Scoggins: Gophers take a Texas-sized step backward

FORT WORTH, TEXAS – Jerry Kill didn't hide his displeasure about having to face his close friend, TCU coach Gary Patterson, in a matchup Saturday.

"I didn't want to play it," Kill told reporters this week. "But we have a new administration and again, I'm not the boss. I'm the football coach."

In that case, Kill should have pulled his boss' strings again and had Norwood Teague write TCU a big check to cancel the game, just as they did with North Carolina.

That would've saved Kill the embarrassment of fielding a team that looked so flummoxed on offense and wholly overmatched in a performance that was miserable even by Big Ten standards.

The Gophers got flattened by an opponent that was supposed to measure their readiness for the Big Ten schedule. If this indeed was a barometer — a 30-7 trouncing at the hands of a far superior Big 12 team — the Gophers can stop trying to convince everyone that they're ready to take the next step as a program.

Nothing about their performance constituted progress.

"It was a good learning situation for us," Kill said. "I told the players, ain't nothing you can do about it. It's over with. We need to move forward."

Their first order of business should be to find an offense.

In an era of creative and run-and-gun offenses in college football, the Gophers operate by horse and buggy because they don't have a competent passing quarterback on their roster.

Mitch Leidner continued to hinder the offense by committing four turnovers, including three interceptions. He was fortunate that he wasn't intercepted at least two other times.

Kill rushed to his quarterback's defense afterward and blamed their offensive ineptitude on TCU's speed and pressure.

"There's a lot more blame than the quarterback," Kill said. "He was getting an extreme amount of pressure."

Give the Horned Frogs credit. They're talented defensively. But the Gophers didn't offer much resistance. They just kept making one mistake after another.

TCU entered as 16-point favorites, but a betting line of 26 felt more appropriate. The Horned Frogs were so much faster than the Gophers that the pace resembled a Ferrari racing a Buick.

It was no contest, especially when the Gophers held the ball.

The Gophers couldn't do anything right in a first half that deteriorated into a comedy of errors.

They allowed a 46-yard punt return and then a quick touchdown.

Eric Murray, their best defensive back, got called for pass interference and missed a tackle in open field on consecutive plays.

David Cobb fumbled on the first play after teammate Briean Boddy-Calhoun made a terrific effort to intercept a pass.

The defense had to call a timeout after having only 10 players on the field in a red-zone situation.

On and on it went until the coaching staff essentially hoisted the white flag at the end of the first half with one of the worst hurry-up offenses imaginable. Given the ball at their own 14 with 3:11 left, the Gophers moved at snail's pace to milk the clock instead of trying to score.

That's because their passing game is nonexistent at this point. Leidner showed some toughness by playing with a brace on his sprained left knee, but he threw the ball erratically again, usually high, and now the Gophers have a major problem on their hands.

As weak as the conference currently looks, Big Ten defenses still can stop the Gophers running game, if that's their sole worry.

Leidner missed open receivers or didn't see them at all. He threw two interceptions in the first half and then lost a fumble on the opening series after halftime. He threw another interception on a deflected pass.

Kill finally replaced a limping Leidner with freshman Chris Streveler, who threw a garbage-time touchdown pass to Maxx Williams.

Kill expressed concern about Leidner's health, but even if he's fine, the Gophers desperately need more production from that position. In three games, Leidner has completed only 48 percent of his passes for 362 yards with two TDs and four interceptions.

At some point, this coaching staff has to show that it can recruit and develop quarterbacks who are capable passers. That hasn't been the case with the Gophers so far.

"We've got to do a better job of protecting him and giving him a better opportunity," Kill said.

They better find some answers fast. As a whole, the Big Ten looks lost right now, and the Gophers did their part to strengthen that case.

Chip Scoggins • chip.scoggins@startribune.com