Minnesota Gophers- Minnesota Opens Season at the Orange

Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster has his team exactly where he wants them. He has more returning starters than any other team in the Big Ten (18). He has an outstanding quarterback in Adam Weber, playmaking wide receiver in Eric Decker, and a handful of other offensive weapons. He has the team moving into the brand new 288.5 million dollar TCF Bank Stadium. He even has his 2009 premiere televised live on ESPN 2. The stage is set for the Gophers to sit on top of the Big Ten with the likes of Ohio State and Penn State. So what’s the problem? Fresh on everyone’s mind is the five game losing skid to close out the 2008 season and the nasty 2009 schedule.

One game at a time is going to be the theme in Minneapolis this season and, in sticking with that theme, first up is the Orange of Syracuse and All American defensive tackle Arthur Jones. Making this game even more interesting is the return of Orange starting quarterback Greg Paulus to football. Paulus was the consensus number one high school quarterback in the country in 2004, but chose to play basketball for Coach K at Duke instead. Syracuse is coming off a 3-8 season and new head coach Doug Marrone is entering the fold. Marrone is Syracuse alumni, lettering three seasons as an offensive lineman.

Saturday’s game will mark the third time in the history of these two programs that they will play each other, with the home team winning each time. After tomorrow’s game, the two teams will not play each other again until Syracuse comes to TCF Stadium for the season opener in 2012.

Minnesota Offense vs Syracuse Defense- Syracuse returns six starters on defense and one just happens to be Arthur Jones. Jones is expected to hear his name called in the first round of the NFL Draft in April and is an incredible force along the defensive front. He will give the solid, experienced offensive line of Minnesota fits all day long. Unfortunately for Syracuse, he cannot play the other ten positions on defense. If Minnesota devotes the appropriate blocking scheme to take Jones out of the game, Adam Weber should have a very strong day against the Syracuse secondary. I expect big things out of Eric Decker, Troy Stoudermire, Hayo Carpenter, Duane Bennett, and Deleon Eskridge.

Minnesota Defense vs Syracuse Offense-

Minnesota returns eight starters on the defensive side of the ball and that is important when playing an inexperienced quarterback like Paulus. Paulus may be very talented, but after missing four years of football, it will be extremely difficult to adjust to the speed of a team like Minnesota. The Gophers defense ranked eleventh in the nation last season in turnovers. Paulus does however, have two targets that Minnesota must pay special attention to on Saturday, that being freshman wide receiver Alec Lemon and Mike Williams. Williams caught 60 passes in 2007 before missing all of the 2008 season.

Prediction - Minnesota 34 Syracuse 13

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