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 84th in the country. USC ranked 109th 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.