Reusse: Third Gophers linebacker content to fly under the radar

Jerry Kill and his defensive coaches seem to have developed a fondness for linebackers with a junior college background. The projection when spring football started last March was that the Gophers would line up three of those lads when the schedule started in late August:

Senior Damien Wilson, an honored linebacker at Jones County Community College in Mississippi, would be in the middle. Junior De'Vondre Campbell, who played at Hutchinson (Kan.) C.C. in 2012, would start on the outside. Also on the outside would be Cody Poock, a newly arrived sophomore from Iowa Western C.C.

Jack Lynn had taken the high school route to Minnesota: He played tight end and linebacker at Lake Zurich High School in the north suburbs of Chicago.

Lynn practiced as a redshirt in 2012, played special teams and backed up Wilson in the middle in 2013, and still was in that role early in spring practice. Poock ripped up an ACL in a practice on the last Saturday of March. Three days later, when practice resumed, Lynn was lined up as a starter on the outside.

It was a popular theory that the weakness in the Gophers' defense might be linebacker, even before Poock's injury.

Wilson was the starter in the middle in 2013. He was OK, but a step slow while carrying 255 pounds on a 6-2 frame. The outside linebackers, Aaron Hill and James Manuel, were seniors.

Six games and five victories into the schedule, the linebackers have been pushing the big fellows up front and a talented secondary out of the way to gain attention.

The Northwestern victory was the season's best, although the most publicized was the shellacking of Brady Hoke's last Michigan team in Ann Arbor on Sept. 27. You can't turn a corner on campus these days without someone putting the Little Brown Jug in your face and demanding cheers.

And what's The Moment from that 30-14 victory? It's Campbell grabbing a pass, flying into the end zone from 30 yards out, and announcing that the Jug would be taking up a rare residency in Minneapolis.

Since then, Gophers fans have been walking around, looking for opportunities to boast. Consider this a sample conversation between a Gophers zealot and an indifferent colleague in a Minneapolis skyway:

Zealot: "Really, you have to watch these Gophers … they play defense. The Gophers. Defense. It's amazing. The linebackers are terrific. This Wilson, he's a monster, and Campbell made that interception against Michigan, he can cover, he can rush, he's all over.''

Colleague: "Who's the other linebacker?

The third guy is Jack Lynn. He made the move outside in April, held forth through fall practice, and now he's got the duty when the Gophers have three linebackers (and not five defensive backs) on the field.

This was the conversation starter for a reporter with Lynn after a practice this week: "You're kind of the 'other guy' at linebacker?''

Lynn smiled and said: "I don't mind that at all. I like flying under the radar.''

He managed to do that with college recruiters, even with a rating among the top 30 seniors in Illinois for the 2012 recruiting class.

"I heard from a lot of MAC [Mid-American Conference] schools,'' Lynn said. "The Gophers were the only Big Ten program that made an offer."

Not even the downtrodden, downstate Illini? "No,'' he said.

What was the issue?

"Not enough flexibility,'' Lynn said. "And, I was kind of skinny, too. I weighed 210, maybe 215, in high school."

Lynn was 6-3 and the Gophers realized he could get bigger and stronger. And the flexible thing (for better lateral movement and tackling position) … he worked on it. Hard.

"The linebacker we don't talk about playing at a high level is Jack Lynn,'' Kill said. "He may be one of the most-improved players I've seen in one year. Those three kids are really playing well.''