Today marks the halfway point of the month of October (sounds like we'll be back to normal October weather next week. Finally time to put the shorts and flip flops away) and tomorrow's game will move us past the halfway point of the Gopher football season with game number seven.
Sure, this Marcus Fuller story in the PP talks all about QB Adam Weber and his three awesome receiving targets. While this should give Gopher fans hope that the coaching staff recognizes we need to pass the ball more to win, the first sentence of the story makes me believe nothing's going to change:
Running the ball comes first for the University of Minnesota football team. The Gophers have made that clear through the first six games.
Yep, despite evidence that 1) the Gophers are throwing the ball pretty well this year and 2) the players realize this, there's still not much hope we'll see OC Jeff Horton open up the passing game. So it'll be fun to watch run after run after run dive into the line for minimal gain, and the occasional pass to either an open receiver or one who makes a spectacular catch. You know what they say- if it's broke, don't fix it. Wait, what?
***UPDATE****
This morning Fuller also has an in-depth midseason report, while the Strib's Phil Miller gives five keys to turning the season around. Unfortunately none of the five involve replacing the coaching staff immediately.
In his E!SPN.com Big Ten Blog Adam Rittenberg has a story about Purdue QB Rob Henry's successful debut last week against Northwestern. Rittenberg also picks against Minnesota in his weekly conference picks post.
The Strib's Myron P. Medcalf has a Gopher hoops recruiting update.
The MNDaily and the Strib have previews of the Gopher hockey WCHA opener against newcomers UNO. The Mavericks have plenty of former Gophers on their staff, including the next Gophers head coach Dean Blais.
With conference play beginning this weekend in college hockey, the College Hockey News has a comprehensive two part preview of the WCHA. They also have a great story on senior captain Jay Barriball titled Barriball of Fire. Beauty eh!
SB Nation's own Western College Hockey Blog lists a breakout player for each WCHA school, and picks Jr F Nico Sachetti as the Gopher player most likely to play above expectations:
Nico Sacchetti, Jr, F, Minnesota-22 career points through his first two seasons is well below his initial expectations. He picked up an assist last week and could start to turn things around now that he's an upperclassmen.
Nico Sacchetti? Think he's got some Italian heritage, by chance? If I were the Gophers play-by-play guy, I'd yell "Belisimo!" everytime Sacchetti scored. It's one of many reasons the Gophers won't return my phone calls about the job.
Former Gopher star wrestler Cole Konrad has a big fight coming up.
Finally, if you haven't seen this by now, shame on you. What the hell were you doing yesterday? Working? Instead of watching Brett Favre get hit in the wedding tackle on Youtube? Shame on you.