At the halfway point of its season, Minneapolis’ FBS team is partying like its somewhere in the vicinity of 1999.
Playing host to Nebraska in weather conditions that were more like late November than early October, Minnesota staked its claim to a 14-0 halftime lead. With the outcome of the game still somewhat up in the air heading into the third quarter, the Golden Gophers dropped 21 points on the Cornhuskers in the period to put an exclamation point on what was a resounding and emphatic 34-7 win
The Gophers outgained a Cornhuskers offense, without its starting quarterback in Adrian Martinez because of injury, 450-299. Minnesota’s defense allowed just 3.5 yards per carry and less than five yards per pass attempt.
With the win, Minnesota has started a season 6-0 for the first time since 2003, Glenn Mason‘s seventh of 10 seasons with the program. Barring something unexpected, the Gophers will be ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since November of 2014 when the new poll comes out Sunday afternoon. This undefeated run could also continue for at least another couple of weeks as Minnesota travels to Rutgers in Week 8 before playing host to Maryland in Week 9.
As it stands now, the Big Ten has an FBS-high four undefeated teams -- Minnesota, Ohio State (off this weekend), Penn State (winners over Iowa in Week 7) and Wisconsin (batterers of Michigan State in Week 7).
As that relates to Minnesota, and after these next couple of cupcakes, its schedule gets real as they will face Penn State Nov. 9 and Iowa Nov. 16 in back-to-back weekends. And then Wisconsin to close out the regular season.