Minnesota Football vs. Western Illinois: Staff Predictions

Like the Minnesota Golden Gophers (1-0) themselves, everyone on staff here at The Daily Gopher is undefeated after completing a clean sweep in Week 1. We all hope we’ll be able to say the same thing at this time next week with the Western Illinois Leathernecks (0-1) of the FCS paying a visit to Huntington Bank Stadium this Saturday at 11 a.m.

The Predictions:

This Week’s Thoughts:

Blake: See my opponent preview.

GoAUpher: Western Illinois is bad. Bad bad bad. I should predict a shutout but that seems like a jinx, so I won’t.

gopherguy05: This seems like the game the Gophers might have a mental lapse or two in and allow a score on a short field. But it still will be ugly and not close.

GopherNation: This should be another easy win. Just want to see this team continue to get better.

HipsterGopher: 29-12 is the score from the only other meeting (in 2013) between these two storied programs. The actual score is probably even more lopsided but I have a bit to maintain.

mowe0018: Week 1 redux. Please no one get hurt.

Ustreet: I don’t think Western Illinois scores.

WhiteSpeedReceiver: Seven possessions in the NMSU game. Let’s say we get one more on a short field and get six TDs and a pair of field goals and a defensive score.

wildcat00: This team is bad, and the outcome should be the same as Week 1.

zipsofakron: Western Illinois is the only non-military school to have a nickname derived from a branch of the military. A former Marine-turned-football coach in the 20s wanted to model WIU athletics after the Marines, which is where “Leathernecks” comes from — a slang term for members of the USMC.

Post your score predictions in the comments!