Kare11
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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The board said performances and classes will cease with the theater’s closure at the end of October.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis theater community was dealt a huge blow Friday after it was announced a popular improv performance space will close next month.
Managing director of Uptown’s HUGE Improv Theater, Sean Dillon, confirmed the news to KARE 11 Friday afternoon. Dillon said performances and classes will cease with the theater’s closure at the end of October. A Facebook post published by the theater chalked up the reasons for the decision as “complex, but they ultimately boil down to money.”
“The Board has concluded that, after a series of expected and unexpected challenges, cash flow just cannot sustain the work HUGE was set out to accomplish,” the post reads.
But while the theater maintains the closure comes amid financial troubles, some members of the community believe the closure is related to the resignation of the theater’s co-founder Butch Roy and artistic director Becky Hauser last month. The resignations came after it was alleged the theater whitewashed casting for an upcoming show. The theater’s co-executive and inclusion director, John Gebretatose, went on to write an open letter, questioning the theater’s commitment to diversity among its performers.
Following the resignations, the board released a statement on its website, saying it was “in the process of developing a plan to ensure we reflect our ideal that improv is for everyone.”
The HUGE Improv Theater Board also denied the rumors in its social media post Friday.
“We want to be emphatically clear: the open letter raising concerns about diversity on HUGE’s stage is not the reason for this closure,” the post said. “HUGE was already in a precarious financial situation, and there simply isn’t a viable way forward.
“Our struggle to find sufficient stable funding in no way diminishes the amazing work that HUGE has produced and supported over the years, and more importantly the diverse and enthusiastic community it has fostered.
“We know work still lies ahead to ensure that improv in the Twin Cities is truly a space for everyone, and we look to our community to continue these vital and challenging conversations.”
Co-founder Jill Bernard, who began improv in 1993, is grateful to have helped take the Minneapolis improv scene to new heights.
“When I started improv in 1993, there were very few women, there were very BIPOC performers, and we’ve sort of changed everything that’s possible for people to really hear and use their own voices on stage,” Bernard said. “And I feel like HUGE was a big part of that.”
The theater said it plans to run its shows through October as planned, as well as its fall term classes. The board encouraged the community to support performers and “participate in the life of the theater to the fullest extent you can.”
“There will be more to share as we move forward, but for now: thank you all for everything you have given to this place, and for always being the beating heart of what makes HUGE HUGE.”
A Shorewood woman died Friday after being hit by a truck while crossing the street.
SHOREWOOD, Minn — A woman died on Friday after being hit by a truck while crossing a highway in Shorewood.
It happened at about 1 p.m., according to Minnesota State Patrol, on Highway 7.
Officials said the 65-year-old woman from Shorewood was walking across the highway at Christmas Lake Road when she was struck by a Ford F150 that was turning left onto Highway 7.
The name of the victim has not yet been made public.
After four years, mounting safety concerns, and a Public Utilities Commission hearing, 100+ wind turbine blades stuck Grand Meadow could finally be on the move.
GRAND MEADOW, Minn. — Wind turbines are a common sight across southern Minnesota, but a massive pile of more than 100+ discarded wind turbine blades isn’t something you see every day.
Unless you live in Grand Meadow.
“The whole town is upset about it,” said Patti Harvey who lives near the lot where the blades have been sitting since 2020. “It’s a real mess.”
“This is a nuisance,” said Mower County Commissioner, Polly Glynn, who also lives in the town, which is about 20 miles south of Rochester.
“I call it a turbine graveyard,” said Grand Meadow City Administrator, James Christian, who has been looking for a way to remove the turbines ever since it was clear that they had overstayed their welcome. The owners thought they’d be here for about three months. This was supposed to be just a temporary lay-down yard.”
NextEra Energy decommissioned the blades from its nearby windfarm in 2020, and paid a start-up called RiverCap to remove them.
“Initially, (RiverCap) was going to recycle them, and crush them down into an aggregate that would then go into concrete,” Christian said. “And then this spinoff company from RiverCap, called Canvus, they were going to turn them into furniture. Outdoor furniture.”
“Everything sounded wonderful, but it just didn’t get done,” said Glynn, who said she spoke to and emailed with the recycling company several times. “But every deadline has come and gone.”
Eventually, Glynn said both companies went out of business and the blades became a growing health and safety issue.
“It’s nasty, just nasty stuff,” Havey said. “It’s dirty and the kids want to play on it and there’s all kinds of critters that live in those things.”
“We’ve had a lot of problems with animals out here,” Christian said. “Raccoons, foxes, and other animals that shouldn’t be in town.”
After yet another deadline came and went in July, Christian stopped playing nice.
“I knocked on every door and called every number I could find until I finally got to the Utilities Commission,” he said.
After looking into the site permit for the wind farm, Christian decided to file a complaint against NextEra Energy.
“In the initial permit application, they said that they were going to have these things taken care of, recycled or put in a proper facility,” he said.
In the PUC hearing about that complaint on Thursday, NextEra Energy representatives said they do not have ownership of the blades, but with the owners out of business and unresponsive the commission ordered NextEra to take action.
“When we do these permits, we expect you to act in good faith and follow your commitments and you have the permit obligation to put them at an appropriate facility,” said commissioner John Tuma. “I find it not appropriate. I find that sticking it in Grand Meadow is not a final resting place.”
NextEra Energy then agreed to get to work.
“Removal must start by Oct. 5 and must be completed by Dec. 15 of this year,” Christian said. “It felt like I was finally being listened to.”
“James (Christian) has really stepped up and tried to get this out,” Glynn said. “I feel pretty good that we’ve got some clout behind it now. Hopefully, it will get done.”
Christian: “I’ll believe it when I see it, but I do have a little more faith than I had yesterday morning.”
Erdahl: “Are they going to throw you a parade if this actually happens?”
Christian: “There was mention yesterday of a parade once the final truck leaves town. Put some banners and ribbons on it.”
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