The various race courses will take the participants through campus and the surrounding streets with all events finishing inside TCF Bank Stadium.

"We are excited to bring this event to the boosters and fans of the University of Minnesota while benefitting the University of Minnesota Athletics and Amplatz Children's Hospital", said Joel Maturi, Athletic Director of the University of Minnesota. "TCF Bank Stadium is the perfect location for our fans to gather together and with the finish line being inside the Stadium, participants will get an opportunity to be on the field as they finish."

Those interested in registering for the event can do so at www.goldysrun.com. The introductory cost is $10 for the kids run, $25 for the 5K and $45 for the 10 mile. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Amplatz Children's Hospital. Participants will receive a Goldy's Run t-shirt, a finisher's medal, snacks and refreshments.

Goldy's Run is produced by Podium Sports Marketing, a premium running event company in the Twin Cities. The event is also designated as an official training partner of Grandma's Marathon.

For more information, please visit www.goldysrun.com.

Goldy's Run Schedule

Friday, April 8th

• 10 am to 7 pm: Packet pick-up and Registration at *TCF Bank Stadium (parking lot options)

*Exact location and additional details TBD

 

Saturday, April 9th

• 6:30 am to 8:00 am: Packet pick-up and Registration at TCF Bank Stadium (parking lot options)
• 8:20 am: 5k Run & Walk Start
• 9:30 am: Goldy's Gallop Kid's Run Start
• 10:00 am: Awards Ceremony at TCF Bank Stadium

Who is in?  It's for a good cause and maybe we can get some TDG T-shirts or something.

The following link is to a Dr. Saturday article that takes an in-depth look at the long term success of recruiting classes.  A can't miss read for fans of college football:

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Star-Power-Judging-the-recruiting-rankings-gam?urn=ncaaf-312875

This year’s event will take place in the DQ Club Room at TCF Bank Stadium. Pre-registration is $10 for Goal Line Club members and $20 for non-members. The price includes food and a cash bar will be available as well. The ticket price will go up to $25 after Jan. 31.

The event begins at 5 p.m. with check-in, a silent auction, stadium tours and other events. Coach Kill will begin his portion of the program at 6:30 p.m. with highlights of the newest Golden Gophers and his thoughts on them.

Parking will be available for $3.75 in the Maroon Lot next to the stadium. To enter TCF Bank Stadium and access the DQ Club Room, use the Premium Seating Entrance near the Benton County sign on the south side of the building.

For more information, or to join the Goal Line club, please visit www.GoalLineClub.com.

Hello B1GTEN Fans:

     In case you did not hear the news, the B1GTEN is going to keep "Leaders" and "Legends" as the B1GTEN divisional names for at least 2011.  This is Commish Delany's effort to let the names "breathe."

      I thought it might be useful to poll the B1GTEN blogasphere (sp?) and give a time-lapse "picture" of our opinions.  I am going to try and post this on all the SB Nation conference fansites. [Btw: SB Nation rules are that only two FanPosts can be published in an hour; try a third and you'll get a "throttle violation warning;" get three of those in 24 hours and you'll be banned.]

     I also posted the poll on EDSBS.

     Figured we might as well give the marketing "geniuses" at the B1GTEN some real information.  And it might be interesting to see if there are differences among the fanbases and, if so, what differences.  Not to bias your opinion, but I think the names are beyond dumb.

     I will leave the poll open for about a month.  And then maybe do the poll again after March Madness (after, presumably, a bunch of B1GTEN marketing).

     Then do the poll again maybe in August. And maybe again in November? 

     I realize this is a self-selecting poll which affects reliability.  However, it is also limited -- by location -- to blog-readers.  That is a valuable market segment with strong opinion leadership, high passion, motivation, readership/viewership, etc.  Whatever the information, it should be valuable.

     Let's tell the B1GTEN what we think.  Take the poll. 

     Despite my naming, please consider the increments from 1 to 7 to be equal increments.  So, if you prefer:

                    Hate  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Love
                    Hate  -----  Hate  -----  Hate  -----  Indifferent  -----  Love  ----- Love  -----  Love
                    Hate  -----  Hate  ----------------------------------------------------------- Love  -----  Love
                       1    --------  2   --------  3  ------------  4   -------------   5  --------  6   --------   7

     Enjoy.

According to a study reported by the Wall Street Journal, there's only about 11 minutes of actual playing time in a 60-minute NFL game. I think that's true of college football games, too. Eleven minutes of action, and 49 minutes of standing around. And since the players are split into offensive, defensive, and special teams, and there are substitutions throughout the game, even first team all-Americans may average just a few minutes of action a game. And most of the players, the linemen, don't even have to move more than a yard or two from their stance in a given play.

Of course, a lot can happen in those short bursts of activity in between the longer periods of standing around or warming the bench. And there's no denying that those few minutes of running, passing, blocking, tackling, etc. do require highly developed athletic skills, strength, and conditioning. But could you blame fans of soccer (which is called football everywhere but in the U.S.), basketball, or hockey for saying that American football is less demanding athletically than their sport?

After all, in those three sports all players on the field, court, or ice (except goalies) are moving every minute of the game, playing both offense and defense, running or skating back and forth, often at full speed. And every player handles the ball or puck many times in the course of a game, using their feet in soccer and their sticks in hockey. There are substitutions, of course, but the first team soccer, basketball, or hockey players certainly see many more minutes of action in a game than their American football counterparts, and they play many more games a season.

So what's with all the fuss about American football? Is it much ado about nothing, mostly standing around in colorful uniforms, and only exerting oneself for a few seconds at a time, lest one might break a sweat, while the superior athletes are going all out in soccer, basketball, or hockey for long periods every game, in more games per season?

Please vote in the poll and comment below. Is there another team sport you think I should have included in the poll? By all means check "Other" in the poll and feel free to tell me why I'm wrong to have omitted your sport.

NOTE: This was cross-posted on two other SB Nation blogs--Building The Dam (Oregon State University) and Bruins Nation (UCLA).

There is some serious controversy here and the review board will be going through the process of a recount with a non-Big Ten blogger winning the Big Ten Blogger's pick'em.   I'll give Jim Delaney a call to reconsider this Nebraska moving to the Big Ten business.

But congratulations to Big Red Network for nearly going perfect in the bowl season and making up some serious ground on The Buckeye Blog to overtake first place.  BRN was the only "Big Ten" blogger to pick TCU and his only misstep was picking Missouri over Iowa, but who could blame him for that?

Below are the 4-year total standings.  This isn't exactly fair considering only eight blogs have participated in all four seasons.  Maybe next year I'll start posting the life-to-date standings as a three-year rolling total.  Basically I'll figure something out so I remain at the top of the standings.

We'll see you again next year.  Maybe next year we'll split into two divisions.

Well, the SB Nation College Bowl Pick Em' game ended as of January 11th, about 12:30 A.M. EST. That last win by Auburn was enough to push hothot Louisville Cardinals to win the game. Congratulations. I for one know that it will look like I picked pretty badly, but in reality I picked pretty well, picking 23 of 35 games correctly. Unfortunately, Almost all of those were under 25 confidence points and 75% or more of my losses had a confidence of 25 or higher...

Anyway, here is the final Top 10:

1. hothot Louisville Cardinals
2. Reba's Son
3. Miller
4. mizzou123
5. jerjharris
6. St. Pete Jacket
7. Easy 1
8. Gamehenge Multibeasts
9. BroncoBuffaloBill
10. B5Q Adam T

The game that killed everyone:

Nebraska vs. Washington

Full Final Standings

For breaking rules of probation. There goes the season! Mbakwe has posted bond of $500 and was released. But will face court charges. Maturi is aware of this. If Maturi doesn't let him play, we can kiss this season goodbye. Why the heck do things like this always happen to the Gophers. Is it the type of kids we are recruiting or is it something else? This tream has been in turmoil for the last three years it seems. One thing after another.

(When it Comes to WR Recruits)

Ok, get your minds out of the gutter.  I started thinking about this subject more since we picked up Ge'Shun Harris since he is being compared to the failed experiments of Pittman and Carpenter quite a bit as they are all JUCO receivers.  I don't believe that is a fair comparison, so I did a little research on Gophers receivers since 2000.  I put together a list of the top receivers by year excluding TE's ( in order to make the list they had to have 35 or more receptions, not a super high number but productive) and the correlation is higher than I thought it would be even.

Year                                       Player                                            # of receptions                     Height

2000                                       Ron Johnson                                      59                                          6'3"

2001                                       Ron Johnson                                      56                                          

2002                                       Antoine Burns                                     44                                           6'1"

2003                                       Aaron Hosack                                     51                                           6'6"

2003                                       Jared Ellerson                                    44                                           6'1"

2004                                       Jared Ellserson                                  37          

2005                                       Ernie Wheelwright                              37                                           6'5"

2005                                       Logan Payne                                       37                                           6'2"

2006                                       Logan Payne                                       59

2007                                       Ernie Wheelwright                              66

2007                                       Eric Decker                                           67                                           6'3"

2008                                       Eric Decker                                           84

2009                                       Eric Decker                                           50

2010                                       MarQueis Gray                                     42                                           6'5"

2010                                       Da'Jon McKnight                                  48                                           6'3"

No receiver under 6'1" has caught 35 or more passes for the Gophers in the past 10 years.  Accuracy is a problem with college qb's (ahem...Weber) so having a bigger target who can go up and get the ball is more essential than having a burner and these numbers back that up pretty well. 

 Then, there is the other obvious advantage they have in blocking for the RB's.  The Broderick Smith transfer hurt us much more than Green being injured last year.  The other interesting note is that only Decker managed this many receptions for 3 years, which would lead me to believe it is a difficult position to  be productive as a freshmen or sophomore.