Author: David Shama

How do the Gophers defeat a USC team that is a three touchdown favorite tomorrow at the Los Angeles Coliseum?  Just ask Gophers quarterback MarQueis Gray and coach Jerry Kill.

“We can’t have turnovers against a team like USC,” Gray said.  “…The less mistakes we make — the more they make — and good things happen for us.”

Kill expects the game against No. 25 ranked USC to be decided by a dozen or so significant plays.  “I don’t know how many plays on Saturday, but there will be 12 or 13 of them that will determine the game,” he said.  “That’s why you can’t take a play off.

“…We try and make it (coaching) complicated but it really isn’t.  It’s just getting people to play hard all the time.  They (the Gophers) can’t take plays off.  I don’t know if we’re there or not, I really don’t.  But we’ll get a chance to find out before long.”

Kill’s team will need to play with the discipline that Gray referred to above.  “Missed assignments and misalignments will beat you long before mismatches,” the coach said.

Kill is continually trying to improve the team, a group that finished 3-9 last season.  In an example of his thoroughness, he will have the sideline behavior of his players monitored on Saturday.  He said he might be the only coach in the country that will “video” the sideline.

“I want to see how people handle themselves,” Kill explained.  “I want to see who’s throwing that helmet down, I want to see who’s losing their cool.  I evaluate the coaches (too) because everybody is accountable on game day.”

Whether Kill is evaluating a win or loss on Saturday night, could depend, too, on how much the Trojans’ defense is improved from a year ago.  Seven starters return from a 2010 defense that allowed 400 yards per game and ranked 84^th in the country.  USC ranked 109^th nationally in pass defense, giving up 259.5 yards a game.

The Trojans were particularly vulnerable in the fourth quarter of games, yielding 118 points.  USC, 8-5 a year ago, lost three times in the final minutes, including back-to-back losses on field goals in the closing seconds.

Kill has to be hoping for Trojans miscues in the fourth quarter or anytime before then, too.

Kill announced his depth chart this week and perhaps most surprising was that junior college transfer Malcolm Moulton will be one of the starting receivers instead of freshman Marcus Jones, or another JC player, Ge’Shun Harris.  Moulton was a summer time addition to the roster.

Much publicized Tommy Olson, maybe the Gophers best freshman, is listed at second team left guard behind senior Chris Bunders.  Olson’s brother, Ed, is the starting left tackle.

Linebackers Brendan Beal and Aaron Hill, and offensive lineman Josh Campion will miss the USC game with injuries.

Former Gophers coach Tim Brewster will be the Fox sideline reporter on September 17 when USC plays Syracuse in Los Angeles.

The Trojans are 5-1-1 against the Gophers dating back to the series start in 1953.  The one Minnesota victory came during a 1955 Minneapolis snowstorm.  The Gophers tied the Trojans 20-20 in 1965 and have lost two other games in Los Angeles.

Only five Minnesota natives have played for the Trojans and none is on the current roster.  The five are Dominque Byrd (Minneapolis), Dan Deckas (Edina), Thomas Bert Sherman (St. Paul), Glenn Souers (Moorhead) and Nick Vanderboom (Medina).

Former Gophers linebacker Sam Maresh is now a sophomore at Iowa Western Community College.

Talk of a Vikings stadium referendum prompted recollection that in Brown County, where Green Bay is the county seat, voters approved financing for Lambeau Field by only a 53 to 47 percent margin.  Among stadium proponents throughout the country referendums are usually considered “the kiss of death” for public approval.

Vikings coach Leslie Frazier talking last night after being asked whether Christian Ponder or Joe Webb is the No. 2 quarterback now that the preseason is over: “We’re going to sit down tomorrow and that’ll be one of the things that we talk about as well, exactly what the rotation will be and who is two, who is three as we get ready for San Diego.”

The Big Ten basketball schedule will be announced this week or next.  The Gophers one time opponents next year will be Ohio State and Purdue at home, Michigan and Penn State on the road.

Concordia’s volleyball team received eight of 12 first place votes in the MIAC coaches poll and is the preseason favorite to win the conference title.  St. Thomas (three) and St. Olaf (one) also received first place votes.

Can Jerry Kill walk on water?

The first test comes near the Pacific Ocean on Saturday when his lowly regarded Gophers play nationally ranked Southern California.  The Trojans are among the legendary programs in college football history but are perhaps vulnerable to an upset because they are on NCAA probation, banned from post-season play and operating with a reduced number of scholarships.

The common view is the Gophers, 3-9 last year and expected to be among the Big Ten’s worst teams, will lose the game by three touchdowns or more.  But ESPN.com’s Pat Forde is an admirer of Kill and he predicts the Gophers will upset Southern California.

Another ESPN college football authority, Ivan Maisel, was on 1500 ESPN Sunday talking about the Gophers and Kill.  Maisel doesn’t expect much of a season in 2011 but is optimistic about the years to come under Kill who starts his first season as Gophers coach on Saturday after turning around other college programs.

Kill has many admirers locally and nationally.  He’s reportedly often mentioned by other coaches as a superior head coach, and if there’s been a negative word spoken about him by Minnesota fans and media since his arrival last December, we missed it.

The Gophers-USC game looks like a personnel mismatch on paper.  The Gophers have so many ifs in talent and depth that it quickly leads to that conclusion.  The Gophers, for example, start a new quarterback, MarQueis Gray.  The Trojans have returning regular Matt Barkley, a junior, and a player Kill sees playing in the NFL some day.

“First round draft pick,” Kill said.  “He’s got nice receivers to get it to.  He gets the ball out quick.  Smart, well coached.  They do a good job with him.”

The Gophers have a roster with lots of inexperienced players, including in the all important offensive line where six redshirt freshmen and true freshmen, and two sophomores dominate the depth chart.  “I think two or three years down the road (they) should be a special group,” Kill said.

Right now, though, it’s not 2013 or 2014.  Saturday reality is USC, ranked No. 25 in the country by Associated Press, and not Kill’s first choice for an opening assignment.  He would prefer a non-BCS opponent and a cozy game at TCF Bank Stadium.

Some day the Kill fandom expect him to walk on water, maybe the Mississippi.  None would mind if he starts with an ocean on Saturday.