Sitting At 7-2, Real Test Begins For Gophers

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Gophers made one of the worst teams in the Big Ten look better than they are, but they did manage a win over Purdue, despite trailing at half time, thanks to a much better second half.

"Could it have been easier? Sure," coach Tracy Claeys said. "But give Purdue credit, they came in here and coach had them full of energy and they played hard."

The Gophers' last two home games have hardly been much to get enthusiastic about. Whether in the second half against Rutgers or first half against Purdue, the Gophers have had a tendency to play down to inferior opponents' level. They won't have that issue going forward.

The soft part of the schedule is over. Now the real test begins -- at 10th-ranked Nebraska, home against 3-3 Northwestern, at 8th-ranked Wisconsin.

"Give our best effort. One at a time. Sure glad we don't have to play all three of them at the same time or on the same day. They're good football teams, but I also, I think we've got a pretty good football team," Claeys said.

"The defense has made plays when they've needed to make them. The offense, the kicking game. It's a position that after our first two conference games nobody'd given us a chance in hell to be in, here. And they kind of said the season was over, and we've just kept battling, and one game at a time we've fought our way back into this thing."

Whatever we are to make of this Gophers season will likely come down to these last three games. And Tracy Claeys seems to know it.

"Obviously we all want to win the Big Ten. That's what everybody wants to do," he said. "And you've gotta win the West side to do that first, but I did say that we do feel like we're in a position now here that we can get the football program to the last two or three games of the year with an opportunity to go to Indianapolis."