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Minnesota Football: Leidner Knee Injury Leads Off The Monday Nugz

The news we all feared (but expected) leads off the links.

By GoAUpher
Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Hate to do it, but I'm going to open a Monday Nugz with bad news (via Joe C):

Gophers quarterback Mitch Leidner has a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee, leaving his status for this week's game at TCU uncertain, sources familiar with the injury confirmed Sunday.

Leidner got hit as he released a pass in the fourth quarter of Saturday's 35-24 victory over Middle Tennessee State. His MRI showed no damage to his anterior cruciate ligament, meaning this doesn't appear to be a season-ending injury.

But depending upon the severity, an MCL sprain could sideline him for multiple weeks.

Kill has said he might not have (or give) an update on Mitch until the depth chart is released on Thursday. At this point though, I think it's probably safe to assume the Gophers will be going to TCU led by Chris Streveler. What does that mean for the depth chart?

If Leidner can’t play at TCU, the Gophers would turn to Chris Streveler, a redshirt freshman who has thrown one college pass. Kill said Jacques Perra, a walk-on from Roseville, has climbed to No. 3 on the depth chart.

"We’re trying to redshirt [Perra]," Kill said. "If it was today, that’s what we’d do because we’re trying to redshirt Dimonic [Roden-McKinzy], and Jacques had a great camp, and throws the ball very well and does a good job."

Stayed tune I guess.

Your Must Read Of The Day

Amelia has a powerful profile of DeAndre Mathieu. I've pulled a section out to quote, but you really need to take a minute and read the whole thing:

The locals who watched out for him as he grew up are now simply watching. Young hoop hopefuls dot the park with a peculiar amount of Gophers gear. Mathieu’s aunts, sweating beside the park’s charcoal grills, have toted along more than 100 hot dogs and hamburgers to feed everyone. The whole neighborhood is here for the party.

Mathieu routinely gets text reminders at school of the role model he’s become to the kids of the town. Here, it’s reality. He brought home 20 Gophers T-shirts this time around, and emptied the box on his first day back.

"I don’t know how to explain it," Mathieu said earlier. "It’s like, ‘You’re overexaggerating.’ But when you come back and they’re really just sitting there, watching you play pickup basketball, it’s really a humbling feeling. No joke."

Best Of The Rest

The STrib welcomed the start of the school year with a series of shorter profiles that surrounded Amelia's longer piece on Dre. Those profiled included Maxx Williams, freshman volleyball player Alyssa Goehner, men's golfer Jose Mendez, and women's hockey star Rachel Ramsey.

David Cobb was named one of the 4 finalists for the Capital One Cup Impact Performance of Week 2.

Cramping was an issue against MTSU and Coach Kill was not happy about it.

Nate Sandell's notebook from Saturday includes Claeys mad about the 2nd half drop in defensive intensity, a note about the Gophers thankfully short but still present slow start on offense, his thoughts on Leidner, and more.

BTN's Power Poll has the Gopher's in 4th. ESPN's blog has them in 8th.

And finally, Lindy's has an interesting predicted finish for the B1G:

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