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Receivers step up for 21st-ranked Minnesota
The Gophers have outscored their opponents 183-24 and rank near the top of the FBS in several statistical categories as as team.
MINNEAPOLIS — Michael Brown-Stephens was taking off his shoulder pads in Minnesota’s boisterous locker room last weekend, eager to join the celebration of a statement win at Michigan State when he noticed a phone being passed around with fellow wide receiver Chris Autman-Bell looped in on FaceTime.
“No offense to Crab,” Brown-Stephens said, using his injured teammate’s nickname. “I forgot all about him.”
The Gophers tried to do that on the field, too.
After Autman-Bell was hurt in the 49-7 win over Colorado on Sept. 17 and had season-ending surgery on his lower right leg, Minnesota was suddenly missing its best pass-catcher and a sixth-year leader from a group that struggled over the previous two seasons with consistency and health.
What followed in the Big Ten opener in Lansing gave the Gophers quite a confidence boost — if they even needed one.
Tanner Morgan completed passes to 10 different players, with six catches for 73 yards by Brown-Stephens leading the production. Dylan Wright had three receptions for 54 yards, and Daniel Jackson had two touchdown catches.
“You hate to see things like that happen, but I was called upon a lot to step up and bring the guys with me,” Brown-Stephens said. “I feel like just going into the week, game prepping and just preparing for everything, everybody just had a sense of, ‘We’ve got to be better. We’ve got to go out there and make up for this.’”
Morgan went 23 for 26 for 268 yards in the 34-7 victory over the Spartans that kept the Gophers (4-0, 1-0) unbeaten atop the West Division and pushed them into the Associated Press rankings at No. 21 for the first time in nearly two years.
The passing performance served as yet more evidence, with offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca back in sync with Morgan and head coach P.J. Fleck following two seasons elsewhere, that the Gophers can move the ball just fine without solely relying on star Mohamed Ibrahim and their conference-leading running game.
“We have guys that we trust that can go out there and make plays, and they’re showing it to us at a consistent level,” Morgan said. “They’re only going to continue to go out there and get better.”
Even factoring in the level of nonconference competition, the Gophers could hardly be playing better at this point of the season. They’ve outscored their opponents 183-24 and rank near the top of the FBS in several statistical categories as as team. Then there’s Ibrahim, who is second in the country with 567 rushing yards in a remarkable return from a torn left Achilles tendon.
Purdue’s defense will have its hands full on Saturday afternoon at Minnesota.
“You’ve got to figure out a way to make them uncomfortable, figure out a way to create pressure,” Boilermakers coach Jeff Brohm said. “You’ve got to figure out a way to put them in more passing situations than they would like. Because if you don’t, they’re in control of the game. They have been very, very effective doing that.”
The Gophers lead the FBS in possession time with an average of 40:33 per game.
“They make you bleed,” Brohm said. “They make you bleed, and if you don’t find a way to bandage it up or do something to strike back, it can be a long death.”
MARRIED MEN
Morgan is in his sixth year, one of Fleck’s original recruits and a player so mature he got married over the summer. Purdue quarterback Aidan O’Connell is also off the market after a July wedding and is a sixth-year player who has put himself near the top of the program’s all-time lists in rare air with the likes of eventual NFL passers Drew Brees, Kyle Orton and Jim Everett.
O’Connell’s status, however, is unclear for Saturday. He was held out of last weekend’s 28-26 win over Florida Atlantic with an unspecified injury suffered in the first quarter on Sept. 17 in a 32-29 loss at Syracuse. O’Connell finished that game, but Austin Burton took his place after that. Brohm said Michael Alaimo would likely take some snaps, too, if O’Connell is still sidelined.
“Both those guys worked hard last week and we’ve got to try to utilize them as well as we can,” Brohm said.
STILL PERFECT
Minnesota is one of 21 remaining undefeated teams in the FBS, one of four in the Big Ten and the only one in the conference’s West Division. Georgia and Washington are the only others in the country who have yet to trail at any point this season.
ADDING UP
Brohm beat Fleck when they were both Big Ten rookies, a 31-17 victory by the Boilermakers at home in 2017. The Gophers have won the last four matchups, though, and eight of the last nine games in the series overall.
TRUE COLORS
This is Minnesota’s homecoming game, and fans have been encouraged — depending on their seating section — to wear either maroon or gold clothing in hope of creating a two-tone hue around the stadium bowl. The university has dubbed this the “ Stripe Out ” game.
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Saint Paul police investigate fatal stabbing
Police said it happened on North Dale Street.
ST PAUL, Minn — Police in Saint Paul are trying to find out what led up to a fatal stabbing in the city.
In a post on social media Sunday night, authorities said it happened on the 300 block of N. Dale Steet. That’s just south of I-94 in the Summit-University neighborhood.
Police have not yet provided any other details about the homicide investigation.
This is a developing story, stick with KARE 11 for updates.
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Minnesota cities extend early voting hours
Over 71,000 people have voted early in Anoka County, Minnesota.
ANOKA COUNTY, Minn. — Minnesota cities extended early voting hours so more people could cast their ballot early.
Anoka County Elections Director Tom Hunt said there’s a lot of excitement around this election.
“In-person absentee voting is just off the charts,” he said. “This year both parties have really been making a push to get people into vote early.”
He said the county’s city and town halls are busier than the county government center.
“We’ve seen lines like crazy at all of our city and town halls,” he said. “We just passed 71,000 absentee voters, so I think for us that’s a little over 30%,” he said.
Trevor and Michala Voss voted at Blaine City Hall.
“We wanted to come out and vote early because we both work and it’s a good day to get it done, get through the line before it gets too crazy on Tuesday and make sure our voices are heard,” Michala said. “Especially, as a pregnant woman with a daughter, it’s important for us to show that we can vote and our voices matter.”
They decided to bring their young daughter to show her how the election process works.
“She loved it. I thought it was really cool that she got to see it in person because she’s seen it in cartoons on her Daniel Tiger episodes and now she got to see what the process looked like in person,” Michala said.
Trevor said the show teaches kids how to vote. For example, in one episode the class had to decide if they wanted a swing or a slide, so they voted.
Now, their daughter wants to cast her own ballot.
“She sat on his lap while he voted and wanted to put her own votes in but she’s a little too young,” Michala said.
“That was a little challenging but not terrible,” Trevor said.
They both said voting early was easy and they didn’t mind the wait. They said it took about 20 minutes for them to vote.
“Nobody wants to wait especially on a weekend, those weekend days our precious but they understand, and they know how important it is and they’re absolutely willing to do it,” said Blaine City Clerk Cathy Sorensen. “It’s about a 30-to-40-minute wait. We’ve calculated yesterday at our peak we were probably processing a voter every three minutes.”
Sorensen said they’ve had over 7,300 early voters come through city hall. She said they’re processing almost 1,000 ballots a day.
“Right now, we’re about 18% of our total registered voters and that’s right now and we haven’t obviously done a tally or our mailed in ballots, we haven’t finished up today and of course tomorrow which is going to be our busiest,” Sorensen said.
She said they have been so busy her election judges barely have time to take a break.
“Last two weeks they really haven’t even taken a lunch,” she said.
She said all of her election judges are committed to helping as many people vote early as they can and choose to eat when they can.
Sorensen has been the city’s clerk for a decade, and she hasn’t seen so many people vote early in an election.
“I think it just means people are taking advantage of all the different ways you can vote whether it’s on Election Day, or early, they have lots of options and that’s great and it’s how it should be,” Sorensen said.
She said she anticipates Monday being their busiest early voting day and plans to have extra staff on hand to help keep the line moving.
Kare11
Local volunteers for both campaigns make final push
With the election seemingly razor-thin, volunteers will continue working until the final ballot is cast.
MINNEAPOLIS — With only a few days left until Election Day, volunteers from both campaigns are doing what they can during the final push.
On Saturday, Kamala Harris supporters canvassed in north Minneapolis. They knocked on doors encouraging those who hadn’t voted yet, to do so.
In Lakeville, Trump supporters gathered with Congressional District 2 candidates, as they geared up to reach those final voters.
“Donald Trump lost by a small margin here in Minnesota and we want that to be different this year, this time around,” said Crystal Mcdonnell. Mcdonnell canvases not only to try and sway voters to Trump but also to help them fulfill their civic duty.
“(We) offer assistance in registering to vote, give rides to fellow patriots who may not have the means to get out and vote,” Mcdonnell said.
In north Minneapolis, first-time canvasser Samirya Strong was doing her part to help her candidate win.
“We need to activate everyone who is able to vote, to vote up and down for freedom and justice and equality for all,” Strong said.
With the election seemingly razor thin, this type of leg work from both campaigns will continue until the final ballot is cast Tuesday night.
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