Leidner faces Iowa game with something to prove

Before the 7-on-7 tournament that changed everything for Mitch Leidner, the Lakeville South quarterback took a long, hard look at Iowa.

He attended a game at Kinnick Stadium. He went to two Iowa football camps. He saw the Hawkeyes' 2011 spring game as a high school junior and made three other trips to the Iowa City campus.

"Besides Minnesota, they were showing me the most interest," he said last fall. "But they were big on evaluating senior film before offering [scholarships to] quarterbacks."

The Gophers were slow to offer Leidner, too, before he and his South teammates spent the day dominating a 7-on-7 tournament in June 2011. By the time he got back to Lakeville that night, there was a message to call coach Jerry Kill.

Now, in the midst of a sometimes painful first season as a full-time starting Gophers quarterback, he'll get his first chance to show Iowa what it missed.

The Hawkeyes and Gophers will meet Saturday at TCF Bank Stadium with identical records — 6-2, 3-1 Big Ten — in a high-stakes battle for Floyd of Rosedale. Both teams have West Division title aspirations, but by mid-afternoon, one squad will be out of the hunt.

With Leidner coming off a discouraging performance at Illinois, the Gophers know they'll need him to be sharper for this stretch run, which includes tests against Ohio State, Nebraska and Wisconsin.

"Mitch would be the first one to tell you he's got a lot of room to improve," Kill said. "But where he's at right now and where he's going to be — I think there's a huge difference, just like a rookie going into the NFL.

"You've got a young man right here in our hometown, [Vikings quarterback] Teddy Bridgewater. They're going to bring him along, got a great offensive coordinator. But it takes time. There are ups and downs, and so forth, and that kid's going to be a great player."

Growing pains

Leidner is 8-3 as a Gophers starter, including a 3-1 mark last year when he shared playing time with Philip Nelson.

The Iowa game last September posed a dilemma for the Gophers coaching staff. Leidner had just earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors against San Jose State, with Nelson injured. But Nelson returned to practice, and the Gophers let him play the whole game in an agonizing 23-7 loss to the Hawkeyes.

Leidner stood there watching and waiting for his first crack at the team that teased him so much through the recruiting process. The lifetime Gophers fan had been in the TCF Bank Stadium stands as a recruit when Minnesota defeated the Hawkeyes in 2010 and 2011. So it gnawed at him, watching the Hawkeyes celebrate with the bronze pig for the second consecutive year.

Asked about the rivalry this week, Leidner said, "It's huge for me. It's just a chip on my shoulder. It's a game that I really wanted to play in last year and didn't get a chance to. So I'm excited to get in there and run around against those Iowa guys."

In conference play, the Hawkeyes lead the Big Ten in pass defense, allowing just 117.2 yards per game. Their four Big Ten opponents — Purdue, Indiana, Maryland and Northwestern — have combined to complete just 41.8 percent of their passes.

Leidner, who took four sacks at Illinois, will face a pass rush led by Iowa defensive end Drew Ott (eight sacks this season) and defensive tackle Louis Trinca-Pasat (three sacks last week). The Gophers won't have one of their top receivers, with Drew Wolitarsky out with a high-ankle sprain, so there will be myriad challenges for Leidner.

Heading into the Illinois game, Leidner's 148.4 pass efficiency mark in conference play ranked second in the Big Ten. He had overcome turf toe and a sprained MCL to give Minnesota three solid performances in wins over Michigan, Northwestern and Purdue. Leidner completed 64.9 percent of his combined passes in the first two of those games, and the comeback win over Purdue doesn't happen without his 86 rushing yards and 143 second-half passing yards.

But the loss in Champaign, Ill., left plenty of Gophers fans grumbling about the sophomore quarterback. He threw for a career-high 240 yards but completed just 12 of 30 passes, with an interception. His first two throws were dropped, and he went on to complete passes of 52, 46, 35 and 51 yards. But Leidner said there were "definitely a lot of easy gimme throws that I didn't make that I've been working on constantly to get ready for Iowa."

The troubles were particularly acute on third and fourth down. The Gophers tried to pass 16 times in those situations, and Leidner converted just three into first downs, while getting sacked twice and going 5 of 14 with one interception.

Kill said reading coverages and learning to handle pressure in the pocket all take time.

"The big thing with Mitch is being relaxed and just go play," the coach told 100.3-FM this week. "Right now in practice, you can tell there's a quiet confidence there, and that's what he needs. Early in the year, he was pressing so bad."

The Gophers hope Leidner can follow the same progression Iowa junior Jake Rudock did.

He got his first chance to be a full-time starter last year as a redshirt sophomore and overcame some early hiccups before settling in nicely.

Rudock, from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was part of Iowa's 2011 recruiting class. Leidner was among the quarterbacks the Hawkeyes pursued in 2012 before eventually signing Cody Sokol and Rudock's current backup, C.J. Beathard.

"I guess I'll never really know for sure if they were going to offer [a scholarship] or not," Leidner said this week. That mystery is helping drive Leidner on his recovery mission for a bronzed pig.