Gopher Sports: Holiday Weekend Nugz

We enter the last holiday weekend of summer getting ramped up for fall sports. After a big football win last night, both the Gopher soccer and volleyball teams have big matches this weekend. So settle in and see what you missed before heading to the cabin, or going to rock out with Taylor Swift at US Bank Stadium this weekend.

Gopher Football:

In case you just woke up from a 24 hour coma, you know the Minnesota Golden Gophers defeated New Mexico State 48-10 in the season opener Thursday night. We had and have full coverage including a full game recap, the elite, bad and ugly, and a redshirt watch.

Here are the highlights from Gophersports:

The Star Tribune had full coverage as well with Randy Johnson leading the way.

The Minnesota Daily gives you the student perspective on last night.

The Athletic ($$) with a nice article on Antoine Winfield Jr.’s Punt return for a TD.

In case you want to see how the NMSU media is talking about the game, here is the story from the Las Cruces Sun News.

Here is a MN native and Gopher grad doing her best to deal with working at a Madison news station.

At least one Gopher fan has probably gotten a bit overzealous after last night’s win.

In other Gopher news, in case you want to be brought down after the game, Micheal Rand of the Star Tribune talks about a Wall Street Journal article about how actual scanned ticket attendance is much less than the announced attendance at college football games, including at TCF.

The Star Tribune also had an editorial in Thursday’s paper telling fans to suck it up and show up to Gophers games. Needless to say, the usual suspects in the Twin Cities media are not having it, but you can find those reactions yourself.

Saturday 9/1 is the NFL Roster Cut Day. We will have a full report on how the Gophers in NFL camps fared next week, but here is our most recent update from this week.

High school football started in earnest for Minnesota teams last night as well. Gopher WR recruit Peter Udoibok for Cretin-Derham Hall caught five passes for 101 yards and two touchdowns in the Raiders OT win over Totino Grace.

Eden Prairie Quarterback Cole Kramer ran for a three yard touchdown but did not throw one in the Eagles 14-9 squeaker of a win over Eastview.

As part of the Star Tribune’s high school preview sections both Kramer and Owatonna’s Jason Williamson got nice profile pieces. Williamson’s team opens up its 2018 schedule Friday night against Fairbault.

Minnesota Soccer

The Gopher soccer team dropped a 1-0 game to DePaul Thursday night at home. Jackie Batliner headed in a ball on a quick throw in for the only goal of the game. The Gophers outshot the Blue Demons 7-6, but could not find the back of the net. Minnesota now drops to 3-2 on the season and will have a hell of a test on Sunday. The #1 ranked team in the nation and defending NCAA Champion Stanford Cardinal will come to Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium for a match at noon on Sunday. It will air live on BTN if you can’t make it to St. Paul.

Minnesota Volleyball

The Gophers host their annual Diet Coke Classic at the Pav this weekend. Minnesota will play North Dakota State Friday night at 7, Georgia Southern Saturday morning at 10, and Arkansas Saturday night at 7.

The Gophers are 2-0 so far this season after sweeping Florida State and North Carolina in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge last weekend at the Target Center.

Minnesota Basketball

Really nice article by Brian Hamilton of the Athletic on Eric Curry’s recovery from his knee injury exactly one year ago today. Curry tore his ACL, MCL and miniscus in the pick-up game injury. His road to recovery was long, but he should be fully cleared to practice and have full contact in September.

Additionally, Amir Coffey was fully cleared from his shoulder surgery this week according to Marcus Fuller of the Star Tribune.

Off Topic

In a fun off-topic article, here is a great article all about the Upper Midwest supper club. If you are a Minnesota or Wisconsin native, you surely have been to one of these blasts from the past at one point in your life. This is a great read from Natalie Rinn of Taste Magazine.