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Quick Lane Bowl 2015: Halftime Thoughts; Minnesota Football leads Central Michigan 10-7

A half of missed opportunities.

Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Almost.

While Minnesota has the lead, this was a half of "almost" moments. Minnesota should probably have had a touchdown on their first drive but stalled in the red zone and settled for a field goal. The Gophers almost had a LONG touchdown pass on a gorgeous Mitch Leidner throw (his best of the season IMO), but Drew Wolitarsky dropped it. Minnesota almost got off the field on multiple 3rd downs, but then they'd miss a tackle or take a bad angle.

Despite all that, the Gophers are ahead 10-7 at the half. Here are my favorite bright spots from the first 30 minutes:

1) Mitch Leidner: The interception was a poor choice to throw into traffic. Outside of that, I'm VERY happy with Mitch's performance thus far. He is 12/16 for 110 yards and a TD, and 3 of those incompletions were drops of completely catchable balls. Do that math.

2) KJ Maye: Dude came to play in his final game as a Gopher! 4 big catches, included the lone touchdown. His catches have been tough ones too.

3) The frosh running backs: Rodney Smith has 10 carries for 59 yards (5.9 ypc). Shannon Brooks has 4 carries for 34 yards (8.5 ypc). That'll do.

4) Murray, BBC, and the rest of the defensive secondary: Cooper Rush is 5/14 for 55 yards. The Minnesota secondary is locking everything down today.

5) Peter Mortell's wedge game

I still look for the Gophers to break this open in the 2nd half.