Gophers football notes: Sore left hamstring shelves Cobb

LINCOLN, NEB. – The Gophers probably won't know for certain until at least midweek, but running back David Cobb tweeted some encouraging news Saturday after leaving the 28-24 victory over Nebraska with a strained left hamstring.

The Gophers have a chance to win the Big Ten West title next week at Wisconsin, but coach Jerry Kill said he "can't speculate right now" on whether Cobb will be ready to face the Badgers.

Later, Cobb tweeted, "All is well! I'll be ready to go next Saturday!"

Cobb had 15 carries for 80 yards and a touchdown against Nebraska. He hurt himself on his 17-yard touchdown run, which trimmed the Cornhuskers' lead to 21-14 early in the third quarter.

"He made a nice cut," Kill said. "Adrenaline will get you where you want to go. It's after the adrenaline stops. His hamstring grabbed on him."

With 1,430 yards, Cobb needs 35 more to break Laurence Maroney's single-season school record of 1,464, set in 2005.

Berkley Edwards also suffered an unspecified injury after carrying two times for 11 yards. The Gophers had just two other running backs on the trip — Donnell Kirkwood and Rodrick Williams. Those two combined on 10 carries for 54 yards.

Kirkwood led the Gophers with 926 rushing yards in 2012 but sprained his ankle in the 2013 season opener. He hasn't played much since, with Cobb handling most of the load.

"I've been getting my reps in practice," Kirkwood said. "Coach always tells us, 'You never know what's going to happen.' He uses me as an example. I just felt like today was an opportunity."

With Nebraska coming off a 59-24 loss at Wisconsin, coach Bo Pelini had hoped to see his team's 14 seniors go out with a win in their final home game.

"We're obviously disappointed," Pelini said. "I feel bad for the seniors. But like I told the team, 'We lost because we didn't deserve to win. Our tackling was horrendous. We beat ourselves in a lot of instances. And all those things add up to losing against a good football team."

But when asked if he thinks the 8-3 Cornhuskers have regressed, Pelini said no.

Senior left guard Zac Epping made his 45th consecutive start for the Gophers and even showed up on the stat sheet, with one rush for 4 yards.

It came at a critical time. The Gophers trailed 24-21 with 8:34 remaining, when Zaire Anderson popped the ball loose from quarterback Mitch Leidner. But the ball flew right to Epping, who turned it into positive yards.

Epping joked later that Leidner "pitched it to me."

Right when it happened, senior center Tommy Olson needled Epping said, "Did you just carry the ball?"

"I said, 'Yeah, it popped in my hands,' " Epping said. "That was about it. Then we had to focus and get ready for the next play."