MEGAN DAVIS: Hello Gopher fans. It’s Megan Davis.
ATTICUS MARSE: And Atticus Marse.
DAVIS: With the Minnesota Daily, and you’re listening to the Gold Standard, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota Sports.
MARSE: I figure we should probably start with football here.
DAVIS: I would say so.
MARSE: A win’s a win at this point in the season. Coming into that game, did I think it was gonna be 23- 20 and go to overtime against 3-5 Michigan State?
DAVIS: They have the worst defense in the Big Ten.
MARSE: It was still a really fun game though. And I want to say right off the bat, once again, our defensive line and run defense was pretty solid. Through the air their quarterback had 311 yards, but overall, our defense had a pretty solid game.
DAVIS: I would say the line is great. Like Anthony Smith once again, good game. However, that secondary, because the injuries to our cornerbacks has really been struggling. This was Michigan State’s red shirt freshman, quarterbacks first ever start, and to be able to throw 311 yards against the team that just beat Nebraska, congrats that’s very impressive.
MARSE: Neither team could get it done in the red zone at all. There was no finishing touch from either offense. And the game kind of like lulled for three quarters of it.
DAVIS: And then they just decided to go all out in that fourth quarter.
MARSE: Yeah. They decided to go to overtime and have some fun. Another thing I wanted to note is Fame Ijeboi struggled in his first couple games. He had a really good game, 17 carries 108 yards, 6.4 average, and he broke off a couple long 10 plus yard runs. He kind of showcased what he could do for me there. I’ve been a believer in him since the start of the year, and I know P.J. Fleck is a believer in him.
DAVIS: And also, I mean, Darius Taylor out again, probably just that hamstring I would assume. But I feel like we’re getting the same message every single week of, it’s an 0-1 mentality. You know, every week’s different. And I think, you know, if he was so consistent about the message, Gopher fans would like to see results.
And right now it’s a lot of the same message and a lot of mixed results. It’s like, I don’t know what to expect from this team. From the week to week anymore. They’re all over the place and I don’t, I would not predict anything against Oregon. I don’t think there’s a single safe bet to make there.
The game might end like it did against Michigan State where it’s like a three point game and it’s like a three point loss. Like I wouldn’t be surprised at that. Just kind of how weirdly inconsistent this team feels. I mean, yeah, I think freshman quarterback, there’s time to grow. This is not kind of the year I think everyone hoped it would be. Since he is so young there’s still time.
MARSE: Last week too, me and Regan talked about this. It’s like when you’re a school like Minnesota, who’s not swimming in NIL money, you have to recruit and develop strategy.
DAVIS: You have to develop.
MARSE: It’s a style of football and the Gophers are never gonna, like, you’re gonna have to deal with a freshman quarterback who’s had bad games, like if you want a senior quarterback who’s super good. If Drake Lindsey, like, wants to grow with the Gophers, like he has the perfect opportunity to in this program. And they’re invested in him and I totally agree with that sentiment.
Wrestling had their first tournament at the Southeast Open, hosted by Virginia Tech. Jore Volk won at 125 pounds. Vance VomBaur also won at 141 pounds. And then Charlie Millard won at 157. At 165. Andrew Sparks lost in the finals unfortunately. Another thing to note on these early in the season tournaments is teams don’t typically send all of their best guys out there.
Because towards the end of the season, you really don’t want to risk injuries and stuff. So the Gophers didn’t have all their guys at this tournament, but they ended up doing pretty good. Got a couple winners and Big Ten stuff for wrestling doesn’t start until second semester, so we got a long time of tournaments and development with younger guys and getting those matches in so there’ll be more wrestling on the horizon.
DAVIS: Women’s hockey played Wisconsin in Madison over the weekend. They split the series, taking the first game, dropping the second. Super impressive. In the first game, Hannah Clark did a great job. This was the first time that Wisconsin has lost by four or more goals since 2016. So the Gophers, they did a great job.
MARSE: But no, anytime you can go into, into Madison and get a 5-1 win, even if you lose the second game, that’s still a very successful road trip.
DAVIS: Women’s hockey is playing phenomenal right now.
MARSE: When you prove that you can commandingly beat the number one team in the country, that’s a statement right there. The first idea I want to throw out there with men’s hockey is should the panic alarms be going off? Because the Gophers right now are 2-7-1. So is it, is it time for the panic bells to go off?
DAVIS: The thing is, it’s so bizarre. Because it’s like, I think just because of the ranked opponents and everything, but like the Badgers are only ranked number 14 despite being undefeated and we’re still only ranked number 18. The only thing, obviously, that’s gonna change this week after getting swept two weekends in a row.
MARSE: The games against Notre Dame on Friday and Saturday are like, must wins. Another sweep would, I think, cause some interesting conversations to be had.
DAVIS: I don’t know when you have a start this bad, the Gophers had so many players leave last year, so like I understand them having to do a little temporary rebuild. After the Notre Dame series, they’re gonna be at home for their longest stretch of the season.
Maybe there’ll be some bright spots coming through there and they can finally work on their team identity a little bit. I know a lot of it is gonna be like adjusting to the squad that you have right now, and so I think it’s shocking a lot of fans that they haven’t adjusted already. The only place you could go from here is up time to build back up and you know, just be a little bit more competitive.
MARSE: Minnesota lost its top five scores from last year.
DAVIS: So I think it’s just a season of adjustments. Just like men’s basketball. I think a lot of the men’s teams are just going through this weird transition phase where it’s like, you know, good players, but they just need more time.
It’s also like women’s volleyball. The Daily has a story coming out tomorrow about the freshmen on the volleyball team because volleyball, which I believe we’ve talked about on this podcast before. Suffered four major season ending injuries, three of them being starters, and so they have it quite the lineup of freshman girls.
However, I was talking to two of them on Halloween and they weren’t expecting it. You know, no one expects these season ending injuries. And so when they happen now, these freshman girls have to kind of take the next step and so they’ve been getting a lot of playing time. The volleyball team is still ranked 20th, which is good.
However, the Big Ten is really competitive this year. Obviously Nebraska is at number one. Wisconsin is at number 12. Penn State is at number 18, so, like, just stacked. They play Wisconsin on Wednesday and then they play Nebraska on Saturday. So they’ll go to Wisconsin and then they’ll come back from Nebraska.
The way they’ve really fought through adversity, I think is really admirable because they are still a great team, and so I highly recommend going to that Nebraska game if you could still get tickets.
MARSE: Another thing that students should check out as the season begins is Golden Gopher in basketball, who at the time of this recording have not yet played their game against Gardner Webb. It’s gonna be fun to see how Medved runs this team. What the starting five is looking like starting off the year.
I mean, Gopher basketball is just, there hasn’t been much to get excited about the past couple years. I mean, the 2023 season was actually pretty solid. But I mean, it’s not the level where you’re making a run at the tournament and I think all Gopher fans want is to see their team in the tournament.
And be a team that’s competitive. Haven’t really had that in men’s basketball for a long time. And I’m actually really, really optimistic about Medved. And I think that he’s a guy who has a chance to like stay long term with the program. He went to school here, like he was a manager on the basketball team when he was in college.
And I think that connection alone to me, like shows that he really did want to come here. Similar to kind of what P.J. Fleck has been for the Gophers, just like a steady pulse that you have. You kind of know a little bit what you’re gonna get going into the year. And that’s something that they’ve been needing for a long long time.
DAVIS: Yeah. I think it’ll be interesting to see kinda what the identity of this team is and like who they build around. Because obviously for so long it was Dawson Garcia, but now that he’s gone, who’s gonna take that next step and really kind of lead this team on the court? People are excited for what the Gophers can be, but they don’t have kind of that burden of expectation.
MARSE: Who knows how this team’s gonna perform? Like he’s, he’s trying to literally start a program from the ground up. He, you tore everything down. You’re in an empty room. You walk in here with a dozen or so new guys and you try to build a basketball team. That’s not something that you just do overnight.
DAVIS: It’ll be interesting to see how many people actually show up to games though if we lose a lot.
MARSE: Yeah. That’s another, I actually, I feel the turnout for the first one actually. The turnout should be, should be pretty good. And I went to a lot of basketball games in 2023 when there’s a chance that the Gophers made the tournament and those games got really, really electric. There is an audience at this school.
DAVIS: Oh yeah. Its good basketball.
MARSE: For a good basketball team.
DAVIS: Yeah. Well, actually I was watching the Big Ten media days for men’s basketball and that’s what Isaac Asuma said. He was like, if we perform well, like they will come.
Women’s basketball though, Mallory Heyer surprise exit gone. She’s hitting the transfer portal, who knows where she’ll end up. Seems like an impossible situation to hit the transfer portal one week before the season starts. Gophers women’s team seems to have enough depth where they’ll be able to, you know, move some players around and figure it out.
They got a few players from the transfer portal as well, but their starters were kind of clear on who they’re gonna be. So, and Mara Braun is back, so they should be, you know, pretty set up. When I talked to them at the press conference, it didn’t seem like anyone was too stressed about the situation.
They all wished Heyer good luck. It was great to have on the team and it was just kind of next man up and they’ll play Wednesday against North Dakota State. Last season, they didn’t lose a single game until they started their Big Ten opponents and so I think they went like 12-0. So hopefully they can repeat that.
MARSE Quick pro sports corner. So Anthony Edwards is dealing with a hamstring strain right now and he’s missed three straight games and he doesn’t have a set return date yet. He’s obviously the superstar.
DAVIS: Six days ago it was reported that he will miss two weeks with a hamstring injury. By my calculations, we have about one week left without Anthony Edwards.
MARSE: Hopefully.
DAVIS: Hopefully.
MARSE: Don’t rush him back. You know, you never wanna rush a guy like that back. Give him his time. He’ll be okay.
DAVIS I’m sure he’s itching to get off the bench though. So I don’t know if he’ll be able to.
MARSE Yeah, ANT does not wanna stay on the bench.
DAVIS: No. Twins news. The Twins hired manager Derek Shelton for the upcoming season. He’s the former Pirates manager. And if you read The Rouser on Sunday. You will know that I wasn’t a fan of this. Because as someone who’s very acquainted with the Pirates organization, why would you ever hire someone from the Pirates organization who isn’t a pitcher?
It seems that a lot of Twins fans feel the same about the decision. I even saw one article from a Padres fan saying the Padres should do exactly the opposite of what the Twins just did when looking for their general manager.
MARSE: You’re stuck in this cycle of mediocrity, and then your ownership group says you want something more mediocre. Your Minnesota Vikings defeated the Detroit Lions today.
DAVIS: That’s crazy. J.J. McCarthy is back and better than ever.
MARSE: Maybe like, yeah, he showed that his ankle wasn’t bothering him with that running touchdown. 14-25, 143 yards, two touchdowns and a pick. But he made plays when it mattered. And at the end of the day a win’s a win against.
DAVIS: A really good team.
MARSE: The team that was coming into the year looking like probably a Super Bowl favorite. So that’s something positive for Minnesota sports fans. Yeah, they’re, they’re tugging, tugging their hearts around and then we’ll, we’ll see what happens later in the year.
And then final sport, well, I don’t currently know the outcome of, but you listeners will is the Minnesota United game tomorrow night, second game of the three game series. They’re up in the series. This game’s in Seattle. It’s a late one, 9:45 pm. We’ll see what the Loons can do. If the Loons lose this game we’ll come back to Allianz for game three a little bit later next week.
DAVIS: This episode was by Megan Davis.
MARSE: And Atticus Marse.
DAVIS: And produced by.
MARSE: Atticus Marse and Ceci Heinen.
DAVIS: As always, we appreciate you listening in, and feel free to send a message to our email inbox at (email protected) with any questions, comments or concerns. I’m Megan Davis.
MARSE: And I’m Atticus Marse
DAVIS And this has been the Gold Standard.
