Gophers hear the buzz but stay focused on Boilermakers

Gophers cornerback Briean Boddy-Calhoun woke up at the team hotel Sept. 27, flipped on the television and heard former Michigan receiver Desmond Howard predict a double-digit win for his alma mater against Minnesota.

Boddy-Calhoun remembers turning to his road roommate, Grayson Levine, and saying, "There's probably 500 people in the entire world that think we're going to win today. And 120 of them are on this team."

The Gophers reclaimed the Little Brown Jug in convincing fashion that day, and came back last week with a 24-17 win over a Northwestern team that had just defeated Penn State and Wisconsin.

Suddenly, the national tone toward the Gophers has changed heading into Saturday's homecoming game against Purdue. There's increasing buzz about Minnesota's chances of winning the Big Ten West.

The Gophers are building confidence, capitalizing on a schedule that is quite favorable through October but gives way to a grueling November stretch against Iowa, Ohio State, Nebraska and Wisconsin.

"I went on TV the first week of the season and picked Minnesota as a dark horse in the Big Ten," ESPN analyst Lou Holtz said.

Holtz is a former Gophers coach, so what else is he going to say? But on the same conference call, his ESPN colleague, Danny Kanell, was even more effusive about the Gophers.

"They've got maybe one of the most underrated coaches in the game with Jerry Kill," Kanell said. "And the job he's done building that program, a consistent identity behind David Cobb running the football. Throw in the fact they're playing in the division that is completely wide open right now — they absolutely have every chance."

The Gophers (5-1, 2-0 Big Ten) believe it, too, even if they insist they are currently focused on Purdue (3-4, 1-1) — and Purdue only.

Anybody who's followed the Gophers in recent decades knows the dangers of getting too excited too early. Glen Mason led the Gophers to a 7-1 start in 2002 that gave way to a 1-4 finish. The next year, the Gophers were 6-0 with a 21-point, fourth-quarter lead against Michigan. But Minnesota lost that game and finished tied for fourth in the Big Ten.

As recently as 2008, under Tim Brewster, the Gophers started 7-1 and finished 7-6.

But the current players don't bear those scars. Teams set goals before every season, and the Gophers openly talked about winning the Big Ten last season, even though they haven't done it since 1967. They were 8-2 and still alive in the Legends Division race last November before losing to Wisconsin and Michigan State.

"When I first got here [in 2012], our goal was to go to a bowl game," Boddy-Calhoun said. "Now we could care less about a bowl game. We want the Big Ten championship, and we know that's something we can really get."

The Gophers and Iowa sit atop the West Division at 2-0. So the Gophers will be pulling for Maryland to hold off the underdog Hawkeyes on Saturday, and local Big Ten title talk could really heat up if Northwestern knocks off Nebraska.

Kill has reminded his players of what Pete Carroll kept telling the Seahawks last year: "You're playing the Super Bowl every week."

"If you don't come ready to play, that's when things happen not so good," Kill told 100.3-FM on his weekly radio show.

Purdue showed it's not a pushover in last week's 45-31 loss to No. 8 Michigan State. But the Gophers are two-touchdown favorites, and the line could be similar next week at Illinois. If they can avoid a letdown, they should be 7-1 — with their first 4-0 Big Ten record since 1967 — when Iowa visits Nov. 8.

Momentum has a power all its own, so if the Gophers can reclaim Floyd of Rosedale from Iowa, their final three-game stretch might not feel as daunting — home against Ohio State, then at Nebraska and at Wisconsin.

Senior safety Cedric Thompson pictured this scenario in early June, when he gathered the defense for a meeting at the football complex. Thompson said watching Michigan State play in the Rose Bowl last January after a narrow 14-3 defeat over the Gophers reminded him how close they were.

"I was tired of people saying, 'Minnesota's right there,' " Thompson said. "Or our coaches saying, 'We would have been right there, if we could have done this and this.'

"I wanted to let the defense know that we were going to take care of it this summer because I don't want to be this close anymore. I just want to do it."

Boddy-Calhoun said Thompson's words sent ripples through the entire team.

"He was here for the 58-0 loss to Michigan [in 2011], and now the team's completely different," Boddy-Calhoun said. "He talked about how we have a chance to be great and be legendary here. That's the way he wants to end his legacy here.

"… He basically had tears coming out of his eyes. Your skin's crawling, you're ready to go play a game, and it's only like June 6."

Now the season is half over. If the Gophers beat Purdue, they have a strong chance of cracking the Associated Press top 25 for the first time since 2008.

"I'm not paying attention, but I don't want that," Boddy-Calhoun said, smiling. "I want praise — everyone does. But we like to stay focused. We like doubters. We like to prove people wrong."