Golden Nugz 07.08.13 - Zac Epping till Gopher Football 2013

4th of July has come and gone, summer is half over and football season is just around the corner. Just 52 days until Gopher Football kicks off the season on a balmy Thursday evening! Epping was certainly our most versatile offensive lineman in 2012 and arguably our best. Above you can see him paving the way for Gray against Western Michigan.

It has been a long while since there has been a Nugz (or a real story for that matter) so many of these links are accumulated from the last week. Maybe you have seen them, maybe you haven't and some have nothing to do with Gopher football.

There are three significant links below and then a whole bunch of others you can pick and choose from. I highly recommend reading the first three!

• I'll lead with this B1G story out of Maryland. Our very own SBN blog, Testudo Times actually broke the story of running back Wes Brown being arrested. What began as a FanPost, turned to some investigating by the guys at Testudo Times and resulted in them breaking the story that was then picked up by virtually everyone. They all linked back to TT of course, with the exception of ESPN because they break everything even when they don't.
• Myron Medcalf got some time with Richard Pitino and has a lengthy article on the coach, the job and recruiting. Video interview is also available.
• Jon Christensen took a trip to Bombay Beach, California to see the roots of Gopher safety, Cedric Thompson. In case you were unaware, Thompson is part of a documentary, Bombay Beach which is available on Netflix instant streaming.

• Get to know Eric Klein, Gopher Football's strength and conditioning coach.
• Some of the top performers at the NBPA Top 100 Camp, several are Gopher recruits.
• Trevor Mbakwe and Rodney Williams began their journey of professional basketball in the NBA Summer League on Sunday. Both are playing for Philadelphia and both started. Stats and box score can be found here, ESPN 1500 with a little recap that can be found here.
• There is no summer rest for Amelia Rayno who talks with Mbakwe about not getting drafted and what is next.
• Reid Travis and Tyus Jones impressed in their debuts in the Howard Pulley summer league.
• The Orlando Sentinel is currently ranking all of college football and the Gophers come in at #58.
• The Gazette (and Eastern Iowa newspaper) takes a look at Iowa's 2013 opponents and this one is covering the Gophers. This is fairly comprehensive and a pretty good look at the Gophers.
• Big Ten betting odds and historical performance.
• A Sea of Blue (Kentucky SBN blog) has a nerdy, statsy professor give a Temp-Free primer. This is good stuff.
• Do celebrity girlfriends have an impact on athlete performance? This is a fun little article that includes former Gophers Kris Humphries (hint: he should start dating Kim again!) and Eric Decker (in envy that guy).
• I'll end with this. A very (VERY) rare bird was finally spotted in the UK. The first spotting of this bird since 1991. Biologists and bird watchers "flocked" to see this unique find. They were eventually horrified to witness this rare beauty fly into a wind turbine and die. I just gave you the whole article, but you can get more detail if you'd like.

A YouTube highlight reel of the Gopher offense's 2012 highlights.

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