ever recover from the devastating penalties they self assessed!?!

If this was Minnesota or Minnesota coaches what would we "self assessed"?

University of Minnesota center John Michael Schmitz was named one of 12 semifinalists for the Rotary Lombardi Award today.

Schmitz, who is the starting center for the Gophers, anchors an offensive line that is one of the best in college football. He has not allowed a sack this year and the Gophers have given up only seven sacks in eight games, which is tied for sixth in the country in fewest sacks allowed.

In addition to providing elite pass protection, Schmitz helps pave the way for one of the nation's most dominant running games. Minnesota ranks 12th in the country and second in the Big Ten with an average of 222.8 yards per game.

Schmitz was recently named First Team Midseason All-America Team by the AP, CBS, ESPN and PFF and he is PFF's top-graded Power 5 offensive lineman

To be considered for the award, a student-athlete must meet the following qualifications:
• Be a down Lineman, end to end, either on offense or defense, setting up no further than ten (10) yards to the left or right of the ball at the time of the snap.
• Be a Linebacker on defense, setting up no further than five (5) yards deep from the line of scrimmage.
• Must not come out of the offensive backfield and set up on the line of scrimmage as a Blocker or a Receiver or listed in the program as an Offensive Back or Receiver.
• Be eligible to participate in the current season.

Joining Schmitz as a semifinalist are: Will Anderson Jr., Alabama; Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Kansas State; Brock Bowers, Georgia; Jack Campbell, Iowa; Jalen Carter, Georgia; Paris Johnson Jr., Ohio State; Olu Oluwatimi, Michigan; Peter Skoronski, Northwestern; O'Cyrus Torrence, Florida; Tuli Tuipulotu, USC and Darnell Wright, Tennessee.

Further balloting will take place from November 4-14 and then the four finalists will be announced on November 17. Those four individuals will be invited to attend the gala award presentation in Houston on December 7 when the winner of the 49th Rotary Lombardi Award will be announced live.

Hear from Tanner Morgan, Daniel Jackson, Jordan Howden, and Mariano Sori-Marin ahead of the Gophers matchup with Nebraska

Video of head coach Mickey Jospeh, Garrett Nelson, Alante Brown, Chancellor Brewington, Ernest Hausmann, and Colton Feist

Defense was unreal!

Some takeaways from Minnesota's 31-0 win over Rutgers

Minnesota's defense with a much-improved effort against Rutgers, however, the offense still has a few issues to improve on, particularly in receiving and pass protection.

Summarizing what Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck said during Monday's press conference as the Gophers prepare for Nebraska...

- Did what they had to do to win the football game. Knew they would have to be run-heavy heading into the Rutgers game
- Had 92 yards after contact against Rutgers
- Said Ibrahim was the right player for them, despite being classified as "undersized" by most
- Our TE is our leading receiver (Spann-Ford), been asking him to do a lot this season and he's delivered, especially in the run game

- Nothing surprising in play of Tyler Nubin. Impressed with how he studies, learns from each game, and executes every week. Has a very loose personality. Has incredible confidence and fits very well in our scheme.

- On Nebraska: Looked at Nebraska last night. Really explosive wide receivers. Not sure if Casey Thompson is going to play, but have talent behind him. All three QB's can do similar things. Have had a ton of explosive plays, particularly in the last two weeks. There was a DC change there, so we have some data there with that.

- On passing performance against Rutgers: Said they've had some interceptions when they passed the ball vertically in the previous two games. We're evaluating that and going to try and be better at that moving forward.
- Had four drops against Rutgers. Those are one of the things they have to improve on and trust moving forward. Need to execute that better.
- Had 10 total possessions, had two calls that crushed us on a couple of drives.

- On 2023 schedule: Just focusing on right now and doesn't know what the future of the Big Ten will look like.
- Just focused on going 1-0 this week. Not worried about getting to six wins on the season, focused on the week.

- On interior defensive line pressure: Thought they shrunk the pocket better against Rutgers. Created some forced throws earlier, created some good pressure. Have to get a lot better and create a lot more. But got better from the previous week to Rutgers.

- Thought they finished well on their blocks, controlled the ball, controlled the clock, and controlled the game. Thought our offensive line led the way in that. Needs to get better in pass pro, but can go down every position and pinpoint things they can get better at.

- Mentions some young guys that are impressing in their Sunday night football practice - Kristin Hoskins, Jacob Shuster, Tony Nelson, Maverick Baranowski.
- Really likes where their young players are at, but doesn't mean they are ready to play Big Ten football yet.

- On Halloween: Said he dressed as Jim McMahon for about five straight years. Dressed as Walter Payton for one year. Big Snickers guy, has one before every game.

Summarizing what Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck said after Saturday's 31-0 win over Rutgers...

- Teams attitude has never went down, had their challenges, understand how important a healthy Mohamed Ibrahim is
- Mentions how important Ibrahim's touchdown record his
- Says he wouldn't be where he is without Greg Schiano, gives Rutgers a ton of respect. Very influential man in his life. Can see the talent on that team going up.

- Was 7-of-9 on third downs in the first half. That was a big difference
- Only had four drives in the first half
- Would have been more aggressive at the end of the first half if punt didn't roll an additional 30-yards

- They got off the field on third down against Rutgers, that was the difference defensively
- Wasn't sure who was going to play for Rutgers coming into the game
- Said Joe Rossi and his staff did a great job of adjusting during the game

- Thought Morgan played well today
- Had too many drops today, but is part of the QB's responsibilities
- He had a great week of practice
- Thinks Athan is going to be a great quarterback for them, encouraged Tanner all throughout the week
- Dr's did a great job with him. He did enough to win.

- Wanted to get Cody Lindenberg more involved today and thought he did well
- He can play WILL, MIKE, and SAM
- Moved Braelyn Oliver around, so the versatility of others made that an easy call on Lindenberg

- Said Mo is really good at pass pro, compares him to Doug Martin at Tampa Bay

- Felt the pass rush more than usual today
- Said they overran the quarterback at times
- Responded well

- Said Tyler Nubin is getting better and better
- He's going to walk in a room and bring a ton of personality and confidence
- Dealt with some personal things with his family this week and responded well
- He's the leader of the backend of the defense
- He's the closest thing they've had since Antoine Winfield

Post your pregame, in-game, and postgame observations here for today's Rutgers game.

Three takeaways from our Rutgers site, The Knight Report

In men's basketball in college for Division 1 programs, you can have 13 scholarship players on the team. In 2023-2024, this is the list of scholarship players on the team.

Jamison Battle
Dawson Garcia
Parker Fox
Treyton Thompson
Pharrell Payne
Joshua Ola Joseph
Isaiah Ihnen
Braedon Carrington
Kadyn Betts
Jaden Henley
Cam Christie
Talon Cooper(dont think he is a senior this year)

That leaves one available scholarship..... We still are recruiting Taison Chatman, Nolan Winter, and Dennis Evans.. Which one would you take???

We can play the "what if" scenario. What if Dawson Garcia or Jamison Battle decide they are good enough to go pro after the upcoming year?? What if Parker Fox decides he has had enough of injuries and retires from the game?? There is always that possibility that someone transfers out. But as it stands, we have 12 of 13 scholarships occupied for 2023-2024 and we are recruiting 3 high level players for that scholarship.

Winter seems the most likely to commit but Chatman is probably the one we need the most. Evans would be wonderful but again, we can get these 3 only if 2 other players leave the program and we use the remaining available scholarship... Assuming all want to come to Minnesota.

More on the Scarlet Knights from @Dylan Callaghan-Croley

Hey guys! Rich Schnyderite here, publisher of The Knight Report aka the Rutgers-Rivals site. Just wanted to drop by and post our video / transcript from Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano's press conference today.

There is only a couple of Minnesota questions / answers in there, so ENJOY!

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A look at the HS/JUCO recruiting rankings of each projected starter for Minnesota and Rutgers

Another big-time performance from RB commit Darius Taylor

An update on 2024 dual-threat sport star Daniel Frietag. A Minnesota mention in the article

@Dylan Callaghan-Croley has more on the odds heading into this weekend's matchup with Rutgers

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Minnesota assistant Jason Kemp was at Walker's practice earlier this month

Post your pregame, in-game, and postgame reactions here