ILLINOIS WENT UP AGAINST MINNESOTA IN A FOOTBALL GAME

It was homecoming week at the University of Minnesota as Illinois came to town for a football game on Oct. 5. It was a cool cloudy day on the campus of the University of Minnesota. Coming into the game Illinois had an overall record of 2-2 while Minnesota’s overall record was 4-0.

Minnesota kicked off to start the game. Illinois started their first drive on their own 35-yard line. The ball went out of bounds. Illinois kept the ball on the ground on their opening drive. Illinois Daniel Barker came up with a reception. That kept the ball moving down the field. On 4th-and-3 Illinois punted the ball.

Minnesota took over on their own 10-yard line. Minnesota looked to get the ball into Rodney Smith’s hands. Minnesota started Tanner Morgan at the quarterback spot. On 4th-and-4 Minnesota punted the ball.

Illinois took over on their own 27-yard line. They couldn’t move the ball on offense. Illinois punted the ball.

Minnesota took over deep in their own zone. They kept the ball on the ground as Illinois tackled Minnesota. Minnesota was picked off by Dele Harding and he ran it back for a 40-yard touchdown reception. The extra point attempt was good.

With 6:58 left in the first quarter, the score was Illinois 7, Minnesota 0.

Minnesota took over on its own 25-yard line. Minnesota switched between their running and their passing attack as they looked to confuse the Illinois defense. Minnesota Shannon Brooks looked to keep his feet moving as he looked to get first downs.

Illinois called a timeout with 4:52 left in the first quarter. The score was Illinois 7, Minnesota 0.

Minnesota looked to the running game often in the first half. They were able to chew up little bits of yards as they moved the ball down the field. On 4th-and-5 Minnesota punted the ball.

Illinois took over on their own 5-yard line. Illinois was picked off by Minnesota’s Antoine Winfield Jr. Minnesota took over on the Illinois 12-yard line. On 4th-and-8 Minnesota attempted a 28-yard field goal which was good.

With 52 seconds left in the first quarter, the score was Illinois 7, Minnesota 3.

Illinois took over on their own 32-yard line.

After one quarter of play, the score was Illinois 7, Minnesota 3.

Illinois tried to move the ball down the field again. The defensive pressure that Minnesota applied made it difficult for Illinois to move the ball down the field. Illinois punted the ball on 4th-and-8.

Smith kept his feet moving as he was able to get down the field and past the Illinois defense. Minnesota’s Smith came up with a 64-yard carry for a first down. Brooks and Smith did most of the carrying of the ball. Tyler Johnson came up with a 12-yard touchdown reception by Tanner Morgan. The extra point attempt was good.

With 11:23 left in the second quarter, the score was Minnesota 10, Illinois 7.

Illinois got the ball back on their own 25-yard line.

Illinois called a timeout with 10:53 left in the second quarter. The score was Minnesota 10, Illinois 7.

Illinois quarterback Matt Robinson looked to move the ball down the field and get his teammates the ball where they could get first downs. The defensive pressure that Minnesota applied made it difficult for them to move the ball. On 4th-and-7 Illinois elected to punt the ball.

Minnesota took over on its own 13-yard line. Minnesota Smith had a 16-yard run for a first down. Minnesota punted on 4th-and-9.

Illinois took over on their own 30-yard line. Illinois running back Reggie Corbin came up with long runs that moved the chains for Illinois. Illinois used short runs down the field to move the ball. Illinois attempted a 43-yard field goal attempt which was no good as it went wide right.

With 4:40 left in the second quarter, the score remained Minnesota 10, Illinois 7.

Minnesota moved the ball down the field once again. Minnesota’s Rodney Smith came up with an 18-yard run. Rashod Bateman came up with a reception that made the chains move. Brooks came up with a 21-yard touchdown run. The extra point attempt was no good.

With 1:32 left in the score was Minnesota 16, Illinois 7.

Illinois looked to move the ball down the field deep in their zone late in the second quarter. Illinois kept on firing the ball down the field as they looked to score late.

Illinois called a timeout with 17 seconds left in the quarter. The score was Minnesota 16, Illinois 7.

Illinois attempted a 46-yard field goal which was good.

With 13 seconds left in the second quarter, the score was Minnesota 16, Illinois 10.

Minnesota ran out the clock to end the second quarter.

Illinois kicked off to start the third quarter. The ball went into the end zone and Minnesota took over on their own 25-yard line. Minnesota’s Bateman came up with a 58-yard reception. Minnesota continued to bring the ball down the field. Chris Autman-Bell came up with a 7-yard reception for a touchdown. The extra point attempt was good.

With 12:53 left in the third quarter, the score was Minnesota 23, Illinois 10.

Illinois got the ball back after the touchdown. Illinois kept the ball on the ground early in the quarter. Illinois punted on 4th-and-2.

Minnesota took over on its own 35-yard line. Minnesota used the running attack early in the third quarter. Tyler Johnson came alive in the third quarter as he came up with a 20-yard first down reception. Brooks came up with a 21-yard run for a first down. They kept on moving the ball down the field. Minnesota Brevyn Spann-Ford came up with a 12-yard touchdown reception. The extra point attempt was good.

With 7:52 left in the third quarter, the score was Minnesota 30, Illinois 10.

Illinois continued to push the ball down the field as they looked to move the ball down the field. The Minnesota defense stepped up big and was able to get to the quarterback. Illinois was not able to move the ball down the field and on 4th-and-10 Illinois punted the ball.

Minnesota took over on their own 2-yard line. Smith looked to take the ball downfield as he looked for holes in the Illinois defense. Illinois picked off Morgan’s pass and Jake Hanson came up with a 7-yard fumble return for a touchdown. The extra point attempt was good.

With 2:27 left in the third quarter, the score was Minnesota 30, Illinois 17.

The ball went into the end zone on the kickoff for a touchback. Minnesota started on its own 25-yard line.

Minnesota called a timeout with 2:27 left in the third quarter. The score was Minnesota 30, Illinois 17.

Minnesota looked to move the ball down the field once again. Brooks came up with a huge 25-yard run for a first down.

After three quarters of play, the score was Minnesota 30, Illinois 7.

Minnesota looked to get into the end zone early in the fourth quarter.

Minnesota called a timeout with 13:34 left in the fourth quarter. The score was Minnesota 30, Illinois 17.

Minnesota moved the ball down the field as they looked to get into the end zone in the fourth quarter. Smith came up with an 8-yard touchdown run. The extra point attempt was good.

With 12:48 left in the fourth quarter, the score was Minnesota 37, Illinois 17.

Illinois got the ball back on their own 25-yard line. Illinois looked to go into a hurry-up offense as they looked to get the ball down the field quickly. The defensive pressure made it difficult for Illinois to move the ball down the field. On 4th-and-7 Illinois went for it and turned it over on downs.

Minnesota moved the ball down the field as everyone on the offense had their chance to get the ball. They were able to come up with first downs.

Minnesota called a timeout with 1:43 left in regulation. The score was Minnesota 37, Illinois 17.

Minnesota’s Lance attempted a 27-yard field goal attempt which was good.

With 51 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the score was Minnesota 40, Illinois 17.

Illinois tried to move the ball down the field but were not able to move the ball.

Minnesota was too much for Illinois to handle. Both teams played well throughout the game. Minnesota Smith played well throughout the game.

Neither team gave up but, in the end, Minnesota came away with the 40-17 victory over Illinois.

According to Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck with this win, Minnesota won its 700th game in program history.

FORMER UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOOTBALL COACH JERRY KILL IS NAMED SPECIAL ASSISTANT AT VIRGINIA TECH

According to multiple reports former University of Minnesota football coach Jerry Kill has been named special assistant to the head football coach at Virginia Tech. 

Kill left his position as the athletic director at Southern Illinois to take the job at Virginia Tech. 

Kill was the former head football coach at the University of Minnesota 2011-2015 where he compiled a 29-29 record at Minnesota. 

Kill suffers from Epilepsy which hasn’t slowed him down. Even after scary episodes during games and press conferences Kill keeps on coaching through it. 

Gophers' McDonald takes a circuitous route home

Article by: PHIL MILLER , Star Tribune

Staying put and playing for the Gophers became the best decision for former Hopkins star Andre McDonald. With the help of others, he had already overcome so much to lay down roots.

Andre McDonald vividly remembers the day it began to sink in that Minnesota, and the Gophers football team, might be the best home for him. How could he forget? It was the day he told Jerry Kill that he planned to play somewhere else.

The Hopkins wide receiver, considered by many to be the best raw football talent in the state, committed to Kill 16 months before he graduated high school. But four months later, he called back to say he preferred Vanderbilt.

"It was hard. I didn't know what to say. I don't like disappointing people," McDonald said. And how did Kill and his staff react? "They stayed in contact, kept calling, not to say, 'Oh, we've got to have you back,' but just to talk," he said. "They told me ... that no matter where I went, they just wanted me to be a good person, a young man and a student first, and a football player later."

Eight months later, McDonald signed a letter of intent not with the Commodores but with the Gophers -- and is one of the jewels of Kill's 2012 recruiting class.

"Give the kid credit," said Kill's offensive coordinator, Matt Limegrover. "When it came down to it, it was simple. This is his home."

McDonald can be forgiven for needing some time to figure that out. See, it's not the first time he has had to search for a home.

Jenny Blomgren was a single mother at 28 back in 2009, working two jobs -- as a mortgage broker and owner of a cleaning service -- to support herself and her son Tyrell, then 11. One night, the mother of one of Tyrell's basketball teammates invited her out to dinner, but Blomgren didn't have a babysitter. That's OK, the friend said; I know a great kid who can watch them both.

The sitter was McDonald, and he connected with Tyrell immediately. Blomgren hired him a couple more times, then noticed McDonald, despite being four years older, was there every weekend, playing hoops, throwing the football, and staying for dinner. And one Friday night, Blomgren received a phone call from the teenager, who was clearly upset.

"He said his mom had kicked him out of the house, and he asked if he could stay at our house," Blomgren said. "I said OK, that's fine, but I need to talk to your mom. ... She said she didn't care. So he came to the house. And he never left."

• • •

Blomgren never meant to unofficially adopt a second son, and feared she wasn't ready to parent a teenager.

But she quickly realized she didn't have much choice; McDonald needed her. He needed support, discipline and love.

"I never got any of that at home," said McDonald, who lived with his mom and stepfather. "I had a mom that had her own troubles, too much to pay attention to me."

McDonald said he still experiences a strong, instinctive response to being yelled at, a product of being constantly berated. He also dealt with other forms of abuse, he said -- including simple neglect.

Blomgren cared. She just wasn't sure what she was getting into. As it became clear her house guest's stay would last longer than a few days, Blomgren discovered McDonald's troubled home life had manifested itself in several ways. He is unusually serious for a teenager, and not especially comfortable teasing and being teased by friends. He is also particularly eager to please, which made recruiting a burden because saying "no" to a coach was excruciating.

"Sometimes in recruiting, you almost have to be rude, because some of these recruiters are pretty pushy," Hopkins football coach John DenHartog said. "And being rude, that's just not Andre."

Being a good student wasn't Andre either, at the time. One year into high school, McDonald's grade-point average was below 1.0, he was already falling several credits behind a graduation track. Though McDonald was one of the most athletically gifted freshmen in the metro area, his future was far from certain.

Soon after McDonald moved into her house, Blomgren went to DenHartog for advice. "The first thing he said to me was, 'Andre has the potential to go all the way,'" Blomgren said, meaning graduate, play college football, even earn a scholarship, " 'but he's never going to make it.' "

Blomgren insisted upon changes. "I said, 'All right, if you're going to stay here, we're going to make sure you graduate. I don't care about football, but we're going to make you a good student,'" said Blomgren, who drove both boys to and from their schools every day. By his junior year, McDonald was bringing home report cards with nothing but A's and B's.

And he was still bringing them to Blomgren's house, an informal arrangement that essentially became permanent eight months after he left home, when McDonald's mother called him to say she was moving to Atlanta that afternoon. When he texted that information to Blomgren, she became frantic, because she had no legal standing as the teenager's guardian. The next day, officials at Hopkins arranged a conference call, with counselors and teachers gathered as witnesses, in which McDonald's mother verbally gave her consent for Blomgren to make decisions regarding his schooling, health care and other situations.

Just like that, Blomgren's two-person family was a trio.

"That's when I realized, well, I guess I'm keeping him. But by that point, I loved him like he was my own child. He's Tyrell's brother, in my eyes," Blomgren said.

"I'm really happy with how things are," said McDonald, whose mother and biological father are both in the Twin Cities now but remain on the fringes of his life. "This is what I've always wanted -- someone to be there when I do good things and correct me when I don't. It's nice to have somebody who cares."

• • •

Actually, plenty of people care when you can play football like McDonald.

He is tall and fast, and DenHartog says he is unusually nimble. Though few defensive backs could cover him downfield, the Royals frequently ran a jailbreak screen play for their all-state wideout, allowing him to pick his way upfield behind a phalanx of blockers. "A 6-3 kid, that's not a kid you typically throw a screen pass to," DenHartog said, "but he's got scat-guy moves."

McDonald scored 39 touchdowns during his Hopkins career, and recruiters flocked; every school in the Big Ten, and several more around the country, at least contacted McDonald -- which isn't as much fun as it sounds. "It wasn't what I expected at all, actually," McDonald said. "It was a lot of stress. I thought I could handle it myself, but I really couldn't."

Some recruiters, too, backed away over concerns about McDonald's overall grades -- and the perception that he showboated too much after big plays.

When Kill hired Limegrover a few days after being hired himself, the coordinator sat down to evaluate tapes of potential local recruits. McDonald's was the first one he watched.

"I just loved him on film. He's got the potential to be special," Limegrover said of McDonald, who could play as a true freshman for the Gophers, a team in need of playmaking wide receivers. "But as we dug into his story, what was neat was, Andre was a kid who at first just slid by doing the bare minimum. But at some point, a light bulb went on and finally he realized -- and Jenny had a lot to do with this -- that he was going to squander it all if he doesn't get himself turned around."

Kill was impressed that, rather than decline to run a 40-yard dash for coaches, as highly rated recruits sometimes do, McDonald ran it repeatedly, "just trying to beat his time." McDonald was impressed with Kill and his staff, too, and said yes right away. But then he visited Iowa and then Vanderbilt, and wanted to commit to both. Finally, he chose Vandy, deciding that he felt comfortable in Nashville. But when his primary recruiter, Chris Beatty, accepted a job at Illinois, McDonald backed away.

As he reconsidered, he realized the Gophers staff had never given up on him. Blomgren and DenHartog allowed McDonald to make up his own mind but quietly hoped he would choose Minnesota. "He needs structure in his life. He needs to be held accountable. Look at what a big difference it's made in his life already -- I don't think I've ever seen a kid come this far, and I've been teaching for 21 years," DenHartog said. "Coach Kill and his coaches, they're exactly what he needs."

It took a while, but McDonald eventually reached the same conclusion. A week before National Signing Day, the Hopkins star told Kill he was coming to Minnesota, and made a promise to himself: "I don't want to fumble the ball, not one time," he said.

He feels like he didn't fumble his most important decision.

"I didn't always have a stable support system. It's something I crave. I need it," he said. "I'll get it with Coach Kill."

That's Kill's thinking, too. "Jenny's done a tremendous job with Andre. She's passing him to us, and now we go to work to help the young man be successful," Kill said. "You know, football has saved a lot of people's lives."

COLD BEER OR WINE FOR ANY ONE AT THE UOFM FOOTBALL GAMES. ANY ONE ANY ONE

According to JENNA ROSS of the Star Tribune, “The University of Minnesota has a plan for selling beer and wine -- but no hard liquor -- to football fans at Gopher home games.

The U's Board of Regents will discuss and vote this week on a resolution to allow "beer or beer and wine sales" in the premium-seating section of TCF Bank Stadium and in a single "beer garden" during Gopher games. The vote is expected to wrap up years of debate about whether and where alcohol ought to be sold.

"It will be a restricted and controlled environment where they will be very careful about requiring identification, so students will not have access," said regents Chairwoman Linda Cohen.

 

The university's new plan, developed by a task force and announced Monday, is consistent with those rules but adds details.

It says that alcohol sales will start an hour before kickoff and stop at the end of halftime. No alcohol will be allowed at the Veterans Memorial or on the Tribal Nations Plaza near the west-end gates of the stadium. There will be no hard liquor sales.

"We did draw the line at not selling the hard liquor," Cohen said, citing "a feel about it at a sporting event."

Rules governing alcohol sales at Minnesota Vikings games played at TCF while a new stadium is built are a separate issue that will be resolved later.

Alcohol has always been forbidden at the TCF stadium because lawmakers objected to the university's plan to allow drinking only in the arena's premium seats. With a cry of "beer for one, beer for all," the Legislature banned alcohol sales unless folks in the cheap seats were allowed to drink, too.

The resolution the regents will consider Wednesday rescinds one passed in 2009 that prohibited selling or serving alcohol in TCF Bank Stadium, Mariucci Arena and Williams Arena during college games. It "authorizes the reapplication for liquor licenses" at those two other venues and makes it possible for those venues to sell beer and wine to those fans in some areas.

Cohen said she believes such sales would be "only in the club rooms."

In a news release, the university said it considers the next two years a pilot project and will assess and adjust as it goes along.

It's "a balanced approach offering very limited sales in the general seating area," Amy Phenix, chief of staff for university President Eric Kaler, said in a statement. "First and foremost, we are committed to the safety of students and fans and to being good neighbors."

I personally think that this would be a good idea because; I think that it would bring in more money for the program. It would also be a good revenue source for the University of Minnesota. 

 

HUNTER FRISEN SAYS HE WILL TAKE A GREY SHIRT YEAR

According to Hunter Friesen he plans on, “Walking on at the U. I Plan on Grey Shirting so I will come in next spring. Plan on lifting and getting into good shape this fall to be ready for spring ball.”

HUNTER FRISESEN WILL NOW ATTEND THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

Wide receiver Hunter Friesen who graduated from Mankato West in 2012 will be going to the University of Minnesota to play for Jerry Kill.

Frisesen originally was going to walk on at MSU-Mankato.

Frisesen played in the 2012 Minnesota State High School Coaches Association All Star Football Game in St. Cloud.

Gary Tinsley awarded degree posthumously - Minneapolis News and Weather KMSP FOX 9

 MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) -

Gary Tinsley was awarded a degree posthumously by the University of Minnesota on Thursday.

It's been exactly 34 days since Tinsley, 22, died of an enlarged heart on April 6 in his dorm room at Roy Wilkins Hall.

Tinsley was a starting linebacker for the Gophers football team and had been training for the NFL in the days leading up to his death. 

Gary Tinsley awarded degree posthumously - Minneapolis News and Weather KMSP FOX 9

HOPKINS BASKETBALL AND FOOTBALL STAR ANDRE TRAVARIS MCDONALD IS HEADED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

According to Sid Hartman of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Hopkins basketball and football player Andre Travaris McDonald will be going to the University of Minnesota to play football.

McDonald has revived national attention because of his football skills. He caught 64 passes for 1,144 yards in his junior season.

McDonald will graduate from Hopkins High School in 2012.