Penn State, Minnesota look to change course in White Out matchup

To coach P.J. Fleck, there’s no great mystery behind the sudden change of fortune that Minnesota has suffered in recent weeks, going from one of the Big Ten’s fastest-starting teams to just another part of the West Division peloton.

The visiting Gophers had throttled Michigan State 34-7 on Sept. 24 and appeared in the Associated Press poll the next day at No. 21 after entering the season unranked. But on Homecoming in Minneapolis a week later, they stumbled to a 20-10 loss against Purdue. Then they fell 26-14 at Illinois last Saturday. 

The Gophers’ slide might seem inexplicable considering that they outscored their first four opponents by a combined margin of 183-24. Fleck, however, has a straightforward explanation. In his view, the Big Ten is simply an evenly matched league, and Minnesota’s romp in East Lansing notwithstanding, the difference between winning and losing is much more narrow than is widely assumed. 

“The perception and expectations from the outside are very different from internal aspirations,” Fleck said Monday at his weekly presser. “We played a ranked Michigan State team in one of the polls and beat them, and then we came back and played two more ranked teams. People don’t know how good you are until you go through the season. We think we’re pretty good, they think they’re pretty good. Something has to give. 

“We didn’t execute, and they did in some moments, and they won the football games. But they’re narrow games. Anybody can win those, and those are two teams that are ranked. Now we come back and play another ranked team.” 

Indeed they do, albeit a ranked team that is coming off one of its most humbling defeats in recent memory. When the Gophers venture into Beaver Stadium for a White Out showdown against No. 16 Penn State on Saturday night, they’ll be looking to recover from what Fleck has described as “self-inflicted” wounds the past two weeks. 

‘We’ve had opportunities’

In both of its losses, Minnesota dropped some key passes. In the loss to Purdue, Fleck also saw plenty of holes that went un-hit, helping to account for the team’s 47-yard rushing performance, 181 yards below its season average.  

“With all due respect to the people we’ve played, we’ve had opportunities that we didn’t come up with,” he said. “You can think of four or five [dropped passes] off the top of your head from the past two games that have made the chances of us winning go down. We’ve got to be able to overcome those things.”

Injuries have played a part in Minnesota’s struggles. The Gophers lost one of their best players for the season when receiver Chris Autman-Bell suffered a lower leg injury in Week 3 against Colorado. Also, running back Mohamed Ibrahim has been banged up, even though he’s second in the Big Ten in rushing at 138.8 yards per game. Ibrahim suffered a left ankle injury against Michigan State and missed the Purdue game a week later. In his absence, Bryce Williams and Trey Potts managed only 48 yards on 20 carries. 

Minnesota may have to deal with a key absence on Saturday. In the fourth quarter of last week’s game in Champaign, super senior quarterback Tanner Morgan suffered a concussion while running for a first down. Morgan had to be carted to the locker room and examined at a nearby hospital. Although he was healthy enough to fly back to Minneapolis with the team, his availability for this week’s game was uncertain when Fleck met with reporters earlier this week. 

Gophers will aim to run

Even if Morgan is able to play, Penn State is bracing for a heavy dose of Ibrahim, especially after giving up 418 rushing yards to Michigan last Saturday.

“I think we all know this is a copycat business, right? People are going to watch the film and take some ideas,” coach James Franklin said. “Minnesota wants to run the ball. They want to constrict the life out of the game in terms of time and possession, all those types of things.

“So yeah, we’re going to have to be ready to defend the run and the play-action passes that come off it for them. They’ve got a really, really productive back [who does] a great job within their system. That will be a challenge, no doubt about it. We are going to need to be ready.”

As for Fleck, he’s hoping to see his team regain the form it displayed in its rout of the Spartans.

“We played really well at Michigan State,” he said. “We executed. That is what we’re capable of doing. But when we don’t execute … “We’re not superheroes,” he continued. “We’re human like everybody else. And when you play really good teams that execute, you get beat. That’s football. We’re learning lessons as we keep going through the season. We just need to apply that.”