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7/12/2004
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| Marion Barber III, photo courtesy of University Athletics |
If you believe the buzz around the Gopher football program, last year's record-setting season could be just a prelude. The CNN-Sports Illustrated preseason poll puts Minnesota among the 10 best in the nation, while College Football News predicts the Gophers will challenge for a Big Ten title. Even head coach Glen Mason, normally hesitant to make such pronouncements, says, "We've got a good, solid football team. We should be very, very competitive in the Big Ten Conference."
The reasons for the optimism are easy to understand: Minnesota returns most of the Big Ten's top offense, a group that set team records for scoring, rushing, and total offense. Most of the defense has been together since 2002 and looks ready to move up from the middle of the Big Ten pack. The Gophers have an unflappable kicker who made two game-winning field goals last year. The entire coaching staff returns after eight- and 10-win seasons highlighted by two consecutive bowl wins.
The season doesn't open without some concerns, however. The defense, which had too few sacks and turnovers last year, is not as big as many in the Big Ten and must rely on fundamentals and speed. The kick coverage team allowed almost as many yards as the talented return men gained for them. And the Gophers have a starting quarterback who has thrown one pass in college.
Sophomore quarterback Bryan Cupito mainly will hand the ball off to the best running back pair in the nation: junior Marion Barber III and sophomore Laurence Maroney. Minnesota will have to develop enough of a passing attack to keep defenses honest, but the team features a strong offensive line, led by all-American candidate Greg Eslinger, a junior center, and three other returning starters. The Gophers have two deep-threat wide receivers and a number of shorter passing options as well.
The Gophers' 2004 schedule presents both a challenge and an opportunity. After years of complaints about too easy a nonconference slate, Minnesota gets a pair of real tests this year in Toledo, a preseason top-25 team, and Colorado State, which has won eight games six times in the past decade. The Big Ten schedule features a stiff early test—at Michigan on October 9—but otherwise stacks up well. The traditional final two games with Wisconsin and Iowa could make the difference between a good season and a great one.
A Solid Team
Since 1997, when Glen Mason took over the Gopher football program, Minnesota has won eight games twice and 10 games last year. The Gophers have ended the season ranked in the top 20 twice (in 1999 and 2003) and been to four bowl games in the last five seasons. Minnesota magazine sat down with Glen Mason in May to discuss the upcoming season.
Q: At the start of last season, would you have thought a 10-3 record was possible?
A:
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| Laurence Maroney, photo courtesy of University Athletics |
Q: The biggest question this spring was who would be quarterback. Did someone emerge and show he's capable of taking over?
A: Bryan Cupito [a redshirt sophomore from Cincinnati] did a really good job in spring. He's not a rookie; he's been around here a couple of years. I couldn't be happier with the way he performed in spring practice, and he answered a lot of the concerns we had.
It's a matter of [his] playing and getting experience. He has shown everything up to this date that he'll be able to handle it. If you equate where he is from a mental standpoint with running our offense and understanding our offense, he has progressed a lot more, at this point in his career, than either Asad [Abdul-Khaliq] or Benji [Kamrath, last-year's quarterbacks] had.
Let's face it, we're predicated on running the football. People have to "cheat" to stop us and then we have to find ways to exploit that [with quick passes and other means] and [Cupito's] abilities fit that.
Q: Do you pay attention to the buzz surrounding your team?
A: Those preseason predictions don't mean a darn thing. That doesn't mean I'm not aware of them because I know people are aware of them. Everywhere I go people are aware of the success we've had the last two years. There's no doubt in my mind that there's a different level of anticipation with Gopher fans for this season.
Q: What are your expectations for the season and how will you measure if it's a success?
A: We won eight games in 2002 and 10 games in 2003; we have almost everybody back; we have our entire coaching staff back; we've played in four bowl games in five years and won our last two bowl games. People will tell you the next logical progression is to play in a January 1 bowl game. I don't get caught up in that because if you take care of your business, those things will take care of themselves. But we've also been passed over [by bowls] a couple of times, which is no fault of any kid on this team or any coach on this team. Those are political or financial decisions that have nothing to do with how good your football team is.
But we've got a good, solid football team.
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| Greg Eslinger (61) and Mark Setterstrom, photo courtesy of University Athletics |
Q: You've said that to develop the feeling of being a team rather than a collection of individuals is one of the most important things. Is this group of players a team?
A: I don't think there's any doubt that we're a team. The most important reason we've been able to turn this program from a loser to a winner is that we've been able to come together as a team. Everyone outside wants to focus on individual players, individual accomplishments, but that doesn't really get you anything. As our team has improved talent-wise, it has been more apparent that we're a good solid team too. But that structure and foundation of the team, of being a team first, has always been in place. . . .
We have more depth now as a football team than at any time since I've been here. We've got a good group of kids with an outstanding attitude, and what they've been able to accomplish in 2002 and 2003 has made their determination solid for the things we can accomplish in 2004.
Getting His Kicks
Gopher kicker Rhys Lloyd is as relaxed as he is reliable.
A football kicker stands useless on the sidelines for long stretches. Then, in one moment, all eyes are on him and whether his team wins or loses depends on him. But that doesn't bother Gopher kicker Rhys Lloyd. "Pressure just doesn't get to me," the Dover, England, native explains. "When the other team calls a time-out to 'ice' me, it gives me more time to relax. My mom says if I were any more laid back I'd fall over."
"Not much bothers him, I'll tell you that," says Gopher head coach Glen Mason. "Obviously it's a pressure situation, when you start trying to get into position for a field goal to win. He seems eager to step up and take a swing at it."
And twice last year—against Wisconsin during the regular season and Oregon in the Sun Bowl—Lloyd's swings produced last-minute wins. More important, Lloyd didn't simply fill a hole when the Gophers needed a kicker. He gave a team that was unsure about its kicking game a standout. He set a school record by making 59 extra points (in 61 attempts), while his 52- and 54-yard field goals rank as the fifth and eighth longest in Gopher history. Lloyd also took over punting chores in the season's third game and averaged nearly 40 yards per kick.
But the senior, who moved to Apple Valley, Minnesota, at age 15, almost never played football at all. His first kick, delivered while goofing off with his track teammates at an NFL Extreme Challenge display, was witnessed
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| Rhys Lloyd after a last-second kick against Wisconsin, photo courtesy of University Athletics |
Lloyd continued playing both soccer and football and ended up with scholarship offers in both sports. "My dad and I talked about it a couple times a week and we agreed that, as far as a career goes, football would be the way to go over here." After high school, Lloyd attended Rochester Community and Technical College, where he polished his academics and his kicking. After two good years there, he was ready for the University of Minnesota. But paperwork and delays in obtaining his international-student visa threatened to keep Rhys from becoming a Gopher. "We really didn't have a kicker or punter in-house," says head coach Glen Mason. "We weren't sure what we were going to have."
Just the day before the 2003 opening game against Tulsa, Lloyd was declared eligible and took over the kicking duties. But Minnesota still needed a punter. Most punters catch the ball hiked from the center, take two steps forward, and kick. Lloyd catches the ball and often takes off running to one side or the other, giving it a boot in mid-stride before he reaches the line of scrimmage. The unusual style, which keeps opponents guessing, is something he ad-libbed while being rushed in a game at Rochester, where he punted for the first time. "[The Minnesota coaches] saw it on the film and said, 'Let's do that,'" Lloyd recalls. "It was a weapon Coach Mason wanted to put in."
Lloyd, who likes to play guitar and golf in his spare time or "just chill with friends," is never lax about who is responsible for his makes and misses. "You hear kickers blame the wind or the other players or something, but I never do that," he says. "It's all down to me. I just tell the holder to put it down, I don't care if the laces are in or out. I just kick it straight and hope it goes through."
Tackling Academics
Assistant coach Richard Wilson helps football Gophers succeed academically.
When Richard Wilson walked into Gopher football head coach Glen Mason's office three years ago to interview for the wide receivers coaching job, he liked what he saw. The outer office features oversized photographs of Mason posing with each year's graduating seniors in their caps and gowns. "We talked about those pictures in the interview, and it really impressed me that he takes this so seriously," Wilson says. He later learned that of students who finish their football eligibility at the U, almost
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| Wide receivers coach Richard Wilson, photo courtesy of University Athletics |
This spring, Wilson won the inaugural Partnership Award, given by the department's Academic Counseling and Student Services unit for outstanding efforts in helping student athletes succeed academically. "Coach Wilson went above and beyond for all his students," says Francine St. Clair, assistant director of the counseling office. "All the coaches work on making sure their students get to class and do their work, but he gives his extra time to working with the students, especially on their time management skills. And he talks to them about what it means to be a man and to be a success."
Growing up in Hope, Arkansas, Wilson says his family made school a top priority. "I had the neighborhood basketball hoop," Wilson recalls, "but I couldn't go out and shoot hoops with the fellas after school until I finished my homework." After playing for Lou Holtz at Arkansas, Wilson began his coaching career in 1981, as a high school coach and science and health teacher. His first two college coaching jobs were for coaches who stressed academics, holding daily discussions about student achievement as well as athletic success. "It was kind of ingrained in me," Wilson says. "I've worked for a couple of coaches where it was more lip service. But Glen's commitment and pride in his graduates impresses me. That's what I really cut my teeth on."
With commitment from the top and an academic support unit he calls "fantastic and beyond supportive," Wilson is comfortable promising recruits they will graduate. "Once you've gone into those homes and looked into those parents' eyes and assured them that you will take care of their children and get them a good college education," he says, "it gives you an extra kick-start."
Cannon Man Sounds Off
Rod Wallace helps Minnesota celebrate every score.
Rod Wallace, who built and owns the Thunderbird Hotel and Convention Center near the Mall of America in Bloomington, has fired a cannon after every Gopher football score in the Metrodome for the last 11 years. Although he never attended the University, having entered military service on his 18th birthday, Wallace is also a major University donor, having given money to renovate the interior of Burton Hall, to install an indoor field in the Gophers' football practice facility, and more.
Q: How did you become Cannon Man?
A: The Goal Line Club [a football booster club], which I helped to found, started with a cannon that made noise through the PA system. That didn't seem to suffice. I did a lot of sailing, so I came up with the idea of bringing a [sailing race] starting cannon and using it at the Dome. We tried it out and it made a lot of noise. I've been the infamous Cannon Man ever since.
Q: What
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| Rod Wallace, aka Cannon Man, photo courtesy of University Athletics |
A: We fire a 10-gauge shell with various different powders inside. Usually, it's six grams of powder. When the Dome used to be almost empty, we went down to four grams. When it's full for Iowa or Wisconsin games, we fire 10-gauge with eight grams of powder. But the shells seem to get louder as they age, so you never really know what you're going to get.
Q: Have you ever missed a score?
A: No, but I've held off shooting sometimes. It's a little dangerous, because it does shoot a small projectile [of packing cardboard] a short distance. Sometimes the cheerleaders get excited and run across in front of me. I have to be careful that everything is clear.
Q: Do you wear ear protection?
A: Oh, yes, it's awfully loud. My hearing has somewhat gone bad anyhow, so it doesn't affect me so much.
Q: If a new outdoor stadium gets built, will the cannon be loud enough?
A: We've taken it on trips to the various bowl games, and it made plenty of noise there. I'm going to be 80 in December, but I hope to get a chance to fire the cannon in a new stadium. I enjoy it and I'll keep doing it as long as I can.
Stadium Status
University administrators have proposed a $222 million, 50,000-seat on-campus Gopher football stadium be built just east of Mariucci Arena using primarily private funds. Despite a legislative session that ended with no state commitment to help finance a minority of the proposed stadium, Minnesota football coach Glen Mason remains optimistic.
"There is great enthusiasm out there. Most people look at it and see that this is not something we want, this is something we need," Mason says. "This is something that is missing on campus. It is something that can enhance the academic mission of the University, not something that will work against it."
Mason points to the campus culture that athletics can create as one of the primary reasons an on-campus stadium is essential. But he also knows his program needs it as well. "You look at most teams and the home-field advantage they have, and we don't have it," he says. "We don't control our field. We saw that last year when we had to move two games to Friday nights [due to conflicts with the Twins' playoff schedule]. There are a lot of problems when you are a tenant rather than an owner. Multiply that by the fact that it is not on campus and it really hurts what we're trying to accomplish [with the football program]."
Still, because of the enthusiasm he sees, Mason remains confident a stadium will be built. "This is something that people will look back at 10 years, 20 years from now and recognize that the leadership being shown by President Bruininks on this is exactly what was needed."
Chris Coughlan-Smith (B.A. '86) is senior editor of Minnesota.