College football: Favored Gophers still playing like underdogs

By Marcus R. Fuller
St. Paul Pioneer Press
MINNEAPOLIS - Summer workouts for the University of Minnesota football team were grueling. But one message players shouted to break each huddle motivated them to push through.
“One, two three ... underdog!” they said daily.
The Gophers are still trying to play with an underdog mentality.
It doesn’t matter if Minnesota (6-1, 3-0) is alone atop the Big Ten West.
It doesn’t matter that, for the third straight game, the Gophers will be favored.
It doesn’t matter if they’re nationally ranked heading into Saturday’s game at Illinois (3-4, 0-3).
Being the underdog is kind of their thing.
“Two years ago, when we were fighting and dying out here on the gridiron, people were saying Minnesota should be beaten by two scores,” senior defensive tackle Cameron Botticelli said. “I still feel like we’re the underdog. I come from the South side of Milwaukee. I don’t have a whole lot back home. I’ve got a great support system up here, but I’ll forever be the underdog. You can’t take that out of me. I don’t care what our record is. I’m pretty sure coach (Jerry) Kill would give you a similar answer.”
In a way, the Gophers are still a darkhorse team. They aren’t being talked about much as legitimate conference title contenders with the likes of Michigan State, Ohio State, Nebraska and Wisconsin. The fact that Minnesota could get off to its first 4-0 Big Ten start since 1967 against teams with losing records adds to the skepticism.
The true test is looming next month when the Gophers play Iowa, Ohio State, Nebraska and Wisconsin to finish the regular season.
That will determine their postseason fate. Right now, they’re predicted to play Jan. 1 in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla., which would be their first January bowl game since the 1961 Rose Bowl.
“At this point in the season, we’re in charge of our own fate,” Botticelli said. “It feels good. This isn’t something that just happened. We’ve been talking about this since January last year.”
Just because they would rather be the underdog doesn’t mean players lack confidence and aren’t thinking big.
It’s quite the opposite, actually.
Since last year, Kill wanted his program to adjust its goal from just making it to a bowl to playing for a Big Ten championship.
Trying to set such high expectations too soon can backfire, a la Tim Brewster’s Rose Bowl talk from Day 1. Players wouldn’t buy that this time.
Kill preached patience until his team had the talent to compete with anyone - and they believed they could.
“It’s not going to happen from Day One,” junior cornerback Briean Boddy-Calhoun said. “You have to be realistic. It’s hard for a coach to come in and win the Big Ten championship his second year when he’s trying to establish a program. But now that Coach has been here for a couple of years and his first recruiting class is graduating this year, he’s got guys who have been under him for four years. It’s definitely attainable now, because we’re able to set the standard for the younger guys that are coming in. We knew this for a long time that this is what we were going to be playing for this year.”
That’s what makes Saturday such an important game.
In 2012, the Gophers went into Champaign needing another victory to get to six wins and bowl eligibility.
They got it done.
“The way that season was going, we felt great to go to a bowl game,” wide receiver K.J. Maye said. “That was just like a taste. Now it was like a little tease for us. Each year, every time we come out, we want to be better. We want to have a better record. We want to go to a better bowl. This year we’re playing for a Big Ten championship.”
The Gophers are bowl eligible already this time going to Illinois.
More than anything, Minnesota needs to win now to keep the momentum going for what it hopes is a championship run in November.
“Every week for us is championship week,” quarterback Mitch Leidner said. “We know we got to get this win this week. After that, we got to keep doing what we’re doing.”
A stronger defensive first half than in last week’s 39-38 win over Purdue will be needed.
Overcoming a halftime deficit (31-20) to win for the first time under Kill was a big step. But the Gophers don’t want to make that a habit.
To stay in contention, they’ll eventually have to win as a true underdog soon. But until then, winning as the favorite, like it or not, is their role.
“I think you have to learn the other way,” defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys said. “You’ve got to learn how to, once you come out and play a few teams you’re favored against, you got to learn how to handle that also. There’s no question. We have been underdogs and haven’t been the favorites for a long time.”
The Pioneer Press is a media partner with the Forum News Service