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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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The crash occurred at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday in Welcome, Minnesota after the bus driver failed to yield to the truck, which had the right-of-way.
WELCOME, Minn. — Nine students were injured Wednesday morning when a truck crashed into a bus in southern Minnesota.
The crash occurred at 8:15 a.m. in Welcome, Minnesota after the bus driver failed to yield to the truck, which had the right-of-way at the intersection of County Road 7 and 280th Street, according to the Redwood County Sheriff’s Office. In a press release, officials say the nine students sustained “minor injuries” and were transported to a nearby hospital.
The initial investigation indicates that the truck, an F550, was traveling north on County Road 7, while the bus, which was providing service to the Wabasso Public School District, was traveling east on 280th Street. The news release says the truck had the right-of-way at the intersection.
“We are grateful that no serious injuries happened to our students, the driver or the other driver, however, nine students were transported to area hospitals for follow-up treatment,” Superintendent Jon Fulton said in a letter to parents. “… The District and 4.0 bus transportation company is praying for a speedy recovery for the students and families involved.”
Several fans said this team has inspired them to pursue a career in sports.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Lynx is inspiring the next generation of athletes regardless of whether they win or lose.
Sophia Witkowski went to the game with her mother, Christy, to watch Game 3 of the WNBA Finals.
“For her to see all her idols it’s just so fun,” Christy said.
“I like it because women’s sports aren’t that popular. Now the WNBA is really popular,” Sophia said.
They weren’t the only mother-and-daughter duo at the game. Amanda Williams took her 10-year-old daughter Abby to watch.
“It’s really awesome to have my daughter here to see great role models from the team and the fact,” Amanda said.
“I think that it’s super cool that they get to do what they want to do, and they get paid for it too,” Abby said.
Maggie Niska with Her Next Play, a nonprofit working to empower the next generation of female leaders through sports, said their visibility is everything.
“I think it gives these girls someone to look up to, and it gives them something to aspire to, and by having them in the community it makes seem a little more reachable too,” Niska said.
She said the Lynx Academy put on a basketball clinic for some of her girls in Hopkins Tuesday night. Niska said all of the professional women’s sports teams in Minnesota show girls they can have a future in sports.
“I just think that any visibility these girls can get to women competing at sports at a higher level, hearing these women speak, and seeing them succeed, and getting insight into their lives and what they do to compete at this higher level, I think all of that serves as a great inspiration to these girls,” she said.
It’s something Lynx Head Coach Cheryl Reeve understands well.
“For young girls to see the opportunities for them to play in any sport and then also more in sport, jobs in sports that sports can be a career,” Reeve said.
Sophia Ritter and Taylor Tool drove hours to see the players in action.
“We traveled from Aberdeen, South Dakota and the Northern State women’s basketball team took two vans,” she said.
Ritter and Tool both said it was a cool opportunity for them to see two great teams play on the professional level.
“Growing up, WNBA wasn’t really a big a thing and something that everyone was watching and now that it’s growing it’s really nice to see,” Ritter said.
“It’s really fun seeing all the support and seeing how many people come to watch the games like it’s really cool to see all the fans in the stands filling up and it’s growing,” Tool said.
Gophers’ Shoot Guard Mara Braun went to the game with her team after practice.
“These women out here are just amazingly talented and they play with this toughness that I think we’re really trying to embody as a team,” Braun said.
She knows young girls are looking up to her and her teammates just like they are with the Lynx.
“Especially growing up, you know, you want to play college basketball, and the next level is WNBA or overseas or whatever it is, so for me this is obviously a dream and something I’m working towards to be able to see it,” she said.
Braun dreams of playing in the WNBA and watching the Lynx and the Liberty in the finals makes that dream feel like it could be her new reality.
The department is the only one in the state to start a non-fatal shooting unit that launched in January.
ST PAUL, Minn. — The City of St. Paul has seen a number of deadly shootings recently, but often it’s the ones that aren’t fatal that don’t get as much attention. And for police, they can also be harder to solve.
The department, though, is trying something new to try and reverse that trend.
“The amount of guns that are on the street right now,” St. Paul Police Commander Nikkole Peterson said about the biggest change she’s seen in the 22 years she’s been a cop. “It’s jaw-dropping.”
Commander Peterson is now in charge of the department’s non-fatal shooting unit that launched in January focusing only on those crimes.
It’s the only department in the state implementing something like that, after it saw success with the police department in Denver, Colorado doing something similar.
“If there’s a shooting, it doesn’t matter what time of night that happens or time of day, that sergeant will get called in to begin the investigation immediately,” said Commander Peterson.
The crime used to fall on the homicide unit that’s already burdened by heavy case loads. There’s also usually little victim cooperation which can stall solving non-fatal shootings.
“A lot of times we wouldn’t investigate it any further or the prosecutor wouldn’t charge those crimes and we knew that something different had to be done,” said Commander Peterson.
The unit is now treating non-fatal shootings like homicides and making them a priority. The investigators also rely more heavily on evidence and devote just as many resources, from forensics to video management and even SWAT teams.
“We are utilizing all these different resources to help solve these crimes,” said Commander Peterson. “We’re chasing down every lead that we can.”
In a press conference on Tuesday, St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry said there have been 86 non-fatal shootings compared to 99 this same time last year. But two years ago, there were 170, putting the city’s solve rate around 60%.
“Anything above 50% is just incredible and so we’re really happy with where we’re at right now,” said Commander Peterson.
Commander Peterson also credits the city’s ASPIRE program that focuses on intervention, particularly with youth. She also points to the Office of Neighborhood Safety that partners with local organizations working on prevention, saying this cooperation is ultimately what will reduce crime.
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