When the Gophers face Georgia Southern's triple-option offens on Saturday, stopping the run will be imperative.
The Gophers had a little test of that a week ago, stopping Fresno State quarterback Jorge Reyna's dual-threat capabilities. He totaled -19 yards, while his team as a whole managed only 57 rushing yards.
"We did a great job swarming to the football," Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said. "We condensed the pocket. We didn't give him a lot of lanes to be able to escape through. ... We kept contain, then the inside shrunk it, and he had no place to run. I thought our guys did a really good job of tackling, put him in some positions where he made some bad throws,"
Defensive coordinator Joe Rossi said he saw Reyna's tape from the game before against USC, when he broke out a few explosive plays down the field.
"He didn't really scramble. He didn't hurt us in the run game, really. We were able to sack him four times," Rossi said. "We wanted to keep him in the pocket. We wanted to pressure him. And we wanted to not give up vertical balls down the field. That was the thing that had kind of gotten USC, and we kind of came out of it and felt like we were able to do that. We were we were OK with passes being completed as long as they weren't vertical down the field."
From warm-ups, the not-dressed are running back Jason Williamson (knee), quarterback Zack Annexstad (foot), defensive back Caden Fey, defensive lineman Rashad Cheney Jr., and kicker Michael Tarbutt. Check out my story on defensive end Tai'yon Devers, a sidebar on quarterback Tanner Morgan and this little game preview.
