ALEX KARWOWSKI: How’s it going, everyone? And welcome back to The Gold Standard, where we bring you the latest on all things Minnesota sports. I’m Alex Karwowski alongside Andrew Cornelius, and Andrew, man, it has been quite the week for Gopher sports.
ANDREW CORNELIUS: Yeah, the Gopher football team got a really big win. I know you were there on the sidelines getting to watch the game yourself, but from back home point of view, it was really the same thing that I’ve witnessed all season.
The first quarter just sucks for the Gopher football team. They’ve scored three points now in their five games against power four opponents in the first quarter. So, very tough starts. They went scoreless once again against UCLA.
KARWOWSKI: Yeah. I mean, in that first quarter, it was just, it was so painful to watch. It just seemed like UCLA’s defense was just dominating every aspect of the Gophers offense.
CORNELIUS: Yeah. And then the opposite side of the ball, the defense, which was number one in the country in pass defense, just allowing passing yards per game. They get their entire total yards per game, over 114 in that first quarter, I believe, threw the air with Ethan Garbers for UCLA. They had no identity, they kind of lost it there in that first quarter.
And then we talked about it in the story that we wrote for the Daily. Very inspiring and very “get after ‘em” kind of speech from Coach Fleck at halftime kind of spurred the team on.
KARWOWSKI: Right, I mean, it seems like that this team is kind of very similar to last year’s basketball team where they play one half really really solid, the other half not so great. And it just kind of hurts them. But, you know in this case it didn’t hurt them, which is always a good thing. But you know, it could be dangerous heading down the line.
CORNELIUS: Well it’s kind of the same thing, just staying on that kind of comparison. Like they have the talent kind of that last year’s team for men’s basketball had. This team now 4-3 really could be 6-1 or 5-2 with the way they’ve played this season. Just kind of lost there in the third quarter against Iowa, the Michigan game, everyone knows the rule change the Big Ten had to make because the onside kick. Missed call you want to say or called incorrectly.
And then the UNC game Dragan Kesich, who’s now really struggling, but struggled to start the season at UNC. He missed the game winning field goal and has now missed six out of his 13 kicks.
KARWOWSKI: Right, yeah, and I remember seeing Kesich and being like, oh, Big Ten kicker of the year, like he’s got this. But then he missed and I was like, how did, I mean, it was probably just a fluke, it was the first game. But now he’s six for 14 or something?
CORNELIUS: No, seven for 13.
KARWOWSKI: Seven for 13. Wow.
CORNELIUS: Yeah. And he missed a few gimme’s too, which have really cost the team in some crucial areas. And that’s only going to get harder. They just announced the game this morning for Maryland. The homecoming game is at 2:30 p.m., so kind of a perfect time for students to come and attend that one. But students haven’t been the problem in terms of the attendance this year. There was over 8,500 students per game in that student section. It’s just the rest of that bowl needing to get some excitement and energy to wanna watch this team. And I think there will be that after this bye week, having won two straight games against Big Ten opponents.
KARWOWSKI: Yeah and you know, you mentioned, obviously they’re playing Maryland for the next home game, but you know, the Gophers volleyball team just played Maryland this past weekend. They swept them in three sets and it was kind of interesting to see because the Gophers volleyball team, you know, they’ve been having a lot of games where they go to five sets.
Specifically against ranked opponents, but I don’t think Maryland’s ranked. But you know, they played Indiana and they played Maryland, both pretty solid volleyball teams across the Big Ten. But you know, it was good to see that they kind of were able to make an adjustment to playing pretty strong and get just to three sets.
CORNELIUS: Well, I know. And it’s kind of without Mckenna Wucherer for a big stretch here. She’s been injured and still Lydia Grote and Julia Hanson kind of taking the reign on the outside for Keegan Cook’s squad. And then Alex Acevedo at the service line has been kind of a revelation for Cook this year.
They talked about it earlier in the season. He’s kind of a wizard when it comes to serving and he’s really helped his team develop in that area over his time at Minnesota and they’ve become one of the better teams in the conference.
KARWOWSKI: Yeah. And it’s…
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