Tag: Gophers

Pro Football Focus ranks top 10 tight ends of 2022 season

It might not be a national award but it is certainly positive recognition.

The 2022 college football season has come and gone and the postseason ratings are flowing in.  No, not just for teams, but for players alike.

One of the great debates during the postseason awards this winter was at tight end.  Georgia had two of the nation’s best in Darnell Washington and Brock Bowers, while Notre Dame’s Michael Mayer set records for the position at the school known as being “Tight End U”.

The Mackey Award, which goes annually to the nation’s top tight end, was given to Bowers despite Mayer having more receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns.

I don’t believe there is hardware that comes with it but Pro Football Focus listed their top 10 tight ends of the 2022 college football season over the weekend and for whatever it’s worth, the Notre Dame record holder can walk away with bragging rights in that regard.

Here are PFF’s top 10 tight ends for the 2022 season, along with their season grade.

Notre Dame hosts Minnesota in important series this weekend

Go Irish. Beat Gophers.

After an 8-2 midweek win over rival Boston College to close out non-conference play (Jan. 19) followed by a bye weekend, the No. 11/12 Fighting Irish open the stretch run of the Big Ten season by playing host to No. 10/10 Minnesota (Jan. 28-29).

Third place Minnesota (9-5-0-1-1-0 B1G/27 pts.) and fourth place Notre Dame (9-5-0-4-1-0 B1G/24 pts) enter the weekend separated by three points in the conference standings.

The teams kicked off Big Ten play against each other in Minneapolis on Oct. 29-20, with the Gophers earning a 4-1 game one win followed by a narrow 3-2 win in game two as the Irish were swept for the only time this season.

Since Notre Dame joined the Big Ten, 16 of 24 meetings between the two teams have been one goal games or ended in a tie (14 one-goal games and two ties).

In Notre Dame’s most recent game, the 8-2 win over Boston College, Ryder Rolston notched his first career hat trick, while Grant Silianoff had a career-high four points (1-3-4,) Spencer Stastney and Graham Slaggert each posted a goal and two assists and Matthew Galajda made a career-high 40 saves to earn the win in his 99th career game.

Rolston was named the Big Ten’s Third Star of the Week for his performance, which included his team-leading fourth game-winning goal of the season.

The four game winners rank tied for fourth in the country and tied for second in the Big Ten.

The Irish had three power-play goals against the Eagles, marking Notre Dame’s first game with three power-play goals since an 8-1 win at Ohio State on February 6, 2021.

Max Ellis leads the Irish with a career-best 24 points on a team-high 14 goals and 10 assists.

Ellis’ 14 goals rank tied for 11th in the country (tied for third in the Big Ten).

Rolston now ranks second on the Irish with nine goals (he had one goal in 28 games last season as a freshman).

Balanced attack: 15 Notre Dame players have scored this season, while 12 players have at least 10 points on the season.

The Fighting Irish are 10-4-0 at Compton Family Ice Arena this season.

The Irish are 11-1-0 when scoring first this season and 15-0-0 when scoring at least three goals.

Notre Dame’s penalty kill is 86-for-93 on the season (.9247), which ranks first in the NCAA.

The Irish also have five shorthanded goals this season (Ellis 2, Cam Burke 2, Spencer Stastney), which ranks tied for fourth in the country (first in the Big Ten).

Notre Dame is 5-2-0 in overtime this season, with the OT game-winning goals coming from Cam Burke (at Michigan Tech), Ryder Rolston (at Michigan), Max Ellis (at Michigan and at Penn State), and Spencer Stastney (at Ohio State).

Notre Dame has made each of the last five NCAA Tournaments, the longest streak in program history, and eight of the last 11 NCAA Tournaments overall.

The five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances is the second-longest active streak in the NCAA, trailing only Minnesota Duluth (6), with Minnesota State (3) and St Cloud State (3) tied for third.

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Here is what the world looked like when Minnesota last beat Wisconsin in the Twin Cities (it has been a long time)

It has been a long time since the Gophers beat the Badgers in the Twin Cities

Sure, Minnesota vs. Wisconsin has been one of the oldest, fiercest rivalries in college football history for the past century. Is it fair to call the 21st century edition of the game a true rivalry though? In this century, Wisconsin has gone 17-3 against the Golden Gophers, and at one point won 14 consecutive games against their arch rival.

Perhaps an even more impressive stat is that UW has won eight consecutive games on Minnesota’s home turf. In fact, it has been nearly 17 years since the Gophers last defeated the Badgers at home. The Badgers have not even played a one possession game at Minnesota since back in 2009 when UW defeated the Gophers 31-28. This two decade run of dominance has also given Wisconsin the all-time series lead back, making up for the old days of Gopher domination in the first half of the 20th century.

So, when was that fateful day when Minnesota last beat Wisconsin at home? November 8, 2003 when the Gophers beat UW 37-34 on a last-second field goal by kicker Rhys Lloyd. Wisconsin’s QB that day was Jim Sorgi who threw for three touchdowns. Led by then-Head Coach Barry Alvarez, the Badgers were underdogs coming in, but hung tough with No. 24 ranked Minnesota all the way down to the final snap. Minnesota found all four of their touchdowns on the ground against Wisconsin’s defense. Oh, how times have changed.

Back on November 8, 2003, the day the Gophers beat the Badgers, George W. Bush was still in his first term as president. The number one song in America was the Beyonce classic “Baby Boy,” featuring Sean Paul of course. The 2003 season also saw the return of the famous Badger football tradition “Jump Around.” According to Wisconsin’s website, there had been fear leading into 2003 about whether or not the jumping was safe for Camp Randall, but ultimately it was deemed safe to continue at the beginning of the 2003 season. The last time Minnesota beat Wisconsin at home, Jonathan Taylor was four years old and a good portion of players from Wisconsin football’s class of 2021 were not born yet.

The most popular phone back then was the Nokia 1100, and if you had bought Apple stock following Minnesota’s win, you would be rich today. Some things never change, however. The best-selling car of the year was the “Mr. Reliable” of automobiles, the Toyota Camry.

It’s safe to say this rivalry has been dominated by Wisconsin over the past pair of decades. Badger fans will hope that even with a newly reinvigorated Minnesota football program, Bucky’s dominance is here to stay.

 

 

 

Antoine Winfield Jr. Talks Minnesota Success, Tiger King, NFL Draft Prep

2019 Unanimous All-American and former Minnesota Gophers safety Antoine Winfield Jr. took time before the 2020 NFL Draft to discuss the best advice he’s received from his father, former NFL great Antoine Winfield. He also discussed how he’s preparing for the draft, what it would mean to be able to play for the Vikings, and much more.

2019 Unanimous All-American and former Minnesota Gophers safety Antoine Winfield Jr. took time before the 2020 NFL Draft to discuss the best advice he’s received from his father, former NFL great Antoine Winfield. He also discussed how he’s preparing for the draft, what it would mean to be able to play for the Vikings, and much more.

Antoine Winfield Jr. Shares His Dad, Antoine Winfield’s, Best Advice

2020 NFL Draft prospect and former Minnesota Gophers safety Antoine Winfield Jr. grew up a Minnesota Vikings fan after watching his dad, Antoine Winfield, play for the team for eight years. The younger Winfield shares the best advice he’s received from his dad and his thoughts on following in dad’s footsteps.

2020 NFL Draft prospect and former Minnesota Gophers safety Antoine Winfield Jr. grew up a Minnesota Vikings fan after watching his dad, Antoine Winfield, play for the team for eight years. The younger Winfield shares the best advice he’s received from his dad and his thoughts on following in dad’s footsteps.

Get To Know Safety Antoine Winfield Jr.

Minnesota Gophers Unanimous All-American safety and 2020 NFL Draft prospect Antoine Winfield Jr. shares some of the things he loves, including his favorite steakhouse, what’s on his game day playlist, the video games he’s playing and where he likes to travel.

Minnesota Gophers Unanimous All-American safety and 2020 NFL Draft prospect Antoine Winfield Jr. shares some of the things he loves, including his favorite steakhouse, what’s on his game day playlist, the video games he’s playing and where he likes to travel.

Ten Badger Moments: Thanks to late-game chaos, the Badgers get even with the Gophers

In this series, I want to look back on the memorable moments that defined the 2019-20 Badgers. This will not be a top-10 ranking of the best moments of the season from 10-1. Instead, I will go chronologically through the year and find ten moments …

In this series, I want to look back on the memorable moments that defined the 2019-20 Badgers. This will not be a top-10 ranking of the best moments of the season from 10-1. Instead, I will go chronologically through the year and find ten moments that made 2019-20 unforgettable for Wisconsin basketball. Each moment will be accompanied by a word that describes this 2019-20 Badger basketball team, and in this fourth installment, that word is hustle.

The play that gave the Badgers a 71-69 win over the Gophers was the best hustle play of the season. We all remember Brevin Pritzl hitting the go-ahead three in the left corner, but what about the wild sequence that led to that? Thanks to George Balekji over at NBC 15 Madison, here is the full play:

The chaos that leads to the Pritzl look includes four of the five Badgers on the floor being involved in the go-ahead bucket. Aleem Ford gets a hand on the ball, Brad Davison goes back go his high-school football days to make a play that leads to D’Mitrik Trice coming up with the rock. Was there ever any doubt that Pritzl’s three was all net? Check out the Wisconsin bench before he releases it. They knew it was pure, and so did everybody in the Kohl Center.

The game was far from over at that point. The Badgers found themselves down one with the basketball and just over thirty seconds left. Trice found Ford cutting backdoor for an easy jam, as the high pick-and-pop between Nate Reuvers and Trice created confusion. Then, as is fitting for this Badger group, UW sealed it with defense as Reuvers rejected Daniel Oturu and Wisconsin held on.

The 71-69 win over the Gophers was maybe the only moment during the eight-game win streak where I felt that the Badgers were going to lose a game. Down four with two minutes left, there was no panic in this group. They stayed, cool, calm, and collected and came up clutch. The win earned the Badgers a season-split with the Gophers, and kept them on the path towards a Big Ten regular season crown.

 

College Football Playoff: Instant Reaction to New Rankings

how in the world can you justify Penn State being eight spots higher?

The answer is that you can’t.

The College Football Playoff rankings came out Tuesday night with a couple of shocks but nothing major in terms of the top-four or where Notre Dame will likely end up because of where they wind up in these latest rankings.

If you haven’t seen the rankings yet, here they are:

Three fast thoughts on them:

Great news for the Big XII:

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Badgers move up to No. 10 in latest Amway Coaches’ Poll

Following an incredible, statement-making over the Minnesota Gophers on the road, the Wisconsin Badgers had a major move in the latest Amway Coaches’ Poll, powered by USA Today Sports, moving up four spots to No. 10 this week. Overall, the Badgers …

Following an incredible, statement-making over the Minnesota Gophers on the road, the Wisconsin Badgers had a major move in the latest Amway Coaches’ Poll, powered by USA Today Sports, moving up four spots to No. 10 this week.

Overall, the Badgers (10-2, 7-2 Big Ten) did what they had to do, and more, winning and earning a spot in the Big Ten Championship against quite possibly the best team in the country, No. 2 Ohio State. Up next, Wisconsin will travel to Indianapolis to face the undefeated Buckeyes (12-0, 9-0) for the conference title.

Minnesota (10-2, 7-2), who was dominated at home by the Badgers, took a nose dive with the loss and fell six spots to No. 15 after their home finale. The Badgers beat the Golden Gophers in their final game of the regular season, and of course retained Paul Bunyan’s Axe, a major part of the historic rivalry.

Wisconsin is still one of an impressive six Big Ten teams in the Amway Coaches’ poll. The Big Ten conference has proven yet again to be one of the toughest football conferences in the country, with four teams in the top 15 alone, and all six of the Big Ten teams just inside the top 20 of the poll.

 

NEVER A DOUBT: Badgers take early punch, then roll over Gophers, 38-17

They came. They saw. They conquered. After the Gophers held the ball for 15 seconds early in the game to take the lead, well, the Badgers did the rest. Wisconsin dominated Minnesota en route to a 38-17 victory in Minnesota. By the time it was all …

They came. They saw. They conquered.

After the Gophers held the ball for 15 seconds early in the game to take the lead, well, the Badgers did the rest.

Wisconsin dominated Minnesota en route to a 38-17 victory in Minnesota.

By the time it was all over, the boat was officially sunk.

And more impressively, the Badgers did it behind a total team effort.

On the offensive side of the ball, Jonathan Taylor scored three touchdowns running for less than 100 yards. Jack Coan threw for nearly 300 yards, and two scores.

Wideout Kendrick Pryor had a highlight play to pad to the Badgers’ lead.

 

As good as the offense was, the defense was even more impressive.

The Badgers held a strong Minnesota offense to just 10 points until garbage time, forcing a turnover and a whopping five sacks in the win.

Caesar Williams got a pick, and Chris Orr and Zack Baun dominated.

The Badgers have a huge test ahead against the Buckeyes.

But for now, the Badgers will enjoy this big victory over their arch rivals.