Golden Nugs 7.22.14- Practice, Uniforms, and Punting Goldy!!

Gopher Football is running the nugs today...

Practice? We're talking about Practice man?

Yes, we are talking about practice.  The Gophers announced their Fall practice schedule today.  The highlights include three practices and a scrimmage open to the public.  Practice's #3, 4, and 5 on August 3rd, 4th, and 5th will be open to the public.  All three are scheduled to take place at the Gibson-Nagurski complex.  The Gophers also will open a scrimmage on August 9th at 4:40 PM at TCF Bank Stadium to the public as well.  The rest of the practices will be closed as they get ready to take on Eastern Illinois on August 28th at TCF.

Uniformity?

BTN.com asked several of its writers along with some national football writers such as Fox Sport's Stewart Mandel to rank the 14 Big Ten teams via their uniforms.  The voting criteria from the article was described as such:

Voters ranked the Big Ten uniforms, from 1-14, considering each team’s full ensemble (home, away, alternates, throwbacks, primary helmet and alternate helmets), with a first-place vote receiving one point, a second-place vote two points, and so on.

Apparently, noone has any love for the Gophers.  They finished 9th overall in the poll.  Their highest vote was 2nd place, but one writer voted them 12th overall.  The winners?  The class ci sets you would expect with Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State taking the top three spots.  The complete rankings are:

1 Ohio State

2 Michigan

3 Penn State

4. Michigan State

5 Nebraska

6 Northwestern

7 Iowa

8 Wisconsin

9 Minnesota

10 Maryland

11 Illinois

12 Purdue

13 Rutgers

14 Indiana.

Sorry Hoosiers, the voters have decided chrome cream and crimson is not a good look...

Sacks and Such

Three of BTN.com's best?? Ok maybe not best, but three of the members debated who they thought they 2014 Big Ten sacks leader would be.  Two votes went to Joey Bosa of Ohio State, and the third went to the 2013 leader, Randy Gregory of Nebraska.  No love for Theirien Cockran apparently...

However, NFLDraftradio.com is showing some love to the Gopher Junior.  Cockran was named their NFL Draft propspect of the week this week.  In fact, they are showing him a LOT of love with this draft prediction:

With at least one season standing in between Theiren and the NFL draft there’s a lot of weeks, games and plays to see before we need to make an official prediction and there’s still a very good chance he’ll come back for his senior year. So a lot can happen in a year (or two), but regardless of all that I can’t see his name being called any later than the 3rd round, with a good chance of him coming off the board much, much earlier.

Well allrighty then.

TCU Troubles??

The Gophers will play at TCU in their hardest non-conference game of the season on September 13th.  However, the status of one of the Horned Frog's best players may be in question.  TCU star defensive end Devonte Fields is under investigation by Fort Worth police for allegedly pointing a gun at his ex-girlfriend and threatening, "I should blast you!" and then punching her last Sunday according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He has been listed as a suspect according to the Forth Worth police, but has not yet been arrested.  Fields was selected as the Preseason Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, and is on both the Bronco Nagurski and Walter Camp Award watch lists.  Fields was involved in another disturbance back in January when he reported being robbed and beaten to Forth Worth Police, but then told officers he did not want them to look inside his residence or press charges in the case.  This will be worth watching to see what else develops, as his status could definitely be up in the air for the Gophers game.

Throwback Thursday with Punting Goldy!!!

The Gophers announced yesterday that their opener against Eastern Illinois on Thursday August 28th and that it would be "Throwback Thursday- Light'Em Up Gold!" night.    All fans are encouraged to wear gold to the game and to encourage it, Goldy's locker room will be selling a special throwback Goldy football t-shirt leading up to the game.  The U releases three potential designs for the shirt, one of a throwback Goldy going back to pass, one of a throwback Goldy running and throwing a stiff arm, and the third with a throwback Goldy punting the ball.  Unless you have been living under a rock lately, you know should know by now which one The Daily Gopher is endorsing as the only possible choice.  PUNTING GOLDY B1G! B1G! B1G!!!!

To vote for your choice of shirt, you can either vote on Gophersports.com on the link above, or vote on twitter using the hashtags #ThrowbackGold1 for throwing Goldy, #ThrowbackGold2 for running Goldy, and MOST IMPORTANTLY #ThrowbackGold3 for the correct choice, punting Goldy. You also should out the official game hashtag #ThrowbackGold in the tweet as well.

You have unlimited votes.  Seriously people, lets stuff this thing and make sure that the one and only correct choice wins.  PUNTING GOLDY 4 LYFE!!!!