A first since Vanderbilt in 1959
Minnesota host an SEC team on Saturday in Minneapolis. The last time came in 1959, against Vanderbilt, in a 20-6 win. Sixty-seven years on, the visitor is Mississippi State, and the two programs have never met.
The game sits in a day packed with three SEC vs Big Ten showdowns. Oklahoma, ranked 11th nationally, opens at Michigan. Ohio State, No. 1, heads to Texas, No. 4, in the night slot. Mississippi State at Minnesota lands in the middle, the least glamorous of the three.
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762 yards and a quarterback who was not impressed
Mississippi State hammered UL Monroe 62-13 last Saturday. The offense piled up 762 yards, a school record. Kamario Taylor threw for 354 yards and four touchdowns, completing 22 of 34 passes.
The quarterback still was not buying any of it. “I am not very happy with my performance,” he said. “I missed two or three throws I shouldn’t miss. I made a few bad reads. I am just trying to stack the days, go back to the drawing board, learn from what I did and stay consistent.”
Jeff Lebby feels the same way about his player. The Bulldogs defense, meanwhile, allowed 278 yards, a number that does not tell you much against a team of that level.
Javon Tracy puts up 265 yards in one night
Minnesota racked up 495 yards in its 59-7 rout of Eastern Illinois last Thursday. The night belonged to Javon Tracy. The fifth-year player returned two punts for touchdowns and set a school record with 167 return yards. He had never returned a punt in a college game before.
He also added five catches for 98 yards, for 265 all-purpose yards in total. Drake Lindsey, who grew up in Arkansas around SEC football, passed for 264 yards and a touchdown.
P.J. Fleck prefers the mindset angle. “I told him I do not care who we play: the mental space you were in, that’s where you need to live,” the coach said. “We have 11 guaranteed games left, and they all count the same. They are all championship games.”
The night still came at a cost for the Golden Gophers. Freshman running back Ryan Estrada is out for the season with a knee injury suffered on debut, when he ran for 10 yards and caught two balls for 12 yards.
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