The mood is much more upbeat around The Daily Gopher following Minnesota's 54-21 victory over Nebraska on Saturday. It’s been a rough season so far, and watching Minnesota deliver a beatdown — and perhaps sink the nail into the coffin of Huskers head coach Mike Riley — was a cathartic experience for a number of Gopher fans, myself included. Before we start convincing ourselves that the Gophers can beat Northwestern or Wisconsin and clinch a bowl bid, let’s relish this much-needed victory.
What is your Tweet-length (now 280 characters or less) summary of the Gophers’ 54-21 beatdown of Nebraska?
GopherNation: Total domination. Can we all just get along now?
gopherguy05: Hey, that was fun. Can we do it again this week, please?
WhiteSpeedReceiver: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
IowaGopher: Minnesota rowed the boat. Nebraska is up a creek with no oars.
dvits14: Trust the process and WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
GoAUpher: Celebratory haiku time!
All of the running
GASP there is corn everywhere
Records for Demry
To borrow a Fleck-ism, who is your pick for “Nekton of the Week” from the game?
GopherNation: Demry Croft. The emerging Gopher quarterback finally completed over 50 percent of his passes and made much better decisions on the zone read. Just imagine if Tyler Jonson and Brandon Lingen don’t drop passes that were on the money? I’ll be surprised if he isn’t the B1G Offensive Player of the Week.
gopherguy05: If you say anyone other than Demry you are thinking too hard. Croft was a Dude with a capital D on Saturday.
WhiteSpeedReceiver: Bob Diaco. That guy put together a perfect game plan for the Gophers, and he really had his guys motivated and ready to go.
IowaGopher: First name Demry, last name Croft.
dvits14: Has to be Demry Croft. He’s going to have a hard time ever playing a better game than he did in this one.
GoAUpher: Demry, but everyone else said it, so Bob Diaco for never getting his guys to adjust to the quarterback runs.
The Gophers likely sealed the fate of Nebraska head coach Mike Riley. Eulogize his three-year tenure in one sentence.
GopherNation: He’s a great cultural fit for Nebraska. Such a nice guy. If he can get Oregon State to mediocrity, imagine what he’ll do with the resources of Nebraska. (Editor’s Note: This is not one sentence, but he is a founding father, so just go with it.)
gopherguy05: Never hire an athletic director who has previously worked at Wisconsin to hire your football coach.
WhiteSpeedReceiver: Mike Riley was a terrible hire, and Nebraska fans will probably miss him after the next hire.
IowaGopher: No words needed. Just one GIF.
dvits14: Was Bo really that bad?
GoAUpher: Heck of a guy.
For once, the Gopher offense delivered plays worthy of a highlight reel. What was the highlight of the game for you?
GopherNation: The first Croft run for 75 yards. The fake to the running back was so good, he faked out the Husker defense and half of TCF Bank Stadium.
gopherguy05: What GN said above. I had no idea he had the ball until he was 15 yards in front of everyone.
WhiteSpeedReceiver: Croft’s touchdown run. Make the right choice on the option, give the defender the okey-doke, and glide into the end zone. That was fun.
IowaGopher: Kobe McCrary’s eleven-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, in which he spun out of not one but two tackles to find the end zone. Keep hitting that circle button, Kobe.
dvits14: Duke McGhee’s fourth down stop in the first quarter. It completely changed the game. Up to that point it looked like both teams were going to exchange scores all game long, but Duke’s big stop essentially ended the game for Nebraska right there.
GoAUpher: Rodney Smith’s kickoff return for a touchdown, because when you literally start the game off like that and then follow it up with a boat race, that first place has to get some love.
At what point did you actually relax and realize the Gophers weren’t going to blow this?
GopherNation: When the Gopher defense forced a three-and-out to open the third quarter. It also helped ease my fears when we realized that it was going to be Nebraska’s back-up quarterback for the rest of the game.
gopherguy05: The first touchdown of the second half.
WhiteSpeedReceiver: When we got the field goal right before the half. Nebraska scored with 2:50 to go, and the Nubbers behind me were talking about how they were going to get the ball at the half, score another touchdown, and make it a game. Since they left us too much time, we marched down and got three (that would have been seven were it not for an outstanding play by Nebraska defensive back Lamar Jackson to punch the ball away from Tyler Johnson).
IowaGopher: I believe I said in our TDG Slack that my head would explode if the Gophers were to go up 27-7 in the second quarter. So when McCrary scored to give the Gophers’ that exact lead, I can confirm my head did explode. I may never recover.
dvits14: I felt it was game, set, match when they kicked the field goal right before half.
GoAUpher: Halftime pretty much.